First 20 are in the books

[Swordsman78]

With the first 20 games completed, the Angels are in 2nd place with a solid 10-10 despite playing 13 on the road, a rugged east coast trip, and managing to lose 2-3 winnable games.

For the record, the Dodgers are 10-11, the Padres with their big spending owner are 10-12, and Marsh's Phillies are 9-12.

Rendon is still healthy, The bullpen has done well, and Neto and O'hoppe have become the secret weapons that very few figured would factor this early in the season, if at all.

The players have a sense of urgency and the coaches are holding players accountable.  The halos have quality weapons offensively and the bats should come around nicely very soon.  Morale is high and I expect the next 20 games will provide separation (in a good way) from the Rangers and Astros.  Ohtani will stay if the Angels make the playoffs.  Can't ask for a better deal than that.

If we can just keep the message board from imploding, and guys from making knee jerk negative reactions, (we may need to put a couple guys on a "post count"), we may just have a fun season.

 

[TroutField]

Rendon, Drury, Lamb, Rengifo, and Ward can start hitting the ball whenever… 

 

offensive depth is shot if this is what we are going to get from these guys this season. Another season of relying on Trout and Ohtani. 

[failos]

32 minutes ago, TroutField said:

Rendon, Drury, Lamb, Rengifo, and Ward can start hitting the ball whenever… 

 

offensive depth is shot if this is what we are going to get from these guys this season. Another season of relying on Trout and Ohtani. 

Chill out

[Inside Pitch]

If you're looking for positives (the type you squint to see), the run differential through the first 6 games of the NYY/BOS trip was -2.  They got blown out in the finale but most who watched would likely agree those were all winnable games. They have crap to iron out obvviously, defensively there are some issues, and Drury/Lamb have been awful, but as a whole they don't appear to be woefully inept as has been the case in recent years.

[Angels 1961]

With Loup and Tepera in BP wasted 2 spots. Canning has been a very nice surprise so far. Suarez a big question mark. O'Hoppe and now Neto have helped more than expected. Anderson, Detmers and Sandoval are key to rotation and success of this team. If Walsh comes back could be big bat in middle of order. Halos I believe must win AL west to make playoffs in my opinion. 

[TroutField]

7 hours ago, failos said:

Chill out

Did I say something that wasnt accurate? 

[Taylor]

They beat the worst team in the AL 2-0, after going 2-5 against the Red Sox and Yankees.

[fan_since79]

"Rendon is still healthy."

A small miracle.

[jsnpritchett]

12 minutes ago, Taylor said:

They beat the worst team in the AL 2-0, after going 2-5 against the Red Sox and Yankees.

[Jason]

22 minutes ago, TroutField said:

Did I say something that wasnt accurate? 

No

[Vlad27Trout27]

A lot of goods things even with our record being 10-10, But a few things

1. Walsh, We really need Walsh in that line-up to balance it more.  Hopefully he's healthy enough to produce! Drury and Lamb just aren't cutting it. Plus another lefty that can hit it's a must needed in this heavy righties line-up. 

2. Rengifo, I actually think should be playing more, Mainly 2nd, 3rd and OF if needed. He's showing really good OBP skills and the hits will come with the Average. 

3. Drury, Yeah he's looking more like Cozart 2.0 and which I think most of us expected. K rate has gone up, and he's never really been a big Walks guys. 

4. Gio, has been a pleasant surprise and I think this is the guy that we'll be getting the entire season. 

Pitching:

1. Sandy, needs to get back on track and forget what happened. We need him to be #2 that we need behind othani

2. Detmer's will be fine, I would love to see him use his change a more to offset hitters against his FB/Slider combo early on. 

3. Anderson, Idk he fight mechanics but we'll see. We need him to a 4 or 5

4. Suarez, Time is clicking needs to figure it out

5. Canning, Solid and could provide a #3 to the rotation

Bullpen;

1. Combo of Estevez, Moore, and Quejada have been a nice surprise late inning. Wantz has been solid given his role, Barria and Tuckerson have been amazing. Still think we'll add a late inning arm by trade deadline.  

 

[Angel Oracle]

Biggest issues on offense are lack of power lately and hitting with RISP.

Currently 11th in AL SLG% and lately it seems really struggling with RISP.

Rendon’s OBP is fine.   He really needs to start hammering the ball like he used to through 2020.

Ward has fallen off the planet compared to 2022.   What’s going on there?

Thankfully, Cozart 2.0 is only under contract for 2 years for half the total money that Cozart got.

Rengifo is showing signs of emerging from his early slump, .344 OBP partly thanks to 10 BBs already.  Just needs to find the power he had in 2022.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Angel Oracle

[Duren, Duren]

Need more speed on offense. The tweak to the game makes speed more important. Can't sit back and wait for the home run. 

Walsh is a big loss. 

Pitching can always use more consistency or an upgrade. 

Team looks improved when healthy. But injuries are exposing some of the depth problems. 

 

 

[Stradling]

4 hours ago, Taylor said:

They beat the worst team in the AL 2-0, after going 2-5 against the Red Sox and Yankees.

So they won?  Cool. 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

So they won?  Cool. 

It is cool. Winning is more cool than losing.

[gurn67]

Last year they were 13-7 and had won 5 games in a row in what was a 6 game winning streak. 

They looked like a definite playoff team before the wheels came off. 

They seemed to be doing fine this year until everyone stopped hitting 

They've only scored more than 5 runs once in the last 11 games. That's not going to get it done this year with the increased offense. I don't care how good the pitching is.

At least they've been around .500. They'll hit eventually. There's too many good hitters in this lineup.

[ukyah]

i'm amused how s-words man is the positivity police here.

[Stradling]

5 minutes ago, ukyah said:

i'm amused how s-words man is the positivity police here.

At first I thought you were talking about me but then realized you were talking about that loon. 

[ukyah]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

At first I thought you were talking about me but then realized you were talking about that loon. 

 

only a loon. we really can't blame him. only a loon. society made him.

 

did you know that the oingo boingo band was passed down from danny elfman's older brother to danny? the original name of the band is, the mythic knights of the oingo boingo.

 

 

[Stradling]

41 minutes ago, ukyah said:

 

only a loon. we really can't blame him. only a loon. society made him.

 

did you know that the oingo boingo band was passed down from danny elfman's older brother to danny? the original name of the band is, the mythic knights of the oingo boingo.

 

 

Yes. I was aware. Although I thought it was the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.  So I guess I was unaware. 

[Inside Pitch]

11 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Yes. I was aware. Although I thought it was the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.  So I guess I was unaware. 

It was Mystic..

[ukyah]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Yes. I was aware. Although I thought it was the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.  So I guess I was unaware. 

oh you're right.