Gameday Thread: Astros @ Angels (5/8/23): Sandoval on the mound, Neto back to hitting 9th

[HeavenlyHalos]

Estevez, Moore, and Drury all in the late innings. All very good additions. Perry made a lot of smaller, solid moves. Starting pitching and defense the weaknesses at the moment but I expect the SP to improve.

[Erstad Grit]

Our closer is sick

[T.G.]

Winning is fun.

[HaloBronco]

LTBU!!!

[T.G.]

Ward in the lead off spot paid off

[Blarg]

That was an acceptable outcome. 

[Angels 1961]

Team win

[T.G.]

Just now, Blarg said:

That was an acceptable outcome. 

Did you finish your cotton candy?

[Angelsfan1984]

Winning takes the sting out of the ducks not getting the number 1 overall pick…actually no..it doesn’t. Fuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Chuck]

 

[Chuck]

 

[Blarg]

5 minutes ago, T.G. said:

Did you finish your cotton candy?

[T.G.]

I didn't know @Tank was doing those broccoli/Laa Vegas commercials 

[T.G.]

Just now, Blarg said:

So... no?

[Swordsman78]

Would it be appropriate to start a "Astro's messageboard imploding" thread?

[Swordsman78]

[Blarg]

4 minutes ago, Swordsman78 said:

Would it be appropriate to start a "Astro's messageboard imploding" thread?

[Stradling]

16 minutes ago, Swordsman78 said:

Would it be appropriate to start a "Astro's messageboard imploding" thread?

It worked so well last time. 

[HanfordGuy]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

 

[HanfordGuy]

Awesome win!

[Tank]

1 hour ago, T.G. said:

I didn't know @Tank was doing those broccoli/Las Vegas commercials 

it's true! I can hardly wait to make my next trip to sin city.

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

is Thaiss finally breaking out? average over 300 (don't see him being a 300 plus hitter) with solid OBP.

I saw him as a 270ish with 340s OBP when we drafted him

Thaiss was naturally a very good hitter before the Angels drafted him. And typically, I place results on the player themselves, but in this case, the Angels effed up his development about as bad as you can. 

He was a catcher in college, and most scouts thought he had a 50/50 chance of sticking there, but would ultimately move off the position because his bat would develop too quickly for his glove to catch up. The Angels drafted him and moved him to 1B, completely understandable. Thaiss started off as a very good hitter, but the Angels tried to get him to increase his launch angle to create the offensive profile of a traditional 1B. It didn't work, his bat only got worse. The Angels then moved him to 3B and Thaiss became a solid defender over there, but it took the focus off his bat and he floundered even more offensively. Then the Angels started putting him at 2B and LF before he got sick of it. 

Thaiss came to the Angels and said he was going to play catcher. The organization was reluctant at first, but developmentally he.had stalled and was blocked everywhere else, so they went along with it, not expecting anything. Thaiss continued to put all his focus into developing as a catcher, so his bat was once again ignored, since basically 2019. 

This year, he's made the decision to stop implementing what the Angels put on him and just do what comes naturally in the batters box. The results are promising, he's a good hitter with good discipline, but he can't sell out for power, it isn't who he is and while he's struggled defensively, he's not a total liability either. 

I think Thaiss is just one of those guys that needs to play one position and be left alone. Some guys can be utility players and tinker in the box. I expect he's going to be a solid major league catcher for the next half decade. 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Second Base

[arch stanton]

So in back-to-back drafts, led by different front offices, the Angels take these 2 college catchers Ward and Thaiss. Now here we are in their age 29 and 28 seasons and they might actually both be contributors to a playoff bound team put together by a third front office group. It’s not the way you draw it up but it’s hard to complain if it works out.

Now about those high school kids they drafted in the following years…..

[Duren, Duren]

Important to prevent losing streaks within the division. Split the next two and the Texas losses are evened out. A sweep is even better, but Houston is always a  tough out. Regardless of anything else going on with them. 

The upcoming road trip against average teams should be winnable overall. If they keeping building their record further above .500 it should build confidence. 

[gurn67]

Thais started 0-12. So, since then he's been hitting .433 and slugging .600. with 7 RBI's in his last 7 starts.