Trout's 2023 performance embodies my current interest level

[Angelsjunky]

One-quarter of the year done is no longer a small sample size. Trout is hitting .279/.367/.510, with a 10.1 BB% and 27.2 K%. His wRC+ is 141 and his 1.4 fWAR is 21st in the majors (and I believe his fWAR has actually gone down over the last few weeks). He's been the definition of mediocrity since that two HR game in late April, after which he declared he was back to his "old self." Maybe he meant "old" literally. 

Sure, he could get hot and finish with 7-8 WAR. But I'm starting to doubt it. This just feels different, like a different player than we've seen. In a similar sense, I'm losing any sense that this team is going to catch fire. They're looking more and more like what their results have been: an average team.

It is a bit hard to stomach and embodies this season as a whole. The silver lining is that I find my interest in this team slipping away. I just don't care as much as I did a decade ago. I haven't been watching the games and usually only remembering to check the score sometime after it is over. Which is depressing in its own right, but I suppose the good news (for me) is that I find myself just not very invested. I wonder if my era of Angels fandom is coming to an end, or at least greatly diminishing. 

Meanwhile, the team is 21-19. Yippee, another .500ish season! I do think I'd be more prone to stick with it if the team was playing better, but I just can't muster the energy to follow the team closely through another mediocre year. So yeah, I'm turning into a fair weather fan. I'll be with y'all if things turn around, but I just can't muster the interest to follow a mediocre team closely, yet again (and again and again). Or to think of the next seven and a half years of Trout getting worse and worse. I mean, if he's at this level at age 31 what will he look like at 35? Do I really want to watch that closely, game after game? Similarly, if the farm was brimming with talent, I might be more enthused, but aside from a bright spot here and there, the farm is what it has been for over a decade: shallow in talent. If the team has another golden era in the future, I just don't see it.

This shit is just stale, y'all. I've done this dozens of times already, and every year for almost the last decade. I can't remember feeling so lacking in zest for the team. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Angelsjunky

[Angelsjunky]

Or to put it another way: If you build it I will come, Arte. But if you're going to keep fielding a shitty (or mediocre) product, year after year--and decade after decade--don't expect me to maintain my attention. You've got to earn that, and you haven't. 

[Lou]

Are you leaving?

[Angelsjunky]

1 minute ago, Lou said:

Are you leaving?

Haha, no. I'll be around. Just a quasi-vent, and expressing my current state of tepidness with Angels fandom.

[tomsred]

Consistency is certainly not a hallmark of this team so far.  Just when you think they might make a move there is a letdown.  I've seen most of the games so far, and for me the most intriguing thing is some of the young talent, like Neto, O'Hoppe, Silseth, and Moniak.  Generally the pitching has been a letdown with not much signs of a turnaround with most all of the starters.  Even Ohtani's last three starts are somewhat marred by mistakes.  I expected more from Ohtani and Trout offensively, maybe they will get hot yet, maybe not.  They are just hanging around the fringes of a playoff spot for the moment.  I would love to hear what Minasian really thinks right now about their performance, and what his longer range plans really are.  Being at .500 for most of April and May isn't always a bad thing if you are making the most of learning about what you have, and how best to utilize it, or dumping what consistently does not work.  However, the more the team has to dip into a thin farm system, the more likely the team moves away from potentially contending.  Trades and waiver pickups can help a little, but they can also be a big negative too.   

 

[tomsred]

20 minutes ago, Lou said:

Are you leaving?

There is no other place to go.  It's like being stuck in quicksand, it feels warm and cozy, but in the end you sink.  I actually feel sorry for the players, they don't give up, but the talent sometimes is rather elusive. 

[cals]

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that I want the team to do well so badly so Ohtani decides he loves the team and wants to stay, and then he comes up with the tying run on, or the go-ahead run, or an important insurance run on and he strikes out.  And then I’m like “I hope that asshole remembers this game when he’s making his ‘big decision’”.  

I still think Mike Trout puts up a Mike Trout season, or a really good version of a 31 year old Mike Trout if he stays healthy.  But even that guy is gonna strike out on a high-inside fastball during important moments.  

[CaliAngel]

I always thought he could put up a .300 season for a 10 year run (I think Vlad did that at some point during his career), but something **is** different with him lately.  

He looks dialed in, but makes weird decisions at the plate, and I feel like he fouls off or watches "his" pitch more than he used to. Him not coming through in clutch situations (with RISP) throws me off a little bit too. 

I dunno, I never worry about him. He'll go on a tear at some point, but there is a weird aura about this team not being able to be succesful with what they have. 

The Angels should be playing much better than they are. 

I'm sure Ohtani likes it here, but I wouldn't expect him to stay. 

[Taylor]

Trout the Muggle

[halonatic13]

I've said it all this time.  He needs to bulk DOWN and be leaner!  He's too big.  It's causing him to slow down.

[Second Base]

I think the fact that the Angels can be this hilariously inept yet still be over. 500 is cause for celebration. 

[Don3347]

Angels are 21-19? Wtf, the league is really full of mediocrity if this crew can be above . 500. 

[LAA Road Tripper]

I would describe this team as just sloppy. They’re an undisciplined mess reflective of the entire franchise for the last decade. After last year’s improvement of the rotation plus the added depth in the off season, I had some legitimate hope going into the season. Would love to be proven wrong but I don’t see a playoff team here at all. And as much as I respect Trout as one of the greatest ever, if I had my choice of hitters down a run and bases loaded bottom 9, right now I would pick 20, maybe 30 other hitters in the game before him to deliver the big hit. I wish I didn’t feel that way.

[Clark W Griswold]

Good points made and I don’t see any hope for a turn around. I have said before that I wish they could trade/get rid of almost all of their high $ players and play the youngsters. I would rather they suck with young guys than be mediocre with superstars. At least there would be hope for the future.

 

The best team by far that they have won a series against this year is Seattle.  The other series they have won were against the worst teams in baseball:  Oak/KC/StL/Wash - all last place teams. The Angels current record is fool’s gold.

[bloodbrother]

I'm good with 21-19 at this stage in the season.  This team isn't a great one, but they can be a good one. Will obviously need to hit their stride at some point and get a decent stretch going to where they can get themselves to 7-10 games over .500 at some point and try and make it stick. They're still figuring things out with the roster and making adjustments accordingly. We knew it would take a while for them to start weeding out some of the uselessness of guys in their pen, and the Tepera DFA is hopefully the start of them getting that shit situated(Loup shouldn't have long either)

First couple of months they just need to keep themselves afloat and not dig too deep a hole, and so far they're doing that.

 

[Swordsman78]

24 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

I'm good with 21-19 at this stage in the season.  This team isn't a great one, but they can be a good one. Will obviously need to hit their stride at some point and get a decent stretch going to where they can get themselves to 7-10 games over .500 at some point and try and make it stick. They're still figuring things out with the roster and making adjustments accordingly. We knew it would take a while for them to start weeding out some of the uselessness of guys in their pen, and the Tepera DFA is hopefully the start of them getting that shit situated(Loup shouldn't have long either)

First couple of months they just need to keep themselves afloat and not dig too deep a hole, and so far they're doing that.

 

Solid take. The close losses and bad losses sting, but hopefully overcoming adversity early will force changes in the roster and usage, early in the season, rather than after a mid season slump like the Rangers will have.    The team has playoff caliber talent, and is over .500 after the first 40.  I expect the Halos to finish with a better record than the Rangers in 2023.

[Tank]

trout always looks perpetually tired to me, dancing on the edge of depression.

[Swordsman78]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

trout always looks perpetually tired to me, dancing on the edge of depression.

Exactly.  What happened to the WBC version?

[Blarg]

1 hour ago, Swordsman78 said:

Exactly.  What happened to the WBC version?

Trout struck out to end the WBC for the US.

 

[Swordsman78]

3 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Trout struck out to end the WBC for the US.

 

I'm sure "it was Nevin's fault" for putting Trout in a position where he couldn't succeed. 

[Lou]

Your incessant defense of everything Nevin does is bordering on creepy. 

[T.G.]

7 minutes ago, Lou said:

Your incessant defense of everything Nevin does is bordering on creepy. 

It's also kind of pathetic.

[Swordsman78]

10 minutes ago, Lou said:

Your incessant defense of everything Nevin does is bordering on creepy. 

He's just not that high on the list of scape goats as this board would lead one to believe.  
 

 

[Swordsman78]

4 minutes ago, T.G. said:

It's also kind of pathetic.

Kinda like your takes recently. 

[UndertheHalo]

They’ll get it together or they won’t.  That’s how she goes. 
 

the Angels have had a lot of shitty days over the past 10 or so years but the day Arte decided to not fuck off is a real strong contender for the worst one of them.  At least from an Angels baseball perspective. 

Edited May 14, 2023 by UndertheHalo