Dave Saltzer

I very much agree. I hope we can get her back next year. She did a GREAT job!

Nice to see Cron mashing

When I interviewed Scioscia, I asked him about Cron. One thing he specifically mentioned was the improved defense. Cron's hitting hasn't been as much in doubt as his defense. Hearing that his defense has improved goes a long way to improving him overall as a package.

Appears to be a replay at Midnight (Eastern) on MLB TV Network....which I guess is 9pm if you're on the west coast....

http://m.mlb.com/network/shows/?id=mlbn_spring_training

Thanks. Too late for my kids, but maybe for me!

He got a lot of praise from Jerry Dipoto. 

Wopphil we will be posting video of all the interviews and things throughout this week for the fans who couldn't attend. But, starting planning on being there next year. 

Damn. I wanted to tape it and watch it with my boys after work today since they all had their first games of Little League this weekend.

I am at work and am trying to set my DVR online. It's not showing up in the listings. Does anyone know if it is on?

Thanks in advance!

Mota came & spoke at my high school. I was in the same class as his son. Also threw out the 1st pitch at a La Verne LL game I umpired. Great guy on both occasions.

He is a very genuine and class act, as are Terry Smith, Jeff Fletcher, Mike DiGiovanna, Alden Gonzalez and Victor Rojas. As Angels fans we are very lucky to have such great guys giving us the story every day.

Good article Joe. I think that these stats will take a generation to actually make an impact. Sure, the current pros will look at them and use them, but it won't be until fans really play with them, then raise their kids in Little Leagues with the knowledge gained from them, and teaching their kids how to use lessons from them, that they will impact the game.

Having said that, I really want them as a fan and think that some neat things can be done with them.

And, having said that, I am still very much a believer in scouts. No stat or machine can tell you what the fortitude and character of a player is, and that is always going to have a much greater impact on their performance than anything else.

Please add this....

 

Hamiltown is donating two (2) Opening Day tickets located in the Right Field MVP section (Budweiser Pavilion is behind you) with parking included. These tickets will also include a privileged opportunity to assist with the unveiling of the giant USA Opening Day Flag on the field. This is an amazing way to start the 2014 season and all proceeds are for the Angels RBI League or the OC Miracle League. 

 

Claude,

You always find a way to show what class Angels fans have. Glad you're a part of this site!

I want this. Now!

He really did kill the ball last year. I'd like to see him stay at 3B if possible and see him jump a level to the IE66ers.

Awesome piece. Completely agree with you from the teaching angle. I really enjoy this time of the year, when I'm able to begin to talk baseball with some of my students.

When I taught a rem dial math class to get kids to pass the CAHSEE, I would have the students calculate baseball stats as warm-ups. Of course, if we happened to have a game on in the background, we were of course updating our stats to the most accurate information.

I once got a student who had suffered a traumatic baseball injury to pass all of his math and science using baseball related lessons.

No offense, Dave, but I think more people would be willing to purchase tickets to see Simers interview Arte than any of us.

 

If the idea is to raise as much money as possible for charity, he's going to go with himself over AW.com.

No offense taken because I agree with you. More people would probably turn out and pay more to see him do the interview than if we did the interview. And, I would want to see the most money raised to do the most good.

However, I am willing to bet that Mr. Moreno would be far more likely to attend if AngelsWin.com did the interview than if TJ Simers did it, so, in that case, maybe we would raise more money after all!

I am thinking of throwing the gauntlet back at TJ Simers to see if this is really about doing good for people or about Simers ego. How about this TJ: You can arrange all the details for getting the stage and selling the tickets with all of the money going to charity provided that AngelsWin.com interviews Mr. Moreno and you aren't allowed on the stage.

If it's all about doing good for the community, he will agree. If he won't, then it's all about his ego.

"However, Trout’s quickest path to being both a World Series winner and the game’s highest-paid player would seem to be to eschew such a deal now."

So, according to this author, the quickest path to being a WS winner is to wait 4 years (because the Angels have NO SHOT at going to the WS in the next 4 years) and then of course picking the absolutely right team that will win the WS in 5 years. Of course that team would also have to agree to make him the highest paid player ever for this author to be right.

Yeah. Sure.

With the new CBA, the limited funds available to sign draft picks, etc. I kind of expected an organization to try this with some players. With hard caps for total signing pools, which were codified to drive down the cost of drafting and signing players, some teams would get burned and some players would get burned (much like how some pitchers tied to draft pick compensation are getting burned in the Majors this year). It doesn't make the teams right and the players wrong, or vice versa, but I figured some team would try this.

Guys, this is quickly becoming my favorite ongoing article style on the site. Please keep it up all season long--it's truly a great reason to log on here every week for this.

Thank you for posting this. Great read indeed.

Some thoughts:

1) A lot of this is Jerry Dipoto. Say what you want about the man, but I believe he's doing a LOT to improve the organization overall. He's gotten the organization to overhaul its approach to player development and how much it spends on it. He hired Servais, and that was a great pickup. 

2) In talking privately with many of the coaches in the system, I had heard about this, but in a different way. Some who declined to be interviewed about how or what they coached responded with comments like "you know all the answers, there the same ones that you've been told all your life. Just make it simple and do them" or comments to that affect.

3) The Angels have moved a couple of coaches up a level this year. I had thought that maybe it was to keep the same coaches with the same players. I'm now more convinced of that and will try and figure it out this year.

4) I don't think it's entirely fair to blame our lack of post seasons entirely or even substantially on Brandon Woods. That's way too much blame for one person. There is another person who has a much greater role in the lack of post seasons, and he isn't a player IMHO (or owner, coach, manager, or anyone else in the organization--maybe someday I will write about it). Yes, the failure to develop Brandon Woods had long term ramifications, but that's not all his fault either.

5) I think that this article actually makes the case more for scouting than analytics. A scout can tell you if a player is coachable, how well he responds to adversity, how dedicated he is to doing mind-numbing drills to make a skill ingrained. Numbers alone cant tell you that.

6) As I wrote in the intro, the Angels organization is not as bad as Baseball America and other organizations make it out to be. Too many of them rely on the number of high round draft picks and don't look always look past that. We had 4 teams in the playoffs last year (and one barely missed it). Even if you figure some of our teams were slightly old for their leagues, there must be more to it. Look at the improvement in OB% and HRs hit (both of which Dipoto has emphasized as important and probably pushed for drafting--look at Cal Towey as a prime example of that).

7) Really interested in watching Yarbrough's development this year.

Thank you all for the kind words about the article. It's sad to think that we will be entering into that era when we will start losing our Angels heros, but, as a franchise that is over 50, it will happen. We need to preserve and save as much of the team's history as we can before it is all gone.

I also have a strong feeling that they will challenge him with a jump to the IE 66ers. He should do very well there too.

Glen is really stepping into good form in these articles. Keep 'em coming!

I asked Jeff Fletcher about the possibility of them having to wait until the draft in June to sign a deal and whether or not he thought the Angels would be interested then. He said he didn't think that either would be available at that point, so, it's not a likely scenario.

Can we pin this to the first page please so as fans read the profiles on #1-30 they can refer back to the list?

Snyder has great power, but generates it with a long swing which could be exposed. I sure hope not. He's a great guy. Originally drafted to play 3B, he's made the switch full time to 1B. If he can cut down the number of strikeouts while maintaining or increasing the number of walks in Double-A, he'd shoot up the depth charts quickly.