gurn67

I was right for once.

I think everyone but Grichuk.

Sandoval's ERA is up over a run from last season. Detmers' ERA is up over a run from last season. Anderson's is up over 3 runs from last season. Suarez was absolutely horrible except for one start. Nobody except maybe Anderson's family thought he was going to be anywhere near as good as he was last year, but I think most people thought he could be around the 4.00 mark. Sandoval and Detmers regressed badly this season. I did not expect that at all. I've never liked Suarez, but I thought he could be a decent number 6 starter and stay around a 4.00 ERA also. As of today, starters and relievers ERA's are identical at 4.68 this season. Starters have gone from 6th best last season at 3.67 to 22nd. Relievers have gone from 18th best at 3.95 to 23rd.

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that Kimbrel still ends up with a W in this game?

How many guys in dugout are praying they get claimed. They're going to feel as fortunate as people in the lifeboats watching the people in the water as the Titanic went down.

I was listening to the Phillies radio broadcast yesterday and their announcers were joking that if they were in the Phillies' front office, they would send drivers over in the morning to make sure that every member of the Angels' pitching staff made it to the game on time tomorrow.

His decision making running the bases is giving me Aybar flashbacks. That's not a good thing.

Of the guys they gave up, Quero was the only one that really hurt. You can say that they have O'Hoppe, but to trade him for a rental that you can't even get a compensation pick for is a waste. At least if you trade him in the off season for an established player in his final year before free agency, you have that player for a full season and can get something in return either by trade or compensation pick. He's tearing it up in Birmingham by the way.

This collapse has been a team effort. Before the All-Star Break, 11 of their 12 hitters with the most at bats had an OPS of at least .679. Only Rengifo was below and he was at .638 Since the break, only 3 of the top 15 have. Ohtani 1.129 & Rengifo .970. Ward 1.115 12 of the 15 are .676 or lower. 7 of them are .563 or lower.

Of course, the 1995 team was playing great until the middle of August and then completely collapsed. 64-38 on August 15 with a 10.5 game lead in the AL West. 8-27 in their next 35. I don't know if that's the worst 35 game stretch in club history, but it's got to be right there.

I think Arte wanted to show Shohei that if the team actually had a reasonable chance to make the playoffs at the trade deadline, he would be willing to go over the salary cap if necessary. I was strongly against giving up any of their top prospects from what is generally perceived as one of the weakest farm systems in MLB, for a team that had maybe a 10% chance of making the post-season at that point. Sadly, that's the only time since Ohtani has been here that they've had even that high of a chance.

It reminds me of the 1999 team. That team quit on Terry Collins. This team looks like it has quit on Phil Nevin.

The Angels are now back in 30th place in both OPS and ERA for the month of August. They had managed to climb up to the 29th and 29th spots after the Mets series, but consistently throwing meatballs right down the middle of the plate the last two games, didn't help the ERA.

At this point, I think the rest of Trout's career is going to be similar to Griffey's career after he left the Mariners. He'll still have moments, but Griffey averaged 105 games, 23 HR's 66 RBI's in his 9 seasons with the Reds. Griffey had averaged 155 games in his last 4 with the Mariners. He didn't have the luxury of the DH with the Reds though.

Same here. I was listening to the game on the radio in my bedroom. I scared my parents when I went crazy after the home run. I knew then they were definitely going to win the AL West. Everything was going great until a little over a month later when Gene Mauch decided to remove their best pitcher (Mike Witt) from the most important moment in Angels' history to that point.

Wow! An Angels' hitter that actually understands his role is to set up the guys behind him. I was starting to think that the object was to try to hit a home run on every swing. There's only one guy in the lineup who should have that approach, and nobody else has his ability, but they act like they do.

Whatever you do, don't ask Lasorda his opinion about Kingman's performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoAdY3uP9c0

If your name is not Vladimir, and you are not in the Hall of Fame, you shouldn't be swinging at those pitches.

It's nice to know that I wasn't imagining that this team had the worst 2 strike approach at the plate that I have ever seen. Swing from the heels and hope for the best. Productive outs? What are those? Those don't show up in your stats. That's the way it's been for the last 8 years.

Maybe Shohei is playing because he loves the game and he feels that he has a responsibility to the fans and to fulfill the obligation he made when he signed his contract for this season to continue. He's not an ordinary modern player. Most would have already stopped.

I agree with you. However, I think they're going to try to get to .500 even though it's completely meaningless. 7 consecutive losing seasons, or 8. What difference does it make? it's one thing if you're losing while you are trying to rebuild. This team has lost trying to win. That's a downright embarrassing performance from everyone from the ownership, management, coaching, scouting and players. Since Arte chose Scioscia over Dipoto in the power struggle in 2015, the Angels have 7, going on 8 consecutive losing seasons. I know I was one of the few on here at that time that felt that Dipoto might have been kind of an ass, but he was good at his job and should have been the one to stay. Scioscia was a nice guy, but he was being out-managed by the new technological tools being utilized by other organizations. It was Seattle's gain, and the Angels' loss.

If Grichuk keeps hitting .144 it is. He's put up much worse offensive numbers in an Angels' uniform than Flether, Stefanic, Escobar and Velazquez have this year.

I totally agree. Judge got $360,000,000 coming off a healthy age 30 season. Ohtani will be coming off an injury after his age 29 season. However, I think he gets more guaranteed than Judge. In fact, I think he still gets more guaranteed than Trout's $426,500,000 who was coming off a healthy age 27 season. He will also get opt outs so that if he resumes pitching, he can enter free agency again, or force whichever club he signs with to renegotiate a new deal. I'm not saying he deserves more than they got, but he will. He's by far the best free agent available this season. There's no one even close. There's no Plan B player for the teams that don't get him.

Let's not forget his .165 batting average with RISP and .148 with RISP and 2 outs. He's paid to drive in runs. That's what they brought him here to do.