Angels

Does the name Joe Smith ring a bell? How about Frieri? The 7th inning was the most important moment of the game and may very well cost this team a win.

As crazy as that sounds, I am actually starting to believe that this is deliberate sabotage on his part. Maybe he wants to get Dipoto fired? Or even himself so he can collect his huge paycheck through 2018? Maybe he's helping the Dodgers by sabotaging this team? Whatever it is, his bullpen management is so disgustingly awful, it's mindblowing that this guy is getting paid millions to do this. Even a goddamned trained monkey can better manage a bullpen than Scioscia. What part doesn't he get that you want your best relievers out there during high-leverage situations and especially the most important moments of the game?

Gotta be deliberate sabotage. I am convinced of it. There is no way anyone can be that stupid.

Why are people blaming Salas? He sucks and everyone knows it... besides Scioscia. Scioscia's bullpen management is disgusting. Or maybe this is just deliberate sabotage on his part to get Dipoto fired. Using his acquisition during high-leverage moments to blow games.

Scioscia is such a stupid piece of shit. In his stupidass mind, Smith can only pitch the 8th inning just because. And Frieri can only pitch the 9th just because. Anyone else gets the 7th or before... Nevermind that this was the biggest moment of the game and you generally want your best there during high leverage situations. F*cking dinosaur.

This. All Skaggs has to do is be a solid back-end guy for this to be a win for the Angels. Trumbo will be a free agent after the 2016 season and he's not going to be cheap for long. Skaggs won't be a free agent until 2020 and he will still be making league minimum by the time Trumbo is in his walk year. If Skaggs reaches his potential and becomes a top of the rotation guy, it has a chance to be a gigantic steal for the Angels. Oh yeah, we also received Santiago.

Nice play, JB!

Wait, did Ibanez really not run there? Bench his ass.

What should've been ball 4 and runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out...we get this. Thanks, ump.

That's exactly why pitching only to contact is a terrible, awful strategy. You can get blasted without getting blasted, as we've seen tonight. Some nice, timely strikeouts could've avoided that damage. Come on, Skaggs.

Well, only 51 pitches through 4 innings of work for Skaggs. Pitching to contact has been favorable today, no?

"My main focus now is to get ahead of guys and get ball down in the zone and put guys away with two strikes. That’s the big adjustment from last year, (not) pitching to contact and working to get the ground ball. I still get ground balls, but now I can go for the punchout more often.” Great news.

Well, compared to almost every other starting pitcher, Weaver pitched a lot of innings that year and went deep into games. It depends on how you define what an ace is, anyway. Based on results as far as run prevention is concerned, one can argue Weaver had ace-type results in his heyday. But Weaver was never an elite ace in the mold of Roy Halladay or CC Sabathia or Felix Hernandez or Cliff Lee etc. Those guys were the best of the best and Weaver was never that.

Weaver threw 224.1 innings the year he led the league in total strikeouts. He averaged 6.59 innings per start that year, the second highest mark of his career. He pitched deep into games that year and had plenty of strikeouts to go with it. Which is my point, you can pitch deep into games and still pile up the strikeouts. And Weaver is a special case when it comes to getting results the unconventional way, anyway. He has been ace-quality despite not having the typical peripherals of an ace. Or the way he gets his results. Weaver is the exception, not the norm.

You can pitch deep into games and pile up plenty of innings and still be one of the league leaders in strikeouts. Pitchers that can do that are usually the top guys in baseball. Richards has the perfect skillset to pitch to contact...but he also has incredible stuff. He shouldn't be limiting himself if he can be so much more than he has shown so far. I do like the fact that Skaggs and Richards are trying to pitch deep into games. I just hope they do that while understanding the value of a strikeout. And that they don't purposely avoid getting strikeouts in order to hit bats in hopes of that baseball finding a defender. These guys have huge potential and it's going to be a lot of fun seeing if they can live up to it.

I didn't see that. I know in the past he mentioned that he's focusing on pitching to contact. There was an article on mlb.com from a few days ago with quotes from Skaggs mentioning that very same thing. Good news if he did say that, though. Someone in the org must have told him strikeouts are good and should not be avoided.

But pitching to contact doesn't mean you will get more outs or get more favorable results. A lot of it depends on the skillset of the pitcher and also so many other factors, including ballpark, defense, luck, etc. I mean, does a pitcher know where that ball is headed once it hits off the bat? At least with a strikeout, the batter has no chance for a hit. It is possible to get quick outs and strikeouts at the same time. The pitchers who do that are usually the best pitchers in baseball. Richards and Skaggs should focus on just that. Richards and Skaggs should try to maximize their potentials.

I know what the idea is, but that won't necessarily make them better pitchers. The idea should be to throw strikes, get ahead in the count and miss bats. Trying to avoid a K is terrible strategy. A strikeout = 0% chance for a hit.. Anytime you let that batter put the ball in play, you run the risk that baseball will find an opening somewhere.

I'm pretty sure Richards would have a much higher K rate if he didn't deliberately "pitch to contact." He said so himself. He pitches to hit bats, not miss em. Even Skaggs recently said that he wants to pitch to contact. I'm not sure what the coaches are teaching our pitchers...but strikeouts are good, not bad.

HaloRed16 = HaloThunder, that's why.

Mike Scioscia happened. Trout can't steal unless Scioscia gives him the go-ahead to steal.

I love how Rojas is questioning and criticizing Scioscia for not allowing Trout to steal bases. Too bad that stubborn a-hole is pretty set in his ways.

A diving catch for Ibanez = a routine catch for almost every other OFer. Ibanez just may be the worst defensive player in baseball. There is absolutely no reason why he should be playing defense.

A drop in velocity is to be expected as a pitcher ages...but to the point where you're throwing 85 mph fastballs at age 30 and now 31? Not good. The days of Weaver being a top of the rotation guy are over.

Weaver's stuff is garbage nowadays. I can't believe his stuff declined this quickly and to this extent - especially since he was never even a flamethrower to begin with and he's still relatively young.