LAA Road Tripper

I would have loved to see a ruling on this protest. The A's clearly got screwed but I can't see any remedy. This is just one of those spots where's there's no right answer.

I appreciate what replay is intended to do - get the call right. And it almost always does. What I don't like is that replay removes the immediate finality of a call. As much as I used to complain, there was something kind of cool about feeling you got away with something. It kind of felt everything would even out in the end, too. But now there are real loopholes like this that either way you slice it, as Jeff said, there doesn't seem to be a right answer. One umpire's decision frames a player's decision a second later. Picture this play in the 9th inning of Game 7 and you have a winter's worth of anger.

Good move. Even if Frieri rights the ship in Pittsburgh that doesn't mean that he'd do the same here. Sometimes a change of scenery alone can do wonders. Let's hope that's the case with Grilli. And the age difference? Unless you're Mariano or, say, Shields back in the day, it doesn't matter. Relievers are generally pretty disposable year to year.

Shane's first point about kids pitching year round seems to me to have some merit. In the last 25+ years this specialization trend has become prevalent across all sports in the spirit of keeping up. You didn't regularly see this back in the day. Kids played multiple sports more then. I admittedly only have anecdotal evidence but between traveling squads, etc. early on I'm thinking the average 19 year-old has a lot more miles on his arm than a similar prospect a generation ago.

I have enjoyed watching baseball and the Halos more than any other sport over the years. I'm extremely frustrated with the poor baseball this team has been playing for the past few seasons. Tonight I turned the game on in the 5th and saw them down 4-1 and lost all interest in watching the rest (watching a show about gold on the History channel now). It really bothers me that I feel this way because the Angels have a player in Trout that is a once in a generation type player and I'm not watching because the rest of it ruins the experience. They may win the game tonight but my interest in watching any games at all is dwindling. Just thought I'd vent here since most here are Angel fans and MAY understand. Although some might think I'm just being a b***h.

Completely understand. I feel the same way. Been following this team since the 70s and for really the first time I'm following through on my threats to ignore them. Apart from following them on this board I've maybe watched 6 or 8 innings this year. They've cast out the joy of the game. BTW, the contrast of how well the hockey team across the freeway is run vs. how poorly the Angels are managed is striking.

I'll cherry pick this since It's late and I don't know them all.

1. Hodges, Mays and Hamilton did. I think Foxx and Gehrig did. So, to guess, I'd say Schmidt and Ruth.

2. Perry and Bunning. Nomo threw a no-no at Coors with the Dodgers and seems to me had threw another one with Boston.

3. Torre, Drysdale, hmmm....

8. Edgar Renteria with the Marlins and Giants.

10. Milt Pappas with Cubs in '72, the Tigers dude where Jim Joyce missed the call and didn't Matt Cain miss out on one a couple of years ago?

Trout

Kershaw

Fernandez

Posey

Kimbrel

I hesitate to add a relief pitcher when I only have five players to choose knowing the dynamic nature of the overall historic performance from year to year but I just really like Kimbrel and his proven ability to shorten games.

I can't imagine he will be anything but boo'd at every stadium he visits in 2015.

I'd really be surprised to see A-Rod ever back playing for the Yankees again. And if he isn't there, his toxicity is so high I'd be out and out shocked if he signed on with any other team. Doesn't mean it can't happen but I see things playing out like the Bonds template especially since A-Rod's productivity at the end is nowhere near Barry's.

He's 21. I'm glad nobody shoved a mic or pen and paper in front of me when I was 21 but this can't be a surprise to him. It's his agent's job to keep him abreast of how the whole system works. Unfair in the micro? Perhaps. Unfair in the macro? Not in the least. Having tenure in most areas of big business has it's benefits and baseball certainly can be considered big business. Stay healthy, Manny and you'll be smiling when you're 24.

By the way, I get that it's a legal quagmire. Just seems that creative minds can get past it now that we're into 2014.

The truth? The only thing they protect is their right to lose me as a viewer. If my game isn't on I'm shutting the TV off and doing something else, not watching televised poker on the Fox regional affiliate. I'm no economist, but it seems to me that this equal less eyeballs on the product making it worth less. I'll bet you that if they stopped blacking out games to viewers hundreds of miles away, they would bag enough additional subscriptions for MLB Extra Innings to more than make up for any lost revenue. Of course, I don't expect Bud to do that much thinking, or to care about the people who actually pay the freight. It's an alien concept to me, increasing interest in the game by restricting access to it.

Here's what I don't get about the lack of measurability of eyeballs watching an event. So Fox, CSN, etc. own the local rights to MLB teams. We really don't have the ability to count those viewers and associate them with the local broadcaster to compliment their numbers? We seem to be locked into a 1970's model in many ways. Good business is about knocking down barriers so goods are more easily available to more people. If I'm at the gym on Super Bowl Sunday, who is hurt by me watching the first quarter on my phone? Nielsen should be able to figure out I'm there and, in fact, it's even easier tracking that example than any sample size they use now. To me it's a complete lack of vision and collaboration by the networks and leagues. It's an absolute joke that Vegas has to put up with any blackout much less multiple ones.

Without looking it up I know that Koufax won Game 7 in '65 against the Twins. And since the '63 Series was a sweep against the Yankees and he's probably the Game 1 starter, I'm thinking he probably got the win in Game 4, too.

With all the negatives - the Chevron bullpen, a minor league system ranked 45th among the 30 teams, all of it - you know what would be great next year just stating the obvious? Pujols getting out to a fast start, say 8 home runs and an OPS of 1.000. Hamilton waking up. Getting solid starts and at least an above average pen in April. 19-11 for the month. It'd give us all something sorely lacking lately - some real hope.

I was on the sign Beltre wagon. It seemed to me that if the Angels ever had a case to overpay, it was here due to the fact that 3rd base has been a black hole since the days of Glaus.

But then I also loved the Pujols signing thinking that it would be terrible after Year 5 or 6 but figured that getting a solid few seasons out of him was a good tradeoff. And although I wasn't crazy about the Hamilton signing, I didn't mind it that much thinking that they could trade some outfield assets for two solid pitchers. Didn't happen which was unfortunate. I didn't believe they did enough with just Morales for Vargas.

What's unique to Edmond's catch and why I believe it's the greatest ever is that I've never seen a player make a full dive parallel to the ground 100% directly opposite of home plate and come up with the ball.

Edmonds. And not only that in 40 years of watching baseball, including highlights before that, it's the best catch I've ever seen. Speaking of which, I was never overly impressed with Mays's catch in the '54 World Series. Really good catch, yes. Maybe great. But the catch itself wasn't in my opinion an all-time great one. Willie actually having the speed to get to the ball was pretty impressive, though.

As the train wreck continues to burn for another couple of months and knowing that, although there isn't a significant amount of flexibility going into next spring, there could be a few unexpected positives that occur before the 2014 season begins, I think that it's reasonable to expect a few things.

1) No publication, no baseball analyst, no website, no one at all will pick the Angels to win the AL West or finish second and few will consider them a third-place team when pre-season picks come out in February. And with Houston seemingly beginning to execute a plan expect the Angels to be slotted for fifth by more than a few people. Thank 2012 and 2013 for that. Expectations falling through the floor may not be a bad thing in some respects, however. Maybe this emboldens the team to take a longer view of things. Maybe not.

2) Where it will hurt is the gate. With lowered expectations comes lowered attendance. That takes a while to drop when things are bad (like now) but it also takes time to recover when things improve. So even if you see a Red Sox-like renaissance in '14, the days of the routine 38K-40K+ crowds will take into '15 and '16 to transpire. More likely, with a 75-80 win 2014 team we'll probably see 28K a night on average for some time.

Obviously I'd like to have a nice big meal with these words next September as the guy wearing number 5 turns into Albert Pujols again, Hamilton decides he really does want to play baseball, three more legitimate starting pitchers appear out of anywhere as does a major league bullpen while Trout and Weaver continue being Trout and Weaver. We'll see.

I've been following the Angels since I was a kid in the 70's. Played basketball into high school and a touch of college but have always been a bigger baseball fan. With a visit to Target Field last August, I've now seen a game at every current ballpark and a number of old stadiums, too. Love the nuances of the game how every pitch is in context to the count, the at-bat, the inning, the game, the season, the history between pitcher and batter, everything. As an Angel fan, I remember every pain the most.

• Being at Game 4 of of the '79 ALCS after a comeback the night before only to see the Orioles put the game away in the middle innings.
• Working at an office supply store in '82 listening to Games 3 and 4 of that year's ALCS while Milwaukee forced a deciding game, then driving around aimlessly the next day after Carew's one-hopper to short with the tying run at second ended it.
• Standing by the left field foul pole on that October day in '86 where Dave Henderson created a moment seared into my memory forever. (Also, what was with Rob Wilfong in the bottom of the ninth? Base hit to Dwight Evans in right and Rupert Jones rounding third with the tying run and Wilfong stops at first? That ball was going through like the Pony Express. And if it's cut off it assures the tie. WHY DIDN"T HE TAKE SECOND WHERE THE NEXT HIT WOULD HAVE SENT THE ANGELS TO THEIR FIRST SERIES? Had to live with that for 16 years. But I digress.)
• August and September of 1995. Life slowly dripping away. My wife was pregnant at the time with my now 17 year old son. Her hormones were bad. Mine were worse.

But then there was 2002. I remember leaving my office at the City Tower in Orange to catch the last inning of the Wild Card clinching game at Texas across the freeway at the National Sports Grill then getting interviewed by a Channel 9 reporter while I stood in line to buy tickets to a meaningless Game 162 against Seattle a couple hours later. I couldn't get World Series tickets initially, then went to the Ticketmaster website about six hours after they "sold out" only to find singles to every game. Nervously bought $2500 worth of tickets on credit with the idea of selling the excess for profit enough to fund my own attendance. The plan worked to perfection. Went to every home playoff game that year except for the middle game against Minnesota. I had immediate Henderson-like visions when Kenny Lofton hit the two-out fly ball to right center in Game 7 which morphed quickly into stunned euphoria a nanosecond later. Stunned. There's a landscape framed photo of that moment in my home office. As it turns out, I had to be within arms reach of the photographer.

Now I constantly try to decouple the importance of a game to the real important things in life. I'll keep working on that one.

I think I have this.

1) Larry Harlow in Game 3 of the '79 ALCS. A little blooper into left field.

2) Bobby Grich, Game 4 of the '86 ALCS in extra innings. Feeling good that Saturday night unaware of the fate ahead of all of us for the next day.

3) Mathis.

Bruce, I think the differentiator is the player. You definitely have a point if the ball is hit off the pitcher (in fair territory) and caroms off foul. Fair ball. But to extend your point further, if a ball is hit off the plate then rolls up the 3rd base line 30 feet and goes foul it's ruled to be a foul ball. Seems like the same shoul be true if the ball hits the rubber.

Well, I would think it's similar to a ball rolling down the 1st or 3rd base line. If it hits a rock and skips foul before passing the base and is never touched by a player, then it's a foul ball. Unless there's some provision for the pitching rubber which seems obscure then I would think that's the ruling.

So after 12 years monitoring this and, back in the day the ESPN board, keeping an AngelsWin tab open on multiple devices daily I finally created an account. (BTW, there's got to be an entire population of folks like me.) A little of my background. Been an Angels fan ever since I was kid in the 70s. I was four people deep near the left field foul pole in the ninth inning of Game 5 in the '86 ALCS in utter disbelief as Henderson's ball soared over Brian Downing's head. I attended every playoff and World Series game in '02 with the exception of Game 4 vs. Minnesota and I've seen a game at every current MLB ballpark. I feel like I know much of the cast of characters that post here often. But I digress. To the topic at hand.

1) Gotta agree with Deepdrive. Ball never passes a base and is never touched before ending up in the dugout. Foul ball.

2) Ball in play.