Jeff Fletcher

McDonald is not going anywhere. He's the only one who could competently play SS. You could maybe throw Green out there for half a game but if something happened where a Aybar needed 2-4 days, it couldn't be Green.
They basically have 3 weeks to decide anything because it'll be at least that long till Hamilton/Calhoun are ready to come back. A lot of things could happen in 3 weeks.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

I'll just say this: no one really can tell if a coach is good or bad without watching very closely behind the scenes and talking the players and other coaches privately. I'm not saying I know either. I know enough to make about a 30 percent judgment based on my time in the clubhouse. So much of what happens goes unseen even by the media who is there every day.
I find it interesting that, among a group that so often understands why things aren't simple when it comes to stats (more RBI = good player), there is still a knee jerk perception when it comes to a coach (pitchers don't perform = bad pitching coach).
All I've seen as evidence that Butcher isn't good is references to guys like Kazmir, Santana, Haren, walden, etc. There are a lot of other factors at play with any pitcher, too many to make assumptions based on a small sample size.
All I can tell you is this: I've asked several Angels pitchers who I have a good relationship with, privately (off the record), what they think of Butcher, and no one has said anything bad about him.
And, to reiterate on Skaggs, I did not ask him about Butcher. He brought him up unprompted.

McDonald is not going anywhere. He's the only one who could competently play SS. You could maybe throw Green out there for half a game but if something happened where a Aybar needed 2-4 days, it couldn't be Green.
They basically have 3 weeks to decide anything because it'll be at least that long till Hamilton/Calhoun are ready to come back. A lot of things could happen in 3 weeks.

A couple things I want to point out...
1. There is no such thing as "skill with inherited runners." Salas has had a bad streak of allowing runners to score but it's just a small sample fluke. Prior to this season he was pretty much average (32 percent)
2. Do you guys really think Morin's handling of a bad debut at AAA means anything for how he'd handle a bad debut in the majors? There's a little difference. It makes perfect sense to me that a manager would want to find a soft landing spot for a rookie.
And you don't call up a reliever because you want to use any of them. What you want is your starter to pitch a complete game shutout. Failing that, you use only the relievers you have to use to get through the game. It's not a showcase or Little League, where everyone has to play a certain amount of time.
That being said, with the amount of work the other relievers have had lately, it's a safe bet Morin will pitch pretty soon.

Would you rather have CC Lee?
He has not allowed any of his eight inherited runners to score.
He also has allowed five runs in 7 innings.
The most important skill for a reliever is not preventing inherited runners from scoring. It is, as it is with every pitcher, getting hitters out. If you do that, you'll also prevent inherited runners from scoring. If you're somehow doing one but not the other, like Salas, it's a fluke that will correct itself.

To elaborate, I never asked Skaggs about Butcher. Was just asking about the improvement he's made since the start of spring training and he launched into this long answer about how much he likes Butcher.

FYI, as I tweeted last night, I don't expect Frieri to be the closer on Friday.
Last night when we asked Scioscia he couldn't really say he's changing closers 10 minutes after the game, before really discussing it with Frieri or Smith (or whoever he wants to close) and Butcher and even Dipoto. You just don't do that in 10 minutes when emotions are raw after a loss.
So feel free to freak about Frieri, but don't freak out about Scioscia.
If he repeats on Friday that Frieri is the closer, freak out then.

A few comments on this...
1. A no trade clause doesn't necessarily mean you want to stay in your current city forever. It means you want to have control over where you go.
2. Why do so many people just assume that Mike Trout is going to be awesome forever? It's possible, but there are a lot of things that can happen over 13 years. There are a lot of things that can happen over the 7 he is signed for. It only takes one awkward dive to change everything. I think it would be insane for any team to guarantee a player 13 years for something like $350-400 million. The Angels did want to go to about 8 (9 including the one year in 2014), which itself is a lot of risk. But Trout obviously wanted to make sure he could get his second bite at the apple at an optimal age (29) to get the maximum deal, instead of 31.

@JeffFletcherOCR: Why does Mike Trout have 0 SB atts? Only been on 1B with 2B unoccupied 7 times, and 5 with LHP on mound. #Angels
Talked to Trout today about this. Stay tuned.

Trout has only 5 singles and 3 walks, and I'm sure some of those a steal wasn't possible because there was a guy on 2b or else the game situation dictated he stay put.
Also, 4 of those 8 times reaching first was against a LHP which makes it harder to steal.
I'm sure there were a couple other FC's that got him on base, but you get the point.

Iannetta was much better offensively for the final two months of 2013 and had a very good spring.
Scioscia gave him a little rope to see if he could play every day. Just when it seemed that rope might be running out, he had a couple decent games on Friday and Saturday.
Think Iannetta gets a little more rope before it becomes a platoon again.
It's going to be fluid all year.

Iannetta was much better offensively for the final two months of 2013 and had a very good spring.
Scioscia gave him a little rope to see if he could play every day. Just when it seemed that rope might be running out, he had a couple decent games on Friday and Saturday.
Think Iannetta gets a little more rope before it becomes a platoon again.
It's going to be fluid all year.

Sorry, forgot to check the box to make it free. It is now.
 
http://www.ocregister.com/angels/richards-609241-taken-garrett.html

Trout has only 5 singles and 3 walks, and I'm sure some of those a steal wasn't possible because there was a guy on 2b or else the game situation dictated he stay put.
Also, 4 of those 8 times reaching first was against a LHP which makes it harder to steal.
I'm sure there were a couple other FC's that got him on base, but you get the point.

This totally misses the point.
I'm not saying you don't move him because the games aren't important. I'm saying you don't move him because you don't have enough information to know if that will solve anything.

If Pujols had a 6 for 30 streak in the middle of June and it dropped his OPS from 925 to 916 would this discussion be happening?
Obviously if Pujols shows that's he's not a good enough hitter to be in the No 3 spot he should be moved, but I don't think 30 ABs says anything.
About anyone.
Do you think Josh Hamilton is going to hit .500?

Albert Pujols has played 7 games this season.
If he had 3 more hits he'd be hitting .300

I had such a frustrating twitter exchange with one of these guys yesterday that I had to block him, which I almost never do.
 
So then I wrote this...
 
http://www.ocregister.com/angels/deal-607558-mike-trout.html