TroutCron

He has had ample opportunities to show some real improvement at the plate and in the field. He is an outstanding athlete but he lacks basic baseball instincts. When he was drafted with the tenth pick, he came with a lot of swing and miss in his game. This hasn’t changed up to this point. The fact that he still takes bad routes to the ball in the outfield after five years in the organization tells me he lacks the ability to focus in the field. At the plate, he still has way below average pitch recognition which is essential to cutting down on strikeouts. He should spend this next season in AAA to be drilled in the fundamentals once again to see if he has a breakthrough. He has little trade value at this point so he has to improve by a lot or he will probably be moved next offseason.

Two weeks of ST is hardly enough of a sample size. He has had other opportunities and failed. Right now he is hitting .120

I give him a C-. Trading Marsh is a negative but getting a possible starting Catcher for the next several years is a big plus. The problem is that the Angels lack quality OFers in the upper levels of the system which is a big negative. The Syndergaard trade was a huge negative even by Minasian’s standards. The salary dump of Iglesias had to come from Arte, if not what a horrific move. Wait until the off season and make Iglesias available to all the other teams. I was really afraid that he would have traded Ohtani and not get a reasonable return.

Minasian is in way over his head. His deals at the deadline were amateurish except for the Marsh-O’Hoppe deal. He gave away Syndergaard for absolutely nothing. Taking back Moniak was the most stupid move ever. The Phillies traded a top prospect for Marsh because they were desperate to get a legitimate CF. Minasian acquires the CF from the Phillies who couldn’t win the CF job after being a #1 overall pick in 2016. That is assinine. Until Arte relinquishes control of the organization to a real Baseball man, experienced in running a successful organization, the Angels will be competing for the basement in the West.

The young pitcher in the deal has a huge upside also. Both teams did well.

This will probably be Minasian’s one chance to hire his own guy for Manager. He is going to go with someone he is comfortable with. Hopefully his hire has a good plan in place for filling out his coaching staff.

It would be hard to find a taker for Iggy unless the Angels absorb a big part of his contract. Other teams would be leery of a mid-thirties pitcher for three years, especially based on this season so far. If traded maybe he could return a just outside the top thirty and a lottery ticket.

Arte, hire a damn President who. knows Baseball instead of your billboard guys. Let that person rebuild the organization. He (or she) gets to hire their own people to fill out the rest of the Front Office positions. The President then makes the budget for payroll limits and player acquisition. He gets to the establish his own structure for the whole organization. He can establish an ‘Angels way to play’ complete with new, better psid instructors and Managers for the Minor League players. Mostly though, trust the President that you hire and stay out of the way.

The Angels scored 20 runs on the nine game trip. I think they get swept by Houston and split with the Dodgers. You don’t always know how a team responds coming out of the break but I think they may win one game against the Braves. Now if Trout can roll back the clock three years they may have a chance to win a few games.

Baseball is a simple game. The Angels need to score more runs than they give up to win. The offense is essentially four guys who are All-Star quality. Two of the four are future HOFers. The other two are solid hitters and plus defenders. Unfortunately, the other five in the lineup are below average hitters ( Stassi and Marsh) while the other three are a complete black hole. Bottom line, the Angels need better players. So far, Minasian has been unable to produce as GM, in part because of the restrictions that Arte puts on payroll and his aversion to signing Starting Pitchers to long term contacts. Lorenzen and Thor are okay and Ohtani is a TOR starter and Sandoval is a legit number two. Now for the massive “white elephant” in the room, the bullpen as a whole, is completely inadequate. Iglesias had a couple of hiccups during the losing streak, but is still a solid closer. The obvious problem is the rest of the bullpen, Loup has been horrible, Tepera is no eighth inning guy. Quijada had been the best non-closer until last night. Overall, he is a reliable pen piece. Herget is okay, the rest aren’t. With the way the game is played today it is mandatory to build a pitching staff from back to front. Having a good closer is worthless if you can’t reach the ninth inning with a lead. Usually teams can fill the rest of the pen from within the organization but not the Angels. The offseason priorities have to start with the bullpen, an all around good to great SS, at least two mid-rotation starters and a much better quality bench. This is a tall task for Minasian, he either produces or he needs to go.

As far as the offense goes everyone can cut down on the Strikeouts. Put the ball in play and good things can happen, absolutely nothing good comes from a strikeout. Conversely, the pitchers need to be much more aggressive in the strike zone. They constantly either pitch from behind the count or get ahead of the count and then try to nibble. I lay some of this on Matt Wise, who is responsible for his pitchers’ approach to the at bats. He is also responsible for instilling confidence in his pitchers. Minasian should have replaced Wise at the same time that he relieved Maddon of his duties.

I think this list represents the Angels need for Batting practice pitchers and catchers. This list is like the one that the Cleveland Indians invited to Spring training in Major League. Who are these f’ing guys?

Villar turned down 6.5 miillion from the Jays which is too much for Arte to spend when he has three guys on either the minimum or in Wade’s case maybe 1.5 million. Bottom line, Arte isn’t interested in winning, if he was he wouldn’t keep the payroll at the same level for years. He certainly won’t go near 210 million, since he opposed the increase in the CBT. There are so many things that need to go right for this team to win 90 games.

Next season for the changes to the game.

Detroit might be a stretch. They have better starting pitching and have a strong system. It really depends on how many games are actually played. With a shortened season of around 120 games, the six man rotation would work against the Angels. Also, it depends on if Oakland decides to unload their starting pitching.

If Ohtani were to be traded, how would the Angels come up with a price? The cost should be astronomical in prospect capital. How many teams can afford to pay the 400-500 million it would take to sign him to a long term contract? Then it would take a combo of top quality prospects and no payroll limit. IF Ohtani stays healthy and the Angels decide to re-sign him, I would hope that they front load the contract and not go over five years and 250 million. The club will be hamstrung by the big three contracts and a system that isn’t producing at a high enough level to fill the other positions. It is always nice to have Superstars but I wiuld much rather have Tampa Bays organization, where there are high end players throughout the system.

Bad analogy since Soto was an international signing. I ‘m puzzled why we didn’t draft DeGrom.

No thanks. Canning, even when healthy had trouble with allowing the HR. He needs to work on his command. He needs to work ahead in the count to be successful which has been a problem in the past. I will always support a fellow Bruin so I wish him the best.

Howie Kendrick and to some respect, Jim Edmunds. Tim Salmon and Garret Anderson.

He was highly skilled at using PEDs at the same time as Eric Gagne.

How about as a roving Minor League hitting instructor. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to teach launch angle but he was the master of top spin ground balls through the infield or hitting against the shift.

The Las Vegas Craps

There are a lot of calories in a Bearclaw!

My first game was at the Polo grounds in 1961, Giants vs. Mets. The highlight was a homer by Willy Mays that hit off the facade of the roof in left center. The ball was still rising when it hit the facade. The Giants won the game 7-1.

The Angels don’t have money to pay for pitching but they can afford Bryant? Why would you trade Walsh? It has been a long time since the Angels have had a legitimate 1B with power and average, drives in runs and plays GG caliber defense. I would take Walsh with his five years of control over Bryant any day. Bryant hasn’t been that impactful in his career. I pass.