AngelsFanSince86

f*** these umps

These umpires are absolutely terrible. Umps in general this year making a great case for replacing them with technology ASAP

yeah what a joke. At least they got him on the attempted steal

A while back before a decision was made on Hamilton's relapse when everyone was talking about his wife being on that reality show I had done a google search wondering if she was actually still participating in it. Turns out she quit a while back because everything needed to remain private while the league was deliberating, but Josh had never wanted her to join it to begin with. It was speculated this played a part in his relapse, but who really knows? Both of them clearly have their issues. I wouldn't doubt if it was mutual. Josh hasn't exactly been a saint. At the end of the day, it is their business though. We all get this information because their lives are plastered everywhere. I didn't like Josh much before he was an Angel because he always seemed to be full of excuses and rarely in control. I guess I looked down on him, which is easy to do when the guy makes tons of money and you only know what you read. I was hoping that he would be suspended because as an Angels fan I feel he is toxic to the team. I still do not want him coming back to the Angels, but I do feel for him that he is going through all of this. I have really tried to stay out of any Hamilton related articles and threads. I have enough problems and enough people I love that have their own problems to be spending my time with this. It sucks I even know so much about Hamilton's personal life at this point. I hope the best for everyone in that family, particularly their children. But right now I just want to think about baseball.

I understand the sentiment because the beginning of the season is really anticipated, but how often have we seen teams that start out hot just flame out and do terrible the rest of the season? The Angels started out terrible last season and won 98 games. Give it some time.

Definitely depends on the situation. Having Giavotella bunt made sense. You move the guy on second over so that you bring up the more proven hitter to get the sac fly. The team needs to be able to manufacture runs because they won't always be up 4-0 against a struggling pitcher. Scioscia needs to see who is capable of coming through in those times. That being said, Scioscia is not so great at always knowing when that time is.

It just sucks that one of those pitches he didn't call for the Angels was in the most crucial part of the game. Turned a called 3rd strike (which was not only in an area he'd been calling the 2 innings prior for Felix, but was actually in the zone) that should have ended the inning into 2 runs. Sure, some of thats still on Weaver, but he should have never been in the situation to begin with. Either way they most likely would have lost because regardless of the ump Felix was on point.

Hard to put all the blame on Weaver. 2 of those runs came after what should have been a called third strike, then Ianetta and Joyce combined to let that last run score.

Such BS, that second to last picth has been called a strike for Felix like 6 times already. Should have been strike 3.

792

HR-none DP-2

I hope he never gets another second of playing time. I personally will not attend any Angels games that he's slated to start. I could never stand the guy. I hated the signing from the get go even when I thought he was going to kill it for us. Just don't like cheering for players I have zero respect for regardless of their production. After his comments after the postseason and now this I just won't support a team that continues to field him. I'm hoping by the comments the FO has made that they are on the same page.

Yeah Alice Coopers town is pretty cool (owned by him and Randy Johnson). Pizza Bianco is really good, but pretty small. Really there are a lot of really good pizza places there. We went to Canyon Cafe while there. They had great tacos (I suggest the Chicken, the pork was a bit dry but still good), great chips and salsa, and good margaritas and the setting is really nice. Lots of trees, lights and a fountains next to the outdoor seating area. Edit: I also read about walking up the Butte to the hotel that is up there after the game and grabbing some drinks while waiting for traffic to die down. Its supposed to have some decent views. I was with my parents and they didn't want to make the trek up there so I can't speak to it myself.

KC beat us because our whole offense slumped. That happens to even well rounded offenses. KC won because they played the best baseball they played all year. If thats how they played all year then they would have won their division and over 90 games. The first two games neither offense stepped up much. The games went into extras tied 1-1 and 2-2. The Angels would have won at least one of those if it weren't for incredibly lucky plays they made on defense, specifically Aoki throwing out his glove and making the best play of his life. That 9th hitter you are talking about, Mike Moustakas, is a career .236/.290/.379 guy and last year hit .212/.271/.361...what about that is impressive? And what about that says he came through during the regular season when others didn't? Must be their 14th ranked offense last year. Every single one of our guys that played at least 100 games last year hit over .250/.320/.380 and that is while playing half their games in a pitchers park. Not trying to gang up on you here, but your logic is very flawed.

The only teams that wouldn't be strongly effected by losing their best offensive player are teams that already have crappy offenses. Even if you subtract 100 runs straight up from the Angels total last year they still rank 10th. Ianetta's OBP was tied for tops amongst Catchers with Lucroy. Aybar is always solid for a SS and is consistently a top 10 producer at the position. Freese was stepping it up towards the end of the season and hopefully that carries over. Joyce/Cowgill should easily replace any production they got from LF last year. Cron looks great this spring and is pretty much a guarantee to demolish the production we got from the DH spot last year. I think its safe to say this is one of the more well rounded offenses in the league. Edit: Angels LF production in 162 games and 610 PA last year: .234/.293/.336 with 66 RBI, 71 R, 12 HR. Matt Joyce's production in 140 games and 493 PA last year: .254/.349/.383 with 52 RBI, 51 R, 9 HR And that is while being part of a lineup that ranked 27th in runs scored last year. He will certainly have more opportunities to hit guys in and be hit in himself.

They seem to be pretty high on Giavotella. This is the second day in a row they have started him at 2B and left him there for the whole game.

Was that the one where they went down like 5-1 by the 3rd or 4th inning and then came back to win? I went to that game when I was 15. My parents got me a few tickets for my birthday which was a few days before. They already had better tickets and my friends and I were sitting right next to the old bullpen in right field. I remember being so bummed because things went wrong so quickly. It ended up being the best game I had ever been to or seen.

Agreed. Thats why its nice that someone like Rucinski is showing promise. It would suck to not have Heaney starting due to what was given up for him, but having the depth to cover that is great.

I think Rucinski may snag the #5 spot. Heaney has not impressed at all, Dipoto has said he likes Rucinski, and I think its likely they go with the hot hand and bring Heaney in later in the season if/when Rucinski struggles.

This was great, thanks for posting for those of us who weren't there.

Based on what? He led his respective leagues in hits the past 2 years and so far this spring training is hitting .267 with a .389 OBP. He has zero power, but he can definitely hit. Not sure why you think otherwise.

I just looked at Young's home/away splits from last season and your right. Didn't realize it was so drastic. So it is possible Happ will at least replace his production. But on the rest where am I inaccurate? How is it not a huge question mark that half of their rotation and all of their depth have not started more then 13 games in a season? Paxton injured his shoulder last year and then his forearms this spring training. The forearms thing wasn't that bad, but I'm always weary of guys who injure themselves like that. Walker has dealt a lot with shoulder problems. Really that isn't the biggest part of the question so much as the fact they haven't pitched very much at the major league level. And how is it not a huge question mark for a 34 year old dude with over 2000 innings pitched in his career? You would know a lot more then I so I am honestly asking.

Yeah the Mariners have a lot of great talent in their rotation, but there are a lot of questions surrounding it. First, Young was one of their better pitchers (in terms of quality and duration) last season and he is gone. Happ has only had one solid year in his career and that was many years ago. Paxton looked great, but hasn't pitched more then 75 innings. Walker the same, but only 38 innings. Both have had injury issues in the past. Elias looks like he could be pretty solid and pitched enough to look like the real deal. Still, it is only one season. Ramirez, outside of 60 innings in 2012, hasn't looked good in his time in the big leagues and also hasn't pitched more then 75 innings in a season. Essentially most of their guys are unproven and we all know injuries can bite hard when guys try to go a whole year for the first time. Then there is Iwakuma. The guy is 34 years old. He pitched over 1500 innings in Japan before coming here. He now has over 2000 career innings in his professional career. We have seen what happened to Tanaka and Darvish. He may beat the odds, but his health is a huge question mark. They have great depth to overcome some adversity, but this is a lot of potential adversity. The Angels also have question marks in their rotation, but I don't think they have quite as many. They definitely have more experience. Not saying the Angels have better potential. More like a lower potential for things to go wrong. They also have a better offense. They might have lost Howie and the Mariners might have added Cruz, but something tells me that isn't going to make up the 140 run difference between their offenses from last year...

I kind of know how you feel. I really enjoy watching the Giants. I moved up to the bay area for college 8 years ago. Most of my friends up here are Giants fans and as a result I have spent many a night at bars watching Giants games. Then the 2010 WS happened. The energy in the city was amazing. Something you didn't really get in 2002 because OC is so spread out. People were hanging out their windows shouting chants for the Giants, police were sounding their sirens to the chants, and it seemed everyone in the city came out to celebrate. Obviously I was personally much much more excited about 2002, but this experience was great. I have since found a spot for them in my heart and have a few Giants shirts and attend a game once or twice a year (their park is also a great one). Their organization and their players are just likable. However, I am an Angels fan through and through. Despite the fact I do like the Giants, I have no problem doing a bit of smack talking on their fans. I didn't even watch much of them in the playoffs last year because I was so bummed about the Angels early departure. Even though I go to a couple Giants games a year I go to even more Angels games at the Coliseum when they play the A's. And there is only one team I would want to win when the two play each other. Hypothetically, if the Angels and Cubs met in the World Series, who would you want to win?

This has always been my argument for why his high strikeout rate isn't as alarming as some make it out to be. Last year was a little too high though and he does need to be a bit more aggressive to keep pitchers from adapting too much. However, it is his patient approach that allows him to be so successful. He doesn't swing at a pitchers pitch, but instead waits for his pitch. He contributes to wearing down the pitcher and allowing his teammates to see a lot of pitches. On top of that despite striking out so much he has one of the top OBP in the league. He also is consistently one of the top players in sacrifice hits. Meaning when he needs to just make contact he does. I think he needs to work on his strikeouts, but he will always be a high strikeout guy and I don't think thats necessarily a bad thing.