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Wrong. .194/.306/.419 which still sucked but the point was that he did come up big in a big game. How did Figgins do in the playoffs (bat and glove)? Nice 21 at-bat sample with Mathis. Why are you so grouchy? Go change your depends.

In 2008 he was. The Angels had lost 11 straight playoff games to those Boston MFs going back to '86. It didn't even seem possible to win a game against them, let alone a series. In game 3 Napoli hit two homeruns over the monster off of Beckett and then scored the winning run in the 12th to finally break the streak. In the previous game he was benched by Dear Leader so that Mathis could hold Santana's hand (Santana was bombed anyway). The Angels lost the series anyway and wouldn't get the monkey off their backs until '09 but it seemed like a very big game at the time. Sucks to see him helping two of our most hated teams the last few years.

I commend those that have been able to reframe the debate to require proof that Butcher and Scioscia are specifically to blame before a coaching change is possible. Well done. Demand proof of an unproveable. You don't need proof. You just have to believe that one of their peers can do a better job. Teams make coaching and managerial changes all the time based upon a desire to improve. They aren't constrained by some absurd notion of having to prove unequivocally that the manager or coach is to blame. After four consecutive disappointing years the burden of proof should be on the coaches and manager to clearly demonstrate their value to the team.

Sleeping like a baby.

This will certainly be addressed by the players in the next CBA. It definitely costs borderline star players some money. On the Angels side, it definitely makes sense to offer a qualifying offer to Vargas. If he accepts then yeah, it's somewhat more expensive than he probably deserves on an annual basis, but the team avoids the large counterparty risk associated with long term contracts (WIN). If he goes elsewhere the team gets a compensation pick (WIN). The added benefit is that forcing opposing suitors to forfeit their 1st round draft pick serves to lower his price, so even if you do sign him to a long term contract his price will likely be lower than by not offering a qualifying offer (WIN). The negative scenarios are to lose Vargas with no compensation or to sign him to a long term contract t the highest possible price. Avoid those scenarios for a change.

Even in '11 the Angels had the most blown saves in the league (toronto had a slightly worse save%). ERA was fine but hardly a consolation when they can't close a freakin window.

WTF? Try harder.

Replays and live broadcast here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericasCup 50 mph on the water is fast.

Howie hits into double plays (15 this season) as a consequence of his high ground ball rate. He also almost never hits infield pop ups though. Just 14 total in his 8 year career. I can live with the DPs. Forcing your 2nd or 3rd best hitter to make an out to earn the privilege (if "successful") for the opposing manager to avoid the best player in the game only to setup a Hamilton Vs Lefty situation (.187/.213/.345) is indefensible and imbecilic.

Rob Picciolo had zero walks in his 87 game Angel career. Not even Disar could match that as much as he may have tried. Picciolo also accumulated a -3.4 fWAR over his career.

Ugh. What a nightmare. Why even employ a GM if you're not going to listen to him? Shadow GM and Arte-the-not-so-Smarte making all the decisions? I may owe Reagins an apology.

It wouldn't matter if he made all the right trades and free agent signings if the minor league system is in shambles. No GM is going to avoid all mistakes when playing on the free agent market. Friedman has been the best (by far) but even he signed Pat Burrell. Is Dipoto's methodology bad? Maybe. Blanton had a career high K rate last season while still having a very low walk rate. Was it bad reasoning that adding him to a pitcher's park (in a pitcher's division) and surrounding him with an excellent defense would suppress his hits allowed? If those trends had continued, Blanton would be a valuable #5 with acceptable production. Instead, Blanton and the defense took 3 steps back. Why did Blanton and the defense take 3 steps back? The Marmol attempted trade is harder to defend. That appeared to be wishful thinking at its worst, particularly with the track record of our pitching coach. I doubt even a competent coach could do anything with Marmol. The health of the minor league system is far more important than any "Shouldn't have signed..." or "Should have traded..." scenarios. I've argued against almost every free agent for a long time (yes, even the ones that worked like Hunter or would have worked like Beltre). You don't try to build your team via free agency. The exception is if you can get a star player in their 20's (damned rare) or you use free agency to add a complimentary piece to an already contending team. Too many times I've read about how Dipoto failed to fix the bullpen as if that is some easy task. I've posted the list of available free agent relief pitchers the last few years and it's been full of expensive, usually injured non-performers with a few rare exceptions. A good pen comes from an abundance of pitching talent in your minor league system and good instruction. We have neither. Failed starters work well. You won't fix this pen by signing a couple more broken down nags coming off of good years. If this team continues to emphasize pitching in the draft (as was the case in 2013) and improves instruction then the pen will no longer be a problem. An instant solution is not going to happen.

Butcher walked more batters than he struck out in half his seasons in the league. He's just teaching what he knows. Can we replace this clown before subjecting more young relief pitchers to his "guidance"? Or maybe we can continue to believe that every relief pitcher called up for several years is just completely unable to locate their pitches.

Just looked up Butcher's stats as a pitcher. Career 82 walks to 96 strikeouts. It's always good to have relief pitchers who walk everybody but can't get the strikeout. By itself it means nothing, but I think it's odd that an awful relief pitcher who didn't know how to pitch would be the teacher to a bunch of awful relief pitchers who also don't know how to pitch.

Almost angelic.

Wells comes off the books after next year and Hamilton comes off just before Trout would reach free agency. The Angels will have plenty of money to resign Trout as long as they don't find new giant piles of shit to step in.

It sounds like fun. I'd love to "smash those metal motherf--kers into junk"

Can Hanson hurry up to get to Trout's at-bat? The least he could do is suck quickly.

Does Hanson do everything slow?

That's already my nickname for Hamilton.

Forget about the Pujols and Hamilton mistakes. They are dead money. Any production we get from them going forward should be viewed as a bonus. Learn from those mistakes by not repeating them. Quit trying to buy a championship team. It doesn't often work. So we have to operate with a $50 million disadvantage for the next 4 years, a $30 million disadvantage for 4 more years after that. Is this team not capable of competing with an effective $110 million payroll? Tampa and Oakland are contenders with a ~$60M payroll. We still have a large advantage in payroll over those teams. We also have the advantage of having the best young player in the game. Invest in talent acquisition. If you don't have the best scouts then hire them. If you don't have a top presence in the Dominican then you do whatever it takes to build it. Everybody will remember the awful Wells trade, but the neglect of the DR development is the worst thing that that regime could have done. Did they really believe that they could allow every other team to pull serious talent from that region while ignoring it themselves and not pay for it? After you've acquired the talent you don't allow it to be squandered by inferior coaching. The development of pitching, especially at the major league level, has been miserable. Money used on draft and development is well spent. Had they sunk even the (now small looking) $40M they wasted on the GMJ contract into draft and development in 2007 this would be a very different team. It's tougher now with the new rules but still the best path for sustained success. They can turn it around but not if they continue to be stupid.

It was needed even when the lineup was full of regulars. This team has been a sloppy mess since spring training.

Scioscia should get an AYSO soccer trophy. He's trying. Everybody knows that Ianetta blows. Even Scioscia. The bigger problem than Ianetta is that all of our pitchers (except Weaver) are totally disinterested in slowing down the running game. Why is that? Maybe one of the reporters can ask Mr. "I know how good I am" about it.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year. Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery) Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery) Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery) So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either. Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)? Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch. This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Ellsbury had one year with 32 homeruns (2011) and has never even been in double digits in any other year.