AngelsSurfer

You think being down 5-0 with bases loaded and no outs with this offense is salvageable?

Every now and then they have made that  sort of deficit up, even with this sorry offense, and a better pitcher might have been able to get out of that mess without giving up 5 additional runs.

At the very least a final score of say 6-0 would have been less embarrassing than the 10+ - 0 it's going to be.

They haven't given him a *chance* to play consistently. Every time they've brought him up from SLC they've sent him out for like two innings before sending him back down. They gave Feather, with his .115 or whatever average, more playing time. Considering that they gave Matt Joyce four months when he basically was staring into space in the outfield and doing nothing at the plate,  they could give someone like Green some actual time out there to see what he can do.

And he would have gotten a much needed out in this game just now if Cowart hadn't fumbled that catch.

It's amazing just how bad Bedrosian is. I thought he would be a staple in the pen last season when he was dominating in the minors last year.

It's amazing they would even send him out there before some of the others in the pen, as well. When he came into the game it might have actually been salveagable. Not now.

5 runs in 15 pitches. Well done, Bedrosian. Yes, I know some were charged to Heaney. Still...

I am not bothered by the nets.  Heck nets are in front of the most expensive seats in the stadium.  

 

As a safety precaution, it's not a bad idea.  In some stadiums, even if you have a glove, you might not even be able to react to it fast enough.  Like Boston and Chicago.  And before people get all macho and say no way.  I've seen a good group of AW.com people play softball, they wouldn't be able to react to some of the bullets.  Although the quality of players has gotten pretty good lately at summer fanfest.  

 

Also, when a shattered bat is heading towards you, it's not an easy task to grab/block it.  

Great points, especially about the shattered bats. A glove won't do a bloody thing to block that.

Spectators are just that -- spectators. They don't have the reflexes or skill that the players have, so expecting them to bring gloves and field foul balls in the stands to avoid getting hit is ridiculous anyway, IMHO. Yes, people should pay attention and should not be on their phones, but even if you're paying attention to every single pitch you can still get hit.

Plus, when the players are trying to field, they don't have 50 people crushed around them also trying to field, or rows of seats blocking them from moving in all directions.

Yes, you need to be vigilant when you're attending a game, but what the players said here is correct: those baseballs move so quickly that most people don't have time to react. It's often hard to see exactly where the ball is. Not to mention that if everyone's jostling to try to catch the ball, there's often nowhere for a person to move to get out of the way.

They've had a number of very serious injuries this year, so I think it is only a matter of time before this happens. And if even the players are advocating for it, I think it needs to happen. They don't want to wait until there's a casualty, the way there was in NHL hockey.

I've sat behind the nets they already have. It's honestly not a big deal. The only thing that I think would be a bummer with it would be that it would become impossible for fans to get autographs at the dugouts.

I haven't understood why the organization thinks Featherston is an answer to anything. He is not good defensively, obviously completely overmatched offensively and is an average runner at best. You can find a plethora of guys like him in the minors. Why waste a roster spot for a AAA utility guy.

I have to agree with this. There's nothing Featherston has shown that would justify giving up a MLB roster spot for him, much less playing him so often.

To expand on that, Robertson can play all 3 OF positions better and actually can hit for a decent average, while DeJesus is only here because he is a lefty.

Yep. He's been good defensively, and he was hitting .288. In fact he was hitting something like .364 in the last seven games before they sent him back down. It's weird that he was sent down again and that he gets dismissed so quickly.

So when a dumbass, drunk red sox fan says:" oh yeah, win a World Series you losers!!!", do you respond with: " excuse me,sir, but the Angels have indeed won a World Series"?

Or do you say:"you braindead drunkass, we have won one" ?

Neither. I'd say "they did win one, dumbass."

I personally always try to say "they" because I'm not on the team. I'm a team supporter and a part of the Angels' fan community but that's just not the same. I don't care what anyone else says one way or the other, though. It's not my business to police or judge people's choice of pronoun. I say what's comfortable to me personally and I'd expect that others do the same for themselves.

I can't fault a guy for not wanting to pitch when the act of pitching is causing him significant physical pain.  And I could see the 'suck it up' attitude if he was our best option.  I'm honestly not seeing either.  Let him get the surgery, get as healthy as he can and see if he can contribute from the pen next year maybe.  Never know - he might become a decent 7th inning option for us in 2016.  

 

And I wouldn't mind if he decided to develop a knuckler.  

 

As for the money, Arte's on the hook either way, and his trade value is about the same as Matt Joyce's right now.  So that money's really already spent.  Only thing you can do going forward, in any of these situations, is to do the best you can with what you're holding.  Concentrating on the dollar amount of the contract just leaves you open for the sunk cost fallacy.

This. If he's too injured or in too much pain to pitch, it's smartest for him to sit out and do what he needs to do to recover. If he gets help now perhaps he will be able to come back and be effective out of the pen in 2016. If he ignores it he will probably continue to pitch erratically and might do irreversible damage. As for the second opinion? Since some seem to be skeptical about the extent of his injury, it's a great idea.

Isn't Skaggs on track to return in Sept?

Nope. Skaggs apparently wants to pitch this year and the Angels management has stood firm on the original recovery plan, which is to get him back in 2016. According to this Fletcher article they've said that if he pitches anywhere in 2015 it will only be Instructional League. Smart of the Angels not to rush him, IMHO.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/john-668003-tyler-pitch.html

Gotta love Vin Scully for laying it all out there:

Calhoun and Trout = 5 for 6 tonight.

The other Angels = 0 for 18 as of the 7th.

Calhoun's defense is exemplary. He's saved quite a few runs for the team with those diving catches. For that alone, aside from his hitting, he's core. And he and Trout work extremely well together in the OF. 

As for Richards, he's only been back in the lineup for three months after a very serious injury, and he's still managed to put up a decent ERA and work deep into games. He'll get there.

A team is never the same when a key player is out, but they scored 5 runs tonight. If the pitching staff hadn't completely melted down that could have been enough to win. They had the lead at several points in the game.

As others have said -- as much as I wish that Joyce had been DFA'd weels ago and that Sosh would stop playing him, I'd never wish a head injury on anyone or be happy about that. They said in the OC Register article that he was only able to answer half of the concussion assessment questions correctly and he did get knocked out for a second there, so it sounds like a head injury that they're going to have to watch.

Joyce has had some very silly collisions in the OF before with Trout, but Aybar has done some completely boneheaded stuff too. Regardless of whose fault it was, it was a pretty nasty collision and they're perhaps very fortunate that there weren't worse injuries.

Robertson is batting .274 and he's made some pretty nice defensive plays. He doesn't suck. IMHO they should just start him over Joyce all the time.

I agree with this. Even if you're paying attention, a deflected ball is not easy to react to and can hurt just as bad.

And to add to this, there's so much of a commotion when a ball is coming into the area that even if you're trying to dodge or get out of the way, it might not be possible with all the people around you.

If they're not putting up netting, maybe they should at least consider keeping small children out of the sections that typically get the most balls and bats. Even if you're the most vigilant parent in the world, little kids can get antsy at long baseball games and it's way too easy to lose your focus on the game when you're trying to handle them,.

To be fair, given some of the injuries that have happened in the past years  -- like the woman at Fenway Park who was hit with the bat and was really hurt by it, and now the second person who was hospitalized after getting hit at Fenway -- netting might be expanded sooner or later WITHOUT a lawsuit. There's been talk of that all along. I'm not commenting on how I feel about the netting personally; I'm just saying that it seems to be something that's being considered completely outside of this lawsuit.

As to this particular lawsuit, I'm not sure how she feels threatened if she hasn't been hit. She can always choose to sit elsewhere.

His line is going to be, "Ow. I think I just pulled my hamstring again. Or maybe my quad. I need to go back on the DL for another month."

I believe that the ball boy in right field has a slight disability which may explain his weight. I think that it is great that the Angels are giving him a chance to be a part of the team.

I agree. Plus, if you watch him when he's throwing between innings, he's actually really got a good arm. His throws are way more controlled than Featherston's are.

I don't see the issue with having adult ball and bat boys.Since the Angels keep asking the same employees to return every year, they obviously value their contributions and feel they're the best for the team. Perhaps it's nobody's concern how old they are.

Well, if someone hadn't felt the need to make an unfounded, judgmental observation based on someone's perceived religion, it wouldn't have come up.

Dipoto should apologize for having feather on the roster

He really should. It's eating a roster spot that could actually really help the team right now and Feather keeps doing stupid shit.

And we know she's Jewish because......?

This. And what, is the implication that if she does happen to be Jewish she wasn't nice to Oberholtzer because he has a German name? Stupidest thing ever. Especially since a fair number of Jews in NYC ARE of German heritage and are very proud of that.

Actually, anybody know when Cowgill is set to return? Dude can't hit either but at least he can play defense. Whenever Cowgill returns is when Joyce likely gets DFA....unless he goes on a tear but lol at that

According to this, he's actually supposed to start hitting today, after suffering a setback in mid-June. It sounds as though it might be a little while yet, though. Totally agree that defensively at least Cowgill's better.

http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasybaseball/update/25222209/angels-collin-cowgill-to-begin-hitting-again-on-wednesday

Double post