hen3ry

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Now we have no Iannetta, no Joyce, and... well, still some dead weight, but none that's really avoidable. By all rights, it should be a good night. So we'll probably get no-hit.

Calhoun 4

Calhoun 3

Perez XB - 3

Time to bench Pere.... nevermind. Can't say it with a straight face.

It's not really defending Butera. Its more remarking on the irony that the 'punishment' for Iannetta's historically inept year so far (he makes Joyce et al look like Babe Ruth in comparison) is that Butera gets demoted. It's rather like the old whipping boys. One simply does not strike the Prince, so one must instead strike his playmate.

How can Pujols contract be the worst in MLB when Hamilton's contract still exists? How can Joyce be the worst player in MLB when Iannetta's still on the roster? The problem isn't that we have (or in Ham's case, had) the worst of the worst. The problem is we ALSO have the second worst. A team can survive suckage - but only in moderation. There are two reasons to fire a manager; 1) The manager truly is mismanaging. 2) You can't fire the players. Both apply at this point, but it's more the second than the first.

And in honor of Cinco de Mayo, several Angels hitters will also go for Golden Sombreros.

NONE XB-1

NONE XB-1

Yes, because the 67 PAs are this season - what's on his mind currently. The past only tells me what his physical talents are. There's different kinds of slumps. I'd not be worried if he was in a slump where he was hitting balls right at defenders hard. That'd be a bad luck slump, everyone occasionally lines out to the third baseman or hits a warning track fly ball - running a bunch of em in a row is a slump, but it's not a drop off of skill, and usually isn't a mental block (although it can become one). There's also the skill dropoff, where a guy getting older has lost a step, lost a little something in the wrist, and his home runs are turning into long fly outs, striking out on pitches he used to foul off, etc. That's Joyce perhaps - and it's concerning, but a veteran can adjust to it, at least to a certain extent, and still be productive, if not as awesome as he once was (that's Pujols). And there's the "the pitchers have figured him out" slump, when a hitter's weak point becomes exposed and regularly exploited. What we're seeing on the field with Iannetta, however, isn't that. He's flailing out there, like a guy in the ocean who's forgotten he knows how to swim. Something is seriously wrong - he's either in serious physical pain that we're not being told about (in which case, go on the DL, get it taken care of, he's not doing any good trying to tough it out here), or he has a serious mental block. We're talking Brandon Wood territory here (and Iannetta never had BWood's physical talent in the first place!) He isn't, skillwise, an OPS .297 guy. The comparison to history was to slow just how bad that number really is. If he can't figure it out, his career is over. Sosh is going to give him more chances to work it out than most other managers will (to our collective frustration), but eventually you have to release a guy if doesn't show any signs of ever getting it going.

Let's put that .297 in perspective. Arguably the worst MLB non-pitcher at the plate was Bill Bergen. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bergebi01.shtml (Appropriately, he was also a catcher) 11 seasons, 3228 at bats in his career, and a lifetime batting average of .170, and an OBP of .194. He's the only Major Leaguer to get more than 500 career at bats and have a sub-200 career on base percentage. And in all that time, he managed a mere 2 home runs (admittedly, in the dead ball era). His career OPS? .395. About 100 points higher than Iannetta's so far this season. The five worst season OPS for non-pitchers who had enough at bats to qualify for the batting title (or the not-batting title in this case) were .319, .359 (both Bergen), then .367, .392, and .400. The good news for Iannetta, if it could be put that way, is that he has little chance to actually set the futility record - because he won't get that many at bats if he doesn't figure it out. If he's still struggling to crack a .350 OPS by the all star break, I can't imagine him not being given his unconditional release at that point.

That is... That is SO Angels baseball right there. Sigh.

.. are you kidding me?

Nice hit Freese, but now the black hole is up

I dunno where they stay, but since they're playing the Gnats this weekend, I actually get to hear the games. F'in Fresno...

No, we just sent him to Texa... oh, wait.

Why Las Vegas? The future is expanding to international markets. The Bogota Angels has a nice ring to it.

Well, it's all circuses and vomitoriums from here guys.

I honestly don't get what's wrong with predicting that Hamilton will die prematurely because of his drug habit. That's all he did there - predict. That's not "wishing harm." It's predicting it as the inevitable consequences of being an addict who is enabled at every step. The only wish was that when Hamilton does kill himself, he doesn't take any innocent lives with him.

If he ever makes it back to the majors, on his first visit to Anaheim I'll be disappointed if there aren't at least a few bags of white powder tossed onto the field. (baking powder is fine. I know real blow is expensive)

I'm not QM, but here's mine; Giavotella 2b Trout cf Calhoun rf Freese 3b Pujols 1b Cron dh Aybar ss iannetta/Butera/someone from AAA/we're screwed here anyway c Green lf Flip Green and Giavotella depending on who's hot. We don't have a prototypical leadoff hitter on the roster, but that's ok.

Joyce is in danger of falling below the Iannetta Line. Especially since Sosh will keep trotting him out there.

At this point let Hector Santiago hit for himself. He can't do worse than Joyce or Iannetta.