Inside Pitch

On a good day. .... maybe

Hopefully it's something along the lines of -- I bet Tahiti is a nice place to be around this time of year -- maybe, Ill go there next year....

The Angels have been one of the most unclutch teams in MLB... Check this article out -- it's about the Ms being totally clutch, but the graphs do a good job of showing how the Angels have failed there... https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-mariners-are-trying-to-be-the-clutchiest-team-on-record/

The real Fact #1 is that I never advocated trading for Hand.... I'm one of the very few people on this board that felt the Angels would miss the playoffs going into the season. I've been about 2019 since 2017.... This is priceless coming from the guy who took my pointing out his errors to mean I was advocating trading for Hand. You don't read gud, dood.

Listen, Genius.... At no point have I lobbied to make trades, much less for Hand -- you're basically stroking yourself off with every post arguing with the voices in your head. I called you out for ignorantly using his raw career ERA (which included his career as a SP), in your efforts to discredit Hand and your incorrectly arguing that Petco was the best pitcher's park in MLB. ERA as a whole is a bad measure for RPs, raw ERA is even worse. I didn't think a person could get dumber but then you doubled down and used pitcher W/L to again talk down Hand. I was 100% correct in making those statements. You're just too full of yourself to actually pay attention to what's been said partially because you're too eager to pop off with some other self aggrandizing triipe where you think you're educating others on things you clearly aren't that familiar with in the first place. Hope that clears up our positions on things... ERA has never been predictive, never will be. It's a measure of past events completely devoid of context which is why someone would be ignorant to compare the ERAs of Bedrosian and Hand then call them equals.

Meh -- I wasn't really arguing your expectations were high, I worded that poorly..... I think we all think Marsh is capable of blowing up (Jones too). Mostly I was just trying to point out that Marsh and Jones are still very young and in Marsh's case, very inexperienced. The counting stats aren't there, and we aren't seeing the power manifest itself yet, but there are definitely positives even if the numbers don't jump out at you. There is reason for hope in the predictive data for both guys -- http://www.statcorner.com/bat/663330/Jahmai-Jones http://www.statcorner.com/bat/669016/Brandon-Marsh My biggest concern with Marsh is the elevated K rate but, when you look at his rates .vs the league average he's not doing poorly. When you factor in he's more than two years younger than the league average those numbers are a lot less ugly. Anyway... not to belabor the point but in his first year of full season ball he made a two level jump. If he were to repeat that performance next season we would be talking about a 21 year old in only his second year of full season ball in AA.

Do you ever get tired of tilting at windmills? You do this martyr routine in every thread where someone disagrees with you. Don't look now but the people wanting the team to make trades to save this year seem to outnumber those who don't -- your's is not the dissenting opinion, Snowflake. Are you gonna fall back on the "being attacked" dramatics now?

Comedy gold isn't it? I respond to what he brought up and then he chides me for talking about 20 years ago.

Considering you gave no examples, made up a narrative about everyone talking about Houston/Chicago and basically just blathered on with the same tired opinions, I felt talking facts and discussing what's actually happened might add some perspective to things. To each his own. Should I type LOL now?

As you have pointed out - the Angels greatest failing post Stoneman has been the lack of organizational currency. This team is only now getting close to being where it was in 2007-8 depth wise. It's a good topic and there are definitely two different mindsets of how to move forward, but I do hope whatever they do they don't set themselves back to try to improve their short term desires.

And both these scenarios fail to consider the value the team got out of keeping their players. Salmon, Glaus, Molina, Shields, Erstad, Glaus, Edmonds, Anderson, Napoli, K-Rod, Kendrick, Aybar, Morales, Lackey, Weaver, Washburn, Percival, Trout were all home grown talents that essentially made for the core of the team for almost two decades. How many of those guys were over-valued? Is everyone really talking about the Hou/Chi model? I ask because is there anyone that actually believes the Angels are following that model?? But since you bring it up... look at the names I mentioned above. All of two of them were top 10 picks -- Glaus and Erstad. Tim Salmon was a 3rd rounder. Anderson a 4th. Edmonds 7th. Kendrick a 10th, Napoli 17th round, Molina went undrafted out of college. Washburn was a 2nd rounder. Lackey was a 2nd rounder. Shields 28th round. Percy 6th. Trout 1st round (26th), Weaver 1st (12th. The bulk of the Angels golden era came from players taken outside of the top 10. The strength of the system was it's depth -- when first rounders like Kotchman, Wood, Mathis, failed to live up their draft status the guys picked behind them were able to fill those roles. Forest for the trees time.. How much better would the Angels be right now with Major league average performances from 1B, 2B, 3B, RF, and the bullpen? Players don't have to be superstars to be quality MLB players. I'm sure there are people here that are overvaluing our farm system, but let's not pretend everyone is delusional - there are many who are smart enough to understand that due to attrition, simply getting four MLB average players out of the top 20 would be considered a win for the farm system. If one of them ends up being an all star level player it's a massive win.

Marsh and Jones are both in their age 20 season, they are both 2.3 years below the league average age -- Marsh is in his FIRST season of full season baseball, Jones his second. Instead talking about them having under-performed expectations maybe you should temper yours a bit or maybe consider the name mentioned in the M's write-up - Kyle Lewis. Like Jones and Marsh, he's a top 100 prospect, like the Angels duo he's in High A, only he's 22 and was taken out of college and in the first round. Both these guys could repeat high-A next year and still be younger than Lewis currently is. Let's not "Future batting champion" them while still in high A and at 20.

I'm not one that sees Hand as the answer to everything hurting this team but you're offbase with with a few things. Petco isn't close to the most pitcher friendly park in MLB, not since they redid the OF dimensions and certainly not in any of the three years he's been a Padre. His first year in SD, Petco ranked 12th in most runs scored, this year it ranks as the 5th best. Also pointing to his ERA ignores that prior to becoming a Padre he was still being used as a SP -- which he proved he couldn't handle. The move to the pen saw his K/9 rate double... that alone essentially changed who he was and none of which could be attributed to any park effects even if there had been any (there aren't). He's a world better than his career ERA and any argument that starts with raw ERA is blind to facts.

This is a good topic that will likely continue to be a conversation as the farm continues improving. I understand the point you're making but Bourjos is a poor example of someone that was held on to given he was traded along with an actual prospect for a mediocre 3Bman and Fernando Salas (Grichuk) -- it's also worth pointing out that part of the reason they moved him was a dude named Josh Hamilton. It's hard to argue they wouldn't have been better off keeping PB and never having wasted their time with Hamilton. More on topic... the hoarding you speak of meant that when Wood flamed out, Erick Aybar was still there -- it also meant they had Alexi Amarista, Alexi Casilla, and Alberto Callaspo, all of whom were traded away to try to help the MLB team. They kept two and traded away three of what had been 5 Shortstops in the system. Like Bourjos, Kotchman was actually traded in a go for it now deal -- but again, the hoarding meant that Trumbo and Morales were both in place when they came up empty in 09 and Teixeira went to NYC that winter. Todd Greene was a long time ago and it's hard to argue with the success of that generation of Angels prospects -- Salmon, Edmonds, Anderson, Glaus, Erstad.... If Greene is an example of a missed opportunity then the others all serve as examples of why building from with within should be the ultimate goal.... IMO... based on what we have seen, I doubt Eppler is against using his farm to upgrade the major league roster. We have seen him spend prospect currency in both the Simmons and Upton deals, less so in the Kinsler trade. My frustration is less about them not making trades than it is about them failing to jettison certain players in favor of those guys that could possibly help.

At least you didn't have to spell it...

Precisely.... If you're playing for the Angels you're living in one of the surrounding areas... All of which will come in above Anaheim.

No shit..... I said as much Sherlock, but the reality is that Millville while home for him is far from being the idyllic Mayberry USA that some might think. The post wasn't about shedding light on the place to Mike Trout but rather to people here who may not be familiar with South New Jersey.

Which is IMO a commitment to winning. Neither Canning nor Suarez should be pushed IP wise this year -- bringing them up to have to sit them down when the team would need them most would be dumb IMO. Not saying you're calling for that, but I think this may be what they are thinking and why they are holding off on bringing either of them up. Were the team in a better position than they currently are they might see it differently, but I think as this team has been hit with stuff the focus has shifted towards the future (as you are saying). As someone that was looking at 2019 as the true target, I'm okay with it.

Best take I've gotten from a source outside the org.. "he needs another horse to race against". Basically -- he needs someone else's success to create some in house competition for him. Early guess is that Jeremiah Jackson may be that guy.

Ditto -- he's the big miss but, another chance to grab him next year. Been looking at how other teams spent their money -- pretty interesting differences from team to team. The biggest takeaway is that when Billy said every penny would be used -- he wasn't kidding.

Pretty happy with how they did on the signings -- first 21 picks all signed, 27 of the top 30. Not bad at all.

I've heard the whole, he's a bad practice player attached to him from solid sources. I think maybe we are seeing some of that.

Third base is calling....

Millville is kind of a dump... Check this out... https://www.areavibes.com/millville-nj/crime/ F grades for Crime, Education, Employment, Housing is a D+... It's a go nowhere town with nothing to do. There is no denying he grew up there and it's home but the area itself is pretty shitty and Philly is even worse. Punch in the info for Anaheim and it's not really close... Crime in Millville is a bigger issue than in Anaheim and we both know that if he was going to raise kids, he'd likely pick one of the surrounding communities. The overall crime rate in Millville is 142% higher than the national average. For every 100,000 people, there are 18.83 daily crimes that occur in Millville. Millville is safer than 5% of the cities in the United States. In Millville you have a 1 in 15 chance of becoming a victim of any crime. The number of total year over year crimes in Millville has decreased by 9%. .vs Anaheim... The overall crime rate in Anaheim is 8% higher than the national average. For every 100,000 people, there are 8.39 daily crimes that occur in Anaheim. Anaheim is safer than 32% of the cities in the United States. In Anaheim you have a 1 in 33 chance of becoming a victim of any crime. The number of total year over year crimes in Anaheim has decreased by 5%.