Inside Pitch

Mike Scioscia saying "he's a little concerned" is pretty much equal to Paul Revere mounting a horse and taking flight to Lexington.

Dipoto is going to get a lot of praise for this and he should given he was able to exploit the Yankees' situation, but I do recall reading several articles where Arte was supposedly not willing to eat as much of the contract as others were wanting him to in order to make a trade. So, while Jerry will get most of the praise, I think Moreno deserves some of the props.

I hate when people use that line. It's not a little boys game played by men, it's a man's game played by little boys.. Baseball's history is pretty seedy, it's rife with corruption, racism, and all sorts of social issues little boys have no freaking clue about but that didn't keep dad's from trying to share the game with their children. The problem of course is that those little boys tend to grow up into opinionated fans that get really lippy on message boards while saying absolutely nothing. Doc and Chuck both nailed it.. There is thoughtful discussion and then there is the AM32 brand of agenda driven tripe that some try to inject into every thread. I personally don't care if people rip the team but it's really not much to ask people to engage their brains before hitting the post button. This bullpen is freaking frightening right now.

So the US lost the WBC, but because Tex was injured while at the WBC, the Yanks can take on 13 mil for Wells and thus the Angels win big? I have never loved the WBC more than right now....

He's been awful for us, but he's likely an upgrade over Juan Rivera, and that was the Yankees reality.

I agree the rub is losing the pick and that the Angels need to get their farm in order, but, I don't think the Halos have as much in common with the Yankees as you're painting it but (I may be reading you wrong), I do agree they are heading in the same direction unless to go back to investing in the farm system. Still, the current Angels team is largely made up of farm hands or acquired via the farm. Looking at our starting 9 position players and 7 of the spots in the lineup were either graduated from the farm (Aybar, Trout, Kendrick, Trumbo, Bourjos), or obtained using pieces from the farm (Ianetta, and Callaspo), one of which was a former farmhand. The pitching staff has a lot more purchased items but as a whole, the Angels only feature 6 players who were brought in as FA's; Pujols, Hamilton, Downs, Burnett, Wilson, Blanton. You could add Williams into that group but he's more of an example of someone who was picked up off the discard pile. Among position players only Pujols (33), and Hamilton (32), will play this season at older than their age 30 season (Ianetta, Kendrick, Callaspo), or under (Trout 21, Bourjos 26, Trumbo 27, Aybar 29). The Yankees by comparison have two players who will be 30 (Cano), or younger (Gardner at 29), in their starting 9. The Rangers noted for their being such an in house product have essentially the same number of FA's; Beltre, Darvish, AJ. Berkman, Frasor, Lowe, Nathan. Darvish was posted, but that doesn't change the fact he came with a 50 million posting fee (purchase), and then 50 Mil to sign. There is also Leonys Martin who went to the highest bidder as an International FA.. Age-wise, the Rangers starting 9 only has three players who enter their age 30 season (Andrus 24, Martin 25, and Moreland 27). Everyone else will be playing in their age 31 or older season. Their pitching staff on the other hand is much more youthful. The Angels as a whole seem to have a lot of guys right smack in the middle of their "traditional" primes (27-31), but they really do need to spend the next couple years getting the farm system turned around or they will in fact find themselves in the same situation the Yankees find themselves in come 2015. Cron, RG, and Cowart could go a long way's towards helping the farm system's position player ranks, but the lack of pitching needs to be addressed.

You guys may want to look at the ESPN Fantasy baseball.. Its a pretty clean process.

Pretty sure he was talking about the Rangers' players reaction to winning the game...

Same -- I didn't mind losing Lackey either, although, I didn't think he would crater the way he has.....

FWIW, the Rangers broadcast did a fairly good job of showing Rangers fans mobbing Hamilton for autographs before the game and cheering when we went yard. I'm sure many of the locals are upset with him, but that silence for Josh thing is sorta pathetic.. Not that I blame the guy for trying to capitalize on it and turn a buck.

Your promise is duly noted. You guys show Josh, you mean business.. you rascals! Also I thank you for pointing out that the Rangers ST home is not their regular season home and that opposing fans are more abundant. Had you not clarified that I would have gone on believing the Rangers play their home games in Arizona. All BS aside, I do agree with you that Ranger fans will likely boo him, I'd expect most fans to react the same way after the things he's been quoted as saying.

The dream ends

Just a couple observations tonight... 1 - The Angels rally started almost immediately after AM32 was banned. I'd take that as a sign from above. 2 - Being in Miami, I watched the MLB Network feed which happened to be the Texas broadcast. There was no silence for Josh when he went yard, in fact the place was loud, really, really loud. Apparently, they are saving the silence for the regular season, or the Angels fans in attendance made the home crowd look bad. Either way, it was funny.

I see more Mike Lieberthal, than I do Victor Martinez, but that would still be a very nice player.

Figgins may end up making the Marlins.. Local radio had some talk about how him and Pierre are tight and both have done well in ST. Kotchman, Figgins, Mathis.... Reunion time.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/a-summary-of-the-positional-power-rankings-data/ Fangraphs recently ranked/rated the position players -- they posted their summary today adjusted for park effects and had the following to say about the Angels potential line-up. "Beyond just that calculation error, there are some other interesting things to be gleaned from the results. For instance, holy crap the Angels line-up. . They probably won’t actually end up with +35 WAR from their position players — it’s easier to underperform than overperform projections due primarily to injuries — but the gap between their starting nine and everyone else’s starting nine still stands out."

Great post and dead on.

The 80% number is not correct and it continues to drop. The actual break-even point according to most of the hardcore data was right around 68-69%, and that number tended to drop depending on the situation. Even the biggest detractors like Joe Sheehan and Mike Wolverton (who at one time wrote what many considered to be the definitive study on SBs), have come around recently as the value of getting an extra base has increased as power/offense has become harder to obtain. Look no further than how often the A's try to steal bases now compared to the early 2000s. Ultimately, it's the usage that's always been the rub. Risk Vs Reward. As the risk rises, so does that break-even point.

It's funny ST stats are being given so much weight.

Meh... maybe they were trying to show some faith in Conger... Maybe they wanted him to settle down and take the job. Maybe all this means is that Scioscia was right? I agree completely they should have looked at their options better, but I do understand them having wanted Conger to take the opportunity and not "throw it away".

Why don't you look it up? Since you likely blind yourself to anything that isnt a sparkling account of Rangers superiority, you likely missed this article. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-white-sox-and-beating-projections/ There are others -- take some time to educate yourself a bit. BTW, you are wrong about workloads and injuries. There are several studies that have been done. Injuries have gone up considerably since they lowered the mound and more and more pitchers went to the slider in particular. There have also been studies done on innings loads before age 25. There seemed to be a very strong correlation between a heavy workload pre age 25 and early ineffectiveness or flat out injury. Even good ole Nolan didn't pass the 200 inning mark until he was 25. The 90s and the PED era saw pitchers dominate longer than they had in the past -- so things get a bit murky but prior to that the data was pretty much all pointing in the same general direction.

Just curious.... Does Scioscia have a preference for veterans or is it track records? Is Scioscia really all that different than any other manager in looking at past performance when looking forward? Was this also considered a bad thing when Tony LaRussa did it or when Joe Maddon looks at a player's average vs lefthanded pitchers on day games after night games who are taller than 6'2"? He had no problem relegating Schoeneweis to the pen in favor of Lackey in 2002, or in starting him in a game 7. He had no qualms handing SS to Eckstein who, had never played SS before despite Benji Gil having been on the roster and being a natural SS. He handed the catcher's spot to Molina even though Wallbeck was still around. He replaced Rodney with Walden after what... a blown save? He put Howie into 72 games as a 22 year old while AK was still here, and made no attempts to lobby for his return. Aybar wasn't held back behind any veterans -- in fact they traded a veteran Scioscia LOVED (OC), to play Aybar. Kotchman, and Morales really only had to contend with each other.. Napoli's competition was Mathis. Dmac had the job at 3B til his body broke. Torii Hunter was moved out of CF for PB and he had the job until his play relegated him to the bench. Trout started as a 20 year old So other than possibly Brandon Wood, what young, vibrant, up and coming talent has been held back and forced to sit in favor of a crusty veteran? 20 games of Bobby Abreu last year don't count for me... especially since they were trying to get someone think he had something left in the tank. I must be missing someone really obvious.

You may want to look at how completely out of whack the Rangers pitching injuries have been in recent years compared to the rest of MLB -- usage may be playing into that. People talk up how much more pitchers used to throw while seemingly forgetting how often those pitchers were done by their early 30s, in particular guys who tacked on heavy workload before turning 25.

Yes, it's much more logical to think a 200 point difference in OPS is because he's "more comfortable" at home. Nevermind that EVERYONE that plays in that park sees their offense spike -- nevermind what those indexes say -- the park has NOTHING to do with his performance. Do you REALLY think a pitcher goes after Albert Pujols the same way they do Yorbit Torreabla? You cannot be this dense. And thank you for taking the bait. Once again, in your Homer world, Ian Kinsler is going to continue performing at all star levels while the guy that left the Rangers is bound to disappoint. Lets just pretend he wasn't a below average bat last year, let's pretend he isn't entering his age 31 season or that he happens to play 2B. You might want to take five minutes of your time to look up the decline curves for 2B. I don't expect Kinsler to magically turn into crap but he may be taking the Carlos Baerga, Jose Vidro, Mike Lansing run at decline.... Given he's owed 70 million guaranteed, I'd be worried if I were a Rangers fan because with his contract rates and "old player skills", it's unlikely he pulls a Michael Young sort of run into his mid to late 30s. BTW, the Angels aren't likely to get their money's worth with Hamilton, unlike you I can be honest about my team.