well_red

at the rate we are collecting starting pitchers we should at least have a shit ton of trade pieces next winter, right?  can i at least cling to that hope?

1 hour ago, Catwhoshatinthehat said:

I ditched cable some months back and have FS through sling which I use to catch Angel and Ducks games.  Beyond that I don't watch any sports channels or shows and don't feel like I'm missing anything.  I still thing it's annoying when I go to ESPN, Yahoo sports or CBS sports just to see the main updates of the day and there's some TMZ type story on there.  For example on ESPN one of the Top Headlines is 'Serena talks social media slip of pregnancy' and I can't understand why that's a top sports headline but then I realize it's a space filler much like most of the shows on those channels.

Didn't realize Sling had FS West.  And NBCSN?  Wow dreams become reality, really just use cable for Angels and EPL games.

I remember it well, the day was precisely June 19th vs Oakland.  He was lights out that day!  Insane # fly ball outs.

All joking aside, it's telling how many games he was giving up around 1 run per inning.  Impressive how he battled through the season, I remember a recent Dan Haren article where he was talking about how exhausting his last few seasons were, just spending hours upon hours preparing for starts with video because it was so difficult for him to get people out.

20 hours ago, Tyler said:

Wannabe Billy Beane. Glad that era is over.

He fancied himself a real wheeler-and-dealer.  It's clear his strategy was to just keep rolling the dice until something clicked.  

5 hours ago, Blarg said:

It's because they offered a parcel of land in Bixby Knolls, the hottest place on the planet in summer.

I lived in Bixby Knolls for a couple years and can verify that this is 100% correct.  In fact, the entire city of Long Beach is f*ing 10+ degrees hotter than all the other beach cities for whatever geographical reason.  But Bixby in particular, man, my last summer there we could've shot some pretty compelling scenes for Heart of Darkness, lying in pools of sweat in our tiny bungalow with no AC.

I still think Long Beach would be a great place to build a stadium, somewhere around Seal Beach, lots of freeway access, tons of people, and you could ride your bike to the stadium from Long Beach or Huntington Beach.  Sort of straddle the orange curtain, get South Bay and OC.  There were a ton of Angels fans in Long Beach.  

4 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

So I know it would never happen, but this is where I would pull chavez.  Third time through vs. Cano.  

WTF Charter could lose FSW as early as this weekend?  Can't stand this crap...

But in the sports marketing community, he is viewed as a guy who owes it to his employers to do more to promote the game.

"If you're signing this big contract and you're benefiting, you have to try to grow the game," says Bill Sutton, director of the Sports and Entertainment Management MBA program at the University of South Florida. "I feel this way about any sport. It's the athlete's obligation to grow the game. Other people made it better for you coming in. You need to make it better for the people coming after you and the people who are there with you."

Probably the most nauseating quote I've ever read in my life.  Evidently it isn't Trout's "obligation" to play good baseball, but to do more shitty advertisements or fake more laughs on late night shows so that a bunch of nobody marketing execs can make more money and gatorade can sell more drinks.

Trying to remember last time I saw a pitcher leave holding his arm like that and it wasn't long term bad news.  Biceps cramp, wtf?  

Even if the elbow is fine, I would be surprised if we saw him pitch again for the next few starts.  Let's hope, he looked good, though still seems to be overthrowing pretty frequently.

Ban all between-pitch stadium entertainment.  No music, no "noise" graphics, nothing.  When the pitchers and hitters hear crickets they will realize they are supposed to be playing baseball and not adjusting their batting gloves or helmets or hats gloves, not staring half-awake at the dugout, not walking in circles around the mound.

54 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

I'm a Chargers fan, and it breaks my heart that they'd leave San Diego. That city loves and supports that team, always has. It's a shame the Padres were built this beautiful Mecca for baseball and no room has been made for the Chargers.

think economically it's easier to justifier a mlb stadium over an nfl stadium.  81 home games vs 8 (padres and chargers so i'd never expect more than that).  

something irked me about this article, and though i can't really argue with it, it seems trout would qualify as the "best player ever" for a number of teams.  definitely some weird east coast bias in there, and some ridiculous selectivity of what is a franchise player.  plus i'm sick of people acting like the angels being an expansion team has any relevance given that the team has been in the majors for > 50 years.  eh, maybe i'm just being sensitive:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/sports/baseball/mike-trout-al-mvp-los-angeles-angels.html

On 11/7/2016 at 8:52 AM, Erstad Grit said:

 Who do you think will be the better pitcher next season? I keep thinking keeping one of them on a low risk one year deal might be wise.  Who do you think would be the better bet?  (Im hoping we sign Nova)

I can't express the rage I feel at the suggestion we make an offer to Wilson. Only thing we should offer him is a one-way ticket to anywhere the fuck else in the world.

On 10/28/2016 at 10:28 AM, Dave Saltzer said:

He talked about Pujols, keeping him healthy, especially as he ages, and the toll playing the infield takes on the body.

Playing 1st takes a toll on the body?  Wow...  I think this is very telling about the state of Albert's health.  

Doesn't everyone think it would be a grave mistake to even think about next year?  Even if we "compete" we'd be lucky with a 1-and-done wildcard spot, our quality is nowhere near the top teams (wasn't this our worst record ever?).  Anyway, with the Trout contract and our pitching woes, Eppler should be lining everything up starting now for all-in on 2018 and 2019.  Trout would be stupid to sign an extension, and this iterative "we are close and missing just a few pieces" approach isn't going to put a team around him to compete now or convince him to extend.  I personally hope there are no big free agent signings this offseason, just some risky trades, followed by two season of Arte throwing massive free agent money around again. 

The Angels have a lot of problems and holes and replacing Scioscia isn't gonna fix any of them.  He keeps the clubhouse mild and on an even keel, this season was a write-off by May April, with some god-awful losing runs, but they still managed to eek out 74 wins.  I'm not his biggest fan but I don't even see the point of a change right now.

17 minutes ago, Tank said:

i have no qualms about the fan experience at the stadium, other than the often crappy home team with a bunch of no-name players that i have to watch. adding more dining options is never a bad thing, but it's not what draws me to the ballpark.

i like the stadium and i like how the stadium looks. won't complain if they want to add some new architectural elements. my concern is that a lot of the enhancements teams want to do often are targeted for fans with money. that ends up excluding a lot of folks. 

the only enhancements i'd like to see are (1) removing the god-awful 90s-backyard-pool rock "sculpture" and (2) integrate the big A back into the stadium outfield somehow.  Love those old photos of the big A in the 60's!

17 minutes ago, DowningRules said:

Is it me or is Escobar kind of a strange dude? When the hell did he change his uni number to "0." Not that I'm protesting since Brian Downing's number shoulda been retired.

He's a bit of a fancy boy too. Seems to really appreciate the fashion. I could totally see him being a character on Miami Vice. Can't you? Any of you hot shots out there know where Escobar hangs out, lemme know. I want to hang with him. So long as it's not some sort of tranny massage parlour.

Was this meant to be read aloud in the voice of Norm MacDonald?  Came naturally to me...

4 hours ago, DMVol said:

Hypothetically.....he has (by my poor math) 165 million owing on his contract starting next year...plus the 10 year personal service deal with Arte (whatever that is).....if a contender were desperate right now for some right handed pop (almost have to be an AL team because I'm not sure he could play 1b).....How much would you eat of the 165 million to move him?...Long shot, I know and I'm not advocating it....He certainly isn't Hamilton but it would be nice to have maybe half of that money to spend on re-tooling....

i know it's hypothetical but it'll never happen, arte has already put nonrefundable deposits down for the 3000 hit and 700 homerun parties.  

13 hours ago, bloodbrother said:

I do not wish to ever see this again

We saw plenty of it to last us multiple lifetimes already.

my ptsd is flaring up, thanks

got it, thanks.  i know it's mostly just a psychological shell game when it gets paid out.  maybe arte has it in his bofa account like me, earning 0.01% interest.

i hoped he'd be so good during the first 5 years that the last 5 could be chalked up to the price of doing business.  why did they backload the contract like this?  does the hit to the luxury tax threshold use the average salary per year, or the actual salary for each year's calculation?  $30M in 2021?  the problem just compounds every year....

54 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

Was there anyone here that liked the signing and defended it?  I was vocal about wanting Torii back and not wanting Hamilton.  I have to think that most of the fanbase did not want Hamilton here.

I'll admit I thought he'd have one maybe two explosive years out of the five.  I wouldn't say I was in favor of the deal, but I thought it would be worth it if he got hot in a single September heading into the playoffs.  Instead he just waved waved waved at breaking balls out of the zone.