fanfromday1

In 1994 and again in 1995 the Angels had 4 lefties in the starting 5-man rotation.

1994:  Chuck Finley (L), Mark Langston (L), Brian Anderson (L), Joe Magrane (L), Phil Leftwich (R).

1995: Finley (L), Langston(L), Anderson (L), Jim Abbott (L), Shawn Boskie (R).

At the trade deadline you could trade (eg.) one contract to the Dodgers and the other to the Astros and get a good haul back. Then during the 2023 World series he could possibly pitch against himself.  

I'm really looking forward to seeing C. Rodrigues and Jones get to the majors. Got my fingers crossed that they both become starters. If that happens our starting 6 will be absolutely nasty. (Ohtani, Sandaval, Detmers, Jones, Rodriguez, and about a dozen others to choose from for a 6th man). If they both end up in the bullpen as a setup man and closer, that won't be too disappointing either. 

4 hours ago, Blarg said:

Some of the Mimi's aren't appropriate/relevant either.

Just be thankful that Trout will be able to play again. Several Angels won't. Lyman Bostock 1978, Nick Adenhart 2009, & Tyler Skaggs 2019. An Angel announcer also passed away tragically: Rory Markas 2010. 

At least we will be able to enjoy seeing Trout play again.

4 hours ago, Trendon said:

Trade/DFA all the veterans on expiring contracts, sell high on some players, play the kids, and try and get the veterans on multi-year contracts back on track.

Trade: Iglesias, Syndergaard.

Sell High: Ohtani, Ward

DFA: Villar

SP: Detmers, Junk, Sandoval, Silseth, Suarez

RP: Barría, Loup, Ortega, Peguero, Quijada, Tepera, Wantz, Warren

Lineup: Stassi, Walsh, Stefanic, Thaiss, Rengifo, Marsh, Trout, Adell, MacMinnon

Bench: Wallach, Velazquez, Harrison, Thomas.

I'm as discussed with this team as much as you are, but you can't get rid of the 1st four players that you mentioned. I think it's time to start building for next year and forget about the rest of this one, and I believe that these four guys could be as good, or even better than the players the Angels replace them with.

Iglesias - He's choked in several games this last month, but up until then he was one of the better closers in the AL. Unless we get a couple of really good young flame-throwers in return, lets wait and see if he rebounds. Then make a decision in the off season.

Syndergaard and Ohtani - Thor is coming off of surgery, and so is Ohtani. Because the Angels didn't want to over work them this year they went to a 6 man rotation. I think that next year we may return to a 5 man rotation, which would make the rotation that much stronger. (No weak, overmatched 6th man).

Ward - Yes, Ward played over his head the first 5 or 6 weeks of the season. But he is still more consistent than Adell will ever be. I think Adell (as well as Rengifo & Fletcher), believe that taking a walk is a failed at-bat. (However, to be fair, I think the rest of the Angel line-up would rather strike out than stand-on-base and wait there for the next batter to strike out. They would much rather be sitting in the dugout eating sunflower seeds before Iglesias throws all the seeds back onto the field again).      

True, this team needs some new blood. From the front office all the way down to the coach's and a few new players. But some of the corner stones for a successful team may be in place already. The time to panic is past. It happened during the long losing streak. Now is the time to make a few changes, not a complete overhaul. 

Personally, I think the Angels have a very good chance to contend for a wild card spot. They still have games to play against every team ahead of them in the WC race except Boston. And it all starts tonight against the White Sox. We really need to take 2 of the 3 games against them. Hopefully the rumble we had last night with Seattle wakes some of our guys up and puts a little fight into our team.

The three teams that hold the three top WC spots right now are all in the Eastern Division, and those three teams, (Rays, Jays, & Red Sox) along with the Yankees, are going to beat each other up and somebody is going to suffer. And that's good for us.

As for the Western Division, I still think we're the 2nd best team, although a little help from the Astros wouldn't hurt. Obviously we're not going to catch Houston this year, they are just to far ahead of us. But that doesn't mean that I won't be hoping (not rooting. I really hate the ASStros too much to ever do that) for them to win every game they play against the rest of our Division. That's excluding us of course. 

Everybody on this board knows that we really need help in our Bull-pen and at the bottom of our line-up. And I'm just so tired of our GM trying to patch it up with incompetent players from our minor league teams. Damn it Arty, let Minasian go out and make a couple of small trades for MLB talent. Not superstars, just someone who can hit over the 'Mendoza line' and catch a damn baseball. I don't care if it's someone who's only a one year rental player, we can worry about the consequences of that later. 

Maddon is the one who needs the day off. His brain is overworked trying to invent new line-ups.

Leave it to the two Chicago teams to screw things up. Otherwise, three cities could be leading every division in MLB.

P.S. Technically, the Angel's are located in LA only because ownership doesn't know where Orange County ends and LA's trashy county begins.   

I think it's possible that the Angels pull-off an 'Out of the Box' trade with Oakland for one of their pitchers (Manaea, Montas, Bassett). All three are in the last year of their contracts (I believe) and could be on the trade market. None of them are true TORs but they would be very strong #3s behind Ohtani and Thor. They have all pitched in the AL for several years so they are all familiar with AL teams and batters. Plus their current contracts are all relatively cheap. 

On 10/31/2021 at 12:17 PM, eligrba4ever said:

Jerry Remy, who played full-time second base for the Angels in his first three MLB seasons (1975-1977), died of lung cancer. He was 68.  He was traded after the 1977 season to Boston for pitcher Don Aase and cash. He became an All-Star while with the Red Sox and then spent many decades with Boston as a broadcaster.

Here’s an odd fact about Jerry Remy that I came across a few years ago. Apparently, Remy was the only Baseball player ever called for a balk in a MLB baseball game, who was neither a pitcher nor a catcher. Article from a book titled “Out of Left Field”, by Jeffrey and Douglas Lyons.

From the book:

The event happened in the bottom of the fourth inning of a 4 – 2 Red Sox– Tiger game on May 1, 1984. Jerry Remy was playing 2^nd base for the Boston Red Sox. The batter, Manny Castillo, of the Tigers, grounded passed third-base for a double, but the Red Sox claimed that Castillo missed first base. Before the next pitch Remy shifted over and played behind Mike Easler at first base to backup the ‘protest’ throw from Red Sox pitcher Bruce Hurst. But, 1^st base umpire Rocky Roe ruled Castillo safe. Then Tigers manager Sparky Anderson came out of the dugout and claimed that Remy had played in foul territory – a violation of the rules. Agreeing with him, home plate umpire Ken Kaiser then called a balk on Remy and waved Castillo to third.

But the rules say only that all players except the catcher must be in fair territory when the ball is pitched. No penalty is mentioned. If this play were to be repeated today, according to Marty Springstead, (supervisor of American League umpires at the time the article was written), play would be halted, and Remy would not be permitted to stand in foul territory.

The balk was subsequently credited to pitcher Bruce Hurst, and the Tigers won the game 11 – 2.

On 10/7/2021 at 5:57 PM, Junkballer said:

I hear coaches and staff drink beer in the clubhouse.  What about the players?

"After this off-season they will only be drinking, and showering in, champagne."

One can only hope.

I don't think there is any one team that could/would offer the Angels a package of players that would compensate for Ohtani's loss to the Angels. I believe that it would take at least a three or even a four team trade to accomplish that. And trades like that are really complicated. 

If the Angels want to attract and sign good pitching they really need to get a quality pitching coach. Matt Wise was once a very beloved Angel player, but his name is not one that is going to attract any high end Free-Agent pitchers to want to come here.

At least the Wizard gave someone a brain. Congratulations on a great season Ohtani. Looking forward to you showing off your fantastic talents again in 2022.

2 minutes ago, Justin said:

What do you suppose the odds are that it will trade the Biggest Story in Baseball? 

The Angels aren't stupid enough (at least I hope they aren't) to just let Ohtani walk at the end of his contract.

One solution that everyone seems to be avoiding is - if Ohtani feels that this team isn't a winning organization, why don't the Angels trade him while his trade value is in the stratosphere? I'm sure he would bring back a boatload of prospects or even a couple of quality arms. (not that I'm in favor of that scenario). 

 If we do sign a TORS this year who are some of the pitchers who will be Free Agents after next year that other teams may be willing to trade off early? Someone who would make a solid #2 or #3 starter for us.  Do you think someone like  - Sale, Eovaldi, Gray, Clevinger could be a possibility in some kind of off-season trade?

Back on Sept. 11, 2001 I was still teaching school. I was watching the news on TV that morning and was just about to leave home when the first, and then the second plane hit the Twin Towers. I gradually realized that this was developing into one of those historic events that everyone would remember for years to come. Kind of like Pearl Harbor or the JFK assassination. So I put a video tape in the recorder and set it for eight hours of recording time. Then I grabbed the second TV out of the den and took it to school so my students and I could watch it in the the classroom. (back then you didn't need a cable box to watch TV).

During the day my classroom was full of not only students, but also other teachers who came in on their free period to watch and get up-dates on the disaster. Many of the office staff, including the Principal and Deans stopped by as well. They all lined up against the back wall. Apparently, outside of the library, I had the only TV on campus that day.

I made it a point, in each class, to ask all in attendance (students as well as the adults) for their thoughts at that current moment. Most of the answers I got back were just the expected prayers of sadness or how this event just instantly tore families apart. But some of the answers I got back were answers that I didn't even expect. Some of the replies were that they feared that there were still planes in the air that were headed to the Los Angeles area (our location) to strike more targets. Several of the students had relatives, or friends, who lived in the New York area and they were worried about them. Many questions were about whether or not we would be going to War with whoever committed this horrible attack. There were also several debates as to whether they themselves would jump out of a window or wait for possible rescue if they were trapped in the towers. I was so glad that there were other adults in my classroom that day, because there was no way that I was prepared for some of the questions or replies that were being thrown at me. I was just as confused at some of the happenings of that day as everyone else.

I have visited both of the 9/11 and Pearl Harbor Memorials over the last several years. Maybe, because it was more of a current event, the 9/11 Memorial seemed like a much more somber or reverent site. But visitors at both locations were highly respectful and thoughtful, many leaving flowers or other mementos. Oh yea, remember that eight hour VHS tape that I said that I tossed in the recorder that morning before I left for school? I still have it, but to this day (20 years) I have never watched it.

I hope the whole Yankee team steps over the 1st base foul line and eventually disappear like Moonlight Graham did. Damn Yankees!

No one. Maddon uses the shift so much that we seldom need a 'SS'. Hell, it seems like the whole infield is on the left side of 2nd base for one batter and then the right side of 2nd base for the next batter. Why spend 20+ million on a '$$' (abbreviation for expensive 'SS') when all we need to do is play a 'Rover' like they do in some softball leagues.

Heaney is a Free-agent at the end of the year, so it's still possible that the Angels could resign him. No, they wouldn't do that to us would they? 

Mike Trout made his debut 10 years ago today, July 8, 2011. Read what he's accomplished in that time.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/10-years-of-mike-trout-celebrating-10th-anniversary-of-angels-stars-mlb-debut-with-10-incredible-stats/

Ditmers arrives and becomes our #2 starting pitcher, right behind our off-season signing of a top Free Agent pitcher.