fanfromday1

Why? He only has 6 HR's, there are other more deserving players.

NO! A true fan never gives up. I have supported this team since December 1960, the day it was announced that Gene Autry had purchased the AL franchise of the Angels. I have followed them thru some really frustrating and dismal years. And several of those years were much worse than the present one. When the year ends I'll still be watching. Sure, I want them to win and be World Champions again, just as much as everyone else on AW wants to happen. Sadly, I just don't think it's going to happen this year, but I'll still be watching and rooting for this team right down to the last game of the season.

I wonder how much the Angels attendance will drop off if Ohtani doesn't return this year?

How COLD can this can this guy get this year anyway? If he can get below a .100 avg. he will probably be a MLB icon forever and replace the 'old Mendoza line' with one of his own.

Not trying to nit-pick here but, Ruth's strikeout avg. should go up some because they only played 154 games in a season back then, not 162.

How about Otani's manager from Japan? And 'Sadaharu Oh' as a hitting coach? lol

I know that it of no interest to anyone here, but I want to brag just a little. My great-nephew, Alan Strong, a pitcher at UNLV was just drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 10th round of the MLB Draft (300th pick over-all). Wow! I'm so proud of him.

I was at the opening series when we played Cleveland too, and I remember how they displayed the out-of-town scores on the new scoreboard. It took a little getting use to because they used team logos instead of team names and I think that confused some of the fans. However, I think the main reason that they removed the out-of-town scores (and replaced it with the inning-by-inning score) was that the lights were too bright and distracting to the players. Just my opinion, but it was rather distracting to me as a fan, and I heard several other people in the stands remark about it as well.

I got hit by a batted beach ball once, but I ripped the Sh!t out of it with my car key.

Suarez - Something about all those strikeouts really intrigues me. However Canning is a close second, and if he participates in another no-hitter this week he's moving up to first place.

Sure beats the heck out of last years starting rotation: Nolasco, Shoemaker, Chavez, Ramirez, Bridwell, Scribner, Meyer. Although, several pitched well at times, it was usually only two heartbeats away from giving fans heart attacks.

I remember seeing Frank Howard, when he was with the 'old' Washington Senators, hit one well past the Big 'A' scoreboard, on the center-field side, back in 1966. (It may have been 1967, not positive of the year). ??? How did I end up with 2 pictures ???

Three times faster than Pujols, and that's on his good days.

May 10th, at Home against the Twins. (Scioscia will hold Pujols out a game or 2, just to make sure he gets his 3,000th hit at home). It will actually be an 'error' on the 3rd baseman, but the Home Town Official Score Keeper will give Pujols a hit.

I have to go with Harper. And as for him having an attitude, personally, I love players with an attitude. One of my favorite memories of Mike Trout is when he and Pujols had back to back hits off of Fernando Rodney and did their 'bow & arrow' imitation. A couple of years ago when my great-nephew was being recruited by UNLV, he met Brian Harper. Harper took my great-nephew and a couple of other players out to dinner and a UNLV basketball game. (not an NCAA violation because Harper was not recruiting them or affiliated with the school he was just working out in their training facility. Harper lives in the Vegas area). My great-nephew said Harper was very polite and extremely funny. He told them what to expect if they ever made it to the MLB. He also pointed out to them that all great players have developed some kind of an edge (attitude), that's what sets them apart. My great-nephew didn't sign with UNLV because of Harper. He signed because they had a 'pretty good' pitching coach. The pitching coach's name is 'HOFer' Greg 'Mad Dog' Maddux. Another MLB player with a well known 'nasty attitude' when playing.

Maybe it's just me, but I would rather have Madison Bumgarner. I know he's on the DL right now with a hand injury, but he's younger and he's left-handed. I think that in the future we are going to be looking at adding more left-handed pitchers because of our new 'homer friendly' right field wall. Just my 2 cents.

On days that Pujols sits, why not move Simmons, or Cozart, into the #2 spot and move Trout and Upton into the #3 and #4 spots? Like AO said, it's not like Pujols is going to sit out a lot of games.

Let's rebound against the Giants this weekend and get ready for the team we really need to beat. The Astros come in next week and that's the team we really need to play well against.

I doubt that he's ever seen Ohtani pitch, out side of a few highlites from the monitor on his desk. The only reason he probably wrote this article was because Ohtani was the flavor of the week and he needed to fill up some empty space on his blog.

Good idea. I'v read every post in the old thread, but at 99 pages, it was getting to be an impossibility to go back and cross reference a player, or team, or something someone had said. The old thread was two years old, so an updated 2018 season is a welcome addition. But I hope that the board keeps the old thread 'pinned' so it doesn't get buried and forgotten.

I'll go with Mike Trout. I know he was drafted in the 1st round in 2009, but technically, he was our second pick. I know, I'm just nitpicking. But, obviously and hopefully, they all have fantastic futures ahead of them. Go Angel's

The Angels are a much improved team that is obvious, but they are not going to be able to make up 21 games on Houston without the help of other teams. The AL West was awful last year, especially against Houston. Texas and the Angels were 7 – 12 against them. Seattle was 5 – 14, and the A's were something like 3 and 15. If the AL West doesn't improve their record against Houston this season the Angels, even with the improvements they've made, won't be able to make up all those games on their own.

I know that Hernandez was hit by a line drive while he was pitching, and that’s a situation that no pitcher has control over. But what about a pitcher when he takes his turn at bat, as in the National League. Or in the case of the Angels, when Ohtani bats. Ohtani bats left-handed which exposes his right pitching arm to the pitcher. It’s been speculated that Ohtani will be pitched inside a lot this year which could result in his being HBP in the right arm several times. If he’s hit in the right elbow, or sustains a severe bruise to his pitching arm, he may not be able to finish pitching the game. Or possibly be out for an even longer period of time. Is this something that Ohtani, or the Angels should be concerned about?

Why doesn’t the MLB start a new league, and call it the Continental league. They had plans to do this back in the 1950s before they decided to expand teams to the West Coast. They were going to have the American League, the National League, and the Continental league. The Continental league was going to be teams made up of the largest cities in the Western states. At the time this was going to be mainly teams from the old Pacific Coast league. Once Rob Manfred gets this new league started he can try his new stupid rules there and see how many fans it draws to the games. We would have the National League with traditional baseball rules. The American League with the designated hitter rule. And the Continental league with all of Manfred’s stupid rules. For all I care they can put the new teams in Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, Europe, Guam, the Middle East, Antarctica, and a half dozen other non exciting places.

I agree with krAbs. I kind of like the idea of being the underdog. Especially when I go over to Las Vegas and place my bet on the Angels. However, no matter what all of these other sites may predict I am sure that no MLB team will take them seriously when they play us. Other teams know that the Angels have greatly improved their team this coming year. I look forward to some fun battles with other teams in the AL in 2018.