WeaverFever

Nice to have some positivity here lately. 

Nice to have some positivity here lately. 

Nice to have some positivity here lately. 

Nice to have some positivity here lately. 

Nice to have some positivity here lately. 

In what has been a dismal Angels Season, I am pleased that this situation has allowed us to have extended looks at some of our Young Lefties.  Really like the future pitching staff with Sandoval, Detmers, Suarez, and now Quijada as well as Davidson showing some great potential.  It seems it was just a few years back where we had no lefties on the roster.  Anyway, we've got the makings of a Great, Young, Pitching Staff with these Lefties.  I think Wise has done a great job in developing these arms, and am excited of where he can take this.
Now, let's see if we can get the same type of production out of our Hitting Coaches.
 
 

I can because this game gets radically harder as the years go by, and the players age and become more vulnerable to injury.  There are so many ways to identify your weaknesses, and exploit them.  It seems to me that ages 24-31 are the golden years for most.  Yes, there are younger and older outliers, but not a lot of them.  Rengifo is approaching his prime, Fletcher has peaked but still has some life in him, Sierra is kind of different as he is like a Dee Gordon type (probably not as great).  That's why I don't worry about Adel, he is just beginning his golden period and improving still.  Yes, you do need strong veterans to lead like Trout and Rendon, but health with them is of utmost importance.
Minasian deadline trades are trending toward being good.  The bullpen got reshuffled due to injury, and especially relief pitchers got a chance and they are responding.  Davidson may have chance as a 4th or fifth starter.  Moniac is a wild card, but he is similar in age to Adel, and he might be a usable player with regular playing time.  Dugger may have a year or two left in him.  I predict Duffy, Gosselin, Rojas, Velasquez, Suzuki, Chavez, Bradley, Diaz, Rosenberg, and maybe more (Sierra, Canning, Junk, maybe Walsh) won't be back on the 40 man roster.
A lot hinges on Ohtani, and what he wants to do about his future.
  
 

I don’t want any high profile players. Just fill the gaps with guys who can supplement trout and ohtani. Guys who can get on base and ultimately stay healthy. I’d rather have 4 guys who make 10m than 1 that makes 40. 

It's really too bad they fell so far behind...and I don't expect them to be THIS good all the time, but it's a bummer there's really not something to root for and that these games borderline don't matter. 

Erica is so good at asking post game questions. 
So, so good. 

Ohtani is the first AL (MLB?) pitcher to throw 6 scoreless innings and hit a home run in the same game since  Dave McNally on Aug. 9, 1972, 50 years ago to the date. saith Terry.

Ohtani-san with #25 on the season
Second most by Japanese born player in a MLB career 
Also now qualifies in pitching stats (111 innings in 111 games).

Magical player ladies and gents. 

Magical player ladies and gents. 

And he scores!   Improving the stat someone posted about the Angels stranding guys on 3rd.  Gotta love a contact hitter like Fletch

We need to do two things with our payroll.  One, extend Ohtani.  He should be mlb's first 45 mil a year player. 
Two, sign one of the SS.  I would like Swanson, because he's younger, and he probably won't have the asking price of Boegarts.  
If we do anything else, we need to increase the payroll enough to add another starter, someone like Bassitt, and another hitter, I would like to add Mancini, because we really need to address our lack of offense.  

Great times everyone. I'll post pictures at a later time. Still one more day here with other friends before flying out tonight. 
Successful and fun trip. 

Not bringing Torii Hunter back because “we didn’t have room in the budget” and then pivoting to drug addict Josh Hamilton was kind of the turning point of the Angels. This is one of those decisions that bothered me at the time and still really bothers me. Hunter could have retired an Angel and had a nice send off, instead he got lied to and had to finish off his career in Detroit. 
 
Vladimir Guerrero, same thing.
as mentioned they haven’t gotten anything right over the past 10 years and it all started with that Beltre and Torii Hunter decisions… 
 
Dont even get me started of the Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Roberto Baldoquin mishap. Reason #1 why I’ll always dislike Dipoto.

This is our yearly routine and it’s fairly consistent. You forgot 1 year deals on pitchers that may have been good in 2016 or 2017 

The offseason. 
So we can fantasies about signing all these big FAs and making major trades and to only have our hearts crushed again by getting AAAA guys. 
CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!  

Nice solid game. And they can't do worse than a split. Hope they keep tormenting Seattle. 
Giant ifs  ... but, if Fletcher, Trout and Rendon get over their injury jinxes and revert close to form. And if ... Ward and Rengifo  stay no worse than they are. And if ... Walsh flushes this lousy season out of his system... And if Ohtani remains Ohtani,   then maybe the core of the lineup next year will be respectable.
Still a number of moving parts. And upgradable positions. And a new manager  to be named. But if the pitching continues to evolve into next year, the team might be somewhere around .500 and sniffing a wild card spot. 
Probably overly optimistic, since the franchise has yearly streaks of bad luck and injuries. But if the pitching holds up they could fly under the radar.
 
 
 

Seeing Fletcher hit is making me realize what we missed all year. Having Velasquez or Wade in over Fletcher all year really killed this team. 

if Detmers can finish this year off strong that will give us a lot of potential locking in our rotation next year. Ohtani, Detmers, Sandoval as fixtures would be great.