70runner

Managed to attend the game last night, courtesy of brothers corporate connection.  Epic 7th inning, followed by heavy downpour in San Diego, some sort of biblical prophecy?  Finished off with Hader ripping through 3 dogs.  Dogs dugout after 7th inning was full of ... damn we're going home to play golf.  Petco celebration went on well into Sunday.

Managed to attend the game last night, courtesy of brothers corporate connection.  Epic 7th inning, followed by heavy downpour in San Diego, some sort of biblical prophecy?  Finished off with Hader ripping through 3 dogs.  Dogs dugout after 7th inning was full of ... damn we're going home to play golf.  Petco celebration went on well into Sunday.

Managed to attend the game last night, courtesy of brothers corporate connection.  Epic 7th inning, followed by heavy downpour in San Diego, some sort of biblical prophecy?  Finished off with Hader ripping through 3 dogs.  Dogs dugout after 7th inning was full of ... damn we're going home to play golf.  Petco celebration went on well into Sunday.

How about Hader, K'ing Betts Turner and Freeman in order in the 9th? Thats pretty impressive 
And my new favorite thing ever is this picture of Kershaw after it all ended
 

He can eat shit. His legacy deserves to be permanently tarnished, yet half a season of record-chasing is making everyone forget how big of a piece of trash he was, both in terms of attitude and on-field performance, for an entire decade while he was here. Easily my most hated ex-Angel. 

Also fuck Albert Pujols

I long for the day when we will never have to think about Albert Pujols again.

The hefty one needs 2 seats.
These tube commentators are mediocre, they don't even do the O'Neal Ohtani at bat countdown.

The hefty one needs 2 seats.
These tube commentators are mediocre, they don't even do the O'Neal Ohtani at bat countdown.

When you know your MLB team has reached rock bottom: debating the relative worth of a minors average hitter with a guy you just dumped in a trade.

When you know your MLB team has reached rock bottom: debating the relative worth of a minors average hitter with a guy you just dumped in a trade.

When you know your MLB team has reached rock bottom: debating the relative worth of a minors average hitter with a guy you just dumped in a trade.

When you know your MLB team has reached rock bottom: debating the relative worth of a minors average hitter with a guy you just dumped in a trade.

Knock it off with the obituary lists. This has been done three times in this thread and not a single one was relevant.

Have you given any thought to applying for the GM position should it become available?

The Angels aren't crawling out of the pit they've dug themselves in. They're 10.5 games behind the third wildcard spot. As I said in another thread, the third wildcard team, the Toronto Blue Jays, are 50-43, which is an 87-75 pace. If we assume that at least one of the contending team gets hot and finishes 90-72, that means the Angels need to go 51-19 to finish out the year. I'm not even sure that's ever been done before in any 70-game span, or if it has, it is very rare and only done by teams that are stocked and loaded. The Angels aren't. So what this means is that the Angels are sellers and looking to next year. They Angels plan on contending next year. I mean, three players alone determine this: Trout, Ohtani, and Rendon. You don't rebuild when you're playing two players $75.7M -- more than five teams' entire payrolls this year. Add in that they hope to extend Ohtani, which would be three players making at least $100M next year, and more after that. They want to keep Ohtani, who is not only on pace to lead the majors in WAR for the second year in a row, but the biggest draw in major league baseball. Furthermore, Trout may be at the beginnings of decline, and Rendon is clearly no longer in his prime, so their best production value is over the next few years rather than in 2026 and beyond, after a hypothetical rebuild would start bearing fruit.  
The One (Very Unlikely) Rebuild Scenario
Some team make the Angels an unbelievable offer for Ohtani that they cannot refuse. I don't think this will happen, but it is within the realm of possibility. There aren't many teams that could or are willing to do this, but it would require--at least--several top prospects and/or young players, and probably a couple decent prospects as well. Not many teams both have and are willing to trade three guys of 55 FV or higher (and really, you'd want one or two to be 60+ FV). Anyhow, if this happened, it is still no guarantee that the Angels would completely rebuild, if only because of Trout and Rendon. 
What This Means for the Second Half
So going back to the two points above, I would suggest that any conversation about their plans keeps those in mind. For the first, this isn't the typical Angels season where they're hovering within a few games of .500 and with the right moves, hopefully could catch fire and sneak out a playoff berth (and when that has been the situation, when have they ever caught fire in the second half to ride into the playoffs?).
This means two things for the major league club:
They need to shed as many spare parts as possible, and alchemically transform them into future value. Unfortunately they don't have any clear winners in this regard, although Noah Syndergaard could bring back something of value. And it is possible that a contending team wanting to bolster their bullpen would risk a decent prospect for Loup or Tepera. Or maybe the Angels find someone interested in Ward or Walsh enough to make it worthwhile. I also don't think it is impossible that the Angels surprise us all and trade David Fletcher, who despite his poor performance the last year and a half, is a useful player due to his flexibility and with a relatively cheap contract.  The Angels need to treat the remaining 70 games as an audition for 2023. This means giving as much playing time to the young players - Adell, Marsh, Rengifo, and Stefanic, in particular. But also giving rotating auditions to minor league pitchers like Daniel, Bush, Murphy, Seminaris, Silseth, and hopefully eventually Canning, Bachman, and Chris Rodriguez (yeah, right). It also means not playing guys who don't figure into the future. The latter is why I find the Phil Gosselin signing so baffling. He's the type of guy you bring on if you are at least on the fringe of contention, and want to plug a bench hole. What he shouldn't be is someone who takes playing time away from Rengifo or Stefanic. I'd put David Fletcher closer to Rengifo and Stefanic in this regard, in that you want to give him playing time to see if the "real" Fletcher is the 2018-20 version or the 2021-22 version. Hopefully they signed Gosselin because they plan on keeping Stefanic up, and need the playing time in AAA. But...
The reason the auditioning is so important is that it helps guide the Angels' moves during the offseason. For instance, they need to see if Marsh and Adell can take a step forward; if both continue as-is for the remainder of the year, they probably need to bring in at least another decent platoon outfielder. They need to see if Rengifo can continue to build on his recent improvement, and if Stefanic can quickly transition his bat to the majors and play a decent enough second base, and if Fletcher can return to being more than a scrub. Those factors will have a huge impact on what Minasian does in the offseason.
Anyhow, the point being, the above outlines what I think should be the Angels (and our) mindset for the remainder of the year. This is how we should be judging what the team does and how they perform - *not* on how many games they win. If instead the Angels are focused on getting their record back to respectability over trying to make a few trades and playing the young guys, it means they're fucking up. I know, the guys want to win, they want to feel like they have a chance. But they also need to see if they can win games with the young guys.
It is on Perry Minasian to A) Fully accept the original first point (that they're out of the race); B) Do whatever it takes to improve the future value of the team, namely through trading as many of Syndergaard, Loup, Tepera, etc, as possible; and C) Convince the rest of the org--including Trout and Ohtani--that this is the best route towards serious contention as soon as possible, but that this means next year. 
 

Marsh putting the hat on celebrating back to back nights with meaningless solo homeruns is so cringy.
It's like the wide receiver going crazy after a TD while they're getting blown out. 
This is embarrassing. 

Goober "back to back real good swings by Suzuki" as the Angels lose 3rd in a row to O's.  Smh.

Don't believe it's a matter of hate, mostly (at least in my case) frustration in the perpetual signing of downslope FAs to long term contracts. 
As to the brawl, Winker has always been a dick.  Plenty of stupid to go around for both teams.

Crunching the numbers will identify symptoms of the "Stars and other players" management strategy.  Invest hundreds of millions for stars, leaving less to invest in the other players and player development.  Some stars investment is unavoidable, Trout and, soon, Ohtani.  Others were completely avoidable.  Quantifying the performance deficiencies of the other players will explain why the Angels are losing, but not address the systemic cause.

Patrick O'Neal is a fucking idiot. Our commentating crew is horrible. And Marsh deserves to be benched tomorrow for that one. Jesus Christ WTF was that. 

What’s he thinking here?
 
 

Don Orsillo is the best guy out there.

A Ted Williams opinion, at least how my dad told it.  Dad pitched for the Marine Corps fast pitch softball team circa 1950.  They played (and lost) a couple exhibitions against Eddie Feigner, The King and His Court team of 4 players.  Feigner was a legendary softball pitcher who could reach 100+, sometimes from 2nd base.  Dad said Feigner told him there was no one in MLB (DiMaggio, Musial, Mize, et al) who could hit him except one guy he'd never pitch to, Ted Williams.  Feigner said Williams would sometimes show up at their exhibition games and Feigner would tell him to stay in the stands.  In 1967, at the age of 42, he stuck out Mays, McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Clemente, Maury Wills, Killebrew in order during an exhibition against MLB all stars...but always avoided Williams.