Fish Oil

I'm mostly just a reader here, but I've been a reader for years.
This is truly sad news. RIP.
 

I'm mostly just a reader here, but I've been a reader for years.
This is truly sad news. RIP.
 

I appreciate your efforts, Strad.
But to take it somewhat seriously, I think the answer is: Not yet. Both will eventually, but we have to see consistency over time, and it probably has to correlate with Trout starting to decline.
When I did an article about the top position players in baseball, I used a formula that weighted the last three years (I can't seem to find it via a Google search, but they're both on the blog - I think the last one was published last Oct or Nov).
This approach was muddled a bit by the shortened 2020 season, but I think the basic principle applies. To be the "best player" you can't simply have had the best year (or best month). You need to do it over time. But clearly the more recent the year, the more important.
I think the serious candidates to take the crown from Trout are Betts, Acuna, Soto, and Tatis. A few thoughts on each.
Betts - at his betts, Mookie is as good as Trout (see 2018). But that's only happened in one year, not including 2020. Mookie is still the second best player in the game (at least as of the start of this year), but as good as he's been he's only surpassed the 8 WAR mark twice, in 2016 and 2018. To reach Troutian levels, he really needs to do so year-in and year-out, and that hasn't happened yet. 
Tatis - It is way too soon to tell how good Tatis will become, or if he'll be consistent and healthy enough. He is clearly super talented, putting up 6.5 WAR in his first two half seasons (143 games), but we need to see him over a full season first.
Soto - I think you could argue that he's already the best hitter in the game, and I think once he hits his prime he's going to regularly put years like Bryce Harper's 2015. But his defense is suspect. So it really depends on how good his bat becomes weighted against his defense. If he becomes a regular 180+ wRC+ hitter and is just average defensively, he could become the best player in the game.
Acuna - He's the most well-rounded of the great young trio, so in a way has the most angles at having the value to surpass Trout. I think the question is whether his bat will merely be elite (150+ wRC+) or "super-elite" (170+ wRC+). If the latter, I think he's the guy.
Or it could be all three - it will eventually, but I think the odds that any of them will be as consistently great as Trout has been (and will continue to be, at least for the foreseeable future) are rather low.  Trout has a very good chance of becoming the first non-Bondsian player to surpass 120 WAR since the Mays/Aaron era. While I think the four guys mentioned above are all future Hall of Famers and truly great players, I don't think they'll reach that mark.
 

Wasn't baseball one of the original Olympic games?

This is what happens when you give a guy who built a perennial contender in Tampa with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball access to lots of money - he has built an incredible team, from top to bottom, in LA.
I see a lot of fans who are envious of this, but personally, I would instead look at them and see what we can learn about team-building and how to emulate the strategy they have.  This is why I think it's a positive development that we have poached some members of their staff, as well as Tamin, who helped play a significant role in building that team, too.

Of course, but I just remember how much life the sticks brought to the stadium. I always loved how they made the stadium look like a sea of red while making the atmosphere closer to a European soccer game.

They looked at him, and him back.... and they went "holy shit.... im sorry.... this whole time we thought you were walsh"
And instantly turned to the interns going "theres two of them?"

3B, RF, C down we need super sub Ward he is Taylor made for this situatio.

Ha! Angelswin strikes again! the Curse!

Carlos Rodón is perfect for the White Sox through 8 against the Cleveland INDIANS. 

For all the bitching about him getting a start, AP seems to have been super supportive of late while not getting much playing time.  He's always up in the dugout chatting up players and smiling.  For all the diva talk about him in the past, he's been anything but that.  I think AP knows what's up and can read the room well.

So we're nine games in and, overall, the team has probably performed better than anyone--or at least most--expected. 6-3 = .667 W% = 108-win pace. They won't do that all year, but my pre-season prediction of 91-71 seems at least feasible.
At this point it is really too early to make any clear judgements. Only half of the starters have pitched two games, and the position players are only around 40 PA a piece. So anything I say going forward is with the caveat that "it's early," but there are a few concerns - or, at least, things to watch for. So let's take a look at the team, section by section:
The Starting Rotation
The standouts have been Bundy and Ohtani. Bundy's velocity is up and his command from last year seems to have carried over. The one concern is a penchant for the home run ball: three dingers in two starts isn't a good pace. But...its early. Ohtani's stuff was ridiculous and he should only get better, as long as he's healthy. While it is disappointing that he's already missing a start due to a blister, let us not forget that he's barely pitched in two years. Heaney was awful in his first start, pretty good in his second; meaning, Heaney doing Heaney, and we shouldn't expect anything other than what we've seen over the last few years: a guy with #2-3 talent but #4-5 consistency, and thus overall a #3-4 starter. Cobb looked solid but it has only been one start, but there's a general feeling of optimism that he should at least continue to be solid. Canning was a mixed bag and was done in by two homers, including a three-run bomb to Vlad Jr, but you've got to like his K-BB ratio of 7 to 1. Quintana has been awful. Two starts, but I think there's room for concern. And his replacement, Barria, was just as bad.
The Bullpen
Surprisingly good overall. Raisel has been bad in non-save situations, but looks good otherwise. It is way too early to take bullpen ERAs seriously, but so far it looks pretty encouraging. C-Rod has struggled with control, but the stuff is legit and it is impressive how well he's held up facing major league hitters considering he's never pitched about A+. Slegers seems like the best new acquisition.
Defense 
Hmm. We've seen some shaky play and Iglesias is no Simba, who I'm guessing never made three errors in one game (go ahead, prove me wrong, nerds). Given their respective starts, we might really regret this swap. Stassi had some real brain farts, but overall we might be able to chalk this up to early season nerves. Walsh is still adjusting to 1B, I guess. 
Hitting
Trout is off to one of his best starts. Ohtani looks really good, although I wish he'd take a walk now and then. Walsh continues to be a revelation, as does Stassi. After those four, the lineup hasn't really clicked. Rendon is showing signs of life but Upton is not. Fletch has also started slowly but he'll slap his way to a .290+ BA in short order. Lagares, Suzuki, Iglesias, Pujols and Fowler have all been bad. Rojas seemingly doesn't exist; when do we start calling him 0afer? (He's now hitless in his first 8 at bats).
Concerns
So what are the concerns? Well, overall l like what I see so far and still think this team can win 90 games. I'm a little concerned about the back third of the rotation. Quintana has looked really bad, and I wouldn't be surprised if Barria is finally exposed as a weak-stuff smoke-and-mirrors guy, as evinced by his ERA/FIP career spread; he looks like a guy who should have an ERA around 4.50, not the 3.50 that 2018/20 implies. I think Heaney and Cobb should both be solid. I'm particularly excited about Bundy, Ohtani, and Canning; Bundy seems like he could becoming a bonafide #2; how good will Ohtani be once his command settles? As for Canning, I'm 50-50 on whether he'll wallow in #4ness for another year or if we're about to see a big step forward. If one or both of Quintana and Barria continue to suck, Sandoval is waiting in the wings and I'm far more bullish on his upside than Barria's. Who knows, maybe they consider transitioning C-Rod this year, and Detmers might be available by the second half. So I'm not hugely concerned and think the rotation will be, overall, above average.
As for the bullpen, I think it has the potential to be good, maybe even very good. I like the array of pitchers and think they offer some different looks. Not worried at all and actually far more optimistic than I was a couple weeks ago.
The other concern is some of the platoon situations and bench. I think most of the lineup is good to great: Trout, Rendon, Walsh, Fletcher, Ohtani, Stassi. But I'm not convinced that Upton was discovered the fountain of youth, and RF is probably going to continue to be bad until the Angels give Marsh or Adell--or even Ward--a shot. We all knew Iglesias's 2020 was a short season fluke, but he's looked awful and I'm kind of hoping he conitnues to struggle so that Rengifo eventually gets called up. But he obviously deserves the benefit of the doubt, at least for the next month or two.
TLDR/Short Version
The team has performed really well so far, better than expected, but there are some areas of improvement - the bottom part of the rotation and the latter third or so of the lineup. But nothing that can't be worked out as the season progresses.
I think it behooves us to remember that old Billy Beane saying (I think): you use the first third of the year to see what you have, the next third to get what you need, and the final third to build momentum for the postseason. Or something like that. Right now we're still in the process of seeing what the team needs and, over the next month or so, the questions and concerns above should be clearer, and then adjustments made. Maybe Quintana settles down; maybe Iglesias and Upton start hitting; maybe someone emerges to claim the bulk of RF starts. And so forth.
But again, while there are some concerns, the overall outlook is positive.

I think were all BJ fans

I don’t ever remember Don Baylor leaning into a pitch. He simply stood there and let the ball hit him, then the umpire had to throw the ball out because it was dented.

I was curious if WAR will differentiate when Ohtani bats as a DH and when he bats as pitcher. I know his stats as a pitcher would be more valuable than when he DHs. For instance Zack Greinke has a 5.1 career offensive WAR with a career 600 OPS. This is because his stats come as a pitcher. If Greinkes stats were from DHing it would be much lower.

Hope he gets a job. He's one of the smartest, albeit old school, baseball minds I've ever heard. He's better than at least half the current managers. 

They matter, but it is most nuanced than just simply "spin rates."
The idea is that as the ball spins more, the more it can shift and induce either a swing and miss or "non-barreled" contact.
There's more to it than that - vertical movement, horizontal movement, etc all matter, but spin rate is a useful metric to assess, too.

That's disgusting.

Bobby Grich should be in the HOF.

I didn't vote yes because I want them to add one, I voted yes because I think they will.

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