goldenGlove

Best wishes to your family 

Trout telling the kid he’s gonna hit homers for him reminds me of Paul O’neill on Seinfeld haha 
gotta catch a ball in his hat now

Trout telling the kid he’s gonna hit homers for him reminds me of Paul O’neill on Seinfeld haha 
gotta catch a ball in his hat now

Bottom line, I just can't imagine this team without Simmons. He's such a special player and I'm glad we have him. 

The good news: Ohtani reinstated from the IR, Bourjos and Stratton DFA'd.
The bad news: More Cozart and Allen. #smh
I want Rengifo to get every day at bats in AAA, so I'm not butthurt about that move. Though he's better than Cozart x10. 

A ton.  Obviously I laugh because with all the Scioscia bashing it seems fitting that the next guy is equally hated.  Fans hate their manager and their bullpen.  I can easily see James Earl Jones telling Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in Field of Dreams, “its baseball Ray, fans hate their favorite teams manager, they hate their bullpen, but if you build it they will come”.

Suarez has done nothing but pitch well at every level. Kind of like Canning. I’m really excited about him and think he could be a good 3 starter for us 

OK, we spotted the Astros 5 runs so now it's time to put these guys in their place. 

Vlad made the game fun to watch. He was not true three outcome player unless that was hit the ball, hit it harder, hit it harder than that. That swing combined with such strong hands and wrists could hit like Carew or Kilabrew. There was no part of the field he couldn't place the ball and no yard big enough to keep the ball inside. But more than that was his smile. The guy just radiated the joy of being able to play baseball and to play it with passion. 
I miss him.

I know its blasphemy, but hes still my favorite, over trout...
Mike is like the perfect player. Excellent at everything. Vlad was the opposite. He shouldnt have been able to do what he did 
You watch trout swing, ball goes a mile. You think "thats the perfect swing". Vlad swung (still my favorite swing) and you wondered how he hit it.
His skills aside, he was just so entertaining to watch. Was really let down when we didnt keep him...

LOL no, Vlad would be dominant in every era

He literally single-handedly won the game.

I could read stuff like this all day, every day.  This is what makes baseball great.  Every player is different. 

ANAHEIM — In the course of reporting today’s column on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.,  the Toronto Blue Jays’ prodigy and son of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero Sr., we got to talking with Angels broadcaster Jose Mota about Vladimir Sr.’s approach to hitting. As you might expect, it was fairly uncomplicated.
Mota actually was a teammate of Vladimir Sr., toward the end of Mota’s career and the beginning of Guerrero’s.
“I was in Montreal in spring training, my last spring training in ’97, and we spent some spring training time together,” he recalled.
“We’re playing the Astros and they brought in John Hudek,” he continued, referring to a hard-throwing right-hander who lasted six years in the big leagues with a 10-15 record. “Felipe Alou was managing and he says, ‘Hey, Vladi, this guy, very good arm, very firm.’
“Vladi comes up, and his first pitch swing hits off the end of the bat, broken bat. He comes back to the dugout and respectfully says, ‘Felipe, I don’t want a scouting report from anybody right now.’ In other words, he was so keyed in, because Felipe said this guy throws really hard, he swung so early that he ended up hitting the ball off the end of the bat. So he’s like, respectfully, ‘Just don’t tell me anything about any pitcher any more. Let me do it.’”
At this point, mind you, Guerrero had played nine big league games, total. Alou was in the midst of a successful managing career and received tremendous respect from everyone in baseball.  But Guerrero knew what he was talking about.
As Mota noted in today’s column, “Vladi Sr. would not have been a Hall of Famer if somebody had told him to change his approach. He would have been altered as a hitter and confused. He needed to be left alone.
“Mickey Hatcher did such a great job with him here (in Anaheim). I can’t tell you how much Mickey stayed out of the way. Mickey wanted more input from Vladi: ‘How can I help you? What do you need me to watch? I don’t want to go out and say anything to you.’
“Vladi and I always had a joke. Whoever was pitching, he’d have me grip a ball around the cage, like, ‘Hey, what’s his best pitch?’ If it was a forkball guy I’d go like this (spreading his fingers), and he’d go, ‘No chance.’ I’d hold the ball like a changeup, and he’d say, ‘I’m gonna hit it to right center.’”
So how would he function in today’s game, with volumes of printouts, video cut-ups of at-bats, more emphasis on launch angle and exit velocity and hitting coaches who are sometimes a little more aggressive in imparting information?
“I think Vladi would give ’em that look and say, ‘I’m good,’” Mota said. “He’d be respectful about it, (but) he’d say, ‘Until this is working, why should I change, with all due respect?’”
Thing was, it worked.
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Griffin Canning shows plenty of promise in his Angels debut Alexander: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s return to Angel Stadium brings back memories Longtime Angels PR head Tim Mead hired as Hall of Fame president Shohei Ohtani has at least another week before returning to Angels Top pitching prospect Griffin Canning ready for much-anticipated Angels debut From the moment he got to Anaheim in 2004, just the distinctive sound of the ball coming off his bat told you this was a unique hitter. In 16 major league seasons, during which he was a nine-time All-Star and won the American League MVP award in his first Angels season, he hit 449 home runs, drove in 1,496 runs, compiled an OPS-plus of 140 … and averaged 37 non-intentional walks per 162 games while doing damage to pitches outside of the strike zone he probably had no business hitting.
Another hitting coach of that time had a similar experience with Guerrero. When he went to Texas as a free agent in 2010, Clint Hurdle – now Pittsburgh’s manager – was the hitting coach. He related one experience in a tweet posted by Adam Berry, who covers the Pirates for MLB.com:

“He hit the ball way too hard for a 10-year-old.” Did we say like father, like son?
View the full article

It's early but he's slashing .307/.351/.409/.760. The consensus before the season was that he's better suited for being a super utility player. But obviously if he keeps that line up he could be an everyday 2B quite easily in this league. 
He's still not 25 and has less than a full season of MLB experience so it's not crazy to think he's still making improvements.
Also, his defense at every position he plays is pretty amazing. I think he could probably handle center field too if they want to make him a true super utility guy. He's a great athlete obviously.
Our best lineup obviously contains both Fletcher and La Stella in it this year but I'm wondering if we should just make him the everyday 3B or 2B for next year. He's on pace for almost 5 WAR right now

I’ve yet to find video of it, but there was a game in Cleveland in the mid-aughts where there was a runner on third and two outs in the ninth with KRod pitching and Bengie behind the plate. KRod throws a wild pitch, runner takes off for home, Bengie tracks the ball down and does a no look flip between his legs with his back to the plate, and KRod catches it and slides into home with the runner tagging him out to end the game. One of the sickest catcher plays I’ve ever seen.

It wont be anything special, but still excited. Been quietly waiting to see what this guy can do.
If he can be another fletcher, that will be nice.

You guys are not old enough to understand just how bad the 70's Angels were. They were bottom feeders except for 1978 (Lyman Bostock murdered) and 1979 when they finally won the Western division.
Tanana and Ryan and 3 three days of cryin wasn't a joke it was years of futility. In 1974 the two of them pitched 81 games. About as many as Skaggs has pitched in his entire career and about 140 more innings. They ended up in last place.
Ever hear of a guy named Ellie Rodriguez? He caught 140 games that year. But nobody really remembers the guy because the team sucked bad even though he was a pretty decent hitting catcher that year. 
And that was the 70's for the most part. A few journeyman would have a good year but it went unrewarded because of how bad the rest of the supporting cast was. The Angels wasted the talents of the most dominant pitcher in the AL then closed out the decade by pissing him off and letting him walk. 
Fuck the 70's. 

Pujols killed it that year.

It is weird that I prefer this season to last season or previous seasons lately.  I am wired so different than most of the guys on here.  It didn’t take me long to change my focus this year.  Sure it sucks to lose, but I like watching guys like Fletcher and Goodwin play.  I like the young bullpen guys like Anderson and Buttrey.  La Stella has been a pleasant surprise with the bat.  Lucroy minus his two errors that cost us a game at least knows what he is doing with the bat which is much better than what we saw with Maldonado.  I am frustrated as anyone about the record, but that is mostly due to starting pitching in my opinion and lack of Upton and Ohtani.  Harvey has now had two good and two really bad outings.  Cahill is just ok.  It has been nice to see Barria throw well last time out.  The opener was a different type of thing over the weekend.  I look forward to guys like Canning and Adell getting the call.  I guess what I am saying is I would rather lose with younger guys than have a slightly better record with the Espinosas and Escobars and the Valbuenas (RIP) and Martes.  

There’s only one way I can think of how cozart injuring himself must have looked
 

Please tell me it looked like this 

They also have lost 6 of 7. They also won 6 in a row before that. Another one of those and they're above .500. Another 6 of 7 losing streak and they're way under. Take the middle ground and they're hovering around.500. That's without Ohtani/Upton/whatever boost the farm gives us.
You could be right and they might lose 95 games and you could say you called it. I'm sure you'd love that

Our team is scrappy! I think if we can just hover around .500 until Shohei and Upton are back, we can take that momentum and really make a run at the wildcard. Especially with teams like the Yankees and Boston off to slow starts.