Game 6

Being a gym rat does not make one a mlb player. If he cant read and track a fly ball at age 21, dont know if he ever will. 

It has nothing to do with whether or not Ohtani will succeed. 
There is no downside to letting him try.
There are no guarantees in life. Expecting the worst is a crappy point of view, IMO.
This rush to put Ohtani in some sort of box is funny.

Noticed this too...not meant as a comparison between the two, just an observation. Ward has been able to turn in a better BA and OBP (in very limited PAs) while offering decent defense all around the field.
Walsh in September: .415/.422/1.000/1.422 in 45 PA, with 1 BB, 6 K, and 11 XBH. 
Ward in September: .417/.481/.583/1.065 in 27 PA, with 3 BB, 5 K and 3 XBH.
BAbip for Ward is insane - over .500, while Walsh is at .355, and Walsh has nearly twice the plate appearances, but I don’t think Ward has ever been this useful at the plate. His versatility on the field has helped too. He seems to have started going with more of a contact approach, strikeouts are down, the ball is in play more. Better discipline than he’s shown. 
Thaiss’ playing time has gone down with Walsh hitting so well, but his stance is quite different so there must be something legitimately exciting to the coaches to justify their quick deployment of him. Real interesting to see how these guys progress next year. I wonder if they’ve tweaked Thaiss into more of a walks and power guy, almost a Kole 2.0 type, and worked the opposite with Ward, getting him more into a contact hitter ala Fletcher. It’d be ironic because it’d be sort of the opposite of what each were expected to be. Thaiss was more contact less power, and Ward was more power and all-or-nothing in his approach outside SLC. In fact, if I recall, it seems like halfway through last year I remember Thaiss got on a bit of a power surge and his BA and walks went down, strikeouts and power went up, and Ward seemed to start making regular contact with a really clean BB:K ratio. Maybe we’re seeing some of the work that started then pay off for the two.

Cautionary Tale of Shane Spencer inserted here. 

Also raked in minors at age 26, had a ridiculous end of September, 7 HR, 20 RBI in 9 games, similar slash and BB:K ratios as Walsh has in that time...was a relatively average to sub-average role player following. 
Walsh looks great and I’m a believer, but tempering expectations still. He’s made an adjustment that’s given him a legit advantage. It’s now time for the pitchers to adjust. How Walsh adapts to that correction will help determine if this sticks, and we won’t really know until a month or so into ‘21. If anything, the fact that our coaching staff helped him make those corrections is the most promising aspect. We’re seeing signs of life in Ward, Thaiss has a whole new stance...

I think if we can sign Bundy to a 4/60 type extension this offseason, I'd be all for it.  He's been durable and, of course, he's had a monstrous breakthrough this season.  That's more than a Lance Lynn-type deal, but he's a few years younger than Lynn was when he signed his deal.
Heaney, given all the injuries he's had, would probably sign for something less than that.  Still, if we had the intent of pursuing a Bauer, then I imagine we probably wouldn't consider an extension for Heaney.
Bauer, Bundy, Heaney, Canning, and Barria, with possibly Ohtani, looks incredibly solid to me.  Lock down Bauer + Bundy for the long-term, have Detmers "replace" Heaney in 2022, and move forward with a core of Bauer, Bundy, Detmers, Canning, Barria (or whomever), and possibly Ohtani for the years thereafter.  Maybe Chris Rodriguez will surprise us and emerge as a solid SP candidate in the upcoming year or two, too.

Tbh we're only 3.5 games out of a playoff spot. Will we make the playoffs? Of course not. But we're closer to that then getting one of these guys.

The Marlins wouldn’t provide a no trade clause and they couldn’t provide a DH spot. Albert would’ve been an even bigger disaster if he had signed with the Marlins. He knew that.

it's a shame that while the baseball world will remember pujols with great awe and respect, angels fans will think of him as a gigantic drain on the team.

He knew he wasn’t playing as well as he did in the past. The stats pointed towards decline before he signed with the Angels. Arte got caught in the moment and the rest is history. 

The Marlins out bid the Angels. 

Could Walsh be the answer for 1B for now and the future? Another reason to sit Albert Pujols and give Walsh regular ABs.

So no hug, got it.  

I’ve read of both Thaiss and Walsh having altered their swings extensively after being recalled from LB. I think I read the same for Ward. All recently. Have hope for all three of them currently. 
Bemboom also showing increased power this year going back to the first ST. Jeremy Reed was able to help Kole click, and La Stella, Goodwin, and Castro all showed improved power/hard contact once they worked with him as well. These things take time but I am encouraged.

Finally catches Mays for 5th spot!
Congrats Albert!

Ok so he’s a victim and I’m sure that bodes well for his success as an MLB pitcher.   He faces adversity goes to the minors, apparently pouts his way to performing worse than Stratton and you choose to defend him.  Go for it.   Oh and I can enjoy baseball and discuss things simultaneously.  

Why?  Because Barria had minor league options and Stratton didn’t.  Stratton replaced Heaney.  The team wanted more depth.  

Barria’s ERA in AAA last year was higher than Stratton’s Angel ERA. 

@stormngt you bring up Stratton way too much and you tend to want to baby Barria.  Stratton wasn’t brought here to replace Barria he was here for an injured Heaney, which happened the week the season started.  Stratton started 5 games for us.  Meantime Barria had about a 10 ERA in AAA.  Dude has had success but his k rate and walk rate are both below average and they weren’t great in 18.  

.997 OPS in 48 at bats, 5 HRs, 12 rbis

because we're also a sub-500 team.

Fixing the team aside, I think one of the offseason priorities should be to extend Bundy.  What a revelation he has been.  

I said nothing about being "off limits," just that judgments should be held lightly, due to the unusual nature of this season. Not only are there tons of weird factors at play that, in toto, could effect players differently, but the simple fact of sample size: 60 games--let along 40ish--is more swingy. Case in point: Justin Upton. After his horrible start, he's been hitting the leather off the ball: .406/.513/.688 since August 28.
Need, maybe but I doubt we'll get it. Simmons and Bauer would be great, and if we add in one of Stroman/Gausman/Odorizzi and a solid relief pitcher or two, we're probably a 90+ win team. Might as well throw in Realmuto, and we're legit contenders - but all that would cost $100M or so and bring payroll to something like $240M, well over the $210M luxury threshold. They might be able to squeeze in a mid-rotation pitcher and Simmons or Bauer and odds and ends, but not both - unless Simmons is willing to take a team friendly deal, like 3/$40M and Bauer a multi-year deal weighted for 2023 and beyond.
The Angels will also have an eye on extending Bundy and eventually Fletcher. It could be weighted for when Pujols and Upton leave, but still cost some money.
I think we'll see either one big piece and a bunch of small pieces (A), or a pair of middle-to-big pieces and odds and ends (B-D). I think they'll be competitive on Bauer, but someone will either give him $35-40M for 2021, or a huge 6-7 year $200-250M contract that he won't be able to refuse.

Oh c'mon...really?! The point is...Quijada should not have been put into the game in the first place...

This isn’t true at all.  I have said from the beginning that whatever happens this year so be it that I am not going to disqualify the end results because of the 60 game season.  We have been a bad team that doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs.  But to say the standings are predictable, is flat out wrong.  Show me any standings that had the Yankees finishing in 3rd fighting with  the Orioles.  Show me where the Nats were predicted to be one of the worst teams in the league, worse than the Angels.  Show me where they predicted the Giants were going to be above .500.  It’s perfectly fine to do your normal “Angels suck” type of posts, but don’t pretend this season was predictable league wide.