Duren, Duren

Not a good omen when MLB Extra Innings switched to the Twins broadcast after the Angels feed began without any sound. Those guys began gloating when the ball/strike mistakes went their way. And it got progressively worse as you'd expect. Obviously the signs of a blowout came in the first inning and the Soriano/Suarez combo began the fireworks. But as usual, Angel defense added fuel to the fire when the score was relatively close. And the Adell and Rengifo plays were just plain bush league bad. Again as is the new normal, Trout did nothing when he had a chance to turn the game around. From there, just a pretty sad exhibition. Against a fairly average team. Not much more need to be said except that the team is a mess. For the record, another series lost. Home or away doesn't matter

With all the playoff hockey I've been PVRing the Angels games to watch later. After four hockey games yesterday the Angels game seemed to be a slow motion comedy of errors. Despite a couple of nice double plays the defense continues to create daily damage. As Casey Stengel said, " can't anybody here play this game?" And is Trout turning into a Dave Kingman? Massive home runs but poor stats and production otherwise. Trout has better speed and defense than Kingman, but purely as a hitter his regression is troubling in most clutch situations. It now seems habitual rather than an a minor deviation.

Yes. Absolute recency bias. Clearly not enough due diligence. Arguably, he may be or become the absolute worst free agent signing in franchise history in terms of production per dollars spent. At least till now. And it's really hard to envision him being any different if he is on the team for his entire contract. His body is too fragile now and his mindset is questionable. At least Pujols gave some decent production over the span of his contract though it deteriorated dramatically in the later years.

Bobby Shantz. 5'6", 139 pounds. That's why all references to him were about "little Bobby Shantz " But looking at the record books, he was quite an effective left handed pitcher. 16 years MLB career, 1949-1964. 1952 A.L. MVP. Went 24-7 with a 2.48 ERA on the Philly A's. Later on he was a useful reliever on some pennant winning Yankee teams. From what I've read in old magazines and seen in a few videos clips he relied on slow breaking stuff and was best against left handed hitters. Good luck finding many pitchers today who can play 16 years. Of course the financial incentives was important in the old days while many current pitchers can retire comfortably in half a dozen years or so.

When judging individuals you can't neglect the trends in the sport itself. For instance, here is an interesting analytic/stats based comparison between this year, last year and beyond. Seems hitters are worse off despite the rule changes. Batting averages the lowest since 1968! Maybe all the bad stats on the Angels hitters are just normalized examples found throughout the game now. https://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/offense-is-down-across-mlb-and-rob-manfred-cant-be-happy

Gotta protect the established system and the people in it and with vested interests. At all costs. Politics by any other name. Look at the Reggie Bush stupidity. I don't even want to go deep into that 'protect the establishment' scenario. And irony of ironies. When the system breaks down because of it's own internal hypocrisies they revise history a couple of decades later. After all the damage and humiliation. It wasn't just an ethical decision, but one to avoid even more derision. Baseball protecting the umps has been common forever. But with technologies available now for proof checking they've crossed the line from judgment fallibility to pure reflex systemic protection.

I never overlook the betting angle. Not a conspiracy theorist, but you just never know. Who is 'New York' anyway? Some guys we know nothing about. So easy to just make a call on a close play go the way you want. Blatant mistakes raise red flags. Close plays just a shrug and soon forgotten.

Too bad the rally fell a run short. It could have been a different game without the decision to use Suarez in that situation. Adell showed good discipline in a tough spot. But his base running is still an adventure. Beat that by an inch, barely. But New York must have bets on the Orioles. Baseball losing credibility every day. Glad Randazzo and Gubi didn't mince criticism.

4 runs on 3 homers. Not the greatest value per homer. It would be nice to actually see runs scored in other ways than the long ball. And it would add some excitement too.

Neto going beyond the warning track finally.

Now if only Suarez could have been better or another reliever was used the game would be closer. Finally some good wood on the ball. But they dug such a deep hole that it will be hard to come back all the way. Trout pads his solo homer stats. Hard to be critical but it would be nice to see men on base sometimes. Not his fault for the empty bases, but in other situations he can't seem to get the decisive hit. Pitchers don't have the pressure of being precise with their pitches with no one on base and can afford to challenge him more.

Fans giving Suarez the business. Pretty rare home reaction. But well deserved. Realistically he should never see the mound again for this (or any) team. Four innings left for the hitters. Time for a 7 plus run rally and hold by the bullpen.

Oh well. No big Suarez surprise. Batting practice for Baltimore . Another series on the verge of being lost.

And now the bullpen circus begins ... Against a weaker team maybe Anderson was good enough to be in position for a win but the O's are so deep and patient. But with lethargic bats hard to beat anyone.

Anderson not sharp but hanging in. Sano getting more impressive in the field than at bat. Bats seem cold again.

Hopefully Anderson remains consistent going forward. They need as much stability as possible from the starters.

Nice game against a good team. Canning making steady progress. Garcia effective in his inning plus. Surprising power production from 6 - 9. Hope it's a sign of more hitting depth coming around. First Rendon. Now Trout. Talk about non traditional leadoff hitters. Hardly the Fletcher model or the typical prototypes. I don't see this lasting long, but more a wakeup call to break the slump. A bit of desperation maybe, but why not? At least short term. But what happens when Rendon returns? Adell needs to start consecutive games for a couple of weeks at least. I think that more everyday play will sharpen his read on pitchers and help his steal percentage. It's about more than speed. Getting a good jump is mostly about timing the pitching delivery and knowing their pickoff moves for an optimum lead. He's still raw with that. A win tomorrow could start some positive momentum.

In today's game using the bunt is not a priority. And the skill isn't worked on enough by many players. But it could be a useful weapon with the right player. The sacrifice is the most conventional bunting situation. Mostly moving the runner from first to second. Virtually all inner diamond fielders expect it in obvious situations. And position themselves accordingly. But it also puts pressure on the defense to execute the play properly. An excellent bunter (very few around) can direct the ball to a trouble spot for a fielder if he gets it right. So many bunters foul off their first try. And often don't bunt down on the ball. That's why we see so many pop ups. Fair and foul. A bunter with speed could use the drag bunt. Remember those? Putting more pressure on the defense. And with a man on third there is the option of the safety squeeze. Or a delayed double steal. Remember the hit and run? Don't see much of that anymore. One of the options was to fake a bunt, pull the bat back and swing at the pitch. Often just chopping at it (used to be called 'butcher boy' technique). You can get the fielders out of sync and force errors or leg out hits. Small ball is an art and requires specialized skills. Not all players are suited for it, but some on every roster should be better at it. And serious practice and teaching never hurt either. Check out the 'Go-Go' White Sox of 1959 for a pennant winning example. Especially the keystone combo of Fox and Apparicio. Anyways, it would be a breathe of fresh air to see proper technique and execution of strategies besides waiting for the long ball. And maybe take the pressure off Trout though he's paid to come through more often than not.

Interesting metric format. But still too early to call these more than a very early sample size of 1/8th of the season. A couple of good or bad series can distort a team's status as much as show an established performance level. Early in a season team's often experiment, trying to find the best everyday lineup and rotation. I'd do these maybe quarterly, after each forty games. By then teams have played more evenly road/home and against a wider spectrum of teams. The first twenty are somewhat indicative, but not enough to think things can't change over a longer time frame.

I'm mildly disappointed at how Washington is handling things. But we don't know what expectations Perry/Arte had in hiring him. Presiding over a rebuild or hoping that new leadership in the dugout would somehow create better chemistry and get the team in sync. So far it seems obvious that there is no magic. The roster is just too problematic. But a rebuild mindset doesn't seem to be in effect either. Still, it's really early in the season. This homestand will be a chance to reset somewhat. If July last year was a key turning point then indirectly it goes back to prioritizing pleasing/impressing Ohtani to re-sign more than anything else. Grabbing a handful of discards and declining players hoping that somehow everything would fall into place. And giving up potential future assets. As if Ohtani hadn't likely already made up his mind to leave. That entire scenario was embarrassing. Everyone knew the odds were slim at best. Yet Perry (likely at Arte's direction) presided over a situation that will go down in franchise history as one of their biggest blunders.

Good point. But given the fragile state of the team I worried his concentration or confidence would suffer. And as it turned out he couldn't finish the inning. Often a great defensive play pumps up a pitcher. This seemed to have the opposite effect. But overall it was encouraging watching him earn more starts.

Soriano had a really good outing. But I would have pulled him after Rengifo's error. I just had a feeling that it would be disruptive and it would be better to take him out then while things were all positive. But with this bullpen ... Like clockwork, inner diamond defense creates a critical error. Rengifo needs to never play second again. But his bat still is better than most everyone else. Maybe rotate him at third, RF, DH. Stay away from short and second. Getting shut out even when their starter is forced to leave in the first? With a Reds team with a lot of backups? Drifting into oblivion quickly unless the homestand is a great success. Getting close to the time Perry needs to perform radical surgery.

Hopefully they snap this skid and get going at home. Anyways, 4 NHL playoff games in a row are on today so I'll record the Angel game and watch it tonight.

At the 1/8th point 4 games below .500 turns into 32 games below at this pace. Obviously there will be hot spells and winning streaks and the numbers should be better. But even this early they already need a hot streak just to even their record. Let alone to actually compete for first place or a wild card. Hopefully home games will reverse at least some of this early trend. If they can work their way to .500 after this month then maybe the worst will be behind them. The lineup is still in flux somewhat and some of the terrible starts should improve. Defense in the infield needs to be at major league level. Sandoval and Canning need to be better or too many long bullpen games will expose a questionable relief group even more.

So now it will take a small winning streak to get to .500. the further they drift south, the harder it will be to make up ground. Inner defense is just so unreliable. It's one thing to give extra effort and mess up a tough play. But most of these guys are just purely bad at fundamentals. With simple routine plays. Positioning, fielding, range, reaction, handling the ball, throwing. Each ground ball is a real adventure. Obviously Neto and Rengifo are the most obvious, but Drury isn't exactly a gold Glover. And when he played Rendon had little range and threw sidearm all the time. You have to hold your breath with each chance just hoping for routine completion.