Duren, Duren

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. 

58 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

First sign of trouble let him work thru it. When going gets tough the tough get going. Soriano has been a bright spot.

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. 

1 hour ago, Ariamus said:

If/when the Angels get swept out of Cincy today, they’ll be 9-13.

After, they come home for 9 games against three teams, two of which are legitimate World Series contenders. And the third was a preseason consensus favorite to win their division. Then they go back on the road to face the team with the best record in the AL.

This is going to get ugly quick…

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. 

I'm flipping over to hockey. Watching these early self destructions in real time is frustrating. I'll fast forward later. 

Every day they look less and less than a .500 team. Too many big weaknesses. 

As is the norm, another disastrous first inning by a starter. 

So Rendon lasted 1/8th of the season without an injury. Let's see how this one plays out. 

Weird start. Looks like a high scoring affair in the making. 

Frustrating game again. No clutch hitting when the game was close. Bullpen ruins a solid start. And the few solidly hit balls were mostly right at defenders. 

Ward might have eventually scored if he didn't think his double was a homer and hustled more on the bases. Instead we saw what happened. 

Neto doesn't look like a major leaguer right now. Even when he makes his best contact (which is rare) it's warning track power. And he is lost at the plate, fooled constantly by pitches. Velasquez at least had a glove. In hindsight looks like Neto was rushed or maybe just can't adjust to the majors. 

Shortstop continues to be a problem. 

Anyways, now two games below .500 and not trending in the right direction. 

Cultural change (to use a neutral term) activists use any and every such public controversy  to further their agenda. Generating immediate media attention. Which often obfuscates a fair, neutral assessment of the details without emotional bias.  

Not judging this specific case because each side is adamant with their narrative. 

In hockey junior player Logan Mailloux amongst others admitted having sexual relations with a teenage girl in Sweden a few years ago. He too was a teen. He was immediately punished when the story came out. It was his draft eligible year. Surprising everyone the Montreal Canadiens took him in the first round. And generated hysterical condemnation. But Mailloux went through rehabilitation, accepted his punishment. Now he is an elite prospect who just played his first game in the NHL. And most fans and media are now sympathetic and forgiving. The fact that he was a teen at the time is one factor the acceptance of his subsequent rehabilitation. 

Perry needs to get pro active and make some roster moves. The season could slip away quickly if some changes aren't made. 

The farm is still not that promising at the high level with hitters but lower down some guys are starting to grow..

https://halohangout.com/posts/these-fast-rising-angels-prospects-deserve-attention-after-hot-start-01hvkq2pxh9f

Ball almost snuck through but a fitting end to a frustrating game. 

Hicks embarrassing himself 

A rare poor game from Ward. A shame if the work of Canning and Garcia is wasted. But there are so many weak spots in the lineup. 

Possibly the worst at bat of Hicks yet. Futile K on three straight pitches. 

Not a bad outing by Canning. After the first. Some bad luck on infield grounders. But the hitters haven't picked him up. And now the bullpen fun begins. 

Sano battled hard. Trout circled the bases just using his eyes and legs. 

Pepiot dominating Angel hitters.