Duren, Duren

The way things have played out for this franchise for the last decade and continue to is like the script was written by someone who hates it more than is humanly possible. I had no expectations this season I just didn’t want to see things get worse. 

Can't even enjoy a win for 24 full hours before bad news happens. Man the baseball gods just hate this team. 

Well, to be fair, would you expect Wash came out and said.. 
"We're dogshit, we have a bad contract we can't move due to the players injury history, our Best Player doesn't have the same trade value as his contract due to his injuries. We lost a TORA and MOB and ownership wasn't going to replace him to remain competitive. So, what you see is what you get. We can improve our defensive inadequacies by repetitive practice and working on our fundamentals. Our pitching is going to have to work to be more consistent within the strikezone while pitching to contact and keeping the ball in the yard. Our hitting will come, as overall we're a young team that will take time to improve and be more consistent as the youth learns their abilities within the game. This could get ugly... But, I promise, before I leave here and retire they will have a good framework to build upon"...
That's not sexy, it's not pretty, that's where we're at.
Also, Chuck would have to rebrand the website name to Angelsmeh.com... 
 
I jest! Kind of....

I will never give up on the Angels but I do have a hard time supporting it financially with Arte as the owner. Of course that is saying very little since I live in Northern California and use my friend's MLB.tv account. Pretty much, I just don't have the desire to take my annual SoCal trip to watch the team play or buy Angels merchandise. That will show Arte... absolutely nothing... but at least it makes me feel... in no way better.

We've now got the Dollar Store version of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
 

So true. 
I still remember my dad taking me to my first NHL hockey game at the old Montreal Forum when I was around eight. And my mom taking me to my first pro football game (CFL) when I was nine. My first MLB in person game was the very first Expos game at Jarry Park when I was in high school and a few pals and I skipped classes for the game. 
I still have the ticket stub. With autographs from three original Expos. Bill Stoneman, John Bocabella and Rusty Staub. 

So true. 
I still remember my dad taking me to my first NHL hockey game at the old Montreal Forum when I was around eight. And my mom taking me to my first pro football game (CFL) when I was nine. My first MLB in person game was the very first Expos game at Jarry Park when I was in high school and a few pals and I skipped classes for the game. 
I still have the ticket stub. With autographs from three original Expos. Bill Stoneman, John Bocabella and Rusty Staub. 

That’s awesome @Duren, Duren.

So true. 
I still remember my dad taking me to my first NHL hockey game at the old Montreal Forum when I was around eight. And my mom taking me to my first pro football game (CFL) when I was nine. My first MLB in person game was the very first Expos game at Jarry Park when I was in high school and a few pals and I skipped classes for the game. 
I still have the ticket stub. With autographs from three original Expos. Bill Stoneman, John Bocabella and Rusty Staub. 

So true. 
I still remember my dad taking me to my first NHL hockey game at the old Montreal Forum when I was around eight. And my mom taking me to my first pro football game (CFL) when I was nine. My first MLB in person game was the very first Expos game at Jarry Park when I was in high school and a few pals and I skipped classes for the game. 
I still have the ticket stub. With autographs from three original Expos. Bill Stoneman, John Bocabella and Rusty Staub. 

Starting to bring back memories of the expansion Expos. "70 in 70" was their ambition after their first season. Though I was a kid I remember that fans were just excited to have a major league team for the first few years. And made folk heroes of Rusty Staub and Mack Jones. But after about five years that wore off and pressure to win became the main focus. 
It was their farm system that turned them into "the team of the eighties" as the cover of the Sporting News predicted. But that never produced a champion, though they had a great run foir about half a dozen years. Easily a playoff team under today's system. Almost every star on those teams was home grown. Carter, Dawson, Cromartie, Valentine, Parrish, Rogers, Raines and more. The organization knew that free agents rarely would sign there so they built a great scouting and developmental system. Even later they were one of the first to scout Latin America extensively. 
This story relates to the current Angels in some ways. Especially the need to rethink and revamp their longer term strategy. And get the right people in to build rather than patch up a leaky foundation. There are some useful young players that will be part of the rebuild, but the real need is to have a deep farm system with coaches who can accelerate progress. As well as have a head of baseball ops who can orchestrate a serious  systemic rebuild
And once and for all, have Arte stop meddling and setting and expecting to meet unrealistic goals. Preferably having new, smart owners but if not, just let him step back and stop being part of the equation. 
Owner Bronfman was always generous and pro actively supportive, but deferred to the baseball people. He did try personally to entice Reggie Jackson to sign as a free agent and nearly succeeded. But that was a rarity. Head of the scouting department was Jim Fanning. A really visionary, smart guy. Reluctantly he took over as manager when they fired Dick Williams and did guide them to their only playoff appearance in the strike season of 1981. But his experience was in scouting and he only managed a short time because of loyalty to the organization. As well the Expos produced a long line of front office people who had great success as GMs in other organizations. 
Sentimentally I always respected Bill Stoneman. Having watched him pitch two no hitters over his Expos playing career and in his rise through various front office positions. His experience with the expansion Expos probably helped inform his system building philosophy. His time with the Angels really consolidated his reputation. 
So will this season stimulate serious change if it continues to implode and embarrass? Rock bottom is getting close, and a low 70s win season may be that point. At this stage it will take a major reversal of form for them to get close to .500. 

So true. 
I still remember my dad taking me to my first NHL hockey game at the old Montreal Forum when I was around eight. And my mom taking me to my first pro football game (CFL) when I was nine. My first MLB in person game was the very first Expos game at Jarry Park when I was in high school and a few pals and I skipped classes for the game. 
I still have the ticket stub. With autographs from three original Expos. Bill Stoneman, John Bocabella and Rusty Staub. 

So true. 
I still remember my dad taking me to my first NHL hockey game at the old Montreal Forum when I was around eight. And my mom taking me to my first pro football game (CFL) when I was nine. My first MLB in person game was the very first Expos game at Jarry Park when I was in high school and a few pals and I skipped classes for the game. 
I still have the ticket stub. With autographs from three original Expos. Bill Stoneman, John Bocabella and Rusty Staub. 

Does anybody on here REALLY think it actually matters who the GM is? We've had, what, 4-5 GMs in the last decade or so? And this team has continued its downward spiral. 
 
What is the common denominator?
 

Everything is wrong with the Angels.
Scouting SUCKS. 
Development SUCKS.
Player acquisition SUCKS.
Players Attitudes SUCK.
PITCHING SUCKS.
They really need to sell the team and start from scratch with all new employees. Just clean house and start fresh. Grab some front office and scouts from successful organizations. How do other teams draft, recruit, and develope quality pitchers year after year? Some decades after decades. Angels are 5 year minimum away from the play offs and that's if everything went perfect. 
Hicks is a perfect example of poor judgement. Who really thought he had any value. Fire that guy first because he has zero talent when it comes to evaluating players value. Mistake will happen but we aquire other teams mistakes. 
 

They're the only team to have never lost 100 games or more in a season.  But, I think these guys could be the ones to do it. They can't hit. They can't pitch. They can't field.  Maybe with a 100 loss season, Arte taps out and gives us all hope again. 

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. 
 

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

rengifo not tracking the ball cost us 3 runs

The worst part is that the offense is keeping this game close but Wash essentially conceded the game in the 2nd inning with Suarez

washington putting in suarez was putting up the white flag...how did he think that was a way to win the game playing suarez?

Perry must be fuming that even after banishing Adell to AAA 3 seasons in a row he's back and outshining the Shanuel-Neto-O'Hoppe-Moniak "young core".

Or go to the Coors Light patio and watch Stanley Cup playoff hockey.

"We'll give you this one in a game you're gonna lose by 10 runs anyway. You're welcome."

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.