Reveille1984

I think most agree with that at this point. I doubt Sosh is much of the problem, but it isn't working with him at the helm so what's the worst that could happen with some fresh perspective? Going on four years of no playoffs now... one can only ride on reputation for so long before results are expected.

Offense isn't a problem for this team, shouldn't really have anything to do with how they score runs or if it "plays to Scioscia's strengths" as long as they're scoring. Top 5 in baseball for OBP, OPS and AVG, 8th in runs... I'll take that any year. Defense looked good on paper as well. They've sucked for whatever reason this year, but guys like Aybar, Trout, Pujols, Hamilton, Bourjos, Callaspo, etc. have always been plus defenders. The problem has been and continues to be pitching, and with a shitty barren farm system and weak free agent crops what is Dipoto really expected to do? There really hasn't been much available, and we haven't had the pieces to really do anything substantial through trades. I think it's shortsighted and somewhat of a stretch to say this team is terrible because of him, but irrational hate is irrational hate I guess. Some of his acquisitions have been odd/questionable (Blanton deal especially) and I'm not saying he's been great or anything, but most of the moves he made were for the most part praised while they were happening. Shifting the philosophy of an organization doesn't happen in a year or two.

I can't imagine Scioscia being gone anytime soon with five years left on his contract. I just don't see it. I can maybe see Butcher being relieved as a scapegoat, or possibly someone else on the staff. Regardless of what happens, we need to at least try and shore up some pitching in the offseason through trades. I saw a graphic used yesterday in the broadcast showing something like Weaver and Wilson having a combined 2.70 ERA for the past two months, while all other starters have combined for an ERA around 6.00. I mean, that is unbelievably terrible. If we have another season of dragging Hanson, Blanton and Williams out there it's going to be another long, long year. I can actually see us having a competitive team next year if we get even one more serviceable starter and resign Vargas. Weaver, Wilson, Vargas and Richards is at least a respectable core rotation.

That... is a fugly lineup

Sorry if there's already a post for this floating around somewhere. Was just wondering if anyone is doing a fantasy football league that has an open spot? Paid or not, don't really care. Or if there's an AW fantasy league?

I'm saying nobody ever complained about run prevention and small ball, they complained about the offensive approach of the team. Did I say Calhoun morphed anything? Or that Iannetta was defensively good? I'm saying we're going in a better offensive direction overall, and the fact that we are even without Pujols and Hamilton supports that idea. You present your point of view as if run prevention and a good offense are mutually exclusive... you don't have to neglect one in pursuit of the other. Every team improves what they can when they can. What could we have pursued this offseason run prevention wise? We had one of the best defensive teams in the game on paper. Bourjos, Trout and Hamilton in the OF - looked good. Gold glove shortstop, plus defensive third baseman in Callaspo, average to good defense from Kendrick. And remember last year when we had Weaver, Wilson, Haren, Greinke, and Santana? Everyone raved about how good our pitching staff would be, yet we still weren't even close to the playoffs. I'd say everything looked well set up to prevent a lot of runs. And last offseason the pitching market sucked outside of Greinke, we signed Burnett who had been solid for years. How have we been "neglecting run prevention"? What should/could we have done differently? A lot of people here like to repeatedly use hindsight to support their arguments of what should have been done even though things didn't look so bad at the time. Nobody was complaining when we got rid of Chatwood and his 5 BB/9, yet now that he's coming around a little we're starting to see the "Dipoto shipped out a great pitcher for a shitty catcher!" posts. There's a lot of other similar examples of this. And Oakland and Texas aren't doing anything dramatically different, they just have good pitching and depth due to deep farm systems and we don't. Not exactly rocket science.

We're in the top third of baseball in runs scored, and that's with an injured/mediocre Pujols and a non-existent Hamilton. We've actually scored more runs than the Rangers this year. Those damn HR's! And who was sick of good pitching and defense? What people were sick of was a bunch of undisciplined slap hitters swinging at everything and Hatcher's hitting philosophy. Now that we have guys like Pujols, Trout, Calhoun, Iannetta and etc. that actually have an idea of what the strike zone is, the offense has been much more stable (5th in OBP, 12th in BB's, 4th in OPS in all of baseball). Terrible pitching has been our downfall for years now, and it just happens to be when every team in baseball is hoarding pitching prospects like nobody's business.

What do the playoffs really have to do with anything over such a large scale of time? Baseball, despite it's lack of a hard cap, has some of the most parity involved out of all sports out there. Since 2001, 15 of the 30 teams in baseball have been to a world series. Especially with the resources that we have, it isn't likely that we're going to completely suck for the next 10+ years. Trout knows this as well, and he has the chance to play for one franchise his entire career as a HoF player. I'm sure that isn't taken lightly, and there's worse places to be than Southern California.

I'm glad you can be assured in your belief of baseball cliches to have intrinsic knowledge of Trout's inner most thoughts on the matter. "He's a winner!", what does that even mean? Is he also a "gamer" and a "grinder" and a "student of the game"? I'm sure Arte knows he needs to lock the kid up, it isn't exactly rocket science. Most of the fans that are actually still going to games are going to see him, and he needs to be the cornerstone of this franchise for the next decade.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/presenting-2013s-surprising-top-two-pitch-framers/ "Conger debuted in 2010, and his small-sample framing numbers were a little below average. His numbers in 2011 and 2012 were a little above average. This year, as noted, they’re extraordinary."

He better have protection, the ladies must be on his jock like no other.

Hamilton looks for all the pitches, and swings at just as many.

Shuck's been worth about 0.3 WAR in 300 PA. Calhoun has basically provided the same value as him in 1/10th the plate appearances. Wil Myers is likely the leading candidate.

I prefer "insufferable asshole syndrome", but that's just me. If I was Borenstein and my brother was pulling this type of crap on one of the primary forums of my professional team, I would be unbelievably embarrassed.

Probably because there hasn't been much to be excited about this year. Nice to see a kid come up and actually acclimate

He's gonna pass Hamilton in WAR in a few games if he keeps this up

Kole Puig invigorating the team awww yeah

CALHOUNNNNNNN ****KK YESSSSS

But seriously, if I have to hear Gubie talk one more time about Shuck being a legitimate ROY candidate I'm going to slap him in the dome

All singles, not impressed

That was my argument for him pitching over the twin turds Blanton and Williams. Simply because his stuff is so electric, even when he loses control at least he can miss some bats and induce some ugly swings now and again.

Most of those guys are still in A ball, I wouldn't really call them "blocked" until they get through a year or two in the Texas League and prove they can hang. Lindsey is in line to take over second once Howie is gone, he isn't blocked. Yarbrough will likely be a utility guy or a bench player unless his plate discipline evolves; 18 BB's in nearly 500 PA's is not the heat especially with Lindsey around. Same with Cron, he's been mediocre at best this season. Grichuk is hitting in the .230's in AA. Aybar's only under contract until 2015 and Stamets is in A ball as well, he isn't blocked. Every organization has a surplus in something, it isn't like it's unusual. Cream rises to the top in most cases, or guys get traded. Such is baseball.

It's pretty hard to compare east coast media hubs like Philly, Boston and New York to Orange County. It just isn't the same type of sports culture. I doubt anyone who's overly critical would get regular access to the front office or management teams of the Angels. Sosh gets the same softball questions served up to him on a platter after every game, and they're mainly geared towards the players that sucked that night. "How do you feel about Blanton's performance tonight? Well, he just missed a few spots and lost his command in the third. What has to happen to get the team back on track? Well, we just need some consistency from the pitching and to take it one game at a time." Rinse and repeat. I wish someone would rustle his jimmies just once out of pure frustration. "So Sosh, what's up with no playoffs for the past four years? When do you expect this team to be competitive again? Why is Calhoun pinch-running off the bench while Cowgill and Shuck get regular starts? The contact play rarely works, yet you consistently use it as a strategy, what's the deal?

Yeah, nothing seems like a real match at the moment. And we don't really have a replacement for Aybar that we can just plug in at SS.

Yuck... what is the point of that. Only under contract two more seasons and is almost 30. Plus he's been mediocre to bad the last two seasons, while pitching in the NL. Angels trade porn is like hiding under the bed hoping your abusive daddy Dipoto doesn't find you.