Reveille1984

He's ripped bro, he just can't avoid them with all those muscles.

Not sure why he even stood and took the charge, Quentin has to have 30+ pounds on him.  he should have pulled a Pedro and sashayed to the side like a bullfighter.

I think there's a little more to it than just "we should have "gotten" Greinke".  Free agency isn't the old Walmart down the street where you know how much you're gonna pay for everything and there's more than enough for everyone.  The Dodgers are paying him $160M for 6 years.... were we really going to exceed that and pay Greinke $27-28M a year?  And even if we wanted to, you don't think the Dodgers would have countered?  

Free agent options for starters are getting worse every year as teams continue to lock up young pitching.  Which is why it's imperative that we starting drafting some decent arms that actually pan out.

Maybe they should try open door meetings, get some fresh ideas from passerbys.

The Yankees?  Give me a break.  Our lineup is pretty much all homegrown talent under 30.  Aybar, Trout, Trumbo, Kendrick, Callaspo, Bourjos, Conger, etc. all developed in the Angels system.  We aren't becoming the Yankees because we signed Pujols and Hamilton.  The only potential albatross really is Pujols; even if Hamilton takes a s*#^& this season he's only around for four years past that, not nine or ten.

The problem is pitching.  We don't really have an urgent need for position players in the coming years so I'm not worried about restocking that.  Howie and Erick are around for 3 more years, Trumbo and Bourjos for 4, Trout and Conger for 5, and etc. Cowart should be ready to supplant Callaspo in a year or two.  But our system is barren concerning both starters and relievers.  I can't even think of one arm in our system that I'm even halfway confident about making an above-average contribution on the major league club in the next few years.  It's like this 3-4 year cycle where we either have great pitching and a mediocre lineup or vice-versa.  With Weaver being a question mark now concerning his velocity and slow start as well, its hard to be optimistic.

5.5 back after not even 10 games, that is downright depressing.  I love how the A's just have a hodge podge of random position players and still thoroughly dominate us offensively, even with Reddick out.  The A's just outplayed us in pretty much every facet this series.  We looked like a high school team trying to make some backwards foray into the MLB.

I'm not a Scioscia apologist by any means, but I can't really put the heart of the blame on him after these games.  Like others have said, it isn't Scioscia that's hitting .120 with RISP.  How is he supposed to motivate a lineup that is hitting fairly well to do the same thing when it counts?  That's on the players.  It's a complete statistical aberration that will shift towards the norm eventually and which isn't sustainable.

He's made some questionable bullpen choices I guess, but when your starters can barely go five innings every single game it isn't exactly the ideal situation.

Hamilton is such a mental midget that I don't know what would stress him out more, the failure of continuing to suck total ass in the clean-up spot or the shame of being moved into a different lineup spot after a week.

Last summer I had severe lower abdominal pain and I thought I needed surgery.  Turns out it was the Angels.

 

So no.

You too?  I thought I had a wicked kidney stone, turns out I was passing a jagged shard of calcified disappointment.

56 K's in 6 games (next to last in AL)

.111 with RISP (worst in AL)

.432 OPS with RISP (worst in AL)

6 errors (next last in AL)

That pretty much sums it up.  Pitching was good enough to win for the most part, especially the bullpen.  If we even hit .250 with RISP we'd probably be 4-2.

What

Now we can get to 6-14 in no time!

You realize that every team in the AL West plays Houston the same amount of times right?  Looking forward to the Astros for 18 games isn't gonna do us much good.

Yeah, I'm not big on Amarista off the bench.  He's like a crappier version of Aybar.  We have Conger, Schuck, Calhoun and etc. that are better options for PH.  And realistically, when would we ever use Amarista as a defensive replacement?  We have three CF's in the outfield, and Aybar and Kendrick are both solid defensively.  Romine is fine as an infield replacement. 

He's fine as a bench player for an NL team I guess, but he didn't have a spot on this team.  Getting Frieri for him was a steal.

Hamilton - 1-20, 10K

Pujols - 1-17, 4K

Trumbo - 3-20, 5K

That is pretty abysmal.

I thought I'd be pissed having to work during the first 4 games, but it seems I'm not missing too much

Yeah.... Trumbo still looking less than impressive this spring.  At least our offense doesn't have to depend on him so hopefully he doesn't feel too much pressure to knock everything out of the stadium.  Right now he's looking desperate.

Well.... on the plus side I guess these games don't count.  Silver linings!

For the most part my co-workers are fine, but of course working in IT with a bunch of dudes lacking in the social skills department there are some weirdos.  There's a guy that sits in the cubicle across from me, and he'll just rip huge farts a few times a day, much to the amusement of a couple of the other guys.  I like a fart joke as much as the next guy, but after about the 100th time you'd figure it would get old.  Apparently not though; these guys lap it up like their brains have been erased and it's the first time they've heard flatulence. 

I think Mike knows how talented he is, and is a very confident guy that believes in himeslf and his ability.  In the grand scheme of his career, an extra few tens or hundreds of thousands aren't going to make much of a difference and I'm sure he knows that.  If he can play even remotely close to how he did last season, he'll be looking at $150M+ sooner rather than later.

Everything looks good!  Thanks Chuck.