Wisconsin27

Yes you do.

Prior to last night's game he was among the league's best with an average exit velocity around 84, and his breaking ball value was elite in the 100 percentile, so there was some bad luck involved and a reason to believe he was being BaBiped to death.  The flip side is his change has been getting nuked and has been for a bit, he's like the anti-Canning in that his change has always set everything else up.  I legit think the pitch clock is in his head and he's rushing his arm action/doing something where he's failing to hide it better or something as simple ad the quicker pace means hitters aren't as keyed up to swing.  The other thing is his command has been absolute garbage since coming off the DL last year.  How much of that is him rushing I dunno but its been a legit issue.  
I understand them not having wanted to expose him coming off an injury filled season where the sample size wasn't great, but I doubt they would have kept him up if he had options.  This is probably the best part of the season to try to have him successfully pass through waivers if they want to keep him.  His out-pitch is getting torched, its early and most teams have in house options they either want to hold on to or see before risk exposing them to other teams themselves, but he definitely would be better off going to AA and pitching out of the rotation.
He is simply not right, and not helping.

Sucks when you're on a computer and can't move the cursor in a straight line, and then you have to do it all over again

We are in the same boat, I have no clue if it's because of what he's been asked to do or a byproduct of what he's trying to do as a leadoff hitter.  Clearly the team likes the outcome so far or they would have made a change.
Baseless opinion time ... I do wonder if he's being a lot less aggressing in his first at bat and simply trying to give himself and everyone behind him a chance to see as much of the SP as possible. I also believe that if he were hitting lower in the order we may see a greater effort to swing, and swing hard.  
Those first few games I thought he looked extremely passive, like he was adjusting and failing.  Glad to see he's improved as the year has gone on.  Let's hope he can stay healthy.

I guess we ignore that hit by Rendon since it just inflated his Babhip. Oh wait, it was and error so it shouldn't count at all. Fucking Rendon.

Adell gotta have one of the lowest baseball IQ's I've ever seen but you gotta keep throwing him out there regardless. The tools are still loud

Rengifo and Adell should play every game. Nice!!

First it was OMG is he ever going to get a hit.  Then it was OMG is he ever going to get an RBI.  Now it's OMG is he ever going to hit for power.  FFS, people need to give it a rest already. The dude has seen his exit velocities go from the low 80s to 88.7, while also seeing 4.21 pitches per plate appearance -- 11th best in the AL.
He's bating leadoff and still seemingly getting his shit together, but Angels fans gonna Angel fan. 

Over the last 12 games Rendon has hit .346/.397/.404/.800. He is the last guy you should be shiting on in the GameDay thread. 

I’m late to this thread, but this is what I put on Twitter Monday:
During yesterday’s game, Erica Weston said that Schanuel said the key to his success Wednesday was going back to who he is.
It seems like he was trying to be someone he wasn’t, and now he’s going back to the approach he took last year.
It’ll be interesting to see how the next two to three weeks look, assuming he sticks with his old approach.

This, at least for the foreseeable future. I think he will continue to improve at first base, also. He seems to have the requisite soft hands needed and seems to be aware of positioning.

If Schanuel could just reach 30 doubles in a season and have a .360+ OBP, I could live with 8-10 HRs.

Using Estévez there was the right call. He was already getting ready anyway, he hadn’t pitched in a few days, and the other options (Strickland, Cisnero) aren’t the most trustworthy.
If they were in a similar situation tonight, maybe you don’t use him because then he’d be unavailable tomorrow. But you use him then.

Shortest game in Angel's history, July 16, 1962. Was 1 hour 32 minutes. Angels lost 4-1 to the Senators. I was there.

Better late than never. It's here guys!! 
 

I agree with you, I also wonder what Rengifo has to do to get more playing time but Sano's resurgent play has probably eaten away at playing time for others at DH, and the reality is they ARE starting three players with less than a year of service time every game.
Hicks though..  WTF...  I mean, if you want to cater to his being a veteran then cut him down to 3 starts and then maybe backup work...  But Adell and Moniak sitting is just super annoying.  Adell has always been super streaky in the minors and to sit him when he seems to be in one of his "hitterish" streaks is frustrating.  There will be plenty of time to sit him when he goes cold.

Rebuilding takes specific intention and direction. The Angels have neither. They aren’t selling off their valuable assets, nor do they appear intent on investing anymore than what is necessary. 
My guess is they’ll be out of contention at the deadline, and instead of selling off big ticket items, like Trout, Rendon, Ward, Rengifo, Drury, Sandoval or Anderson (obviously some of those are immovable), the Angels will instead sell off a couple of their mediocre relievers for lottery tickets.

It's the smallest sample size ever, but he just looks like a completely different player. I'm excited to see what he can do because if he can even reach 75% of his full potential, the AL West is fucked and I need to call my doctor.

He definitely needs to be starting 5 of 7 games or so. The Angels need to use this season to figure out if he is part of the future or not. 

He's been very patient in most at bats this season. Quite a contrast to the past. And has put good wood on the ball quite often.
He has to maintain that discipline and not panic if he goes into a slump. He has the strength to drive pitches to all fields and shouldn't just try and over power the ball. Solid contact regularly will take care of itself. 
That's why he needs playing time. To build up a hitting routine and habits game after game. Even at DH for some lineups. 
I remember Tim Laker as an Expos catcher way back when. Nice to see him resurface with the Angels. 

I really hope Hicks isn't taking significant AB's from Adell or Moniak. If we're going for it and Bellinger is taking their AB's - fine. If we're truly rebuilding, I'd like to see Adell and Moniak playing enough to see what we have in them. 

Taylor,
 
As always, I enjoy your writing, so, I'm looking forward to digging into this in a little bit.
 
Thanks for publishing!

Happy retirement 

I just realized that in years past I was only really interested in wins and losses. 
This year, I'm legitimately interested in watching a bunch of guys on the team play.  I also like Ron and haven't liked either of our last two managers.  
And I'm sorta over the whole Ohtani thing.  
I'm ready to see a team that's decent to good at pretty much all positions.  
Going back ten years, I would say that I enjoyed watching Trout and Ohtani of course, but outside of that there were very few.  Howie, Richards, Shoemaker, Simmons and that's about it.  
This year I will want to see Neto, O'Hoppe, Schanuel, Rengifo, Trout, Ward, Sandoval, Detmers, Soriano, Drury, Canning, and a few others.  
They might not win enough to make the playoffs, but I like this team.  

This is my first official week.