AngelsLakersFan

I'm more concerned with where he is going to play. His glove doesn't look like it can handle second base and the A's didn't seem to think he could play third. That said it's also possible that the A's do actually believe he can play third but no longer have any use for a third basemen. If he ends up needing to play OF he will need to start showing some power. For you guys watching all the games, does he look like he has the arm for third base?

I have been thinking this for awhile as well. Bonds is Trout's most similar comp. That said Trout is far better at the same age, and Barry didn't really break out until his age 25 season when he finally cracked 30+ homers. Bonds didn't strike out quite as much as Trout does, and it wasn't until his age 24 season that he walked as many times as he struck out - Bonds would continue that trend for another 17 seasons. I have a feeling that Trout might accomplish this feat next year.

Very good point. There have been a couple of noticeable lacks in advanced scouting this year as well. Have we thinned out the scouting department lately, cuz it sure seems like it.

How long had those guys been in the organization? My point with that line was that most of the talent that drove our best years was homegrown before Moreno had the chance to put his mark on the franchise. Moreno's win now mentality paid off in the short run because he was complimenting the talented homegrown core with good free agent signings. As time has gone on that core has evaporated and not been replenished, while those signings have also not panned out.

So this board is kind of degrading into a who to place the blame on discussion. After reading through all this crap it's safe to say that there is no clear answer. We have daily articlestaking pot shots at everyone. Some blame Moreno, some Reagins, some Scioscia, others DiPoto. I have no idea who to really place the blame on. What we can look at are some of the facts... Arte Moreno fired Tony Reagins as a direct result of the Mike Napoli / Vernon Wells trade. The biggest problem with this organization right now, beyond poor free agent spending, is a complete lack of organizational depth brought on by an organizational imperative to win now. This imperative goes all the way back to the Tony Reagins hiring and has continued up until this years trade deadline. Jerry DiPoto's free agent signings and trades have pretty much universally failed. The franchise was pretty successful throughout the Stoneman years and the first part of Reagins reign mostly due to a talented core assembled pre-Moreno / Reagins and filled with a series of generally successful free agent signings. Beyond that there really isn't much to go on. I can't point the finger in any one direction but I can say, as someone who has never been a big Scioscia fan, it's hard to see this team getting any better simply by firing him.

In the off season everyone on here seemed to think the bullpen issues had been solved by the Madsen / Burnett signings. Best case scenario this was true, but when looking at bullpens I tend to subscribe to the 50% theory. Half of your guys are going to work out, half aren't. Good bullpens are built through sheer numbers, trial and error. With such a weak system there is really nothing that this organization can do to field a good bullpen at this stage of the game.

It's funny cuz Bourjos is the second best player on the team.

The brilliance of this movie is that BEEF SUPREME is his actual name.

Anyone listen to the game on the radio the other day? They were asking Steve Sparks (former Angel & now Houston coach) why Chris Carter was so amazing against the Angels, yet so terrible against everyone else. The answer was quite revealing. The Angels are using a different strategy to try and get Carter out, a strategy different from every other team who's faced him. For some reason literally every other team but the Angels has discovered how to get him out. Really raises a lot of flags about our advanced scouting - flags that are already raised by our inability to hit crappy lefties, or our inability to hit pitchers with limited big league exposure...

I usually think these types of posts suck, but this one is awesome. 10

There is no reason to believe he is going to bounce back at this point.

It's just the lack of dynamic range in the digital camera.

Obviously changing win / loss records is stupid, but lets get real about the teams for one minute. The teams and MLB itself are solely responsible for the actions of their players. They personally created a culture of PED use by rewarding users with big contracts. Don't try and tell me that no one knew - EVERYONE KNEW. The fact that MLB is putting this all on the players and attempting to destroy careers to uphold their own image in the eye of the public is absolute hypocrisy.

Did he quit the dip again?

Some people are not living in reality. We gave up a mediocre LOOGY pushing 40, for a club controlled reliever 15 years younger with a little upside. Ya this guy is probably not as useful as Downs right now, nor may he ever be but this move is certainly stacked very much in our favor long term (and its not like we are going anywhere this year).

And we'll still be below .500

Someone may have answered this already but I don't believe the Angels actually sent the Mets $360k, rather the Angels set the Mets the right to spend an additional $360k in the international market. The slot system is nothing more than a salary cap on non-union players. *Ok ya it looks like a few people igured this out already ;-)

look who's warming up....

The Angels had Ervin limit his slider usage after he hurt his arm a few years back. Sliders put additional strain on your elbow and they were concerned it would blow up if he continued to throw sliders at the same rate. Obviously KC does not care if Ervin's elbow blows up, and maybe the Angels shouldn't have either.

It also doesn't make it any simpler to understand when you realize that the infield fly rule can be called anywhere on the field.

Thanks DiPoto!

The defensive metrics are still pretty light on sample size. We can be as confident in those results as we can be in about one month of offensive performance. If Trout slumped offensively for one month we wouldn't be too concerned (Bref has him slightly below average, and Fg has him slightly above average). By the end of the season Bref will probably have him at average and Fg at noticeably above. Also Trout has got to be a heavy favorite to run away with the WAR title for the second year in a row. His game is so much improved from last years' when he had a pretty high (unsustainable) BABIP. This years it's Cabrera who is playing way over his head up to this point. In the end though MCab will walk away with another MVP.

Who said they can't do both!?

Somebody needs to GIF that zoom in on Blanton's psycho eyes at the end.

omg lock it now!