AngelsLakersFan

hmmmm

At least we've got the aces lined up!

4

Thats more of a critique of the pitching than praise for Richards.

Tigers dominated him, but hit a few balls to the wrong players at the wrong time.

Still not a fan of Bourjos leading off, he doesn't get on base enough and his offensive game is based more around slugging (surprisingly). Of course there isn't any competition on this team IMO, everyone else is just a hacker, or not a good hitter. If Bourjos can hit better than we all expect than I'm cool with it.

I like this Lucho kid yelling at everyone in the dugout after the end of the inning.

Lol, clearly...

Called it. I mean, Im sure we all did...

Hamilton will make the last out

Leg issues aside, Pujols looks like Pujols this year in a way he never did last year.

This team was due for some clutch hits.

Nice hit Petey

Being a minor leaguer does not make you a highly regarded prospect.

It's funny, just yesterday I was reading a post I made on facebook in 2010 saying the exact same thing. It's amazing how relevant that is today 3 years later... The names have changed but the idea remains the same.

I disagree. 2002 was a pitching and defense oriented team. The difference was that the pitching was in the pen, and the level of offensive performance was unexpected. Scioscia is a small ball manager, but he seems smart enough to know that bunting and stealing constantly are not the go to strategies for an offense with enough firepower to lead the league in runs potentially.

It's a result of an organizational decision to keep going for it, despite a depleted farm system, rather than going through a short rebuilding phase.

This was my reasoning at the time as well. I didn't mind the signing of Blanton, but the two years was questionable. It was like DiPoto was giving him what he THOUGHT we would be worth, not what he actually was worth. At that price DiPoto has lost the upside and when you pay for the upside that means you are really just adding on additional risk.

It has nothing to do with heart or chemistry. The problem for the past three years or so has been simple, the organization is poor. There is very little talent here. Take away the free agent signings and we have one of the ugliest teams in baseball, with no hope in sight. Just look at the players we are running out there - Brendan Harris, JB Shuck, De La Rosa, Lowe, Im sure I'm forgetting some... these are players DiPoto believes are BETTER than anyone else we have in the organization. I'm inclined to agree, especially when you consider the guys we are developing like Andrew Romine. To bring it back to THE BOTTOM LINE, this is an organization full of sub replacement level players. We have scoured the league to find those replacement level castoffs that are actual upgrades for us, and we are giving them serious playing time. We spent real money on average / below average players all in the hope that Trout, Weaver, Pujols, Hamilton, and Wilson will make them a world series contender. Pujols has delivered so far, the rest haven't, and thus we are playing like the replacement level team we would be if we didn't have any money to spend.

There is nothing to do to 'turn things around.' We either wait and see if they right the ship, or we punt the next season or two and have a fire sale.

Trout did pretty well in the leadoff spot for us last year. Ya, we could probably squeeze a few more runs out of him by moving him down, but we have to look at the trade offs of batting someone else first. With Trout leading off he gets the most PA's of anyone on the team, do we really want to pass that on to Aybar instead? I would be really cool with the idea of batting Trout second if we had a reasonable candidate for the leadoff spot. Shuck leading off last night worked out for us, but it would've been a big 'discussion' here had the game ended with Trout in the on deck circle.

how does howie not score on that!?

Crushed

Hey Chuck, I really like that you are a real fan who shares his opinion honestly. It would seem to be difficult to do that as someone in your position but you seem to handle it well, even if I disagree with you from time to time. Thumbs up.