WicketMaiden

1 hour ago, Angel Oracle said:

I guess the proof will be in how he does the rest of the season?

Maybe, maybe not. None of us can say. He might have it all worked out in the next start, but he's much more likely to really break out next season or the season after that. It is incredibly difficult to be good at Major League Baseball isn't it? He is pitching to elite human beings who pretty much all have far more experience than he does, so who knows how long it will take for him to adjust to that. The coaches could maybe help him out by pulling him a little earlier now and again, but then again he's got to take his lumps as part of his learning curve, so when is a good time if not now? AAA isn't the answer because it just isn't the same, apples, oranges etc.

1 hour ago, totdprods said:

He was great out of the gate, then had a couple seasons of growing pains - he definitely wasn’t bad, but he was prone to having a big inning and difficulty going deep into the games, then it all clicked and he was great for several seasons.

Reid is in the exact same spot now. Growing pains. Figuring out how to balance striking guys out and pitching to contact without hitting 100 pitches in the fifth, how to avoid the big inning, etc…it’s just working around the nuances of MLB hitters at this point and knowing how to approach certain situations. The stuff is there.

I’ll go so far to say he’ll be around a legit, consistent #1 or #2 in 2024.

Totally agree (apart from the 1 or 2 bit, and I hope I'm wrong, but a solid number 3 for me). Kershaw pitched 327 innings before his breakout season; Gerrit Cole 477; John Lackey had only 55 minors innings before his 100 inning 127era+ rookie season, but then had two years and 400 innings of sub 100 era+ before it clicked for him. There are plenty of good pitchers out there with similar development cyles.

1 hour ago, Lhalo said:

I watched this a while back and I still can't figure it out lol.

 

I can see why, Larry, it's awful. The guy doesn't seem very confident with the subject matter. I only lasted about three minutes or so (...that's what she said!) and thought he covered a load of stuff that really isn't important for a newbie to the game.

My best advice is just watch a few games to begin with. You don't need to know all the details but you already understand outs and runs, big hits and great catches, so along with the commentary style, which is very informative and insightful, you'll be up to speed in no time with a solid understanding. After that, layer upon layer of nuance will unfold as you get deeper into the game and begin to understand what the captain is doing with the fielders and bowlers to get people out, and how to spot different approaches the batsmen employ to counter that.

Basically the game is: man with ball throws at man with big stick; man with big stick tries to hit ball; if man with stick misses ball = bad (mostly); if man with big stick hits ball = good (mostly). The rest is just details.

Will post a thread for Major League Cricket when that begins, so that will fill in a few more blanks for anyone watching.

I also invite anyone to PM me with any cricket questions, I can talk for hours about cricket (or baseball) so I'm happy to do so.

I've seen a lot of comments castigating Detmers' performances this year and posing the idea that the guy just isn't good enough. I have to ask, what is wrong with you people?

Reid Detmers is just 23 years old and has started a sum total of 55 games in professional baseball. That includes all his minors starts and comes out to 268 innings in total. Gerrit Cole pitched 200 innings in the minors before even being called up, Reid pitched just 68.

Give the guy a break and give him time to learn his trade. He is far from the finished article and with the stuff he has, once the penny drops for him he's got a great chance of becoming a damn fine pitcher.

20 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Wreck him and burn up their bullpen in the first game. 

He surely can't be stretched out very much, so as much as I'd love a run-fest it could be enough to just work the pitch counts to get him out of there early.

23 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

STOP IT WITH THE MONIAK TALK as soon as Philips finds his swing at SLC he will be back.

He must have hidden it well, 12 PA's and zero hits so far in AAA. In a hitters' league, too.

Looks like Blanco was a closer and set-up man in AAA. This year in MLB as a reliever he has pitched 12 innings with a WHIP of 1.92, a 4.5 ERA and 7 walks to 16 strikeouts. He has only had 23 career starts in the minors, pitching mostly in relief.

Hopefully a few hot Angels bats will get him out of the game early.

Critical

43 minutes ago, Lou said:

Trout is 7th in the AL in OPS. 

And Shohei is 8th in the AL with .833 OPS.

As a comparison (qualified players):

Drury 34th - .778

Renfroe 44th - .744

Urshela 46th - .729

Ward 67th - .662

5 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Funny enough, I've never seen it, but randomly watched a clip of that yesterday. I'll have to sit down and watch it one of these days.

It's well worth the time. Excellent cast and quite gritty in parts, especially for that era in cinema. It does a very good job of challenging the notion of glamour and glory in wartime.

First step is get everything in writing. So in your position I would email HR (copy in your manager) to recap your conversations to date over the phone, and then ask them confirm in writing what they have said. For example: "You advised that contract was given in error. Who is liable for that mistake?" "Can you confirm no other employees have this contract?". That sort of thing.

As a general rule of thumb over here, if HR is doing everything over the phone and not in writing, there is something amiss.

Good luck with it.

Of a similar type and age, Cross of Iron is pretty good. Another gritty movie from the Eastern Front.

3 hours ago, ScottT said:

It isn't easy to hit.

It's easy to catch a fly ball

Jo Adell disagrees with this comment

1 hour ago, Swordsman78 said:

Agreed.   The hitting is the main culprit.   The Angels spent alot of $ on improving the offense and so far they are under performing.  Only Gio is over .300.

I don't agree, from what I've seen really poor decision making has been the main culprit. By the coaches/management and the players on the field. There was an extended period earlier this year where the team kept beating themselves by doing really dumb things, with the bat and the ball. The Angels stolen base strategy is a mystery, they steal in high risk and low leverage situations and will sit a guy on first with no outs throughout the 9th with the game on the line. Poor decisions have been at the root of a significant number of the errors on defence too. Yes the hitting has also been poor at times, and again often due to poor decision making driving players to swing at pitches they should take. The situational hitting is fairly non-existent. These guys have the talent, but they're losing these games in their heads.

Worst. Thread. Ever.

Robert Hooke

27 minutes ago, gotbeer said:

 

They could kill a spider, and it will feed them for 3 days.  Will check it out though.

I doubt this lot could catch a spider let alone kill it. I'm now 23 days in and more than half of them have quit already.

Alone: Australia

Same format at the US version but the contestants don't seem anywhere near the same skill-level. I'm 4 episodes in and no-one is shelter-building or displaying anything other than the most basic fishing or hunting skills. It's like a parody of Aussie culture at some times and then a therapy session at others, so it's a curious watch with at least a hint of Schadenfreude seeing what seem like amateur survivalists make some pretty basic errors. If you like Alone, it's worth a look for the comparison. Will add more when I've watched the whole season.

If he stays out there much longer that mound is going to be flat.

James Herbert

18 minutes ago, Lou said:

Agree with your assessment.

  Reveal hidden contents

I thought they mailed in the ending. 

 

Aussie crime drama based on real events in Sydney's red light district in the 1970's. It's pretty well made with a really good cast (including some familiar faces from Mr Inbetween), Tim Roth is pretty good but there's nothing new here and at times I found it a bit predictable and formulaic. The show covers a long period of time which unfortunately left them short of time for deeper back-stories on the characters, so it was a little shallow in that respect, but otherwise it was fairly good. No masterpiece but worth a look.

If you can't even be bothered to get the players' names right...

Good for you, @HaloSpurs , I'm glad you're seeing some good games. After the last 20 years of both the Halos and Spurs flattering to deceive so often, I'd say you're due some fun times. How does the beer compare?

UPDATE:

Shohei still clearly leads the Angels but no longer the Majors with 2.8 bWAR (4th behind Semien, Acuna and Robert on 2.9) and 2.2 fWAR (9th - Acuna leads with 2.6 fWAR).

Mike Trout is currently languishing in 34th place for fWAR with 1.8 fWAR and 1.5 bWAR. Second on the team for both.

Estevez has a stellar 1.4 bWAR / 0.9 fWAR, with Moore just behind on 1.2 bWAR / 0.3 fWAR.

Detmers is a WAR curiosity, with a full 1.0 fWAR, but a negative 0.1 bWAR. Go figure, as you guys like to say.

Mickey The Masher Moniak has crashed into the Majors with 0.9 bWAR / 0.8 fWAR from just ten games (8 starts) - that's 15 bWAR pace, so unless he's channeling namesake Mantle we can expect that to flatten out quite a bit.

Neto has been almost as impressive, racking up 1.0 bWAR in just 35 starts. That's good for joint 5th on the team, level with Barria.

You can find this table here for more details: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2023.shtml