tomsred

Is this kind of like bragging about how someone bought a 1979 Yugo for $100?  Just want to understand the purpose of this thread.

Most fan reactions are too high or too low, they way overreact.  They jump on the bandwagon when things go right with a player, and when things go wrong they run the issue into the ground.  To use Mathis as an example, I don't think he was as bad as many made it sound on here.  He is what he is, a poor hitter with good but not great defensive skills, had good communication with the pitchers, worked hard, and had above average athletic skills.  His poor hitting got magnified by the extra base hits that Napoli accumulated.  Once a player's poor skills are exposed, the fans go over board to ridicule the player in general.  Mathis wasn't the first, and won't be the last.  This year's edition - Hamilton.
 
Fans, in general, are impatient and not really supportive of many players.  Part of it is the salaries they make compared to the general population. There really isn't much empathy when players struggle in almost any organization. 
 
That's also partly why some fans have a problem with Scioscia, he's even keel and doesn't overreact either way - to the good side or bad.  Fans go overboard both ways, but mostly on the bad side of things.

Okay, I'm staring at it.  Does it move around or something, or does a rally monkey pop out of it?  LOL

Is this kind of like bragging about how someone bought a 1979 Yugo for $100?  Just want to understand the purpose of this thread.

Maybe because the fans wouldn't get off his back?  All they wanted to do is focus on his enormous contract, and shout and post insults.  I'm not saying it wasn't warranted, but sometimes all baseball fans take things a little too far.  When fans have to pay a good sum of money to go to any MLB game, they think they have a sense of entitlement to always get the best results.  Unfortunately bad things happen.  In NY his contract isn't an issue, and they were desperate for help to start this year.  I'm glad for him, he seems to be a really nice person. 

Here is another angle:
 
I don't think ANYBODY foresaw what the free agent market was going to be like (in terms of dollar amounts) this past offseason. Jerry made the trade and gave up Segura because you have to give talent to get talent, and while he was the Angels' top-rated prospect at the time, he was just that, a prospect, who had yet to perform at the major league level. He was also a prospect who was blocked by two above-average (and relatively cheap, even with their new contracts) middle infielders, and looked to be for some time. On the other hand, the Angels were four games out of first with a good look at winning the division, or at least, a wild card slot. Pitching was the primary issue at the time of the trade, and he was the best pitcher available. So we didn't make the playoffs. That wasn't Greinke's fault. He turned out to be the team's best pitcher down the stretch. If we had made the playoffs, there might have been more incentive for Greinke to stay, plus, there wouldn't be all this second-guessing from everyone who all of a sudden has 20/20 hindsight on here.
 
I said it at the time of the trade, and I'll reiterate it here: Flags Fly Forever. Greinke was the best opportunity to get that flag. It didn't work. Dipoto rolled the dice and crapped out. At least he showed that he wasn't going to stand pat and let things just play out.
 
Think about this for a moment: You're the GM, your team is in the thick of the hunt, and your primary need is pitching. There is a pitcher available who is really good, and gives you a great opportunity to win the title that year. All the other team wants in return is a bunch of prospects, nobody who has spent much time in the majors. Do you pull the trigger? Or do you just let things "play out" and hope that the team wins with what it has?

April was clearly the month of the six inning starter; May belongs to Kendrick 1-4.  It's like the stock market, you have to know when to buy in and when to get out that's important.

Hamilton and Pujols pray enough for all of us, but the problem is they aren't using the right prayer. I prefer this one:
 
 
Our Trout who art in center (and sometimes left),
hallowed be thy name.
Thy MVP will come.
Thy wheels get it done
on the road as it is in Anaheim.
Give us this day our daily win,
and forgive us our LOBs,
as we forgive those who pitch around you,
and lead us not into poor situational hitting,
but deliver us from losing.

For thine is the franchise,
and the leadoff spark, and the future World Series glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

My answer to some of your questions is as follows:
 
1. I pretty much agree with you, chemistry is over emphasized and tends to show well when your winning.
 
2. I think he was implying that the team had learned to jell well together as a team, and there was no need to make the amount of changes that were made in total.
 
3. I think he meant that leaders have to develop over a period of months.  Managers, coaches and player leadership qualities are quite different.  A manager makes hard decisions regarding who plays, who sits, many in game decisions, bating orders, etc., and must be in a position to reprimand and encourage a player as necessary.  He shouldn't have to justify every decision he makes, and must be isolated somewhat from the players.  The coaches fill an intermediate role, they can be closer to the players, sometimes consoling and encouraging them.  Player leaders come in all types, part of it is they have to lead by example to some degree to have a much credibility.  Some can be poor performers and be leaders, but I believe that is rare.
 
4. No one is saying that the manager and coaching staff have done an outstanding job this year.  I would think their performance is under review mostly by DiPoto, and somewhat by Moreno.  Not every player is playing poorly compared to their norm.  Unfortunately this team has little depth, and the highest paid players on the team are under performing for various reasons.  A few are injured, and there is no depth to step up and fill the void created by these injuries.
 
Making changes to a baseball team, employees in a company, or almost any situation where team performance is required to succeed will many times set the entire team back a few steps until they learn to work with one another, not always but many times it will.  I believe this wasn't taken into account by either Arte or DiPoto.  I still believe this team will come together and win somewhat consistently, but not until some of the players come back from injury, it's just not a deep enough team.  I've said this in previous years, you need between 40-50 effective players to win a championship.  That's how many different players the Angels run out at the Major League level each year.  Unfortunately our numbers 25-50 on the depth chart are very poor right now compared to other clubs.

I'd let Josh sit in the BMW and guard it from being keyed.  While he's in there I would make him watch movies of his strikeouts during the season to date on the navigation screen.   

I'd let Josh sit in the BMW and guard it from being keyed.  While he's in there I would make him watch movies of his strikeouts during the season to date on the navigation screen.   

I'm with you on this Mulwin.  I can see some logic in replacing Scioscia because it is the easy answer to appease frustration among the fans, and others in the organization.  Sometimes making a change, any change can kind of shock a team out of a poor path they may be on.   Things are complicated here by the fact that a really good replacement for Scioscia is not obvious.  However, that issue aside, something else is definitely wrong with the philosophy or conduct of operations in the front office.  Maybe the overall strategy is very poor, maybe DiPoto is too inexperienced, maybe roles and responsibilities haven't been clearly defined.  It's hard to pinpoint the problem because unless you are an insider there is little hope of understanding how the Angels really conduct their business, and how effectively relationships work.

Since I have already purchased my tickets, I will be attending at least 2 games this weekend...but I get to watch a baseball game live on a bright sunny afternoon, enjoy a cold beer with friends...and maybe a win. 
 
It's still baseball.

Does every bit of advice you give involve yelling at somebody, throwing a temper tantrum, or generally making a fool of yourself?

Does every bit of advice you give involve yelling at somebody, throwing a temper tantrum, or generally making a fool of yourself?

No, not the only thing.

It's frustrating, but I personally don't need a break. Any kind of Angels baseball is better than nothing.  Like many of you have already said, I just have to keep the winning and losing in perspective to other things going on in life.  Adjustments will be made, even major changes if necessary to attempt to get on track.  It's not my personal worry, I am not in control and never will be.  I still like these guys, they are trying but they may once again not have the ability.  As far as how much they make I could care less, that's a matter between Arte and the players.  I am still going to games, and I will still hope they win as long as I am able to do so. 

When folks are tossing Butcher's name out to be fired, because the pitching staff is atrocious, I think it's perfectly find to toss some hyperbole out there. This staff is not performing all that much worse than one would expect.
 
Did you expect better from Blanton? From Vargas? From Hanson? None of these performance are head scratching. These are 5th starters.
 
CJ Wilson might be the one guy you could say needs someone else to try and get through to him.
 
The bullpen was the biggest issue for this team going in to 2012, and it wasn't addressed. One could say it was the reason the Angels didn't make the playoffs. So, going in to 2013, it still wasn't addressed. For a team that is spending around 150 million, to sign a closer coming off Tommy John as one of their key acquisitions...that is just dumb. Maybe if you sign him to be your setup guy like Texas did with Soria...but this bullpen rebuild was based in large part on Madson being the closer which pushed Frieri in to the 8th inning role and everyone else down a notch.
 
So, you take blowing up the rotation and signing a bunch of 5th starters, add in not addressing the bullpen - when your poor starting rotation makes it even more important to have a strong bullpen...and this is what you get. It shouldn't be a surprise and to put it on Butcher is ignoring how the Halos ended up in this spot.

Anybody with half a brain knows that Scioscia isn't the problem. He'll make it through the season. There's plenty of baseball left to play.

Scioscia didn't build this  team and at the end of the day it's the players who have to perform. I'm sure this has been brought up a lot but he has a WS ring and 5 division championships in 10 years. I'll continue to take my chances with him.
 
In many instances I would jump on the "fire the manager bandwagon" if you can see it in the players that they don't have confidence in their leadership. I don't think that could be further from the truth with Scioscia. If you start to hear noise and controversy coming out of the clubhouse then you know there are issues but you never hear that from a scioscia managed team. Players believe in him and vice versa.
 
This team has to gel and hopefully they will start to do that soon. Once they do that they will be fine. If I can blame anyone for the slow start I would blame Dipoto. This team does not look like a playoff contender when you look at the pitching staff but somehow they will have to figure it out like we did in 2002.
 
I have confidence we will figure it out. this team is very capable of going on a long winning streak.

In all honesty this shouldn't even move the needle either way.  I don't think personally there is much to any chance of LaRussa managing the Angels, but do you actually think he would say he has any interest even if he did? No matter what you think of Sosh as a manager he is VERY well respected in the baseball ranks and no one would attempt to undermine him, especially someone with the stature of LaRussa.

The Lakers were 0-11 to start the season, now they are in the playoffs.  Well............

I'm hoping I'll get into a car wreck this afternoon, I will learn from it and be a better driver in the future.  Don't go anywhere near the I-405 today.

Hope this isn't a Craig...  Funny way to deal with heckler:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAixaI6iO4c

I think you are reading too much into their expressions.  They look like they have a lot of fun when they win, and if they look like they are loose when they lose, well the fans don't like that at all because why should they be loose and happy when we can't be.  Scioscia tries to keep things on an even keel because he knows the season is so long.  It's detrimental to get too high or too low because you can't sustain the former, and you don't want to sustain the latter.  If you want to see what can go wrong when you replace someone like Scioscia with a fiery type you don't have to look any further than the Francona to Valentine transition last year - disastrous.
 
If Scioscia is replaced Arte better have someone real experienced and well qualified to replace him with before he pulls the trigger.  Fans are very reactionary, they don't think things can get worse.  They sometimes think that anything is better than what is happening currently.  The truth is that the wrong move here could set off a chain reaction of mistakes.  DiPoto would push real hard for someone loyal to him and who agrees with his philosophies.  I'm not sure I trust DiPoto enough to let him take greater control.  His performance is every bit as suspect as Scioscia's right now.
 
I hope that Arte has someone outside the organization who he can turn to for some advice on this one, someone impartial who is extremely experienced in baseball operations.  Like a former GM or owner who has navigated this minefield before.  He has to shut down on listening too much to his GM, manager, fans, and press/analysts and really think about what can be done to achieve the objectives he wants.