Angelsjunky

First page a calendar year starts on in this thread: 2018: 1 2019: 10 2020: 19 2021: 23 2022: 27 2023: 32 2024: 32

Well, that assumes that Arte doesn't panic buy and overspend on older guys and middling free agents, in the hopes of returning to relevancy. Meaning, what you're saying should be the case, but it is contingent on Arte accepting the reality of the situation. I suppose the good news is that he didn't do that last offseason, and seemed to accept the "taking stock" approach to 2024. If 2024 is truly a taking stock year, as I suggested before the season began, the stock is that the Angels suck, top to bottom. There's some potential, but the nucleus of young guys is both not large or good enough to build a near-future contender. Meaning, the Angels entered the season with the hope that Trout and Rendon could stay healthy and lead the young guys to, if not a wildcard, at least a winning record and franchise upswing. Now it looks like they're only going deeper in the hole. Any hopes of a Rendon revival and a Trout renaissance are squashed, and the young guys all still have a ways to go before they reach their prime, and probably not as good as hoped.

LOL. I just checked in on the score for the first time, saw it was 1-0 going into the 9th. Voila. Here's an idea, OC folks: stop going to games. Every time you go to a game or buy merch, you're giving Arte money - and basically telling him you're ok with the product. Vote with your dollar - don't support a crappy product.

As to be expected, Fangraphs isn't so high on the Angels farm, or as rosy on Rada or Dana as Angels fans are. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/los-angeles-angels-top-24-prospects-2024/

No one has said "the PIECE" yet.

Hochul has been spoofed hard on this one: https://x.com/ricwe123/status/1788167480952652046

I could change the title to "with pseudo-Trout in the lineup."

They are my most and least favorite team.

Probably still Mike Trout, but Luis Rengifo is climbing the ranks.

Angels growing pains:

Denzer Guzman is the new Livan Soto. Werner Blakely is the new Nonie WIlliams. Kyren Paris is the new Jahmai Jones.

"Facts." ~ Debbie Downer

Yep, but...that's part of why he's no longer one of the best players. It all adds up. Consider his WAR ranges: 2023-24: 3.9 WAR, #61 2022-24: 9.9, #28 2021-24: 12.2, #34 2020-24: 14.5, #28 2019-24: 22.4, #12 2018-24: 31.8, #6 You have to go all the way back to 2015-24 to get him to #1, and Betts is only 0.1 behind him, so will pass him in the next week. In other words, even taking the last full decade into account--half of which was vintage Trout--and he's no longer the best player of the last decade. That would be Mookie. Meaning, Trout hasn't even been top 20 in any span over the last five seasons - except for 2022 alone, when he was #15. In terms of overall accumulative value, he's roughly the 30th best position player in baseball over the last half decade.

Well, the sad thing about 2024 is that we don't even have one of the best players anymore. We had the best from 2012-19, and we can even throw 2020 in as Trout was healthy and it wasn't a long enough season to say that he was in decline yet. So then in 2021-23 we had Ohtani in his fully glory. But now, in 2024, no Ohtani, and post-peak Trout, who is no longer one of the best players in baseball.

As you can see, the options cover most of Angels history. Really, there were only a couple good periods - the late 70s that saw their first playoff berth; the 82-86 mercenary years, that still saw a couple playoff runs and three 90-win seasons; and of course the Golden Age of 2002-09, and the "Silver Age" that followed when there was still hope that they could return to glory (2010-15). Obviously the eras overlap, but I tried to tease out short to medium periods that had their own tone or theme of suckitude. Which era was the worst, or did you personally find the hardest? Which had the least amount of reasonable hope and/or a feeling that there was no way out? It could be argued that 2024 is a different era than 2021-23, because we are now Ohtani-less. But I'm more going from the perspective that 2024 is the result of compounded bad decisions from the Eppler and Dipoto eras, compounded by Minasian's inability to shift the organization's direction, at least in a meaningful way.

BREAKING: Footage of Angels front office, deciding where to assign players in the minors.

If it really is a trade, it better be for someone good - Rengifo is improving each year, and is really good player now.

Yeah, but I said it a month ago.

The Angels will trade Nelson Rada to the Dodgers for a poster of Shohei Ohtani, and Caden Dana to the Phillies for Brandon Marsh's jock-strap.

Cabrera was MVP in 2012 because of Triple Crown Fetishism.

Here's a chart: Angels history, games above or below .500. Green is over, purple below. Darker green means playoffs, the really dark with a star is World Series champs. Light green or light purple are pro-rated to 162 games, for seasons shortened due to strike, covid, or this year's pro-rated record. Now I don't expect the Angels to continue at a 12-22 pace all year - that's 57-105 for the season. If they don't markedly improve, though, they could lose 100 - and seem likely to lose 95 or so. Looks like rock-bottom to me. They had seven losing seasons in a row from 1971-77, but this would be the ninth (2016-24). Crazy to think that the 2010-15 period was actually pretty good, historically speaking. I think the real "dark age" began in 2021 - Trout injured for most of the year, the feeling of hope for something better beginning to face. In 2016-20, there was still a feeling that they could turn it around. 21's horribleness was masked by Ohtani's first great year, but that was it. It has been just awful since. Of course rock-bottom is the point at which things start to improve. This might be more of a long slow curve, though, than a sharp rise.

Or sell and tank. They should be taking offers now, but don't really have much to sell - except for guys they'd want to keep. So right now the hope is that guys like Ward, Anderson and the relievers play well enough that they can be flipped for prospects in July. I mean, except for maybe 6-8ish guys in the entire org, everyone is expendable.

I think what gets me most, and what makes me feel like it is just a terrible organization, is that they've now had almost a decade of mediocrity-to-crapitude, and still have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball. It is frankly mind-boggling.

Just in the last couple weeks: Anthony Rendon out indefinitely (again) Trout out for 4-8 weeks (at least) Breakout prospect Cole Fontenelle has major leg injury, out for year After seemingly breaking out, "staff ace" Reid Detmers has given up 16 ER in last three starts (12 in last two) Also after seemingly breaking out, Jo Adell is back to sucking Probably more that I can't be bothered typing The team is 12-22, ten games below .500 on May 5, with no signs of improvement. Meaning, it is going to be a long season, most likely. Not sure, but it is probably one of their worst starts in years (and yes, I know about 6-14...but they were 18-16 at this point in 2002). What's worse is that it is hard to imagine a path out of this morass. Except for a few kinda bright spots, the farm system still sucks, and there's just not enough talent between the major league team and the best of the farm to put together a contender in the foreseeable future. And at this point, let's be honest: nothing Perry Minasian has done in the last few years earns confidence in whatever his path forward is (most likely out of a job before 2025). I suppose the silver lining is that, ironically, the last two years feels like the streak of mediocrity has ended, as the team is legitimately bad. Actually, they've been pretty bad for a few years, but this year could be really bad. But I'm sure the Angels will find a way to even fuck that up, and play better in the second half, and scramble for 70ish wins somehow. But who knows, maybe 2024 is for the Angels what 2011 was for the Astros. The Astros then had three years in a row in which they lost at least 106 games, a better but still really bad year in 2014, but then started getting good in 2015 and were a powerhouse from 2017-23. We can dream, right? Right now I feel more apathetic about the Angels than I have in...well, ever. I just don't really care all that much and can't muster up my usual angle towards optimism (aka "spin"). I suppose this is what happens when a perennially mediocre team loses its top-end talent--Trout to injury and decline, Ohtani to fresher waters. Trout and Ohtani were masking what has been the case since 2016 or so: a bad franchise and bad team.