VladdyforHOF

9 hours ago, Jay said:

I wonder if the guys who are in love with Minasian are the same guys who were in love with Dipoto, Eppler, etc. I'm baffled how posters here fall in love with the Angels GM and make excuses even as the team perennially underperforms.

Baffling take because those GM's don't belong in the same sentence. Dipoto was an awful GM, did nothing for the farm system besides ruin it. Then Eppler came into a total junk scenario and did a lot of fixing. Takes years to fix the incompetence Dipoto brought here. Eppler did a great job. When your team is tied up in stupid contracts that weren't your fault (Pujols) you are forced to do stupid low-risk moves like sign Matt Harvey. And then Tyler Skaggs literally died. These things don't help.

Bet you can't make a strong argument denying that Minasian has been great.

On 8/8/2023 at 7:34 PM, Chico said:

Ohtani for closer.

You joke, but if they make the playoffs, this is something that could realistically happen in a postseason game he doesn't start.

15 hours ago, HanfordGuy said:

So the oddsmakers are giving the Halos the label of least likely to make the playoffs. This should anger the team. Hopefully this makes its way on to the bulletin board and the article sparks a fire under this team.

No one is sitting there with a pen and paper perpetually calculating odds. It's all done by computerized simulations. Funny, though.

5 minutes ago, Stradling said:

He had 3 hard hit balls, an 80 mph ground ball and a pop up. 

Exactly.

It's not like Estevez threw the ball well there. Every ball was smoked. I'm still not convinced this guy should be closing out games.

Estevez still throwing BP.

Perry needs to stay. Nevin needs to be canned. Bullpen has negative synergy because it’s managed so poorly.

Would you rather see Ohtani hit 63 HR or win the Triple Crown?

Either would be lovely. I’m guessing once he gets around 50 HR he will go for 63 and the AVG could dip.

Lately the HR have dipped a little bit but he’s really getting the bat on the ball.

25 minutes ago, Swiss Angel Fan said:

Since when is 23/25 in save conversions mediocre?

I’m paying more attention to how he’s trending. Not well lately. Something wrong with his confidence. Great closers don’t allow so many free passes and 0-2 count home runs to irrelevant hitters.

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

Lol! It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s way past over. The team has quit. 

Nice reading comprehension! The premise of this topic is discussing who will close games next year. Unless you just want to run out Estevez in the 9th again next year because he’s “The Closer” and we shouldn’t hurt his feelings.

If I’m being honest I’m blaming this 7 game losing streak almost entirely on Estevez because that grand slam he gave up to Cade NOBODY probably fucking pissed this entire team off and then of course doing it again last night. So now is a better time than ever to just demote him to a 7th inning guy.

53 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Except those power arms can’t stay healthy, partly thanks to the crack(ed) medical and conditioning staffs.

That’s really besides the point, though. Moore was just injured as well. It’s been a freak season with regard to injuries. You don’t go into a season assuming specific players will get injured, and base their roles off of that. (Unless we’re talking about Rendon lol) I don’t think Bachman and Joyce getting injured in their debuts means they will be constantly injured players. 

I should’ve titled the topic “How about a homegrown closer?”

When’s the last time this team had a homegrown closer they weren’t paying huge money? K-Rod?

Remember how Huston Street was a huge waste? Same with Iglesias? Shit look at the Mets, they hand Edwin Diaz 20 mil a year for a guy you expect to throw 60-70 innings and he gets injured in like the first week of the season. What a waste.

I’d like to see this team start developing a closer going into 2024 before they’re tempted to throw big money at one this winter. That rarely works out. I think Soriano has closer stuff/mentality.

6 minutes ago, tomsred said:

Why not Matt Moore?

Because he’s not under contract with us going into 2024. And I’d vote for not re-signing him, because he’s having such a good year that he will get overpaid this winter. Giving relievers multiyear deals is not smart IMO. Too often relievers produce really volatile results year to year so let another team give him a big contract. We have a lot of young power arms coming up too in Bachman, Joyce, 2021 draft.

I think a lot of fans would agree Estevez is not a lights-out closer. I’m not simply proposing this thought over 2 blown saves. His command is shaky outing to outing with that gorilla looking delivery. His mechanics look bad. Colorado didn’t want him closing. He fell into the closer role with this team when Quijada went down. Maybe Q wasn’t the guy either. Estevez had a nice run and we got the most out of him.

This bullpen changed more than we’ve seen a bullpen change in 100 games. But Estevez has kept the closer role through it all because of a perfect saves ratio, ignoring everything else. Why? It’s caught up to him and suddenly he’s a mediocre 23/25.

I think it’s not only better for the remainder of this season, whatever it means, but also going forward into 2024 to develop a new closer. 

Soriano could be an option. He’s got nasty stuff. His command is better. He’s tougher to homer off of. Just get it done.

I care more about the next 7 years than the next 7 weeks of this season. Don’t bring back Trout unless he is absolutely good to go. You see it all the time - guys play through an injury and overcompensate creating a different injury.

3 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

 

 

 

7 straight losses with like 50 games left will do that.

IIRC this is the second really bad loss streak of this season without equal winning streaks to match.

Nevin postgame interview - “we’ve got some down guys”

6 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

Been having a good year but a 1.40+ WHIP from a reliever is pretty bad. He's been able to avoid damage despite constantly putting runners on base for most of the year but it's coming back to bite him hard these past few outings now

Thank you. Even during his perfect saves run he was pretty sketchy a lot of those outings.

Start warming up a new guy to close games in 2024. I like Soriano.

Our broadcasters sound so defeated in this 9th inning. They barely have words. This team continues to look like the biggest joke in baseball for adding all these pieces at the deadline. Wow.

Fuck you Arte. Sell the fucking team to an owner that knows how to delegate decisions to people with baseball minds.

Randazzo will probably get fired for talking so sad about the team.

Estevez had a cute under the radar run of success but he just ain’t a closer. Might as well replace the closer spot now who cares season is over.

Yeah I’m gonna say it again- this game is so unlikely to be lost by a play at shortstop. Taking Rengifo’s bat out is such an idiot move by an idiot manager named Phil Nevin.

Velazquez in for Rengifo is a massive overmanage by Nevin. Imagine Giants tie in the 9th and a big situation comes up but now Velazquez is the batter.

How many more times in this series is the broadcast going to talk about the 2002 WS? I’m sorry, that’s old and boring. The narrative should be about this team we’re watching.

Really poor ABs in the bottom of the 3rd when there was a chance to score first. Ohtani - why can’t you come through there, goat? Drury - what are you swinging at dude? 
 

Salmon was right in the pre-game convo. The team just has a really bad approach when pitchers are going to buckle down with RISP.

Detmers pitches like a pitcher with 2 wins in August.

9 minutes ago, HeavenlyHalos said:

Agreed. It does make sense that the Phillies coveted an OFer over Catcher after paying Realmuto in 2021 though. 

While this is true and I agree, the Angels also traded away Marsh from a pretty crowded outfield, so it seems like Perry wouldn't have had a ton of leverage there.

I guess you could definitely say that the Marsh-O'Hoppe trade was like a perfect-fit trade for both teams. Phillies needed a young OFer as much as the Angels needed a young C.

Still, I'd just like to believe that the Angels got the better deal here, because you're getting ++ offense at C. And he's two years younger than Marsh.

1 minute ago, totdprods said:

This team is resilient as any Angels' team I've seen and should be getting far more credit from not just the talking heads, but the fans as well. This is one of the best Angels' teams in some time, not just for the obvious reasons but because they have not folded.

Honestly who cares what the talking heads say. Rats like Stephen A. Smith will find any reason to dis the Angels.