Chico

I salute Ohtani for the great years he gave the Angels. Ohtani gave us the best he had and I have nothing but love and respect for him. Unfortunately the rest of the organization is run like amateur hour and he couldn't take it anymore. I don't blame him for leaving this tire fire, even to the Dodgers. I do think when we look back, Ohtani's best years will be with the Angels. I might be wrong but I think his pitching days might be over or they should be. He will hit many more HRs but he may not hit as many HRs as he did with the Angels.I don't know what he will do in the field if the Dodgers sensibly end his pitching career...1B? He may not be as individually great as he was with us but he will win more. A lot more. More power to him.

The day Arte sells the team.

IMO he's going to Toronto.

This post didn't age well.

I called it on 8/15.

This thread isn't aging well. I said it 2 months ago, I'll say it now. Rangers all the way.

I'll say again what I said a couple months ago when I was ridiculed. Texas is going to win its first World Series this year.

Let Arte be the new coach and GM. He is anyway.

The Angels organization should have known that POS Eric Kay was a drug addict and was dealing drugs not only to Skaggs, but other major leaguers as well. What other MLB has had a director of communications or similar higher-up dealing lethal drugs to players? Ultimately the responsibility lies at the owner's feet. Kay was Communications Director from 2017-2019. He was hired by John Carpino, who knew Moreno from the billboard industry before he bought the Angels. https://www.newsweek.com/court-docs-ex-angels-staffer-ran-drug-operation-clubhouse-before-pitchers-death-1622243

Just pick a name out of a hat like the last three guys: Phil Nevin 2022-23 268 games Joe Maddon 2020-22 278 games Brad Ausmus 2019 162 games

Skaggs was partially Arte's fault.

I may take a long break from MLB and not return after 53 years an Angels fan until after Moreno sells the team. It's an exercise in futility being a fan of this organization with Moreno pulling the strings.

Arte Moreno is the worst thing that ever happened to the Angels. And there have been some really bad things.

Just a bit of a follow-up on my above post concerning the all or nothing HR or strikeout trend in MLB. I was watching clips of Barry Bonds before and after steroids. Before, he had a wiry, sinewy build. He looked like a normal athlete, no odd, jacked-up proprtions. After, his shoulders looked twice the width, not to mention the rest of his physique filling out to almost weightlifter size. Not to mention the change of appearance of his head. When I see guys slug the ball for a HR now, I do notice a majority have the Bonds-like physique, the larger-than-life look with the big, wide shoulders and the sculpted torso. Like Ohtani... Could there be a new Steroid Era happening right in front of our eyes without us knowing it that is being enabled by the corrupt Manfred? HRs do get the asses in the seats and the Steroid Era was the most financially successful era of baseball when it happened during the McGwire-Sosa era...

I don't mind trading Trout. He isn't doing the Angels much good at this point and I wish him well and hope he gets himself a championship. My big problem is Who is going to do the trading? We have Arte, who seems to orchestrate all the big moves, and we have butchers at management positions.

Word out of Buffalo is that Zegras is only being offered between $3-4 million a year by the Ducks and there are trade rumors between the two teams...The Ducks are in rebuilding mode and Buffalo has a lot of high-level prospects from tanking for about twelve years in a row. Would you trade two-three maybe's for a definite? DiBiase is probably full of it and this might go nowhere...Discussion starts at about 15:00.

Word out of Buffalo is that Zegras is only being offered between $3-4 million a year by the Ducks and there are trade rumors between the two teams...The Ducks are in rebuilding mode and Buffalo has a lot of high-level prospects from tanking for about twelve years in a row. Would you trade two-three maybe's for a definite? Now DiBiase is full of it and this might go nowhere...Discussion starts at about 15:00.

Admittedly I haven't been following. I salute the die-hards! Are they still using the Kabuto at the end of HRs?

Wow. 2-2 in the top of the 5th. Not sure when was the last time we were still in a game this late.

Ohtani is a two-way wonder, that's for sure. But as a pitcher he isn't a rubber-armed innings-eating hog that the Angels need. In five years he has pitched in a grand total of 86 games: 2018: 10 games, 2019: Injured: 0 games, 2020: 2 games, 2021: 23 games, 2022: 28 games and 2023: 23 games. I think Ohtani needs to give up pitching. He's proven himself as a 100mph strikeout ace but he has no durability as a pitcher. The Angels have bent over backwards to help him prove himself as a two-way phenom and he has. But he physically can't take pitching anymore. Focus on hitting. The Angels have had to have anonymous plug-ins for pitchers because they took their eye off the ball and went for the bright shiny objects like Trout, Rendon and Ohtani, two of the three, maybe three of the three who are now chronically hurt. Individual achievements are fine but not at the expense of the team. Bottom line, Angels need a new owner who pays for a proper baseball organization, proper training and nutrition for his players and a proper balance to the lineup, not the top-weighted lineup we have now. Arte has a bottomless zeal to show Angels' fans how great of an owner he is by paying through the nose for these often-injured superstars and he isn't going to change his spots.

It's $1500 for 15 minutes to hire a plane with a banner that says Sell the Team Arte. 15 minutes with media exposure should be all that is needed to get the message across buzzing Angel stadium. https://airads.com/aerial-advertising-media-markets/united-states-usa/california/aerial-advertising-california.html

So very proud of Shohei. Thank you for perforning superhuman feats. Sorry it didn't work out but it's obvious the Angels can't win with this owner. Wherever Shohei goes, please don't pitch again for your own good.

I was looking at team hitting stats in MLB this year at the 145 game mark and was wondering where the Angels stood on homers and striking out. Angels are fourth in MLB in homers with 209 in 146g. (Braves are #1 with 288, far ahead of the rest and will certainly be the only team to top 300HR over a full season) With strikeouts, the Angels are fifth highest in MLB at 1,346. (Twins at the top with 1,488). There is not one team with under 1,000 strikeouts in 146 games. I looked further to compare the game with MLB in 1980 and found that the top HR team was the Brewers with 203 (the least was the Mets with 61 homers all year) and the top team that struck out the most was the Cubs with 912. The team with the least amount of strikeouts was Texas with 589. All in 162 games. Not one team got over 203 HRs and not one team had over 1,000 strikeouts. I guess they really do swing for the fences more, and they strike out a ton more. It's tiring to watch the HR/SO parade. https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/1980.shtml

Rock bottom was when Moreno renegged on selling the team. I was so hopeful he'd sell. But he's a charlatan. It's been rock bottom ever since.

Not sure this is a total collapse yet though it hasn't been looking good lately, and they just lost to the A's. The Rangers still have 22 games left and are only 1-2 games out. Maybe something will wake them up. The division is still winnable.