ettin

Fernando Rodney's back?

Clap, clap, clap...... wait.... the clap?

He potentially reminds me of Vlad Guerrero's skill set Players like Guerrero and Aybar are hackers swinging at pitches they sometimes shouldn't be swinging at. I agree with most of everyones comments but we will see how Cron does against more off-speed and breaking balls and whether or not he can take a little more walks. Love the power and ability to make contact. Strange duck we have here.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fielding-independent-game-recap/ Notably in Blanton's start the other night neither side gave up any home runs or walks, resulting in the Angels pitching staff having a 0.12 FIP vs. the Royals 0.79 FIP. I'm not here to debate FIP or start an argument about its value or lack of value, but, as I pointed out in a pre-season article, the Blanton signing was a statistical play on Jerry Dipoto's part where Jerry thought that bringing Blanton into pitcher-friendly Anaheim would bring his career 4.3 ERA (at the time of the signing) closer to 4.00 or even below it and provide our staff with a pitcher who could eat innings (of which Joe has consistently averaged about 190 IP per season). Unfortunately, as you are all aware, this experiment has completely failed so far. As a side note, remarkably, Blanton still sits at a 4.10 xFIP which is supposed to indicate that he has pitched well despite coughing up too many long balls. Really the most interesting part is that the projection systems see him pitching better than he has year to date (which is still below average, sadly). In the end it seems Blanton is just one of those pitchers that consistently defies his peripherals (With Weaver being the opposite side of that coin).

Yeah but he bashed so many other posters in previous PBK threads, using the 2012 season as his platform, it is just super obnoxious to then use the sample size argument to bash his success this year. I'm done Eric, but if people don't stand up and point out potential flawed arguments and abuse, the terrorists win.

You are, by far, the biggest Bourjos troll. You use the small sample size to justify your opinion of his season last year and then use it to bash him this year. You used to contribute well to this board at one time and now it is your PBK soap box.

They cut to Trout turning the corner at third and he certainly didn't seem like he was going full speed. It also looked like he may have not cut the corner at third very well as he seemed to almost lose his concentration and footing after passing the base. Either way he was out by a mile. Markakis has a good arm and the ball got to him fast so perhaps Dino shouldn't have sent him but at the same time Mike looked like he didn't take the best route at full speed. If he had it would have been a lot closer at the plate, especially if Trout slid in.

Fixed

You're rubbing Chuck's post? We need a special private forum for this type of material Chuck, please.

To answer this a bit further Scott if we really wanted to completely reboot we should do it the way the Astros are currently doing it and trade off any extraneous assets that we don't want to build around. So clearly we would keep Trout as a centerpiece to the team, in that scenario, and build around him. Players like Pujols, Weaver, and Hamilton have full no-trade contracts so unless we get their blessing to trade them we would be faced with a core of Trout, Pujols, Weaver, and Hamilton to build around. You would then have to decide if players like Trumbo, Bourjos, Aybar, Kendrick, Iannetta, et. al. would be tradeable pieces that could bring back a lot of prospects as a group. But it also begs the question again as to why you would sell someone like Trumbo or Bourjos that have approximately 4 years left under club control and not use them as additional pieces to build around? This is why the team needs just a little re-tooling not a complete makeover, but I digress.

Full agreement on this one! Gubi is OK but Hud is better!

So Scott, the very players you want to trade for "near-MLB ready prospects" are signed, for the most part, through the next 2-4 years or more. Why do we have to trade them away when we already held a draft last year and are approaching the one this year which will start restocking our farm with prospects that will be ready 2-4 years out from today? I believe Dipoto recently discussed this with with AW.com regarding, and I am paraphrasing here, a "yearly moving window of contention" where we put a "supposedly" good product on the field (and no matter how badly the Angels are doing this year, having Pujols, Trout, Weaver, Trumbo, et. al. is a good product) EVERY year? That should be the goal of every MLB team and Jerry wants to build and align the team that way. I say continue with the players we have signed in free agency and through extensions and replace as needed from the farm or through trades. I think the future goal should be to use free agency to supplement a good core of home built talent and not as a device to bring in superstar players (unless of course we have a ton of cash to spend!). I think a reboot is unnecessary. Re-tooling a tiny bit? Maybe, as needed. I guess I just don't see any reason to trade Erick Aybar for instance because the likelihood that we get an impact shortstop in return (or another position player or pitcher) that can contribute to our team in their first 2-3 years is asking a lot. Most prospects stumble in their first two years of MLB play.

Sorry but if I were the type of person to do that I would prefer a Lady of the Night, not a Man of the Night.

I would also point out the link above the graph entitled "(Very) Early ERA-FIP Overachievers" where you will see all of the things that should worry you about Villaneuva. Sample size, sample size, sample size.

Great post Tin! Now if I can only implement your plan.....

LOL! The Xbox Theory.

Conger 2-4, 1 HR

In Fan's defense Bourjos was a snail last year in 2012. You'd think with the full 2012 season that he had, he would have had the time to practice and develop his base stealing skills in a real-game environment and able to analyze pitcher's pick off moves. I mean shouldn't that have carried over from last year into this year so that he'd be able to get better leads and know when to run against opponent's he'd seen before? What's the point of starting Bourjos if he doesn't learn from all this repetition? Oh and for everyone not named Lou and MHD: *sarcasm on*

That's a Clown Name bro! In other words its Circus Vargas.

Iannetta 2-4. Single

Not sure where this idea that Trumbo is a horrible defender came from.... it's just not factually true. Is he a great defender? Probably not but he's average to above average at the position.

Iannetta 2-4, Single

That was pure awesomeness thanks for sharing it! My wife loved it! The reaction happens the instant Trout connects it is unreal.

Bourjos 2-4, Double

That's pretty harsh beer (the traitor part). It's not exactly like the Angels wanted him badly.