FabulousFabregas

Terry Smith is in full Joseph Goebells mode for the Fat Man on Angel Talk tonight.

Then he'll sign a 10 year extension to manage in the new Scioscia Stadium. The house the Fat Man built.

"I quit."

After 11 games/pages, at least admit we're onto another chapter.

The fans hooting and hollering on Angels Live right now are buying into it.

Mota on Calhoun: "Guy's an All Star man."

"You turn the page from every game and hope to build momentum in the next, you have to trust the process." "The bottom line is to turn the page to a new game, and we've been doing that." "We're looking to grind it out." Real quotes no BS, outside of the BS from the Fat Man's mouth.

The 2016 Angels.

We could break the franchise record for consecutive losses.

That moment right there was the end of the golden era.

To me I don't blame Scioscia for years like 2013 and 2016, these are just years where the team is awful, though I do think he deserves blame for the overall state of the franchise. Scioscia deserves complete blame for 2012 and 2015, two years we should have made the playoffs and came very close. With that 2012 roster there is just no excuse, that team was stacked, he should have been fired the day after the final game of the season. His bullpen management was god awful that year. With 2015, if Scioscia's ego hadn't gotten in the way we would have had our actual GM at the trade deadline last year rather than a stopgap in Stoneman who wasn't going to make any major moves, and my guess is Scioscia had major input in us trading for three scrub outfielders instead of getting us somebody like Cespedes who would have put us in the playoffs. Back to the 2000's players, that was a great point brought up about Moreno letting his ego get in the way of bringing K-Rod back. I know we all used to rag on K-Rod for making his saves dramatic, but the dude got the job done and saved 62 games his last season here. He was very young as well when he hit free agency, I can only wonder how the 2009 playoffs would have gone with him as closer, or in 2012 and 2015 when we came so close to the playoffs. Like I said, I always saw Lackey and K-Rod as guys who could have and should have been Angels lifers, as you need guys like that to build a winning dynasty around like Jeter and Rivera for the Yankees. The Angels have seemingly had no chemistry since 2009, outside of 2014 coming together due to a solid bullpen put together at the trade deadline and Pujols having his best year here. When it comes to the more long gone stuff, I don't know why they didn't bring Vlad back for 2010, especially with the one year deal he got. Obviously Vlad's long gone from baseball now so that's ancient history, but why Matsui over Vlad? Only would have made sense if we were getting a real upgrade in that spot. I also agree that Kendrick has not been properly replaced, the fact that we had to trade our longtime 2B after winning a division title for pitching depth shows what a rough position the organization has been in post-2009.

Lackey's contract though basically called for a free sixth year (league minimum) if he missed a lot of time, and that year was a really good season for the Cardinals after Boston traded him. The contract he signed ended up producing three solid seasons, a mediocre season where he was a serviceable starter, an awful season, and a missed season. I'll take that over what we got out of Josh Hamilton, CJ Wilson, and Vernon Wells.

The Angels made a huge mistake letting go of the core of that 2000's team after/around 2009. The Napoli/Wells trade was awful and really capped it off, dismantling the core of that team is what led to the awful contracts we have now. There's a reason the Yankees were good for so long, you had Jeter and Mariano Rivera there literally for 20 years, and other guys for long stints as well, and they moved pieces around those guys to have consistent winning and contending teams. I think letting K-Rod walk after 2008 was a huge mistake (which bit us in the ass in the 2009 ALCS), he's never properly been replaced outside of the year and a half that Huston Street was good for us. Letting Lackey walk I think was ultimately a mistake too, I know he had the year he missed for Boston and another crappy year, but I'd argue that contract (including the option league minimum year) ended up being a lot better than CJ Wilson's based on Lackey's 2013-2015 performance. To me Lackey and Frankie should have been our core pitching staff wise and Angels lifers like the Yankees had Jeter and Rivera. It's unfortunate that Arte had to be cheap, especially compared to the contracts he gave out after the likes of Frankie and Lackey left. If they were still on the team they'd be the best starting pitcher and the best reliever on the staff right now, even all these years later. The amount of turnover player wise I think has hurt the team, and leads to someone like Scioscia just having way too much power. After Weaver is gone, won't Trout be the longest tenured player?

I really hope he goes to the Marlins next year and gets to 700 homers.

I like it when it's games that don't matter like this one, though obviously don't when we're actually in contention.

Blame the Fat Man and all of that propaganda he and Lyle Spencer put out there.

Our defense will help. They'll find a way to fuck up and not have it called an error.

I think it could happen.

One of these days Nap is going to hit a foul straight at the Fat Man's nuts.

I know he was garbage his first couple of years with Boston, but I always thought it was a mistake to let him go. Lackey is a winner and tough as nails. A total asshole, but an asshole you want on your side.

One of the few games I've really been engaged in recently since it's Weaver vs. Lackey. I never would have thought though several years ago that in 2016 Lackey would still be pretty good and Weaver's stuff would be garbage, especially since Lackey's older and was even seen as Weaver's mentor.

Dude is on fire. Hitting .247, a career year.

Pot smoker.

If we'd kept Napoli and never made the Wells trade, and also signed Beltre, I think the 2010's would have been a far better decade for the Angels.