Jeremiah

They coughed up a lead, but they didn’t collapse in OT. I’m glad they got a nice road win there.

1 hour ago, Chuck said:

And Perry is the GM so he should be putting up some type of fight. Maybe he did? Who knows.

Honestly, I think he's a terrible GM. 

I think it’s somewhat by design the Perry doesn’t. I think Arte hires inexperienced FO executives so that they run the baseball ops the way Arte wants it run. That’s certainly his right, but it may not be the best way to construct a winning baseball team. I may be incorrect, but I feel like more accomplished GMs would not be willing to operate with those kinds of restrictions or interference.

12 minutes ago, Ron Mexico said:

Definitely not blaming Perry for not trading Ohtani that's all on Arte. Reports were Perry wanted to trade Ohtani 2 deadlines ago when they probably could have gotten someone's top 5 prospects 

I see what you’re saying here, and I generally agree. This is where a president of baseball ops with a track record of success would be helpful. Sometimes the owner needs to be saved from himself. Arte keeps bringing in first-time GMs, people who don’t yet have the experience to tell Arte that he’s incorrect. Yes, they should have traded Ohtani two years ago. They also shouldn’t have compounded that error by trading Edgar Quero for the husk of Lucas Giolito. They did, and that was likely 100% ownership thinking only of butts in seats instead of the future. And here we are with a weak farm system and a weak MLB club that seems like it’s trying to thread the needle between competing and rebuilding.

11 minutes ago, Adam said:

I am fine with losing if it is intentional in the sense that there's a plan in place to rebuild. Losing with the misguided intent to win is awful. That's why this year sucks. 

I agree with this 100%. I don’t think the team has the organizational depth, strength or structure that allows a team to just rebuild on the fly. They need to go through a lengthy, genuine rebuild. That will involve some lean years where they let the kids play and go through their growing pains. The team needs to amass good draft prospects to restock the farm, and hopefully get the right baseball ops and player development structures in place.

13 hours ago, samwum said:

I don't appreciate your comment on mine suggesting that I was expecting Adell to continue performing at an MVP or superstar level pace. I feel like you misinterpreted my post in bad faith in order to pick an argument with me and simultaneously you added no unique or original discussion to the thread. 

First time at AW? You’ll see that kind of rhetoric is a frequent occurrence around here.

I will agree that bunting there doesn’t make sense. A team only gets 27 outs. They should not give any of them away intentionally.

8 minutes ago, BTH said:

But why does Adell stealing change the equation?

Wouldn’t the point of bunting be to get the tying runner (at 1B) to second?

After Adell’s SB, the tying run still wasn’t in scoring position.

And why not lift Adrianza for Drury if the equation changed? It was only one pitch into the AB.

I get what you’re saying, but changing batters mid-at bat is extremely rare, and usually done because the batter cannot continue the at bat for whatever reason. It would put Drury at a disadvantage to do that. By that point, Adrianza was it.

21 minutes ago, Chitown27Fan said:

I dont get everyones cry for Adell to play so bad. Yes his bat has been better this year so far but for every good thing he does it feels like he has to do something stupid to make up for it his base running has been an adventure to say the least. His defense while I will say is improved from what it was is still a hold on to your seat moments when the ball is hit to him. I think its the dumb plays that has Wash sitting him kind of a punishment for doing dumb things or screwing up. 

One more thing this is not saying I agree with playing hicks more or anything I just feel like Adell needs to cut down on the dumb if he wants playing time the bat isnt that good to make folks ignore the mistakes.

No one is crying. The fact is Jo Adell has no MiLB options left. They can’t send him to SLC. This is the year the Angels need to fish or cut bait with him. So it makes no sense to play Hicks ahead of Adell, since Hicks is not part of the team’s future plans. Now is when we have to find out if Adell has what it takes to be an everyday player.

Today’s the day. Go Kings Go! LFG!

43 minutes ago, Taylor said:

But Perry and Ron Washington aren't treating this like a rebuild.

I think the case can be made the Perry may be, though that would seem odd for a GM in his walk year. As AJ noted in this thread, he didn’t make any big ticket signings beyond the odd deal for Stephenson. It can be argued that all of the bullpen depth was meant to support the young starters. I agree on Washington, though. He’s over reliant on Hicks and Sano, leaving Adell sitting. If the team is rebuilding then the team should see what they really have with him. Then again, perhaps that’s exactly the approach the FO and Wash agreed upon, hence the seeming lack of a direction or vision.

I always figured this year, and possibly next, would time for rebuilding and seeing what they have in terms of players in the system. I never understood the the vets on one-year deals unless they were there to fill in when the younger players needed a game or two off. Some folks keep saying, “trade value,” but what are you realistically going to get for any of those guys? You may get a lottery ticket or two, but nothing of any consequence from any other org. So that argument makes no sense. I don’t mind if they need to stink for a few seasons if they have a clear plan to rebuild. My biggest issue with the team is just that it seems like this team lacks any clear direction or prospect depth, with no sense that they will set a course and stay with it.

Fletch likely doesn’t write the headlines, typically editors do that. It’s also pointing out that poor defense from Rengifo has been a big factor in the last two losses. That’s kind of a big part of how the weekend went for the team.

22 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

Maybe some people have opinions about what’s right and wrong absent a look at how much money some has?

Okay. And the rest of my post? Does the world or MLB owe Bauer a living? If so, why?

I don’t understand the fascination with Bauer. He’s made, according to Spotrac, over $100M in career earnings. That includes $23M last year when he didn’t even play. He’s not suffering. I imagine many of the people championing Bauer’s cause would agree that the world doesn’t owe you a living, right? They would also likely agree that a private employer can contract (or not) with whomever they choose, right? MLB and its member clubs have decided they don’t want to work with him any longer. It would seem they are well within their rights to do so. Otherwise the MLBPA and his agent would have filed a grievance ages ago.

It’s okay. We get EDM again, and that’s the chance to get that monkey off of our backs. Every team in the playoffs is going to be a challenge. NHL playoffs are the best playoffs. Go Kings Go!

1 hour ago, Dtwncbad said:

I would like to see a lawsuit filed by Bauer against MLB.  At least it would suss this all out.

Maybe. . .
a). we find out some additional specific stuff about Bauer that justifies him being basically blackballed.

Or. . .

b). maybe we find out that, regardless of him being set up and extorted, MLB just doesn’t feel like dealing with the PR project that would go along with having him sign with a team.  Which you can at least understand but then you gotta settle up with guy.  If this is the case, he shouldn’t be tossed aside out of PR convenience to MLB.

With either outcome, at least it would be resolved.

Serious question (and @cals may know better): would the league need to settle with Bauer? As far as I understand it, MLB and its clubs are private employers. They don’t have to employ anyone just because he can throw or hit a baseball well.

He was the Angels GM for a couple of seasons, as I recall.

Whatever to the optics. This is obviously a case of recency bias. The stats do not support the idea that Trout stinks when the game is on the line.

1 hour ago, No Roles said:

Anthony Rendon't 38 million 0 rbi's...

I get what you’re saying, but it’s early and he’s been getting more hits of late. Leadoff hitters get fewer RBI chances than anyone else as well. He needs the bottom of the order to get on base more so that he has those opportunities to drive them in.

11 hours ago, Slegnaac said:

Adrian Beltre approves

As does Torii Hunter, who was just hired as a special assistant to the GM.

I don’t think the locale where one grows up has much to do with whether or not one can be a successful pro athlete. Shane Bieber is from Mission Viejo. Gary Carter played HS ball in Fullerton. Matt Chapman is from the OC. Lots of ball players come through Cal State Fullerton. I think it has more to do with how you’re wired and what kind of work ethic you develop as you grow up.

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

Lou was right about Nevin, Emperor Swordsman. 

You kind of became the example of what he was talking about with this post. You set up a strawman, and one that isn’t even your own, and then argued against it. You then added a personal insult at the end. You, I mean Lou, may not like his argument for Nevin, but Swordsman wasn’t talking about that in this thread. You took the bait and proved Swordsman right on this point.

I like what Detmers has done so far this season. Hopefully he can continue to make good strides into a more TOR starter.