KingJustinian

It's really just how the lineup is constructed. With Hamilton hurt, it's because we have Trout 2 and Pujols 3, instead of Trout 3 Pujols 4. If Ibanez was the 2 hitter it wouldn't seem as bad.

It's one of the few criticisms I've seen that is legitimate and has enough visibility for a person not inside the organization to actually judge. It's easy to group it together with the 500 other criticisms that aren't warranted.

That's what it looks like to me. I keep seeing people complain about Iannetta or Conger's pitch selection so maybe I'm wrong.

Three 30+ homer threats, and everyone else is easily capable of 15+ except Aybar. Pretty balanced power.

Colon had our number with Oakland, it feels great to finally hit him around.

Make sure the next one comes during playoff season

It was important

This is 3 pages vs the 17 page rant thread lol. Anyways, Ibanez is still clutch!

I admit I don't have much trust in Cowgill but he's had a good game.

Good to see Iannetta get a hold of one. I had high expectations for him this year after spring training.

Even with him being paid more than he's worth?

I can't imagine it being faster to slide than run through it. The one scenario where it makes sense is if the throw pulls the first baseman off the bag.

We lost by 2 and the Angels didn't score any after he left the game, so he very obviously kept us in the game. Whether it was a good start is another subject. I think at worst he'll be like Richards last year, great stuff but control problems lead to some rough starts mixed in with good ones. Best case he improves his control some and pitches like an above average #3.

He keeps taking meatballs on the first pitch. It's hard to work counts like that, I think he needs to be more aggressive earlier in the count.

Nice

As a few people mentioned, the defense last year (for whatever reason) was awful, and the pitching takes on a lot of blame because of that. That will be a big boost to the run prevention if the defense is solid like it traditionally has been for the Angels.

The back end of the rotation is much more important for the regular season, and he says the Angels will win the division. He really seems to have a grudge with that other writer. Then he claims the Dodgers are going to win the WS without mentioning anything other than starting rotation. The Dodgers are a good team, but I don't think they are better than last year when they didn't make the WS. I just find it funny he makes that prediction after grilling another guy for making predictions.

This would be the one line summary of an AngelsWin yearly traffic report.

Barry Bonds says hi

Correlation doesn't imply causation. These are two proven veterans we're talking about

That depends on how hard the ground balls are hit.

2012 he was a true ace. He was arguably a top 5 pitcher in the MLB, and finished 3rd in the CY Young I believe. He averaged 88mph that year, so hopefully he can be at that point this year. I'm more worried about a drop in velocity being a sign of injury.

Was his velocity from 2010-2012 any more than upper 80's and touching on 90? If I remember correctly I don't think it was.

Last year he battled an injury for a little bit but still pitched like a front of the rotation starter anyways, and in 2012 he had a 2.81 ERA and lead the league in WHIP. I would consider that a "great" season, which was only 2 years ago.

I'm fine with Aybar leading off when Calhoun sits. Otherwise, you have to move Trout up, move Freese or Howie to the 2 spot... Basically a lot of shuffling. I think the lineup order is way over analyzed anyway.