angelduck

Hester and Carlin are not quality major league backups.

I agree Chuck. Conger has potential to be a starter (Not saying he'll ever reach that), but it's time for the guy to get a chance. Hester and Carlin have proven they are not MLB level backups. At least Conger has some upside

And you base this on what?

Conger has upside. Hester is a career journeyman minor leaguer. In this case...I think you go with the guy who has upside with the bat. 

Plus, Hester's throwing sucks. Remember last year? He couldn't throw anyone out

Chris Iannetta is the best option on the team in my opinion. He has pop and takes walks. The only thing he doesn't have is speed. 

Conger>Hester

Defensively and offensively

Conger's defense is fine for a backup. 

Getzlaf now leads the Western Conference in points. Good God he's a moster right now.

Really bad article. The replacement player makes perfect sense when you think of it as a player who is on a AAAA level. Vernon Wells was worse than the AAAA outfielder in 2011. WAR really does make perfect sense, and it is effective when evaluating a player's total game (Baserunning, hitting, fielding). I personally prefer wOBA and WRC+ for offense over WAR though. And WAR for pitchers cannot be compared to WAR for a positional player. So the whole argument that WAR sucks because it says Kendrick =Weaver is bogus. The whole point of the stat is that it gives us a guideline of how successful a player will be in the future. This is why RBI's and batting average suck so much. A player could have 100 RBI hitting 4th in the Tigers lineup, but the same player could have 30 RBI batting first in the Astro's order for example. That's the same player, only difference is that one of the player's is in a shit lineup and the other is in a good lineup. It's useless, and it's kind of a shock to me that the MLB still uses them every time a player steps to a plate.

Visorless Getzlaf>>>Visor'd Getzlaf

I wish he'd just play good with a visor on LOL

Haha. It would be pretty funny if the Oilers took another forward, like Drouin or somebody over Jones. 

They need Seth Jones as bad as the Flyers need Seth Jones

Mattingly and Scioscia are both equally awful. If I was a Dodger fan...I'd be concerned that my stacked team is going to be a bust...Just like we were last year.

Free Pajaarvi!!

He scores again

It's bullshit that he didn't get thrown out. If that isn't a flagrant 2...than WTF is? That's a 5 game suspension, at least.

Brutal situation. Bad coach, a 4 year rebuild that has stalled, and young players who either already have massive contracts or are going to get massive contracts. Just wait until Schultz and RNH and Yakupov start asking for contracts...sheesh.

The Oilers are almost in a situation where they have no next move. They can't rebuild any further because they already have the skill players in place, and they can't afford to waste some of their young players' "cheap" years. They can't go for it either because of all those holes they have in their current roster. I was reading HFboards the other day and saw someone make a post on the Oilers board that really goes into depth on their situation. They have: RNH, Yakupov, Gagner, Hemskey, and Eberle who are ALL finesse players. Hall is their only skilled player who can actually grind and play semi-physical. They need to do a better job of finding power forwards that can play off of these skilled players. I think at least two of Yakupov, Eberle, Gagner, and Hemskey have to be traded for someone like Milan Lucic or Nathan Horton (not that they're available) or someone of that ilk. Because when you roll a top line of Hall-RNH-Eberle and a second line of Yakupov-Gagner-Hemskey...your asking to be bullied. Just not enough support players to help these young finesse guys

Well, Hiller is awful, and the defense is shaky.

On a side note...Getzlaf and Fowler rule.

I'm not worried at all about our current spring record.  The guys that matter have been ok.  Williams concerns me a bit as does the overall quality of the pen but not because of spring.  I was hoping that a couple guys of Cordero, Maronde, Cabrera, Kobayashi, Braiser, Carpenter, Buckner, or Sisk could catch lighting in a bottle and emerge as a couple serviceable guys and nothing is set in stone as of yet, but it appears they are all what we thought they were.  

 

My new sleeper is Mike Piazza.  

It's tough to find sleepers when Butcher is your pitching coach. The A's are able to find gems because their pitching coach is actually good.

Burnett threw a bullpen yesterday and will throw another one tomorrow, and is then supposed to get into games later this week.

 

I don't think there's any reason to expect him to miss real games at this point.

Good to know about Burnett. I must have heard wrong about him. Thought I heard that he was going to miss at least a month of the season.

Have there been any updates on Madson? Is he definitely out all of April?

I am a little concerned. I don't like the fact that Burnett and Madson might miss April. I don't know if my body can handle another April bullpen performance like last year. I am concerned about Hanson staying healthy, too. 

Every year we make more than the median amount of outs on the basepaths. Scioscia's philosophy is supposed to be agressive, not wreckless. These last 4 years or so Im getting tired of players making stupid outs and then Scioscia patting them on the ass when they come into the dugout as if hes proud of them

Lifetime, on 04 Mar 2013 - 12:57, said:

every year?

2011: made the 5th most outs

2010: made the 6th most outs

2009: made the most outs

2008: made the 2nd most outs

2007: 2nd most outs

2006: 2nd most outs

Should I continue? Point is, we're consistently near the bottom of the league

do we?

We led the league with 72 outs on the bases last season.

Source: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2012-baserunning-batting.shtml

The team with the least amount of outs on the bases was Oakland with 32. Quite a significant difference

Harper will make more than double Trout's salary this season. And Trout had the better rookie year

Its not just the ROC play.  Its all the other stupid outs the Angels make on the basepaths.

 

Don't we lead the league every year in outs on basepaths?

Hopfeully Hunter being gone will help those numbers reduce.

But yeah, Pujols in particular last year made a lot of stupid outs on the basepaths. I really hope we improve in this area

Sucks dude. Hope it gets better for you guys. Tambo is awful. That team hasn't gotten better or worse since the Pronger trade. They've just stayed awful. It was a 4 year rebuild apparently...his time has to be running out unless they start improving rapidly. They just look too soft to compete. When Smid is your toughest defender it's hard to compete in the physical western conference

That value could come at the expense of a Stanley Cup Championship

There's a better chance we lose first round then us winning the Cup

I find this funny since you spent most of last year wanting Morales out of the lineup

OK

Just wondering, how do you expect Safeco to deflate his numbers but you still project him having a better offensive season then last year?

Because I think his timing will be better now that he's a year removed from his injury.

Brandon McMillan has been called up. Not good news for Palms...