Pancake Bear

Rendon has had a wRC+ of 97 the last three years when on the field and 112 overall as an Angel.  
I don't particularly like Rendon because of the way he acts and the things he says.  But even if he was the poster boy on how to conduct himself while not living up to a contract, it wouldn't change a damn thing about the fact that he's been more injured than not the last three years and when he's played he's been decidedly average.  Not horrible by any means.  
I think we can all agree that we, as fans, know about 10% of what is actually going on (at best) and we tend to fill the other 90% in with what we think they must be thinking or doing.  And it's way more projection than based on anything real.  

Geez, I swear some of the posters on this thread spend most of their time on the Angels' Reddit sub. 🙄
I'm not really expecting much from Trout or Rendon at this point. They're both capable of elite play when healthy, but each year something keeps it from happening. The funny thing about projecting the Angels to be worse with Ohtani gone is it ignores the fact that we've gotten next to nothing from Rendon (and not a ton from Trout) since 2020. If somehow they were miraculously both healthy, the offense is better even without adding anyone and losing Ohtani. 

Same with Trout, it's all fluke stuff, but somehow it just feels like it's inevitable there will be more this season. 

Same with Trout, it's all fluke stuff, but somehow it just feels like it's inevitable there will be more this season. 

Geez, I swear some of the posters on this thread spend most of their time on the Angels' Reddit sub. 🙄
I'm not really expecting much from Trout or Rendon at this point. They're both capable of elite play when healthy, but each year something keeps it from happening. The funny thing about projecting the Angels to be worse with Ohtani gone is it ignores the fact that we've gotten next to nothing from Rendon (and not a ton from Trout) since 2020. If somehow they were miraculously both healthy, the offense is better even without adding anyone and losing Ohtani. 

Any fans who think the Angels have the slightest chance at competing without Rendon being healthy are kidding themselves. 

Any fans who think the Angels have the slightest chance at competing without Rendon being healthy are kidding themselves. 

Geez, I swear some of the posters on this thread spend most of their time on the Angels' Reddit sub. 🙄
I'm not really expecting much from Trout or Rendon at this point. They're both capable of elite play when healthy, but each year something keeps it from happening. The funny thing about projecting the Angels to be worse with Ohtani gone is it ignores the fact that we've gotten next to nothing from Rendon (and not a ton from Trout) since 2020. If somehow they were miraculously both healthy, the offense is better even without adding anyone and losing Ohtani. 

As of right now, it's pretty unrealistic that this team has any shot at a playoff spot without a healthy Trout and Rendon.  I'm still of the belief that Rendon would produce at an above average level if healthy.  Yet I have zero confidence he'll be healthy.  

Geez, I swear some of the posters on this thread spend most of their time on the Angels' Reddit sub. 🙄
I'm not really expecting much from Trout or Rendon at this point. They're both capable of elite play when healthy, but each year something keeps it from happening. The funny thing about projecting the Angels to be worse with Ohtani gone is it ignores the fact that we've gotten next to nothing from Rendon (and not a ton from Trout) since 2020. If somehow they were miraculously both healthy, the offense is better even without adding anyone and losing Ohtani. 

Thats the thing...  He was fisting everything.  Dude's lower body was non-existent and yet he was putting up a .400 OBP making it so he wasn't a black hole.   
Tell you what was funny people were acting like Urshela replacing Rendon was this massive upgrade offensively, the dude put up a .766 OPS from the time he replaced Rendon to when he broke down.  He was a downgrade who hit all of 1 HR during that span but because he wasn't Rendon...  At least his defense was an upgrade

Like most people said, it was more of an interview about him as a person and not a baseball-heavy talk. 
As Stradling said, if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt, he comes off as a genuine nice guy, who tries to stay humble and is trying to use his faith to guide his life. If you think he is a horrible person, then I guess that's what you will hear. For my part, as a Angel fan and a human being, hope he bounces back and finds some health and success!
Quick notes:
His off-season is consumed by his 4 kids and they are making him realize how fast life is travelling by. 
He's a WW2 history buff and enjoyed the recent Netflix documentary. (Reminded me, I need to check that one out!)
Talked about how he got into hunting and why he enjoyed it. Got into it in college and enjoyed the comradery, and also the focus and "quiet time" aspect of it.
Feeling ready for the  season, trying to focus workout program on dealing with the wear and tear of so many years of baseball on his body.
Thinks the key to winning over the course of the season like he had in 2019 is having an incredible team chemistry to help carry you through the inevitable ups and downs of a season.
Enjoyed his time with Dusty Baker and his approach and honesty.
Excited to play for Washington, has met and had conversations with him before, but has only talked to him on the phone since he was signed as manager. 
When asked, stated he definitely did not think Ohtani was coming back to the Angels.
Asked if he could be appointed commissioner and change one thing about MLB, it would be the length of the season.
The rest of the interview he was asked about his faith and his journey and he talked about that, and the teammates who helped him on his journey.

Oh, is this a case of super-fandom?  
I have no idea how you could know the sort of fan I am, but I know I played sports a lot longer than I was a fan and I could never stand the guys that pitched fits and made it about themselves.  So a lot of the guys that people love because they "show emotion" were the types of guys I couldn't stand playing with.  Fire is fine, fire to the point of stupidity isn't.  Take Plesac for instance -- dude has injured himself TWICE and hurt his team as a result because of "fire".
And while we both love Erstad, his unwillingness to pull back hurt him and the team as well.  Everytime people bitched about GA not diving for a ball because "Erstad", I'd think to myself -- well at least he won't spend the next three weeks sucking because he's playing through an injury.
I'm guessing you think I'm a stats first guy and all I can say is you don't know me at all.  I got interested in stats because I wanted to prove the stat-heads wrong. While trying to do that I realized that a lot of things I was sure of because of my playing days was a bunch of BS.  In Redon's case I saw the what he wasn't able to do while still being able to turn on FBs and went looking at the numbers.  Maybe we differ in that I'm no so sure of my own BS that I don't feel the need to check if maybe I'm letting my beliefs and what I think I know cloud my opinions..
He "just won" himself into early retirement.  I thought he was a great college QB -- a better example here might be the former UCLA QB Josh Rosen who's fire and passion made him uncoachable and his self confidence essentially made him prone to errors.  Dude should have been great but nope.
Tell you what the biggest skill set for hitters is both young and old.  The ability to identify and pull a FB.  When people were gushing about Adell because he was hitting bombs, I was touting Marsh because while he lacked Adell's top end skills he was already seeing and turning on FBs as early as High A, -- it really became evident in AA but that park masked his progression.  With veterans it's different, one of the biggest signs a batter has lost it is when they start to cheat because they are struggling to see the FB early -- AP was prime example of this.  He sacrificed everything to be able to pull FBs.
I'm concerned with Rendon because I think he's made of glass, not because his skills have vastly diminished to where he can't be a good hitter.
I agree with you, decline is easier to see with pitchers. 
You could have saved a lot of time and just taken a page out of @REDneck's page and said you simply don't like him, or who he is.  Nobody really needs to defend that position.  I'm sure you think I'm just being a jerk like you've said in the past but the reality is you made a statement, I wanted to see what if anything you were basing it on because it flew in direct contrast to what I saw last year.
Yes, he's older.  He's not a hard charger by any means but he's not seen the slip in skills for me to believe he's done unless his legs are shot.  If whatever he's tweaking this winter has to do with that lower body then he may be able to fight off father time a little longer.

I'm sorry, I respect your opinion and even more your love for all things Angels but this sort of reads like some Tony Robbins gobbledygook. 
The one thing I've asked you to point to repeatedly is what skills you believe have shown any real erosion that couldn't be explained by his injuries and you've not done that while now talking about diminishing skills. The area he showed the biggest regression in was throwing and it's hard not to believe not having a base wasn't an issue there.  Watching him try to slow his swing or drop his bat-head was painful to watch, he couldn't slow his bottom half at all and still he managed to make contact. 
As far as "attitude" goes.  He's always been known for his laissez-faire, aloof manner -- it's pretty much defined him as an athlete so to assume he suddenly needs to retrain his way of thinking in order to be successful is the sort of fan driven stuff than makes them believe a guy having a fit after a strikeout means "he cares".  
The biggest issue he has, the biggest issues he's ALWAYS had is he's been injury prone, a fact the Angels should have been aware of given his injuries were an issue even in college. Most evaluators had him pegged for the first overall pick until a leg injury (sound familiar) saw his power evaporate (SLG dropped from .801 to .523), in his final season at Rice
I get that people are mad, frustrated even -- but the target of your scorn should be the team that ignored that the guy was known to NOT BE a dirt rat and was known TO be injury prone still gave him the money he wanted.
What part of his saying "I don't really like baseball other than playing it" wasn't clear?
So you didn't like his "passion" in that instance with the fan, eh? 
As far as the Blum bickering goes -- the initial no comment I'll report something when there is some progress or something new should have been enough.  Blum is Blum.  He went out of his way to make it an issue and the part of the fanbase that wants to see a player "show he cares" loved it. I thought it was lame, but I'm not a "pound of flesh" guy and to be very honest the "I'm not here today" incident is still funny to me.
I wouldn't have signed Rendon, I also believe that IF healthy he can still hit.  My personal bias influences the first opinion, my belief in data drives the second.  It's as simple as that for me.

Well, people don't always say or do the things we want them to.  He told the truth in that video.  If that's not good enough for you, that's on you. The proof will be in his performance.  I'd rather watch a winner than listen to one.  Time will tell.

I enjoyed the interview.
I know a lot of fans don't like him.  Some of it may be warranted.  Some of it may not be.  I'm not happy that he hasn't been on the field much, but that's about it.  I'm a fan.  I like him.  I root for him.  I hope he has a monster year.

Going off of Chucks thought, on the surface it may not make a lot of sense but a Stroman, Hader, Duvall off-season isn’t entirely terrible. Stroman can probably be had for 2-3 years, Hader solidifies an iffy bullpen and worst case Hader can be dumped at any time, some contender would take him if we felt the need to get off his salary. Topping that off with Duvall who Murray has mentioned for us before with maybe another 1yr vet bat keeps us competitive which is clearly what Arte wants without breaking the bank 

Is Hector Gomez an officially approved source? 😂

Minasian (probably):

I get that everyone hates Rendon, but he's also either been injured or coming off an injury in the very few games he's actually played. Considering the injuries he's dealt with, I wouldn't be surprised if he's cooked at this point, but don't know. We also don't know if Trout will ever be better than he was last season, which was just very good by the standards of the rest of the league but was pretty lousy compared to who he's been. Definitely not MVP level anymore. And we haven't seen him since the last injury. 

I get that everyone hates Rendon, but he's also either been injured or coming off an injury in the very few games he's actually played. Considering the injuries he's dealt with, I wouldn't be surprised if he's cooked at this point, but don't know. We also don't know if Trout will ever be better than he was last season, which was just very good by the standards of the rest of the league but was pretty lousy compared to who he's been. Definitely not MVP level anymore. And we haven't seen him since the last injury. 

Has to be finalized by 5pm Eastern on the 11th, so figure we'll hear about his decision at least a couple days before that to allow for a physical, corresponding roster moves, etc.

No matter what the team does they’ll only be competitive with those two playing more games than they have. Being upset at comments like that from the front office is looking to be upset. These are throw away comments every team says. Fans for whatever reason think it’s unique or a jab at them personally. It’s literally what every team does when their job is to speak with the media. 

Maybe the angels need to take on a bad boy image. The nice guy stuff isn’t working as of late.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the guy is a scumbag, regardless of the false allegations. I’ve seen enough from his YouTube channel to know he’s all about himself, but if he can provide quality innings at a massive discount, then I think arte needs to kick the tires. For the record I don’t think it happens.