AZMike

Build me up Buttercup

that song is a curse. The lyrics describe the team perfectly.

The tip of the cap confirms Hamilton was sent here to sabotage this team.

We really should stop signing moles from the Rangers organization... Matthews, Wilson, Hamilton and even, to a lesser extent, Lowe

Hopefully Scioscia gets the Lane Kiffin treatment and then this team does...I don't know what the hell they can do, this is a gigantic ****ing mess that's not looking like it's getting fixed anytime soon.

I'm just glad Cleveland won out. Hopefully the Rays will take care of the Rangers.

^

I've been using this after frieri pitches way too often...

So glad we avoided signing Beltre!

Yep. Angels are much better off paying the trio of Wells, Hamilton and Pujols the GDP of a small country 

finding a stranger in the Alps

And you know what's funny? Some people still swear that Management/Coaching is not the problem.

 

But I don't think its a coincidence that Terry Francona goes to a new team and gets them into the playoffs. The guy does not accept bad baseball.

 

And here we are playing bad baseball for 4 f***ing years and at some point there needs to be some accountability.

 

Playing like this is completely unnacceptable.

Scioscia should have been "asked to resign" after the 2008 playoffs, not given a 10 year extension

Hat trick Trumbo

I am actually pretty surprised that there is only one up for grabs spot going into the last game.  Some pretty bad baseball teams this year. 

I think all three of them win tomorrow, but I think we have the best chance at upsetting one of those teams. A three-way tie would be pretty cool though.

In a three-way tie the schedule would be: 

Cleveland (WC1)  

Winner of tiebreaker Texas @ Tampa Bay (WC2)

If by a ^#%%>%*>€> miracle the Halos win tomorrow, self-ban for the first week of the 2014 regular season.

NO CHANCE vs Darvish!

Josh Hamitlon will drop a lazy flyball enabling them to get into the playoffs.

Embarrassing end of the season.  After being the hottest team in MLB, then come to Arlington and leave a turd.

 

JV vs. Darvish will not be a pretty game to watch either.  Pray for a rain out

If our goal is seeing Texas not make the playoffs our best bet is to root for Cleveland and TB to win out (including the tiebreaker)

Mike Trout has turned into a younger cheaper version of Chris Iannetta -- all he does is walk

I'm sure Tampa Bay and Cleveland have a new most-hated franchise after this series. If the Angels can't even pull one win out of this series they can all go **** themselves. Even Trout. He has sucked for weeks.

The unbalanced schedule really sucks for teams like TB and Cleveland. They don't get the luxury of 38 games against the Angels and the Astros.

Texas is going to get a wild card spot, aren't they?

At worst they'll end up in a tiebreaker to get into a wild card spot. 

looks like Cleveland will have to win out if they want to see the playoffs 

This game is a complete clown show.

Looks like I"m rooting for Cleveland of the AL teams in the playoffs. I hope they get in ahead of Texas and do well.

Is it Cleveland wins 2 and Texas loses 2 for the Rangers to be eliminated?

 

Rangers Magic # for WC Elimination is 4...

Yep. Alternatively there's a pretty decent chance the Rangers end up in a tie with Cleveland and would need to win a one game playoff just to get in to the one game wild card.  

Okay, now replace Jerome so we might actually hold this lead

Trout 2-4, 2B

The Rangers now know that they are 1 game back of Cleveland and 2 games in back of TB with 4 games to play.

The Halos taking 2 out of 4 games in Arlington would likely end the Rangers 2013 season.

TB will not lose 4 straight to close the season, and I don't see Cleveland losing 3 out of 4 to a very bad Twins team.

It's quite possible we might see an Indians - Rangers tiebreaker game just to get into the wild card game against Tampa. 

For example the Halos might only take 1 of 4 and Cleveland might split. If the second wild card team ended up finally winning, going into the real playoffs with two pitchers already spent could be pretty crippling. 

The pitching got it done today.     Thank you!

That's another series win.   Now on to Texas, and spoil their post-season chances.

Which might be better served by benching Trumbo for a couple of the games. 

I'm afraid we will need Cleveland to keep winning for this to happen  

Dude makes so much on interest. As dumb as a lot of athletes are, this was genius.

It would have been genius for the Mets had Madoff continued to pay them 10% a year every year without exception...

Also, before everyone digs out their pitchforks and torches to storm the Angels office, it is not the off season when all of these negotiations begin to take form. Trout's agent is his own worst enemy right now by pushing an agenda that is still months away from the bagaining table. He is like the kid in the back seat asking every two minutes, "are we there yet?"

Trout's Agent is worried he's going to be fired and replaced by some other Agent before he gets commission on Trout's big money contracts.

I don't understand why they can't create a back-loaded contract, one that kicks in with big dollars in 2017 when Weaver and Wilson come off the books. Something like this:

 

2014: $5M

2015: $10M

2016: $15M

2017: $20M

2018+: $30M (free agency years)

 

That way Trout makes more money over the next four years than he would otherwise make, is still guaranteed a big contract for his free agency years, and the Angels lock him up before he hits free agency.

 

I suppose they could also wait until he's arbitration eligible so the difference won't be as extreme. Either way, what they don't want to do is wait until the end of the 2017 season and have Trout facing free agency.

As was mentioned by some others, luxury tax is based on the average annual value of contracts of players on the team. Cash compensation paid in trades also counts against the luuxry tax. That means 2/3rds of Vernon Wells' salary coutns against the Angels for luxury tax purposes. The Angels are actually *just* under the tax cutoff.

Since there are serious penalties for going over multiple consecutive years, what will likely happen is they will sign Trout to a long contract after the 2014 season. That's when Vernon Wells money goes off the books. And in that case, they'd actually be better off signing him to a very long term (like 15 years) deal, with a huge lump sum paid in year one. Average annual value would be low but a huge payoff up front (like $40m or more )  would be hard to refuse compared to arbitration. 

Can we sit Trout before his AVG drops below .320? Watching him slump makes me sad.

This team's lineup without Trout in is unbeliably sad:

Shuck

Kendrick

Hamilton 

Trumbo

Calhoun

Navarro