AZMike

Intentional walk in the first inning. Good times.

"Walks [from pitchers] are a false stat" - Jerry Dipoto*

*I actually made this up. Dipoto AFAIK never actually said this but it's consistent with his moves.

That's one shitty double stuff Oreo.

part douche, part turd sandwich

Hope that an amoebic dysentery outbreak strikes the A's and Rangers for a week or so.  

Mariners would win the division in this scenario.

Trout's still 50 runs shy of 129 runs scored from last season ... with a full year AB's

Trout doesn't have any of Torii Hunter, Kendrys Morales, or a non-crippled Albert Pujols batting behind him anymore.

 

William Boor â€@wboor12m

Howie Kendrick on crutches. Scioscia said team will know more tomorrow.

 

Alden Gonzalez â€@Alden_Gonzalez20m

Kendrick was able to walk on crutches post game. Said he feels "like crap," but was hopeful he can avoid DL. MRI tomorrow. #Angels

 

This season sucks. Angels won't even sniff the playoffs and many of my favorite players are getting injured left and right. 

And by amazing I mean pathetic.

I actually read an article on Fangraphs describing it as the statistical best hitting season by a pitcher since Babe Ruth. 

That said, the idea that Angels might have actually been better off paying Greinke $25M a year to DH and bat cleanup on a regular basis instead of signing Josh Hamilton is very amazing.

And of course the Dodgers win again.

 

32-7 in their last 39, is that for real?! No Kemp, no Ramirez, and they just keep winning.

 

Greinke with the W. Ughh...

Greinke went 1-2 with an RBI in today's game.

Greinke has accumulated more war as a batter than Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols combined.

To me this still means that the Angels still paid $3.5 million on a guy who didn't play on MLB game for them.

Ryan Madson got paid nearly $14M dollars to not pitch for two years. Boras is a wizard.

LOL my thread about Conger not playing more was deleted because I called Scioscia an idiot.  Apparently we still have to watch our tongues when referring to this piece of crap team. 

Scioscia's family might be reading this board

watch Oakland sign him for league minimum only for him to turn into Dennis Eckersley. 

I seem to a remember a thread like this in late May where "all we had to do to get to .500 was take 5/6 from the Cubs and Astros" and we went 1-5. I love the optimism but have almost no faith in this team to pull it off.

The Angels got swept in a four-game series by the f'n Astros. 

This season I didn't let myself get "buttercupped" into believing in this team like I did over and over in 2012 

We'll get swept by the Rangers so we no longer have to worry about playoffs.

you don't think we'll win at least one game ... *looks up upcoming pitchers* ... with Williams, Richards or Hanson starting?  

That would be one of the most epic comebacks ever. 

...after which point we would promptly lose the wildcard game.

Tony Reagins : Jerry Dipoto :: George W Bush : Barack Obama

Since Albert went out he's got 15bb a hbp and 4ks. With a .634 obp in 9 games.

Josh Hamilton -- raising the OBP of the batter immediately preceding him in the lineup since 2013 

He hasn't been all that good?

 

Seems vague...  different than saying he's been bad... and worse than Cabrera.

 

And is still highly subjective.  

The better comparison, IMO, is between Mike Trout and JB Shuck.

According to baseball reference WAR, Mike Trout's defense is a full win WORSE than JB Shuck. There were at least three games in which JB Shuck allowed multiple batted balls to land for doubles or triples which would have been caught by Mike Trout or Peter Bourjos. I actually believe the Angels would be a few wins *higher* in the standings had Peter Bourjos been healthy all season, and Trout been in LF instead of Shuck for those games.

There is no stat that says Mike Trout is one of the worst defenders in baseball. Any stat or anyone saying he is anywhere close to Cabrera, defensively, needs to be ignored.  

The title of this thread is "Trout's dWAR is... [-1.5]"

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2013-value-batting.shtml#players_value_batting::15

Trout is ranked 7th worst in baseball in defensive WAR. Worse than Cabrera. In fact, Trout actually slighlty leads Cabrera in offensive WAR. 

I do think this is at least partially a funciton of opportunities though. Compared to last year, Angels pitching is much worse. We have a lot more balls sailing out of the park and fewer playable flyballs for Trout and others to work with. 

Miguel Cabrera is having an amazing season at the plate. Considerably better than last year... and his best year... which is ridiculous.  He is the best hitter in baseball.  His last four seasons have to rank highly in the history of baseball.  

 

I think most people still undervalue defense and base running, though.  Mike Trout's base running alone, closes that gap greatly.  His defense eradicates it, no matter what subjective measure you use.  Mike Trout is the most valuable player in baseball. 

 

Last year Trout's baserunning and defense was considerably better than this year. While I don't agree at all with the baseball reference stat suggesting Trout is one of the worst defenders in baseball, he has had a lot of key misplays and his overall range has not been nearly as good as last season. His number of stolen bases and extra bases taken is also down (IMO this is largely the fault of morons like Pujols and Scioscia but I digress...)

Combine that with the fact that as you pointed out Cabrera is having a better season (though likely won't get a triple crown) and IMO Cabrera should win MVP with Trout second. Last year Trout should have been the clear MVP.

He'll get a raise of thirty thousand dollars

Josh Hamilton gets that much to hack at ~4-5 pitches.

Exactly.  Last year, it was a no brainer.  Mike Trout was better than Miguel Cabrera offensively.  Even blind people can figure out that Trout is more valuable defensively.  Trout was better... and more valuable.   The result of the MVP voting was absurd... as it has been many times before.  

 

This year, it is close.  Debatable.   Trout has no chance of winning, though... unless Cabrera misses more than half of the remaining games.... and Trout keeps his recent pace.... etc. Crazy things will have to happen.... because MVP voters are ignorant relics.  Ignorant, anyway.

 

Sad part is it won't keep Trout's price down at all.

 

We will still get to watch him play for our favorite team for years to come, though.

Trout should have won MVP last year. Had Josh kept using tobacco a bit longer and hit a few more homers Trout might have actaully won. This year if the season were to end to day it should go to Cabrera, IMO. 

Cabrera is actually having a better season than last year. He'll probably win by a smaller margin though because of a cerrtain roided out first baseman from Baltimore spoiling a triple crown.

If the runner who scores the lead run belongs to the pitcher who is being replaced, that scenario can happen. The new pitcher was in position to save the game, but the pitcher who was replaced was responsible for the runner who scored the eventual game winning run.

 

Which I have never understood. Baseball is the only sport that penalizes a player for something that happens after he is taken out of a game.

Yep. Pitchers like Weaver and Wilson get unfairly penalized in their personal stats for playing on a team with a blowpen, IMO.

This season blows. This organizations seems like a mess and we are stuck with a couple awful contracts. I believe Dipoto will give us hope in the offseason, but until then let's ruin some seasons. Lets keep the Rangers and Yankees out of the playoffs. That's something I could be happy about

we might be able to spoil the Rangers from winning the division (say, by shuffling around the rotation so as to start Blanton, Hanson, Richards/Williams in our next series against the A's ), we won't keep them out of the playoffs. 

Problem is in september both the Rangers and A's finish their season with the vast majority of their games against the Angels, Mariners, and Astros. Second place in the AL West will land a wild card spot for sure.

If we let this guy walk, I'm done being an Angels fan.

We can get two ~4-5 WAR players for a lot cheaper

So you guys are admitting now Trout's dWAR was inflated last season and Cabrerra was the true MVP.

Thanks, that finally puts to rest that argument.

Trout was ahead of Miguel Cabrera in both Win Probability Added and Offensive WAR 

He's a one-dimensional player.

All he does is walk and hit the occasional solo homer. He's a faster version of Chris Iannetta