Capital_Dave

The Angels play down to the level of their opponents, dropping Game 1 against the Tigers, 7-5. Pujols has a good day at the plate with 3 hits, and Rendon notched his 3rd homer of the year. Both are hitting around .270 on the season. This one's on the bullpen. Bedrock took the loss, giving up two earned runs in the sixth.

Off day for the Halos today. Here are the standings after two weeks of the season:

I think @Jeff Fletcher just needs to include that instruction when he sends in the daily lineup.

The A's complete the sweep, jumping all over Andriese with a 5-run first and eventually chasing him after three poor innings of work. Rendon gets his 2nd homer of the year but it isn't nearly enough as the Angels lose 9--2. Angels finish their homestand 2-4, and will now hit the road for an 8 game roadie through Detroit, Miami, and Houston.

The Angels and A's play a tight game until the 8th, when Matt Olson hits a heartbreaking two-run homer and the A's go on to a 4-2 victory. A's are now 9-3, second best record in baseball. Buttrey continues to struggle in the bullpen and Justin Upton posts another 0-fer, now batting .105 for the year. Woof.

The Athletic story speculates that one unexpected beneficiary of all this: the robotic strike zone. Home plate umps might actually become in favor of it, due to distancing requirements with the hitters and catchers.

Teheran notches a quality start, but the bullpen coughs up 5 runs in the 7th and 8th and the Angels lose to the first-place A's, 8-2. Angels fans don't get much to write home about, with a Mike Trout triple the only XBH of the night for the home team.

The good news: the Upton and Pujols day off yesterday seem to have done them both some good, as they contributed half of the team's hits in today's game. The bad news: that only represents two hits out of four altogether. Greinke owns the Halos, as the Astros cruise to a 7-1 victory. Heaney continues his very poor start to the season. The first-place A's come to town for a three game series starting tomorrow.

Andriese, Bundy, Keller, and Castro get half-page spreads as new players on pp 11-12, but Rendon gets a third-page spread (with Teheran and some guy with a 7.03 lifetime ERA) on pg. 13? Wow, glad that was never published.

Today, for the first time this season, we get to hear @VictorRojas29 instruct us to "DRIVE. HOME. SAFELY!" Mike Trout smashes a two-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th to extend the Angels' winning streak to 4. They down the Astros 4-2.

@Jeff Fletcher any thought on moving Simmons up in the lineup? I'm hearing grumbling he may be unhappy still hitting in the 8-hole, given his hot start. My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who says that Simmons thinks you're hitting him 8th to keep his extension price low.

Happy Home Opener! The Angels explode for 7 runs in the second and third innings, with Mike Trout's homer a highlight. He drove in 4 on the night. David Fletcher continues his hot start, spraying four singles all over Angel Stadium to bring his season average to .444. The Angels win their third straight and their first home game of the year, 8-3.

Weird win for the Halos, but we'll take it. The offense explodes for 12 runs but on just three extra base hits, none of which left the park. The team scores 12 but Trout and Rendon combine to go 1-for-9, both now batting .250 on the season. Simmons' extension is looking more and more expensive... he carries the team in this one, going 3-4 with 3 runs scored and driving his average up to a cool .400. Dylan Bundy continues to not impress. Angels win, 12-5. Home opener tomorrow vs. the Astros. BYOT.

Good news! The Angels staged an improbable rally, with all of this happening with two outs in the top of the 9th, Angels down 6-4 and Jose Leclerc on the bump: a Trout double, a Rendon walk, an Ohtani single to load the bases (Ohtani's fourth hit of the game), followed by a bases-loaded walk to Upton to plate one and a two-run double by Goodwin to take the lead. Robles comes in to nail down the save with a perfect bottom of the ninth. LTBU as the Angels hand the Rangers their first loss of the season, by a final score of 7-6.

Uh oh. Angels "ace" Andrew Heaney records just 3 outs, giving up 7 runs before leaving in the second inning. Joey Gallo hits the first home run in the history of Globe Life Field, and the undefeated Rangers go to 5-0 with an 11-4 drubbing of the Halos. Turns out watching the sim Angels is about as much fun as watching the real-world 2019 Angels.

Good News: The Angels didn't lose today! Bad News: The Angels didn't play today. The only undefeated team after five days of the season: the Texas Rangers. Just as you expected. But their wins this season were all against the Mariners, so not really sure if that tells us all that much. In lieu of today's box score, here are the complete season standings to date. (Oh, by the way, thank you to Chuck. He did some back-end website kung fu, and the box score/standings each day will now blow up each day if you click on it. That should help if you were struggling to read the small font.)

Pujols gets a day off to clear his head. Josh James and the Astros bullpen shuts down the Angels lineup. Fletcher is the only one to really show up for the Halos, contributing a homer and a steal, but the Astros walk it off with a Kyle Tucker double in the bottom of the ninth. Astros take their third in a row over the Angels, 3-2.

Yeah, the sims are being run by Stratomatic themselves (with lineups submitted by knowledgeable real-world folks), so I'm sure they're using the "Super Advanced" rules for the simulation.

@Jeff Fletcher can you post your full 26 man roster and keep us posted on any promotions/demotions? A few surprises made the Opening Day bullpen...

Pujols gets off the schneid (barely) and Ohtani gets his first homer of the season, but two homers apiece by Springer and Alvarez (including a grand slam by Alvarez in the 7th) make this one a laugher. Tommy LaStella in the early lead for LVP. Angels lose 10-2.

Count me in for a league.

Rendon gets his first homer of the season, and Pujols remains 0-for-2020. Jose Quijada makes the team after a solid Spring Training and does well in his first outing as a Halo. Angels drop a close one to the 'Stros, 4-2.

Strat-O-Matic is simulating the 2020 season, one game at a time. They'll be doing a daily run down, posting standings and league leaders here: http://www.strat-o-matic.com/2020-season-simulation/ I'll post the daily Angels box score in this thread. The Angels won Game 1 of the season 9-6. Trout hit a homer in the first and a second homer in the fourth. 3-for-4 on the day. Interestingly, there were no HBPs in the Astros' first game of the season.

Ah, "Tripod" -- it's been awhile since I thought of that thread...

I'm not sure for how long we've been seeing the in-line advertisements that show up looking like a reply in the middle of each thread, but does anyone else sometimes get a chuckle out of reading a whole series of intense back-and-forth messages about Angels baseball, seemingly interrupted by another poster writing, out of nowhere, "The Peacemakers 1868 - Buy Now! $29.99 A huge selection of high quality prints, posters, framed art and canvas for your home or office!" It's almost like we have our own resident socially awkward AngelsWin Rain Man, who only knows about "The Peacemakers 1868", who just believes it's appropriate to interject that topic into every AngelsWin discussion, no matter what it's about. Anyway, I'm sure Rain Man will add his $0.02 on this, somewhere downthread.