OT: Los Angeles Angels Talk

[All Mighty]

Love the call from Vasgersian on the walk off

 

[KelVarnsen]

Per Angels, Ohtani is fine and not injured.

 

[SoCal Dreaming]

Nice win. I was going to go watch this game live but ended up not going, thought it's too early with Covid.
All games have been close. We'll see how they'll do against Houston. They took down the A's by a large margin.

 

[Bender66]

Love the call from Vasgersian on the walk off

"He went to Jared"

Loved his "bat flip" and strut. He knew.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

well, unlike the ducks the angels found a way to win a game that they were the better team, yet errors kept the other team in and blow a lead in the top of the 9th only to win it in the bottom....wont say the token "sign of good team" just yet, but very good signs in the season opening series against one of the better teams in the AL....look forward to seeing the houston series.

The Angels have had a loaded offense for several years, but lacked pitching, both starting pitching and closing. Things took a nosedive under Eppler, we haven't see a record above .500 for five seasons. Last year we had Trout, Rendon, Pujos, Upton, Ohtani, and Simmons for hitters... and still did not finish above .500.

Angels						.
Year	GM	PCT	Run Scored	Runs Allowed	Diff
2012	DiPoto	0.549	767	699	68
2013	DiPoto	0.481	733	737	-4
2014	DiPoto	0.605	773	630	143	Playoffs
2015	DiPoto	0.525	661	675	-14
2016	Eppler	0.457	717	727	-10
2017	Eppler	0.494	710	709	1
2018	Eppler	0.494	721	722	-1
2019	Eppler	0.444	769	868	-99
2020	Eppler	0.433	294	321	-27	As of 9/28
2020	162 games	…	793.80	866.7	-72.9	end of season

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

New GM Perry did acquire some pitching, both starting and closing. Raisel Iglesias was had via trade this off-season with the Reds. I'm very happy to be above .500 again! I'm still not confident in our pitching staff as the season rolls on, though. I recall Seattle started hot last year too only to finish terribly.

For those keeping count, INF Fletcher and Walsh both were drafted in 2015, under GM Dipoto era.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Love the call from Vasgersian on the walk off

"He went to Jared." was a great line! I think Vas might have induced an ad contract between Walsh and Jared's jewelry! It's very unique when compared to what we've been accustomed to with "big fly".

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Quintana looking more like the 2007 Ervin Santana.

The last names of former halos Rob Quinlan + Ervin Santana = Quintana

 

[IDuck]

another late scrappy win in the bottom of the 8th....bullpen looked real good with 2 ER through 5.2 IP....with the angels i never want to put to much into 5 games played....but our bullpen looks way better now (which is HUGE), rodriguez looks like a force, cishek has some nasty, and inglesias should settle in...need to get our starters doing there thing and this team could battle...starting the season with these types of games/wins is good for the team's mental toughness...

loved the fans giving it to the astros all game long (even if they were dodger fans).

 

[SoCal Dreaming]

Another come back against a 4-0 Houston. It's good they're winning against tough opponents. Like to see them dominate a game tho.
They need to clean up passed balls and errors. 2 of Houston runs came from it.

 

[Bender66]

That sac bunt by Suzuki was beautiful.
#1985

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Quintana SUCKS. He is Matt Harvey Trevor Cahill Julio Teheran 2.0
Barria pitched 2 innings with 4 walks and 0 strike outs, nice ratio.
Getting rid of Goodwin, La Stella & letting Simmons walk has created holes in the lineup.

 

[BiolaRunner]

Not a bad start to the season so far. Really early, but we've scored 1 more run than we've given up.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Angels are now 7-5 with a -4 run differential as 1st place in the AL West and the Astros despite being a +13 are about to lose again and fall to 6-6 which would push Seattle to 2nd place.
An +13 team being in 3rd place, its only a matter of time the Astros retake 1st place.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Angels are now 7-5 with a -4 run differential as 1st place in the AL West and the Astros despite being a +13 are about to lose again and fall to 6-6 which would push Seattle to 2nd place.
An +13 team being in 3rd place, its only a matter of time the Astros retake 1st place.

Yeah... that's the scary part. I saw something similar to a fast start last year by the Mariners, but even they fell quickly after a 4-4 start with a -7 run differential. LoL

If our bats can stay lively, then maybe there's a chance to cling to the top of the AL West. It's just I don't know if there's enough bat to diffuse the bad pitching. In 2019, we put up 769 runs, but we also allowed 868 runs. Yikes!

After 12 games, I can extrapolate our current Runs (R) of 61 and Runs Allowed (RA) of 65 over the course of a 162-game season and it will be 823.5 R and 887.5 RA, for a run differential of -64. Not good at this moment. Hopefully, our pitchers (starting and bullpen) find a groove. Closer Raisel Iglesias has been inconsistent early this season.

 

[mightyquack]

Bullpen has been fine for Anaheim so far, pretty sure it ranks around the top 10 so far and that's with Iglesias struggling. Starting pitching has been a mixed bag, but Bundy/Cobb/Ohtani have looked good so far, and the last starts for Heaney/Canning show they are (hopefully) trending in the right direction. Quintana has been the only huge disappointment, but have to think he turns it around soon based on his career to date. Also I'd have to imagine our fielding has to be among the bottom in the league, it's been incredibly sloppy quite a few games this season which isn't ideal when you have quite a few groundball pitchers.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Bundy hasn't been the same.
They still need alot more starting pitchers and a new 2B. Rengifo is just trash.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Bundy hasn't been the same.
They still need alot more starting pitchers and a new 2B. Rengifo is just trash.

Could have went after the Korean infielder, Ha-Seong Kim. He signed for $7 mil per year with San Diego. I was hoping we would have.

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

Bundy hasn't been the same.
They still need alot more starting pitchers and a new 2B. Rengifo is just trash.

Well...the 2B is still David Fletcher, but hopefully the people who wanted Cole/Strasburg understand why I wanted to sign Rendon so badly. Of course, they COULD have signed Ryu that offseason too, but that would have required Arte to potentially go into the luxury tax for a couple seasons, and we can't have that, can we (despite his rhetoric of wanting to win a World Series title above all else).

My favorite thing about this season so far has been that Joe clearly does not want to play Albert more than 3 times a week because he can barely move the lower half of his body, but he had to abandon that plan because Jared Walsh is a baseball-mashing cyborg whose bat they have to keep in the lineup, so he's in RF because the starter (Dexter Fowler) blew out his knee AND the 4th outfielder (Juan Lagares) strained his calf and they refuse to play Jon Jay because he sucks.

 

[ADHB]

What possible need would the team have for Kim? He would be a $7M utility infielder.

I think Ward would be the logical guy to call up under normal circumstances, since he can play like 4 different positions and can actually hit major league pitching, but he had COVID or something.

 

[mightyquack]

Literally one bad inning and Bundy isn't the same . Give me a break.

 

[ADHB]

Literally one bad inning and Bundy isn't the same . Give me a break.

Ha yeah I was gonna say that but figured it wasn’t worth the effort. Sounds like box score scouting. Bundy looks even better than he did last year to me. And of the 5 runs given up yesterday, 2 were inherited runners that scored after he was out.

 

[mightyquack]

Ha yeah I was gonna say that but figured it wasn’t worth the effort. Sounds like box score scouting. Bundy looks even better than he did last year to me. And of the 5 runs given up yesterday, 2 were inherited runners that scored after he was out.

Agreed, Bundy has looked really good so far. He has given up a few home runs, but it's nothing to worry about, his hard hit percentage is actually 3% lower then last year so you'd expect the HR's will swing the other way for Bundy soon.

Bundy is the last pitcher I'm worried about on the Angels.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

What possible need would the team have for Kim? He would be a $7M utility infielder.

I think Ward would be the logical guy to call up under normal circumstances, since he can play like 4 different positions and can actually hit major league pitching, but he had COVID or something.

Because he'd be an upgrade. You do want the team to get better, right? Although I wanted Kim, I would have rather used that money for a starting pitcher or another high end bullpen piece. Instead, we did nothing with the $9 mil cap space.

 

[Steppin Razor]

The last few years have been a vicious cycle of me looking forward to Angels baseball, only to be let down, then getting excited for Ducks hockey, then looking forward to baseball....

This probably isn't the year, but the Angels are legitimately fun to watch this year.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

The last few years have been a vicious cycle of me looking forward to Angels baseball, only to be let down, then getting excited for Ducks hockey, then looking forward to baseball....

This probably isn't the year, but the Angels are legitimately fun to watch this year.

This year is the year for a number of factors. New GM brought in some pitching help, both at starting and relief (more relief). Ohtani's arm and hitting look to be on point again. Walsh is looking like a mainstay, he of the Dipoto drafted prospect selected in the 39th round of the 2015 draft and fellow draftee INF David Fletcher, selected in the 6th round of the 2015 draft. It's still early, but it's nice to be out in front of the Astros for a change.