[Official] Astros @ Angels

Javier vs Ohtani should be a pretty awesome game with tons of strikeouts. I think it will come down to command and homeruns.

 

Hopefully Astros do better against Ohtani than the last time they faced him. He seems to strike out alot of Astros.

 

He strikes out a lot of people in general because he's awesome. We sure as hell aren't the only team he's good against.

It's a joke the Angels are still this bad with these 2 high end talents.

 

on paper, the Angels should be very good, but they fail every . single. year.

 

Dusty on 790 on Alvarez. "Tests didn't show more damage. We caught it on time. Hopefully he's back for the Yankees series."
Made it sound like cancer. I say give him 2 more weeks after the all star break. We don't even play teams that are good Yankees included.
(insert Harden in the huddle speech)

 

That's the thing I like with baseball, just because you have 2 or 3 "high end" talents doesn't automatically make you a good team. If your pitching crew is average to below average and if your lineup from #3-9 is average at best...most likely your team will not be good.

One thing I hate about baseball...chance an average team getting hot at the right time and winning it all...

 

When you don't have a good farm system (29th) because you can't draft (Mike Trout produced more WAR than the Angels next 11 years of draft picks combined), and you've abandoned Latin America on top of that, it leaves you forced to look at Free Agency to solve your problems.

Problem with that is that outside of Trout, Artie Moreno's signings all turned into albatross contracts (Hamilton, Pujols, Upton, now Rendon) which forces them to dumpster dive for any other talent (Johnathan Villar plays in Anaheim in the year of our Lord 2022).

This year, the pitching is actually decent in Anaheim (mostly thanks to former Astro farmhand Patrick Sandoval), but prior to that, the Angels conducted amazing "experiments" with washed up bums.

Like the Matt Harvey Experiment
Or the Julio Tehran Experiment
and the Tim Lincecum Experiment

Even when these experiments are successful (Noah Syndergaard, Alex Cobb), they can't turn that into long-term value because they all came on one year "prove-it" deals.

The Angels big problem now though, is the hitting. They score less than 4 runs per game and lead the majors in strikeouts. Even Trout sets career highs in K% (29%).

Their farm has failed again, All-Star Jared Walsh tuned into a sub replacement player, everyone else sucks, Rendon can't stop getting injured, and Taylor Ward's been the only decent batter outside of Trout and Ohtani.

Don't get Anaheim fans started on Jo Adell.

 

"Swag Champs on 3" was a legendary line had Harden hit those game winners in Oakland.

 

If they assembled an average team, or even near average around those 2 they would win over 90 games and be a perennial contender.

The fact that they can't even muster that much is the joke.

 

It isn't for lack of trying. Pujols, Upton, Rendon, Hamilton, etc.

When they were good though they had a great rotation, but had a lot of bad breaks. Shoemaker was never the same again after the line drive off his head. Jered Weaver lost all of his velocity. Garrett Richards couldn't stay healthy. Tyler Skaggs got hurt and later of course tragically died. CJ Wilson injured his shoulder. It kind of reminds me of what we went through losing Carlos Hernandez, Wade Miller, & Andy Pettitte and what could have been one of the best rotations of all time and instead it wasn't meant to be.

 

Nope, just the wrong kind of trying.

 

Heard on radio Verlander taking over and will pitch on Thursday's game?

 

That would be weird, but it would also relate to him pitching the 1st inning in the ASG.

At this point, who cares? They'll do what they want.

 

Very good lineup even with two big bats missing. Jake really extends it

Matijevic has been Dave Kingman thus far. He has K'd in almost half his ABs but his XBH rate is really high

 

I wonder how many Amazon Prime days commercials I see tonight.

 

He had 50 HR power and struck out 25% of the time in AAA. Both of those are part of his game.

A reminder, he’s had 28 PA in the majors. Tucker and Bregman looked like busts after 30 and Meyers looked like Trout after the same amount.
Give him another 30 and that’s what we should expect from him.
He might be the next Adam Dunn or Chris Davis or a total scrub.

 

One of the more troll hitters in history.

 

I’m reporting you to the Bezos Brand(tm) prime police for that anti-corporate sentiment.

Say goodbye to your Amazon(tm) Prime (tm) Social Credit, sweaty.