Vote: Who is the most exciting Angels player you've ever seen play?

[disarcina]

a prior post mentioned Mickey Rivers -- folks who never saw him play -- we need to get some film of Mickey Rivers running the bases.......an amazingly skilled player. Fast.

[Tank]

no ralston schmidt in the pole? 

#fakepoll

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 minute ago, Tank said:

no ralston schmidt in the pole? 

#fakepoll

Its because we remember more about what ralston's pole was in, versus poll he was in.

[IIIII]

Trout is most certainly the best but the way Vlad played the game is still unprecedented which is why I consider him to be the most exciting. 

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

I don’t know if it’s sad or funny that Pujols didn’t even make the list. 

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Does anyone remember Gary Pettis and Devon White in CF?   That was some exciting defense?  

 

[Chuck]

8 minutes ago, The Ghost of Bob Starr said:

I don’t know if it’s sad or funny that Pujols didn’t even make the list. 

Pujols while productive has been anything but exciting IMO. The two most exciting moments in the Angels era was when we signed him and when he hit #500 & #600 HR with us. 

[Chuck]

9 minutes ago, The Ghost of Bob Starr said:

Does anyone remember Gary Pettis and Devon White in CF?   That was some exciting defense?  

 

They could run it down In CF for sure. Devon White was certainly exciting. I'll add him to the list. 

Nobody blazed around the bases faster than Devon White, plus he had a strong arm, had some pop and as you mentioned go get it in CF. 

Pettis was just fast. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

53 minutes ago, The Ghost of Bob Starr said:

I don’t know if it’s sad or funny that Pujols didn’t even make the list. 

I was gonna make a joke about vlads first 3 weeks here...before we all started getting worried.

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 hour ago, IIIII said:

Trout is most certainly the best but the way Vlad played the game is still unprecedented which is why I consider him to be the most exciting. 

Thats kind of my take. There was just something about vlad. Not at all a knock on trout. But he just had a "cool" factor to him. Like erstads "grit". Weavers cockiness. Ecksteins "every man". 

Trout is from another planet, and an all around great guy. Very likeable. But i guess you just look at him and see sort of a robot made to play perfect, where vlad was this raw man child type of guy.

[Slegnaac]

Brian Downing was always fun to watch.  His approach in the box was so different, you just had to watch.  He also gave 110% in the field.

I also agree with the mention of Mickey Rivers, he would be at second before the pop-up he hit could be caught.

K-rod during the '02 season is noteworthy as well.

[ten ocho recon scout]

47 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Pujols while productive has been anything but exciting IMO. The two most exciting moments in the Angels era was when we signed him and when he hit #500 & #600 HR with us. 

Theres some more. Showing up rodney, puig. That hr derby with the kid brother. We dont remember, but theres been some go ahead home runs, etc.

[greginpsca]

2 hours ago, disarcina said:

a prior post mentioned Mickey Rivers -- folks who never saw him play -- we need to get some film of Mickey Rivers running the bases.......an amazingly skilled player. Fast.

I would be surprised if Rivers ever threw out a base runner. As far as i remember, he had the weakest arm for a cf to ever play for the Angels.

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

They could run it down In CF for sure. Devon White was certainly exciting. I'll add him to the list. 

Nobody blazed around the bases faster than Devon White, plus he had a strong arm, had some pop and as you mentioned go get it in CF. 

Pettis was just fast. 

Devo was one of my faves as a kid. (2 years in a row, we got screwed for ROY, with joyner and devo debuting with canseco and mcgwire). 

He left as sort of a let down, didnt turn the corner for what we expected. But he went on to have a pretty respectable career.

[Rico]

Luis Polonia was a treat on the basepaths.  Only guy I've ever seen get to second on a walk.

[GrittyVeterans]

Erstad for me. I've never seen anything like his defensive performance in 2002

[the dude abides]

14 hours ago, Tank said:

tough choice indeed. i voted for wally joyner. his first two seasons were completely out of the blue (plus i know trout and ryan will probably get most of the votes). 

Have to agree.

Plus he threw me a ball one time at the Big A when I was a kid, so that sways my decision a bit.

[Lou]

13 hours ago, Angels#1Fan said:

It wasn't a joke, it was payback for the way the Angel organization practically rode him out of town and then insulted him on top of it (Bavasi saying he could get two 8-7 pitchers to replace him). Ryan should have been an Angel for much longer but it didn't work out because of arrogance and stupidity.

Ryan resented the treatment he received here, he wanted to remain an Angel but Bavasi fixed it so that Ryan would leave. If anyone is to blame for Ryan not going into the HOF as an Angel it is Bavasi and Bavasi alone   got paid. 

 

There you go 

[Stradling]

8 hours ago, The Ghost of Bob Starr said:

Does anyone remember Gary Pettis and Devon White in CF?   That was some exciting defense?  

 

Gary Pettit was amazing and the way Devo closed on a ball with those long strides.  Erstad was just as good in CF. 

[Stradling]

Yea I can’t decide.  The greatest performance I can really remember was 2002 playoff K-Rod. Simply amazing watching a kid come in and strike everyone out on his slider. 

Then there’s skinny super fast 21 year old Trout who would turn ground outs to the back hand side at SS into singles, then later hit a home run 425 feet.  

[Ohtaniland]

The only player that has continually kept us excited for almost four decades is Tommy John. We just can’t stop talking about him. 

[Lou]

11 hours ago, WeatherWonk said:

When I first saw the subject line, my first thought was Mickey Rivers, too. Very exciting player.

But I think the most exciting time I ever had watching an Angel player, the time that I was screaming at the TV the loudest for an Angel, was when K-Rod was mowing down Yankee hitters in the 2002 ALDS. The mighty Yankees, who had won three straight WS and then BARELY lost the 2001 WS in seven games!

Then K-Rods magic continued in the ALCS and the WS. The guy just came out of nowhere with that unhittable slider or splitter or whatever it was (maybe both?). He debuted in mid September and was almost unhittable. It was incredible! I dont think I have ever seen a slider break that much, to this day. It was like Bruce Sutter's splitter, only sideways. He could barely control it and did walk a few along the way. But he usually struck out the next guy.

For a brief moment in Angel history, we had the something like a Mariano Rivera.

Oh sure, the Glaus double was exciting.

But this young rookie, who was falling off the mound after every unhittable pitch, was just so unexpectedly exciting.

That was the most exciting stretch of games by any player in team history. . . . by far. I sat behind home plate for a few of those appearances and my friends and I were just laughing at major league hitters flail away. It wasn't just that they couldn't hit Frankie, but they didn't even come close. 

 

[Lou]

 I don't know about exciting, but Aybar sure was fun(ny) to watch. 

[Angelsfan1984]

Percival was a ton of fun to watch close games. I thought he was going to knee himself in the face every time he threw the ball. He legitimately threw with every ounce of himself.

[Stradling]

12 hours ago, WeatherWonk said:

When I first saw the subject line, my first thought was Mickey Rivers, too. Very exciting player.

But I think the most exciting time I ever had watching an Angel player, the time that I was screaming at the TV the loudest for an Angel, was when K-Rod was mowing down Yankee hitters in the 2002 ALDS. The mighty Yankees, who had won three straight WS and then BARELY lost the 2001 WS in seven games!

Then K-Rods magic continued in the ALCS and the WS. The guy just came out of nowhere with that unhittable slider or splitter or whatever it was (maybe both?). He debuted in mid September and was almost unhittable. It was incredible! I dont think I have ever seen a slider break that much, to this day. It was like Bruce Sutter's splitter, only sideways. He could barely control it and did walk a few along the way. But he usually struck out the next guy.

For a brief moment in Angel history, we had the something like a Mariano Rivera.

Oh sure, the Glaus double was exciting.

But this young rookie, who was falling off the mound after every unhittable pitch, was just so unexpectedly exciting.

I should have read this before I posted.  This was a perfect way to sum it all up.  Franky wasn’t Rivera for that brief stretch he was Kerry Wood’s 20 strike out game good.  

If I’m remembering right Franky came up in September, he recorded 16 outs, two were on a double play, one was a fly out or ground out and the other 13 were strike outs. 

As far as 2002 I was at almost every post season game.  To me the best game was game three (first home game) against the Yankees.  I’m coming from work and by the time I found parking and got in the stadium we were down  4-0.  We kept battling back until we finally took the lead.  That’s when you knew we had a chance.