One former Halo missing from Halos HOF

[Angel Oracle]

This one guy had a career 57.5 WAR, including 34.5 WAR with the Halos (9 greater than GA’s whole career) in basically 7 full seasons.   

He won 102 games (78 losses) for the Halos with an ERA just over 3.00, and unusual for back then a 3/1 Ks/BBs ratio.

Might have had the best 3 year stretch of any Halos pitcher, when he was 50-28 with a 2.50 ERA and 1.05 WHIP.

[Sam Sanchez]

Frank Tanana?

[disarcina]

Frank Tanana is my guess as well.

[disarcina]

Frank Tanana was an amazing pitcher.

came up with the Halos as a fireballer strike out pitcher.  Had some great seasons including that three year run referenced above.

then he hurt his arm -- fast ball lost velocity. He was DL and out for a bit.

this may have either been before what is now common-place Tommy John surgery or Tanana underwent an early version of it -- can't remember now.

but what Tanana did next was incredible -- he transformed from a thrower / blow 'em away fireballer strike out pitcher to a finesse 'pitcher' who hit locations --Tanana's 'second act' led to more than another 100 mlb pitching wins.  He wound up with an incredible over-all career.

Yes, he has likely been over-looked with respect to his early productive years with the Halos.

[Billy_Ball]

27 minutes ago, disarcina said:

Frank Tanana was an amazing pitcher.

came up with the Halos as a fireballer strike out pitcher.  Had some great seasons including that three year run referenced above.

then he hurt his arm -- fast ball lost velocity. He was DL and out for a bit.

this may have either been before what is now common-place Tommy John surgery or Tanana underwent an early version of it -- can't remember now.

but what Tanana did next was incredible -- he transformed from a thrower / blow 'em away fireballer strike out pitcher to a finesse 'pitcher' who hit locations --Tanana's 'second act' led to more than another 100 mlb pitching wins.  He wound up with an incredible over-all career.

Yes, he has likely been over-looked with respect to his early productive years with the Halos.

How about

 

[Tank]

tanana was my first thought. also wondered about andy messerschmidt.

[Angel Oracle]

Messersmith had the one 20 win season in 1971, and had a sub 3.00 ERA here in his 4+ seasons (1968-1972).

But even in 1971, his control was shaky.   He was under a 2/1 Ks/BBs ratio in 1971, and barely over 2/1 otherwise here.

His WAR was 14.7 for those 4+ seasons here, about 3.3/season.

Time to write to Tim Mead, and get Tanana into the Halos HOF.   

[Hubs]

Can anyone list all the guys in the Angels HOF? I wonder if anyone else is missing.

 

[Angel Oracle]

Here it is, Hubs.     http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/ana/history/angels_hall_of_famers.jsp

[Capital_Dave]

First name that comes to mind as a glaring omission (besides Tanana): Doug DeCinces.  5 years, 18 WAR, played a leading role on both ALCS teams in the 80's.

[Angel Oracle]

DeCinces’ WAR/season is similar to Messersmith’s, and about 1.5/season less than Tanana’s.

Rock solid player like Messersmith, but not Halos HOF caliber

[greginpsca]

Hmmm! Never saw Fregosi play first base. Also, isn't Garrett Anderson on that list now?

[Adam]

I'm not allowing my son to attend a game until Junior Felix is inducted

[Dick B Back]

Percy!

[Support The Local Team]

How about the all time home run king at the catcher position? Party at my house. 

 

[fanfromday1]

I remember Tanana's famous quote of: "I threw 90 (mph) in the 70's, and 70 (mph) in the 90's".

Funny anecdote: In 1974 I was on the Board of Director's for a Little League in Orange County and Frank Tanana was scheduled to speak at our Opening Ceremony, and then stick around to sign autographs for the kids. Before the ceremony began Tanana and all the rest of the Board of Director's were gathered in the equipment room visiting and waiting to be introduced. But the longer we waited the more we had reservation as to whether or not we should allow him to speak. Tanana was only 19 or 20 years old and had the vocabulary of a drunken sailor (sorry Glen). We knew if he got 'too colorful' with his remarks to the kids, the Team Mothers and the parents would never forgive us. Thankfully, and unbeknownst to us, Angel representatives had given him a prepared speech written on a peace of paper. I guess they either knew about his constant profanity, or maybe, being only 19, not knowing what exactly to say. Anyway, all went well. And as Tanana got in his car to drive off he wished us all a great fu*#en season.

[Angel Oracle]

2 hours ago, Adam said:

I'm not allowing my son to attend a game until Junior Felix is inducted

I'm holding out for Luis Polonia.

[disarcina]

fanfromday1 :

Now that's funny stuff and just a great story.

It's stories and tidbits like that , that to me, make this Angelswin.com forum so great to be a part of.

[disarcina]

as far as DiSar in the Halos Hall - perhaps he should get there.

but he's another guy who got hampered by injuries and his trajectory to be the all time Halos leader in games played at SS got de-railed.

He was on track to surpass Fregosi (and I think Schofield) on that list and then got significantly injured twice (once when he got struck in the on deck circle by Jose Cardinal (batting coach at the time?) swinging a bat.

Whether he ever would have surpassed Fregosi as the All Time SS even if DiSar did pass him in games played (which Disar DID NOT accomplish) is open to question. 

Jim Fregosi was the team's original star player and face of the new franchise for more than a decade -- and then when he did get traded, he was involved in the deal that brought us the next face of the franchise, and perhaps our most famous/ best player in Halos history up until Mike Trout came along -- NOLAN RYAN - who is forever enshrined in the MLB HOF as a Texas Ranger (the highest bidder selection process was in play back then).

DiSar's up there in a number of Halos categories but his overall career stats in those 'comparison' stats (WAR, OPS etc.) not great. DiSar wasn't even, IMO, that good of a defensive SS, although he was solid -- he was certainly no Ozzie Smith, Omar Vizquel and, in fact, one of the best defensive SS's I've seen for our Halos (up until A. Simmons who I consider the best all time Halos defensive SS - NOW -- that is if he stopped playing tomorrow !) was Orlando Carbrera , who had a very short stint with us, but won a gold glove and IMO played very well for us during his time here.

The thing Disar really had going for him, IMO, is that when he was in the line up, the team seemed to win and the team as a whole seemed better. It's not something that shows up in a box score stat.  Other than that, he wasn't fast -- not really a base stealer, his offense was OK, not great - no power really -- his defense while not stellar level was above average.

Not sure where he is these days -- he bounced back and forth between the Red Sox and Angels organizations his entire professional career from his playing days to his coaching/ front office staff jobs.  He did serve a two year stint (was it two years?) as Halos third base coach and may be engrained in Halos history as, quite frankly, the WORST THIRD BASE COACH EVER, I think we had more runners thrown out at the plate under his watch than ever before -- and this was AFTER MLB imposed that stupid "Buster Posey" Rule which gives a huge advantage to the runner coming in to score from third base.........(they really have ruined one of the most exciting plays in baseball and they wonder why people think baseball is slow and boring).

I think I read somewhere in the recent Red Sox managerial shake up (they fire their manager when their team MAKES the playoffs !) that Disar was tossed to the curb.

Perhaps Angels have invited him to be a ST coach at Tempe to work with the infielders. he's done that before.

[Tank]

7 hours ago, Adam said:

I'm not allowing my son to attend a game until Junior Felix is inducted

inducted or abducted?

i vote for the latter.

[Billy_Ball]

Who traded Devon White and Willie Fraser for Junior Felix and Luis Sojo anyways?  Freakin Mike Port!

[SkyMonkey]

What about Bobby Grich?

From other threads and articles, he seems to have stats equal to or better that several HOF,ers. I,m not good enough with stats to prove the point or not.. but it has been suggested by others ..

Opinions?

 

[greginpsca]

3 hours ago, SkyMonkey said:

What about Bobby Grich?

From other threads and articles, he seems to have stats equal to or better that several HOF,ers. I,m not good enough with stats to prove the point or not.. but it has been suggested by others ..

Opinions?

 

Grich is in the Angels HOF.

[gklingel52]

19 hours ago, Capital_Dave said:

First name that comes to mind as a glaring omission (besides Tanana): Doug DeCinces.  5 years, 18 WAR, played a leading role on both ALCS teams in the 80's.

I'm sure he will be considered after he gets out of jail for inside trading.

[Capital_Dave]

1 hour ago, gklingel52 said:

I'm sure he will be considered after he gets out of jail for inside trading.

Wow, I had totally missed that news story.  What a shame.