Angels roundtable: Shohei Ohtani-led team can challenge Astros for AL West title

[beatlesrule]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/angels-roundtable-shohei-ohtani-led-213052277.html

[failos]

This team is magical

[halodground]

Several comments about needing Fletcher back at the top of the lineup. I’m not sure I even want him starting, let alone leading off the way he’s been playing. 

[gurn67]

Good teams consistently win series. They just won 3 in a row. Last time they did that was June 28 - July 7, 2021. @NYY, BAL, BOS

They have an excellent chance to win 4 in a row with Baltimore at home.

Last time they did that?

At the beginning of the 2018 season, the Angels won their first 5 series to open the season 13-3.

[Pancake Bear]

1 hour ago, halodground said:

Several comments about needing Fletcher back at the top of the lineup. I’m not sure I even want him starting, let alone leading off the way he’s been playing. 

If Fletch returns to his .376 obp of 2020, or even the .350 of 2019, sure, I'm fine with him leading off. In 2018, he was only getting on base at a .316 clip, though, and in 2021 he couldn't even manage a .300 obp. Those aren't lead off numbers. Last year, he was barely worth a starting job and it was solely based on his glove. He was a deficit on offense.

How much of that is the deader ball and how much is teams adjusting to him and Fletch failing to adjust back? I don't know. But if he doesn't figure it out and 2021 turns into the new normal, imo he should be seen as a defense-only guy and nothing more should be expected. 

[fan_since79]

6 hours ago, gurn67 said:

Good teams consistently win series. They just won 3 in a row. Last time they did that was June 28 - July 7, 2021. @NYY, BAL, BOS

They have an excellent chance to win 4 in a row with Baltimore at home.

Last time they did that?

At the beginning of the 2018 season, the Angels won their first 5 series to open the season 13-3.

...and they finished the 2021 season with a record of 77-85, in 4th place.

2018? Also 4th place, record of 80-82. After that scintillating 13-3 start, we went 67-79.

Let's keep this in perspective. I'll be really excited if we're battling for 1st place in mid-August, or comfortably in 1st at the ASB.

But yes, I'm happy with their progress so far. The offense could be scary good, and the pitching is starting to gel. Maddon just needs to stay out of the way.

[Taylor]

As exciting as it was to win a series in Houston, I'm tempering my expectations until June at least.

[TroutField]

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

As exciting as it was to win a series in Houston, I'm tempering my expectations until June at least.

This team has let us down way too many times to get all giddy this early.

 

if we can float a few games above .500 until the all star break and the team is still looking relatively healthy, shohei is pitching and hitting well, Syndergaard is healthy and pitching like a #1, and Trout isn’t hurt I’ll start to think about the playoffs. 
 

until then I still have some questions about this roster, most notably the rotation. 

[Lou]

I have chosen to be giddy. 

[TroutField]

6 minutes ago, Lou said:

I have chosen to be giddy. 

I guess 10 years of consistently being let down finally got to me, normally I’m a bit more optimistic when the team gets hot for a few games. 

[Reveille1984]

7 hours ago, Pancake Bear said:

If Fletch returns to his .376 obp of 2020, or even the .350 of 2019, sure, I'm fine with him leading off. In 2018, he was only getting on base at a .316 clip, though, and in 2021 he couldn't even manage a .300 obp. Those aren't lead off numbers. Last year, he was barely worth a starting job and it was solely based on his glove. He was a deficit on offense.

How much of that is the deader ball and how much is teams adjusting to him and Fletch failing to adjust back? I don't know. But if he doesn't figure it out and 2021 turns into the new normal, imo he should be seen as a defense-only guy and nothing more should be expected. 

It isn't the dead ball.  His biggest issue is that he literally has zero power, so pitchers have consistently been attacking him earlier in the count the longer he's been in the league.  

His first pitch strike percentage was top 5 in MLB last season (65% vs 55% in his "breakout" 2019 season), and his slugging % was bottom 3 in MLB.  Until he can actually punish, well, anything, he's not going to draw walks since he's getting pounded in the zone and might as well be up there with a pool noodle.  

[Angelsjunky]

With his contact rate, there's really no reason Fletcher shouldn't bounce-back somewhat, and hit at least .270. But .270 with zero power and almost zero walks is, what, .270/.300/.350? Not sure that constiitutes a major league regular unless you're a Gold Glove shortstop or catcher -- and it certainly isn't the table-setter you want in front of Ohtani, Trout, Rendon, and Walsh. And of course as @Reveille1984 said, pitchers aren't threatened by Fletcher, so he's going to be down in counts a lot - if he ever sees a pitch he doesn't like.

I'd actually like to see Trout back at leadoff, at least until Marsh is more consistent. I think Marsh will eventually have an OBP around .370 or so, and could manage .340-.350 this year.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Angelsjunky

[tdawg87]

On 4/22/2022 at 3:14 AM, halodground said:

Several comments about needing Fletcher back at the top of the lineup. I’m not sure I even want him starting, let alone leading off the way he’s been playing. 

The average baseball fan is stupid.

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 4/22/2022 at 12:53 AM, gurn67 said:

Good teams consistently win series. They just won 3 in a row. Last time they did that was June 28 - July 7, 2021. @NYY, BAL, BOS

They have an excellent chance to win 4 in a row with Baltimore at home.

Last time they did that?

At the beginning of the 2018 season, the Angels won their first 5 series to open the season 13-3.

Youre almost contradicting yourself here, because we ended up sucking all those years.

 

That said, weve also had some bad luck. We went into last September almost tied with Toronto. Who knows what Trout could have done.

And 2018, I think we were in the race right up until Skaggs. Then we had a bad game against Baltimore that lasted like 3 days and the wheels fell off.

But agreed. Winning series is the key.

[tdawg87]

5 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Youre almost contradicting yourself here, because we ended up sucking all those years.

 

That said, weve also had some bad luck. We went into last September almost tied with Toronto. Who knows what Trout could have done.

And 2018, I think we were in the race right up until Skaggs. Then we had a bad game against Baltimore that lasted like 3 days and the wheels fell off.

But agreed. Winning series is the key.

In 2018 we got back into the race right after Skaggs died. They had that combined no hitter and got right in the thick of the WC race.

Then they lost 3/4 against Baltimore and then 2/3 against Detroit and that was that.

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

6 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

In 2018 we got back into the race right after Skaggs died. They had that combined no hitter and got right in the thick of the WC race.

Then they lost 3/4 against Baltimore and then 2/3 against Detroit and that was that.

Yep, losing to teams worse than us always seems to do the trick.  TuRn ThE pAgE!

 

[T.G.]

I remember this thread like it was Thursday.

[Taylor]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:10 AM, Taylor said:

As exciting as it was to win a series in Houston, I'm tempering my expectations until June at least.