Inside Pitch

Victor Robles and Juan Soto.... Pretty sure those two have made retaining Harper less of a life or death proposition for Washington.

You're trying way too hard.

Ward 3-3 now and it's only the 5th inning.. LOL...

TBW article with some international signing info... https://247sports.com/mlb/angels/Article/Angels-International-Signing-Preview-119178417/

Not sure what you mean by background but despite having started at SS, M-Cab was always seen as a future 3B, apparently everyone in his family was "big boned".

I know where they were playing. I also know the reason they were in AAA were because the guy you want to force MS to wear a T-shirt kept them there. Truthfully I'm less concerned about Fernandez getting playing time than I am Fletcher. Fernandez managed to go two years without playing baseball cause Castro's an ass-hat and then went right back to hitting the ball -- he may be a rookie but the dude's a veteran. Fletcher was in the middle of having a "break out" type season in the minors -- Just seems ignorant on the part of the front office and MS to have him sit around instead of playing everyday. Its annoying because it's only June 19th so, they aren't going to fold up their tents this early but sometimes it feels like they are just fighting the inevitable. If they are still this far out come July 20th and they aren't sellers it will suck. As a fan I'm hoping for the best and all that -- but it's going to be a real PITA if they end waiting til August 1st and after the deadline to finally punt on all the guys with expiring contracts and start playing the younger guys.

I guess he's up because hes the back up at SS.. I hate shit like this -- if he isn't going to play everyday send him down and call up Fontana.. I'd rather Fletcher play everyday in AAA than what he's doing now.

Until Fletcher got called up -- what youngster did he have the option of starting? Jefry Marte and Cozart were the other 3B on the roster until both were injured.

Definitely better suited for 2B, if for no other reason because as a SS he's familiar with how the keystone works and where his 2B should always be. He doesn't have the instincts at 3B -- it's nothing physical, he's just sort of a fish out of water there. Remember how some guys would struggle moving from RF to LF because they say the angels are all different and the ball comes off the bat different... those are the things Im talking about.

It's a bit of both -- but his defense at 3B has tanked terribly... Dude isn't a 3B.

Okay... I LOLed pretty hard. Good show, Sir...

This seems a tad critical. I don't know much about his background, I remember when he was mostly a Phillies prospect hound and was pretty gung-ho on Dominic Brown ... as was most everyone at the time. He's been in early on guys, been off on others -- so he's like everyone else in that regard.. My first big miss was Keith Luuloa - though some of that had to do with PEDs. What I do know is that 95% of the people writing about scouts were never put through MLB's scout school and most of the people I know who are employed as scouts just transitioned into it after playing. So, not sure what a real scout is .vs what isn't. Based on my conversations with people outside the Angels on Maitan the feeling seemed to be that he's got a bit of laziness to him. Sometimes that manifests itself in how they carry themselves, more often than not it shows up in how a player practices. It may have been that those videos of his swing were an example of how he just kind of goes through the motions while "practicing". I dunno. But we do know he let his body get away from him when he first came up, so it's something that bears watching. Personally, I hope something or someone lights a fire under his ass and he decides he wants to be the best player in MLB -- then maybe those tools that saw scouts (real and imaigned), fawning all over will come into play and the Angels end up ahead.

I remember reading that same article when it was written about Felix Hernandez.

Oodles of fun. Like watching this pen.

Who exactly is a fanboy? Check the staff predictions thread... I had the Angels missing the playoffs. I'm not happy with how things have gone but I trust the process. I've been about building for 2019 and beyond for a long time. My fear has been and continues to be that they will slow that process down by making foolish trades for this year. But as far as Jedi/Eppler goes.... Dipoto inherited a team with a bunch of players in their primes and a farm system that had Trout, Segura, Richards, Shoemaker, and Cron. I wish Eppler had been handed that team and not the one Dipoto left in his wake. IMO comparing the praise for Eppler to that of Dipoto is its own level of stupidity. The only thing Dipoto brought to the table was not being Mike Scioscia.

So it's about the money then....

Body doesn't look anywhere as bad as it did in recent pics.... Makes you wonder when those pics were taken or if he was just wearing his uni a bit sloppy during instructs.

They needed a back end guy.... Period. Not getting someone to replace Petit and Norris was a mistake.

Except -- the numbers backed it up -- they weren't getting lucky, they were genuinely good. Problem is .... Bullpen volatility is a very real thing. So a guy being good this year doesn't really mean he will be good next year -- some of that has to do with leverage situations and the sort -- but it's pretty common... Closers don't see as much crazy volatility but again -- they are always typically used in the same sort of leverage type situations.. Anyway, there was a very good article recently using the Indians and their bullpen struggles this year as an example.. Last year they were God-level good and this year a nearly identical pen has completely imploded. It's the nature of the beast.. Angel fans don't really understand how good they had it all those years with the big three at the back of the pen..

Guarantee you the team wouldn't suffer for it either.. The other team might actually lose focus watching it happen...

I think everyone agrees with that regardless of whether they love, hate or are completely indifferent towards MS.

You know whats funny..... That righty lefty thing is something relatively new with him -- he's the guy that used to constantly argue that it didn't matter what arm they threw with so long as the pitchers could get people out. Now people are ripping him for making the lefty/righty move -- but they have ripped him for leaving Alvarez in to face same handed batters too. I'd argue that this is one of those hindsight 20/20 things but -- dude brought in Bedrosian.... I'd sooner slam my dong with a car door repeatedly than bring Cam into any game that's on the line..

Dude is talking about position players and you bring the starting rotation... You aren't even trying to actually discuss anything -- you're looking for low hanging fruit and hoping nobody notices how completely inane your argument is. The Angels SP ERA is a strength -- unfortunately it's supported by one of the weakest bullpens we have seen in MLB since those late 90s Mariner teams. Somehow you also completely neglected to talk about how that low SP ERA comes with short starts -- and that it has to contend with poor run support more often than not. But yeah man -- you totally got that guy.. I want them to play well because following a bad team is painful -- look no further than the nightly BP nightmare. But, I'd welcome a sell off and for the team to call up Thaiss and company to get their feet wet now and have a better idea what they have or don't have moving into 2019. I don't know if he was going with what the binder was telling him to do or whatever -- but last nights game was one of those times where it's hard not to put the blame squarely on him. I agree it's not all on him like some try to make it, but I totally get why there would be some fires and pitchforks out after last night's game. What I do find funny is that you'd think games like last night would make the anti-MS club happy... A few more of those and it increases the chances he won't be back.