Inside Pitch

I saw Todd Greene almost put one out of the old enclosed stadium... it hit the roof facade on the third deck. It didn't get out as quickly as Trout's ball last night did, but it was in the air a hell of a lot longer and carried for days.... I wish they had statcast back then -- I don't think anyone has hit a ball further in Angel Stadium than that one.

Hitting is a lot easier when you're facing a guy who's previous high was pitching for the Delmarva Shorebirds or the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

Stop whining about being called out... Being a message board expert that seemingly wants to dictate proper message board behavior you should be aware that voicing an opinion can have some nasty results. We all catch shit for our opinions and two years from now Lou will find a post of yours that makes everyone laugh. The circle of AW.com life. BTW... cut and pasting stats is what some people do to support their opinions as opposed to being that message board edge-lord that spouts off and clings to his opinions because GDI, he's an American hero who is unafraid to be wrong because GDI, he is a free thinker. Mixing some facts in with opinions is a good thing, sometimes it even makes it harder to be "called out". The ability to play CF. Prior to one game this year you have to go back 6 years to find any season where Blash has played CF and in 2012 it was only 8 games. He's played a total of 179 innings in CF as a pro.. He was always a max effort guy and he's always been streaky. When push comes to shove the physical tools only go so far, his margin for error was always a lot smaller than that of a more physically talented player.... right now pitchers own him and he lacks the brute force/natural ability to shove past it. He had two sub .575 OPS months last year too -- so, we have seen him be bad before but we have never seen him post a walk rate under 3% and a K rate near 30%. This is a new level of awful for him. Can't really argue that he's just been unlucky as the numbers don't really support that at this point. Hopefully it clicks for him sooner rather than later, but I do wish he had succumbed to a phantom injury and a rehab assignment in AAA.

Most of them in the elbow.... one guy in the shoulder. Flesh wounds.

So, doing the Dodgers thing....

Cut him some slack, at 44 he's only a few years younger than AP....

That's not edgy, it's just the reality of the situation. Ichiro doesn't have the star power in SoCal that he does in Seattle. There's also the fact that Angel fans are privy to a shell of himself HOFer on a nightly basis. That's not meant as a knock on Ichiro as much as it's a true depiction of the Pujols situation. I'm sure Ohtani is excited about it.

Skaggs TJ was in September of 2014. Tropeano's was in September of 2016. Do you need any further explanation of the difference between the two?

All the same people whining about it would be crying the team was cursed and how they can't keep guys healthy had he gone back out and blown out his elbow.

I've always been unsure what option is best. I have a buddy in baseball who is a huge believer in pushing a guy up while he's hot until he reaches a level where he's punched in the face. He believes its a big confidence builder for the player to have him at least taste success and get the feeling of progression -- believes it makes him hunger for it. He admits there is a risk a guy is just raking due to being fed FBs while there is no book on him but he dismisses that as minor due to his belief that being able to catch up with FBs is key. So, there is def a case to be made for why being aggressive with him would be a plus.

Clearly because he always chooses the proven veterans.. That's the narrative right?

Cluster%@&* averted!

They are better off keeping him in low A for now -- the walk rates are way up, the growing power is nice but he's been running an elevated K rate too. I know the strikeouts are commonplace these days but, I think they may want to see him bring it down from the near 30% he's currently at to somewhere closer to where it was last season.

No one thing guarantees success, but there is no denying that K rate is the common predictor of success for a SP. In Estrada you're trying to find an outlier but the reality is there are far fewer Robin Roberts types that didn't K anyone and had success than guys who went the other way. But as far as Estrada goes.. if Joe Gatto has a five year peak of 110 ERA+ in MLB or even a career ERA+ of 101, he would be considered a massive success. Also, the big difference between the two -- GB%... Estrada has always been a HR machine whereas that's been the one thing Gatto has always done an amazing job of limiting. Honestly, the GB rate and HR suppression are the only reasons I had not punted on him completely... Gatto has only been doing what he is currently for what -- 3-4 weeks. So it's far too early make any predictions as to where he goes from here.. but again.. it's a marked departure from what he had done previously. Still don't get why you have such a hard time admitting that. But if the K rate is real and he keeps making hitters pound the ball into the ground it ups his projections quite a bit. You don't think he will pan out, that's fine .. I too am a skeptic, but he's definitely doing it a bit differently than in the past. For me the question is .. will he keep it up. Nothing in his past makes one believe he will -- but that's where the tools start to talk and the math ends.

.....and K rate is the biggest predictor of future success for a SP. Baseball 101. I'm not jumping on his bandwagon, but there is no denying he's taken a significant step forward in at least one area... He's always been a guy that had quality stuff but had never been able to put people away. Now he's putting up a K rate of 11%.. Sorry, that's a drastic change... anytime someone can more than double their K-BB% from where it was the previous year 16.2% .vs 6.5 it bears watching. He's still walking too many people .... that's the biggest wart -- but if you look at his batted ball info, his .398 BABIP allowed this year is about 100 points north of the league average. Lastly he is still inducing ground balls at elite levels 54%... It's early, but if that K rate stays north of 9% all year Gatto's future looks significantly better than at any point in his career.

Something has clicked for this guy.... Or they fixed him

That money was lost if he didn't use it.... I think he traded away a chunk of it to trade for a guy he had traded away only a few months earlier.. Yes, seriously...

What idiot in MLB wouldnt wish they had Scot Shields? BTW, Mike Scioscia's usage of Scot Shields in leverage situations and not simply the 8th got a lot of play on advance metric sites like BBProspectus... It was his usage of Shields that is often pointed to as the birth of the modern set up man.. But, don't let reality cloud a good narrative.

He does everything well save for hit for power -- at least, that's the knock on him.

Rengifo and Fletcher both made FG's fringe five.... Nice to see the second tier guys being talked about too.

Those were awesome...

Remember the Howie hate? He was easily the most boringly consistent player in Angels history.... But all anyone ever talked about was how he missed on a slider down and away and not the overall consistency...

Thats the only part of the story that seemed shocking.

Nazi!

Every day it's someone else.... So nice.