Inside Pitch

Do four drunk guys in the Angel Stadium parking lot singing "I will survive" after a loss count? Cause they do that in Anaheim too..

Maybe you've missed it but, an OCRegister article quotes Japanese media as saying Ohtani seems happier now than at any point during his career in Japan. Might have to wait for the later.... Angel fans on a message board don't have that much pull.

Nah, I think you had it right and he was just never that good offensively.... I was being a wise ass more than anything when I posted but since I've kind of derailed the "why does AP suck now" conversation I guess I'll offer an actual opinion... Heyward was always more about projection than production -- people expected him to continue to get better and because of his size and tools, they saw it as a given he would continue to improve. His career best season came his rookie year when he put up a 131 OPS+. From that point on he never topped 117. A lot of his future value was based on his speed and defense -- the defense has sort of held up but the steals have fallen off a cliff. He's still young, he's got all the tools but father time forgives no one.

May just come down to dollars... If their unwillingness to pay even minimum wage is any indication MLB as an organization are a bunch of cheap twats -- I know Chuck went into his own pockets to keep this place running for years. With the advent of Twitter and such, people have taken to discussing baseball with others on a much wider scale than just a select message board. So maybe the traffic finally started to slow down to where they no longer saw a point in keeping the message boards. Does MLB.com allow people to comment or post to their articles? It may just be the feel thats a better avenue too.

Woosh..... But for the record.. a 40 point dropoff in OPS+ at what should have been his peak seasons is crazy.

One mystery at a time... I'm still trying to figure out how a player supposedly in his prime, staying in the same league and division could fall off a cliff like Jason Heyward has... Only 26 years old when he became a Cub... he went from a 117 OPS+ to 68. His career prior to joining Chicago saw him put up a 114 OPS+, since then it's dropped to 76. At least with AP, he was older, had foot problems and well there was a league shift and the dreaded marine layer associated with Angel Stadium ... Heyward by comparison moved to a more hitter friendly environment at a time when the rest of the division got markedly weaker. Maybe it was the change in managers...

Those old timers never saw a slider or a cutter... They also benefited from bad playing field and weaker defenses. They didn't go cross country, how many night games did they play? Williams was the best hitter ever imo.

Knows the path Arte took around the stadium with his dogs .... can recall a MS decision from 2001 that backfired ..... doesn't know about the red seat....

LOL -- So true!

Dare you to find a SI cover with the 2018 Marlins on it!

Career ERA of 4.62 there -- and that was with some excellent TBR defenses.

As sad as the reality that's the only reason he posts.....

That XBH out of him for the Midwest League was actually pretty good... Prolly needs to work on creating some lift -- he's been pretty GB heavy -- but the predictive stats on him are fairly good http://www.statcorner.com/bat/650859/Luis-Rengifo Home park was very much a pitchers park.

My guess is the Ohtani fans would remain Ohtani fans.... Recent LA Times article mentioned he had been awful both at the plate and on the mound before his best seasons in Japan. Personally, I'm not really worried about his mound performances but he's looked hopelessly over-matched as a hitter.

Point is, he's not what his raw ERA would make one believe. When you have one year of data, and the data shows a dropping K rate and projects an ERA over 4, it's worth some pause. The upside is he used to be better prior to TJS, so there is reason to believe he's still on the mend. But he's not the sure thing/savior some are painting him as. I'm not anti Cobb, but he's more a of number three than anything else and we have a rotation full of those types. BTW, it wouldn't hurt you to look at stuff... Location -- ERA Anaheim - 4.94 Seattle - 6.29 Texas - 5.79 Houston - 8.82 Only AL west park he's done well in is Oakland. Like I said in the post you responded to -- he's been a 4.00 pitcher in neutral parks... so maybe he struggled with travel or something.. We can throw it all out and say it's a small sample in each of those parks but it's been a consistent issue and combined it's not a small sample at all.

Best part of that article is reading that he had a history of tanking during Japanese spring training too.

Dude , the WBC uses Rawlings baseballs .... Same balls used for MLB and they pitch off a regulation mound. The only differences between the mounds over there is the type of clay they use but they are the same exact height.... I get being concerned but guys get lit up in AZ during Spring Training all the time. The combination of thin air and altitude can make for some curious results... Add in all the other crap and it's not a real shock he's been awful. Dude needs more innings imo.

Even with that being the case -- the BABIP is completely fluky... He's neither as good as his K rate has been nor is he going to give up hits on 70% of his batted balls... The highest recorded BABIP ever was .433 in 1894... Since 2000, there have been two guys with a BABIP over .400 in any one season. Manny Ramirez and Jose Hernandez. He's pitched 8.1 innings... Its hard to make any real decisions based on such a small sample. FTR, I'm not opposed to sending him to AAA, I just don't know that what we are seeing isn't just noise still.

So... if Fletcher's numbers are correct, Ohtani's BABIP allowed is like .714 Meanwhile his K/9 is 20.52.. Neither one of those numbers is sustainable or a realistic gauge of his ability....

Again, there is a Garza similarity... He's pitched well vs. NYY, Bos, and Baltimore. It's been the Royals, Astros, Angels, and Mariners, that have wrecked him. Weird stuff really. Wonder if it's a travel thing or something.

Bidwell has been pitching like his peripherals predicted him to. His ERA last year screamed fluke when compared to his peripherals.. He was closer to a 5.00 ERA guy than the mid 3's he posted. That's not to say that pitcher's can't outpitch their peripherals but Bridwell has done it for all of 20 starts in his entire career minor and major league.

I like Cobb, but people are overrating him based on ERA... not as bad as they did with Matt Garza but still overrating him. He's one year removed from being a bigger question mark than people consider Richards to be and for his career he's been close to a 4.00 ERA guy in neutral parks. Cobb's got some upside in him but he's pitched his entire career in front of great defenses and in a pitcher's park.

Ugly start... He's stuff is better than it's played and Fletcher is kind of hinting at him being BABip'ed to death... I think people are overreacting, I also think the Angels need to maybe sit him down and explain that while they know he's used to doing things a certain way this isn't Kansas anymore... (Or Hanshin if you'd rather). He will be pitching in MLB, and instead of trying to make things adapt to him they really should consider working to get him to start adapting to MLB... All the "he used to doing ____ in Japan" stuff needs to stop... He won't be pitching in Japan again.. unless he fails. Time to teach him what it takes to succeed in this league... Everyone knows he was great over there. Also .. AO -- if you can forgive me for stepping on your toes -- Hows "Bohtanquin" for a nickname.... Just having some fun with his struggles today...

Much ado about nothing.. this Kei Igawa fellow will be fine.....