Inside Pitch

I think he's hinting at the reality that the two guys they would most certainly turn to Valbuena, and Cron have both been worse. Also likely why Fletcher responded the way he did. It doesn't take Woodward and Bernstein to figure out that if he asks the question the team will deflect with the obvious counter-question. FWIW, if he ends the season the way he's played it so far I really do hope the local press asks those questions, but midway through June without better options available the team won't answer the question with anything other than cliches.

I won't believe a word you say on the issue until they make a movie about you starring Edward James Olmos. (Working title: Stats and Deliver)

Mike Scioscia wanted more pitching when they signed him. The GM in charge said Albert's decline didn't matter. MS and whoever follows him will be stuck with AP unless he walks away or Arte cuts the biggest oopsie check in MLB history. Barring a Albert Belle/Prince Fielder type career ending condition they are stuck with this.

That washing machine might beat AP to first in a footrace...

People go by names other than their birth names, not really a new thing. Why doesn't Posey go by Buster and not Gerald?

Maria I. Guardado‏Verified account @mi_guardado More Angels felt Canning's UCLA workload was in line with that of a 3rd-year player in their organization. Didn't feel he needed more innings. ----------- This org got smarter recently...

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it-looks-like-the-baseball-is-behind-mlbs-power-surge/?ex_cid=538twitter If you look at the year to year park factors.... Crazy http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor

LOL -- Trout is STILL the worst interview in MLB...

So 1 and 3 are already locked in? Pretty nifty...

Adell is pretty articulate... Dude was on point at the draft...

As long as nobody from the board shakes his hand we should be good...

So basically the stories were all true.. The Angels were on him early, made him feel wanted and it paid off. Thankfully they were lucky nobody mucked it up by picking him. Props to the front office. Dodgeball references are aces IMO..

Remember when you argued that Revere was better than Maybin but that Maybin would keep the job cause of money -- Is Revere still better?? The names may change but your agenda remains the same...

One of them can mistake his way into a HR -- the other, less so.

Relative power index -- they look at the strength of schedule, the Pythag, comp it to everyone else and try to normalize the team's performance to that of the rest of the league. So based on how they have performed relative to the rest of baseball, the injury depleted Angels have been the tenth best team in MLB. Truthfully, I don't really put a lot of weight into it, there are better more advanced metrics out there.. But, given how much people have been yapping about the Angels playing a weak schedule and being in a weak division, I figured it's worth bringing them up. The AL West BTW isn't close to the weakest division in MLB. The AL Central, the NL Central, the NL East... All worse. Looking at the NL East.... The Nationals W/L record might be a tad misleading.

Yep.. its science.

Did you see Frank Thomas in his prime? The Big Hurt earned that name, what he did to baseballs bordered on cruelty.

ANAHEIM -- As he prepared to oversee his first MLB Draft with the Angels, new amateur scouting director Matt Swanson decided to establish a mold for the type of players he wanted his scouts to target, one that focused on two key attributes: athleticism and upside. Happy Days!!!!!

http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/rpi 10th best RPI. .506 SoS.....

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/44599/is-the-cubs-youth-to-blame-for-inconsistent-play We should totally trade him our veteran players .... apparently that's the missing ingredient.

Ive said it before, but.. I think he's been the biggest disappointment on the season.

Jerk!

Was his draft position DL? Nice value pick up potentially.

No, it's a good question and I don't recall ever reading if they had any rules in place. There has to be something though -- I hate to bring him up again but Matt Harrington's situation makes me wonder. He was drafted in 2000, didn't sign and then sat out a year and was drafted again. He didnt sign in 2001 either.. So instead of sitting out he signed with an independent league team in Long Beach and then was drafted AGAIN in 2002. There is likely something in place or it would have been done by now -- Boras wouldnt have let any gentlemen's agreement stop him from working a deal.

Beck has two years of availability.. He goes back to school, gets healthy and is eligible for the draft again. Draft eligible sophomores aren't allowed to sign as undrafted FAs. Not sure if there is a set protocol for HS types but, I'm pretty sure the owners have a gentlemen's agreement in place.