Inside Pitch

Oops, My bad.. Thank you for clarifying. So, you're actually hoping he leaves before his contract is up. Got it!

Yes, we all know what it is you want to see happen. Only four more years until you can celebrate.

That's what I don't get -- unless I missed something and it's entirely possible I have... everything I've read says the two things are unrelated. Has that changed? I don't doubt that the one injury may have led to the other -- but, from what I've read online there is no issue currently with his UCL. I don't know if not pitching is helping or hurting his UCL with healing -- but I keep seeing people making the TJ claims. I get the concerns, once a guy has a torn UCL of any severity I don't know If it's possible to not worry about something else happening, but is there a real concern or are people just jumping to conclusions?

Posting a pic of the Angels ST clubhouse in AZ and comparing it to the MLB clubhouses of the Yankees and Phillies is pretty LOL.

Just pointing out you were talking out your ass.... like always. Maybe it's time to change the name to AceVenturaZone.

Relax, he's starting on Thursday. Also... Barbaro is starting on Wednesday. LOL... So when other than this year have you seen his pussified pitch counts? Certainly not last year when he threw 615 pitches in his 6 starts. You didn't see it in 2015 either when he was coming back from the knee injury -- he hit 100 pitches in his very first start and averaged more than 100 over his first 9 starts. He had two 99 pitch starts and one 98 pitch start during that run. On the season he made 32 starts and topped 98 pitches 25 times.. Overall he threw 3250 pitches -- tell me what that averaged out to? For his career, Richards has averaged 98.5 pitches per start, Archer 99.6.... As always -- good to see the facts supporting your hyperbole.

Wait -- are you trying to say he wasn't talking about manscaping?

So what is everyone gonna do next week since they used up all their runs for this month today...

There have been some pretty decent pitchers that came out of NH.. Chris Carpenter, Bob Tewksbury, Mike Flanagan... Kind of surprising actually...

Wasn't even referring to FIP -- but even that is a better measure than ERA. I tend to track more predictive stats.... pFB, kS%, Ct%, SwS%... There is a strong correlation with certain factors and future success. Clevinger has been above average in most of the predictive stats at every level -- even last year in the AL he beat the league averages in 3 of the 4 I mentioned -- his walk rates and associated predictive stats are his biggest problem.

The crazy part is how bad AL 1B have been as a whole.. For most of MLB history, 1B/DH has been the most offensively driven position -- this year AL 1B are averaging a .757 OPS ... while that's above the overall AL average OPS it's awful when compared to the NL 1B average of .903 AL average OPS in LF is brutal too at .693.

Much more neutral park too -- less chance of RHBs going to AA and having their confidence crushed by the park.

Yeah.... Those 40+ sub 3.00 ER starts at AA-AAA and outstanding peripherals have nothing to do with it. Even last year when he wasn't wrecking house he managed to allow fewer hits than IP while nearly striking out a batter an inning. There is more to pitching performance than looking at someone's ERA. You aren't too far off there... Clevinger has a wider tool set and experienced much greater success in the higher levels than has Meyer, but they both have had command issues which slowed their rise to MLB. (injuries too).

Clevinger was a guy in A ball at the time of the trade... Easy enough to dismiss when one of them gets moved.. Pestano had a pretty good track record, Clevinger was working his way back from injury.... Both teams were gambling on upside.. He was someone I really liked... But so was Elliot Morris who never recovered from his arm woes... Another guy I liked and was somewhat in a similar situation -- Jared Ruxer.... The dude Eppler moved for Pounders.

To say the offense has been brutal so far is to be very very kind.

Chuck are the old minor league boards online anywhere? I remember having said something when that went down... That was a mistake from the get-go. Clevinger had four MLB average pitches at the time of the trade and all of them could only get better. His biggest issue in those days was his follow through was kinda wonky. They finally started to change that in 2014 after he came back from the injury... Was painful to see him be traded.

.342 http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/batting/split/79/league/al/sort/slugAvg/order/true

Was gonna post this -- its rare that a cover blows away the original but that is far and away my favorite version of that song.. JR Richards of Dishwalla did an amazing cover of a George Michael song after his death too. But man, this cover just owns...

Hermosillo is doing a lot better than his numbers would lead us to believe at first glace -- he's got some warts, his LD rate is down and his pFB% is a career low -- but those two things are likely connected and it's likely the result of how they are pitching him initially. The reason to believe he'll get better? He's put up a169 BABip... the league average is .313, and he's never posted a figure below .289 -- the guy has been hitting "at-him" balls.. Among the things he CAN control -- his unintentional walk rate is above the league average, and his Swinging K rate below it... So he's a 22 year old, two years below the league optimal age showing he can control the count .vs more experienced competition. I suspect some of those lases he's been hitting will start finding holes and everything will start falling into place.

Eric Longenhagen‏ @longenhagen 6h6 hours ago More Angels RHP Chris Rodriguez 93-96, mvmt, missed bats w/ all four pitches. Hard mid-80s slider, slurvy but tight low-80s curve, diving change. Chris Kusiolek‏ @CaliKusiolek 11m11 minutes ago More Chris Rodriguez 93-97 w/ life; quick arm, decent athlete w/ limited projection. 6 potential SL, CH; SL feel advanced. Competitor w/ poise

Christensen pick was a questionable pick due to his commitment to his mission.. Despite that and maybe as a testament to his ability -- the dude was in the majors at 23 after only 944 minor league at bats -- less than 300 of those above High A.... Baseball was just second to his faith. Say what you will about Anderson, he went from college to MLB after all of 4 minor league starts. He was rushed due to the woeful state of those early 90s Angels teams and yet he still managed to carve out a decent 13 year MLB career. He was also the central figure in one of Bavasi's biggest flubs -- remember they failed to offer him a contract before the deadline so he was going to become a FA and the Angels traded him to Cleveland for whatever they could get.. (Grimsley and Pep Harris)

Preach it -- how they can sign this guy while CJ Wilson is available is beyond me... Stupid tightwads.

He's been giving up more HRs of late -- so, he's already pitching like a current Angels SP...

Calm down? LOL. I'm not the one so flummoxed he's struggling to follow along. You responded to MY post, one where I brought up how we could have been spared your golden boy firing the majority of the scouting department and pissing away the farm system had Arte not hired him in the first place. Dig at Bane? Lordy, talk about reading too much into something. Let me try it again, perhaps if I type slower you'll be able to understand better. Bane was ONE person, he was let go by Reagins, his underlings weren't... No different than when Stoneman fired Donny Rowland but kept everyone beneath him in place. The majority of the people responsible for the 2009 draft were all still employed until they were part of the purge brought on by JD, the one promising the new golden age of metrics driven scouting that resulted in the worst draft era in Angels history. Get a grip indeed.

Neither AP nor Hamilton had anything to do with Jerry Dipoto coming in and systematically firing the entire scouting department and filling it with his lackeys... Bane was one guy, Jerry fired an entire scouting department when he took over -- he wanted his guys, new blood, a new breed of scouting. JD also was the driving force behind the Greinke and Freese trades or is the Jerry Fan Club now rewriting that history too? As far as AP and Hamilton. I would agree on Hamilton.. But AP... nah... Sorry... You may have missed the book length article on ESPN a few weeks after the deal went down that detailed just how involved JD was in the AP deal -- he wanted the big splash and he worked it. Arte may have been the guy that sparked the conversation but JD did nothing to stop it from happening, a better GM might have.. like Stoneman did when Arte was fawning all over a certain Oakland SS he claimed was his favorite player. This isn't the article I referenced -- but if this is a man who was forced into something, his comments sure read very differently... http://www.espn.com/mlb/hotstove11/story/_/id/7330869/los-angeles-angels-shock-world-land-albert-pujols-cj-wilson FTR -- I don't blame JD for AP.. Neither do I blame Moreno for giving the fans exactly what they had been asking for... Hopefully everyone learned their lesson. That's really where we are IMO.. the aftermath.. I agree Arte's screwed the pooch on things, there is a lot of blame to be passed around, MS too -- but Arte's future actions will also help dictate how quickly the team gets out from under the mess he helped create. Hopefully Arte will trust Epp, and hopefully Eppler proves to be truly capable GM -- the jury is out until we see what he does when given money to spend. (IMO).