Angelsjunky

Dipoto took a lot of risks and just about none of them have worked out. I like the fact that he tried but I think its now questionable how smart of a baseball man he is. But being a forgiving sort of guy, perhaps to a fault, I'd like to see what he can do to fix this mess and even as I'm no longer enamored of him, I'm also not convinced that he is NOT a smart guy and can't fix this. He deserves a chance. I think you don't consider firing him until May of next year, but if I were Arte I'd have Jerry on a short leash; I wouldn't settle for less than contention next year.

That is the sound of inevitability.

OK, I'm on board (finally) - this team is NOT making the playoffs. Unfortunately, though, I think they'll get hot sometime in August, maybe even be the best team in baseball the last two months, and finish with 80-85 wins, thereby ruining their chances at a good draft pick.

On a serious note, the problem with trading players like Trumbo or Bourjos, or even Kendrick and Aybar, is that it pretty much throws the towel in on the next few years and that's a pretty crappy message to send to the remaining players (namely Trout, but also Weaver, Hamilton and Pujols). That said, if the Angels are truly out a month from now then I could see trading Vargas, Wilson, and a few relievers for prospects. The pitching staff probably needs to be rebuilt in the offseason anyways. That said, there aren't a whole lot of good starters as free agents next year so they might want to hold onto those guys.

I love Peter - my favorite Angel not named after a fish.

The only thing I would trade Trout for would be zero-point energy to some alien civilization.

The problem with this is that if the Angels don't contend until 2018, chances are Trout will go elsewhere.

As frustrated as I am with their performances, I think its ridiculous to think that Josh and Albert aren't upset about their performances. These guys live and breathe baseball - of course they want to succeed and of course they're frustrated. But do we need to say that on national TV? Do we need to see them fall to their knees and ask for forgiveness?

Remember back in early May when the Angels were entering a soft stretch of their schedule and looked to make up ground they had lost? It was May 6 and they were 11-20 and starting a stretch of playing teams like Houston, Chicago, KC, Seattle, the Dodgers, etc. Anyhow, through June 5 when they finished up a series with the White Sox the Angels were 25-34, so during that soft stretch they went 14-14. In other words, during the weakest part of the season the Angels were a .500 club. Since, playing Boston and Baltimore, they are 2-4. I think those two represent the type of team the Angels are - .500 against bad teams, .333 (or so) against good teams. Doesn't exactly scream "playoff bound."

Not to be too nit-picky but Wilson hasn't been THAT bad. Sure, he's not the pitcher he was in Texas--a very good #2--but he's still been a solid #3. That's about 70% of what he was.

Chuck, I apologize for labeling you - but the reasons you cite aren't the reasons I called you an apologist.

LOL - you don't give me much room to disagree, saying I'm ignorant and reactionary if I do. No need to go overboard, Chuck. As I said, I agree that its not entirely, or even mostly, Dipoto's fault but that A) he is at least partially responsible for the performance of a team that he constructed, and the results ("ERA") have not matched his approach ("FIP") and that at some point we have to take that seriously. To be honest, I'm not big into the blame game but if we're going to serve it up then we should spread it around, from top to bottom: Moreno for meddling in baseball operations and (allegedly) pushing the Pujols and Hamilton deals. Dipoto for having a perhaps overly stat/mental approach and seemingly under-utilizing scouting when making moves. Scioscia for being inflexible in his managerial style and his inability to "inspire the troops." Pujols & Hamilton for their terrible performance on the field. Wilson & Blanton for being much worse than advertised. Those are the main offending parties, I think.

According to Baseball Reference, Hamilton's stats over the last calendar year: 153 games, .234/.303/.448, 29 HR, 85 RBI, 53 walks, 175 strikeouts He showed improvement in May, although still not great--.237/.315/.495--but June has been even worse than April; he's hit .161/.212/.290 in 8 games. I have a hard time imagining that he's someone quickly devolved from a .900 OPS player to a .600 OPS player, but we were saying similar things about Vernon Wells a couple years ago. But it does seem rather likely that he's devolved from a .900 OPS type to a .750-.800 OPS type. I really wouldn't be surprised if his triple-slash numbers as an Angel are something like .250/.300/.480...not what you want for $25 million a year. I hope I'm wrong but what is worrisome is not as much this year, as combining this year with most of last. That's a pretty long slump.

To put it another way, a lot of his moves seem like there was little to no actual scouting involved - like he looked at Baseball Reference or Fangraphs and made decisions based upon statistical analysis only, without the actual living wisdom of scouting. Weren't there some serious red flags about Hamilton last year? And why didn't Texas push for him harder? The same with Wilson? That's what makes matters even worse: The last two years we think we've one-upped Texas by taking one of their best players from them, but in the end they've been better for it - ended up with high draft picks, more financial flexibility, and better players (Darvish over Wilson, at least). Again, I'm not completely ready to throw in the towel on Dipoto (not that my opinion matters!), but his report card so far has been poor, and I'm not quite as enamored him as I was back in Fall of 2011. In fact, I'm worried that he doesn't really know what he's doing.

Chuck, I appreciate what you are saying and am not willing to completely lay the blame at Dipoto's feet, but as usual you are a bit too apologetic, in my opinion, and seemingly willfully ignoring the fact that despite what Dipoto was trying to do, and how good this or that move looked at the time - or how excited we were - the results have simply not been good. In some ways I'm reminded of the Fangraphs stat "FIP," or Fielding Independent Runs, which is supposed to measure what a pitcher's ERA "should" look like with neutral defense and thus is marketed as a better indicator of a pitcher's real talent level and future performance than ERA. But the problem with FIP is that it posits what "should have" happened and it ignores what actually happened, and ends up penalizing pitchers like Jered Weaver who just seem to know how to pitch (Tom Glavine is another pitcher whose ERA was always better than his FIP). The point being, Jerry Dipoto has a better FIP than ERA. I like what he says, his plan for the team, and many of the moves he's made, but the end results are quite a bit worse than the approach. More prosaically, his walk doesn't match his talk. I know, it isn't him its the players - he's done what he can to put a competitive team on the field. But again, time and time again the players he's brought in have performed poorly: most notably Pujols and Hamilton, but also Wilson, Blanton, not to mention watching Jean Segura turn into a star. Some have been OK - Vargas and Hanson seem like a wash, Iannetta has been solid (although Chatwood is starting to come along), Frieri looked great at first, etc - but the total picture is rather poor, with no clear standout moves that he made that greatly improved the club in the long-run. He's only got 2 years under his belt as the Angels GM, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But this offseason will be key, imo. He already doubled-down last year and so far its been disastrous; if he triples down I'll be greatly discouraged. Let's hope he really has the long-term health of the team in mind like he says he does.

Good thing RBIs don't matter.

By the way, Miguel Cabrera is on pace for 178 RBI.

Trout's awesome. So is Harper. No need to denigrate Harper in order to pump up Trout. I'm hoping that we keep on getting to compare the two because it would mean that they were both amazing. I think the primary concern for Harper right now is that he's already having bursitis at age 20...that's a bit worrisome. In the larger scheme of things its nice to see a new generation of stars emerge: Trout, Harper, Machado, Segura, maybe Puig, etc.

Move: Signing Pujols. Excitement tinged with an underlying feeling of trepidation about the contract and his declined performance the two years previous. I remember thinking something to the effect of, "He'll be fine - he's Pujols" but underneath that having the nagging concern that he wasn't the same player he was a couple years ago. Move: Signing Wilson I liked the fact that it (supposedly) helped us and hurt Texas at the same time. Unfortunately it turned out that Texas knew what they were doing when they passed on Wilson and signed Darvish instead. Move: Trading for Greinke Nice pickup, bummed about losing Segura as I was looking forward to the 1-2 combo of Trout and Segura. Move: Trading Santana Seemed a bit odd, but OK I guess. Move: Signing Blanton Huh? Why? I didn't get why it was Blanton over any number of available free agents. Move: Dumping Haren Didn't like it, worried he would re-capture his form. One of the few things Dipoto was actually right about. Move: Trading for Hanson Good trade. Wondered why Atlanta did it. Move: Trading for Vargas Solid. A wash. Move: Signing Hamilton As with Pujols, I couldn't help but be excited but was worried about the size of the contract.

I'm guessing Hawpe was called up to get warm for when Bourjos gets back and Shuck is sent down and Hawpe is the 4th outfielder. On the other hand, I'd also like to see Kole Calhoun get a chance to be the 4th outfielder.

You've got three options: 1) Ortiz is juiced, therefore a complete moron given the likelihood of getting caught these days (possible but unlikely) 2) Ortiz is juiced and secretly wants to be sent home and gain notoriety (very unlikely, otherwise he'd just retire) 3) Ortiz is a damn good hitter I tend to believe the third option. As some have pointed out, while uncommon it isn't unheard for great players to remain great, or have great seasons, in their late 30s. During the height of "Bondsgate" I used to mention that Hank Aaron had his highest 5-year HR streak from age 35-39, just like Bonds. As for Pujols, I personally think - and have thought, but haven't wanted to admit it - that he's actually a few years older than his list age, maybe 35 or 36. It will be interesting to see how he finishes out this year and starts next, because if he continues to have a poor year and starts slow next year I think the fit is really going to hit the shan for Pujols. We all knew this contract would get ugly, but most of us thought in the second half - but it has looked bad from day one of last year. What a travesty.

Short memory, Lou? Yeah, I know, Billy Beane hasn't won a title. He's done pretty damn well, though, and remember that in the only Rocky movie that matters, Rocky didn't win either - he just did much better than anyone expected.

I like the A's - they're a smartly run organization that is able to do something the Angels can't seem to manage: optimize payroll dollars. I don't have a pathological fixation on them like I do the Angels, but I don't actively root against them like I do the Rangers or Yankees. If the Angels don't make the playoffs I'll cheer for the A's. If I were purely objective and without the "Angels addiction", I might choose the A's as my team as I like their organizational philosophy. The same can't be said, unfortunately, about the Angels.

It shouldn't even be a question: bonafide leadoff hitter, although I suppose it depends what you mean by "bonafide." .330 OBP? .350? .370? .400? Maybe, Yes, Hell Yes, PLEASE GOD!!! would be the answers in that order. I know people don't like to hear this but Joe Blanton isn't absolutely atrocious. He's gotten better as the season's gone on and has a good chance of being a solid 5th starter for the remainder of the year. On the other hand, the Angels need someone who gets on base more than average (~.330-.340 OBP). I'm not sure that's Bourjos who, while having a .370 OBP so far this year, is probably more average in that regard.

Just curious. Vote.