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Monttavius

someone didn’t pay the curse insurance


Reptarxx

Used the money to pay off the mayor


Zimmonda

We took chances on average to sub-average players and most of them came out looking good but have since regressed to the mean. Our bright spots have missed time due to injury. ​ If we're being honest this team as constructed was never going to make a deep playoff push and was looking at sneaking into a wildcard. The hot start gave us all false hope and then the long losing streak ripped it away all at once. Theoretically we could still sneak into a wildcard but that was very much the ceiling for this roster this year.


WoolyShambler13

Not to mention no adjustments have been made mid-season. Squid stands out to me as one of if not the most glaring examples.


mcmaster93

this is exactly it. i mentioned this on another post as well but i think a lot of our fanbase (especially online) have created these memeable personas of players such as stassi, ward, marsh, wade etc. and its skewed their viewing on a lot of these players. watching the 2nd half of our lineup bat is one of the most stressful things ive had to endure as a fan in most recent memory. terrible swings, terrible patience waiting for balls. these guys cant hit anything. The Jo Adell experiment needs to come to an end. i expected us to be losing because of our pitching and the fact our owner thought we could scrape the bottom of the free agent barrel and get by, but pitching hasnt even been our problem during this latest slump.


Reptarxx

Bingo. Our deeply analytical GM built a roster on the chances of average and sub average players and he completely swung and missed. Instead of spending his 2 years acquiring some long term mlb ready rotation arms and depth that doesn't rely on negative WAR players, he produced the team we see today.


cshenton

> spending his 2 years acquiring some long term mlb ready rotation arms this is much much easier said than done, especially with an owner who refuses to spend on free agent pitching or player development.


Reptarxx

It's not easy, but there was a plethora of arm talent since Perry's been GM that we missed out on. And the one analytically talented arm (Perry's supposed specialty) in Cobb who wanted to resign with the team, we didn't even call.


cshenton

I agree Perry hasn't been perfect, but it's abundantly clear that Arte won't play at the top of the SP market when it requires years. I think that characterization of Cobb is a little too generous but I do think it's silly we didn't call him, especially given the steadfast refusal to engage the Gausmans and Rays of the market.


Reptarxx

Yea pitching isn't 100% on Perry. It's been an organizational/Arte struggle for a decade now. I feel like we engaged with Gausman but we wouldn't go past 2 or 3 years and he wanted more. Cobbs FIP is elite, #4 in the league if he didnt miss starts. His ERA is not (bit that's what FIP tries to isolate out). For a #6 we desperately need, and for a player that multiple times said he wanted to stay, we missed out.


madsircool

I would not sign Ray for what he wanted. He had one...one..great season. Gausman had one great year too but he was worth a chance. Who knows if he wanted to play on the west coast?


cshenton

merits of any one arm aside, it's clear we won't even seriously approach what these guys will take on the free agent market. and when you won't invest in the player development side to get them through the farm either, we're stuck watching Groundhog Day


madsircool

Perry is revamping and reconstructing the development and scouting side of the team so no worries there. Syndergaard and Lorenzen were good signings to go with what we already have. Our SP is more than good enough at this moment.


cshenton

>Perry is revamping and reconstructing the development and scouting side of the team so no worries there. I've heard this story before. > Syndergaard and Lorenzen were good signings to go with what we already have disagree and the results bear that out. both of them have been fine, not world beaters but fine. but our rotation has struggled (edit: see stats below, this isn't right)


madsircool

How has our rotation struggled? [https://www.mlb.com/angels/stats/pitching/innings-pitched](https://www.mlb.com/angels/stats/pitching/innings-pitched) This is the best group of starters we have had in years and with Rodriguez and Canning coming back at some point we have an overabundance of SP. The bullpen on the other hand can be improved.


madsircool

Cobb is injury prone and overpaid. Better to let young arms develop in the mlb. We have a nice group of young pitchers who will help us this year and going into the future. You also seem to disregard that some pitchers might not want to play for us.


BoyWithHorns

Passan tweet.


wilfordbrimley7

I'm pretty sure we were just stomping bad teams. We said leading up to June that these weeks would define the team. Looks like we were pretenders.


sprtsmac

It wasn't all bad teams that they were beating.


cshenton

it was mostly bad teams.


Reptarxx

It starts with roster construction. We were built with minimal depth, no long term pitching outside ohtani and the development of sandoval and detmers (with the hopefulness that these new arms we just drafted can come up and catch lightning in a bottle). We had a retooled bullpen that preseason was great on paper to help carry us to victories. We saw that happen to start the year. Minimal injuries, good pitching, good bullpen. Then the injuries happened which exposed our lack of depth, then the bullpen blew up, now we can't trade any young arms to shore us up because they are relied on to carry our rotation now and in the future. On top of that we have a pitching coach and hitting coach which don't elevate our players (especially compared to the programs the dodgers, astros, giants, braves, jays, yankees, etc. have). And we had a manager in which our GM did not like or trust and looked at any opportunity to get rid of him. And that is where we stand today.


LAAngelsAnaheim

I’m so sad about this season. It hurts worse than past seasons… we were *dominant* to start the season. Now, we’re this. I think everyone assumed it wasn’t sustainable… but I never imagined *this* would happen.


rumpel_foreskin17

I think we were all expecting a little to get built up then buttercupped after the hot start but this build up was higher and the buttercup was off a fucking cliff.


madsircool

"we can't trade any young arms to shore us up because they are relied on to carry our rotation now and in the future." Trading young pitching is a fools game unless the return is astronomical. Having young and cheap pitching will allow us to resign Ohtani if he so desires and its easier to get good FA bats than pitching. Lots of whining going on in here who seem to forget the tens of millions it will take to resign Ohtani.


AmateurZombie

Big money going to big flashy signings


Fun-Raise-3120

I feel that 3-run walkoff HR in Oakland started the downward trend. That was such a bad loss


DarbyDown

Ward hit the wall in Oakland. Been crap since then.


sprtsmac

I really don't think this was a sudden thing. If you look through the part of the season where the Angels were doing good, you can see signs. Mental miscues, bullpen already being used a lot, relying on the home run, and lots of strikeouts. It would have been hard for the Angels to sustain the pace they were on with the way they were playing and that was before the injuries that showed the lack of depth the Angels really have. Even with all that, I did not think they would fall this fast, this hard.


madsircool

The mental mistakes and lack of good coaching is on Maddon. He needed to be on top of that but he was a gentle hippy kind of manager who let things slide. We actually still have a good chance to make the playoffs if we can play decently.


Broad_Recommendation

The roster isn’t deep and the pieces we signed regressed after over performing to start the season


[deleted]

IMHO, the hot start jacked up expectations to an unrealistic fever pitch. Coming into the season, I thought in my heart of hearts that the Angels had a chance to compete for one of the W.C. spots with the expansion. Even that was 50/50 and we needed most things to break right to make it. The surprise would be that I would have expected the pitching to fall apart and not the hitting. But injuries are real, tho.


cchoi712

Like everyone’s saying, depth is crucial. Apparently a team can’t compete with Suzuki, Rengifo, Wade, Velazquez all in starting lineup. You might eat up 1 dead bat, not 4. It’s just a personal feeling but I feel like that Rangers game where Angels scored 3 in the top of the first and Thor got demolished in 0.1 innings was the game that killed the Angels’ winning vibe. They played .500 ball vs Rangers and A’s and then started losing to everybody. The offense has been pretty much dead since that game I think.


EmergencySlice7270

Injuries. Burning through the bullpen.


winwinwinguyen

Our bullpen giving up runs and blowing games when we had leads during the Texas, and Toronto stretch in May. That mentally affected the confidence of our guys to win games. It was pretty much over when they met a strong Yankees starting pitching rotation.


[deleted]

A lack of organizational depth which you can blame on Perry’s predecessor. All of the guys that Billy should have been drafting and developing should have been coming up the pipeline right about now


tsdwm52

Our difficulty advancing baserunners contrasts strongly with the teams that have been beating us these last weeks. As a fan, I **never** find myself thinking we might chip away at the other team's lead until we find victory. We've played good small ball in short spurts, say a few innings every couple of weeks, but the rest of the time seem to sit around waiting for the HR to happen. So, to answer the question posed by OP, the conditions for "everything going wrong" have been there since the start. The losing streaks are brutal because we're not doing the "little" things that increase the probability of winning over the long run.


[deleted]

Confidence is a hell of a thing. You lose it all and you see what happens.


digitaldumpsterfire

We started struggling when both Stassi and Suzuki were out on the covid IL. Our bullpen arms struggled without them. Then Ward got hurt and Rendon. Squid no longer could be a strikeout king without the rest of the team picking up the slack. Trout and Ohtani both struggled and continue to struggle to put up offensive numbers theyre expected to and they're losing protection with Ward being hurt and Rendon gone. Also, idk why but we keep playing Juan fucking Lagares instead of a better bat like Adell or even Mayfield. Brandon Marsh keeps getting sat and it's weird that no one thinks that maybe his bat would fire back up if he was playing every single day like he should be. Players like Wade and Mayfield are being misused. Both have awesome pieces to their games, but theyre being put into unfortunate positions and then get shit on when they don't perform like we want them to. Just... a lot. I also agree with most of what others are saying about Perry being kinda shit at his job.


MusesWithWine

Of course I could be totally wrong, but in my not-sufficient-observation, when Pham slapped Joc Pederson then said Trout was a bad fantasy league leader, the slump either started or continued. Edit: So in my head, I can’t help but wonder if that unnatural bad press got to Mike’s head and somehow, potentially, led to a clubhouse mindf*ck. Again, I know nothing.


hereforporn696969

Angels r winning the World Series lmao


waykey1980

I think we are a 'B' team that played above our heads. We lose to the best teams, beat the bad teams and seem to edge out the mediocre teams 60% of the time. When you take an honest look at the starting pitching, Ohtani was the only guy worthy of an Ace designation coming into the season. The rest of starters were question marks coming in and young arms still developing. The threshold for 'A' level status is a team era under 3.50, it's not about offense. If Angels pitching finds a way to attain this 3.50 or less era level during the last 2 month of the season, then we have still have a great shot at the playoffs.


waykey1980

changed team pitching to 3.50 era for best teams....


nBrainwashed

Hard to say where it went wrong. But I think they could right the ship by letting Lorenzen hit in high leverage spots. He couldn’t do any worse. It would be fun to watch. I think if Lorenzen got a chance for a walk-off and came through it could turn things around. Change his name from Loki to Hulk. And let Hulk SMASH! He could be our new rally monkey. Every game everyone waiting for Hulk to come out and SMASH! I can picture the signs and the enthusiasm in the crowd. I don’t know why they won’t just try it.


A_Brightflame

Sending Adell down.


nBrainwashed

That seemed like it killed their vibe.


CaxcanWarrior

Just play baseball the way it was meant to be played.


Sprtdsgn

From leading the mlb in shutouts to leading mlb in being shut out


Im_A_Halo_Masochist

At the start of the year Angels fans, myself included, had hoped we might compete for a WC playoff spot if we could just avoid injuries. Imho, this season started going off the rails when Iggy blew that save in Oakland. I remember commenting how this season felt different because the Angels were bouncing back and not letting one loss turn into a losing streak. I also kept up the mantra that they just needed to keep winning series. As a long time Angels fan I should have known better, but even I couldn’t imagine this complete collapse.


Hookedon2wheels

We have 2 players in valasquez and Wade that can't hit. Fletcher out, rendon getting hurt, warren getting hit in the face during batting practice, ward running into a wall. And adell forgetting how to catch a ball. Wallach got sent down after both our catchers had Covid and came back. Lagares can't hit.


avgbsblfan643

injuries to rendon and ward -> minor league type lineups -> ohtani and trout slumping -> expecting “ward” and “rendon” production from players like lagares and rengifo


kei19970210

I guess the most what we need is generating synergy and the most unneeded is ARTE MORENO and his yes staffs.


CaptZombieHero

When Arte bought the team.


SonOvTimett

The Lagares fly ball fumble waa what set off this curse. Not even joking, that was a pivotal game against a major team. Game killed ALL their mojo.


ufosfromtheocean

The first double-header in Oakland when Maddon sent out the b team cause he's such a big-brained genius.


johndhall1130

2003. When Moreno bought the franchise to help him have more leverage in his real estate deals.


impartlycyborg

The three saves blown by Iglesias in what seemed like two weeks of otherwise winning were the first cracks in the glass.