Halos Heaven

Caseys Kiss of Death - April 22, 2010 reply

Willits started in CF in Toronto I thought.

And my BOTG goes to Aybar. Gotta be a leadoff man. Though I expect better from Hunter on his Golden Glove night.

AlanFalcon - April 22, 2010 reply

thanks

corrected that. only his 7th start in CF in the past three seasons.

Rev Halofan - April 22, 2010 reply

know its still early...

but why is this team so ass backwards all the time… starting pitching great, crappy bullpen. and vice versa. or getting on base and leaving em all stranded, OR scoring early and going to sleep afterwards… arrrrrrgh. Good game by the pen tonight, Palmer, Stokes, Bulger all pitched good and kept the halos in the game. GREAT effort in the field by Reggie tonight. i give the blame to Aybar, cant K with the bases juiced

BigBangRobbDawgg - April 22, 2010 reply

K, LOOKING

at that

If my Iphone would let me, I'd vote for Torii.

Classic Torii over-agressiveness. So much for all his bullshit talk about learning how to work a count from Abreu.

Honoroable mention for BOTG to Saundo for the pathetic performance. Way to pitchto contact fucker.

snowhor - April 22, 2010 via mobile reply

Yeah, Torii. Valverde or whatever his name was in the 9th hadn't thrown a strike yet, and you swing at the very first thing?

Thanks for that great GIDP

red floyd - April 23, 2010 reply

That DP that Torii hit into,

Ultimately killed any chance we had to win the game. And granted, there’s more than enough blame to go around, but, that DP sticks out in my mind since it was so late in the game, ergo, Hula Dula for BOTG. IMO.

halofolife - April 22, 2010 reply

exactly

tying run on in the 9th it was anti-clutch from the guy positioned to be clutch.

Rev Halofan - April 22, 2010 reply

Saunders

Anytime a pitcher goes doesn’t get out of the 4th inning he deserves some, if not the bulk of the BOTG. Colonel Deep Fried took it one step further and didn’t get out of the third.

hobbit_86 - April 22, 2010 reply

This

Blame of the game was the Colonel not getting out of the 4th inning. The game felt lost at that point already.

thetooth - April 23, 2010 reply

I vote BOTG Brandon Wood

First of all he never should have been in the lineup seeing as how he is easy to strikeout and we were facing a strikeout master, it’s almost like Soth wants his numbers to stay down so he can justify starting Maicer even sooner. The guy was just over matched every ab he had, and one of them was with the bases loaded. At least when Aybar swings he occasionally makes hard contact.

MH252525 - April 22, 2010 reply

Gotta throw into the fire

In order to get experience and thus the results…I’d agree with you if this was October, Game 6 and Brandon was still whiffing like he is now…but not in April.

Thank you.

B Wood has been struggling, no doubt. But am I one of the few that expected this? And if the entire season hinges on B Wood’s success at the plate, our team isn’t as strong as we’d like to think. It is still very early in the season, if B Wood is still sucking this bad come July, or August, then yes, maybe he is a bust. Until then, its too early to tell.

halofolife - April 22, 2010 reply

Exactly.

You know Clutch,

I’m still not sure that B Wood will ever become the player that he has been hyped to be, but damn, are we all gonna jump ship, only two weeks into the season, and proclaim Brandon a bust?

halofolife - April 22, 2010 reply

Judging by standard reception for him at the stadium, it seems like a lot of people have jumped ship

~MMP~ - April 22, 2010 reply

I'm all for giving guys chances

heck I was the guy saying give him as much playing time as possible like the last 3 years especially when he had been red hot in the minors. But Wood to me is a different case, I don’t see this simply as an adjustment to ML pitching like so many players go through their first 200 abs or so like Salmon, Glaus, Kotchman…… Wood has had his swing redone to the point that I know he’s not going to be successful. He’s hit what maybe 2 or 3 balls with authority all year and even those since most of those go to RF just get caught at or before the warning track.

MH252525 - April 23, 2010 reply

It's time he gets his share of Blame.

.087 just isn’t going to cut it. another o-fer with two K’s.

BOTG= K-WOOD.

Wally's World - April 22, 2010 reply

biggest contribution of Suck goes to Torii

Anyone else feel like

he isn’t trying very hard out there? Almost like he has lost a bit of that “fire” people talk about all the time.

the guy is jogging after balls in the OF

the Angels will lead the AL in triples allowed even though they don’t play in a triples park……..

also he hits a ball fair down the line and doesn’t run it out, and tries to then pretend that the ball hit him even thought it was clear that it didn’t hit him just so that no one would think the truth…. that he was just flat out lazy.

MH252525 - April 22, 2010 reply

It makes me wonder if he is injured

or has simply learned the way of the GA.

Well he apparently was feeling under the weather today, which is why Willits was in CF, and Torii was DHing.

I wonder if Torii is being a bit over cautious after his sports hernia surgery, or something.

He hasn’t been playing like himself so far this season

~MMP~ - April 22, 2010 reply

I am wondering the same thing too...

if he is hurt, that is.

the only thing missing on that graph is Wood's failure to do anything meaningful

The WPA numbers say Torii alone is responsible for 51% of the loss, Saunders 35%, Aybar 27%.

Suboptimal - April 22, 2010 reply

Maybe you can explain this to me 'cuz I'm kind of old skool and don't really understand these new graphs

but how does Wood striking out with the bases loaded, including swinging late at a strike 2 pitch that was already sitting in the catcher’s mitt, not figure heavily into who was responsible for this loss?

Because it happened in the first f--ing inning?

Yeah, because things that happen in the first inning don't matter.

bc56274 - April 22, 2010 reply

Or it would be relatively less important than something that happens later in the game.

FanGraphs probably—although I’m no expert on the ways of Fangraphs and am in fact somewhat confused by them—measures things based on the time in the game, the leverage of the situation, etc.—whiffing with the bases loaded in the very first inning with the score tied is almost certainly worth a LOT less than grounding into a double play with no outs and a man on first in the bottom of the ninth with your team down by one run.

So you get a pass for any failure that happens in a 2-2 tie so long as it's the first f-ing inning?

Normally I’m a wiseass, but I’m actually serious here. I really don’t get how this stat works. What’s the algorithm behind those percentages and does it also account for mistakes such as that made by Wood in scoring opportunity?

I don't know exactly how the algorithms work

But as I mentioned above, I think it has to do with how highly leveraged the situation is—and in the first inning, even with the bases loaded, the situation just doesn’t have as much importance/leverage as coming up with a man on in the bottom of the ninth and your team down by one run is.

Clutch - April 23, 2010 reply

I appreciate your answer

There’s a lot of stats that I don’t fully understand since they didn’t exist in my day, and so I’m hesitant to trot them out even when I think they might support my position. Nor will I disagree with you that the 1st inning bases loaded failure wasn’t as catastrophic as the scoring opportunity blown in 9th inning for obvious reasons, but I do think that Woods should somehow have been rated higher for the loss because of silly mental mistakes that aren’t easily quantifiable into cold hard stats.

Quad Fin Rider - April 23, 2010 reply

Well that may be true--

But to which mental mistakes are you referring, other than his lack of success at the plate? His 0-fer is a specific outcome each time he was at the plate tonight—it doesn’t really matter what goes into the end result of his AB, it’s just the end result. A strikeout’s a strikeout’s a strikeout, regardless of whether he looked good or silly striking out, especially as that doesn’t change the result or situation of doing it with the bases loaded, etc. In fact, maybe that’s why there’s some extra leeway for him? I had a really good train of thought there for a moment as to why that is, but now I’ve lost it. Anyway. I didn’t hear of Wood committing any errors tonight, so I find it hard to see what other mental mistakes would have properly been taken into account on him tonight.

Clutch - April 23, 2010 reply

The Torii AB in the 9th

was higher leverage based on the number of outs, inning, and score.

Yes.

This.

I agree that Torii was mostly at fault, but I'm not seeing how Wood was not rated higher or at all

in whatever WPA means — nor do I understand why the cumulative total of who was responsible for the loss should equal 113%.

Because WPA is a bogus stat?

It’s nonsense to say that a player’s value is related to the WPA added by his actions. WPA is a counting stat based on events outside the player’s influence, just like RBI.

We all know RBI are a nonsense stat. WPA has all the same logical flaws, but it’s new so people are still in love with it.

MartinGreen - April 23, 2010 reply

They combined to be responsible for 113% of the loss...

Because people like Abreu and Palmer contributed positively, towards a win.

It’s an interesting though meaningless stat. It says getting your team through the 8th inning is so much better than getting your team through the 1st inning — ONLY because a team with a lead in the 8th is more likely to win a game than a team with a lead in the 1st.

It’s the equivalent of only tuning in to the very end of a basketball game because “all the rest of it is just filler anyway.”

AlanFalcon - April 23, 2010 via mobile reply

Oh now I get it

So on Wednesday night, 24 of the guys on our team were responsible for 100% of the win (that we did not get), but Fuentes was responsible for 200% of the loss…

Brody - April 23, 2010 reply

Something like that.

Torii swinging after five straight balls was extremely disturbing.

I hate selfish pigs like that.

Also, Brandon Wood is entering Terry Schiavo territory. It’s about time to pull the plug.

bc56274 - April 22, 2010 reply

That will have to go to the supreme court first.

Where is the next Brandon Wood Tea Party being held?

44FAN - April 22, 2010 reply

I really don't get why Wood started today, this seemed like a perfect chance for Maicer to play 3rd

~MMP~ - April 22, 2010 reply

My thoughts exactly...

When I got to the park, I was excited to see Maicer in the lineup, but disappointed that he was starting at second.

Also, glad to see everyone learned from last night's fiasco, and had Stokes pitch around Cabrera

~MMP~ - April 23, 2010 reply

Blame of the game

I went to bed thinking it was Wood or Saunders. Wood is too easy an out right now. So bad that DHing for him and batting a pitcher seems like an option.

I want to see more Willits in center, at least until Bourjos is ready. Those two catches last night reminded me of the range that a center fielder should have. On Torii’s gold glove night. Torii still can make the highlight catch at the wall but the balls in front of him always drop in, and everybody knows it. I’d like to see the team light a fire under Torii’s ass by playing Willits more in CF until Torii is willing to give the same 100% effort on plays like that. Kind of like how they make Napoli work on his defensive game to earn PT. Not saying I’d bench Torii, but move him to left. Rivera’s hasn’t been so great either.

RallyMonkey5 - April 23, 2010 via mobile reply

I've been saying that at the park for two nights in a row now...

So bad that DHing for him and batting a pitcher seems like an option.

people were looking at me and laughing when I said it. Too bad I was being serious.

It's not like we're dying to get his glove in the lineup.

The whole point of playing Wood is to get him At Bats and MLB experience. DHing for him defeats the point of having him on the team to begin with.

On the other hand, Pinch Hitting for him in a high leverage late inning situation, as Soth did last night, does make perfect sense. He doesn’t need to be the batter with the game on the line.

I know, I know.

I was there. This game was a competition in which team was the most pathetic. It was simply a roll of the dice who ended up on top, and that’s just the truth, guys. At one point both teams had the exact same number of people left on base as they had hits! (11 for Detroit and 9 for the Angels). BOTH starting pitchers seemed to want to see who would get pulled first. Both teams made base running errors that cost runs. The bottom 3 of our line-up was useless last night, except for one hit by Naps.

Willits was LEGENDARY tho, in centerfield. That kid was easily the fan favorite last night. When Torii swung at that first pitch…..I think he might have been caught up in the moment. There was the rally monkey, there was the crowd on it’s feet chanting his name, there was Tadeusiak running around the view level with his crazy gear on. It had all the makings of a no joy in Mudville moment…and it was.

There was a HUGE fight out in the pavillion that kept growing in numbers until security finally got there to break it up. And some guy was down in section 107 wearing mickey mouse gloves and fighting security. We had a fuentes sighting, with rodney warming up beside him, then they sat Fuentes down. May be a sign that Scioscia is going to go with a see who’s throwing better tonight before calling in the closer plan. Probably 10,000 people left at he end of the game as over 25,000 just walked out in frustration, far more than the usual 7th inning stretch crowd taking the kiddies home to bed. Wood got booed so loud it was almost ( ALMOST) embarrassing. Bulger got booed and then came back and shut the crowd up with a great performance. Stokes looked great. Palmer was good. Loss sucked, but like I said, it was a toss of the coin, folks.

firebird81 - April 23, 2010 reply

Re: Fuentes and Rodney

Victor (or Gubi?) was saying that Rodney would be coming in if it wasn’t a save situation, and Fuentes if it was.

Seeing as Rodney didn’t pitch the top of the 9th, perhaps whoever was talking out of his ass.

red floyd - April 23, 2010 reply

Every time it looked like the angels might pull up in front, Rodney got back up. Fuentes was sat down pretty quick.

firebird81 - April 23, 2010 reply

Scioscia said before the game that Fuentes would be the closer.

But when Rodney was warming and didn’t come in to pitch the ninth, that indicated Soth may have changed his mind.

Legendary? Willits?

OK, I’ll admit I was impressed. But, to be honest, when i saw he was stationed in center field alongside Matsui and Abreu, I feared the worst. I actually hoped that Matsui would have been subbed out during the 6th inning, but Soth left him out there. Matsui has the mobility of a slab of concrete.

You are welcome for starting the “TORII” chants in the 9th. Too bad it didn’t help Torii bat very well.

The guy with the Mickey Mouse gloves is an attention whore who uses the baseball games as his venue for pimping his business “West Side Rentals.” He gets thrown out REGULARLY. This was the first time I saw him nearly get CARRIED out by the yellow jackets, though.

As for the remaining crowd, the masses that left early are just doing their regular weekday routine know as “The 9:30 rule.” 9:30PM plus or minus 15 minutes and the end of an Angels’ at-bat clears the house. I coined this term during my season seat self-mutilation torture in 1995 where I watched all 9 innings of every single game down the final stretch during the great collapse of 1995.

I am well aware of the number of fans who always leave early, but that was far more. I saw people pack up in the 4th inning! And I wasn’t calling WILLITS legendary, I was referring to his performance, which was nothing short of amazing, especially considering WHO was doing it.

firebird81 - April 23, 2010 reply

fair enough.

I blame Torii

too many "i"s in his name

DAD OF VLAD - April 23, 2010 reply

The average American changes careers 3-5 times in their life time.

I think it’s time for Wood to change his.

ttsec - April 23, 2010 reply

If the Angels sent Wood back to AAA...

Yes, I know he’s out of options. But if we tried it, would anybody else put a waiver claim on him?

RallyMonkey5 - April 23, 2010 reply

he'd be claimed

he is not Terry Evans

Rev Halofan - April 23, 2010 reply

I'm sure some team would claim him

~MMP~ - April 23, 2010 reply

The thing is, we complete.

A team in rebuilding mode can easily trot Wood and his .100 average out there every night with nothing to lose.

So he’d certainly be snapped up, even though his present day value to a club is poor.

We compete, not complete.