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Game Thread 2

"Bad team man... bad *** team..."

-Benoit Benjamin

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nice hit, Juan

but i’m glad you’re out of the game. Get some, Willits!

i will take Reggie's

feet and hands

Whachu talkin' 'bout Willits?
Here we go!
Was he talking about the Clips?
Time for some Side Salad!
extra dressing, please
Italian, natch.
he was looking bleu cheese, apparently
and really good garlicky croutons
rally time, bitches
LETS GO HALOS

Mike Napoli defensive replacement???

When we couldn't score

we hated the offense.
Once we get a lead we can hate the blowpen.

Can we do both?

The only good thing here is Torii, and 80% of the rotation.

I'm angry at just about everything except the Starting Pitching and Torii
GMTA, but weren't you banned?
Nope

The funny thing is that I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.

That was one of the worst innings I have seen. Everything that was hit was hit HARD
WTF are you waiting for Sciosica?

His name is f***ing Michael Kohn. Learn it, he’ll result in more wins.

This

Also Rich Thompson

Yeah, I don't understand this "easing" BS that Mike is pulling....

It’s not like anyone can hold a lead right now. Get them in there, get the lead and call it a win. Stop spending millions to blow games.

Isn't Thompson already up
Yeah but they don't wanna use him with a lead yet.
Are you saying that Chopper could have botched the 8th worse than F-Bomb?
Absolutely not, I'm saying he needs to be trusted...he's done it before.
KOHN!!!!!!
KOHN'D!!!!
Thought you'd like that Halowood. ;)
Hey Red!

We’re neck-in-neck in the HH World Cup game, bro
(try it once more, sorry)

Sorry, missed it on the previous thread (i'm assuming).

I’ve got Germany in the consolation and Netherlands over Spain.

me too
The 3 of us are like 4-5-6 in the standings

But I’m going Uruguay and Spain

that was a perfect pitch
F*** is right naps
Napoli is absolutley useless coming in off teh bench
Have they announced the attendance tonight?

I’m sure all those middle-class families from Walnut Creek love their A’s enough to brave even a race riot to support the team.

12

Hahahaha! I remember that area so well.

When I was 9 or 10,

my elementary school in Richmond took field trips to Oakland and A’s games. Scary Oakland was nicer than where a lot of my classmates lived…

Kapoli

and that is why he was benched for Spanky

Blalock?
You think Napoli's bad?

Blalock takes bad to a new level.

Man I am missing the days of

Webber, donnely, shields (the good one), k-rod, and Percy. Wow. Our bullpen now is a fucking joke. I would seriously question the lack of focus and balls

I understand the questioning of our BP focus....

But their lack of balls? It’s not like were throwing Lance Armstrong out there. ;)

Oh no you di'int!!!
I'm just pissed..! Roar.
I'm just messin' around.

It’s the beer. And Jack Daniels.

Again pitiful, now Mathis the great is up
Time to find the dadgum shotgun
You scary.
Those are two of Mathis's nicknames.

Apparently in an interview he referred to a “dadgum shotgun”

Heh. That's kind of an old-fashioned cuss word: dadgum.
probably 'cause he's a bit of a hillbilly
when mike napoli looks sophisticated next to you, well there you go....
Is he? Didn't know.
he's from rural Florida

and in that Angels Weekly piece Napoli looks like an art collector

Cue the banjos.
c'mon Johnny
frandyman CANT
Let Reggie steal
why the F is he not on 2nd by now?
Cuz then he'd have been on 3rd now
now lets see if mathis can channel his playoff prowess
duck on the pond

NOT impressed with the “gangsta” look Rodney – just wear the hat correctly.

Now let him steal 3rd
PB

Reggie on 2B

that figures...
Mathis wek 4-3 grounder

g r e a t

Dadgum Shotgun fail
duck left on pond
weak weak weak
where I come from

we study until the sun comes up

Jepsen in for the bottom of the 9th so it will be a walk off HR off of Shields in the 10th.
is Soth really that predictable?
Who do you guys most trust to pitch this next inning

Besides Kohn

Percy of 2002
Darren Oliver
DeWayne Buice circa 1987
LOL
He did an amazing Maxwell Smart impersonation
Kohn....wait he's not an option?

Thompson.

Mariano Rivera
Me.

5 bucks and some sunflower seeds and I’ll throw 72 MPH junk all day.

Can you get it over the plate?

Because at this point that sounds fine.

That's about all I have going for me on the hill.

And I’ll outhit McAnulty and Aldridge as well.

Again why I am feeling like we are going to lose by a walk off homer?
No Fuentes yet!

Woo Hoo!

Come on Jepsen

1-2-3

Please be good Jepsen
"Hey Rodney, You see that first pitch strike?"
His hat was in the way
I think you'll fit in quite nicely 'round here.

Welcome, Gokyle!

Thank you

I feel so welcome here

Well played Sir (or Ma'am)
NO WALKS
This is the 2010 Angel bullpen

Not gonna happen

Arte right now is wondering:

“Why am I paying over $100 million in salaries for this crap?”

You guys can say that the Angels bullpen sucks

and it indeed does. But Soth also doesn’t put his relievers into their optimal situations. He needs to go to a matchups based bullpen rather than his flowchart which Suboptimal showed us.

Rodney faced 3 lefties in the 8th, including 2 of the first 3. Fuentes should be in those situations. Lefties just don’t hit the guy to well.

Sosh has ALWAYS done the flowchart thing

Nothing’s shocking.

He refuses to use Fuentes as a lefty specialist

cuz you don’t pay 9 million for a lefty specialisy

oh yea that's right we let our lefty go

to our main rival for nothing. Man the Angels make so much sense.

Why not use him as a lefty specialist.

Were paying the dude to be a closer, and he isn’t doing the job reliably. Why not give him a job that may help the team?

yea and it works when you have 3 guys you could argue could make the HOF

it doesn’t work when you have even an average bullpen. Opposing teams know EXACTLY who they are going to be facing, they know they don’t need to use pinch-hitters at ALL because Soth doesn’t do matchups.

when the pitchers do their job, there's no problem

and yes, of course it’s easier when you have a dominant bullpen. Sosh is a believer in guys playing clear roles, and he thinks it gives them a better mindset going in. Obviously it’s easy to criticize when it doesn’t work.

yea but batting splits are a HUGE part of baseball

which Soth completely ignores. Remember how poorly JT Snow hit lefties? You are telling me it’s a good idea to just let him hit lefthanded because someone has a role that you can’t take them out of???? Of course not, you put in the pitcher who you think has the best chance of getting the guy out.

matchups would be ideal if we had 20 relief pitchers
no 29 other major league teams use some form of matchups and roles

also we could have had more relievers with the team. Q was taking up a roster spot for a long time doing NOTHING. We carried 3 catchers for a long time too.

1 more reliever isn't going to change it

But I understand how you love to Monday morning QB every Sosh decision. It would be cool if you gave him the same energy in your credit of him when it works as you do when it doesn’t work for him. His track record has spoken for itself.

REC'd

times eleventy billion.

yea you are obviously right

1 more reliever wouldn’t change anything…. every other team uses matchups to some extent, but it obviously wouldn’t work with the Angels….

it's obviously worked for Sosh for quite a while now
The flowchart works when you have Shields/K-Rod/Percy

or 2005 Donnely/Shields/K-Rod.

It doesn’t work with F-Rod/Fuentes

yea and I think you could make an argument that Shields/K-Rod/Percy

could all be at least considered for the HOF. So that’s when Soth’s strategy works?? Good luck with that Tony.

and before anyone scoffs at Shields

the guy had a 7 year stretch with and ERA + of somewhere around 150

Career ERA+

Shields 143

CC Sabathia 121

and yea I know reliever vs starter but still…..

I think you could possibly make an argument that

Shields/K-Rod/Percy was the best close-out trio of all time.

Games were literally six innings long for the Halos in that era.

Wake me up when this over

oh . . .that might be next year . . .

This is Angels Baseball.

Unfortunately.

I remember this particular brand of Angels baseball....
at least Jepsen has a nicely UN-sculpted beard
hey wayne

when are you gonna grow a beard?

when i genetically modify myself

us Swedes are too evolved for beards :)

Thankfully he got rid of the ferret in his cap
that was NICE Jepsen
(so far! fingers crossed!)
Yea Bug

keep the positive vibe going

clara Barton

get this nurse out

Mischa, HOLLA!!
Careful on the nurse references.

One may be watching…

ummm YES!!!
love nurses!!!

married one

My sister is one....

Graduated from college 2 years ago and is making 90K a year.

what's her field/specialty?
I believe she's ICU

She works nights, is already head nurse on her shift at a very good hospital.

good for her!

most RNs can do $100k if they wanted to

I've been considering going into nursing

I guess that kinda pay could make student loans go away pretty quickly.

I'm going to be trying the travel nurse thing soon

if I were young, single and childless, I’d definitely only do traveling.

I miss doing something that makes a difference...

When my ex was in a coma and ICU for a while, I really liked the atmosphere. And I like guts. But I’d have to do school over from the beginning, as I avoided science classes like the plague. But I really do love bodies, and guts. Weird, but…

u would like that
haha why do you say that?
there's other options

ultrasound, radiology, echo techs etc. big bucks and half the headache

not enough guts.

(but i think i’ll be in journalism for a while yet)

They get old quickly. Trust me.
I'd bet that depends largely on the eye of the beholder.
I did it for a couple semesters....I had a lot of experience with it in the Corps....

But my heart wasn’t in it.

need a spongebath?
Ok if you HAD to do roles and Fuentes is the closer

who is your 8th inning guy?

Rodney or Jepsen?

I say Jeps and it’s really not even close in my mind.

Jepsen

Jepsen is my closer though.

I say Kohn, spelled with a backwards "K" and two more before the "ohn"
My 8th inning guy with Fuentes as the closer?

Bourbon. And a fist full of Rolaids.

On the bright side..

Belgium may start flushing dead bodies into the sewage system.

zombie's for neighbors
Jepsen kicking A'ss tonight
Jepsen = Nails tonight
we head to the PK tied 5-5 all
Can we end the game with a home run derby?
anything else you want tonight?

to repeat a theme from earlier

YAYYYYY!!!!

Good Jepsen! I really hope the Angels make this game worth staying up for.

Every so often

Jepsen looks like the real deal—a badassmothaf**ka

whats the good news
Jepsen, good relief pitchers are great aren't they?
Accept that he's stunk it up a number of tuimes this season as well
If they don't score here the angels won't win
YEAH Good call man, thanks
AYBAR ???!!!!!!!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
IT'S A TRAP!!!!!!!!!
HOLY SHIT, IT'S A TRAP!
AYBAR HOMER!!!
AYBAR FUCKING POWER!!!
Did I just see what I think I saw??????
way to go EA
Aybar with a HR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Holy mother of God

What the hell was that? That really happened?

That just fucking happened!!
THAT WAS AWESOME
MOOOMMMM, MEATLOAF!!
A-bomb!
Don't do that again
what?
That's what the Yankee radio broadcaster calls an A-rod homer.
GOODBYE BASEBALL!!!!!!!!

Erick Aybar!!!!

Sorry I was away.

Daughter called from Vermont

Aybar crushed a homer

Make her call again

I saw. She called when I wrote my ITS A TRAP post
AYBAR!!!!! taking it into his own hands
Kohn....I mean AYBAR!!!
*******************HOMERUN***************Erick Aybar!******************
suicide alert for AN, i bet
all3 of them?
AN is usually pretty full

the stands may have a few more

IT'S A TRAP
Stepping up........

WEARING THE BIG BOY PANTS!

Holy Shit!

Totally unexpected…but damn, we’ll take it!!!

Don't throw Aybar inside

He’s been turning on well for a while now

Aybar even did a bat flip

Awesome

Aybar

My dog is getting a cookie

scratch behind his ears!
It'd be more appropriate if you gave him a meatball.
So, Fuentes for the bottom of the 10th.
damn, almost forgot about that.

We need more runs!

at least 2 more

but 7 to be on the safe side

I see your seven, and raise you ten more.

Because, we’ll probably need ’em.

They have Sweeny and Cust comming up--tow leftys
tow-headed lefties?
Howie K'd on the same weak outside pitch in the 10th

that he K’d in the 1st

Come on Orioles

1 on no out trailing by 2

I'm "watching" on gameday

in the Philippines. It just wrote “in play, run(s) scored”
NOone was on how is that possible w/ Aybar batting?

HUGE homer to right
He was just

Taking batting practice is all…lol

Loved Aybar's face as he hit the bench:

“What’s the big deal? Pshhh, I could do this all day.”

So I picked up Erick Aybar on my fantasy team

Because I needed AVG and SB. He found a permanent home on my SS slot along with Howie Kendrick and Bobby Abreu to further my homerism.

Now he hits a go-ahead home run in the top of the 10th inning (I also need HRs in my fantasy team).

Homerism might be turning into fanboyism.

Great base running Abroo, idiot!
We need more insurance runs, F-Bomb is warming up....
why would you walk a .250 hitter
They still think he's the former .280 hitter.
Shit. Why Bobby?

Why? 2 out.

Why are people giving Bobby five in the dugout?
Angels baseball

Soth loves to see guys do that

high fives?
Try to take 3rd even when they're slow old men
That was a good decision

SS got to the ball faster than expected

thats ok we got the great Fuentes coming in(gag me)
IN THE BULLPEN

Reggie Willits RHP

Why the HELL does Abreu get high 5's in the dugout?

Or is my vision screwed up?

Positive reinforcement
Because it was the proper play/try
OK. Maybe it was the proper play. It FAILED!

This is like giving trophies to everyone, just ’cause they participated.

Abroo not so speedy there
why walk Matsui ?

guess thats why

Open base

Reggie Willits on deck.

What’s more confusing is why the Athletics didn’t bring in the lefty for the Lefty-Lefty matchup. Guess they don’t trust Ziegler vs Matsui as much as Bailey vs Willits.

Not surprised.

Walks Matsui for big daddy Willits
Reggie frickin' Willits.....ridic
do you know what would be crazier then an Aybar homerun

a Willts 3 run shot

a Willit's HR period
our bullpen not giving up a run one day this year?
OOf... looks like it worked
Willits Lovers

are to be hated for embracing mediocrity… he is not and erstad or an eckstein

We're fooled by his Eck-ishness
He is not even an Orlando Palmeiro
^ ^ ^ ^ ^

good point

more of a Dave Chalk kinda guy
I loved me some OP

one of my favorite role players…. guy could handle a bat.

Exactly

Even Eckstein could hit it in the outfield every so often.

He's just a disappointment
hang on folks this could be a bumpy ride.

keep your arms and hands inside the ride at all times. Remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop

Does this ride come with vomit bags?
they are under your seat - which is also a floatation device.
Is this ride "satisfaction guaranteed"?
no guarantees. No refunds
I'll take two tickets please

Because I would rather ride this then that other ride called the band-wagon

Don't Punt

it is Funt the *unt

wait...what?
F-Bomb coming in to.....
Why would the A's do a Rally Monkey?

I thought they hated So Cal more than a balanced budget

I wonder if all the teams have monkeys

I saw a dodger one the other day.

I saw a skankee 1 on the web
Rollercoaster time
Need another beer for this

Oof!

something stronger my friend
Need another shot for this
Fasten seatbelts again.

And return your tray tables to their locked and upright position.

C'mon, Fuentesaurus

Toss the paper planes right by those suckers
Pretend it’s your 1st grade teacher

F Bomb with the F'n K!
Still wearing the pornstache, I see
getting his ...

Black Hole Sun look on

Fuentes single handedly ended two winning streaks by blowing heartbreaking saves

One last week against the Royals and another one against someone right after the interleague stuff. I am 900000% done with this douche.

Am I on delay or something?
Soth has a GF in the stands.
Trusting man

with all them Hunks of Oak-Town in the stands there

RAWR!!!!! Two down
he won't blow this one
don't bet on it
woah there Nostradamus
Don't jinx it.
Rosie Pinch Hitting
END THIS F BOMB!
1 more strike Brian....
Rawr Rawr MUNCH
yay !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIGHT IT UP!
oh HALLELUJAH!!!
WOW HOLY CRAP THEY DID IT!!!
WE WIN

LIGHT IT UP

LIGHT UP THE HALO

Just another Halos Victory

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Rawr rawr rawr

Fuentesaurus rex loves to eat Elephant

we won?

WE WON!!!

RAWR!!!! Three Down!!

I don’t believe what I just saw!!!! A 1-2-3 from the Fuentesaurus

He's had a couple now in the last couple of weeks
Hey, allow me to channel my inner Jack Buck
whoop whoop

slump buster

Fuentes is practically unhittable.
Well, it's a W.

I still have no faith in Fuentes.

At least PsyKo gets the W instead of Rodney
good point

Though Joel deserved it

Hallelujah!

I can go to bed now.

THANKS ERICK AYBAR!!!

Did Texas lose ?
Bottom of the 8th

Winning 4-2

currently winning
Did Lee pitch yet?
Get that tobaccy outta your mouth Aybar
first game I've watched in a week

nice to see a win instead of reading about a loss

Me too. What you said.

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