Malike

I never said he did anything wrong. I've said repeatedly that I'd like to see him play every day but clearly, this team thinks they have a much better chance at the WS than I do and while I might be on the "record be damned" train, they don't seem to be. His average exit velocity is lower than anyone who has played for the team this year but Hicks, Lester, Frazier, and Vavra. He's not really scalding the ball and he's hitting barely anything in the air. Again, I'd rather he play every day but I have no doubt that right now he isn't likely the best option for a winning team. You can hide the bat until it develops, but you can't hide bad defense, which impacts the game in a big way as well. OAA in Left field 0, CF -1, RF 0.

The hit to their attendance alone with Ohtani gone is big. They have no real pressure to trade him, especially, since they are a likely favorite to re-sign him this off-season. We're talking about one of the most talented players in the history of baseball, you think they want Kyle Gibson and Joey Ortiz/Jordan Westburg if that is the best offer they get? Teams aren't as dumb as they used to be. You don't trade 18 years of production for a 2-month rental, the game has evolved.

The latter 2 aren't hitting much right now, or in Cowser's case, at all. If Mullins wasn't hurt, we wouldn't be seeing him at all and I have to think Hays is a little banged up to not be in the lineup/OF.

It's quite easy to armchair GM. Elias should have done this, Elias should have done that. I think the chink is the team played much better than he thought last year and he let it ride as they were in contention until the last week of the season. I feel like this season he didn't expect this team to take such a drastic jump and was hoping to get a better look at some guys and they just played crazy baseball through July 17th. Cowser hasn't hit a lick since he came up and his defense has been awful. Westburg hit when he came up and was pretty solid all around but he's not hitting right now and is 0-8 with 4K's in the two games he's been in since the break, and I think they are going to start staggering the young guys and the veteran players as the grind continues. They clearly think they have a chance at the division and it seems obvious that they aren't going to hand AB's to players on a daily basis who aren't producing and are playing bad defense.

They have as much a chance of signing him as any team, probably better depending on what they do in the off-season. He doesn't want to be in the limelight, he wants to be on the west coast and he wants to be on a winning team. If he goes anywhere it's an overpay by a desperate team and would be a stupid move for most teams to mortgage the future for this year. What teams are going to do that, that are currently in contention?

I see what you are saying, but they played 70 games in 2020. The Angels were not a great team in 2020, despite Bundy's herculean 1.7 WAR. If we want to look at his LAA production he gave them 1.4 WAR over 2 seasons.

The Angels are in a great position, really. They aren't getting rid of Ohtani unless someone goes nuts for him and offers the farm. If he's traded, the biggest draw on earth is gone, if he's there, people are going to show up to see him play. They aren't taking middling prospects for Ohtani.

On the contrary, I think having two pitchers is....boring. They just agree on everything 99% of the time. I prefer to have a guy who actually hit the baseball and played the field at a high level in OPACY.

Ben McDonald was a robot during his first couple of broadcasts. He's come a long way. Devo was fine, in my opinion. Perfect? Nope, but he didn't hurt the broadcast or distract from it.

Hey, look, hyperbole!

I'm pretty comfortable with Hays in LF.

His defense is probably more concerning than his hitting. Bats slump, the defense should be present and he's getting terrible reads on balls.

Henderson came up last year and made an impact right away. There is nothing the same between what is going on with Cowser and what Henderson did when they brought him up last year.

They have about as many come-from-behind wins as we do, we did it to them yesterday and people are shocked and appalled that they mounted some offense against the front end of the pen tonight.

Cowser looks lost out there.

That is exactly when you use your AAAA pitcher.

Should be an interesting matchup against the red-hot Dodgers.

Cool.

Of course, it's not his fault, but the sample size is really small and for you to point out that he was 9th in the CYA voting based on such a small sample is just....weird for you? I'm sure if you were on the other side of this discussion, you'd be saying the exact same thing. The trade didn't help the Angels at all, they were 8 games under .500 in 2020.

You can find pretty much everything in 8-bit on YouTube. The Blue Album is one of my favorites in 8 bit.

I mean, you do know it was 65IP that season, right? Another 110 or so IP could have easily brought him back to his usual sub 100 ERA+ I didn't figure you to be a guy who would hedge on such a small sample size.

Bradish wasn't even the headliner if I recall. They got a decent 65 IP out of Bundy over his tenure with the Angels.

Angels wishing they still had Bradish.