For Angels fans, the season hasn’t been slice of heaven
Buzzie Bavasi famously said he’d get Nolan Ryan replaced with two 8-7 pitchers. Jerry DiPoto’s theory of building a championship team had the Halos winning all their games 8-7. Now, we have Billy Eppler’s five-step formula for success:
1. Do next to nothing to improve the team in the offseason.
2. During the season, offload those few marginal players who were signed.
3. Do next to nothing at the trade deadline.
4. Stick with oft-injured starting pitchers instead of getting proven quality stars.
5. Bring up minor league starters too soon so they can get clobbered or get injured like the guys they replaced.
The way the season’s going, pitchers with an 8-7 record and final scores as close as 8-7 would be an improvement. Some things never change. Jeff Pollak
La Crescenta
The Angels have a lot of No. 4 and 5 starters but no No. 1 or No. 2. With no ace in the rotation, Brad Ausmus decides to go with an opener. This makes no sense because the opener comes out of the bullpen and the ’pen is horrible too.
This is another lost year in the career of Mike Trout. And if management does not get some pitching, next year will be another one.
When Trout watches baseballs go over his head and over the fence, I wonder if he asks himself why he signed an extension with this team? I know I wonder why. David Booth
San Bernardino
Albert Pujois has had a great career and conducts himself admirably. Nevertheless, unless the ball reaches the outfield, he is going to be thrown out, and I think he is just playing to enhance his stats. I do not believe that the Angels will ever realize that they will get no help from Justin Upton, offensively or defensively. Add to this atrocious pitching, and it becomes easy to sympathize with Mike Trout. Arthur P. Nelson Jr.
North Hills I’d like to congratulate Angels GM Billy Eppler for building half a team.
You know Billy, Bill Stoneman understood — pitching matters. Pitching gets you to the playoffs. You’ve heard of the playoffs, right? Jim Fredrick
Manhattan Beach
Hedging their bets
Great article by Arash Markazi regarding L.A. having several pro sports team well positioned to win championships in the next year. Using his quoted Las Vegas odds for the six L.A. teams that Markazi picks to win championships, the odds work out to a 76% probability that at least one of his six picks will win its championship. However, for all six of his picks to win championships, the odds are approximately 483,000-1, indicating he may have a bit of homerism in him. Eddie Dawes
Hacienda Heights
Someone ought to tell Arash Markazi that the total number of times any city won the pro championships in baseball, basketball and football all in the same sports year is ZERO. What, no Kings? Remind me not to invite him along on my next trip to Vegas. Thomas Poletti
Huntington Beach
Dodgers dilemma
The current Dodgers team is probably one of the best in franchise history and hopefully will win the World Series in 2019. However, credit has to be given to hitting instructor Robert Van Scoyoc for the muchimproved hitting by Dodger players. The excellent Dodgers pitching has been the result of Rick Honeycutt’s extraordinary talent of handling the staff. With all due respect to Dave Roberts, the Dodgers would not be where they are if not for these two great coaches. Jeff Hershow
Woodland Hills
Joc Pederson. What to do with him? The experiment at first base was an embarrassment. He may have been the worst player to have ever played that position. But what’s worse is that he is still leading off, putting him in a position to get more at-bats than, say, Justin Turner or Cody Bellinger or even Will Smith. He has one of the lowest averages on the team. He has one of the lowest OBPs on the team. He doesn’t steal bases. So explain to me why the Dodgers continue to lead him off? If he isn’t the epitome of a No. 8 hitter, I don’t know who is. Geno Apicella
Placentia
The Dodgers’ Dustin May has been lights out and Will Smith has been better than advertised, but assuming we’re good enough and lucky enough to advance to the World Series, would you rather have them as battery mates against the Astros or Yankees or Noah Syndergaard and J.T. Realmuto?
May and Smith may be the Dodgers’ future, but for this season (and the near future), the experienced and proven Syndergaard and Realmuto, who were both available by trade, would give us a better shot at finally winning it all as Andrew Friedman and Dodger brass have promised their fans for years that they are “all in.” Allan Kandel
Los Angeles
Sensational Simone
Why was Simone Biles and her gravity-defying athletic majesty relegated to a sports rundown wire column at the bottom of Page 3? Surely her history-making championship performance deserved a front page photo and story above the fold of the Sports section, if not the front page of the paper. Because it’s just gymnastics? Because she’s 22 and a woman? Because...? Lisa Stephens
Los Angeles
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