Comments on: Angels, Scioscia should be embarrassed

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:15:32 +0000

This was the only completely intelligent post ANYONE has made on here

By: JS

JS — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:24:23 +0000

Boy, sure is easy to take swipes after the fact; MS remains the best manager in baseball, and knowledgable baseball people know that.
Nobody accomplishes more with less, and if the Angels spent like the drunken sailor Yankees, they’d be in the WS right now.

By: Jeff Smart

Jeff Smart — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:18:32 +0000

I’m not so sure you’re from around here Mr. ‘SoCal resident’; you obviously don’t know much about the Angels or baseball fans in general. Why did you write in? To simply view your lame thoughts in print?
You sound Canadian to me.

By: halloraj

halloraj — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:48:10 +0000

There is a reason that Scioscia is universally regarded as the games best managers by the players and coaches. He is the best. Players love playing for him, they win a lot of games, and you hardly ever hear of an Angels player stepping out of line.
The truth is, the Angels played poorly and still had a shot at beating the Yanks. Scioscia desrves blame when they play bad, but it doesn’t make him any less of a manager on the grand scale.
I trust what people on the inside say versus some hack sportswriter with a grudge (weak steroid crack.)

By: James

James — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:34:51 +0000

I would suggest that there is greater risk of failure in juggling a lineup in the post season than in sticking with what got you there. The Yankees played better baseball. It wasn’t the lineup that failed, so much as it was the eight errors.
Scioscia and the Angels have nothing to be embarrassed about. They played with tremendous resolve all season long (you know the details). If anyone should be embarrassed, it’s you for writing such a cheap shot piece.

By: bb

bb — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:56:11 +0000

yeah…thats why the knicks suck…salary control.
no…they just suck.

By: Oceansize

Oceansize — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:17:13 +0000

Sure Scioscia made some mis-steps in this ALCS, but I hardly see this as proof they he’s somehow not the great manager that the media makes him out to be. All’s I know is, prior to Mike coming to the Angels, being an Angel fan sucked because the most you could hope for was a .500 record. Since he came on board, being an Angel fan has been heaven, repeatedly and consistently making the playoffs. Angelks fans could never say that before Mike Scioscia. To see what he’s done without a tremendous number of top-notch players over the last decade has been a joy to behold.

By: Oscar D

Oscar D — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:37:18 +0000

Baseball is fixed. Until there is real competitive balance (an equal sharing of revenue or salary cap) the Yankees will always be on top. True they will not win the World Series every year but with true competitive balance fans of 20+ teams would think they have a legitimate shot at the title not the 6 or 8 that do now. The reason the Giants, Jet, Knicks, Rangers, Devils and Islanders are not dominant is they must compete on an equal basis. If Minaya was a competent GM the Mets would rule the NL as well. Baseball would be as popular as football if the fans in KC, Seattle, KC, Minnesota, Tampa Bay and all of the other small market teams could compete on an equal basis.

By: gary

gary — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:01:31 +0000

If you are going to accuse the 2002 Championship Angel’s team of being one of the dirtiest teams of all times, why don’t you name the dirty players? It shouldn’t be hard if there were so many. Cheap shot and lousy reporting. You just lost a lot of credibility and I WON’T BE SIGNING UP FOR YOUR DRAFT GUIDE EITHER!

By: awineguy

awineguy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:28:21 +0000

The same way Ralph is pronounced “Rafe”.

By: Don Dufo

Don Dufo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:19:30 +0000

Good article,Matthew Pouliot. On the Yankees? What $ 225,000.00 will get you. Nice. Yanks won and all that, but what a no-clutch hitting team they were last night. Gotta love Scioscia’s calmness under duress. One found it difficult to discern his own personal churning inside as his guys fell short. Nice demeanor for a coach. Very cool. I’d keep him as manager for sure. Girardi also did well last night. That he kept Pettite in as long as he did was noteworthy. He didn’t play Mr. Hook and attempt to fix something unbroken. He’s learning. Joba did well. Saunders was valiant. Hated to see him unrewarded. Good pitcher. An impossibly unrelentingly Yankee lineup for him to pitch against. The Yanks do have a lot of big bats. Wish Matsui would get hot again. Swisher? Better night! He’s excellent defensively in the outfield. He’ll be a force against the Phillies. Nothing like playoff experience to “veteranize” a player. Girardi’s patience in sticking with “the Swish” was a good thing. Guerrero was the most dangerous man at the plate throughout the series which just might have been the real World Series. Many great plays. Many heroes. Long live baseball. Can”t wait for Wednesday. Go, Yanks! Go, CC! Go, Alex! Derek! Tex! Melky! Kano!(sp) Mariano! Everyone!
This old man is tired. Have a good one, folks!

By: Don Dufo

Don Dufo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:17:23 +0000

By: Renaldo

Renaldo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:16:33 +0000

Ok, first and foremost, congrats to the Yankees. I’m an Angel fan who can admit defeat and the Yankees won the series deservedly so. Their players came in and performed in the clutch and A-Rod and CC played like men possessed. Now, so many people are going to make ridiculous accusations about who lost the series for the Angels. Was it Scioscia, Kazmir, errors, bad baserunning, poor plate performances, etc.? Could it be that the GM and owner are to blame for not shelling out the $1,000,000,000,000,000 on CC Sabathia or other free agents in the offseason? (That’s not a cheap shot Yankee fans because if I was a GM, I would acquire anyone I needed to win a World Series) The truth of the matter is that the Angels lost the series as a team, from the front office to the field, everyone had their part. The pitching can’t win a game on its own and neither can the offense and the team can win PERIOD without the right personnel. Were mistakes made by the officiating crew? GOD YES! But those blown calls did not directly lose the series for the Angels. It was a best of seven series not a one and done series. The Angels have been my team since I was a kid. I was born an Angel fan and I’ll die one, but in the end, they lost the series because they didn’t perform and play October baseball.

By: EDDIE

EDDIE — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:05:58 +0000

IF THE YANKEES LOSE,THEY CAN BUY THE TROPHY FROME THE PHILLYS!!

By: KimG

KimG — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:03:32 +0000

You know, it’s funny to me that Yankees fans are so obnoxious. You do realize that the Yankees are SUPPOSED to win every year since they spend more money than GOD on their team and the funnier thing is that it has taken THIS long for them to get back to the World Series! HA HA HA Yeah brag this year, because the last SEVERAL years were total embarrassments to the Yankees. They shouldn’t even lose a game with that juiced line-up. All of those All-Stars…it’s humorous to me that they didn’t even sweep the Angels. They will have trouble with the Phillies who will show up to play.
Oh, and it’s even more humorous when my Indians beat the Yankees so many times in years past. The Indians are built to lose and still beat the Yankees. Yankees are the bullies…no one likes bullies in reality.

By: comeonman

comeonman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:57:01 +0000

I’m sure HAPPY the ANGELS didn’t play so GOOD, Thanks for the 4 wins
I also want to thank the TWINS FOR NOT PLAYING GOOD AS WELL.
Now we have to get the PHILLIES TO NOT PLAY SO WELL AND GIVE US 4 WINS.
I’am so glad MLB TOLD Ron Gardenhire and Mike Scioscia to give Girardi a break and take it easy on the YANKEES AND LET THEM WIN.

By: WallaceN

WallaceN — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:50:14 +0000

sri and Taco have it right. No Jason you’re the idiot. The Angel players were bad, real bad, in every aspect of the games, except for pitching, and they needed leadership and got none. Scioscia shares a big part of the blame.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:43:20 +0000

Pitching wins, Yankees have better pitching-starting and a much better bullpen. The teams match up in the hitting department.
Yanks in 6

By: Bill@TDS

Bill@TDS — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:41:05 +0000

The silly little throwaway line at the end really ruins this entire article. Everything it says that’s in any way relevant to anything is dead on — the Angels made a ton of mistakes, and Mike Scioscia managed like he was trying to lose in the most creative way possible. But that line at the end is the single dumbest thing I’ve read on here. Why ruin all your hard work here by throwing that cheap shot in at the end? It’s just baffling.

By: hop

hop — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:39:29 +0000

Obviously a LOT of people forgot what the angels were “before” Scioscia started to coach them

By: Jenn

Jenn — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:33:49 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. Cheap shot and no evidence to back it up. I’m sick of bloggers who throw crap up on the wall to see what sticks….
Yes, the angels should be upset with how they played. Yes, mistakes were made, but throwing in that steroids line is just WRONG.

By: Rhapsodie

Rhapsodie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:02:21 +0000

Are you kidding? The Bronx Banker’s lead the league in ‘roid’s use. Let’s see… there is the Rocket, Petite, Payroids, any number that have yet to be listed as yet. Thank the weak commissioner for the folly that is baseball. With a strong leader, a lot of this ‘cheating’ will be taken care of, and salary cap could demote the Banker’s to also-ran status.

By: willmose

willmose — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:56:28 +0000

If the Yankees play in the World Series like they did in the ALCS, the Phillies will eat them alive. The only reason it may not happen is the umpires will keep it close. From the umpiring alone it was easy to see that MLB (and FOX) wanted this match up for the ratings.

By: jimmy2x

jimmy2x — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:44:01 +0000

Brooke – you sound fat. Typical Mutts fan.

By: bb

bb — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:40:45 +0000

I think that saying the angels should be enbarassed is a little strong. its like saying the 2003 yanks should have been embarassed to sleep -walk their way throguh that world series (which they did).
Like the 2003 yanks, this angles team came in overconfident. they had just beaten their post season nemisis and were now going to face a team that they had owned. problem was that this was NOT the team that the angels owned…it is a different yankee team. they hit better, they pitched better, they ran better and the fielded better and they took advantage of nearly every angels mistake. that is the defintiion of a champion.
the pillies are tought but they actually look very much like the 2004-2008 yankees. a great line-up, shallow starting ptiching after their number 1, a jekyl and hyde bullpen.
Yanks in 6.

By: EBW

EBW — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:40:01 +0000

Mr. Pouliot acknowledges the error and corrects it, probably before you read the article. Check Post number 4.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:37:17 +0000

Matt, that’s the way the Angels play and when the things don’t work out it looks bad. They are an aggressive team at the plate and on the base paths. They force other teams to make plays and the Yankees made the plays while the Angels made some bad decisions. They don’t play station to station baseball. The only walk their hitting coach has ever considered is when he takes the dog out. The dog gets excited over the mere mention of walk but not the Angels. It’s a strategy that has obviously served them well over the years and if memory serves me correct they ousted the Yankees a few times with it.
The steroid mention is something you can tar every team with. Heck the Cards are bringing back Mark McGwire and maybe he and Card’s 1st base coach Dave McKay can co-author a book on weight training as well to go along with McKay’s book he wrote with Jose Canseco.

By: JP

JP — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:34:58 +0000

This may be slightly off topic, but after reading this article, I find it funny that Bobby Cox – after so many failed post season attempts is still an icon with the fans and front office in Atlanta for the Braves. Think about how many chances he had to take home a World Series title, and his one time was in 1995. After that, how can you be hard on Scioscia? This article stated the Yankees were the better team anyhow.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:16:55 +0000

Typical baseball drivel about the steroid era. Its as if baseball is imbued with purity from the Gods and no one took steroids or performance enhancing substances before the 21st century. Hogwash!! All these so-called baseball/sport writers and former players who deride steroid users entrance to the “Hall” or a team’s success are either hypocritical blowhards or just plain stupid. Gaining hidden advantages in any sport has been part of competition since the inception of sports. If you think baseball is worse or that an era in the sport is more tainted than any other then you are the kind of person who probably got real disappointed when you learned the truth about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. In that case, spare us all the blather and seek therapy! The rest of us will continue enjoying the sport for what it is.

By: ManWithBrain

ManWithBrain — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:13:48 +0000

The story says “shallow right”.