The Angels announced tonight that right-hander Garrett Richards exited tonight’s start due to irritation in his right forearm. He’ll undergo an MRI tomorrow to further evaluate the injury.
It’s the latest in a seemingly ceaseless line of injuries to an Angels pitching staff that has struggled to stay healthy over the past several seasons. Richards himself only recently returned from a hamstring injury and was making just his second start since being reinstated from the disabled list.
Any serious injury to Richards would be impactful to the Angels on multiple levels. First and foremost, he’s among the team’s most talented options in the rotation and is in the midst of a solid season, having pitched to a 3.68 ERA with 10.3 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, 1.3 HR/9 and a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate through 76 1/3 innings.
Beyond that, the Angels are buried 14.5 games back in the American League West and are a similarly daunting 11 games back from an American League Wild Card spot (though they’re poised to move up a game in those standings with a late lead over Seattle at present). If the team can’t put together a significant winning streak in the coming weeks, GM Billy Eppler and his lieutenants may very well be forced to sell off some short-term assets and begin looking toward 2019. Richards would be among the team’s best trade chips with the deadline looming, but this latest injury calls even that possibility into question.
G-Dang it! The Angels can’t catch a break! I was hoping we’d trade him. I love Richards and always have, but I just don’t think he’ll ever be %100 for any decent amount of time. We clearly need pieces and if we can get some quality pieces for him then I’d do it. I wouldn’t like it, but I’d do it. But all that’s in question now. We’ll see where this goes.
As long as Richards continue throwing from the First Base side of the Rubber he will continue to get hurt. I have been saying this every time he gets hurt.
God won’t be happy until the entire 40 man roster is on the DL.
Due to the blasphemy and stuff.
I can’t say I’ve ever seen a team at any level with such an epidemic of injuries over so many years! This is even worse than what the Mets have endured. It literally seems like LAA has to place a player on the DL every other day. Do they sell off all their worthwhile assets and rebuild as a result of this?
As a side note I know Cole Calhoun is having an absolutely brutal season so far. I noticed his batting stance is a lot different than it was last year – he is in more of a crouch at the plate. Any Angels fans have any insight on if the stance is causing the problem, or did he make this adjustment just recently?
He actually just changed his stance a couple weeks ago considering he was struggling so badly and I think he looks better with the new stance
Increased his battling line 35 points since the change. Much better easier contact to the ball.
.273/.324/.545 in past 28 days also supports the fact that the new stance is working
I am not really surprised. They went into this season hoping a backpack full of band-aids would keep an injury-riddled staff healthy. Richards, Skaggs, Ohtani, etc…none of the injuries on their own are particularly surprising.
Of course not all by any means, but quite a few of the Mets injuries were also truly fluke injuries or of the traumatic/acute variety.
The Angels are being hit more consistently with what are called “overuse” injuries; injuries which are often more avoidable with proper stretching and usage monitoring. They should act much, much more concerned with their issue than they seemingly are as
This train of thought seems to be gaining traction but I don’t think there’s legit evidence to support it. G-Rich just returned from a hamstring injury not an arm injury. Skaggs is down with a quad injury, again not an arm injury, neither seem to be a result of over-use. Eppler and co. have made a point to limit the stress on our starters and as a result Halo hurlers rarely pitch into the 7th inning. I think it’s far more likely that we simply have an abundance of injury prone arms that no amount of precaution is going to protect. IMO we need to develop a fresh core of arms (Canning/Barria/ect.) and manipulate the guys we have now until said core is ready.
“Overuse” is just the term for injuries which are often easily avoided with proper strength and conditioning practices. They can be developed in short amounts of time without literally overusing in the way people (including you, based off the way you try to argue your point) think when they hear the word.
Skaggs injury, Richards first injury, and even likely this one all fall under the category and all leave one wondering what exactly are the Angels doing to prepair for gametime (you’re often taught the importance of proper strength and conditioning as young as little league. This team has seemingly abandoned it entirely at this point)
Thats the thing though. I think the Angels medical staff is doing their due diligence when it comes to pre and post start examinations. We’ve seen guys placed on the DL retroactively which indicates an abnormality in a post start exam. We’ve seen starters scratched which indicates the opposite. Believe it or not I feel the current medical group is competent it’s the existing health issues of the pitchers we have where the problem lies. If the problem is strength&conditioning, like you indicate, then it’s pre-existing and who really knows when it developed in that scenario. Could be anytime from youth on.
I just think to blame this on the organization based on little to no evidence is a fools game
It just makes people feel better when they have something to blame.
“If the problem is strength&conditioning, like you indicate, then it’s pre-existing and who really knows when it developed in that scenario.”
That is not how strength and conditioning works, at all.
You need to strengthen and condition a body to accept high levels of extention to have that extention not cause issues, and then keep up that level to ensure you do not develop overuse injuries.
You can not take things easy then go to 100% effort without putting yourself in jeopardy of injury, and those types issues are really probably more common than over working onesself
We are seeing more and more Angels fans (including you earlier) saying Scioscia is even babying to over-protecting arms. If the same is being done in workouts, then there is an extreme likelihood that at least some of the overuse injuries that are occurring are stemming from that.
Just writing off one of the more extreme rash of overuse injuries a club has seen (after a high rate history of such injuries, no less) as if it is just somekind of bad luck is wishful thinking and shortsighted as it will merely ensure the issue is never addressed.
So the solution is to blame the org based off of highly questionable logic? No thanks.
If its the program then why is it only affecting certain players? Pitchers are the overwhelming victim here and most have horrible injury histories to begin with. ON the other hand Andrew Heaney seems to have responded well under the same program. Pitchers arm injuries are an epidemic league wide and there are no shortage of articles discussing suspected causes of this. I just don’t see the “incompetent medical staff” angle when there is so much at stake. No organization would allow poor practices to continue for year on end
This team lol
No way would I go into battle with anyone on this team, on my side.
It wouldn’t be an Angels thread without HS trolling it up.
That’s it get upset with me for the team being garbage and weak. Spoken like a true Halo Clown.
Not Trout?
Man I’m taking Trout into any battle. He’d beat Thor, Thanos, the Hulk, Spider man, Batman, Superman…could you imagine him in Street Fighter? He’d have a specialty move called The Turnpike, and everyone would just collapse without him even touching them.
He’d always side with Wonder Woman and Supergirl though.
Because he’s Mike Freaking Trout.
Time for the Angels to trade Trout to the Dodgers for Buehler, Verdugo, Alvarez, Lux and May.
And even that would not be a trade of equal value….
The Dodgers would only be getting him for the next 2 and half years. Let’s face it, the Angels are the Baltimore Orioles of the West. The best player in baseball has never even sniffed the playoffs. The Angels need a complete rebuild and baseball needs their best player to SHINE. What better place than Hollywood baby?
Wow. You know Trout has played in the playoffs,right? Even hit a home run.
That’s a sniff.
You know who hasn’t “sniffed” the playoffs? King Felix. And better yet,Camp’s Seattle contract.
Ok fine. He still deserves better than being stuck playing for the Angels.
They should just get rid of Angels franchise all together and bring back the Montreal Expos as an AL team. The Big A can be converted into a giant shrine for the Beach Boys.
Manny never tasted the playoffs. Really? Sure about that?
How about this? How about we just point out that the teams of both Trout and Hernandez have won exactly the same amount of playoff games (0) over their combined 22 years in the game – and agree that is unacceptable on both counts?
If I were Cashman, I’d offer a package headlined by Aaron Judge + prospects. Moreno replaces Trout with a California grown star, Cashman replaces Judge with the reincarnation of Mickey Mantle… Nobody loses!!!!
HaloShanes alias. Lucky for us Angels fans, our trolls are no better than AA level trolls.
Montreal can’t support a team, that ship has sailed.
You do.
All the good Angels trolls are on the disabled list.
dangit bobby
Portland time!
Yes it would. Cut out these hyperboles.
Someone pulled Voodoo magic hex on the 2018 Angels Lmao
Cano’s
The angels actually have a decent team, they’re just all on the DL.
Where’s the guy that told me Gerrit Cole and the Astros rotation was trash and “mark my words” the angels and Astros will come down to the wire for the division?!
he’s dead
He works for the Astros.
Probably on the DL
lmao
Watch them hold onto trout like the orioles did with Machado, 2 clueless organizations.
Puljos can be their chris Davis and Upton can be their adam jones.
The Trout era is over Angel fans, deal with it before it gets even worse.
I agree that the Trout era is coming to an end in LAA. I would honestly consider trading him this offseason. They could add to an already pretty solid farm system. Two years of trout would bring an absolute insane return.
Their farm system was ranked the worst in baseball at the end of last year.
It recieved a big bump for ohtani who is no longer a prospect.
So I’d imagine it’s just about the worst system again.
Trout should be traded now for a haul or they can wait and get Oriole bad.
Completely misinformed. The farm system has vastly improved from a few years ago. Jo Adell/Griffin Canning/ Jam Jones/Taylor Ward/Matt Thaiss/Brandon Marsh are all very nice prospects and they aren’t alone. Look it up and learn something new
Their farm system is much improved. They have 5 top 100 prospects and Thaiss is pretty close. The biggest concern is there is not a lot of depth there. Goes from top 100 to 40-45 rated prospects pretty quickly. If a couple of those top guys don’t pan out (and most likely not all of them will) there’s not a lot of fall back options and not a lot of guys who project to really even be average every day players.
Adding to the lack of depth, another issue is that a lot of the higher ranked prospects they have don’t have that high of expectations on them either. Instead of stars, they are generally expected to be more average-range contributers. Good to have, yes, but not necessarily enough standout talent and quantity for a true foundation to build on.
If Trout is gone, attendance will plummet and so will merch sales. Angels are riding that gravy train until the end.
ROFLOL!
Sherman of the NY Post had him as a Phillies target.
The only pitcher the Phillies need is Shohei Ohtani. They could start him in RF instead of the hole in the lineup they have out there everyday.
I think “fragile as an Angels pitcher” is going to become a new expression.
It’s pretty unlikely but I actually like the idea of turning Richards into a RP for the remainder of the season. We have clearly struggled in the pen and his elite arm talent would likely play up in smaller sample sizes. Limit him to shorter appearances (ala Archie Bradley in AZ) and strengthen the entire pen as a result.
Fill the SP void with Danny Duffy from KC… That is if we aren’t sellers by the deadline.
Duffy has 3 years left on a fairly inexpensive deal so you gotta expect that given his better results lately he is not going to come super cheap. Can’t see the Angels making that kind of move this season unless they absolutely catch fire over the next 2 weeks.
Agreed on Duffys value but the contract makes him an asset beyond this year so the decision may not be dependant on the next 2 weeks
“That is if we aren’t sellers at the deadline” Do you actually feel they shouldn’t be?
I think it makes sense to cross that bridge when we come to it. If we play well the next few weeks and Seattle come back to earth then sure we should at least entertain buying at the deadline. If we continue like we have been then obviously not…
If you trade Trout who’s their to protect Judge. Judge on the Angels would be pitched around every AB.
Trout in NY would have Stanton. DDG, Sanchez, and a host of young studs. He won’t be any better, he doesn’t have to be any better–he is going to be TGOAT in baseball before his career ends.
They should’ve signed a bunch of old people. Colby Lewis, Bartolo Colon, Scott Feldman, Chris Young to name a few. Just get someone in there who’s thrown more than 50 innings in a season smh.