Letters: Not exactly a heavenly season in Anaheim

An article about the Angels quotes Mike Scioscia as saying, “We thought for a week about moving Shohei Otani up in the lineup.”

The Angels were 1-4 after the All-Star break at the time and about 15 games behind Houston. Maybe taking a week to think about that move is why the Angels have the record they have.

Dan Gardner

Lake Forest

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Cannot understand why the Angels do not have the best record in baseball when they have the best hitter in baseball. Justin Upton is the best hitter in baseball when there is no one is on base, there are two outs, and the Angels are already ahead by four or more runs. Gets a hit every time. I just can’t figure it out.

Russell Beecher

Canyon Lake

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Nice try, Billy Eppler. But more of Luis Valbuena in any capacity is the surest sign of waving the white flag.

Tim Hoff

Fountain Valley

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Francisco Arcia drove in a total of 10 runs in his first two major league games, setting a major league record that stood since 1954. What does Mike Scioscia do? He benches Arcia, and promptly starts platooning him. Why cool him off when he’s hot? Ask Mike Napoli and C.J. Cron; they were both Scioscia platoon victims. Joe Madden installs confidence, joy and freedom into his players; the Angels’ manager “buzz kill” keeps his players humble.

David Waldowski

Laguna Woods

Unseen stars

When we first heard the term “catch and kill”, it pertained to news events in the political world: how stories are purchased then buried by rich moguls.

Now Dodgers followers can better understand this term. The Dodgers traded for Manny Machado. Most fans couldn’t see Manny’s first road game. When Machado made his home appearance in Dodger Stadium, a vast number of supporters couldn’t relish watching their new All-Star on television. Expendable fans didn’t enjoy Manny’s arrival because Dodger tycoons were too busy stuffing television rights money deep down their insatiable pockets.

The Dodgers were able to “catch and kill” a great story.

Dan Imbagliazzo

Rancho Palos Verdes

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It’s enough that SportsNet and DirecTV continue to be at a stalemate, but MLB needs to get rid of its decades-old blackout rule. This week alone, fans were shut out of Dodgers games airing on TBS, ESPN and MLBN.

Mike Saunders

Agoura Hills

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I hate it when one of your sportswriters agrees with me. I was hoping Bill Plaschke would reassure me that the Dodgers’ recent trade solved our bullpen problems and that all systems are go for the World Seris. Thanks for nothin’, Bill.

Laura Owen

Pacific Palisades

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Anyone who watches Dodgers baseball this season can see that Cody Bellinger swings under nearly every pitch he goes after. He starts with an upright stance with his knees locked and dips under the ball as he swings. For a brief time he stood with his knees flexed and the result was better contact. Now he inexplicably has returned to the upright stance and he either pops up or strikes out nearly every at bat. Why can’t this professional baseball player figure out what we mere fans can so easily observe?

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

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I realize that the article about Matt Kemp’s resurgence this year is supposed to be a feel-good story about a veteran who has recaptured the success of his early years. Am I the only one disturbed by the notion that for the previous three years, while getting paid $20 million a year, Kemp didn’t feel responsibility to his employers, the Padres and then the Braves, to stay in shape during the offseason?

This coming off season when teams consider whether to sign free agents to long-term eight figure contracts, this article may serve as a cautionary tale.

Roberto deMayo

Pacific Palisades

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Dave Roberts is up in arms because of critical comments by Atlanta broadcasters that he considers “unfair” and “a cheap shot” at Chase Utley. Somewhere, former Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada, whose MLB career was derailed by Utley’s vicious, reckless, illegal “slide” into second base during the 2015 playoffs, is surely noting with disgust the irony of Roberts’ defense of Utley, baseball’s ultimate cheap-shot artist.

Brian Fodera

Sherman Oaks

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Regarding the comments of Joe Simpson and Chip Caray, I really don’t think that a true baseball fan in general, and a Dodgers fan in particular, would need a name or number on the back of Clayton Kershaw, Mat Kemp, Justin Turner, Yasiel Puig and Chase Utley to know who they are.

Russell Morgan

Carson

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Brian Dozier got three hits in his first game as a Dodger. Isn’t that about as many as Logan Forsythe had in a season and a half?

Rob Osborne

Manhattan Beach

Just enjoy it

On July 28, 1991, I was in attendance at a game between the Dodgers and the Montreal Expos. Montreal’s pitcher, Dennis Martinez, was on his way to pitching a perfect game. It was the bottom of the eighth inning, Martinez on the mound, when suddenly the mood of every Dodger fan and every Dodger player seemed to have lost interest in winning that afternoon. Everyone in Dodger Stadium was cheering on Dennis Martinez.

Martinez did throw a perfect game, inciting a riot of standing ovations and deafening applause.

How sad it was to read about the jubilation from the Dodgers dugout when Chris Taylor ruined an “almost” no-hit performance from an Atlanta Braves pitcher this past Sunday, especially when the hit had absolutely no effect on the final outcome of the game.

Every player in the Dodgers dugout should have felt a twinge of disappointment. and empathy for Sean Newcomb. Baseball is on a fast track to losing its heart.

Candy Carstensen

Los Angeles

Tiger getting closer

In last week’s letters, Mr. Reilly’s fantasy about Tiger Woods being a has-been is not bordering on the absurd, it is absurd. Save for errant tee shots on 11 and 12 at Carnoustie on Sunday, Tiger would have been hoisting the Claret Jug.

In the words of the inimitable Spiro Agnew, Mr. Reilly, you are a “nattering nabob of negativism.” A true legend should be congratulated, not denigrated.

Joseph Hladek

Thousand Oaks

Knee-jerk reaction

Since Jerry Jones announced that he’ll fire any Cowboys players who take a knee before their first exhibition game, every player should take a knee. Not in support of Black Lives Matter. In support of each other, as teammates. Think of the bonding.

Henry Rosenfeld

Santa Monica

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I challenge any player who uses the national anthem as the platform to express his opinion to live on a war-zone military base until camp opens the following season.

Dave Eng

Thousand Oaks

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Rams coach Sean McVay correctly has winning games a higher priority than uniform/helmet color schemes.

David Marshall

Santa Monica

Out to launch

I would like to meet one fan who really cares about the velocity of the baseball leaving the ballpark, but here’s the whopper: launch angle. Guys, this is baseball, not rocket science. Just like when I was a kid, it’s a home run, let’s cheer. And you wonder why baseball is losing fans.

Bob Martinez

Glendale

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