Pitchers and catchers have reported. The wait is finally over. While the Angels stumbled at the end of the offseason, there is still plenty to be excited about.
Angel News
Pitching may not be the best but the offense will be amazing. And that is without knowing when Jo Adell will be ready. That’s good to have half the team elite because Billy seems to be done with adding arms as of now.
Ohtani will not be ready to pitch til May. Well, that… That is a bit disappointing. Still will hit in the meantime.
Angels minors affiliate the Inland Empire 66ers have decided to use a cherub logo for a limited time on May 22nd. Baby on a hat. Guess it is one way to show that they are part of the Angels in a way.
Joe Maddon says the Cubs wanted to change too much before he left. Well he is home now and he can do whatever he likes as Arte has him in a contract longer than Billy.
PECOTA standings are out. They expect 86 wins for the Angels. That’s second place and in the second wild card. Oh no. Expectations.
Heaney has Skaggs old locker. He will take good care of it.
Other Baseball News
Rob Manfred continues to be someone who doesn’t understand baseball and has proposed drastically expanding the playoffs to 14 teams. And for that he got blasted from Fangraphs to players to fans alike.
A former 2017 Astro actually apologized. Guess seeing his new teammates made him fess up. He says that his former teammates crossed the line badly. Especially Beltran and Marisnick.
The difference between rich and poor teams is becoming more blurry. The Royals sold for a billion dollars so should they be seen as small market?
Former Angel coach Ron Roenicke is the new Boston Red Sox manager. For the interim anyway. The team is still under investigation which includes him as he was a coach there in 2018.
Speaking of investigation, Musgrove says that if other teams were to be investigated like the Astros it is likely we will learn disturbing things about more teams. Well maybe do it then. Rip the bandage off and let’s get this behind us instead of leaks and cover ups.
Dodgers told Nats that the Astros were cheating before the 2019 world series. Seriously why is this info drip fed? It will never go away at this point. Although that is what some teams want.
PECOTA did an AMA on reddit. As projection people they had some answers for the behind the scenes of their process.
R.B.I. Baseball game has a new trailer. Still the only Recent real baseball game most gamers can actually play if they do not have a Playstation.
Remember when the Simpsons did a baseball episode with real players guest starring? Well Fangraphs explores what happened to them.
Japanese baseball’s GOAT catcher has died. Age gets to us all, even in Japan. It is a wonder how little the west actually pays attention to Japanese Baseball.
did somebody mention wanting Tajuan Walker? He’s with the Mariners now.
well here we go! No use crying over what didn’t get done. The reality is we have what we have and we’ll be rooting hard for our lads.
That is NOT what I meant. What I was pointing out is that the reasons for making the trade in the first place are all still in existence. My last sentence was “So hopefully, Eppler is letting Arte calm down and will then talk him into re-visiting the trade because it would very much help the Angels.” The trade just makes too much sense for the Angels and the Dodgers for it not to be picked up again. If the only reason for pulling out of it was due to the delay in completing it, that is just a lousy, non baseball reason for doing so. If Arte is so concerned with winning then he swallows his ego and goes back to the Dodgers to complete the trade.
The Trade That Should Still Happen. I keep expecting to hear that the Angels and Dodgers are talking again as the Peterson/Stripling trade makes too much sense for both teams not to go through, provided the Dodgers do not ask for too much in terms of prospects besides Renigfio. Eppler’s comment reported today was that there is “nothing active right now.” Taken literally that could mean that he has not heard back from the Dodgers AT THAT MINUTE. Maybe I’m being too optimistic but the Angels still need pitching and Stripling would be a big pickup for them and Peterson would certainly help in the outfield. On the other side, the Dodgers still need to shed some salary to get under the luxury tax. So hopefully, Eppler is letting Arte calm down and will then talk him into re-visiting the trade because it would very much help the Angels.
In other news, Pitchers and Catchers report and we all have a reason to live again!
We should Rejoice!
Pitchers and catchers reporting! Rejoice, baseball will soon be here!!
Ahhhoooooooooo!
Werewolves of London
https://youtu.be/IESmwEqeE3k
Yay
Max Stassi apologized for his role in the sign stealing scandal https://twitter.com/jefffletcherocr/status/1227630663945183232?s=21
I heard he tried to give back the 3 extra hits he got
Cherubs cap…dammit, I thought I was done buying caps, I have maybe 40 by now. But take my money, Sixers…
I don’t want to be too homey but because most of you wouldn’t know about this Nomura guy
marked 125WAR as a player which ranks second in NPB history only behind Oh.First triple crown in the postwar era. And was a brilliant catcher.
As a manager, he was one of the first to bring analytics to the game in the early 90s and won 3 Japan series titles and more league titles.
But the most amazing thing is that he became the true GOAT as a….commentator.
His cynically humorous commenting with analytical depth made him the national idol and kept baseball competitive in the era of soccer emerging as a rival entertainment.
RIP legend.
Thanks for those facts, I did not know any of that.
Best player ever in the NPB. Man did he hate “Misutah”(Mr Baseball/Giants) Nagashima, the fan favorite as best ever, because Oh isn’t concerned a real Japanese.
Nomura’s son was Nomo’s agent.
Craig Calcaterra discusses an article in the Washington Post. He’s calling for Manfred to do some serious explaining. This looks really bad for MLB. https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/02/12/rob-manfred-must-answer-for-his-mishandling-of-the-sign-stealing-scandal/
Everybody needs to read that.
ManBearFred didn’t handle it right, but he is just whipping boy that the owners hired. So he handled it right.
He has no real power, and the owners handled the investigation, and handed out the punishments. No precedents were set that will effect the income of the league, or future issues. The owners are not going to prematurely punish their pockets.
Thanks for posting this Jim. Wow, Manfred is incompetent (we already knew this), but also a liar
Manfred is Done. Someone is going down for this scandal and it really should be Manfred, to allow the sport to be defiled for years is utter and complete failure. Manfred should be investigated himself.
He will finish his term, then we will see. He is just a good stooge, doing what his master’s want him to do. Says what they tell him to say. If things go quiet before opening day, he may get an extension.
Jim, thanks for that link.
Baseball needs to return to the days of independent commissioners. Not that it’s ever going to happen.
According to that article, our offense will be so amazing we will hit Rengifo 3rd and the league will gift us two #4 hitters in the lineup. That’s really remarkable offense.
1. Tommy La Stella
2. Mike Trout
3. Luis Rengifo
4.Anthony Rendon
4. Shohei Ohtani
5. Albert Pujols
6. Justin Upton
7. Andrelton Simmons
8. Brian Goodwin
9. Jason Castro
That has to mean that Rendon and Ohtani are platooning at DH and Rengifo is the starting 3B. Right?
Isn’t Rendon known for pretty elite defense? Best in the NL fielding percentage at 3B for the last 3 years. Overall seems like the author of that article thought through their responses for 0.2 seconds while also eating a double stuf oreo that distracted them.
They did not even have Fletcher in there.
You mean our starting 2B? Why would anyone project him into the lineup?
None of the projection systems do…
Because Rengifo is really awesome and the Dodgers wanted him in a trade so he has to be way better than Fletcher.
I like the double cleanup scenario, Is that even legal?
Expanding the playoffs in a sport that is more about the long season and about play performance than about post season. I have in the past made no secret that l believe Rob Manfred is a clown leading a select group of the clueless when it comes down to a major league sport. Washington Nationals won the World Series as a wild card team, albeit a good team, but was it the best other than for a 3 week run in October? I find myself torn as to how l feel about the proposed playoff format, kind of 60 – 40 type feeling. l would truly like to see the wildcard games be best of three and go from there, not crazy about 84 win teams get to the playoffs. Just the best teams should after a long season make the playoffs would still be enjoyable at the end if a wildcard teams wins the World Series. As a lawyer Manfred may be OK, as a leader of MLB he is a joke, a clown. Instead of selling the sport as it is, he feels compelled to make it a circus every day in 15 cities. You want new fans? Sell the product to the grass roots with winter caravans of players going to school and community events, give to local leagues so better equipment and fields are played on, MLB teams need to address working on promoting the game as it truly is rather than sticking a runner on second in the twelfth inning just to get the game over. Start teaching pitchers to pitch quicker between throws and not left batters adjust gloves for 2 minutes. But changing the game because attendance and TV and Radio watchers and listeners are leaving is not how to address the problems. So at the end of examining the new playoff proposal l come to the conclusion that the fix should be no more teams but the best of three in the Wildcard Game.
The Big A looked so dam strange with tons of dirt for Monster Trucks at John Altobelli’s Memorial, it was weird. I met John 4 times, once when he came to a tournament my son was playing in back in ’03, and 3 other times at coaching clinics. For some reason it seemed very important for me to be at the Big A to pay my respects, so off we went to a memorial that was obviously sad but also positive. Ron Roenicke has a new job in Boston and he is deserving. Carlos Beltran is more and more looking like a bad guy in the Astros cheating scandal, being singled out as one of the inventors of the Banging on the Lids. Trashy stuff. Should not have let the players off so easy .
I watched Japanese baseball on TV during the strike shortened 1994 season. Am I allowed to bring that up? Hideki Matsui pitched for the Yomiuri Giants, who helped his team win their version of the World Series. It would be cool to have the winner of the Japan Series against the winner of the World Series.
A certain movie called Angels in the Outfield came out that year also.
Anything can happen with good coaching, timely hitting, and pitching … Will Mickey Callaway be an effective pitching coach? That remains to be seen.
@johnlweitzel If Matsui can pitch to help his team, we need him now.
Ohhhhhhh no, there goes Tokyo …
Go go, Stan? Doesn’t work! 😎
Don’t forget Ken Burns baseball series. Still waiting for the new episode. He said he would do another one if the cubs won the ws