That, my friends, is the new Mike Trout inspired logo from Big Fly Gear and it is now available for the winner of our CtPG contest. All you have to do to enter is make an account and make a post on the Giveaway article.
Winner will be chosen at random on March 15th. If you haven’t officially joined the fray, do so soon.
If you are like me and lack patience/want a sure thing, go to bigflygear.com and pick one of those bad boys up today.
In Angels news:
Brian Goodwin won his arbitration hearing and will make $2.2 million to keep Jo Adell in Salt Lake for a few months then become a very nice fourth outfielder.
The OC Register caught up with Brian shortly after the decision was announced and he gives some cool insight to the process. He seems like yet another good guy in an Angels uniform.
Old friend JC Ramirez is back in the fold, signing a minor league deal. JC spent last year in the Mexican League and is trying to fight his way back to big league ball.
With the Angels front office still needing a front of the rotation arm, here’s a look at who might realistically be available as the season gets going. I have to say, I like the Boyd kid. He’s shown both durability and stuff. With a little more consistency, he could be a great pitcher.
Fangraphs does their usual work and finds another possible hidden gem: Joe Musgrove. He has club control remaining but the Pirates are clearly rebuilding. This got me thinking. Also, ZIPS projections for 2020 are live on Fangraphs. They can be a little addicting.
Meanwhile, BtB is wondering if Clevinger’s pattern of injuries is going to derail his promising career.
Elsewhere around baseball:
Casinos are now offering odds on Astros batters being hit by pitches. I have to get in on this action. Bregman is the odds on favorite everywhere you look, and there are a lot of places to look.
One casino prop bet of interest is an Over/Under of 83.5 Houston batters hit this year. That’s a tad over one every other game. It seems too high until I see Alex Bregman’s smug face.
2 prospects have been busted for PEDs this week. Martes from Houston was followed by Pablo Reyes. This makes 10 of the last 12 players to test positive hailing from the Dominican Republic. Add in larger stars like Manny, Papi, Cano, etc. and it is clear MLB has a problem at some level. I don’t know the fix.
Globe Life Field in Arlington is just about done and looks like a really nice ballpark. The latest big test was the plumbing. They invited 300 local students to join them in a massive flush party
The Angels pre season kicks off in just over 48 hours. This off season has gone by quickly. It has been a rocky one in both MLB and our little sphere of it and I’m ready to hear the crack of the bat again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD2mZJDHM-g
He came from a Meteor
https://www.theroot.com/we-calculated-how-much-we-pay-trump-to-play-golf-it-tu-1841793634
“Using Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes, Trump ties for 10th among America’s best-paid athletes and 17th in the world. Trump’s “salary” is the same as Los Angeles Angels superstar Mike Trout’s, whose 12-year, $426.5 million deal was the richest contract in the history of team sports.”
Who ever thought Trump would be connected in any way lol
Well, the’re quite close alphabetically, so there’s that.
i’ve seen Angels managers since Rigney and i can’t remember an older manager in physical activity since, well, Rigney.
Ice Cream Joe has gotten kinda old and moves kinda slow – he’s fine – he’s just just an older dude now, and especially compared to past skips – when the inevitable complaints start coming, they’ll focus on his age
it was a good day
angels infield depth chart minus Tony Two Bags taking groNDRZ in Tem-pEE
The hot corner! I love playing 3b in softball. These guys are so much more comfortable than I am, for sure. Anyway, the hot corner! Called that because it’s really not that far from the plate and the ball is traveling awfully fast. Half of the problem is simply reaction time. Keep it up, Rex. We’re loving these!
of course it was.
we won in 2002 and now it’s 2020. and look at that it’s 02-20-2020.#angelsday
Some interesting articles on The Athletic from Fabian (paywall). It seems like he is interviewing prospects each day in camp.
Here is the Jo Adell interview: https://theathletic.com/1617609/2020/02/19/jo-adell-on-playing-in-japan-figuring-it-out-and-being-big-league-ready/
Here is the Torii Hunter Jr interview: https://theathletic.com/1622980/2020/02/20/torii-hunter-jr-on-his-angels-opportunity-and-the-turning-point-at-notre-dame/
Hoping he interviews Marsh next.
I FINALLY crashed the gates!!!! Let’s go!
Great! We need more Trojans here.
Not the University of Spoiled Children! Sorry, I was born about 3 miles from the Golden Dome in South Bend. My uncle’s job in law school was to follow Paul Hornung around and make sure he went to class and didn’t sneak off to bars. IRISH!!!!!
To be fair, the Spoiled Children School announced today that students with a family income under $80K will get a free ride, and that home equity will not be factored into student aid calculations.
These are very good steps (and I do NOT like the Trojans).
Wow.
Today on MLB Network some writer named Tony ? predicted that Trout would have a decline in performance this year, I say NOPE. Prior to last season I wrote that Mikey would have a monster year and be MVP, l was wrong in that Mikey do not have a monster year. This season in 2020 Mikey is gonna rock it, he will have a monster season of which we have not seen since Mickey, Willie or Hank. here I go making predictions, hey l got Fletcher right before last season saying he would lead the team in Hits, Runs, and Doubles, two out of three anyway. so I will predict the Trouty hits .329, 52, 135, 10 SB, 35 Doubles, 6 Triples, 140 Runs Scored, 192 Hits, 115 BB. Adding also that Mike is in 150 gms. Trout will not peak in his career until age 34 and then only slowly like Aaron and Mays.
Shit GPB, I had Fletch as the Halo fixer since Jerry signed him when we watched him play in H.S. against our boys. People on the old Halo MLB site thought I was nuts! 😈
You mean you’re not?………lol, glad to be here with you.
I saw that too, that guy was full of shit. He didn’t back up anything he said with a convincing argument. He’s just trying to get noticed.
Great links, Jeff. Nice feel to it.
Thank you.
Imagine that Super Flush happening in Oakland or Chavez Latrine!!! Yikes
Or the Field Level Section at the Big A on a good attendance day :chuckle:
Just need 300 people to sync up the flush right? I can buy 300 tickets to oakland haha
Now we just need a “Milville Meteorologist” t-shirt to celebrate Mike’s other passion.
That’s comedy gold, red!
To get Trout to steal more, the 1B coach should tell Mike that there is an interesting weather pattern forming directly above second base…
Or doughnuts
you know, because he’s so fat
That would be awesome. Does it come with a caption of, ” Forecast: Big Fly “
That caption would be awesome, too. Someone should suggest this to Victor.
P.S. Does Victor know about the new site?
Victor is well aware.
sounds better than the Dominican Double Play Machine
Trout, Upton, Marsh and Pujols BP this morning in Tempe while Billy Epp and Ice Cream Joe look on
That’s awesome. No sound in the world like it. Thank you.
Interesting stat on the PED users being heavily (10 out of last 12) from the DR. Another interesting fact is the 2 ring leaders (Beltran & Cora) of the sign stealing are from Puerto Rico (1 island over). And so far the most outspoken defender of the Astros cheating, Carlos Correa, is from Puerto Rico.
As baseball grows into more of an international sport, the cultural differences are real. Not calling out any culture in particular, just that in countries outside of the US, what we would call cheating is not always looked at in the same as in the US. Certainly, it’s easier to get PED’s and corruption in the government can influence the people who live there.
Honestly, I get it from the prospects. The fallback option for a guy like David Fletcher (A student in high school, Dean’s list in college, $300k signing bonus, good family) is to wrap up a few college classes and get a middle class job. The fallback for most of these Dominican kids is poverty.
Granted, I think there’s an issue with far too many high school kids going into the draft in general, but even what is considered poor in the US is vastly better than what a lot of these DR kids are facing.
agree. that’s my point. Its a different deal coming from a different country/culture
anybody else seen the Girardi video at MLB network when he basically admitted that they stole signs? I can’t find it on youtube (i saw it on barstool last night), but he basically says they got the signs “from up stairs, relayed to the dugout, then relayed to the runners”
The Astros aren’t the only team to have ever cheated in this manner.
whats the date of the video? If its during the 2019 season this has Carlos Beltran’s hands all over it.
honestly, I’m not sure the date but found a link that has the video:
https://www.inquirer.com/phillies/yankees-phillies-joe-girardi-cheating-astros-steal-signs-mlb-network-20200220.html
he basically defends what he said and claims he was talking about the yankees catching other people cheating
David Ortiz comes out dumping on the Astros player’s cheated, weird as this is a guy who cheated with steroids use. SMH.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/red-sox-legend-david-ortiz-calls-astros-whistleblower-mike-fiers-a-snitch-stands-up-for-rob-manfred/
exactly right, Grandpa! Two things. He cheated with steroids *and* he’s a Red Sox guy who doesn’t want the Sux to be punished for doing what Houston did.
Exactly. Confirmed cheater David Ortiz is fine with confirmed cheaters Houston. After all, he’s a cheater.
But just like he gets pissed off when fans and reporters bring up his failed test, he’s mad at Friers.
To be expected cheaters would think whistleblowers are snitches .. bad people …. (comment that might be deemed political deleted)
Good Morning folks, I’m betting on the Astros being HBP under 83.5, but MLB pitcher’s are annoyed big time by the cheating. How to curb steroid use is tougher penalties. Nelson Cruz came back after his 82 game rest and has not stopped hitting HRs. 162 game suspension and the players will think twice. Add to that even more testing and MLB shows they want it to stop by not having to name all banned substance and saying any and all PED’s are illegal. Selig is the root of these current issues by not coming down hard in ’94 – ’95 off season when the cat was out of the bag. Bud Selig liked the fact attendance went up exponentially and the after effects that was caused by the strike season’s was not felt so why not look the other way. But the problem was that the respect for the game was lost and waiting 6 years to make a move was not in the best interest of the game. Manfred is following in the same thinking pattern of count the money while the long range interest of the American and National Leagues are not served.
I think the under is a safe bet as well. That is more than one every series, which just seems unsustainable once they start playing teams for the second time. It also doesn’t account for the purpose pitches that will miss behind the batters or high, either purposefully or accidental.
So, I spent last night at a score keeping seminar so I can be the back up score keeper for my kids AAA little League team. The District 30 leaders teaching the class made a few Astros comments whenever the subject of cheating was mentioned. And there doesn’t seem to be an Astros team in his league this year in any level, yet there has been for the past 3 years.
I received my Big Fly jacket I ordered, and it is even better than advertised! Only problem I have with it is that my wife likes it too and she is commencing a hostile takeover of the jacket. Now I may have to buy another one, if they would just make another color.
I won’t link east spin. But here ya go
What? Matching couple not your gig?
My wife and I always wear the same Angel t-shirt to every game we attend.
No, not really.
Good for Goodwin!
I’m so much more productive in the morning when the links aren’t posted at 5am. My employer thanks you!
Did you guys see how jacked Ohtani is? What a guy…
https://twitter.com/nobuchan6817/status/1230238445471031296
Wow, he has definitely grown into his frame over the last year
“Random” drug test incoming.
That’s an insane difference. He’s on that Mike Trout workout plan, may have to start calling him fat soon.
:shutmouth:
Huh… I thought you’d have to start calling him soon. = )
Seeing only one buff arm has me thinking, “Trogdoooooor!”
Burninating the countryside!!!
Sho-GUNS (c) DowningDude
That’s one huge pitcher
Congratulations Goodwin, welcome back JC and what happened to Gray on that list of probable pitchers available in trade?
I don’t know. I’m sure there are more possibilities than listed.