Baseball is back and Jo Adell is flying high. Adell drove in the first run of the season – scoring Brandon Marsh. Shohei Othani threw a bullpen. Albert Pujols is moving well, whatever that means.
The Angels have a top notch new pitching coach. He says the key to pitching improvement is to throw strikes.
Brandon Wood fizzled out as a prospect but has found peace in Montana.
Baseball and Tim Tebow are still a thing I suppose. Looks more like a wide receiver route than a line to catch a baseball.
The Astros got well-deserved boos and stadium staff stole a sign from a fan that didn’t even contain vulgarity. Apparently the Astros still haven’t learned that sign stealing is bad. Speaking of sign stealing, Jonathan Lucroy said he changed up signs on every pitch. At least until Jake Marisnick took him out.
Madison Bumgarner, aka Mason Saunders, regularly participates in rodeos. Apparently MadBum can spin a ball and rope a bull. Maybe next time Yoenis Cespedes can enlist Mr. Saunders’ help in wrangling boars.
Mascots can get makeovers too. In this case it’s the Phillie Phanatic due to a legal battle. I’m sure there are big dollars involved here.
Which fruit/vegetable can you throw the farthest???
There’s a guy who made a fanpost a few weeks ago over in the Old Country stating that he has a photo of almost everyone who ever played for the Angels and asking for help in filling his remaining handful of blanks. He is planning to put together a CD of all the images, and he offers to send a copy upon request (presumably without profit). I just noticed it today, and no one has responded, because no one is there.
Well, it sounded like something worthwhile, and the guy signed on back in 2014, so he seems legit, so I told him to come on over and crash the gates with us. As the old Army saying goes, there’s always someone who doesn’t get the word.
In other Old Country news, I’ve noticed a smattering of posts over the past month from brand-new accounts. I suppose it is natural for new accounts to appear this time of year, but if they are genuine accounts, at this point they have no ready way to know what has happened there. All they are likely to see if they don’t dig deeper is that the Old Country is a ghost town. And that’s a shame, because they should be here.
And so, I googled “Los Angeles Angels fan site” and a few other similar things, and Crashing The Pearly Gates does not appear. I figure this fact is already known, but clearly some SEO work needs doing.
SEO doesn’t happen overnight anymore. But it will happen naturally with all the activity here. Give it time.
Adell topping out as Keith Laws #2 prospect. With some really encouraging projections for Marsh. They’ve been clear top 50 prospects in most publications, with Adams popping up a few times toward the end of top 100 lists. This is why you don’t trade Marsh for a non-TOR starter. Also why you don’t believe anyone when they say Angels farm system ranks in the bottom half. Eppler getting the job done with 1 Top 10 pick in the draft and a second to come.
Having two prospects in the top 100 – even two in the top 50 – isn’t sufficient evidence to disbelieve those who tell you that the Angels farm system is a bottom-half system. In fact, many of the same evaluators who are placing Adell and Marsh in their top 50s are also saying that the Angels’ farm system is in the 16-20 range. Some are placing the Angels a little south of that.
You have to look at systems comparatively. The Angels system has 2-3 athletic outfielders at top, each chosen in the top two rounds, where one should expect top talent to reside, but beyond that, it’s a system full of high-variability prospects and very thin starting pitching pipeline. The prospect evaluators are not lying to you.
And if by “Eppler getting the job done” you mean he’s building imbalanced teams with poor enough W-L records to net the team high draft picks, I can certainly agree with that.
OOOOOH, SNAP!
It’s true. I am actually OK with our system climbing from #38th to #20 the last three years given that we didn’t trade anyone who could bring back a haul. I wish we had more pitching, and I can cherry pick 2 or 3 first/second round pitchers we could have had, but there weren’t that many available when we drafted. We totally failed to tank enough for draft position. That said, our system is still solidly bottom half.
My main hope is that some of the “live arms” we drafted in later rounds start to show up as good prospects now that they will be in High A ball etc this year. I’m also not going to complain if we are able to build a good league minimum cost bullpen either. This will also be the season we see if Jam Jones, Adams, Knowles, Deveaux, Maitan, Soto etc etc start to show up as real prospects. If our system has a good year we could have a few more players in that top 100 and we could climb above #15 in the rankings after Adell graduates. I also think there’s an outside chance we get a new “stud” prospect quickly if Arol Vera shows skills early.
But I think this is the year where we’ll see if the “draft talent/athletes” plan is working or is a fizzle. It’s gonna be a big six months for ol’ Billy Boy.
I guess that’s it, boys. Good season.
That sounds ominous. Did someone key get hurt ????
😉
eh, without context had no idea what you were talking about – had me googling all the twitter feeds for Angel news.
The Heckler is always good for a laugh, and has written some funny articles regarding the Trasshterisks’ exploits. Here’s one of them.
Depth chart question.
I am not sure if this is standard or if the Angels are telling us something. I am seeing Adell as the 4th outfielder on the depth chart. Is this common in spring training? I still don’t expect him before April – especially with the Bryant ruling, but I found it interesting for sure.
Ramirez is not showing much here.
@GrandpaBaseball re Ramirez… “It’s early.”
Rojas was on top of that play all the way.
Flectch with big time hustle !!! Took a perfect play to nail him, a good heads up play for both sides.
Where’s the gamethread?
Would be nice if Peters makes the team and continues with this stuff!
Altuve got beaned! 😀
They hit his foot. Consensus seems to be it wasn’t intentional. Though, if you wanted to hit a guy without getting ejected that may be where you aim.
Trying to take out the buzzer in his shoe, the only safe place left to put it. Astros are forced to keep cheating cause if their numbers drop off this year, everyone will point to the drop off and quantify the impact of cheating.
Well that hadn’t even occurred to me. A subtle message that they knew about the buzzers…hmm.
JDL,
How did you miss Trout and Upton doing a gender reveal? It’s a few days old, but I don’t believe it made the weekendlinks so deserves mention here.
Also, thank you for all you do to make this site wonderful.
So after reading the Lucroy article, it actually makes me even more pissed off at Manfred as it does the Astros. Manfred and MLB just looked the other way and hope this would blow over and go away. It was OPEN and COMMON KNOWLEDGE that the Astros were stealing signs illegally, throughout the league. And nothing was done about it. For over 2 years. If what is reported is true, the A’s and Fiers reported this to the league back in 2018 and the response was crickets. It took finally exposing it to a reporter to shine the light of day on it. And yet, the players go unpunished by MLB.
The good part is that the rest of MLB will be able to ostracize these guys and effectively brand a scarlet asterisk on them for what they’ve done. This wasn’t just gray area gaining-edge stuff, it was blatant use of zoomed-in cameras to send real-time messages to teammates and give them an advantage that messed with the integrity of competition. The more that comes out, the worse it gets…
And all these cry-me-a-river stories like Reddick getting “death threats” are just allowing them to play the victim. Twitter and most social media is worse than a cesspool. There are a**holes everywhere commenting on group Facebook feeds of all kinds saying atrocious stuff. That doesn’t mean they’re anything more than sick trolls themselves. No Houston, no Carlos Correa… you guys are not victims in ANY WAY.
Reddick might have had a better point if he’d decried death threats to himself and Fiers. But he didn’t.
Good point, Eric. I didn’t think of that part, to include Fiers, but regardless, anything written on Twitter can’t be taken that seriously. Reddick is just trying to increase empathy for himself and the other Astros players. Not buying it.
You worded that last part very poorly. Reddick receiving tweets hoping his kid gets cancer is not a cry-me-a-river story. I don’t care if social media is a cesspool it doesn’t make those tweets right. Reddick and the other cheaters don’t deserve that. They do deserve to be banned from baseball for engaging in organized cheating that is far worse than anything Pete Rose did, but they don’t deserve death threats.
The first part of your post is spot on though. To learn that the A’s reported cheating to the MLB back in ’18 and nothing happened is infuriating. The lawsuit against the Astros needs to add the MLB for turning a blind eye. Hit the collective owners’ pocketbooks and they might take action to fire Manfred and force out Crane.
You missed my point. I’m not saying in any shape or way writing ghastly things to players like Reddick is right. I’m saying things written online on Twitter can’t be taken literally. Scum hide behind their virtual front and will say anything to get a rise. Disgusting, yes. But seriously? C’mon. I once had an idiot write in my high school yearbook that he hoped I “die in a bloody plane crash.” This was back in the day before social media existed. Did I actually give creedence to that loser? No! Don’t even dignify the comment’s existence. But by Reddick crying about it to the media, he’s giving life to the tiny sliver of extreme lunatics that would even have the gall to write that crap.
By running out to the media about this, it comes off as playing a tiny violin. Publicizing this story now makes it feel like any criticism of cheaters leads to this kind of stuff. Public figures deal with nutballs all the time, for reals.
There is no way to know how serious someone is on twitter. If it were my family, I wouldn’t just write it off.
I entirely agree.
It must just be cause I’m a jerk, but every time another player comes out with a “it was common knowledge, it was going on since way back, we knew about the sign stealing and we all wore special underwear when we played the Astros….” story followed with “OUTRAGE! I ARE LOSTING RESPEC!” my first question is always if they were so outraged why didn’t they say something back in 2016? Or when ever “way back” is? They never seem to specify. They also keep intimating that this type of thing was happening a lot….. yet only two teams have been named and there is no OUTRAGE! by players towards the RedSuk yet. Aaron Judge comments on Altuve…. and no one seems the least bit interested in looking into Yankees related sign stealing rumors, which were/are out there.
Now that it’s “safe” to beat the shit out of the Astros every member of the MLBPA has something to say to the public. But back before it was obvious there wouldn’t be consequences NONE of these guys said shit about what they knew and none of them are saying anything now about anyone accept the AssBros. Back when this stuff was actually happening no one was nearly engorged enough with rage and indignation to actually open their mouths, but today it’s an unspeakable evil that must be commented on.
On top of that, Jonathan and other MLBPA members, what exactly are you saying you were willing to let Manfred and the owners do to your union brothers back in December? Every one of these wankers, through the strength of their union, protected and still protect the Astros. Their continued silence about other cheating teams still protects other players. I don’t think, then or now, that any of these players ACTUALLY wanted the MLB to storm in and punish people, and they sure as f*** don’t come of like THEY were going to out their own bad apples and ban them from the union (and thus the MLB).
I don’t know. It all just feels weak to me. They all basically come out and say “Oh yeah, I knew. So I took very limited, quiet, secret steps to do something about it on a game by game basis. I complained, but I kept it in house, knowing that’s the way shit gets changed. After it became obvious that telling my manager about it didn’t do anything and the MLB was just going to let it go I was so mad that I gossiped about it with some other guys. The angrier I got, the more silent I became, until I was mute with outrage! So many of my fellow players were also angry, but we were all so mute with outrage that we couldn’t talk to our MLBPA Player Rep about punishing the cheats, much less find a way to tell a reporter…. or our YouTube channel…. about it. I have lost respect for those Astros. Please keep your eyes focused on the Astros. They are terrible men.”
Well, yeah, I’m weary of this whole thing too. But apparently Fiers did say something to MLB in 2018, and they did nothing at the time. I think we may still reasonably get mad at that.
I’m just saying, the level of indignity now, you’d think many many players would have done or said something in 2017 while they were “all knowing what was going on” etc. One guy said one thing to the MLB offices? Out of all of these large, rich angry men who are currently making statements to the media NONE of them were man enough to tell Buster Olney about it? Make noise till it got attention? But they all have something to say now? That’s a little floppy is all. It’s fishy.
Yeah, maybe it is. I know it’s becoming annoying. Then again, a lot of players did talk about it, and were met with derision, or the sound of crickets. Apparently MLB itself didn’t really take the matter seriously until Fiers forced them to. So I figure that at least the players who were saying something back then have earned the right to a little “I told you so” outrage now. As for myself, I’m just trying to remain focused on the season ahead.
Watching Kobe’s wife talk about him and his daughter is killing me.
This is gutting yea
I’d just like to say, to those of you who haven’t reached “trusted member” status yet, I trust you already!
ok, so what’s this? (from CBS Sports)
Mike Trout CF Thu, Feb 13 Foot Probable for start of season
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/injuries/
Probably because his season ended due to foot injury. I haven’t heard anything about him being hurt in camp.
I think that must be it, just a carry over from 2019. I think you’ve talked me down.
I’m not sure I trust some of the trusted members.
Trust then verify…….
Don’t know if I can trust them, they have the look in their eye that says the moment I turn my back, they will be all over my lawn.
Oh boy, you can trust me, if you can’t trust me, who can you trust? That Bank Robbery that l was in jail fer, well mistaken identity fer ser……..Although that picture of me in the Post Office was my bad side……..and that Jewelry stor wasn’t me either, bad lawyer, heck he sleep in his Hot Rod Lincoln And that mess up in the stands at the stadium last year about that $400 jersey was because l lost the receipt, so as ya can see, you can trust me, now what’s your address again………………..funny stuff..
Stuff truster
Heck, I wouldn’t trust me!
@red floyd I don’t trust this kid any further than I can throw him. And with my bad back I shouldn’t be throwing anybody.
Heh heh heh
Hell, I haven’t yet reached “active member” status, not sure what the criteria is.
Not living in Nebraska…. 😎
Hey now, I am 1 of maybe 10 Angel fans living in NE, most of the others are spread among my progeny. Besides, I thoroughly revel in representing the Halos while living in this heathen land and attending games in rival ballparks. I have tickets to 6 games so far this season, none of which are in Anaheim (haven’t been to a game there since ’85). 😎
New comments are highlighted in yellow after I close the site and come back. Nice!
I’ve been seeing that for a while myself.
I think the yellow was previously there only if comments were added while you had the browser open. Now it appears to track what comments you’ve already seen even if you close the browser and switch to a different device.
Yes, exactly.
Yo thats lit
New respect for Lucroy. Changing signs every pitch …..
Can you imagine how long the games are going to take this year? Since Manfred didn’t address buzzers, every team is going to be changing signs on every pitch. I haven’t seen any news in terms of how he plans to address keeping the live video feed away from clubs. I know he’s mentioned it, but I have not seen the plan.
Lineup Feb 24 vs Brewers
1. LaStella 2B (Jackson)
2. Fletcher RF (Morgan)
3. Goodwin LF (Acosta)
4. Walsh DH (Torres)
5. Rengifo SS (Soto L)
6. Bemboom C (Briceño)
7. Rojas 1B (Zimmermann)
8. Adams CF (Knowles)
9. Salcedo 3B (Maitan)
Dillon Peters P
Parenthesis indicates backups who will play.
That is an intriguing lineup. Jackson is a favorite of mine. Adams followed by Knowles is a nice showcase.
“The Astros got well deserved boos and stadium staff stole a sign from a fan that didn’t even contain vulgarity. Apparently the Astros still haven’t learned that sign stealing is bad” – great line Jessica – made me laugh out loud!!
Wow, who knew that throwing strikes was a good thing, sounds old school to me. Well if it works for a dual CY winner then it must be good advice, now convince the staff will ya………….Go Mickey! Has early ’80’s sound to it does it not, is that allowed?…..lol. Adell and Marsh sounds like a law firm but l still can’t wait to see how this story plays out………… Manfred survived keeping his job this weekend, Billionaires must have been to busy counting money or something, oh well there is always this week………Weather in Arizona is going to get warm in the sunny seats this week and that could mean some big time hitting is just around the corner for us too……. Good Morning folks and have a great day, Go Halos!