Spring Training got off to a bit of a wet start, but games are happening at last. Tuesday’s game against the Reds begins at 12:10 P.M. Pacific time. Trout, Ohtani, Rendon, Upton and Pujols are expected to be in the lineup.
Angels related Links.
“Mortally wounded Penguin” Ha ha ha! What would you rename the Angels for one day? Hey! At least ZIPS projects us to have a winning record. Rhett Bollinger’s opening day roster predictions are here. No big surprises. Ryan Buchter didn’t suck and we already knew that Fletcher can play. Andrelton Simmons is trying to bounce back in his walk year (of course). So here’s a little bit of Trout porn.
From around baseball.
Madison Bumgarner is a very interesting guy. At least he’s not into professional bull riding. By the way, do you need a college degree for that? As if Rob Manfred and Tony Clark didn’t already have enough to argue about. A prediction of the MVP for each team (by WAR). So everybody’s doing it and therefore it’s OK. And so it begins for Jose Altuve.
Miscellaneous.
This is not baseball related, but I know a number of you care about this anyway. Vanessa Bryant has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. I’d say her chances of getting a big settlement are pretty good here.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1232320166546956289/photo/1 (Today’s line up)
Stassi is the back up DH? I guess DH now means “Doesn’t Hit”.
I can’t read the OC Register, so I was wondering what anyone knew about Brandon Marsh’s injury yesterday.
Strained left elbow of unknown degree … out indefinitely. Maddon said he might be out long enough to miss the start of the season. At least it is not his throwing arm.
From CBS sports
OC Register also reports he is out indefinitely as a result of elbow strain revealed by an MRI in his non-throwing arm.
By the way, go to chrome://settings/content/javascript and add all the annoying websites (OC Register, LA times, Forbes, etc…) to the blocked list. It might mess with some of the functionality, but you should be able to read the articles.
Thanks for all the replies (and info). I saw that play he was involved in yesterday, and thought, “ooh, that can’t be good.” That’s pretty much anytime you see somebody do that in a spring-training game.
My immediate reaction when watching it live was “he broke his wrist”. This sucks.
Fans want our team to have personality, Joe Maddon seems to be a one man solution to that problem. Bo Way anecdotes when talking about Sho, and now this…
Bundy and Heaney are his favorite players confirmed.
Dammit, Bo Jackson anecdotes.
19% chance of making the playoffs is better than most teams, but better yet is acquiring one more pitcher of note and making the playoffs, like a Boyd or a Ray. We would then see a dramatic rise in the odds. Go Halos!
If (and it’s a big if) the team stays healthy, I think they win somewhere around 87 games and compete for a wildcard.
There are a lot of things that are way better than last year – and Maddon’s addition is going to make a difference in my opinion.
It’s not unusual for me to be optimistic going into a season so take this with a grain of salt.
I agree with this. I just don’t think they’ll stay healthy, so therefore they won’t win that many. The team doesn’t have quite enough depth for my taste.
OT: RIP Curry House restaurants. 😭😭😭😭😭
Well. I’m gratified that somebody thinks our team will finish above sea level. As for me, at this point I am about five games more optimistic than ZIPS, with absolutely no solid basis for this opinion.
The thing is, anything could happen this coming season. But it usually doesn’t.
Same, and that is because I have a feeling Griffin Canning and Julio Teheran are going to have All-Star caliber seasons this year.
Why do I think this?
Both pitchers had an OPS Against that was lower than league average last year (Canning’s OPSa was .739 while the the AL average was .762 and Teheran’s OPSa was .717 while the average in the NL was .753) and now they will have Mickey Callaway as their pitching coach.