The Angels played a game of baseball at Camelback Ranch yesterday and lost to the Dodgers by a score of 9-4. Of course, it was “just” spring training, but it’s never fun to lose to your neighbor across the pond, even if they are better than you in just about every respect…..for the Angels, middle infield prospect Livan Soto hit a 3-run home run, surprising as he’s touted to have 20-game power. Apparently, Soto has changed his swing, too. Michael Hermosillo also drove in a run with an RBI double to the RCF gap.
Reliever Matt Ball didn’t have a nice day, as he surrendered 6 earned runs across just 2/3 of an inning pitched and blew the save.
Other Angels-y news:
Perhaps I buried the lede: Griffin Canning looked good, throwing 2 scoreless innings. In a notes article by Bollinger linked below, Keynan Middleton says he feels good and “was happy” with his velocity in his first outing.
Anthony Rendon may be consistent, but he’s also been consistently better. Ben Clemens of FanGraphs investigates.
MLB Trade Rumors took a look at potential bounce-back AL West pitchers, and identified a familiar friend to such a list: Andrew Heaney.
Almost-Angel outfielder Joc Pederson strained a little something…basically an Angel already!
Meanwhile, Julio Teheran says his injury is “nothing big…I’ll be fine for my next outing.” Teheran has been one of the most durable starters in the last decade, but putting on that Angels red, it tends to do things to its hurlers…
And speaking of injuries, did you know that CtPG has a category for Injuries but not for Angels news? Well, that’s because these two are always the same…..
Elsewhere around baseball:
The Atlanta Braves are the only MLB team owned by a publicly traded company (Liberty Media), and thus are required to release their financials to the public every quarter. From yesterday’s report we find that the Braves brought in $476 million in revenue in 2019, up 8% from 2018’s total. Of that total, $438 million is attributed to baseball revenue (+8% YoY), which is comprised of “ballpark operations, shared MLB revenue streams, local and national broadcast rights”. The article continues.
The Braves are seeing their revenues increase year after year but so have their operating expenses. The team saw a 28% increase ($265 million to $340 million) in operating expenses from 2018 to 2019 which stems from construction at the ballpark and developments around the Battery Atlanta. The team’s operating loss increased 69%, but their adjusted OIBDA declined by 43% during that same timeframe from 2018 to 2019.
Ballpark construction and area developments are shrouding the profitability of the business unit here. The author doesn’t provide an absolute dollar amount of the Braves’ OIBDA (Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization), but does anyone really believe a company that increases revenues on such a large scale and continuing to build is bleeding into the red, or in any danger of being unprofitable? If anyone wants to do some digging, here’s a hint: look at the depreciation methodologies…
More bad news for the Yankees following Severino going down: this time it’s slugger Giancarlo Stanton questionable for Opening Day with a calf injury. Brutal.
FanGraphs’ Craig Edwards is writing about MLB’s journeys with television broadcasting deals, and it is particularly interesting, if I might say so myself.
Matt Kemp says he wants to play for at least 4-5 more years. He’s currently competing for a backup OF role with the Miami Marlins…yeah, good luck with that, Matt…..
The Brewers are closing in on an extension with Freddy Peralta, who can pitch out of the rotation or the bullpen and put up a 92 FIP- the last two seasons combined. He’s 23 years old, and has just over 1 season’s worth of service time in the bigs.
Indians prospect Ethan Hankins is having some fun in spring training!
How we spend afternoons during Spring Training @Indians @elite_rich_1 @MLB @MiLB pic.twitter.com/BsswnizR2S
— Ethan Hankins (@EthanHankins) February 27, 2020
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
If you need some cheering up before bed, go read this Weaver AmA on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Weave1036/status/1233241970958450690?s=20
Spoiler: Trout threw the water bottle.
Also:
Lobotomy it is
I used an Abby something brain. Yes! It was Abby Normal!
The “not signing more pitchers” plan is working out really excellent
team knows what they are doing definitely for sure
here we go again
The new plan should be to trade the pitching prospects for established starters. I’m sick of waiting for these young guys to break out, and then break, and then rehab, and then wait a year for them to fully rebound.
Right. Angels have to buy pitchers cuz they cant raise em
when was the last front line pitcher that was homegrown? Weaver?
If not Weave i’d say Santana or Richards, but even Richards broke. I felt like Skaggs was on the cusp, too 😞
yea not much to write home about. (and i like those guys)
SPEND. SOME. DAMN. MONEY. ON. PITCHING
At this point it is willful negligence.
Arte always did like his big bats and dingerz
He certainly has a type.
Yes, they should have signed….. I still don’t know who. The scariest thing is that the Angel’s pitching health is such a whipped dog that I am almost afraid to sign any pitchers because I almost feel certain their arms will shrivel and fall off as soon as they put on all that red clothing in Tempe.
or develop patience? Too soon?
Time to sign Danny Salazar, Andrew Cashner and Jason Vargas. Maybe some Buchholtz too.
Sounds great to me. Seems we had the money to take on Joc and Stripling contracts so budget shouldn’t be the issue.
God I hate the front office so much. We knew this would happen! Canning pitched what, 10 games last year, and had to be shut down? And they’re banking on him throwing 200 innings now.
At least if he goes down, this facade of “they have the pitching to compete” stops early.
Some will have you believe that we’re just unlucky.
I find the fewer investments I put into pitchers, the less luck I have in finding competent pitching.
Also, Canning is having an MRI on his elbow, Maddon is concerned
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1233089423723511808?s=20
Shit. It begins.
And here we…go.
Well we all know what the next announcement is
The next announcement is the BS “it is just inflammation” one. You have to give the Angels staff time to gently drop the inevitable news we all know is coming.
After the inflammation memo we have to have the obligatory two month wait where we hear nothing and everyone from the player to his doctor to the Rally Monkey has a good think. Then they will run some more tests. THEN they will announce that Canning has had TJS. This will be in late July.
Yep, just after his setback and late enough to impact his availability for most of next year.
Dehydration?
Yeah. This is brutal. Hope they aren’t bullshitting us about Teheran.
Narrator: “They were”
l am sorry to hear this news come down. Did the Doctors really believe that it would heal itself over the winter and he would pitch for the next 15 years with no problems? l wish this kid all the best.
Well, all our doctors come from University of Phoenix so…probably.
GEEEZ! You’re just fulla good news today aren’t ‘cha!?!?!? No more posts for you!
Don’t shoot the messenger. 🤷🏻♀️
Yes, they did
The something’s connected to the… red thing. The red thing’s connected to my wrist watch.
I just totally read that in Dr. Nick’s voice.
Paging Dr El “UCL” Attache, you have a patient waiting.
Gotta wonder if this might reignite the Stripling discussions, assuming the worst case scenario.
The Dodgers have time to let things play out but eventually they’re going to need to break camp and set their 26 man roster. Joc currently doesn’t really have a place on it and there are some pitchers who will need to be slotted on one roster or the other.
It kind of has to right? Grif getting hurt reeeally dampers our starting rotation. Add in not having Ohtani until mid-may and our rotation is looking to be around the bottom of the league.
I’m hoping Grif is out for only a month and doesn’t need TJS but if he does, I think Arte has no choice but to let Eppler renegotiate with Friedman to try and work something out. Getting Stripling in this rotation at least creates much needed depth and upside that it will severely lack if Grif is out.
Elbow discomfort is hardly ever anything else. If he doesn’t need it now, you can bet that he’ll wear it out once it feels good enough to pitch on. We have seen this story play out enough at this point that we know exactly what to expect.
If I was a betting girl, i’d throw $1,000 down that he is under the knife by the ASB. 2022 is OUR year!
Read this:
https://clients.chrisoleary.com/Pitching/The-Epidemic/The-Big-Five/Tommy-John-Surgery-Twist/Tommy-John-T
And then go google pictures of Canning’s delivery.
Yep we’re doomed. I’m already prepared to hear within the next few days that he’s gonna make a visit to our good friend Dr. El Attache. Maddon saying he is concerned already led me to believe Grif will go under the knife. And if somehow he doesn’t he will soon. That delivery just screams TJS.
I really hope Eppler and company has a back up plan. I know I sound like an alarm clock but that Stripling trade that Arte nixed is really coming back to bite us in the ass. Hopefully this causes it to reignite. If not then here’s to another 25th or worse pitching rotation!
Ahh yes. Chris O’Leary. The guy who makes me want to trade for and sign NO PITCHERS ever.When ever I look at frame by frames or stills of pitchers I wish the Angels would get many many times they are all doing stuff that O’Leary says will ruin their arms…. and given how it seems like EVERY pitcher ruins his arm now days accept Justin Verlander it seems like he may be right.
One more reason the Angels should just start a pitching academy for 12 year olds in Haiti and start building a robot army of young, hungry, mechanically superior pitchers who all go into the DRL pipeline at 16.
yowee! If Maddon is concerned then that’s not good at all. Normally they downplay it, don’t they?
So our rotation is gonna be Bundy. Every day.
Reverse psychology
:: sighs ::
This news incites the end of the song where Robbie sings a song he wrote when he was listening to the Cure
Heads up to any YoutubeTV subscribers, you’re losing FSW on Feb 29 according to this:
https://twitter.com/YouTubeTV/status/1233086055525634048?s=20
Thank the new Sinclair overlords!
Oh thank god I’m still in the middle of my free trial
BOOO! I just got the email from YouTubeTV confirming they’re dropping all Fox Sports regional channels. Welp, glad they told us now, just canceled my YouTube TV account immediately so I don’t get billed another month. Back to Hulu Live TV or Fubo?
Can’t put all the blame on Sinclair. YouTube TV bears the brunt of some responsibility too. Let’s face it. The only reason myself and many other baseball fans even have their subscription is to watch our favorite team locally. They’re going to immediately lose a ton of subscribers.
Hulu TV doesn’t seem to carry MLB Network, if that’s important to you…
Yeah, I know… I had Hulu Live TV before. Meh. MLB Network is nice and all, but I’d rather have FSW while still having the cord cut. I switched over to YouTube TV in fall because it was a few bucks cheaper… but now dropping the FS networks was a dealbreaker. And to do it with 2 days’ notice is pretty unprofessional. I don’t care what Sinclair did or didn’t do, they’re using their customers as pawns and pointing the finger at someone else. I’m sure soon Hulu will cut FSW too and then I’ll be forced to patch and plug the ol’ cord back in… so much for competition breaking the monopoly. Meanwhile, MLB sits back stupefied with their archaic blackout and regional rules.
Could be worse, could be a Dodgers fan, forced to somehow rig up a VPN and bootleg subscription since I don’t live in a Spectrum cable area. MLB and the teams fight all this stuff and leave the fans in the cold. Even those like me willing to drop $50/month on some kind of TV subscription just so I can watch the Angels play.
And I guess Fubo ain’t an option anymore either. Geez. MLB is going to lose tons of viewership in every FS regional market soon if they don’t step in and find a way to take control of this.
Yep, as usual the fans are left to get fucked.
Fubo tv also dropped the fox regional sports back in January
https://thestreamable.com/news/how-to-stream-fox-sports-rsns-and-yes-network-without-cable-after-youtube-tv-drops-fox-regional-sports-networks
Nooo, I was depending on YouTube TV for Angels….
So were my parents. My dad said he’s calling Spectrum in the morning, at least he’ll have Angels/Dodgers/Lakers.
In equally relevant news, I would also like play in the MLB for the next 4-5 years so Matt Kemp and I both have that in common (along with the chances of that actually happening).
The Braves stuff is fascinating, particularly because we are shielded from that data for every other team.
As with all businesses, better to build, grow, and invest in the business than surrender a large percentage of your profits to Uncle Sam. Better for you, better for the companies doing all the work.
So we are starting to see that things are reverting to normal around here with a couple of pitchers being dinged Added to the “Dinged” list is a promising OF out in the Marsh. Off Season and Winter are hazardous to one’s health. The Yankees last season and again now they caught Angelsitous (making up words as you go along type of thing here) losing their second best pitcher (on paper anyway) and a HR hitting OF. Thankfully we had no interest in Stanton.
Craig Edwards article on the business of television as part of MLB income in the past is just a great read. Looking forward to the coming article(s) he writes. Good find Rahul. l think that we should be happy with the package and platforms and even the announcers we have. l watched a game on MLBTV yesterday and was so underwhelmed by the play by play and color announcers it was a difficult game to watch. We have been so dang spoiled through the years to have the best of the best in SoCal. Although l do not understand what the Dodgers are thinking with the put me to sleep TV crew they have.