LA Angels Weekend News Crash: Limping Down Injury Lane

So this is good. Griffin Canning is suffering some sort of arm injury, and he’s getting it checked out. The results are apparently inconclusive, which is honestly worse because now we don’t know if he’ll be out for an extended period of time or not. Or the Angels medical staff is incompetent…in any case, better to assume Canning will not make the Opening Day Roster, or else I’ll get my hopes up again…

Sure, so Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch for the first few weeks of the season…but Alden Gonzalez argues that it’s a good thing the Angels are taking such precautionary measures…

There are a lot of options for the back-of-the-rotation, especially with Canning’s status up in the air…JC Ramirez may be one of them...

Beyond the Box Score takes a quick look at how the Angels roster is constructed…seemingly in fantasy-land? I must admit, if I were running a baseball team, I would try to get as many stars as possible and fill in the blanks with others…

There is a Twitter account that will cover all the times the Astros are hit by the pitch this year…if Rob Manfred suspends pitchers during the year for hitting Houston batters, even if it is the right decision, he will once again be vilified…but what will he do?

You might be tired of it, but here is yet another Astros opinion piece

YouTube TV is dropping regional FOX Sports stations…right before Opening Day…certainly a bold move. We will see how the consumers respond…

Sean Doolittle uses foreign substances while pitching…but not in the way you’re thinking…no doctoring the ball, just lavender oil to calm himself down…

Everyone’s favorite subject…MLB umpire news

And finally, if you haven’t seen it, this Jered Weaver Twitter Q&A is pure gold

Photo by Keith Allison

139 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago

Okay, Jason Castro is a good guy:

https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya/status/1233850769448804352

EDIT: Since the Tweet didn’t embed, Castro has switched to No. 16 out of respect for Tim Salmon, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.

DowningDude
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  rspencer

And promptly disrespects GA. 😭

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  DowningDude

Hank Conger and Huston Street have already worn 16.

losangel
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  DowningDude

He was too lazy to go all the way up to 19

halofolife
Member
4 years ago
Reply to  rspencer

Now he’s taking my boy GA’s number.

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  halofolife

is 16 1/2 taken?

eyespy
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  rspencer

I guess we lost the secret power of capturing tweets

KingWeaver
Newbie
4 years ago

Everyone is here! The community lives on.

eyespy
Super Member
4 years ago
ryanfea
Super Member
4 years ago
Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

Good on him, that’s the right move.

MikeSalmon
Super Member
4 years ago

Sean Doolittle is ridin’ the Lavender Dragon, eh?
Cool he can still get away with it.
Meanwhile, MLB said on 2/28 that players still can’t come to the park stoned on weed.
“You’re not my real dad, Manfred!”
No, but seriously: the idea of trying to hit a 98mph MLB heater is almost unthinkable to me, but tryna hit one of those stoned? The very idea! You’d have to be high to believe you could do that.

I do suspect we’ll hear some retired MLB pitchers say they pitched high on weed, and that they were better at some things on it, much worse at many other things. Give it time.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago

So, it looks like YoutubeTV and Sinclair reached a temporary deal to keep the RSN’s until they can negotiatiate a permanent solution:

https://appleosophy.com/2020/02/28/youtube-tv-gets-temporary-agreement-from-sinclair-to-bring-back-regional-fsn-stations/

Who knows if it’ll last, but you’re not losing them tomorrow according to this.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago

Either i’m wildly popular, or I found a bug.

6h40s77.png
OMAHALOFAN
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

Well, you ARE a “Trusted Member”. If it’s not a bug, you’re on the way to getting TJS for carpal tunnel.

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

Believe me, Mia, you are wildly popular.

IEAngel
Member
4 years ago

I don’t know if it is just the Spring Training optimism fumes, but I feel hopeful about Barria bouncing back under Calloway.

Throwing 130 innings with a 123 ERA+ as a rookie is usually not a total fluke, and he’s looked very much like the 2018 version of himself so far this spring. He got jerked around like crazy at the start of last season and it wouldn’t shock me if that shook him up all season.

Getting even 15 decent starts out of him would be huge for the rotation as a whole.

Jeff Joiner
Editor
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  IEAngel

He looks much better. Both physically and stuff wise. He looks like he worked out pretty hard this off season.

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago

Hey masthead folk, is there anything we all could be doing to improve CTPG’s site ranking on Google?

Charles Sutton
Editor
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  rspencer

There are some SEO tools available in the writing dashboard. We are still learning what are the best keywords and stuff. The SEO thing doesn’t suggest what are good keywords, but rather it just makes a frowny face emoji at you when it doesn’t like your choice of words. That’s kind of frustrating. We’re encouraged to link to the stories on our social media accounts.

eyespy
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Charles Sutton

Try:
Boobs
Dope
LOLBAH
PANTHER
WORSY
Rally Thong
red floyd
LTBU
Yankees
Red Sox
Free Stuffs
if all else fails, you can try
Slideshows, they worked for Bleacher Report

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Charles Sutton

I’m not on social media much lately, but I’ll make an effort to link to here from FB and Twitter every day.

It’s funny. Back when I started my first site, SEO was super-simple. I’ve been in the first page of Google searches for my arcane subject since the last millennium. But today’s SEO utterly baffles me.

hockey_duckie
Member
4 years ago
Reply to  rspencer

Is there a way CTPG can be shared through the Score app? That would be one viable way of increasing views and possible membership.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago

Well, I finally deleted my Halos Heaven bookmarks and logged out of my account. I don’t plan to log back in. I can’t think of anything worse than Angels news through the lens of a Dodger fan.

Thank the FSM for CtPG.

Canning has “chronic changes” to his elbow…time for some “chronic” changes chances to my headspace when I get home.

Blackgoat
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

Yes thank the flying spaghetti monster (FSM). Praise be to his noodly appendage.

DowningDude
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  Blackgoat

I thot Fox Sports Misery

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  DowningDude

It’s clearly a funny soccer mom.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

Soccer moms are wild away from their kids.

Charles Sutton
Editor
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Blackgoat

Ramen!

DowningDude
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

+1 thanks for CtPG…

I hope peeps are donating … Because CtPG must thrive in my humble opinion. It’s been really badass so far … Again thanks to the mast-cabeza for making this happen.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  DowningDude

Definitely.

I think it will thrive, our writers are great, but the thing that made HH thrive was the comments section and the banter we all have with each other from hours of watching baseball together daily. We took their most valuable asset(the fans) and just moved it here.

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

Amen! I just wish we could have taken the Z as well.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  rspencer

The good thing about websites is that you can upgrade them.

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

Oh, sure. I know it will come. Things get better around here pretty much every day.

OMAHALOFAN
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

We banter with each other? Gee, I hadn’t noticed………

eyespy
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  OMAHALOFAN

And the whole time, I was taking, as well as giving, it personal.

OMAHALOFAN
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  eyespy

It always is ‘spy…..it always is.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  OMAHALOFAN

Well, we do…not you.

OMAHALOFAN
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

My FOMO has increased dramatically…………..thanks…..

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  OMAHALOFAN

comment image

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  H.T. Ennis

I watch the first 3 at least once a year, I love them. But the last 2 i’ve only seen once and neither left an impact.

Curse of the Black Pearl is a special movie, though.

Designerguy
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

When I lived in Palos Verdes they filmed large portions of the movies at what was then the abandoned Marineland (and is now Terranea Resort). Since it was close to my house, I walked over there a few times to watch scenes shot.

One morning I’m dropping my son off at football practice, and sailing off the coast is the Black Pearl as it’s getting ready for the day’s shoot. Kinda fun to see a full scale pirate ship 200 yards away.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Designerguy

I don’t even like those movies and that still sounds friggin dope. Like when the US Navy parks the SS Ronald Reagan in our dinky harbor at Santa Barbara and you see it arriving all lit up at night and think for a second you are living in a Hayao Miyazaki movie.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago

It’s kind of the inverse of The Final Countdown, instead of WW2 era pilots seeing a modern day carrier and jet aircraft, you have modern day people seeing a fully rigged sailing ship. That movie was a ridiculous letdown, though.

I have a cousin forward deployed in the Reagan CSG at the moment, dude gets to go to a lot of NPB games.

Designerguy
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  DowningDude

CTPG remains, as always, pants optional.

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  Designerguy

Any other way would just feel wrong.

Designerguy
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

And constraining

Mia
Legend
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  Designerguy

Braggart. 😂

OMAHALOFAN
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

My final post on HH:
“This site will not survive IMHO.”

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  OMAHALOFAN

On the one hand, I feel like executing some sort of performance art over there, but on the other hand, why give them the traffic? Still, I will keep checking in for a while, in case there are still some worthies who haven’t gotten the word. There are some, as I recall, who didn’t check back in until the start of the regular season.

Cowboy26
Legend
4 years ago

Canning’s not getting UCL surgery any time soon. It sounds like there will still be few more cycles of “chronic change” soreness or Flu or Heat exhaustion ( coupled with a PRP injection) or whatever until his elbow finally goes under the knife.

Either way, we should not anticipate Grif’s next healthy season until at least 2022.

So much for Arte’s decision to pass on the Pederson/ Stripling to hold out for a #1 or #2 starter. An added healthy # any starter would be good right now. It looks like Andreisse, Sandoval, Peters, Romero, Suarez and Barria will be competing for 2 rotation spots until the next pitcher’s broken wing occurs .

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Cowboy26

I get it though. If the asking price changed to say Marsh…. I’m not trading Marsh for Strippling, I would expect a better starting option.

El_Duderino
Trusted Member
4 years ago

I thought I heard Jose Mota say during the broadcast the other day that Ward was the other piece. Which I think would have been fine, imo (despite Ward looking good so far in preseason).

But I’ve thought I heard Jose say a lot of things…

rspencer
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  El_Duderino

He did say that.

YOUknowulovetheIE
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  El_Duderino

I also heard that. It kinda shocked me getting inside info from mota.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  El_Duderino

Jose Mota could have meant just about any name and just made a noise that sounded like Ward’s name. He also could have said Wards name and actually meant any number of people who are not Trout or Pujols.

Jeff Joiner
Editor
Legend
4 years ago

The Angels keep betting on guys with injury history then keep acting surprised/snake bitten when they get injured again.

Makes almost as much sense as the spouse who is convinced the other will really stop cheating this time.

TheOrangeCurtain
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff Joiner

Why again did impatient Arte nix the Pederson/Stripling deal?? I mean, frankly I would get it if the Dodgers had called it off or changed their mind… but the Angels would have added an impact bat and another solid starting pitcher for the price of Rengifo and another mid-level prospect, right? From the outside it looked like the Angels were getting the better deal. Geez.
I haven’t seen any accounts anywhere that it wasn’t anything but the Angels pulling out of the deal before finalizing. For this very reason, Arte. We have fragile pitchers and need someone to be able to step in and pitch 160+ innings EVEN MORE SO now that Canning is as good as gone.

Charles Sutton
Editor
Super Member
4 years ago

We don’t get to know the details, but according to Arte, the Dodgers upped their asking price about the prospect. If they said the prospect has to be Adell or Marsh, is it getting any better now that Arte said “Awww, Hell no!”? We didn’t know Marsh was going to eff up his elbow. We also allegedly didn’t know we would have pitching injuries. The latter thing, though, is pretty much a given with the Angels.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Charles Sutton

THIS is where I think the screw up is. If the asking price on the trade changed then I have no problem with killing it. BUT trade or no trade I still think the Angels should have spent a few million on a couple of just plain arms. None of them are good per say, but any couple out of the Cashner, Vargas, Salazar, Buchholtz, Sanchez, Estrada pile….. just sign a couple guys cheap and see if you can get one of them to produce 100+ back end innings. I would have done that back in January, it will cost little and the innings will be worth it with or without other players getting hurt. I would have done this even if the trade had come off.

Maybe they just don’t want to block guys like Sandoval, Suarez and Barria with old junk?

Fansince1971
Legend
4 years ago

Yes. Agreed. The Canning situation reveals how lacking in any meaningful depth the Angels starting pitching truly is.

It’s been the same story for Eppler’s entire tenure. So I place some blame on him. That said, Arte killing the Dodger deal now hurts a bit more.

eyespy
Super Member
4 years ago

Spend a few million …

From which fat stack?
The one that Billy doesn’t have, or the one that Mr. Moreno isn’t providing?

hockey_duckie
Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Charles Sutton

I don’t believe Arte.

If Arte was upset at an updated asking price, but also said we’d be trading for a top pitcher during the season, then the two concepts run contrary to one another. The fact impatience was a factor in a trade is evidence that it was also the driving force b/c baseball people have patience, but owners do not have patience.

Did the Dodgers and Twins bail out of the trade when Boston pull a “we don’t like Graeterol (sp?).” Nope. They continued to work through it.

eyespy
Super Member
4 years ago

Canning is the Black Knight, no worries mate

Fansince1971
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeff Joiner

Jeff – this is my ultimate point. If you keep going back to the same injury prone well…..why should it surprise any of us that injuries kept happening? This isn’t bad luck, it’s bad GM-ing!!

El_Duderino
Trusted Member
4 years ago

Serious question: who was it that recently had the same prognosis on the Angels: “Chronic Changes” To UCL?

Was it Heaney last year.. and didn’t he just pitch through it? Someone correct me if I’m wrong..

Blackgoat
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  El_Duderino

Richards?

El_Duderino
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Blackgoat

Aha found it. It was Heaney– beginning of last year:

https://twitter.com/LAAngelsPR/status/1112889744864665605

“Andrew Heaney’s CT scan revealed chronic changes to the elbow. He will undergo a cortisone injection to help calm the elbow down. “

ryanfea
Super Member
4 years ago

The first post of zombie HH happened today. HH is in fact being run by a Dodger fan. Kudos to everyone for the successful roll out of our new site!

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

“There are 0 comments.”

DowningDude
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

😆 @ his post on the Dodger site … What an F’d up sitch.

Screenshot_20200228-103225.png
AnAngelsFan
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  DowningDude

I almost feel bad for the guy. He had a job doing something he enjoyed. Now, in order to keep that job, he has to has to do additional work that he clearly doesn’t want to do and won’t be good at. His reward will probably be getting blamed for the death of HH (and whichever other fansites he also has to take over) by Vox.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

Yeah. Having had mostly jobs like the one he has been given where you are posted on a ship with no sails and plenty of holes in the hull purely because you need an income I feel bummed for that guy. I can imagine he’s trying to stay on the bright side, thinking that if he works hard and stays positive maybe he can take this challenge and make it an opportunity.

But no, Blake. Your bosses are just using you as caretaker for a property they either plan to dismantle or burn down. You may be thinking they will be grateful if you do a good job and reward you with a better position in the future. You’ve heard of that happening to people right? But no. What they are eventually going to give you is a couple Trader Joe’s gift cards as severance, along with some information on how you can start paying for your own health insurance…. oh wait, they don’t pay for your insurance already, duh.

The good news is Blake is in college. So he can do this on a lark, take it in the balls, and then move on to better choices.

Jeff Joiner
Editor
Legend
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

This was something we feared when the news of consolidated site managers leaked out. Nobody would care about the team and community as much as we do and trying to get breaking news up on a site run by a fan of another team would suck.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  ryanfea

Scab!

UnrealisticOptimist
Trusted Member
4 years ago

Haven’t heard that in a long time, since I was in the UAW Local 148 for years 😈

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

Ugh, I had to go read it just to see for myself. You can tell it is someone with no knowledge or interest in the Angels just regurgitating facts he looked up elsewhere.

TheOrangeCurtain
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

I hope Halos Heaven dies a quick death so the SB Nation / Vox scum can see their site traffic drop out of relevance in a matter of days. Kudos to all the site contributors, Jessica, Rev, etc. for getting out of the gate and launching this site to have genuine discussions on the Angels and no longer have to bow to the SBN overlords.

El_Duderino
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

Oh man it’s like driving by a car wreck… I don’t wanna see it but have to take a look.

steelgolf
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  ryanfea

I’m surprised that the ignorant VOX overlords didn’t also put Dodger fan in charge of the Giants site.

MarineLayer
Super Member
4 years ago

Jered had a great twitter session with the fans. I absolutely love and miss him.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

WTY is the best – he is absolutely missed.

If there is a surgical option presented, Canning should get the surgery now. His elbow was messed up last year, it’s still messed up now. Rest is clearly not the solution; the Platelet treatment just prolongs the inevitable.

Stirrups
Member
4 years ago

The only reason Griffin Canning is our next TJ adventure to begin with is because everybody else in MLB knew that the Griffin Canning coming out of UCLA was going to have his arm fall off eventually. It was inevitable. That’s why he fell to us in round 2. That it took this long is the only surprise. Can’t blame this one on trainers or burial grounds.

ihearhowie3.0
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Stirrups

Yeah, its one of the reasons in the offseason some weren’t opposed to throwing him in a trade package if it got us over the finish line for someone good/great.

Canning has always seemed like our new Heaney – upside, young but bad health. Bummer its seeming to pan out as true

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  Stirrups

It’s still ok to blame Arte

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Stirrups

I don’t really need anyone to “blame” for Canning. The Angels also knew he was a gamble. It’s not like they roundly declared he’d be fine for years to come. They just decided the gamble was worth it and took it. It could still be worth it…. later. Though I see some people writing that the Angels were counting on him this year I think that the right word was HOPING. Nobody “counts on” a guy with a history of elbow trouble who was last seen ending his season early with elbow trouble.

Which will lead to the complaint that we should have had moar quality pitching.

Which leads back to the question I still don’t have an answer to. Who? In reality, who should we have acquired?

In most cases, this is where the stupid answers like “It’s not my job to figure that out…” or “Winners get it done.” start flowing, though now we can at least blame not being willing to give up unknown prospects for 100 innings of Ross Stripling as though that would have fixed everything. Or we can go back to the true moron’s answer, pay Dallas “the difference maker” Keuchel 3/55.

The snake eats its tail again and all is right with the universe.

The sad fact is, like most teams, we need a bunch of bozos to turn out ok. In our case any five or six of Ohtani, Teheran, Bundy, Sandoval, Suarez, Barria, Andriese, Peters and so on. We just need more bozos than the AssBros. It seems like 65% of the teams out there have at least 3 rotation spots that are art from scrap at this point and the team with the most surprisingly good bozos will be the surprise team this season.

DonoRomantico
Member
4 years ago

Not good news about Youtube TV. If this is true, I will drop them instantly!

GeoKaplan8
Trusted Member
4 years ago

Keith Law did the Top 20 Angels prospects for The Athletic.

Notably MIA: Baldoquin and Maitan. $10M in bonus money between those two.

ihearhowie3.0
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  GeoKaplan8

Maitan was worth the gamble given the state of the farm at that point and his perceived ceiling. Baldoquin was basically GM malpractice by Dipoto given the opportunity cost for the crop of international players we weren’t able to bid on.

Mountainman76
Member
4 years ago
Reply to  ihearhowie3.0

At the time we signed Maitan, every report on him suggested that it was a garbage move.

ihearhowie3.0
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mountainman76

Nope. People were excited about it. It was acknowledged he had lost some luster but people were still throwing around Power Hitting 3B comps and how young he was.

Also….not sure the point you’re trying to make. We had one of the worst farm systems of all time and a 17 year old former #1 international prospect became unexpectedly available. Are you Arte’s accountant?

matthiasstephan
Super Member
4 years ago
Reply to  Mountainman76

What did it cost us? Is he old enough to write off yet? Define ‘garbage move’?

Blackgoat
Trusted Member
4 years ago
Reply to  GeoKaplan8

Baldoquin was a waste of precious resources but Maitan made plenty of sense. He’s still very young with a lot of work ahead of him, certainly too early to write him off given the early projections.

UnrealisticOptimist
Trusted Member
4 years ago

Love the Weaves! 😈

EC_qxqWVAAAhWt3.png