Good Morning Angels fans! Stay hydrated and have some links!
Angels News
Intersquad games have started, and the Angels faced the Angels yesterday. Ohtani was on the mound, he was wild, but it is to be expected with the time off. Here is some footage.
The game well, ‘game’ was more like a ramped up batting practice of sorts but some nuggets came out of it. First, Mike Trout wore a mask when running the bases and that image has a card and a shirt already.
The players are entertaining themselves with no one in the stands. Simba made some noises and Goodwin waves to the stands.
Joe Maddon has finally said that LASTELLA will see some time at first base. But what about Fletcher?
A number of Angels weren’t at camp, the confirmed ones that were not there are Teheran, Suarez, Rengifo, and Peters due to being on on the 10 day IL. Injured or sick., we do not know.
With less media interaction, interviews are odd and Fabian showed what the press conferences will be like this season.
Fans can’t be in the stands, but cats can, apparently.
Next ‘game’ is tomorrow, and will be 6 innings with Canning and Bundy. Please do not get hurt.
Fangraphs asks an important question, if Mathis is up after Trout, should Trout bunt? Thankfully we do not need an answer to that as Mathis isn’t on the team anymore. But still playing. Somehow.
PECTOA 2.0 time! Angels expected to go 31-29. And be in 3rd place in the AL West. Pretty good seeing how the Angels and Marlins have the toughest SOS.
A round baseball
Japan now has robo cheerleaders! I like them but Keyan Middleton is not a fan.
Joe West is being Joe West again. But this time it is about not baseball.
Giants aren’t playing at whatever their stadium is called, because of issues with testing. Oracle/Att/Pac Bell what do you call that place?
Braves will discuss the Tomahawk usage. but they will still keep their name. Honestly out of all of them they are the least problematic. Also if they do not sing “And the home of the Braves” during the national Anthem they are messing up.
Expect to see better pitching as the video rooms can’t be used, which impacts the hitters as some spent all their time there.
Wilpons maty sell to Cohen after all. Guess they are desperate.
McCutchen dislikes the MFY facial hair policy. I agree.
Manfred got mad about Mike Rizzo criticizing him over the pandemic. Maybe don’t suck, Manfred. Ever thought of that?
Did I miss anything? Post below for upvotes!
Am l racist if l believe that Braves, Indians and Chiefs are not racist but complimentary although Redskins maybe not so much. l attended a high school that is still referred to as the Warriors, as students we were proud of the name. Moving on, why are the players being exposed to the Covid 19 virus? Because MLB has a leader waiting for a governor of some state (California) to void the sport in their state. Not just MLB but all sports until a vaccine arrives to save the day. Might just happen, would you be surprised?
About a month ago I got tired of waiting on an agreement for baseball to resume so I called mlb.tv requesting a full refund and got it. I also told them that with the realignment I would be blacked out on about 10-15 games due to my proximity to the bay area (A’s and Giants). So today I received an e-mail from mlb offering the new shortened season at a discounted price from $59.99 t0 $45.18 which would still work out to about $1 a game but I saw something that I had not seen before where they are offering a military (veteran) and student discount. So yes I will now take a chance on there actually being a season as the price came down to $39 for with black-outs will be a 46 game season. For everyone here that follows from a distance I hope this info helps.
Jack Frost was looking for this answer yesterday.
I just get my fix for free thanks to T-Mobile, or by flying the Jolly Roger. MLB sole my money by rewriting their TOS after a purchase I made in 2002.
In Japan I was blacked out for every game, and now in Hawaii six teams are blacked out.
It’s incredibly ridiculous that each team can claim Hawaii as within its broadcast territory when the closest market is 2500 miles away. That’s as if the MFY or Sux claimed SoCal as part of it’s territory.
MLB needs to seriously rewrite their broadcast rules. The amount of money each team loses as viewers when a game is beamed to that market is miniscule. Here in the Bay Area, anytime the Angels play the A’ss, I have to suffer with the A’ss broadcast. The number of viewers who would choose Victor/Gubi over the A’ss broadcast team is statistically insignificant when it comes to calculating “lost” ratings and advertising revenue.
The MLB just needs to eliminate blackouts for its own TV service. The reason people subscribe to MLB TV is because they can’t watch the game otherwise. I don’t have cable, so when the Angels play the A’s, I just watch the game the next day or I don’t watch the game. Watching the A’s broadcast isn’t an option, because I don’t subscribe to a cable service that gets the broadcast.
The final straw for me was the blackout of every single playoff game. Now if the game isn’t on an over-the-air channel, I don’t watch the game. MLB’s blackout policies are shooting itself in the foot. You don’t keep viewers watching the approved local or national broadcast by making it harder to watch the game, you just lose viewers.
True. I have never, and have yet to meet the person who has, realized a game is blacked out and then said “F*** it. I’ll pay hundreds of dollars a month to receive hundreds of channels, most of which are either about women crying or stuff in Alaska, so that I can watch these baseball games.”
I just don’t watch baseball and do something else.
If that’s what you were going for, good job MLB.
Better pitching.
And faster seasons too, at least this year.
Yes it is true Mushroom Man. Time does fly when you gettin’ old. Source Moi.
Looking for who has the naming rights in SF now. I found that they are now located in Anaheim.
Nice links. Manfred being called out for being incompetent Manfred.
And the robot cheerleaders doing it “doggy style”?
That they allowed that on tv shows the different standards in Japan.
Yeeeeeaaaahhh…. replace hot Japanese women with weird dead eyed Michelin Man looking humanoids getting twerked by the killer dog robots from that one Black Mirror episode. Nothings says “Let’s CELEBRATE!” like seeing something you wish you could unsee.
Joe West was found moonlighting at LLWS games.
I love this..
Man how can you lay off pitches that good? lol
That’s messed up. Those kind of calls can haunt kids for life.
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Thank you for the links. It was nice to read about people playing baseball. The robots in Japan are a little creepy. Excellent to see Ohtani pitching! But, I am one of those not yet convinced that the “season” will actually happen.
Understandable. It is scary out there and MLB has been incompetent this whole time when it comes to saftety.
NBA players are getting alarms that warn them to stay 6′ feet away and an option to wear a smart ring that monitors temperature, respiration and heart rate to early detect COVID-19 symptoms.
My guess is the reason the MLB isn’t offering the same is because they would rather not have a season than spend money to keep players safe.
The owners affording any option to that shows the dangers, and then gives them the option to not hold the season, is not the position they want to be responsible for.
The owners want somebody else to cancel the season. Because reasons.