Good morning Angels fans, hope you feel better today after that win! Have some links!
Angels News
Rendon made his Angels debut as the home opener was a winner. He helped by hitting a 2 run DINGRZ.
David Fletcher continued to be hot, placing hits in the correct spots and making defensive plays.
Pujols even got a home run, and now only Barry Bonds has hit more home runs off of more pitchers.
Catchers can rake as Stassi hit one gone as well.
Patrick Sandoval pitched well, and only 2 runs given up by the whole pitching staff. Noe got out of the dreaded 5th inning jam.
Victor and Gubi wonder about drive-through workers remembering you.
Around Baseball
The Dodgers face Houston for the first time since 2017. And tensions rose. The Astros lost.
Four more Marlins get the virus. They may be done as a team and already games are postponed. Miami Mayor wants the team quarantined. Marlins players may not even get paid for the missed games!
No other team tested positive!
Taiwan had fewer new cases than the Marlins.
Seems like the Media finds things out before the players do. That isn’t a good sign.
Patrick Mahomes is now part owner of the Royals. Share a parking lot and all. Victor also reminds Gubi who is the actual KC fan.
Rockies players and not touching home. They do that often don’t they?
What happens to home run balls that go into the stands?
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
I feel kinda dirty defending a Dodger from suspension, but this is a crazy year
Let it be known that MLB thinks retaliating against cheaters is a worse offense than cheating your way to a World Series win.
That must be one of those unwritten rules i’ve heard about. The integrity of the game!!!
Doh gosh Mister Manfred, what *can* ya do right nowadays?
I get that MLB is sending the message that throwing at someone is worse than prior years because of the pandemic, but if that’s the case, no punishment for the many Astros and Dodgers who swarmed the field?? Additionally, I find it hard to believe that on an 0-2 curveball with runners on in a competitive game, that Kelly would intentionally throw at Correa’s head, even with his past history.
That was my first reaction when I seen the video. SUSPENDED THEM ALL!
IDGAF, I’d still throw at those moofers!
Without a second thought!
They also think it’s worse than domestic abuse which carries a 15 game penalty. This is like 22 games in a regular season.
That’s a biiiiig yikes.
8 games for not even hitting someone, Manfred has lost his mind. He should suspend himself for letting it get to this.
Oh – And Marisnick only got 2 games for taking out Lucory.
grrrrrr
Marisnik didn’t mean to do it, but still walked away with not even a look back towards home plate. Passion for the game.
Watching the video makes me boil all over again. Who slides into home with his shoulder? And then seeing the Astros being mad because Noe hit him at the next opportunity….just like they’re crying about Kelly.
Bullshit. He went out of his way to do so.
Heard about. I haven’t even read about it.
I just now watched the 2002 WS Game 6 highlights because don’t we all do that occasionally?
One thing I never noticed before was Jon Miller calling Scott Spiezio “Ed Spiezio”. Kind of funny! Ed was Scott’s father. Only natural that Miller, in his excitement, got a little confused.
📻 highlights? 📺 was Buck and McCarver. And in G7 broadcast I watched recently McCarver admitted to saying “Ed” and apologized. McCarver was pretty darn good in the minutes leading up to Spiezio’s homer. Saying Felix Rodriguez better be careful “down and in” because Spiezio can hit it out. It was one of his rare shining moments.
Miller did the radio.
I’ve tried to start this about 7 seconds before “Ed”.
https://youtu.be/7FqaIxaa32c?t=265
I thought he said … “And Spiezio” or “It’s Spiezio….” Hmm. Maybe he did say Ed. 😂
And you might try to forgive me for not hearing it live … I was in heaven:
So great to see Rendon in a Halos uniform… and a HR in his debut to boot! Looks like his swing path and hitting profile plays well with the short 330 corner and low wall in LF. Looked like a line-drive off the bat that just kept going and lasered over the short wall. A lot of other ballparks with high walls keeps that in play for a 2B at best.
With Fletcher, Trout, Rendon and Ohtani… that’s a formidable 1-4 that pitchers have to get through every night. WoW.
Just imagine next year, when we have Fletcher, Trout, Rendon, Ohtani, Adell, and Marsh 1-6 .. and Pujols + Upton magically disappear, somehow 🙂
Ah the life of us Halo fans … “imagine next year” … words we are already saying to ourselves 5 games into a season. 😂😂😂😂😂
And by next year we always mean “the year after Pujols is gone.”
I absolutely loved the way Joe Kelly played with the Astros. Totally plausible deniability, and seems the umpire wasn’t in a hurry to throw a warning out on either team or the pitchers headhunting LOL.. Didn’t just come after them with every pitch, but kept setting up breaking balls, throwing over to first over and over w/ Bregman… then making the baby faces and taunting Correa after the strikeout. Classic. Kelly probably got more amped to do it because he got the curse-laden yells at him by one of the Astros when he was covering first. Showed it was getting to them and frankly, they deserved it. One time where I was enjoying the Dodgers win. LOL
Easily the best baseball moment of the year so far, ha.
too bad there are no fans. I’d love it if “Nice swing, bitch” became the cry every time Correa whiffs, which he does on average once per game.
So I still text/chat with Fletcher’s dad (we’ve actually become pretty good friends) and David is just really relaxed and confident right now. He knows Maddon trusts him.
I have to imagine for a guy like David, showing up to the yard knowing you are going to play and getting into your pregame routine is nice. Knowing that you can just play and not worry about getting benched for an 0 for 4 takes a little edge off. And he’s thriving.
Not getting pulled for a pinch hitter, or a defensive replacement must be great. I guess Davie is big enough now to not need naps during games anymore. Thanks Assmass.
If Sosh were still managing Fletch would be starting only every third game.
Yea, just the guy that brought him up and played him in his rookie year. Brad is the one who was clueless as to where to bat Fletcher. We now have Fletcher where he belongs, Leadoff.
Yep. I harped on that last season; you have to bat Fletcher lead-off. His ability to take pitches and hit well with two strikes etc. Great OBP. All of that screams “lead-off hitter.”
And really, we’re really lucky to have him. It is not easy to find a really good lead-off guy in MLB today when everybody is focusing on launch angle and the long ball.
And he’s young to boot! If things progress as they are doing we could have an All-star guy there for many years. With Trout and Rendon hitting behind him that is just huge. It is one essential piece of the Championship puzzle that is potentially solved.
Hey now… Brad had a plan and ….
Nice win to get the ball hopefully rolling all the way now.
Saw highlights of that Dodgers/Asstros game… What did Correa expect, what a crybaby! I dislike the Dodgers a lot but F the astros
I thought people were supposed to get ejected or something for getting into people’s face like that. That was a major social distancing fail.
Pretty conflicted about MLB not immediately agreeing to pay the Marlins for the full season. Unless the whole team went to a strip club or something are we really punishing the entire freaking roster because someone got and spread a virus that is pretty prevalent in Florida and Georgia (where this all started)?
Sends a really bad message to rest of the players. Assume all risk for possibly no reward because your teammate is reckless.
My immediate reaction was also to deride the owners, which was the goal of releasing that information. But that might not be fair. I speculate the circumstances are something like this:
1. The agreement between MLB/MLBPA states that players will be paid for COVID outbreaks only if they follow the established health and safety guidelines.
2. MLB has said “We are still investigating whether the team was complying with health and safety guidelines and can’t confirm payment until the investigation is complete.”
That seems appropriate. If players are free to ignore the agreed-upon safety rules without risk of losing their salary, then the safety rules are meaningless.
Yeah, that’s absolutely absurd. Yikes.
Got some new found respect for the dodgers for doing what was right. Every team needs to the same to the asstros.
Joe Kelly!!
Joe Kelly just did what 29 other teams in baseball were hoping to see happen. And the home plate ump wasn’t in any kind of a hurry to throw out a warning or kick Kelly out of the game hahahaha.
Joe Kelly took action against the Astros for doing the same thing his 2018 Red Sox did.
Fletch was on base 4x’s, Simmons put on DL , oop’s the IL, for a recurring ankle issue from last season as we may have witnessed his last game with us, but we’ll see. l sure am going to miss him and his great plays and that big smile. Renny being recalled to replace him ( Rengifo). Asstrobites lost to the Doyers last night and joining them in the loss column were the A’ss and the Rangers.
Remember the beatles Sgt. Peppers Album with all the famous faces, be fun the load up famous faces throughout history behind home plate sections every home game to see how many can be named. Might even run a theme such as 1960’s and 1979’s night. call in a win a Tee Shirt with the most correct named. Oh and Good Morning to you all, where’s me caffeine?!
Will Fletch become our new SS? So Stassi co leads the team in RBI? Ward now hitting .250 with 2 hits last night, way to go kid, yes l am aware that he’s 25 yrs old.
Well time to go, got to weed abate 2 acres today and tomorrow, see ya at the game tonight, Ok well at least here anyway., lots of laughs and stay safe.
Stassi does not co-lead the team in RBIs. Trout has more.
Ptffffft. Trout isn’t even the, the goat anymore. How do I know? Because the Shadow knows.
Said the same thing to my wife about Simba, hope I’m wrong. I’d like to see the Angels extend him.
While I like Simba, I think they are best served moving on and using the freed up $$ to sign/acquire a SP. Fletcher can take over SS moving forward and Rengifo 2B (since LaStella will be a FA). While I’d like to keep both of them, realistically, the team has only so many dollars to spend, and Arte will have to still pay Pujols + Upton 50mil+ next year (and Upton almost 30mil the year thereafter).
And the likely shortstop free agent class after 2021 is insane. More talent than imaginable coming right after Pujols contract is up and in the last year of Upton’s. Having a shot at that with Fletcher as the fallback is a nice place to be.
Yep. Landing Lindor would be a helluva win. Syndergaard is a free agent that year too, so if we want to roll the dice on a possible top-of-the-rotation starter .. that’s an option too
I wouldn’t count on us signing Syndegaard or any other top pitcher, if Billy is still the GM. He can’t convince Arte that those prices are the going rate.
Yeah, I agree it is probably unlikely. We’ll see what we do, but I do think this is Simba’s last year, and we’ll hopefully have a nice chunk of change to use after Pujols’ deal expires next year.
Agreed. I have really loved Simba during his time here but his offensive approach is pretty damn bad and the injuries are going to hamper his defense from Incredible to just Good as the years go.
We can produce someone comparable internally IMO to match that combo of Good D + Bad O.
Simba’s main skillset is his aggressiveness, and reckless abandon. He seems unwilling, but more likely unable, to change his offensive approach. He is limited in the number of seasons he will play.
Add another agreement to your list. It seems likely that Simba peaked in 2017 and 2018 while Fletcher is likely still approaching his peak.
It’s kind of the same reason it made unfortunate sense to let Kole leave. Kole peaked back in 2014-2016 and was blocking a spot for Adell/Marsh.
“It’s kind of the same reason it made unfortunate sense to let Kole leave. Kole peaked back in 2014-2016 and was blocking a spot for Adell/Marsh.”
Yeah – and in that regard, it appears Upton is blocking one of them, too. I anticipate Adell making his debut in the next week or two (service time shenanigans and all), and once he does, Goodwin becomes the 4th OF. Next year, though – Marsh is likely to be ready at some point, which would make for a super fun outfield of Trout, Adell, Marsh. Upton, though, is a real issue. If he is okay becoming a part-time player, then perhaps it is tenable, but I think this FO (and Arte) really needs to consider the concept of a “sunk cost” in both Pujols and Upton, who are either currently or soon to be blocking playing time for young players who likely would perform significantly better.
If they could re-sign Simmons at a bargain AAV, I’d be all for it. Regardless of his offense, the dude’s defense alone is worth value. He can still be your #9 hitter and provide amazing dWAR into his mid 30s. Fletcher can play every day at 2B. I wouldn’t bank on Rengifo being a long-term solution anywhere. But if Simmons over values himself… then I don’t see the team signing him. Who knows… maybe he’ll take a big discount in order to be able to spend the next 5-6 years playing with Trout, Ohtani and Rendon, and likes the direction of the club.
that’s the key, the price point. Rendon/Simba/Fletcher around the diamond is a killer defense even as Simba ages from epic to merely above average. La Stella is gone soon so Rengifo becomes the utility guy.
In that scenario, the Angels aren’t vying with other teams for that short stop super class but covered and free to address what will surely still be an underwhelming rotation.
That is where being reckless hurts him. His defense is in his legs, and he’s just busting them wheels up.