Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Angels lost 2 of 3 very long, draining games to the Houston Astros. Game 1 featured a terrible Angel bullpen, and Games 2 and 3 went to extra innings in which the team blew saves in the ninth. It was ugly, and it was not the mark of a team that looked like a playoff contender. Remarkably, the Angels still have a 45% chance to make the playoffs, per Fangraphs, so we may not want to start drooling over the top prospects yet.
The Angels are off Monday, and then they go up to Seattle for a set. Mike Trout is expected to rejoin the team after missing some time to be there for the birth of his son, Beckham.
After Ohtani’s poor outing Sunday, he experienced some discomfort and is set to undergo an MRI. It’s too early to make any definitive conclusions, but it’s highly unlikely that the shortened season without any minors play is helping. Another point that often gets missed—with fewer minor league games in the feature, it may not be as easy to get big leaguers rehab reps, which is a strength of the current system.
The St. Louis Cardinals are experiencing more positive tests. It remains to be seen how much they are affected beyond their postponed series with the Brewers, but they will try to play next week.
Yoenis Cespedes opted out. There are conflicting sources about whether the Mets knew or not. Apparently, Cespedes told some individuals but not front office management. The Mets released a statement early Sunday saying that Cespedes was missing and they didn’t know where he was, only to follow it up with a statement that he was safe (but they didn’t know where he was). Regardless of what happened, this is just a bad, bad look for the Mets organization as a whole.
Aaron Judge homers in his fifth straight game. Whatever you think of the Yankees or of Judge, when the slugger is healthy, he is a bonafide top-10 MLB player, and it is a thing of beauty to watch him mash the ball.
Detroit Tigers reliever Tyler Alexander struck out nine batters in a row. It’s a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Doug Fister did it eight years ago. (On a separate note, I forgot Fister was once part of the Angels organization.)
Albert Pujols hit his 658th HR on Sunday. Can he reach 700?
Meanwhile, Rob Manfred threatens to shut the season down and blames the players. Classic.
No source, but Walsh and Hermosillo were sent down?
Is it Adell & Marsh time? Or are we bringing up more arms with a heartbeat?
I think at least one will be an arm
Nobody asked but; As l pointed out a few days ago that the Manfred was pointing the finger at the players and that this Commish is really leading MLB down the wrong path for growing and saving the game. Blaming the players of spreading the virus but allowing them to still go to bar and restaurants is insanity pure and simple………..Cespedes is a bubble off plumb no doubt about it. The A’s figured it out and offed him on the Red Sox who did not want him back after only a month or so. Do not blame the Mets any more than the Halos who also looked into bringing him to the Big A as we got lucky. l will say that l never say 2 better throws from LF than he made against us a few years back, what an arm……..I do not believe that this season will ever be completed and l am of the thinking that it really should not have been played, but that’s just me……..And l do not think that Albert has a chance of 700 HRs…….Thanx fer reading this.
“Blaming the players of spreading the virus but allowing them to still go to bar and restaurants is insanity pure and simple…”
When, exactly, did Manfred gain the authority to stop them from going to bars and restaurants? The MLBPA would never permit Manfred to have such authority over player’s personal lives. The best Manfred can do is set down some rules and guidelines. If the players choose to ignore those rules, the only option he has is to shut down the season. It seems the players on at least some teams are ignoring the rules…
The Commissioner could have chosen a couple of sites with multiple fields and isolated the players rather than every home field being used. Another option could have been demanding self isolation before and after the games.While l agree that the last option is to just shut the game down.
The players wouldn’t agree on that, and Mike Trout was against any kind of bubble season.
I’d say it is a worse look for Cespedes. There’s a right way to do things and telling your buddy you quit isn’t it. Talk to management, make your intentions known If anything the Mets were airing some dirty laundry that he’d once again proven himself unreliable.
Depends on if they actually knew from the previous night or not. What I don’t understand is why the Mets would put out that statement without contacting the Cespedes team—unless they actually did and the rep denied it, which I absolutely do not believe happened.
To air dirty laundry. Cespedes has been a headache for them since that signing. Now he ups and quits without telling anybody and doesn’t answer phone calls. A real adult doesn’t have that problem.
I would have contacted his team and said something along the lines of “he did not show up today and we had not heard from him, tried calling him several times, never got an answer. We called his agent out of concern only to be told by his agent that he’d opted out of the rest of the season.
Ces-pool probably just sealed his MLB fate. What team is ever going to want to sign a past-his-prime drama queen who can’t catch up to fastballs and will probably try to demand some ridiculously high salary? Dude better have saved his money or perhaps needs to unload some of his fancy cars– he ain’t getting an MLB-paycheck again any time soon!
One of my favorites to describe this team over the last few years!
Every team in the league is going to have to make sacrifices if baseball is to continue. Not 28, not 29, but 30. From Passan’s article:
“Every player in this league better take a hard look at what you’re doing off the field, because what you do affects, more than just you and your team,” Chicago Cubs outfielder Steven Souza Jr. tweeted Friday night. “Your decisions off the field will put all of our seasons in jeopardy this year.”
Even the players are riding the owners wagon. It started with “we will make our own bubbles” to you are responsible for yourself, from a player. There is no share the blame at all. The players are to blame, and they are admitting it. Plan “Z” seems to be in full swing for MLB owners.
Yeah. If you go to a casino or a nightclub, get sick, and bring it back to infect your coworkers, it’s disingenuous to blame your employer.
I would’ve thought that guys with hundreds of thousands on the line would sit tight for a couple months and follow protocol. I guess that I’m wrong on that.
Manfred does not seen to be discouraging players from going out. The waffling on cancelling the season looks to me like the League wants a solid reason to cancel the season. If the cancel it for safety, that would give them the ending they want.
These are a bunch of young guys who are used to going out in search of young ladies. Notice how the first huge outbreak happened in the youngest team in MLB. Not surprised. Not a lot of social distancing in strip clubs.
Wish the team had the guts to admit this season is a farce and just use it to develop the young guys we need to stay on schedule.
What’s going to happen now is they will have some hot streaks and be what they’ve been every year: not bad enough to get a really high pick and not good enough to make even an expanded postseason.
What schedule? The “We will never rebuild” train has left the station, and there are no stop unless, someone, throws a fit.
My last question in posting photos and links-
So I go to (for ex) Giphy and copy the image. Do I then hit ‘link’ in CPG and paste that link?
Or do I copy the photo or gif to my photos and press the landscape icon below the dialogue box?
I used to post .gifs all the time on the other site and am trying to follow the same steps but it’s not working for me thus far.
Where’s Patrick to walk me through the steps? 😃
Go to copy link and copy the .gif link then paste it into a post.
Thanks Jessica. So I don’t need to press the ‘link’ or landscape buttons first?
No. Just copy the link to the image.
Edit: Oh hey, it worked!
https://giphy.com/gifs/IntoAction-covid-fake-news-misinformation-LnueTvU89UM2W9ccuR
Okay why did that not work?
It has to end in .gif
By Jove I think I’ve got it!!
Is that Diedrich Bader?
Pujols will NOT reach 700 HRs sadly… Also 45% chance to make the playoffs? Fangraphs is nuts! Although that does mean we are more likely to NOT make the playoffs.
Yes, that is not like a batting average where 24% gets you a starting job on a Los Angeles roster
I’m really glad that a Eppler spent the last four years building a deep and talented pipeline of pitching prospects so we can weather injuries. He’s perhaps the best front office hire evah by Arte.
I sense some sar-chasm here 😋
The great Chasm of Sar extends deep and far.
Trouty coming back on Tuesday is gonna help but I don’t hold much hope that this season will be played to completion.
We had a great chance of taking two from the Astros and that was without Trout.
Feeling good about what this team will look like when running on all cylinders
We are in last place.
Feels like home.
Only one team in all of baseball with a worse record than us.
Need to tank harder for Kumar? 😉
CBS Sports ranks us 25th (hey, not bad!) with this comment:
” The Angels have one save and five blown saves.”
That’s a lot of “B.S.”
I thought it was f—ing brilliant!