The Matt Thaiss Experiment at second base is not working really well but Joe Maddon has been placed in a tough spot by injuries. Let’s see how he does in left field. “There is no doubt this guy (Keynan Middleton) can be a high-leverage reliever” says Mickey Calloway. Apparently they are trying to get him to throw strikes. The Angels have filed their development plan with officials of the City of Anaheim. September 20 is the deadline to sign up for the Angels 5K run. In case you’ve been asleep for a week or so, Mike Trout joined the 300 home run club.
Injury Reports
X-Rays were negative on Justin Upton’s hand. He apparently feels bad enough, though, to extend the Matt Thaiss Experiment to left field. Eric Hosmer, on the other hand, broke his left index finger while trying to bunt. Lance McCullers is on the 10 day injured list after receiving ”a mild anti-inflammatory injection” in the neck. I don’t personally consider any kind of injection to the neck to be mild but that’s just me. Howie Kendrick is also on the 10 day injured list due to a hamstring injury. The Rangers put Shin-Soo Choo on the 10 day injured list and they have activated Roughned Odor. Meanwhile, Corey Kluber, Jose Leclerc, and Danny Santana are all out for the season.
Other News From Around Baseball
Yesterday was Roberto Clemente Day. Roberto Clemente helped others as much as he could and he was on his way to help quake survivors in Nicaragua when he passed. Says his son: “Taking action is more than just wearing a shirt or saying something.” The Padres have yet another grand slam for their crazy 2020. Why even have rules at this point? A lot of trees gave their lives to create this colorful sky over Oracle Park. Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez apparently will not give up in their attempt to buy the Mets. Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake joined a group trying to bring an MLB team to Nashville.
Joe Kelly News
Check out this Joe Kelly mural. Joe Kelly is still waiting to serve his 5 game suspension. He has been on the injured list and he cannot serve the suspension while on the IL.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
With 75% of the season gone my biggest Surprise Award of the season is awarded to Billy Eppler for putting together our Pitching Staff. Congrad’s Epp’s you did well. My Biggest disappointment of the season would have to be having Fletcher being injured and missing so many games. The Best trade would be for Bundy. The worst trade is LaStella who would be a welcomed member now. The “Didn’t see this coming Award” is Robles losing what he had worked so hard to achieve after being a waiver wire pick up. Second biggest disappointment is Trouty’s fielding or lack of. Maybe it is just because of weird this year has been. My biggest “Joy” is Trouty being a new Dad and we as fans will be watching our future team owner grow up. Team MVP is a tough choice this year as there is 3 players worthy of being MVP, so this year it would have to be Fletcher, Rendon and Trout in a tie with honorable mention to Dyan Bundy.Team “CY” Award to Bundy for keeping us tuned in when pitching. Team “Gold Glove” in past years would be tough between Kole and Simba, but this year will have to go to Fletcher although a nod goes to Rendon. “Fireman of the Year Award” given to the best out of the Pen will go to Pena as he has been very consistent. Bedrock gets an Honorable mention here but just has not pitched a lot. “Iron Glove Award” could have been “Noodles” LaStella or even Renny but Adell gets the pick here for helping out an “out” to RF to becoming a HR. Hey at least he didn’t pull a Jose Canseco play for a helping hand in helping out a HR. “Rookie of the Year Award” goes to Adell also as he has surprised us in either how good he is on some days and how B……….never mind.Hope you enjoyed this.
What!!!
Outside of Dylan Bundy what else has gone well? Hansel Robles imploded 😣 this year as our alleged closer. If this wasn’t a Covid 19 abbreviated season I think even with Anthony Rendon we might’ve lost 100 games this year in a regular 162 gm season. Eppler has almost nobody to hang his hat on from the farm system either after 4 awful years…….sorry but you’re stretching it very badly and he needs to go ASAP! 😫
We managed to sign Detmers and he may even be ready for his cup of coffee this month.
At this point in looking down the road to next years draft the first 3 picks really look decent, but to get that lucky we will need go 0 fer. Pittsburgh looks to have a lock on one of the first 2. Boston on paper looks to good to be in this position of one of the first two, but no pitching as we well know can do that. With 12 days left to summer the 2020 will always stay with you in your memory no matter how old you are, hard to imagine that l have been rooting for my team to lose while at the same time rooting for the batters to do well.
we really can’t afford to win more than 18 games this year if we want a good pick, a fail-safe pick that even our GM can’t screw up. That means we can win today! It’d be great! Especially if Mikey does well.
Hey whoever will be our GM after this year, SIGN TREVOR BAUER.
SI did a feature piece on him in their baseball preview issue last year. Worth a read if you have a few minutes.
Pretty good article. His comments about Callaway (his pitching coach in Cleveland) make me wonder if the Angels have a prayer of signing him though.
What would you pay for Bauer?
I’m curious because he is in the same pile as all the FA pitchers. I am not sure if any of them are all that good. Bauer is at least having a good season, but may want bank…. and then suck. Odorizzi, DeSclafani and Robbie Ray suck. Stroman and Paxton are iffy. Taijuan Walker…. feels like Kyle Gibson. I feel like we really need someone, but are any of these the someone we need? Maybe sign a combo, like Walker and Garrett Richards? 2007 most electric duo of exciting arms?
I have no idea who to desperately want this off season. At least we know Gerrit Cole is still good.
Bauer will want bank for one year only.
It’s funny to be playoff and tank mode contenders at the same time. Sad thing is we will must likely fail at both…
Believe me, failing is the only option. Pick number 5 to 10, and no playoffs.
This is the likeliest outcome. Fail at both. trAdition.
Its what I’m betting on. Draft just high enough to miss out on the top 2-3 college arms but finish just low enough to miss the playoffs.
The continuance of meh.
Don’t tell that to Gene Kranz
I guess there is always a downside to “screw this and bring up the kids!”. The sad part is this isn’t even really the situation here. Seems unnecessary and counter productive. I guess this is what happens when you draft and trade for all the wrong positions.
The Joe Kelly mural brings one question to my mind: Why is the person driving the car wearing gloves?
If you must know, he just finished giving a Prostate exam
😮
To a guy who gets nervous on airplanes?
I’m sure its been mentioned before around here but…Gerrit Cole doesn’t look like the guy we tried to sign.
He obviously has plenty of time to bounce back but imagine if he was here and we were still having this season (and without Rendon to partially cover up for Ohtani/Upton/Adell misery). Nice to dodge a bullet instead of take it for once.
Wheeler maybe the only guy worth it. Bumgarner looks terrible too
I’m sure you mean pitchers but it wasn’t entirely clear.
Overall I’m excited about Rendon.
Dodged Ross Stripling to
Wheeler and Keuchal looking pretty good. At least until Dallas’s injury.
MAANNNN…. if we’d signed Keuchel we could have continued with trAdiation! Cole doesn’t actually look half bad, just very overpaid. If only cheap Arte had gotten us a new rotation of MadBum, Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson and Keuchel instead of Rendon, Bundy and Tehran. Everything would be so awesome now. Especially after you add the 6-8 wins we are still owed for replacing Soth…. I am still waiting for those.
I’d also like to jump in with my first WHEELER WAS THE FA PITCHER I REALLY WANTED! of 2020…. because he actually was, unfortunately we don’t play in Atlantic City.
David Fletcher may come back today, he can play left field (and he has before) 🤷♂️
Hope he’s playing 2B. Walsh and Ward have seen plenty of time in LF and should be the back-up options. Upton X-rays were negative so he could be back in short order.
There is no explanation as to why rookie Matt Thaiss was tasked with playing completely foreign positions in his last two starts. Young players have enough to worry about just trying to establish themselves so to stack the responsibilities of a new position on him is an error in judgement. Why not Jam Jones at 2B Tuesday night?
Apparently his bat looked locked in over in Long Beach and they wanted the offense. Probably the first sign Eppler is gone and Maddon is in charge this month as Billy is Mr. Defensive Value
If that’s any indication of the future then it’s gonna be a frustrating time with Joe at the helm. It’s way early but I’ve been consistently frustrated at Maddon’s decision making. If you’re going to get Thaiss at-bats play him at 1B (you know, the position he’s been playing for years) If you need a 2B option call one up from the 60-man pool at your disposal (Jam Jones). Why do we have the increased pool of players if we aren’t going to use them?
Maybe batting Thaiss second and playing 2B is Joe’s way of tanking?
I think we mere mortals don’t understand Joe’s zany genius.