Good Morning Angels fans! Have some links!
Angels News
The Angels lost again yesterday. Kole Calhoun had a big day, hitting 2 home runs vs his former team. But the Angels offense didn’t give up. Not that it mattered, since, after clawing back, the bullpen blew it, 9-8.
Have some Trout porn. Mike Trout has an OPS of over 1 when in an 0-2 count.
Will Simba stay in Anaheim? CtPG has discussed this, but now so has Simba himself.
The Angels are now 20-29, with a playoff spot out of reach unless a miracle happens. It is also very unlikely to get the top two picks. So, look at this list and hope for something good.
Around Baseball
The playoff Bubble is official. After the first games in the higher seed parks, the teams will travel to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego, Minute Maid Park in Houston, and Globe Life Field in Arlington.
Another part of the playoffs is that there will be no off days until the World Series. Which makes pitching even more important than ever.
Rob Manfred likes the playoff structure and hopes to make it permanent. And I hope Manfred gets fired.
Dave Roberts is not a fan of the playoffs format and sees winning the division as pointless. And his team just clinched a playoff berth.
Scouts are being fired again. The Braves let them go right before the postseason starts.
The Air Quality in Seattle continues to be dangerous and MLB have decided to move the games to San Francisco. The backlash from the last series must have forced their hand.
Joe Kelly is FREE! Manfred in shambles.
A baseball fan made a dice Baseball app for Android. It can be side loaded here.
Former Angel Brian Goodwin robbed a home run yesterday. The pitching prospects better pan out.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Some thoughts on MLB stuff…….Baseball has survived about 150 years, but not survive Rob Manfred. Baseball is not a flash sport such as Basketball’s fast running pace and one week at a time hard fought football. A long season is exciting if you are a fan of the sport of Baseball as it happens slower on the field and through the playoffs. By enjoying the long season it makes it possible to see teams come on strong at the end or the middle or the start and hang on. The Playoffs are are only a month long to win the World Series and to test how good a team is by showing the whole pitching staffs and the bench to show up and help the team go through and great schedule and then the month of October. Part of the decline of the attendance is caused by more than one issue. Cost of attending, allowing to much time between pitches, the cheating of the players using PEDS, and Super Balls, bad salesmanship by MLB itself in promoting it’s players in today mass media avenues. When you charge kid’s leagues to use the MLB team names they do not follow the sport as they get older. Having less minor leagues and their teams to showcase the sport to rural areas.Not showing true leadership in issues involving all teams that cheat and slap on the hands when disciplined. The game may need some tweaks that are minor but really needs to stick to the script of the game that was inherited.Paying players 35 to 40 million a year and then having a cap to protect the game is a version of insane. Talking about there being expansion when there are no fans in Florida enough to pay to see games makes sense. No. But changing the game is not what real baseball fans really want to see and the sport see’s it’s numbers changing for the worst. Get back to basics and quit asking non baseball fans what they don’t like about the game.
lineup’s been posted. Adell, no Ohtani
So with Walsh looking more and more real and not just a flash in the pan, what happens with Albert? He is so out of gas. I don’t want to sound like a Pujols-hater, but it’s time. Arte needs to negotiate an exit package or something.
They set up the bracket sites so the Dodgers will not visit Houston
Expanded playoffs remaining for seasons to come is a terrible idea in my opinion. That would mean half the teams would make the playoffs. Baseball would then effectively become hockey and the playoffs a second season.
If that is truly what is being contemplated, I would think the season would need to be shortened by around 30 games (to approximately 132) so that the season could end in August and playoffs could start in early September and run 2 months.
And they could have a tounament for the teams not vying for the Championship, but for draft order. Build it like Omaha CWS type of event. Winner of that gets first pick. MAAAAAAANFREEEEEEED!
How about a Losers Bracket Playoff consisting of the bottom 10 teams with the winner getting the 1st pick in the draft
This I like – but knowing the Angels bullpen, the Halos would end up with a worse draft pick location.
Then you can really figure out what teams don’t care, no-mo no-mo
I should read before typing
Clever idea. It effectively defeats tanking.
The only problem is the bottom two teams in the league would be much more likely to stay there for a long time.
Maybe in basketball. In baseball, the odds would be extremely low that a bad team would get bounced in that tourney early 5 years in a row.
Not that I’m a draft expert, but I think Jaden Hill is who I’d target as our #1 pick with where we’re likely to end up in the order.
Right now, it looks like we will probably fall in the 4-7 range. So yeah, in that regard – I think we have a decent shot to draft Hill, depending on what the teams ahead of us do.
Let’s hope he falls to us, because we really do need to boost our pitching pipeline. Detmers is nice and Rodriguez has potential, but beyond that, it’s just a lot of questions and unknowns. Even Rodriguez .. he might be a reliever if he can’t stay healthy.
I saw a catcher on that list
Looking at that list and judging by this teams past drafts, my guess would be either OF Braylon Bishop, C Adrian Del Castillo, or IF Marcelo Mayer. Now this isn’t my choices, just the ones that would seem to be a typical Angels choice, not a pitcher until at least the 5th round.
one thing that really saddens me is that the draft had been, what?, 60 rounds? Plenty of picks for each team to stock up at all positions, and this year’s draft was only 5 rounds *with the possibility, then, of every team signing anyone else they wanted!* and the Angels signed *one guy*. And an OF, at that. Who hit .269 in 2019 for Cal Poly and was hitting .235 this year when covid shut everything down.
Welp, I think that should do it, in terms of our playoff “chances.”
Anyway – I saw an article stating that Manfred likes the idea of these expanded playoffs and hopes it’s here to stay moving forward.
Thoughts? Seems like a terrible idea to me.
I think I’m okay with it. Baseball does need to evolve a little bit with the times to keep a healthy fanbase going forward. Playoff baseball is the best baseball I think we all agree, so more of it hopefully equals more fans. It also might make the case for expansion a little stronger, which is something I’ve been in favor of for a while.
Actually, I disagree. If it’s my team, of course, I want to watch them in the playoffs. But I prefer the normal, everyday rhythms of baseball, where you need an entire pitching staff and roster to get through a season. I think baseball has gone a little TOO far there with faceless relievers and shuttles going up and down from the minors. But I like the marathon. And I like that it was an exclusive postseason.
I don’t think Manfred’s idea is terrible since, at worst, it means more baseball, but I’m not a fan at all. Baseball needs some tweaking to increase its entertainment value, but I think Manfred is tweaking the wrong areas. All this will do is dilute playoff races. And the great teams, once they clinch berths, will play their great players even less. That’s not good for the game.
Thirty-two teams with eight total divisions? Not sure where expansion is economically viable for the next few years. Got a feeling GDP and employment won’t get back up to normal until 2022 or so.
True, but I don’t think that means the bread and circuses will stop. If anything they may accelerate post-election as part of a revitalization and national morale boosting effort (like the WPA under FDR, for example).
Plus there’s A-Rod and J-Lo, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and a lot of other teamless potential owners out there…