Division Series Links
Here is the broadcast schedule for the Division Series. The umpire assignments for the division series are revealed. The Dodgers and Padres get both Angel Hernandez and Doug Eddings. The ALDS got underway yesterday.
Angels Related Links
The Angels are going to have a very interesting off season. So many decisions need to be made. Rhett Bollinger discusses five things the Angels need to look into. Alden Gonzalez has winnowed the list down to three things the Angels need to look into this off season. Bill Thompson just thinks the Angels need to field a good team. (That’s it? That’s your plan? Field a good team? Why didn’t we think of that?) The LAA Foundation is still out there doing good things for kids in the community.
News From Around Baseball
The Supreme Court declined to hear MLB’s appeal of an earlier ruling granting minor league players who claim they were paid less than minimum wage the ability to file a class action lawsuit. This is a major victory for the players with potentially thousands of players having their voice collectively heard and with Monday’s ruling that lawsuit can proceed.
Trevor Bauer tweeted a picture of a boarding pass to Boston leading some to believe he is angling for a job with the Red Sox next year. Bauer himself says he will entertain all offers regardless of team, even including the Astros. Rhys Hoskins had Tommy John surgery on his non-throwing elbow and is expected to miss four to six months. Who do the Phils have that would be worth dangling Jared Walsh out there? Dusty Baker warned the As to be careful what they wish for. Former major leaguer and Cubs minor league coach Charlie Haeger has been found dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound. He was wanted by the police in connection with the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Ron Perranoski, former Dodger pitcher, has died at 84 of complications from a long illness.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
What the Angels need to do in the offseason.
Number 1- issue- PITCHING!!!
Number 2 issue- Simba- will he stay or will he lead
I could also say the issue of a new GM, but he needs more control than what Artie has allowed with the previous ones. But this is an issue within the org itself that needs to be fixed or the issues will contuine with the new GM.
You are aware that Simba is gone right?
This has nothing to do with baseball, but one of my teenage heroes and So Cal legends just died.
Rest In Peace Edward Van Halen.
Oh, man. That sucks. RIP.
Eddie Van Halen’s now playing the electric guitar to the angles in Heaven. Thanks for your work, you will be missed.
I saw Van Halen play at a Glendora bar back in 1974. Somehow, my older brother snuck me in.
You’re an OG, DG. I’ve mentioned before that I met him at the Golden West Ballroom in 76, we had mutual friends, and every kid I knew, me included, “tried” to cop his chops back then. One of a kind.
During college I worked with a guy (Joe) who was a good school (Royal Oak HS, Covina) friend of Vince Neil (Motley Crue, for you kids out there). One day I’m eating lunch with Joe in the employee break room and he gets a page to come to the front office. Neil is there (bag o’ In ‘n Out in hand) to talk with Joe, so Joe brings him the break room to eat lunch with us.
Lemme tell ya, at Noon the dude stunk of booze and bad drugs.
Joe always told me, “Hey, I can get you tix and a backstage pass.”
Me, “Nah, I’m good.”
You millennials missed out on the music scene in the 1970’s.
A lot of fun times…..the album cover art, the record stores ( licorice pizza, wherehouse, tower records ) and VH was a big part of it!! 🙂 . It was VH vs KISS mostly.
Spent hours at Tower Records in West Covina. It was the only place you could get a deep artist catalog, as well as a variety of music. Spent many nights sleeping in front to be first in line when concert tix went on sale.
Of course the granddaddy of them all was Tower Records on Sunset in Hollywood. Sometimes you’d be looking at an album and someone from that band would shopping in the store.
I interned at Pulse, the magazine Tower Records handed out at the registers, when I lived in Sacramento. I worked at their headquarters for a summer. The original Tower, on 16th and Broadway in Sacramento was right down the street from our fraternity house.
This was the late 90s and right at the end of that era. I was the poor guy who got to type up the list of upcoming albums that filled the last dozen or so pages of that magazine.
I’m Royal Oak, class of ’71, a little before the Crue crew. Tommy Lee went there for a little while too.
The Supreme Court decision yesterday is massive. Can not be overlooked. Thousands of former players without the financial resources or time to fight MLB on their own can now band together in one collective suit. Instead of MLB being able to fight off an individual suit here and there they will have to deal with a large scale effort, one likely to get much more publicity.
Correct. The key thing to remember, though, is to be careful of what the headlines say. This is merely a procedural win, not an absolute win. The actual trial still has to occur.
This paves the way for a meaningful trial, though. Individually most of these guys can’t afford good representation or the time required away from their real jobs. Collectively that all changes. Some lawyer looking to make a name for him/herself will likely take on this cause and try to get as many former players as possible to join the suit.
I suspect that lawyer is already on the case. Judges don’t certify a class for class action status unless they are sure the lawyer is up to snuff. That amounts to assigning a lawyer to a bunch of people who never met the lawyer, so they want to make sure the lawyer is good enough to represent all those people.
Wildcard Series ;
Asstros vs Twins I picked Twins and Lost
Blue Jays vs Rays ” ” Rays ” Won
Braves vs Reds ” ” Braves ” Won
White Sox vs A’s ” ” W/S Lost
Brewers vs Dodgers ” ” Dodgers Won
Indians vs Yankees ” ” Indians Lost
Cardinals vs Padres ” ” Padres Won
Cubs vs Marlins ” ” Marlins Won
Finish 5 – 3 Not Bad but not Grrrreat, (Tony the Tiger).
Division Series
Marlins vs Braves………….. Braves
Dodgers vs Padres………… Padres
Yankees vs Rays…………… Rays
Astros vs A’s………………… A’s
Finish TBD
Yankees and Astros are up 1 – 0 each.
2 observations after reading the Angels related links.
1) I wonder if the qualifying offer had any bearing on Simba stepping away at the end of the year. Is it possible that bailing reduced the chance that Arte & co. issues the QO and that the decision had a positive impact on his free agency?
2) I kinda wish Eppler was still part of the organization maybe even still as the GM. His failures are well documented but he did a real good job in trades and waiver pick ups. I can’t help but think if he was only part of the brain trust and not the final decision makes we would be in a good position moving forward.
I think Eppler’s “success” in reclamation projects gives the impression that he was good at rebuilding the farm, when reports on actual prospects say otherwise.
I’m not so sure, though. Everyone does fair amount of reclamation, esp when it comes to bullpen, and rightly so since relievers are so volatile. Put a good but flawed arm in the bullpen and interesting things can happen, at least in the short term, esp if you have good coaching. I don’t know if Angels’ pitching coaches were all that good lately (certainly problematic last year, but I do think reclamation projects are hard.). The problems that I see with Eppler are twofold: you can’t really rely on reclamation projects to be consistent (eg Robles last year vs this year) This is true with all relievers up to a point, reclamation projects or not, but that just means that just means you need a lot of irons in the fire, so to speak, and whenever possible, shore up scouting and coaching as much as possible so that your reclamation projects have less chance of flaming out. Here, I’m not sure Eppler has been all that successful, although I don’t think he was bad. Second, reclamation projects need time to evaluate (and they don’t work so well esp for starters) so that pitching would suck for a while at the beginning of a season, even if (big if) the reclamation projects eventually pan out. So, I think dumpster diving works, but only marginally. If you are counting on your reclamation projects to take on big roles, we are in trouble.
With respect I think you’ve misunderstood me and overlooked Eppler’s talents. We got Simba/Upton/Maldy/Bundy/LaStella/Stassi/Buttrey without giving up much value at all. JC Ramirez/ Felix Pena/ Hansel Robles/ Blake Parker/ Mike Mayers may fall under the category you alluded to but they all helped the team at no cost and thus shouldn’t be discounted. We even had Kirby Yates pre-breakout so it’s easy to assume there was some skill evaluating MLB level relief arms.
Eppler had some clear blindspots but my hope was that we could cover said blindspots by having an overseer aka PBO
Those guys just didn’t move the needle
They’re just not that good except for Simba who I would rate the same as Carlos Correa, but not as good as several others ( Bogaerts, Lindor, Semien, DeJong, Anderson, Seager ) Eppler wasn’t a good baseball talent guy at all. 🤔 👈
Eppler has a very boom or bust mentality in all aspects of organization building. Plenty of waiver claims with huge fastballs and no command didn’t work out, but a few did. And credit to Billy for finding those.
The problem is that philosophy has killed the farm. Plenty of high upside athletes in the field but no pitching depth. Most organizations fill their bullpens and depth from within. We’ve yet to see that 12th round college arm work his way into the bullpen, so Eppler has to dumpster dive year after year.
You still for the most part have to put a big investment in a real deal reliever ( K-Rod, Mariano Rivera, Aroldis Chapman, Craig Kimbrel ) Sometimes a Josh Hader emerges but not often. 💪 👈 🤔
I can’t stand the fact that the cheaters are moving forward, but at some point they will fail as Mom always said “cheaters never prosper”, so Mom I believe you were right and that is why I believe that there is no way these guys win the Trophy. But like “71” and Patrick it would be fitting in this 2020 Strange that only the weird could happen.
The trophy rooms of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Astros indicate that cheaters do prosper. The bank accounts of Papi, Manny, and A-fraud confirm it.
R.I.P. Ron Perranoski. As a youngster you and Larry Sherry, Phil Reagan and Jim Brewer, Pete Mikkelsen, Joe Moeller were all known by Vinny who was coming in even before Walter made the move and I was right there listening and learning and you guys always came through. Then you would hold my Angels in the later innings as a Twin and win the division, you were good my friend, very good.
You mentioned Joe Moeller; back in 1970 or so he gave a pitching clinic to my West Lakewood Little League team. Cool to meet a pro and get a personal lesson at that age. Jim Lefebvre owned and operated the most popular batting cages in our area at that time as well.
I’m starting to agree with Fansince1971:
I give up.
Don’t give up. A-holes often hoist the trophy, so if the Dodgers (or better yet Padres) beat the Astros or Yankees, you can get out of the toilet and save the plumbing service call.
1986 World Series Champion Cocaine Head NY Mets.