Bubba Harkins named a lot of names in his opposition to the motion to dismiss his defamation lawsuit. Many former Angels pitchers used his special blend in addition to many visiting pitchers. Troy Percival apparently taught him how to make it. Were any of you there in 1979 when they moved the Big A? MLB Trade Rumors has a poll where you can weigh in with what you think about the Francisco Lindor trade. Meanwhile, Kyle Schwarber has a one year deal with the Nationals.
Sung-Bum Na will be going back to the NC Dinos. He did not come to an agreement with an MLB team prior to his deadline. Neither did Tomoyuki Sugano. The Yankees and DJ LeMahieu just aren’t seeing eye to eye. Coming off of a dismal 2020 season, starting pitcher Jon Gray is considered by some to be a great trade candidate. Rusney Castillo signed with the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Per Bob Nightengale
Victor Rojas, who resigned as the #Angels TV broadcaster last week, will now be president and GM of the Class AA Frisco RoughRiders, @jjcoop36 reports.
9:35 AM · Jan 11, 2021
If Nightengale is correct, I’m thrilled for Victor!
Also tweeted by Jeff Fletcher
Thanks!
So his journey to an MLB GM has begun.
That was my thought
Bummer its with a Texas Rangers affiliate….
Angels don’t have teams in Texas
Maybe we will have an opening in a few years when he’s ready.
I really don’t want this to be true (as I want us on a major winning streak), but if we do go looking in 4-5 years …
The pessimist in me feels like Perry will be here 3, maybe 4 years and we’ll still be in the same spot. I feel like we have been down this road a few times now with first time GMs. Though he has surrounded himself with what seems like a solid staff so I hope i’m wrong.
Very happy for Victor. He’s on a new career path and will get to sleep in his own bed.
Does this mean he’s yet another quality Californian moving himself and his business to Texas? That’s rough. I miss him already.
Ha ha. You know me.
Biz was always based in Texas, though. Vic is no dummy.
What are you talking about? California is the perfect state to start a small business. Soon all the malls and theaters will be carved up into cheap “pop up” retail spaces where a whole bunch of licensed people with licensed licenses and regular fee payments to multiple offices keeping us safe can sell us artisanal leaf based toilet paper. It’s gonna be super!
I will eat my crow a little bit. I’ve had more roadblocks getting licensed in AZ than anywhere else and Texas looks to be just as bad. Basically, if you don’t physically operate in the state, don’t even try to do loans there.
Probably a good thing for the folks who do business there, but I’ve had to literally take entire licensing classes over again as though I’ve never worked in the field and that still isn’t enough.
Maybe they’ll go for your giant Zoom head on a Wizard of Oz screen in a vacant office building. Should be a few available.
Yeah, some folks I knew from the BPO brokerage I worked at said that a lot of the growth states were making it hard to do real estate related biz in their state because they want to encourage in migration and keep all the transactions from their state’s growth efforts in state. A bunch of the New York guys I worked with because all the retirement states like Texas, AZ and Florida were tightening up on them.
https://youtu.be/KDJFEJsHhrs
The Frisco RoughRiders twitter account has it as well:
https://twitter.com/RidersBaseball/status/1348721865687265280
Yup, just as I thought. Victor doesn’t quit. It’s his first step to put things onto his resume that he can become an MLB GM one day. I support his endeavor! Great luck, Victor, and hit that Big Fly in the future!
Do we think the Contreras trade talks are still going on? What do we think its’ going to take on our end to pull it off?
There’s been no word. The silence is deafening. I hope Perry is working on something but the Angels have always held their cards close to the chest.
Most every trade conversation likely begins with the other GM asking for Adell, Marsh, Detmer or Canning. After that, our prospect talent falls off a cliff. Unless the other GMs accept trades based on what the “Trade Simulator” approves, there probably won’t be much movement until spring training.
The question becomes do we trade Marsh for two years of Contreras? Personally, I would trade none of our top 5 rated prospects for position players until we have corrected the SP problem.
If it also involves a package that includes Kyle Hendricks I say YES.
The question is would that package also need to include Detmers?
I would not be constrained to the thought we need to keep Detmers. He is an asset, kind of a shiny one as he has not gotten the Adell-type exposure. Most talent evaluators have him pegged at a No.3-5 pitcher. If we can parlay Detmers and something to get us a No.1-2 and something, we need to strongly consider this.
I think you are correct sir. I also don’t think PTP is willing to sell the farm for a catcher. Sure, he wants to get better in that area, but our line up is fairly solid and we don’t NEED Contreras the way we do starting pitching. Not when most of the problem can be solved with guys like Suzuki, Flowers, Castro etc.
I was there when the Big A was moved and was young enough to be excited about the Rams move. My dad and I had been driving up to the Colliseum to watch the Rams. Now we were going to get to see many more games as the drive was reduced to 15 minutes from an hour and a half.
In retrospect the move was a s-show. The stadium was terrible for football with mediocre sight lines and a really strange configuration., Georgia was an awful owner and my beautiful Angel Stadium became an all-purpose monstrosity. But in 1979 when the A was moved, I was definitely excited to have the Rams coming to town.
I had season seats right behind the south end zone for The Rams. I couldn’t give away the tickets on games I couldn’t make, then after the strike they jacked up the prices for the seats I had.
I was absolutely there when they moved the Big A.
If pitchers using substances for grip is this much of an open secret (and from what I can tell most batters like the pitcher to have a bit more control so they don’t get their head taken off), why can’t they just officially let them use it?
It would get out of hand fast, and, traditions.
Fair. They’ll just find the next substance that works better than the legal stuff.
Article in The Athletic last week proposed an MLB official grip substance, issued to all teams. I guess great huge vats of sunscreen and rosin being mixed and formed into handy consumer-friendly packaging.
There should be something approved by the players association. something the pitchers feel helps but the batters feel doesn’t help too much.
Right now spin rate and pitch effectiveness have to be determined to a decent degree by who has the best mixture.
The prblem is, the pitchers are using a foreign substance not for a better grip, but rather to increase their spin rates.
The worst-kept secret in baseball performance enhancement is pitchers’ use of grip-improving substances like pine tar.
One MLB executive compared it to Steroid Era-level performance enhancement.
“It’s better than steroids,” a player development executive told Eno Sarris of The Athletic.
While you’re add it post Bauer’s FB spin percentile rankings the last few years. I think you’ll find he finally joined the party
Interesting facts, thanks.
Chris Young (while in his previous role) stated they are working on developing a common substance to be made available. MLB is not however, looking to hire a Chef Harkins.
So Bubba Harkins was working a new angle for pitchers. MLB has made the ball slicker than ever before and the genius who though this up never considered that a way around the slickness because the idea is appealing to sock to the pitchers because this along with putting a super ball inside the baseball puts fannies in the seats. The cheating in this sport in the last 30 years is mind boggling. Pitchers have been put at a huge disadvantage by this Commissioner so now there has been a backlash to trying to getting outs. Baseball is still the countries favorite sport for 6 months of the year, so why can’t MLB promote the real game of great players getting hits and moving guys around the bases and the beauty of 2-1 games? Soccer has no problem of fans watching one the nothing games. We don’t need no phucking Super Ball.
I think the three true outcome baseball is boring too. It’s actually failing to get buts in seats to watch “standball” as well. BUT the whole idea that today’s fan needs to somehow learn to love 2-1 scores is like yelling to the heavens that in 1850 chubby ladies were considered hot so today’s tastes need to change. It’s not going to happen. I know some guys who like 2-1 ball games. I know some guys who prefer a nice thick woman too. But the fact is that “the action” in soccer is more than just scoring and fewer people enjoy the “action” in baseball that takes place in multiple scoreless innings.
The only way fan preferences will change is if a couple teams make a new way (or old way) of playing exciting. For example, the NFL is a passing league now…. accept that teams like the Ravens and Titans have made the running game fun to watch too and some other teams will probably veer that way. Love of the home run isn’t going away, nor will pitchers trying to balance out the MLBs preference for HR. But some GM out there is going to eventually field the 1985 Cardinals and “discover” a new and exciting version of baseball full of incredible defensive plays, stolen bases and base to base scoring drives that popularizes that stuff again.
“in 1850 chubby ladies were considered hot”? 😏
I’m not so sure that ever went out of style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfhphrmKdsg
Durability used to be really sexy. Looking like you might have consumption was less popular then.
Great minds. Three true outcomes is my old man yelling at the clouds platform.
Fielders chasing down balls, runners going first to third, cut off throws….those are action. Guys like Fletcher taking what the defense gives him, placing the ball…that’s skill.
I fear for the return of that game just because hitters can’t do it anymore. They can’t even go away against the shift. Hitters don’t train to hit the ball everywhere any more at any age, and MLB teams will have to work with what they can get.
Thing is, everything is a trend. At some point there is going to be one or two just plain incredible contact hitters, guys who may even have power too, who are all over the hi lite reals beating defenses to death and piling up RBIs….. then getting paid. There could also be a player like Billy Hamilton who can also hit. These guys can popularize other skills. That’s probably the only way some 12 year old with talent starts to really focus on a solid inside out swing instead of launch angle, but it can happen.
Where is the modern day Rickey Henderson?