Good Morning Angels fans, hope you are staying warm out there. Spring training is here (for Florida) yay! Have some links.
Angels News
So the Angels still haven’t resolved the Mickey Callaway situation as of yet. Until that happens, Matt Wise will be the interim pitching coach. He was the bullpen coach, so Dom Chiti takes that over.
Albert Pujols doesn’t plan to retire after 2021. Well, he better hope the NL gets a DH next season as I can only see St. Louis taking him.
Fans in the stands are happening for Spring Training. Angels will have 2K seats available, sold in pods. Watch as no one stays where they should, and protocols are violated. At least the cold should make them bundle up?
Joe Maddon has faith in Ohtani. Well, of course he does. Better that he said it than not saying it but until he can be on the mound I am not buying it.
Maddon also likes Junior Guerra, so maybe he makes the team? Have to ask Brent and Rahul if he is any good.
Around Baseball
Pitchers and catchers report to Florida today. Angels and others in the Cactus League report Thursday.
CJ Cron signing has opened a tidal wave. So many former Angels still kicking it around. I am impressed. Blake Parker goes to Cleveland.
Jeff Mathis is still around, signing a deal with the Phillies. Premium will not go away.
Nick Tropeano is a Giant now. I really liked Nitro, wished we kept him.
Cam Bedrosian will be a Red. Watch as he is good now.
Fangraphs has released Postseason odds. At 37.8% the Angels have a chance. Baltimore has been eliminated from postseason contention.
Jon Bois’ series on the history of the Seattle Mariners won best documentary by the Seattle Critics. That seems very biased, but then again, it is a 3 hour, 40 minute documentary on the Mariners and unlike what the Last Dance did, it does not mince punches. It is a good watch, either for making fun of, or GASP feeling bad for their fans.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes! Please stay safe everyone.
Sweet baby Jesus the Padres are gambling heavy on FTJR…. 14 year extension!
And he gets a full no trade clause. They have through his 35 yr old season.
14 years is nuts. But if Rendon got 7/245 and Tatis is 7 years younger, the contract makes sense.
It’s not a bad contract necessarily, it’s just an insane gamble for a midmarket team. They’ll save/break even on his arbitration since that would likely have been plenty of cash anyway. So that’s good, and it locks him up, that’s nice for Padres fans. But they have also locked themselves into a cabin with two elephants in Machado and Tatis and if winter ever comes there’s not going to be much food left for anyone else that can do things like pitch, or wear a hat. And for the sake of gah they better hope he never gets really hurt. He may grow as a hitter, probably will, but he’s currently a hacker who better not lose any bat speed. I just would have liked to have seen one more year of him being really good before I made him a 30M a year player. We pretty much know what Rendon is…. and it’s just terrible that we are stuck with him instead of Chris Carpenter or some such tripe plus Dallas Keuchel.
Still, this is probably better than the years of “Tatis to the Dodgers/Red Sox/Yankees” bullshit they would have had to put up with otherwise. It’s nice to see them go chips in with all this pitching they can’t pay for and super star contracts that may make them the 1990s Rangers in five years, all while the Doyers are still really good. Big balls. Good to see them take it to the blue bastards while they have the guns to do it instead of tinkering. I think the key was really bringing back the brown and gold. I got my hat cause I said I would if they did. All they had to do was bring back those colors and the wins started piling up.
We’ve been crying for years about the smaller markets selling off their stars. Any trend in the opposite direction is a good thing, IMO.
This is actually a smart/calculated move.
Knowing that salaries for star players only get bigger and bigger over time San Diego is going to lock one of three best young players in the game into a bargain price!
Sure they pay alot more now, but just think what they’ll be saving in years 6, 7, 8 and 9 etc,
Tatis is the real deal. If you don’t know that for sure you don’t make this move. It is not a gamble, it is good business. It is a very good LONG TERM business decision.
You can say injury etc, but anyone can get injured.
It worked for Friedman with Longoria, and I am pretty sure it will work here.
Longoria got like $45m lmao
Sweet Baby Rays
Inflation.
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/mets-fire-coach-for-sexual-harassment-over-2-years-after-women-first-complained-155423009.html
I don’t think The Angels should hire an ex Met coach, manager, etc until they clean up their house.
Come on baseball. I’m about as similar to a sensitivity coach as I am a ballerina but you gotta get your shit together on this stuff. I’m all for not ruining someone over gray areas or stuff that can be miss understood/blown out of proportion but most of what these guys get up to is stuff we knew wasn’t ok 30 years or 100 years ago. The guidelines are pretty simple, if a girl’s brother would kick your ass for what ever you are thinking of doing it’s probably not OK. Is that so hard?
A trained classical dancer – good for you!
So you’re saying he’s available?
This is just perfect:
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1362076391349518339?s=20
Would the agent or team be the ones to coordinate US reentry of players, well in advance of reporting date? Whoever it is, you’re fired.
The hip infection to kick off camp is also epic. If you had that in the pool you win big.
How do you get a hip infection unless you had surgery or a major injury there?
This is the kind of injury I would expect from Albert considering his age.
Hopefully not Dominican steroids in the ass with a dirty needle.
First thing I thought was roids
Normally a Tower of Power reference would be here, but Im just so bummed.
So Very Hard To Go? This Time It’s Real? Back to Oakland? OH! What Is Hip!!!!!!
This kind of work related visa requires the employer to show that the jobs could not be done by U.S. workers because these guys are special. It should be kind of routine for Major League ball players, but there is some kind of documentation the Angels must have dropped the ball on. The agent is an employee rather than an employer in this context.
Somebody in the Angels front office fouled something up.
Probably someone who was furloughed had the job to submit the paperwork and nobody realized they furloughed the person who took care of these things.
Probably takes 4 times longer now because they are working from home
That would be so Angels under Arte.
“Where are all the players?”
“They couldn’t get into the country because you laid off everybody in admin.”
“Oh”
There are application fees that need to get paid. We know where the buck stops on that one.
Eppler.
The person who furloughed the person was furloughed.
“Claudio, signed to a one-year deal worth $1.125 million this offseason, is sidelined by a right hip infection, which could keep him out of action for a few weeks.” Why am I not surprised?
I guess Walsh is going to have to be our bullpen LOOGY now too. is he there now or did they tell him not to come in early?
Waiting on his entry visa from Newsom.
If you are going to violate the politics rule, at least do it with some remote sense of logic.
Why?
Because the topic here is the Angels, and in general, we come here to get AWAY from f***ing politics.
maybe we can re-sign Cody Allen. Oops…too late. Retired.
More social decay.
Visa Problems…
I just don’t understand why these guys don’t get a Mastercard!
Only $3 million guaranteed for Melancon. Tony Watson signing a minor league deal.
Come on Perry, get us another arm or two for the bullpen they seem to be cheap right now.
He’s waiting to see how many he’ll need, more by the minute.
I know. Bummer. Two guys I liked at the numbers I hoped they’d come in at.
I’m telling you – he’s waiting for guys to get released out of spring training
Like Kyle Keller, Luke Bard or Jose Quesadilla ?
Mmmmmm quesadilla
Do you have your camera ready Rex? I’m like a dog on a waxy floor.
One of the best days of the year is the day Rex posts his first spring training pics.
We all get to see MNT with his extra layer of girth from the winter
Hopefully he is not barred from getting close enough due to protocols.
Ummm, I don’t agree with Mike Axisa that the Angels “at least have competence up and down the rotation now.”
“Competent” is not the word I would use to describe our rotation.
Competent. As in we don’t expect them to embarrass themselves? I can see competent. What I can’t see is truly competitive.
Well, I agree they are “not truly competitive.” But I think we could say that Cobb is certainly not competent at this point.
Of course his suck would be diluted by Bundy and to a lesser extent Canning and Heaney. Not sure that as a group you would call them competent. To me that would mean they are league average, and as a group I don’t think they are.
King Cobb will make you happy sir
The pitching staff can pass for being “adequate for the purpose”.
We live in a world where Mathis gets a deal before the likes of Odorizzi or Rosenthal. A sure sign of social decay.
Well, I imagine both of them are holding out for more than a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite.
I am just glad we offered that to Graterol rather than Premium.
Why/how Mathis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNHrxRC1bBA
Funny stuff Dept. Albert is not going to retire after this year! LOFL as he wants to add to his totals such as grounding into most DP’s. He’s going to get AB’s this year but he’s only going to DH with some 1B as Walsh is going to prove himself a very good 1B. and Ohtani will get to DH weekdays.
Pujols getting more than about 250 ABs this season will be another sign of social decay.
Well, Pujols just needs enough ABs to catch Mays – he is (maybe, so says SABR) 16 behind.
I doubt he catches ARod, but this might be incentive to keep trying to convince Maddon he needs ABs (or why he is considering continuing his career after 2021).
He’s definitely catching Mays (in the rapid deterioration of their games).
Aren’t they the same age?
Well, Mays still had great numbers until his last two years. His 39 and 40 years were solid indeed. In fact, his age 40 season was his highest OBP (.425) of his career. Amazing, right? But I remember Mays last year with the Mets, it was sad. Like watching Albert run to first or trail runners. (And only his momma knows for sure on the age.)
LOL – I missed that joke and then it came to me. ROTFLMAO
So, Albert wants to continue past this season…. While I do feel he would be a good pinch-hitter and occasional starter at 1B, he is well past his days of being able to justify being a consistent bat in the lineup.
If the Cards take him on for 2022 it would be as a good Will gesture because they want him to be an ambassador for the team going forwards.
Also, it goes without saying that it would be for one year only as a sort of farewell tour.
The question I have is what about his “personal services” contract with Arte??? Is there a flexible start time for the clock on that? I would think it would start as soon as his playing contract with the Angels ends.
Correct, isn’t the “personal services” clause in his contract for a set amount of years at 1 million per year?
Ten years, ten million. We don’t know the exact wording of that part of the deal but we could see Arte say “No personal services in 2022 means no million bucks for 2022.”
I could see Pujols on the Angels’ coaching staff. By all accounts he is a good influence and decent clubhouse guy. But one has to believe his playing days are over after this year.
But if he wants to play and a team is willing to give him one of the roster spots, I agree that Arte would consider this a violation of the personal services contract (or at least defer that part of the contract).
Well, we know it won’t be fan-centric. You have a better chance of seeing Sasquatch than getting him to sign an autograph.
Yep – being available to fans is way different than being a good teammate.
Office specialist, in charge of work visas and birth certificates.
” I got a guy”
Matt Weiss? 37.8% chance of making the Playoffs in the weakest division in MLB. We are going to go over .500 this year for sure, but we will see about the Playoffs down the road.
There they go and think the Rays are chumps, but they will be the spoiler team this season. Look at the pitching in our division, oh my gosh is it weak compared to the East and Central.
On Baseball Network it was mentioned the the Dodgers are going to go over 250 mil in payroll, that is a hit in Luxury Tax money, yikes stripes. Maybe they will deal some of their pitching.
Good Morning folks!
Weakest division in baseball is the NL Central. Followed by the AL Central.
The strongest division in baseball is without question the NL East.
I mean wow! How unfair to be stuck in that division. The Phillies are loaded and they could finish third or even fourth!
Jack, I’d just like to say I am getting tired of you (Frost) here in Texas. I am not used to snow and single-digit temps!
It’s pretty brutal when the snot is freezing right inside of your nose. I don’t miss those days at all.
This is what happens when we let Angel fans move to other states.
Dude. 5 degrees in El Paso!?! I mean, I actually looked it up, so I know it gets that cold there every now and again. But damn.
No doubt. Every series is going to be meaningful. It is going to be a great division to follow.