Happy New Year. Yes the Year of the Ox kicked off last Friday but for baseball fans the magical words “pitchers and catchers report” kick off a new year as well. So there’s some actual baseball news to link this week.
Shohei Ohtani threw a bullpen session yesterday. His top velocity was said to be 90 MPH but nobody is concerned. He apparently hit 98 in an offseason bullpen.
As far as Ohtani’s usage this year, skipper Joe Maddon says there will be no limits. For his part, Ohtani says he feels great after a normal off season and is ready to have some fun, including playing without limits.
A healthy, productive Shohei Ohtani is likely the difference between the playoffs and another October at home. Personally I’d love to see a full year of history made, but I find the “no limits” talk as hype.
Another key to a competitive Angels season is Andrew Heaney, who fully embraced the technological side of baseball this off season in hopes of having a breakthrough year. Notice how he was talking to Doug White, the former pitching coach all off season.
Dylan Bundy had a really good year for the Angels in 2020 and is set to become a free agent at the end of this year. He’s not focusing on free agency, however. Insert “just help the team win” cliché here.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.
Of course not all of our pitchers are in camp as several are facing Visa issues. Of particular interest are two guys trying to make the team, Junior Guerra and Rule V pick up Jose Alberto Rivera. Maddon says perhaps another week or two. There’s also some cool insight into how the new Covid protocols are changing the way camp is usually conducted.
Taylor Ward is in camp. As a catcher. Former two way player Jared Walsh is not. He’s hoping to ride his hot September to a full time gig as a position player.
The best thing I read this week features former Angels pitcher John Lamb. There’s a discussion we need to have as a society about those magical little pills the doctors give us that can be really addictive vs. using the whacky tobaccy to ease pain. Lamb chose the latter and it greatly impacted his career. That’s your longform if you subscribe to The Athletic.
New year, new prospects list. Eric Longenhagen at Fangraphs has Marsh up to #15 on his current list. I like this a lot:
“He could blow up this year. He’s also a clean fit in center field and his range out there might be better than Trout’s is at this point, though obviously the notion of moving Trout to a corner comes with other considerations. I think Marsh is an All-Star talent.” – EL.
And with such an odd year without minor league games, which kinds of prospects were most affected by the year off?
Elsewhere around the league, Oakland took a big hammer to our dreams by signing Trevor Rosenthal. Not only is he not pitching for us, he’ll now get to pitch against us.
Meanwhile in a move straight out of the Angels playbook, JT Realmuto suffered a broken thumb and will be sidelined for a few weeks. Getting extra looks in camp will be………Jeff Mathis.
And as a reminder of the world in which we live, Shane Bieber tested positive for Covid-19 and will be sidelined for a while.
Of course the biggest news was out of San Diego where they went full Mike Trout on Fernando Tatis Jr. 14 years is a lifetime but it is nice to see the Pads making some noise. What’s also remarkable is the Padres chairman saying this type of move is “completely sustainable.”
It would be impossible tie together the two themes of pitchers reporting and Black History Month without a tribute to Satchel Paige. 50 years ago he brought the Negro Leagues to the Baseball Hall of Fame as the first man voted into the Hall for his accomplishments in the Negro Leagues. Another great long form read.
A few years ago I read Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend. I have a review queued up for a slow news day here. The short version, this is a great book and I highly recommend it.
You know a guy has crossed from the diamond into the mainstream when The History Channel has a link about him. I seriously think there’s a legitimate case to name him the greatest pitcher ever.
Enjoy your weekend folks. We’ll be talking about actual games in another week and a half. If you’re looking for something to watch this weekend, I highly recommend the Valdez vs. Berchelt fight on ESPN. If that’s not your game, flip on your favorite baseball flick and know we’re almost back.
What is your go to baseball movie?
Well isn’t this appropriate from @JeffFletcherOCR
#Angels interim pitching coach Matt Wise has tested positive for COVID-19. Joe Maddon said the other staff members who had contact with him tested negative. The other coaches will fill in for Wise, who is filling in for suspended Mickey Callaway.
Now who’s going to fill in for the fill in of the fill in?
Incredible
I’m not going to trash on the guys we signed/traded for. I’m just going to sit here and hope we at least get league average from them. Quintana and Cobb have history of being good at some point, I just hope they can re-unlock that with us. Both Iglesias are decent adds and I’m not disappointed there. But I wish we could have added one more big bullpen piece or for the rotation I would take, and I know I might get some disagreement here but, Leake or Porcello at this point on a one year contract.
Me too, one more impactful bullpen arm would have been nice. There are fillers out there but no longer difference makers. I’m thinking Perry won’t sign anymore players, unless at the minimum.
Many of Porcello’s underlying metrics were better than Cobb’s last year.
I’m holding out a slight glimmer of hope for Odorizzi or a bullpen piece like Greene. Slight.
Julio Tehran to the Tigers!
that’s good news!
Funny how the market works, when there is a need desperation sets in and those who are done still have a market.
Year of the Ox? All week long I’ve been mailing checks dated Year of the Rat.
Awwwww crap.
I got a stamp made of Ian Kinsler’s face to save time.
we had the 2nd most productive offseason of the AL West clubs! So says CBS Sports
Houston had the best, they say, getting a grade of C. We got a C-. Oakland a D+, Seattle and Texas each a D. Yeah!!
LOL…yeah, C- is about right. I was more bothered by the position players we scooped up than the mediocre arms we signed. Raisel obviously kept us out of the D grade level.
So what your saying is if they are grading on a curve we have a chance?
Pretty bad off season for the AL West in general, especially compared to our counterparts in the NL.
I still think Houston lost more than they gained. After the bullpen rebuild, I think I might rank Oakland’s as the best off season.
its just the best ball today
green fields
a fresh batch of Halos – the crisp red and white Angel unis on the green field
in the desert surrounded by saguaros
Heaneys and Bundys and let’s do some fundies,
fielding drills, fielding drills, fielding drills, catcher drills
throw to first, throw to third, over and over
a bunt – fling it to second
heaven on earth in Tempe today
if you know One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, as a baseball fan, you know what it was like to watch the Yankees in the World Series.
In the asylum, all you can do is imagine things.
They’ve locked the boys up – and i wonder if they’ll ever unlock them for spring practice ever again
dammit – can’t complain too much as i got some tickets. but i can complain about the price – ouch
$20 for lawn seats and you have to by 4.
Everybody loves your pictures. It’s too bad you can’t get in for the workouts.
98 KM/H or 98 MPH?
He can probably muster a 98KM/H Eephus pitch, just need him to throw a 98 mph fast ball with some movement so the off speed stuff in the 80s can do their damage.
If he topped out at 90, there were a lot in the 80’s.
I’m sure he’ll be throwing no-hitters soon enough….
Here’s an interesting article I came across this morning about the effects the new ball will have on the game. It features Joe Maddon. I hope his prediction turns out to be true because that style of baseball is much more fun to watch.
Nice find, great reading. Let’s hope that MLB learns that this is the proper approach towards getting back to real Baseball as the change is what is best for the sport.
Really liked that. Thanks for adding it in.
Great find. But if the change is negligible, so will be the change in strategy. (Hey Albert the ball’s losing a couple of feet of carry, we need you to lay one down, I highly doubt it.) A couple of feet may change the results of a few at-bats, but not the overall strategy. Now maybe he’s telling the players that- so they learn and are better at moving over runners, going the other way, etc. – but the ball isn’t what’s changing the strategy.
2/20 for Walker with the Mets. Pretty hefty gamble. If he ever lives up to his potential this will be a steal. But he hasn’t.
I really thought the market would dry up by now, leaving some players needing to sign for lower.
It is sad that the Angels, who clearly need(ed) a lot of help, stopped after one or two additions, while other clubs who everyone thought had decent to stellar rotations kept on buying.
I guess we will see if the apparent faith in our current rotation – especially Ohtani and the crop of Barria/Sandoval/Suarez (who I am increasingly convinced we will need to rely/are relying on) pan out.
Either that or we go just one year without a significant pitching injury (is that even allowed?), or Cahill/Harvey/Teheran/Allen/Dipoto 4 type disappointment. Fingers crossed.
Ohtani topping out at 90 during a bullpen session does concern me.
It’s risky to consider Ohtani anything but a position player going forward. Not all UCL injuries are equal, and they can take 2+ years to recover from. Some pitchers never make it all the back.
Bullshit. He’ll pitch.
Ugh. Of course he’ll pitch. The question is will he be any good at it.
He’ll be good.
If it’s still something like 44 degrees in Tempe as a daily high I’m content for him to be a little careful until the temperature gets more normal. I don’t want him to tweak either his elbow or his knee.
Wouldn’t Ohtani have experience pitching in cold environments in Japan? He might be better equipped than other MLB players with his history of dealing with adverse weather conditions.
I think he’s from the north which probably gets some pretty cold weather due to effects from polar gyres instead of the subtropical gyre that goes by a lot of Japan.
A gyre? Is that more tasty than a Gyro?
all I know is that it’s gimbling in the wabe
What do the Mome Raths have to do with this?
Nothing. They’re outgrabe.
lol it’s the first day of spring, relax. every pitcher is under their targeted velo right now
Why? At this point, you aren’t worried about throwing hard, you are worried about getting your feel, finding your spots. If the staff aren’t concerned, why are you? Spring Training is just starting.
So when in spring training is it allowable to let the panic can set in?
We are talking about an Angels pitcher here. If he was hitting 98 in bullpen sessions this off season and is now topping out at 90, with the track record this team has regarding pitchers, I’m going to be a little concerned until he shows he can dial it up. Maybe he is just getting used to the new ball.
All the time is a great time to shit yourself around here. Go outside and see the sun? Shit yourself. Open a box of cereal and find cereal inside? Shit yourself. There’s traffic in LA? Shit yourself. A pitcher isn’t throwing as hard as he can the first day of ST? Shit yourself.
Generally they won’t even be going all out till the 1st start of March. Even high school pitchers aren’t throwing all out yet usually in mid- Feb. Ohtani even more so. Remember how low effort he was that first spring when people began to wonder if he could pitch at all? If he’s still throwing 90 come April first I will shit myself and start making stupid comments about how he should be an outfielder. Till then he’s just getting his mechanic down and isn’t gonna throw with the zest internathletes require of him for at least a couple more go rounds. If he hit 98 when he was last limbered up and he isn’t injured he’s gonna be a beast again probably, though I do worry about him using a splitter. I could be wrong, maybe the way it’s thrown has changed, but that pitch used to be really hard on the elbow back when I pitched.
This year will likely require a genuine 6 man rotation just to manage workloads. There was/definitely a need to keep adding. We can add in Ohtani as a seventh guy allowing the team to skip one guy’s start here and there to keep them fresh or just give the entire rotation an extra day rest.
I also thought one of Odorizzi, Paxton, or Walker would be left out in the cold but the money says otherwise.
Cole is Coming.
It makes as much sense as Melancon, who I was pretty certain was coming.
Who is Odorizzi’s market now? Cardinals? Maybe Twins?
I expect it to be one of the clubs that we think already has a lot of pitching. I’ll guess either the White Sox or the Braves.
Blue Jays or Mets.
Giants and Brewers too. $10M for Walker felt about right to me, only 28-yr old vs Happ at $8.5M, GRich got $10M.
I think your right about him going to the Blue Jays unless they don’t want to give him two years and block their prospects. But they are in for this year, so I doubt they worry about that.
Dinged pitchers signing for incredible money this spring because there just is not enough pitching in MLB to go around. Kluber is way past prime and he signed for over 10 mil per. So that is the direction things have gone and here we just scratch our collective heads why our front office is tone deft.
The Halos do not have a lot of room to wiggle to stay under the cap. Oakland signed Rosenthal to over 10 mil per for a past prime relief pitcher. With Albert and JUp taking up over 50 million that does not leave much room to sign expensive pitching unless we go over the cap which Arte does not want to do. We need a lot of luck to make the playoffs but it is not an impossible mission.
I think its a reasonable risk. $10M in 2021, $7M in 2022, $3M buyout is Walker should decline = $20M.
To clarify, that is a buyout on a $6 mil player option. So if Walker doesn’t perform well, he’ll accept the option and they end up paying 3/$23. If Walker does well, he’ll decline the option and they pay 2/$20.
Eh. It’s high, but not that hi. About what I’d expect to pay for a mid rotation arm.
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding we have a tie between Sandlot and Field of Dreams.
Seems like Marsh is the guy to watch most in Spring. If he pans out that really transforms what we can do in the next year. Allowing Adell time to just figure out AAA with no urgency in Anaheim would be great.
It would make a world of difference. If just two of our OF prospects (and Marsh and Adell seem the most likely) pan out, we have a lot of flexibility moving forward. Fletcher and Walsh keeping up a quality starter level would also be huge.
You are still not sold on Fletcher? Fletch will show up as a top player for 6-7 more years. He has instincts that are off the charts and cannot be taught. He has shown that we don’t have to worry about him. He will lead the team in hits and doubles for the third year in a row. Second in runs and triples.
I have a ton of faith in Fletcher. I am mostly commenting on finding places where we don’t need to play 25-30 million for top caliber players. Fletcher manning 2B at a great (if not All-Star) level means we can spend elsewhere. Having 4 players doing that is ideal (5 if Ohtani is back as an elite hitter at DH, as such a reasonable price).
With Trout and Rendon, and the 4 I mentioned, that means we can focus on SS, C, and pitching with the Pujols (and then JUp) money.
Marsh is definitely a guy to watch this Spring. Based on reports out of the alternate site, he looks near MLB ready. I really think there’s a spot on the roster for him early this year but he needs some AAA time/player clock manipulation.
Walsh is also big. Going from below average production at first base to above average would be really nice. Doing so with cost control for the next several years even more.
As far as arms, Detmers and Rodriguez represent potential rotation pieces in the near future and the Rule V kid will need to sink or swim.
Our minor leaguers are one year older but have zero more years experience since there was no MiLB in 2020. I don’t see how any of them could be readier now than they were last year.
I’d love to be wrong on that. But I expect Marsh and Adell to both be on the Bees all season…maybe up in September
My only caveat with this statement is that on all accounts Marsh’s defense is big league ready right now (whereas Adell’s clearly was not last year) so considering PTP’s stated premium he puts on defense and the likely hood Fowler’s defense will not be at that level this year. I firmly believe Marsh will be up as early as May or June.
While there was no MiLB there was a competitive environment at the alternate site. I suppose the question is how did that compare to a normal year of development?
Marsh’s glove, by all accounts, is MLB ready. He definitely needs to face high level pitching for a while. But nobody is blocking him. If he comes out of the gates hot, he’ll get promoted quickly. If he needs more time, we have Fowler.
I like what you and Cowboy are saying. I also hope Jo fixes a couple of things and comes back strong.
Jam Jones told me the environment at the alternate site was very competitive. That without the travel they were able to both do a lot of development drills and play a lot of games.
That’s all I’m basing it off, but Marsh apparently looked really good in that environment.
Yah. I saw some social media from MiLB players in the alt sites who said it was actually harder than the minors in some cases because you had MLB vets pitching against you a fair amount of the time in some cases, or AAAA guys. A big jump from A or AA ball. Same for young pitchers facing some 30 year olds with 1000 MLB at bats.
Most of those guys didn’t spend all summer playing pepper and roller blading. It’s the guys that were not at alt sites who really got screwed.
I agree Jeff, FanGraphs ranking caught my eye yesterday as well. Digging it. I think the Halos just let it play out, start him in the minors and let him bash his way to the Show.
I think the most intriguing guy to me is a Detmers. He could make an impact or merely a 5th starter level. I am in the side of the latter but hope I am wrong.
Watch out for Adams this year too. Let’s see how he handles the translation to AA ball. Angels really need top of the order speed, this guy has a 80 on the speed scale.
Turk’s Teeth is a far better prospect guy. He sees Chris Rodriguez as the upside play and Detmers as the lower risk guy.
I think a big reason Perry didn’t pull a big trade this winter is so his guys can take a look at the prospects like Adams themselves. 80 grade speed doesn’t come around a lot. Eppler spent a lot of draft picks on tools. They need to see if they can mold toolsy guys into baseball players.
If Turk’s teeth is such a great prospect how come he’s not ranked in the top 100?
I actually think Kochanowicz, Oliver Ortega, and Stiward Aquino have a lot of potential too if they can get past the “less walks, learn a third pitch” barrier that they are gonna bump up against this year. I also think Yan can pitch out of the pen this year and maybe develop into a swing man like Pena.
Reports are that Pena dropped 20 pounds.
Is this a good or bad thing? When he was in the starting rotation, there were a number of reports that he would tire or lose energy after a few innings and as a result he would eat PB & J sandwiches in the dugout during the game. Was losing a lot of weight an attempt to increase his cardio resistance levels because I’m not sure how someone who is slated to pitch multiple innings in multiple games a week would just benefit from losing weight.