Good morning Angels fans! Hope you are enjoying spring training so far! Here, have some links.
Angels News
So apparently Mickey Callaway was known to be a slimeball all the way back in his Cleveland days. Looking the other way is sadly the norm rather than the exception.
As for why Mickey Callaway isn’t fired yet, they are still investigating. Sure, Arte can fire him now, but then he would have to pay for the salary. Besides, it is MLB that is investigating, not the Angels.
In non slimy news, the Angels had a baseball game. That they lost. Well, at least Jose Iglesias went yard. So did Taylor (Blake) Ward.
Angels pitching injuries are not news, they are a constant. Gerardo Reyes has a UCL sprain. I think we can use our frequency card to get a free surgery, right?
The Angels have 4 players out of options on the roster right now. Max Stassi, Mike Mayers, Franklin Barreto, and Jamie Barria(maybe. He may get an extra option but it is uncertain as of now.). I am not sure they will be claimed on waivers anyway.
Jared Walsh may actually be legit. He was a feature segment on MLB Tonight! Do I dare get hyped?
Former Marlins executive has told Yahoo that Albert Pujols is older than what is official. Another year, another Pujols is older article. You can make a drinking game out of this.
Around Baseball
Hey Jake Odorizzi is still available. Still wants a 3 year deal and seems to be willing to wait for it.
Baseball Reference added more stats to the site! Average Exit Velocity Hard Hit Rate rOBA (BR version of wOBA) rBat+ (BR version of wRC+) Pulled Rate/Opposite Field Rate.
A nice article of what a top prospect was like 20 years ago. Things were the same, yet different.
AAA is delayed a month, could be more. Alternate sites will be used until then. AAA was meant to start in April, now won’t until May at earliest.
Kole Calhoun needs knee surgery. He will be out for some time. The former Angel’s timetable is unknown at this time.
Jose Alvarez to Giants. Could have used him, especially since he used to pitch here.
Be appreciative of FSW. The Braves will only get 6 Spring Training games televised, and fans were informed of that on Tuesday.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
Why is Cody Bellinger in a hospital bed all banged up wearing an Angels Hat?
It it Reyes, yeah I know, but there wasn’t any of him wearing Angels stuff yet
Short inning games make no sense at all, the roster’s are full and playing times are scarce for those trying their best to show what they have got to help the team. Those making the rules seem intent to keep the game on the down low rather promote the games return. Fletch is doing well enough and I still hold out hope that Ward can be the starter in RF.
He hit a nice homer. J. Iglesias too. I guess some days 5 runs just aren’t going to be enough.
I’m still on the Jake Odorizzi wagon, for several reasons.
The first is that we need him this year. Bundy and Quintana have been durable but Heaney, Canning, Cobb, and Ohtani not so much. Ohtani likely only gets 15 starts so there will be plenty of weeks where we need a genuine 6 man rotation OR we can skip starts by Cobb when Ohtani pitches.
Secondly, we have 4 starters slated to leave after this year. Having Odorizzi around prepares us better for 2022 and the cost isn’t outrageous. I’d much rather head into ’22 with Ohtani, Odorizzi, Canning, Barria, Detmers and build up from there.
Absolutely. If they added Odorrizi, you can convince me they can win 90 games and compete for the AL West. But without him I think they’re like 85. He’s not a 5 war player but the effect on the rest of the roster is huge.
But yes the impact next year is high. Odorrizi, Canning comprise a solid 1/3 of the regular rotation. You assume you sign 1 of Bundy or Heaney. One of the young guys emerged like Detmers or CRod. That’s 4. You have Ohtani as the wild card 6th member (we will see after this year). That leaves you space to trade or sign a front line guy (Thor?).
It also helps if Marsh or Adell become starter caliber, so we don’t have to focus on OF. Best if both make it up, then we are set there for a while. Walsh solidifying the starter job at 1B would help too.
Exactly. Some players have an impact greater than their WAR.
In this case actual quality pitching depth and saving the bullpen a bit, not having a Peters or Naughton start a few games, etc. is big.
6 inning game today. Redon playing 3rd, Bundy pitching and our new Closer Duracell also to debut. Apparently Marsh hasn’t been playing in the Outfield due to arm issues.
How the heck are they determining game length? 7, 5, 8, 6? WTF is wrong with 9 innings?
Just more fuel to put on the fire of my ManBearFred hate.
They may be picking numbers from a hat, numbers 4 through 9 are put in a hat and Manfred reaches in and picks a dandruff dusted number.
Agreement between the managers before the game.
I get it to a degree. There aren’t 100 minor league guys in camp so they can’t bring over a couple of mop up guys this year, but it sucks.
Try it on all you want. I’m not calling Raisel Iglesias Duracell.
What? You gonna call him Clay cause his momma calls him Clay?
Get well soon Kole, hope you can return to the field and parlay that into a spot on next year’s D-Backs team too.
I dump on Arte as much as anyone but I thought we already knew the reason they didn’t can Calloway immediately was California labor law entitling him to a full investigation since he denied the allegations.
Angels silence seems guided by legal counsel to not give some fuel to a grievance that the firing was pre-determined before investigation.
Yes. The Angels are handling this carefully and, from a legal standpoint, correctly. Callaway is suspended pending the results of the investigation. He will almost certainly be fired without pay once the investigation is over. It’s pretty textbook- particularly for California.
As fans, we have a tendency to be emotional and call for immediate action. But the pitchfork mob mentality is never smart in making sound business decisions. So, everyone should be patient. It will play out the way it should.
The pitchfork mob is always right. I am going to go burn the 7-11 up the street now. But first I will liberate some delicious salty sweet popcorn and some scratchers from the place. Redistribution baby!
Honestly, I asked why he can’t just be fired yesterday, but I know it can’t be done till MLB gives the go ahead. Still, how much more do they need before they give the go ahead? He can basically be fired for a morals/detriment clause violation and I’d say he’s there now. It’s also pretty obvious he’s not coaching this year, so if MLB can at least say “We investigated. He’s sleazy.” at this point then let’s get on with it. But yeah, I knew the Angels can’t just fire him, that’s why I shat on all the “The Mets fired fired Porter right away… the clock is ticking Arte….” bullshit. Only children with limited life experience really think it works that way….. which, judging by 2020, is about 40% of America.
I HEAR BAD THING! MAKE MAN DO BAD THING ON FLAMES!
I get why he has not been fired. I’m confident he will be fired soon enough. Not worried about Callaway but I’m questioning after the still ripe embarrassment of the Opioids story that someone solicited Callaway to join the organization and people signed off on him. The Angels put out a statement that such behavior violates organizational policy. Dammit I just want Arte to clean out his cronies, fuuuuuuu##!
HR is HARD. People have commented here that the team should have just asked reporters about the skinny on DickMick, etc. Ummmmm, yeah, if you want to get totally reamed in a law suite, sure. The couple friends I have that work in HR have told me even for normal guy jobs all you can do is run a background check and then ask his past employers if he worked there when he said he did, etc. It’s pretty unsafe to dig for dirt on a guy and even less safe to spread dirt around, even if it’s true. When I was in a position to be used as a refence by past employees my HR boss specifically told me I could never say anything negative. Just positives, or silence for fear of litigation. It seems like a lot of hiring is kind of a gamble. I’m sure the stakes and penalties and chances of getting caught are much greater in the small pond of the MLB too. Unfortunately most of this crap with Callaway was probably pretty unmentionable between orgs. All this “worst kept secret” creamer gets added to the coffee after he gets called out by a reporter, but it most likely was pretty contained and barely mentioned until the public exposure, so yes, there would have been plenty of clueless guys in FOs.
So cleaning out cronies probably doesn’t help with a pitcher secretly pressuring a junky employee to score for him. Nor will it save you from DickMick. But you can still go ahead and clear out the cronies just because they f***ing suck at their job.
“Albert Pujols is older than what is official.” Many of us have suspected this for years. If true, can the Angels climb out from his salary black hole by claiming fraud?
Since it is Albert’s last year anyway they wouldn’t even think of doing that as the optics and bad press is not something they want, and Albert does give a huge chunk of his salary to charity. He is officially off the books after this season.
Well everyone knew then it would be difficult for anyone to claim fraud.
Also, the word of a Marlin’s exec repeating stated common wisdom doesn’t amount to legal evidence. He has the same intel as everyone, he is just saying he was convinced of it 9-10 years ago. I see no new info in his statement other than him being on record with it.
If you want a good laugh, take a look at his high school picture in this piece. I wonder why scouts thought he was older, ha ha.
For real, looks like dude dropped his wife and kids off on the way to the game. Dude was 21 crushing 16 and 17 year old pitchers.
Either he went through puberty as a 5 year old, or he was in high school while in his early 20’s. Regardless, his contract crippled the franchise for the last 5 years.
wow. He looked like he was 30. The saddest part of the article (from 2014) is “…the three-time National League Most Valuable Player and career .321 hitter…”
just a reminder Albert crushed MLB pitching for a decade too. Despite the age thing, remember Albet Pujols is one of the greatest baseball players ever, especially this centruy.
It is really unfortunate that he didn’t earn his contract but i remain in awe of him and have enjoyed having him around for a decade.
Trout is still trying to live up to what Pujols has done.
This was a hot topic a couple of years ago when Albert did an interview and said several things that indicated his real age. Basic math stuff like describing a home run he hit at age 13 as 28 or 29 years ago (he was allegedly 38 at the time of the interview.) Fangraphs did a piece on the Angels legal options back then.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-the-angels-could-get-out-of-paying-albert-pujols/
worth the read, thank you
Only if you never want to sign a free agent again.
Tom Verducci explains the reason behind Ohtani’s offensive struggles in 2020.
https://www.mlb.com/video/breaking-down-ohtani-kershaw
https://www.mlb.com/angels/news/shohei-ohtani-hits-100-mph/
“Ohtani also admitted his left knee wasn’t at full strength after the operation, which caused him to alter his mechanics as a hitter.”