Good Morning Angels fans! Hope you are staying safe. Opening Day is almost here. Have some links in the meantime!
Angels News
Angels lost yesterday to the Rangers in a close one. Andrew Heaney just did not have it. Daron Sutton announced the game with Gubi, we will be hearing that a lot this year.
The Angels alternate site will be at Tempe Diablo. Last year it was at Long Beach. The reasoning for this seems to be other clubs continuing to use their Cactus league facilities, so that it could mean that there will be some games going on between teams.
Want Angel tickets? You can buy single game tickets starting Friday, and sign ups start right now!
With Fox Sports transitioning to Bally Sports, and new announcers, it can be hard to figure out what you will watch, so here is a nice game schedule with who is calling what when.
Speaking of TV, don’t miss MLB Network’s 30 clubs in 30 Days about the Angels at 4PM. If you do miss it, there will be videos on their website.
Around Baseball
Injuries happen in sports to all teams, not just the Angels. Like Kirby Yates out for the season. Or Fernando Tatis Jr leaving the game with a shoulder injury. Or pitcher Zac Gallen getting a HBP forearm fracture.
Re Tatis, here’s how it was reported on the local news…
That last injury brought out the whole DH debate. So, should pitchers hit? I mean besides Ohtani. Speaking of, why don’t other pitchers use the protection he has? He has a hand guard, a giant elbow guard, AND a shin guard.
New stats appear all the time, like these ones from Fangraphs, or this one from Reddit.
Speaking of Fangraphs, position rankings are coming out. 1B is rather low for the Angels. Middle of the pack for 2B. While 3B is third. I bet CF is first as usual, but what I am hoping for is a SP and RP that is at least 17th? Please?
MLB will start using Statcast to catch pitchers cheating. Bauer, Cole, and many others in shambles. That is, if they actually follow through.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
CBS Sports has “the top 5” (in their opinion) at each position. Trout #1 in CF, Rendon #4 at 3b. We did not have a top 5 player in either LF or RF. Haha….no, but seriously, folks, it’s just Trout and Rendon. Bauer’s not gonna like being left out of the top 5 starting pitchers.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-player-rankings-2021-top-five-at-every-position-including-loaded-groups-at-shortstop-third-base/
Good read, thanks for sharing.
Why is Bally Sports the new name for a broadcast network? Take note Pete Rose, it appears baseball likes gambling as much as you do. Bally Sports became Sinclair’s partner primarily for their sports betting technology with plans to integrate gaming into their broadcasts. With MLB’s Draft Kings partnership and deals like this – MLB is no doubt all in on gambling.
Anyone know of any good sports articles involving just how predominate a role gambling plays in all sports?
It’s become more and more mainstream now where I remember gambling being pretty low key growing up.
On a different but same note… I believe NHL referee Tim Peel was suspended/fired more for gambling reasons than for anything else. NHL fans have long known there are “make up” calls on the ice. If one is a gambler, I could see them being incensed at it. Every league wants the projection of being fair at all times, however unlikely that is in practicality.
looks like
BillyPerry has gone big and signed AJ Ramos. We needed an ace reliever!It’s been a long time since Ramos was good and I have little reason to believe that he’ll ever be good again. With that said, it’s a minor league deal. If he’s blowing away minor leaguers for a month or two, he might be worth a look in Anaheim. If not, he fills out the AAA bullpen.
I heard he also picked up a former usher for Section 119 that’s been out for two years with a knee injury.
Hey, Gary is back. Nice!
Last time I talked with him was in 2019. Beth who took over for him said he had an accident and didn’t know how long he’d be out. I didn’t know it was a knee injury.
Welcome back Gary!
Grabbed seats for the April day games (4/6, 4/18 and 4/21) in the outfield. Hope to see some of you there!
I grabbed three games as well. Missing you by a day twice.
Awesome!
I know the days games will have a few of the regular starters resting (especially after a night game the day before) but hoping the kids can power through nap time, enjoy most the game, and create a few memories.
I will be at the stadium on 4/16 Friday game with my son.
Ohtani Bobblehead night, nice! Angels tiered pricing is interesting this year. Same seats I have for 3 days games at $30/each (including ‘service charges’) are $90/each for 4/16 game.
Yeah, day games are notoriously empty except the Sunday games so tickets prices are cheaper, but I noticed an EXTREME jump in ticket prices for even the cheapest seats (Most likely because of capacity cap rules). I’m not even sure what, if any concessions will be open but I’m sure the souvenir stores will be.
I like the shaded section 200 seats, especially during day games. I read the team store will be open, adhering to 6′ distance etc. I’m bringing both kids so I’m not expecting to last the whole game, otherwise I would’ve bought the more expensive tickets. The ‘pods’ they had available were interesting too. Very few sections with 2 seats available, but a lot of 3, 4, 5 seat pods closer to home plate. I’ll just be happy attending, its been too long.
Yeah, that pods thing is weird. I clicked on a price / section and only wanted two tickets and it told me I would have to buy 5 tickets! Some were 4, some 6. I don’t think I saw any single seats.
The pods are definitely interesting. The Angels cancelled my ticket plan for April but allowed me to buy individual games last week. Very, very few places to find only 2 seats together. Most of the pods were odd numbers. I have 3 tickets to one game and 5 tickets to another as a result.
Yeah, but you’ve got to sit in the first three rows, or you can’t see anything that goes above the overhang.
In major roster construction news, Barria was determined to have another option. This almost certainly means he goes to AAA as rotation depth and a bullpen spot opens up.
Sucks for him but great for the Angels.
To paraphrase the Beatles, it was 20 years ago today Randy Johnson nailed a bird. Wonder if the ump called a fowl ball…
https://twitter.com/BR_MLB/status/1374719342726819852
The ump did have a birds eye view
There’s players who have never hit a Randy Johnson fastball. This bird did it on his first try.
Looks like Barria might not make the team:
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1374748889157275651
History says he will still get quite a few starts.
That said, I prefer him as a spot starter, and I think the additional reps and being stretched out will do him good. He has been shaky this Spring.
LA Times article on maximizing Ohtani’s two way skills:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2021-03-23/angels-shohei-ohtani-pitching-hitting%3f_amp=true
Yeah sorry, sometimes the system thinks a comment is spam if there are a bunch of links in the same comment. Best to separate them to be safe, because we’re not on 24/7 to approve those ones.
Sorry about the double post, figured after an hour just try the links individually.
Thanks to all that contribute to this site!
6 man rotation article from OCR:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ocregister.com/2021/03/23/angels-looking-for-benefits-from-a-six-man-rotation/amp/
Article with Faria talking about being an Angel:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlb.com/amp/news/jake-faria-working-for-angels-bullpen-spot.html
I interviewed Faria yesterday. Will post it later today. Tomorrow at the latest.
Looking forward to it!!
More stats from a Mathhead who needs to earn his keep and continue to cause heads to explode.
Sad to hear that after working very hard to be a Major Leaguer that Ward may not be included to stay on the 26 man squad, hope to see him return soon.
Time to cut bait with Fowler and keep a couple of guys who deserve to stay, other wise why have invited them to ST in the first place. Fowler’s game was predicated on speed and defense but those attributes are done and gone.
Makes me peeved that David Fletcher is not the #1 or #2 rated 2b. That’s because I am biased? Nope, because we are West Coast, which took “Baseball three full seasons to catch on to Trouty.
Bundy is in the top 17 SP for sure.
Agree, I’d keep Ward on the roster at the expense of Fowler. Not that I put too much stock in Spring stats, it is time to get Ward and Walsh 350-400 ABs to see what they have. We can afford to do this assuming we are producing elsewhere. Lagares is a late inning replacement and hoping Schebler makes the cut. But if Joe Perry insists that Fowler is a necessary ingredient, then this all changes.
Ward’s nice Spring really makes the Fowler acquisition seem unnecessary. I know depth is nice and injuries tend to happen, but if Fowler can be reasonably expected to provide near replacement level value with no upside why not let Ward get a shot?
I’m not sure of the options left for either Ward or Rojas but if we lose either of them so that Fowler can come up and run a below replacement level OF for a few months I think it is a horrible decision. Fowler has looked horrid this spring. Adell looked much improved this Spring and either he or Marsh aren’t that far off. Schleber looks to be the better OF right now, and he might get cut. Fowler isn’t owed much money. He’s pretty obviously the inferior players to a lot of guys that aren’t going to make the team, they should just release him.
Ward has 2 options left. Rojas will have 3 once the Angels add him to the 40 man roster.
Article with Faria talking about being an Angel:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mlb.com/amp/news/jake-faria-working-for-angels-bullpen-spot.html
6 man rotation article from OCR:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ocregister.com/2021/03/23/angels-looking-for-benefits-from-a-six-man-rotation/amp/
LA Times article on maximizing Ohtani’s two way skills
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2021-03-23/angels-shohei-ohtani-pitching-hitting%3f_amp=true