Good morning Angels fans! Opening Day is tomorrow, have some links as we eagerly wait.
Angels News
The Angels lost their last Spring game vs the Dodgers last night. Quintana did not look so hot. But, the bullpen threw 3 scoreless innings. It is something.
Final decisions are being made to the 26 man roster. The only real uncertainty is the final bullpen spot. Who do you want, Slegers, Sandoval, or Barria?
538 has their predictions out, and they think the Angels will go 82-80. Sounds about right in a pessimistic sort of way.
ESPN power rankings have the Angels at 15th. right smack in the middle. Typical.
Want Angel tickets? You can buy more April game tickets this afternoon.
Around Baseball
Ji-Man Choi is out until May due to a knee surgery, injuries in Spring really blow.
Marlins get a name deal for their stadium, loanDepot. Wow 10 million for that?
Alanna Rizzo is back at MLB Network. But why is Mad Dog still there?
Jeff Mathis is still in baseball, signing a MiLB deal with the Braves. Mathis just won’t retire huh?
Francisco Lindor wants 400 million dollars from the Mets. Wow, that is a massive overpay if the Mets bite. They offered him a 10 year 325 million dollar deal.
Mookie Betts pulls a Simba about Vaccines. Seriously man, why?
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Band practice got cancelled tomorrow night, so I can actually watch the opener. So excited.
Haven’t seen much of him, but what I have seen of Slegers I really like. Pretty imposing. I’ve seen plenty of Sandoval and Barria. Not imposing.
Yes to Sleggers. Yes to opening night.
What happened last time we traded a C to TOR?
https://apple.news/AjbOk3ulnTmSjytrjeZl23Q
Yes but Cash Considerations is a much better prospect than Vernon Wells
And that’s saying a lot, considering that Country Joe and Doug F***ing Eddings are in the mix…
He was really bad! Should never know an umpires name let alone cringe when you hear it.
We’re undefeated. I think we’ll still be undefeated after tomorrow night’s game.
Nice picture btw John!!
Jersey sales. Trout falls to 10th
https://es.pn/3ueI5If
I have 3 Trout jerseys. Home, away, and alternate. They are still in perfect condition. Seems like anyone who wants a Trout jersey has one and the new faces are selling theirs.
But maybe if Mike Trout just marketed himself better!
Manfred is working on that.
The family has 4 total. 1 men’s, 1 women’s 1 toddler and 1 infant Trout jerseys. But those have been bought over years obviously. Hope they get to the playoffs and win a few games so more of the country can see our prized possession.
How the hell is Kike Hernandez ahead of Trout in jersey sales? It is a weird, covid influenced world in which we live.
The Chowds need someone to believe in.
It’s time for the Angels to get new jersey’s then.
Even though I disagree, I’m OK with ‘normal’ folk opting out of the vaccine if they’re not sure about it yet.
However, the people saying Mookie or Bauer shouldn’t even be asked this question seem to miss that they signed monstrous contracts for the Dodgers and have some obligation to them to make sure they don’t put their big investments in physical performance at heightened risk.
Refusing an available vaccine that could better protect your lungs and your teammates’ seems not all that different than racing cars, snowboarding or these other ‘high risk’ things teams spell out in contracts to reduce risk of injury.
They don’t need to be forced to get it but I think if you accept that kind of money, you accept the questions in cases like this. Even though it is rare, we did see guys like Eduardo Rodriguez miss the season with heart complications and Yoan Moncada say he was still feeling excessively lethargic and fatigued months later. Jason Tatum on the Celtics has talked about having to take himself out of games for breaks some nights because his lungs fatigue really quickly unexpectedly.
Very interesting take I hadn’t considered.
Last year and the season before I predicted that Fletcher would lead the team in Hits, Doubles, and runs scored. Here I go and predict that Fletch will lead in hits and average and doubles and second in runs scored. HRs belong to Trouty with RBIs topped by Rendon. Trouty comes in first with On Base Pct and Slugging Pct to go along with OPS and War.
Bundy has another big season, his best yet. Canning will show up injury free and Cobb will surprise. Bull Pen will be so-so. Heaney will be injury free this year and will win 14 games, 2 less than Bundy. Cobb win win 10, but Canning will come in at 13.
Upton will have a huge comeback season and that will work. Albert is going to struggle and Fowler will be released in July with Marsh in RF.
SS will be just fine with both offense and defense.
The toughest one to figure out was Walsh, but I know he is capable of .267, 19, 75 with Albert .222, 9, 37 pitching in.
Ohtani will hit with good numbers, .310, 22, 88. But after trying out 7 starts he get shelved except for maybe a few relief appearances thrown in.
Stassi and Suzuki together will fare decently together hitting .260, 12, 50.
The overall team defense will be average.
We will win the division with a record of 89-73. Trout will win the MVP. Trout, Fletch and Rendon make the All Star Game.
We meet the Blue Jays for the ALC and win in 7 games.
Completely SoCal World Series as we go up against the Dodgers.
AND THE WINNER IS……………Well you know the answer……..
I thought this was a cool read:
https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/when-the-los-angeles-angels-played-ball-inside-an-amusement-park
Good Read.
I would take Sandoval first, Slegers, followed by Barria.
400 million for a guy coming off a bad year and even at his best still isn’t worth 40 mil per.
A considerable amount of disease and viruses included has been rendered harmless because of science coming up with vaccines and Covid-19 is going to be one it seems that a decision on taking a shot in the arm even just to save others in a no brainer, but that’s just me.
Lindor is just truffling with the Mets’ new ownership.
The advantage of taking Slegers would be Sandoval getting further time to develop as a starter. We’ve already taken C-Rod from starter to bullpen, do we want to do the same to Sandoval?
No, but he is ready to start now, but nothing wrong with keeping him in SLC to staying sharpe and working on his game.
Having 2 lefties in the pen now makes this possible
Two lefties??? Do the rules allow this?
The Scioscia Rules?
I think they will let C Rod see the bigs till he hits a cold streak and then send him to the farm to work as a starter. Hell, he’s had so much down time they may just want to avoid giving him more now that he’s pitching instead of injured.
But I bet they still want him to be a starter in the future.
Mad Dog is annoying to some but interesting to others. I like to watch his show when I can but he is definitely a New York Homer and is biased against the West Coast. His sidekick Bruce calms him down unless he disagrees with him, then Chris Russo blows his top and argues even more. Some of us can take him for the opinionated commentator that he is.
Actually, he is a SF Giants fan.
Mathis can “sing”? Are we talking Johnny Mathis?
“Jeff Mathis is still in baseball, singing a MiLB deal with the Braves.“
Chances are this is probably the end of the line for Mr. Premium
If he can frame I have an extra tool belt and hammer.
Wonderful, wonderful.
Actually, Johnny Mathis was a star athlete in high school and college, but his sport was basketball, mostly.