The only thing better than one baseball game is two baseball games. In what used to be a rare occurrence, the Angels played their second home twin bill in two years yesterday.
Last year vs. Houston the Angels were the road team in one game, leading to a memorable call by Victor Rojas. The call was funny but it was Vic’s response that showed his character and why we he was so loved here.
Crazier than that call is the fact Mike Trout is injured yet Angels fans still get to witness once in a lifetime talent. It is unreal that we’ve been gifted two generational talents.
As for the actual double header, Alex Cobb looked fantastic in the first game but left early after showing signs of a blister.
My favorite headline in recent times covers the rash of no hitters: Another Unique and Wondrous No Hitter, Just Like Yesterday. Of course had Kluber signed here he’d be on the IL with an ERA equal to Anaheim’s area code.
Clayton Kershaw thinks MLB is experiencing too much of a good thing when it comes to the no-no’s.
Clayton’s Blue Crew take on their rivals in SF this weekend. Is it time to start believing in the Giants? 7 of their next 9 games are against LA so we’re about to find out.
Talk about a window that closed crazy fast. The Cubs were to be the next dynasty in baseball. One ring and now no extension talks with their current core. And you can add a lawsuit for a woman hit by a foul ball to the one over the ADA compliance for the Wrigley renovations.
The greatest story in baseball this year is Trey Mancini. Last year at this time he was battling cancer. Now he’s leading MLB in RBI after a huge game.
I wasn’t around for the 1970s Yankees but the situation in the South Side of Chicago looks to be similar. Yermin Mercedes has an ego the size of Reggie Jackson’s. The dude’s walk up song was custom recorded for him and is basically his first name over and over. He ignores his manager, just like Jackson, and wears chains that have to be worth more than he’s made. Cue Tony LaRussa in the Billy Martin role and you have the modern day version of 1978 NY. Just when White Sox fans should be happy, there’s drama.
I really like the Jackson link above. In the modern world, baseball Twitter would melt down over the incident the way it has over Mercedes.
Here’s something truly crazy. Somehow I never knew there was a team made up of death row inmates in 1910. Murderers, rapists, the whole lot was on Death Row. The warden and even the governor were gambling on their games. The team became the story of the summer in the national media and there were rampant rumors of execution dates being moved up or back based on a player’s play. Shawshank Redemption meets Eight Men Out.
For a textbook type story on this team, click here. Shocker, but the NY Post really goes for a sensationalist angle but a darn good read here. It is worth reading both. However, for the real deal story there’s a full book on the team.
Leading the league in errors and has just 14 rbi’s. Marcus Semien has no errors yet and has 28 rbi’s. Anybody here care to explain how I was so stupid about this 2 months ago? 😆 😫 💩 Jose Iglesias is $12M cheaper however and a good player for any losing team ( Joe Maddon’s post game rant about him ). ITYAS ( I told you all so, hence my acronym………..Jose Iglesias, Dylan Bundy, Mike Mayers all imploding on us ).
Yes Semien has no errors in the whopping 4 games he’s played at shortstop this year. Good to know.
BTW How’s your other ITYASBFF Eddie Rosario doing? How come You haven’t provided us an update on him?
Eddie Rosario isn’t playing CF ( Byron Buxton is ) which is the most important position in the outfield. Perry Minassian chose to go cheaper and serviceable at the most important position in the game. Which is fine if he really believes we have a real shot at one of next years SS free agents, but you never know with Arte. BTW his numbers are similar to Justin Upton’s but he’s making just $8M on a one yr deal not $21M on a seven yr deal. 😩
Angels on Facebook:
The Big A is back to full capacity starting June 17th!
Single game tickets for all remaining regular season home games will go on sale to the general public on Friday, May 28th at 9am PT. Stay tuned for more details.
I’m fully vaxxed, can afford a plane ticket, and i’m like what’s the point of going to a game? Only pain to be found at the Big A this year.
Maybe when Trouty is back.
I fully understand. To buy a plane ticket and plan that trip is a lot of energy and money to invest for as you say “pain.”
Ohtani Pitching days
This will destroy the value of our season tickets. The Angels have imploded and are well on their way to their 6th straight losing season. The limited demand for these tickets is evaporating and will be non existent by the time full capacity is available.
Prices should go down, as they’re way too expensive not even considering the product.
Instead of 15,000 people being semi spread out and comfortable those same amount of people will be there (when’s the last time the Big A sold out 45,000 seat?!) but congested between 3rd and 1st base.
I’ll like the prices going down but will miss parking being better, concessions being quicker, no line for the bathroom and space between seats.
Now this still pisses me off:
https://twitter.com/KyleAGlaser/status/1395460511274135552
Unfortunately, I don’t think the Angels have or had space on the 40-man to be keeping players like Soriano.
Rehabbing before the all star break. Hopefully we get him back.
I doubt it; they’ll be out of the race by then and thus have a greater incentive to put a raw reliever out there.
Sorry I have to reject that mindset. There’s no reason the Angels couldn’t have kept him and placed him on 60 IL at the beginning of the season and kept him there through today .thereby not taking up a 40 man spot .
I have no strong opinion on the matter. They clearly thought they could skate through, with him not having pitched at the upper levels. The Pirates took a chance.
Evil Blue Empire just announced they are going to 100% capacity middle of June according to KTLA news.
I called my rep with the Angels to find out when I can buy tickets for June. Normally a link comes out the last week of one month to buy tickets for the following month.
He said the link will be out in a week or so that they were waiting on some direction.
It looks like we are going to be batting against Cy Rookie again tonight.
It is very sad ,for a fan of over 40 years, knowing every night this team doesn’t have much of a chance to win that game.
Word spreads around the league quickly. “You have a rookie starter you just called up, start him against The Angels to get his confidence up and a surefire win.”
I’m gonna have to check the schedule. It just doesn’t seem right that we missed Minnesota last month, get to play them one day this month. And now we have a ton of games vs Oakland. Not that it matters. If we can’t take two from the Twins it means we’re probably closer to their level than to the A’s.
We played them, but they had COVID issues and two games were postponed.
Maybe this to tidy up our infield?
https://twitter.com/SaltLakeBees/status/1395581938484744199
Not sure I’m into Adell’s patented new stutter step when he’s rounding third during his HR trot. It seems pretty silly to me. After hitting only .161 with 3 HR’s in 132 P.A.’s in the bigs last year you think he would be a bit more contrite
he got a big dick, let him swing it
With 55 Strike Outs in 132 Plate Appearances he shooting a ton of blanks.
Trout pretty bad his first time up too FWIW
Adell is young. We have a bad farm. Not sure why people root against one of the only guys we have with an All-Star ceiling. Give him time.
A pretty bad Young Trout is like a doodle sketch from Da Vinci. Its still a masterpiece.
Adell is long ways off to even a young MNT.
1) Trout was younger than Adell when he came up by a couple years.
2) Trout didn’t look nearly as bad as Adell looked last year.
JA 2020 Rookie Season 55 K’s/125 AB’s = 44%
MNT 2011 Rookie Season 30K’s/123 AB’s = 24%
‘Nuff said
JA 2020 # of times ball thrown from glove over wall for HR: > 0.
MLT 2011 # of times ball thrown from glove over wall for HR: 0.
I wish we had Statcast info from 2011 to see if Trout was just getting hella unlucky. Seems really weird he would put up those bad numbers
For a franchise with zero swagger, it’s good to see a player with attitude. Bring it on!
Agree with swagger being needed, but if you can’t back up the talk, STFD.
Doesn’t make any sense to me but if he wants to do it, I’m all for it.
Did he just hit that off Kenny Powers? I’m sure Kenny wasn’t pleased with the stutter step.
Now I want go binge watch me some Kenny F&$#in Powers tonight.
Cringeworthy. He’s doing the Tatis HR trot while sporting a .298 OBP in AAA. Strikes out About 50% of the time in the minors. But as long as he can post the occasional bomb on Social media., he believes he’s fine. Where’s the work ethic, the absolute will to get better!!??
Heaven forbid someone have fun and not be suicidal over their OBP after like 15 minor league games.
Lighten up people. Stop pretending you know what someone’s work ethic is because they have social media. Does you being on a blog mean you’re lazy and don’t put in effort at work?
Well now that you mention it….
I killed myself just reading about the prospect of fun.
Serious question: If Eppler doesn’t feel the “playoffs or your job” heat does Adell get called up last year?
My thinking is no.
Curious that he got extended a couple of months before he got fired tho
I don’t think it’s industry practice (or smart, tbh) to leave a GM hanging in the last year of his/her deal. Then they start doing all sorts of crazy things to save their job.
So damn true, I saw that last night and was totally unimpressed. But seems to be his M.O. Dude is such a wiener. I say we let him build up gaudy AAA stats in a hitters league and move him in the offseason. Don’t bring him up to the bigs only to lower his value. Dude to a tool.
If we trade him for some other Organization’s talent the only question I will have is: CHP?
Minisian feels like a great big kid, so happy to be there, but in way over his head. As usual, the rot is from the top down. Hello, Arte! Why won’t he hire an experienced GM who actually knows what he’s doing instead of talking about supposed clubhouse chemistry?
this seems like a rushed and condescending assessment of Perry
True. Definitely bottom 3 GM right now. 0 clue in what he’s doing. I had high hopes but interviews well. Seems to be trend in whom Arte hires.
This GM has only had 6 months with this organization. The last 3 GM’s left a complete mess. The people to blame are Moreno and his cronies.
Perfectly stated. It’s amazing how some people completely ignore the common denominator since the last time the Angels won a playoff game. 4 GM’s, all under the same owner. When will fans start to realize nothing is going to change until Arte either sells the team or passes away? We could have Theo Epstein running the club and it still wouldn’t matter. That’s the situation the Angels are in thanks to Arte.
The only way we’d have Theo running the team would be if he had authority. More and more I’m respecting Jerry for leaving.
Yep I know Roberto Baldoquin misses him.
The yanks had about a week to decide on Kluber and Walker sat there for months. Perry has missed in all his pick ups. Everyone one of those guys has had season killing moments. Like do I care if Raisel Iglesias picks up a meaningless pressure less save in July with us 15 games out? Or Quintana giving us a QS in August? Perry has made all facets worse by simply changing the roster with more flexibility than the last GM.
I think we need a fight. A benches clearing fight that sparks some fire in this team. One that brings these guys together.
Or maybe some gel inserts to be gellin’ like Magellan.
Supposedly they are all together just fine. Perry was hyping clubhouse chemistry in how he put the team together…
Don’t get me wrong. It’s great they sit in the clubhouse and share pics of the kids, but we need them to play baseball like the games matter.
Seems like they are playing flat footed.
Ohtani’s not the only person playing sluggish
The team just is not good. Even with everyone healthy we have no pitching. And it will stay that way no matter who the GM is. Arte doesn’t care about winning. All he cares about is fielding a decent enough team with big names so he still makes a profit.
Are we considering getting an OF bat in the meantime (until Trout returns, or Marsh/Adell are ready)? Or are we really waiting those things out with Ward, Rojas, Gosselin?
MLB has an article about suitors for Joey Gallo. Any interest?
Fangraphs has Taylor Ward as our go-to CF. That just can’t be right.
Pitching. Let’s do things to win one run games.
Are we in contention?
Why would you bring in another outfielder with this pitching staff? This team isn’t going anywhere with the pitching staff so why blow more money on an outfielder that won’t move the needle enough to win games to get to the playoffs?
Gosselin to the moon!
Did we ever get an update on what happened to Jordyn Adams? Out for 2 full weeks and counting
so he’s already on their “juice” eh? Headline from MLB.com spam email today: “‘Energized’ Pujols hits first HR as a Dodger”
# of games for Pujols to hit first home run:
As an Angel … 28
As a Dodger … 4
Ouch, I had forgotten about that. We really do have a way, don’t we.
The correct spelling is “wAy”
I hear he is also fast enough to bunt for a base hit now
He is fAst.
He’s fA
stHaving attended Tuesday’s game at the latrine, I can assure this is not the case.
In fact he looks even slower to me than he was with the Angels.
I remember the “countdown to Pujols hitting .300” and he never got there.
That countdown as for lifetime BA, coming down from some ungodly number.
which he definitely reached