The second draft day of 2021 is here. Will we draft pitchers? The Angels selected right handed pitcher Sam Bachman with their number nine pick, leaving Kumar Rocker on the table for the Mets.
The Angels expect to have Mike Trout, Justin Upton, and Anthony Rendon back in the lineup soon, especially Anthony Rendon.
They won yesterday on the back of a boatload of RBIs by David Fletcher who extended his hitting streak to 24 games.
Links From Around Baseball
Yu Darvish is now on the ten day injured list for San Diego.
Ronald Acuña Jr. tore his right ACL and will undergo season ending surgery.
The Phillies have several guys on the COVID injured list and Alec Bohm tested positive for the virus.
The Red Sox signed closer Matt Barnes to a two year extension.
MLB hopes to return to 9 inning double headers in 2022.
Max Scherzer was named as a replacement to the All-Star Game.
Joe Pepitone is suing the MLB Hall of Fame over a bat of his that Mickey Mantle borrowed to hit his 500th home run.
Denver police arrested four people who appear to have been planning a Las Vegas style mass shooting during the All Star Game.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Nan jya kore wa?
Yahoo Sports: Twitter roasts ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith for xenophobic rant about Shohei Ohtani.
https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-angels-esp-ns-stephen-a-smith-getting-roasted-for-xenophobic-rant-about-shohei-ohtani-204655616.html
If Shohei demanded that he speak English on his own, then we would never have had Pipe. No dice.
Ippei is forever known as pipe from here on out? Would be ok but I think the French-speakers might not like it.
That comment was a workout to type the spell check going. Also off island job on phone. Was tough and Steven is an A Smith can shut the hell up
Can we get a HR Derby thread. Sitting section 157. It’s going to take a real long HR to get to us.
What a zoo Denver is.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1414642487256391682
Awesome. Congrats, Shohei!
I am nervous for him. Starting the game is alot of pressure.
Not saying he will feel it, but I do !!
Lindbergh:
https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2021/7/12/22573272/shohei-ohtani-first-two-way-season-nippon-ham-fighters
Monday thoughts; Sutton was a known commodity coming in and when announced that he was signed it must have been known it was going to be a one and done, but at the half way point was a tough result of just bad play calling and awkward announcing style. Good call Bad timing…..Slightly surprised by Davis going first in draft to Pittsburgh Pirates…..Tigers and A’s had good draft Days……Home Run Derby will be very interesting in Denver’s Mile High thin air and in warm air…..Ohtani will get tired quick in the thin air…….David Fletcher impressed me the first time I saw him. Prior to 2019 season I predicted that he was going to lead the team in Hits, Doubles, and Runs Scored. He missed runs scored. I did Hits and Doubles prior to 2020 and that was good for Hits. This Year I chose just Hits and Runs Scored as 1 out of 2 is a good average. Fletch can field with the best of them in MLB. 24 game hitting streak will keep going until he is at .320 or more……One year early, I projected before 2020 season that it would be Sandoval who would hit Big Time, well he is certainly coming through this season. This season my pick before season was Walsh and so far this has worked out…..Not completely perfect, I believe in picking Ty Maddon and Maddon ended up going to Detroit Tigers as a comp pick in the Thirties. So much for thinking I could judge pitching as it is my weak point for sure…..Angels are going to have a run at the playoffs, so I think we are maybe a small buyer……Enjoy the draft and HR Derby tonight.
Thats a lot of spitballing Gramps.
Really looking forward to the 60 low leverage innings we will get in a few years from our #9 pick, assuming his arm lasts that long. yay, arte and minisian. Great job!!
Photo …. OC – Aybar – Vladdy – Bam Bam
That colorado incident was over drugs, not a plan to do a mass shooting.
Crystal Meth bust just doesn’t get that much attention these days.
That meth stuff is really boring…ask me how I know.
I don’t need meth!
Could have fooled me.
After reading Ball Four, I’m surprised Joe Pep’s Toupee isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
The strategy today is to copy my favorite whipping boy ( the GM after Jerry Dipoto and before Perry Minasian ) and his gawd awful 2018 draft and go with athletic guys who can’t play baseball or pitchers who can’t pitch to save money. We saw this in the war movie Enemy At The Gates with Jude Law which is kind of also like bees in nature ( overwhelm the opposition with lousy expendable numbers and the Soviet Red Army in WW2 ). Thanks for this report Jess back at the old place……UGH!!!
https://www.halosheaven.com/2018/6/5/17431072/2018-mlb-draft-angels-stock-up-on-pitchers-and-nab-a-two-way-player-on-draft-day-2
Before you posted, did you rub one out for intensity?
Are you being brainwashed by the Gitcho Brigade ( we hate the skeptics ).
Kumar Rocker’s agent is Scott Boras and they didn’t take Jordan Wicks who in IMO could’ve made next year’s starting rotation barring injury after the AS break. Ty Madden could be a closer since he still has a 100mph blow torch, they took none of the top high profile arms that were still on the board. Face it this Arte’s MO ( don’t pay a lot of money to a top line starting pitcher ).
https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/why-ace-pitcher-kumar-rocker-fell-mlb-draft/581328 😣 💩 👎
What was the atmosphere like at that busted Thanksgiving where Jerry was stewing over Soth? 😂
Dress it up how ever you want, you are just dumb.
You’re always making excuses for this owner and his crappy incompetent FO people. You’re just still the same tool since back at HH. Go find a good reason to still invest in Sears and Kmart while you’re at it.
5 straight losing seasons and Matt Swanson’s still here. 💩
What excuses? And why does a grown ass man use emoji’s so often? And what’s with the new fixation on Matt Swanson?
he consistently has the worst takes on this site, which was also the case at HH.
Arte’s wife sure looks a lot like the new Channel 5 KTLA weekend morning weathergirl ( Kacey Montoya…….blonde and from USC LOL!!!! ).
The Sutton thing is pretty curious. I didn’t expect him back next season but I’m hoping they have someone lined up beyond Mota to fill in for what ends up being 70% of the broadcasts.
He seemed like a nice guy but his style was definitely a little too caffeinated. Just kind of wild that they didn’t know that before hiring him? There was plenty of time between Rojas leaving and the replacements to listen to some tapes.
I was ready to give him 2 seasons to settle in and get a flow with Gubi and the rest of the broadcasting team. Maybe someone on the broadcasting team wasn’t happy with him.
I was under the impression that he had a live audition for the play by play role that may have included Gubi. It seems to me that they should have figured out in about 5 minutes he was too erratic and annoying for this job.
Maybe he did better in the audition than behind the microphone. Happens all the time. Dude was not good at his job, dude was fired promptly upon making the decision that it was not working – that’s the tale of the tape. Maybe there were lawyers who advised it was better to do this now than wait and create an argument that he must have been decent because the team did not fire him. It’s all speculation other than we KNOW he was not good at his job. Better to do it and get it over with in my opinion.
Nepotism ( late Don Sutton’s son ).
Whoa. Who Knew?
Interview and gametime are two different things.
The idea of a member of the broadcast team not being happy with him crossed my mind as well. How many pregnant pauses from Gubi and Jose did we hear during each game when Sutton sent a question their way? Many. It was as if they were either unprepared for the toss or were asked to answer a question they found not pertinent or just plain dumb.
It would have to be Gubi then. Not sure anyone really cares that much about rest of the team.
Can we move on from this? The guy was not good at his job and the decision was made to fire him. Im a believer in doing that promptly once a decision has been made rather than letting it linger. Also, Sutton has a history of suing when let go so maybe the decision was made it was better to have a shorter tenure and less of an argument that he was let go improperly (ie for a reason other than job performance). The guy was not good at his job, it’s the Allstar break – I can see why the decision was made. Overall it’s really a nothing by comparison to the draft and moves that may be made in the next 3 weeks.
Well stated. I don’t have an issue with the timing of this. I mean, it is not like firing a pitching coach in season…
Seemed like a nice guy but I didn’t enjoy all the constant chatter. I began to refer to him as “The game show host”. Hope he lands on his feet elsewhere.
Last week I had to go to the midwest for a family funeral. During the trip I discovered I was only 20 mins from an iconic movie location. I’ve rewritten the key dialogue — if you build it, he will wear pants.
Question : If there would have been a rosin bag on the mound would you have then wore the “Rally Thong”?
I don’t need a rosin bag to do that.
Just sayin’
Hoosiers?
Steel Magnolias
Sorry for your loss. But great pic.
The thought of you not following the lore is haunting
this is great
Thanks. But what do you think Designatedforassignment would say about it?
Here is our own article about the Sutton firing. https://crashingthepearlygates.com/2021/07/11/daron-sutton-tenure-has-ended-angels/
Canned at half way point means there is more to the story.
What did he do or who did he piss off…I vote for Alex Curry.
Alex also seems very nice but the next time she ask an informed question or makes a less than obvious point will be the first time.
The Athletic is reporting the Sutton firing too. Guessing they go with Mota and Gubie for the games when Vasgersian is committed elsewhere.
Why did David Fletcher not get chosen as a n ASG replacement player? Very simple answer, obvious East Coast bias. I believe the Main Stream Sports Media is tired of having to report on a fourth place Angel team every day because of Ohtani. Reminds me of Halo media coverage before we won the World Series…anybody remember that?
The Yankees are in 4th place too!
But they have all those 20+ banners to fall back on. 💩
Thumbs up for Bill Mazeroski in the 1960 WS.
Ya, our W/S Championship juice has expired the sell before date.
I guess Joe just has to get us back there so we get a fresh date.
As much as I love Fletch it’s hard to argue against Merrifield’s selection. Better slash line, great base runner, higher WAR.
He’s a KC guy, not a YankSux.
Merrifield’s selection was the result of a players’ vote. I assume at the time of voting, Merrifield was actually doing much better than Fletcher was.
Merrifield is more flashy (SB’s and occasional HR’s) but in my mind Fletch playing spectacular defense and doing all the little things like executing hit and run plays, getting guys in from third with less than two outs etc make him just as, if not more valuable than Merrifield.
You can in fact easily argue that Fletch is better and more deserving this year:
Fletcher : bWAR 2.3
Merrifield. : bWAR. 1.8
Nuff said.
Merrifield is up in fWAR 1.9 to 1.4, and I said “at the time of voting.”
Nuff said.
Don’t take things so personally. I was not attacking you. My comments were meant for all of those (and also just general info) who said Merrifield was “better.”
You just happened to be the one commenting on it so I responded to you. Next time I’ll just post at the top…
A direct response and punctuated with a phrase, one that I used as well. I’m just using your words back at you. Very calmly.
Since Merrifield was the selection, the onus should be on those who support Fletcher to demonstrate that Merrifield does not have an argument to be above Fletcher, not the other way around. I was arguing as such.
Well now you seem to be over-complicating things; “demonstrate that Merrifield does not have an argument to be above Fletcher.”
Wha???
Nobody says he “doesn’t have an argument.” What I am saying is that Fletcher is better and thus deserves to be the pick. Simple as that.
A lot of people were suggesting otherwise…
Let’s start with the premise: “Why did David Fletcher not get chosen as an ASG replacement?”
The answer: Whit Merrifield was selected. To demonstrate that Merrifield should not have been selected, you have to prove that all opinions of Merrifield > Fletcher are false. It is not enough to just make one argument that Fletcher > Merrifield.
Similarly, if Fletcher had been selected over Merrifield and people were wonder why Merrifield hadn’t been selected, you would have to disprove all the arguments about why Fletcher is better than Merrifield.
The status quo is that Merrifield is selected. Different arguments will make different points. Some support Merrifield, some support Fletcher. However, Merrifield was a justifiable selection, and to argue that he should not have been selected means that there are no reasonable arguments to his selection.
Merrifield may have been a “justifiable” selection. That does not mean however that he was the right selection. If somebody thinks that OPS is the be all and end all in a statistical analysis and they use that, then of course they will feel justified in saying Merrifield is more deserving.
The problem is that all of this is simply their personal preference. Also, your logic seems flawed to me. Why should I have to prove that “all opinions of Merrifield > Fletcher” are false? Sure, if you search enough you will be able to find a argument that supports Merrifield > Fletcher. In that case it would probably be OPS. Trouble is, that is not the only argument out there, and more importantly it is not the best argument.
I think most informed analysts of the game would agree that WAR is the best way to measure a players overall value, and thus it is generally the best tool for comparing players in the same milieu (Fletcher and Merrifield are both infielders).
Therefore, I don’t need to prove that EVERY conceivable argument favors Fletcher. I only need to prove that the best argument favors him. And it does.
A guy with a name “Merry Field” is simply happy to be playing baseball. Good for him. 🎄 🎅
So we’re cycling back to the original points, which is fine, because semantics is not that exciting.
First, while bWAR favors Fletch, fWAR favors Merrifield. Unless anyone is willing to delve deeply into the comparisons, it’s a wash.
Second, Fletch has been on a tear recently. At the time that the players voted, Merrifield would have been even more defensible than Fletch as compared to now, where it’s a wash.
In the link to the Pepitone story there was another link. The Angels have DFA’d Darin Sutton. As in, they fired him at the halfway point in the season. No replacement has been named. This is per the LA Times.