I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying the heck out of this year’s team. Spring Training is my favorite time of year and we are basically getting a second dose to wrap up the season. But the kids are facing legit MLB talent each night.
I just wish ticket prices were the same as they are in the Cactus League. And yes, I’m already looking over the Spring Training schedule in anticipation of next year.
This week Brandon Marsh and Jo Adell showed out. If this is the future…
Mike Trout is fully invested in the success of the young players. Trout and other veterans are dispensing advice, compliments, and criticism.
Adell has been playing great on both sides of the ball lately. This highlight reel catch is a thing of beauty and to me really kickstarted his nice run. That grand slam in Detroit is getting a lot of love, too, but I feel he’s been building to that moment. I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
Marsh cracked his first big league home run and followed that up with two triples yesterday.
One thing that really impressed me from these two lately, particularly Adell: the lack of chases at bad pitches. They seem to be settling down.
A major piece of the future is the rotation. Patrick Sandoval had a rough last 2 starts but gets the Tigers, Orioles, and Rangers up next. He’ll need to do better against the LA’s and Houston’s though, to really establish himself.
Uh, oh, he’s actually on the shelf with a back injury. If Maddon actually says it is serious for once, it must be bad.
How hot is Shohei Ohtani? Future Hall of Famers are literally stealing his gear just to get a piece of him.
Miggy watched firsthand as Ohtani had yet another dominant performance, going 8 innings on the mound and becoming the first MLB player to reach 40 HR this year.
For real, I love the joy Miggy brings to the game. Laughing, interacting with fans, it is what baseball should be all about: fun.
The opposite of hot is Jared Walsh. Either he’s really hurt, the league adjusted to him, or likely a combination of the two. We need a good Walsh to have a deep lineup in 2022, let’s hope he figures it out soon.
Adding more talent for the future, the Angels inked Blake Seigler out of the MLB Draft league. Here’s a look at the newest Halo signee:
MLB is already lining up a Field of Dreams game for 2022. That one will pit the Cubs against the Reds. Why the rush? Last week’s game was a ratings dream for MLB and Fox, the most watched regular season game in 16 years.
I’m willing to bet at some point in the future one or more of the kids in this year’s Little League World Series will be in the big leagues. For now, I just enjoy watching the kids play. The smiles, the comraderie, the appearance of innocence.
In many ways the LLWS is all that is good about baseball. Of course, a big part of the fun is seeing the kids personalities emerge and sometimes they say some funny things.
Ambidextrous Hawaii pitcher Tyler Shindo became a social media sensation. Unfortunately he won’t be joining his team in Williamsport.
If you’d like a local-ish squad to cheer on, Torrance is the first LA County team to reach the World Series since 1994.
And the baseball gods put a nice bow on this weekend’s links for me. The Angels will play Cleveland in the Williamsport Classic on Sunday night. The uniforms for each squad will look like regional unis for the LL teams.
Feel good story of the Day
Yankees Odor calls for time out and then hits a HR. HR called back then he strikes out!
FYI in case anyone was interested. It looks like some of the players and front office personnel have already donated.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/financial-support-for-kristen-allen-and-4-girls?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet
thanks for that.
https://twitter.com/AaronHowie/status/1428833472697806851?s=20
Slegers down. Good.
Why are we keeping him at all? Salty Nuts guy needs a succession plan?
Thats the strongest impression of all
MLB Trade rumors has the list of free agents for the end of this season. Just thinking, could we afford Sean Manaea from Oakland?
“The following players are on track to be eligible for free agency after the 2022 season. Players’ ages for the 2023 season are listed in parentheses. Please note that this is NOT a list of players eligible for free agency after 2021.”
Emphasis you’re’s?
I can’t recall the last time they had an mlb game on at night, on regular tv, that wasn’t a playoff game. If they keep the same idea, it will get the views.
hey, I had an answer to a question you asked a week or so ago but now I don’t remember either the answer or the question. Oh well, eh?
Sometimes watch Shohei I think he is running out of stream and then he pitches 8 innings so go figure. Then he adds to it with a HR. This is the most incredible season for a player I have seen since Yaz in ’67. Maybe even better. Trouty has done for so long I’m not sure that Shohei can do what he is doing again though as it takes a lot of stamina and energy for the whole season and by about now MT runs out of gas when not injured.
It would be nice to see Torrance go all the way and win the LLWS title.
Ha. HNL Boyz baybee
or maybe Lake Oswego, Oregon.
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1428772864233074693?s=20
Arol Vera helps soothe the burn of missing out on other prospects.
https://dnyuz.com/2021/08/20/is-aloe-a-sham/
I have an interview with TBW on the front page right now.
Taylor Ward was a horrible first round pick by JeDi. THEN he is suddenly granted access to cover the Angels by the bogus elite? THHHEEEENNN all he does is tout the virtues of prospect who obviously suck because they were brought into the org by the syupidest man ever, Billy Eppler! Coincidence? Not if you dig so deep you can’t possibly deep better than this! I’m on to you Arte!
I think the worst one was the guy we traded to get salary relief for dumping Cozart, another great move of his. I’m too GA to access my brain for that guy’s name.
Will Wilson. The 2026 triple-crown winner.
Don’t remind me. What was worse was people at HH defending the move at the time.
Uh Oh!
You’re not allowed to be wrong and lazy at CTPG.
Follow the money……..or the lack of money….because of cheap Arte.
Sounds like Aloe Vera skin lotion to me.
Great article with links!! Thanks
Thanks.
So Marsh got credit for a HR and triple with 1 swing of the bat?
well it was over the yellow line but listening to the talk about it when it happened I heard that the top of the wall is in play, “a non-homer”. How could the ball hit the top of the wall and spin back onto the field? It must have hit the fence but it’s hard to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyHBBtCFHgw
It looked like it hit a metal horizonal tube and came back in for a HR to me, but two 3b in one game is cool to and he scored anyway.
The cool thing is Marsh was totally cool about it. How cool is that? Marsh is chill!
One day, he will forgive us all
Marsh must be thinking, enough is enough and will soon crank a 450ft no-doubter. “Santa Maria!”
So, a double to the warning track
I hope its a Waltz home run call instead.
I don’t know how many avid trading card people we have on here, but this is of interest to the world of baseball cards.
Thanks for this, interesting tidbit. I’m a trading card guy and my gosh, industry is back to craziness.
What are unopened 1989 packs going for nowadays?
1989 Upper Deck has the Griffey, Card No.1. An unopened foil pack is ~ $15. Upper Deck was the new kid on the block that year. PSA 10 graded Griffey is ~ $2000.
In 1989 you could buy unopened Upper Deck cases for $400, now $14k to $15k. The industry crapped out in the mid-90’s, new card manufactures and mass production. People found new fads. But it is back, vintage cards with medium to high grades have jumped during the pandemic.
Current card manufacturers now put an autograph card of a hot rising player (Tatis, Guerrero, etc.) in one pack per box. Those prices are just crazy.
Topps is what I got
I meant to link that. Thanks.
I read about Fanatics getting all three major sports so figured Topps would be in major trouble with just soccer leagues. Thanks for the link. I love reading about the business side of sports.
Really? They know next year’s rotation already?
They are in on the privy sekrit newz
Hence my follow up link.
I see Warren as next years closer when Moreno doesn’t pay Iglesias due to bad money commitments on certain non-producing players.
Dat wered bee stoopid
Need an unnamed image
I was thinking the same thing this morning
Let’s hope not .Warren might be a great setup man but he’s no closer like DeWayne Buice.
Is the DeWayne Buice mention a sly allusion to the sports card conversation?
No just more based upon the point that Austin Warren reminds me alot more of DeWayne Buice than say a Frankie Rodriguez.
Oh. I asked because former Angel reliever DeWayne Buice is one of the founders of the Upper Deck card company.
Now that is some really deep trivia right there.
Warren MIGHT BECOME a great setup man, but there’re lots of things that need to happen before that.
You are a cold-blooded man. I’m talking about the universe we have that are currently on the roster, and he seems like the best choice.
Austin has but 13 innings picked in the big leagues.
He may be our first fallback if something happens the Reisel this season, but not if we need to replace our closer with Warren next season.
The kid is, a kid.
Brought this up in the game thread yesterday. It might be time to rethink the bagging on Eppler. While he certainly is subject to question for not drafting pitching more aggressively and for not signing free agent pitching that improved the rotation and bullpen, certain draft picks and moves are looking very VERY good right now.
Consider his primary role in signing Ohtani, drafting Adell and Marsh, trading for Stassi and Sandoval and signing Suarez. That right there is a significant body of work that deserves credit. Add in Griffin Canning and Reid Detmers as well as the Simba trade and I think the guy is deserving of some significant credit.
Agreed. Still passed on some much safer college arms that would likely have up competing now, still went more boom or bust than I’d prefer, but some hits are definitely emerging and he should get credit for those.
A thousand times yes on passing on college arms to sign the crap FA pitchers we had during his tenure.
Excuse me. But that was highly athletic crap mind you.
Love this post, 1971. I am an Eppler guy but realize, he did not get us to the postseason, 5-years was good run to get us to the post season.
He had his warts, those lousy 1-yr pitching signings, Thaiss, Will Wilson and Ausmus. But he has to endure Meddling owner, forced to fire Ausmus and hire Maddon and directed to sign Rendon, Pederson and Stripling trade cancellation, and hampered by Puljos, CJ Wilson and Hamilton bloated contracts.
Eppler also traded Jett Bandy for a back-up catcher, Maldonado. Similar to Stassi, Martin was a head scratcher at the time. We found out how Maldy much was a legitimate backstop and solidified the position. Subsequently traded for Sandoval. Also picked up LaStella. Tommy had his issues but he blossomed under the Angels and became an all star, sadly crushed by the leg issue. Like Kendrys Morales breakout only to get derailed. There are other under the radar trades…
To your points, the fruits of his farm selections have yet to blossom but we can see the signs. I really would like to see Jordyn Adams make it too.
Lastly, the most impact move by Billy??? Easy, how about #17. Pitcher, DH, MVP Shohei Ohtani.
Can he use you as a reference?
Eh. I liked Eppler fine because I have watched enough other team’s GMs and knew he was OK. At least he had a plan and stuck to it. After our past GMs I liked that. The people who started calling for his firing after 1 or 2 years were stupid, what he was trying takes longer than that. But he had long enough and his plan didn’t pan out. We will see some sure benefits from what he did. We already are. But it was too little and too slow, he got a fair shot and it was time to replace him. Still he will have definitely played a part in building a winner if we get good the next couple years and he’ll probably get another job if guys like Adams, Vera and Paris climb in the top 100 in addition to C Rod, Canning, Detmers, Adell and Marsh making good.
Something had to be done, and he was the man in the lowest position. Just signed Maddon, can’t fire Atre or his groupies. Wrong place wrong time. That one-year extension he took did Epps in.
What I would have liked to have seen was Perry hired as President of Baseball Ops and Eppler retained as GM and/or head of scouting. Eppler and Perry working together would have been a good combo as each has his strengths.
That would have been neat to see happen. But what would happen to KoiBoi?
I’m hesitant to agree with you until I see what pictures 2002 posts as a rebuttal.
Assuming you can identify them.
Does that really matter? The man has a point to make, dammit.
Hopefully this will ultimately become similar to the Bill Stoneman actually inherited a great farm system and maybe Bill Bavasi wasn’t that bad of a GM argument
Bill Bavasi couldn’t make a deal to save his own Mother’s life. A good scout and player development guy, but not a wheeler & dealer like Dipoto or Dave Dombrowski was…….Bye!!
Which is the point of my post Captain Oblivious.
You forget he traded for Simba too. At the time he was scorched for it, but from day one I believe that was his best trade. Beast of a signing was Ohtani.
He got flack because he traded away our only decent pitching prospect, Newcomb, when the team was desperate for SP. Ultimately the trade worked since Newcomb has yet to materialize as a good SP and Simba was a joy to watch.
Not so fast!!
Why are we supposed to care about Grady Sizemore?
Because before Arte bought the Angels, Andrew made Arte prevent Bill Stoneman from drafting Sizemore
2002 has spoken, Eppler was awful (and I don’t even know who that is in the picture. Seriously 2002, can you just notate the name of the player you’re posting so we can try to understand the point you’re attempting to make?)
former UC Santa Barbara Gaucho ( as was Jim Rome too BTW ) and 2020 AL Cy Young winner Shane Bieber and a former OC favorite son.
I like his spin rate……….
Thank you. Now can you elaborate on the point you’re trying to make by posting his picture? Should Eppler have known Beiber would be as good as he is? Do all other GMs in baseball, aside from Cleveland’s, deserve the same scorn for not knowing who Beiber would become? In your opinion did Eppler do anything good during his tenure?
Remember how good Travis Hafner was for a while there before the roid destroyed his body? We should have drafted him too. Also, Joe Carter. And f**k it, throw in Bob F***in Feller while we’re at it… though those guys were top prospects.
If Only Rapid Robert was around in 1961 to be drafted by the Angels in the expansion draft.
Stupid Billy also should have also drafted Willy Mayes Hayes and Ricky Vaughan if he had known what he was doing.
Every above average player not on the Halos since 2003 is a spotlight on how awful of an owner Arte is.
We could have totally had like six all-star teams worth of players if Arte had just kept JeDi, Signed Farhan Zaidi, and committed four billion dollars to player salary. But alas, he is not a real baseball man.
Patrick Sandoval will indeed face some hurdles against the Tigers, O’s and Rangers pitching from the IL.
I, for one, think he can still keep his 6 inning per start average intact during that stretch.
Going to be really curious to see if Marsh or Adell gets dangled again in the offseason like that near Max Meyer trade. Starting to get attached to Marsh in particular and the flashes from Adell are tantalizing.
Them being best buds also seems like it would be good for locker room culture to have a young core come up together.
I think they should not be traded.
Yep. A 70M outfield is a problem. A 37M outfield, not so much. Moar Pidjers!
The only thing that worries me about Jo Adell is the way he dives for balls to his left and to his right because he always spikes his knee into the turf upon landing. It looks like he is going to seriously injure either his knee or his hip one of these days while diving for a ball.
Great observation. I hadn’t really noticed it. Kind of like a receiver trying to get a body part down in bounds.
That’s a lot of shock to absorb.
One day it will dig into mother earth, and then we will have real problems diagnosing that injury.
He just tweeked that knee cap. He feels pretty good and will be back by the next World Cup.
You talking about Mother Earth or Jo Adell?
Jo’s knee, getting stuck in the ground
He is not fluid in the field. I attribute this due to jitters or lack of confidence. Hines should get a fungo and hit 1000+ fly balls a week breaking him in. Dead serious about that.
An article about Jimmie Reese’s fungo would be a great read. I’m especially interested in what happened to it after his passing. To whom did he bequeath it?
Yes, he is afraid to stretch out. Someone needs to teach him the safer way to dive for catches.
He will be grazing in the outfield real soon like this, or worse.
Trout has some free time on his hands.
Great point. I noticed this issue too. He may have some of that when he runs the bases as well. Wasn’t it spring training 2019 when he tore up his ankle and injured his hamstring flying around the bases during an exhibition game?
It’s like he still has a hitch in his giddy up
Joe Maddon regarding Marsh (Daily News): “When he runs during a triple, it’s fun,” Maddon said. “Just watching his hair flying, how fast he’s running and how his body moves, it’s like watching Fabio hit a triple.”
And apparently Marsh didn’t know who Fabio was when he was told that quote.
i wonder if they showed Marsh the YOUTUBE clip of Fabio getting laced by a bird while on a roller coaster? he really wasn’t very good at the game Duck, Duck, Goose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjAYxpXUklc
It must be nice to be so young…..
Apparently Marsh doesn’t know who Fabio is, which makes him even more Fabio.
Also, Marsh can’t believe it’s not butter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszIaNpYILY
Awesome!
The hair flying might be wonderful just don’t let it obstruct chasing a fly ball. I saw in an earlier game where he was diving to make a catch, hat flew off and his girly locks flew in front of his face. smh. I played with longer hair but not Marsh long.
DeGrom cut his hair cuz he was tired of tasting it on his 100+ MPH heater follow-threw.
I’ll get concerned when he looks like “Cousin It”
Cousin It is a bad ass, I am waiting for this day. Murrrrmurrrr mmurrmuuurrr baby up.
Agreed. Anyone whose animated character is voiced by Snoop Dog is cool in my book.
Put Moneyball on last night out of boredom (and because I thoroughly enjoy it) and always laugh at when the scout asks who Fabio is and another scout says he’s a SS with the Mariners.