In today’s links we see extensions aplenty being handed out to MLB Field managers.
Diamondbacks Manager Torey Lovullo got a contract extension through at least 2022.
Orioles Manager Brandon Hyde was retained through at least 2022 as well.
Reds Manager David Bell got extended clear through 2023.
Angels Related Links
Is Shohei Ohtani some kind of experiment sent to Earth to see if it would work?
Here is a positive thinking article about how the Angels (and several other underachieving teams) could become contenders in 2022.
Links From Around Baseball
Benches cleared between the White Sox and the Tigers. Jose Abreu had been hit by a pitch and then took out his frustration by sliding in hard to second on a later play.
The Padres appear to be eliminated from contention. Better luck next year.
Bradley Zimmer homered off of his brother Kyle to become the fourth person to homer off of his brother since 1900.
We are back to discussing part time baseball in Montreal.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Signing Max Sherzer sound like a good idea?
DAMMIT ARTE SHOULD HAVE SIGNED HIM FOR FIVE YEARS IN 2015!!!
Sande Charle -00 – in today’s photo –
he just turned 20, big kid P in Tempe 6’5″
great frame, throws hard and looks like an athlete!
unfortunately the game i was at he was incredibly wild and hit hard too.
even before the game i was in the stands on the right field line. and finally i had to move for my saftey because he overthrew his catching partner 3x in warmups. but they were fast lol – yikes!
in the game against the baby cubs, he was all over the place and they hit him hard
*Arol Vera at SS
I liked the composition on this one. I named the file I put into the CTPG library “Double Aught.”
How about putting a fucking (SEPT) name on your pictures?
Looks like a dude from an online clothing catalogue.
That’s Dorthy’s son, Wes Mantooth..
https://youtu.be/ZP0mhGmUbr0
Hair Club for men founder Sy Sperling?
Maybe he for hires everyone has facial recognition software.
Love ya, Red 😂😂😂
Just curious. Am I the only one who is sick to death of trying to watch a sporting event and being bombarded with gambling ads? In a fairly short period, we have gone from gambling being viewed as anathema to all major sports leagues to where we are today. Now every league is totally in bed with the gamblers and apparently desperate for their dirty money. There is no longer any reason for keeping Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame. He was simply ahead of his time! Meanwhile, how many homes are being destroyed?
Just curious.
That’s all Yahoo writes about “gambling odds, parlay tickets winners, gambling advice”.
And to your point, it does seems like it’s happened overnight.
Most gambling is not destroying homes. People do it that have a little action, make the games more interesting. I know it happens, but it’s not the norm….IMHO.
I’m not capable of rigging a game from my couch. Rose was perfectly capable of rigging games from the field and dugout. Hence the ban.
And please don’t come with the “he never bet on his team to lose” take. He’s lied about every single thing. And what about the times he didn’t bet? Still trying to win?
Yup, and Steroid users didn’t hurt anybody but themselves, and banging on trashcans did not hurt anyone and the noise added to the game. Do you even know cheating when you see it? Rose and anyone else that has cheated does not belong in the HOF or in the game or even in a stadium.
As for your pointing out the amount of Gaming and Gambling around Major League Sports it is as pointed out about the money. But I would still buy a ML Sports Franchise if I had the means to do so. Arte has do well financially owning the Halos. 20 yaers from now the Halos value is going to be over 50 Billion.
Duuuude. I feel the same way. TV and radio sports talk etc are all about gambling now. I can totally see how in 10 years there’s gonna be all these people who can’t even watch a game they don’t have a little action on. It’s gross.
I especially hate the trite “thoughts and prayers/love wins” style “have fun, if you have a gambling addiction that’s not tight bro! Gettin help is fire! Call 1 888 BET LESS…” comment that some guy who had frosted tips in 1998 throws in every half hour or so. Gambling’s gonna be a big problem in a few years.
Fletch still the voice of reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAcRYbZ3xR8
But the sky is falling………..
Arte me no ue no tankobu
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more reasoned/rational take about sports on the web.
It is that time of year again when every publication will say the Angels need to spend big on an Ace and pretty much ignore the complete lack of a bullpen.
Also their math is wrong, Baltimore covered half of Cobb’s salary so the Angels paid him $7.5 million and the trio a total of $25 million. Oddly the missed Quintana’s waste of another $8 million so if you add that in, they are kind of right.
I do think the emergence of Sandoval and Suarez as cost controlled back end guys should lead to a higher caliber free agent addition this year.
Seems to me that bullpen guys are even a worse bet than starters.
Hence why the Angels drafted a shit pile of college relievers this year
Yep and I think the beginnings of a home grown bullpen happen the second half of next year.
Doesn’t the pitching durability issues with our entire organization make it necessary to go with a quantity over quality with free agent signings? Can’t keep guys healthy, you need more guys.
The 50/50 prop bet with pitching free agents this offseason is the most important in this franchise’s history. Almost got to hope we have the “due to get it right theory“ on our side.
Current rotation options: Ohtani, Sandoval, Suarez, Barria, Detmers, Canning, Naughton.
Obviously only Ohtani has front of the rotation stuff but I think we’re OK on quantity right now. Not good, but OK.
Adding, say, Stroman to that staff gives us 8 guys. If Cobb wants to stick around I’d be happy with that, too.
In that case Ohtani, Stroman, Sandoval, Cobb, Suarez, Barria would be the MLB staff with Detmers, Canning, Naughton as AAA depth.
Just leaves an entire bullpen to build around Warren and C-Rod.
Maybe Barria in a long-relief role, to go along with another starter (Jon Gray?).
I hope we re-sign Iglesias to close out the pen too.
Barria is out of options so we have to keep him. My concern would be that his fastball of 91 would be very hittable after seeing fastballs at 95 your first two at bats.
But he could work after one of the lefties in the rotation.
Indeed. I am just not sure he makes the rotation – especially if we keep Cobb and sign two others. Hence trying to find a role for him in the pen.
Interestingly, in August Barria was throwing 96mph. I think in Minnesota he was clocked at that several times… Then he pitched a fabulous game against the A’s (shutout, I think). He was hitting 95-96 there too.
Not sure why his velo dropped off, but if he got to 96 a month or so ago he should be able to find that again.
Yeah Bleacher Report said ignore Iglesias and sign an ace. As mentioned, Baltimore paid some of Cobb’s salary and Iglesias is an anchor. I’d be open to losing Iglesias if you had replacements in the wings, but that isn’t the case with this organization. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is how I view it.
That article about 2022 contenders obviously doesn’t want the Angels to succeed. Giving 32 million to Kershaw would be about the dumbest thing this franchise could do. It would be guaranteed that if that happened he would immediately begin sucking and the talk of “Kershaw is done” would begin and meanwhile the Angels would have shot their load on a guy who is finished.
The only way Kershaw would make sense is if he could be had relatively cheaply for 1-2 years. However, clearly that won’t happen since he has pitched well in 2021. So, as far as Clayton goes the Angels should “just say no.”
The Angels need to target Scherzer or Ray, or maybe Stroman. My preference is to break the bank to give Mad Max a 2 or 3 year deal.
I think Max sets a new AAV record and gets a 2 or 3 year deal. I also think that comes from LA to extend their World Series window.
We’ll see but I’m willing to bet Stroman + Iglesias = pretty much Max. In that case I know which way I’d go every time.
Can we go Stroman + Jon Gray + Iglesias + Villar + Manuel Pina (back up catcher) (all FA, so keep all the young talent). One can even see if Cobb will re-up.
Need to add a bullpen piece or two, but I would be happy with this moving forward – and with Pujols, Bundy, Quintana, Iglesias (Jose), Fowler, Heaney, Claudio off the books, there should be money to do this all.
Rahul will calculate the likely budget soon and once Fangraphs and MLBTR come out with predictions the real off season pieces can come out.
Do remember that Rendon gets a huge raise next year. He’s been paid well below his AAV this year and last and starts making up that ground. Arte operates by real cash flow not luxury tax calculations, so most of the Pujols money is already gone.
I hate to be “that guy” but I am finally at the point where, if I were Arte, I’d spend well above my normal budget constraints for a season or two. It hasn’t been something I thought would make a big enough difference in the past, while retaining Trout and buying land to keep the Angels in So Cal seemed like pretty good things to pinch pennies for in my book. But now…
Normally I hate the idea of spending just “to show you want to win” blah blah blah. But right now it actually makes sense to push a ton of cash into puffing up the club’s value and the level of excitement around it. I’d tell Perry to bust the Lux Tax cap for 2 years at this point but have a plan to get below it soon. I’d say most of this publicly so players and agents know “hey, there’s an owner going deep in his pockets in the Heim”.
Until Montreal has a stadium up and building why doesn’t the MLB just approve an ownership group that gets to have a AAA club, then if that goes well and a stadium actually has ground broken and fans have gone to AAA games, that group gets bumped up to MLB ownership.
Is there an MiLB AA/AAA team out there that is maybe building a new stadium or looking to move and can park in Frenchy Land for a couple years?
Live by the Free Agent, then die by the Free Agent. The Angels are a team focused on expensive Free Agents and they seem to not go all the way to build this team after they hit a certain level and then say Stop! The team needs to throw out the self imposed salary level. Also build the Front Office and invest solidly in the minor leagues including lodging and food. If the ownership and management do not turn this around the days of 3 million fans per year will not continue especially without Trout staying on the field with Ohtani. But to pick up two quality starters will mean a trade involving an expensive in terms of talent piece. “Build it, they will come.”.
Can we get Scherzer, Jon Gray, and Villar for roughly the same money we were paying Pujols, Bundy, Quintana and Iglesias this year? Would those three, with the return of Trout and Rendon, be enough?
Yes, the Angels should pay more for the minor league folk (feeding them better seems like such an easy call – providing bang for buck in a healthier workforce, better training meaning superior cheap talent to draw from, and more likely an ability to sign the better minor league FA’s we keep needing to rely on).
Yes, the Angels should pay for better scouting and on the international front. I wonder if anyone has ever done a cost analysis on that. How much, on average, does one have to pay to end up signing an Ohtani, a Gurriel, etc.? How many times does one need to hit to have the entire system pay for itself?
Yes, the Angels should pay more for the minor league folk (feeding them better seems like such an easy call – providing bang for buck in a healthier workforce, better training meaning superior cheap talent to draw from, and more likely an ability to sign the better minor league FA’s we keep needing to rely on).
>> I know Dipoto will forever have the ugly stain of Roberto Baldoquin for the very informed Angels fans. But I remember an interview/article with Dipoto and Scott Servais (I think he was the assistant GM at that time), where Servais was saying his main project was to overhaul the entire minor league system, make it want for young players to come play for the Angels. He said even as something as simple as supplying blankets and basic clothing and living supplies with Angels logos can make a world of difference in perception and impression of the team to kids.
I’m thinking now that Servais, and Dipoto, is gone, that whatever system and programs they put in place are also kaput.
So the reason the JeDi & his sidekick left for the Emerald City was because the Angels refused to give away Taylor Ward autographed blankys to all the minor leaguers?
Ahh. Now at last its finally all making sense
Home Team; The biggest mystery is why this team is always affected by so many injuries? Second on the list is ; What has happened to David Fletcher? Answer is how he is being pitched and the other teams are aware of his first pitch swinging, so down and away is what he sees. And the last question is; Will the owner, Arturo Moreno, change his way of doing business and allow the team to be built properly?
You ask three questions, yet answer only one. So you really only have two questions?
Why yes, there are 3 questions with one answered, still there remains 3 questions though. One answered does not discount or subtract one as there still remains 3 questions regardless if one is answered in the text.
Well – arguably an answered question is no longer a question. At most it’s a rhetorical question. 😉
What is the meaning of life?
Now there’s a question!
42
I would like to add Happy Birthday to Rev Halofan, without whom this bunch of semi functional and dysfunctional band of Angels fans would not have come together on this site. It was through his love of writing and experimentation in blogging added to his love of Angels baseball, that this site has sprung from, after many trail detours. happy Birthday Rev !!!
Crashing the Pearly Gates… where we put the FUN in dysfunctional!
That’s much better than having to put legs into pants.
Just sayin…
Thanks Don! Gonna have my cake and eat it too tonight I hope!
Excellent!
We all are in our own ways!
Montreal and MLB does not compute. Same can also be said about Tampa Bay. But the Owners are just dying to have expansion for the money, not for the fans or for the health of the game. Greedy S.O.B’s. Moving franchises is only going to go to the A’s move to Vegas. Vegas is paying for Baseball playing.