The Angels play a game today! It has been a long time since we’ve been able to say that.
Come back at 1 PM for a game thread. We should get one in every game. The Spring Training schedule has been revised so take a look to make sure you don’t miss a game or thread.
As always this time a year a huge THANK YOU to Rex Fregosi for the pics from Tempe. You are a blessing to this site year round and doubly so in March.
A couple of new faces will be in camp this week. Perry has taken the bullpen seriously. Pre lockout he added Aaron Loup and brought back Raisel Iglesias. This week he signed Archie Bradley followed by Ryan Tepera.
Also getting a name badge is utility infielder Matt Duffy.
What can the Angels expect from the new guys? From Tepera, heat and sliders.
Tepera was recently named on a list of under the radar additions teams should consider.
On the field, Bradley should also be a nice addition. Off the field, he’s a really funny follow on Twitter.
Spring is a great time to get acquainted with the new faces in camp. Here’s a really nice piece on shortstop candidate Andrew Velazquez and his baseball journey. That’s the longform reading for this week.
This is pretty cool:
And it wouldn’t be Spring Training without an Angels pitching injury. Griffin Canning, come on down. He’s headed to the 60 day IL.
Ahh, the optimism of Spring. I love it. My favorite time of year. So I’ll just leave this here:
Thor, Ohtani, Lorenzen, Sandoval, Suarez, Barria. Not half bad, especially if Sandoval and Suarez pitch like they did last year. And it allows Reid Detmers to fully develop and serve as first man up.
Iglesias, Loup, Tepera, Bradley, Warren, Buttrey, Junk looks a ton better than a group that included Claudio, Guerra, Slegers, and Cishek last year.
And don’t forget my prospect crush Luke Murphy will soon join the big club.
The Earth shattering news this week came out of the NL West. First the Rockies went full Rockies and handed Kris Bryant $182 million to remain a fourth place team. Later that night, the Dodgers added Freddie Freeman for $160 million to form one of the greatest lineups every assembled. Meanwhile, the Giants quietly upgraded with Joc Pederson and Matthew Boyd.
Can you go home again? Zack Greinke is headed back to Kansas City. He talked about the reunion on MLB Network.
There’s also a tournament of some sort going on. Ah, who am I kidding, it is March Madness! And I absolutely love it. Hope your bracket is doing well. I actually didn’t do one this year.
Post all the baseball stuff I missed below as well as your Final Four and ultimate NCAA champion.
good to know that J-Up will make more money this year than Story. I believe, also, Upton will have a better year, of the two.
At least for 2022 and the near future, we won’t have to listen to Joe Buck calling the World Series games. That is a win for all of baseball.
Buck is a good choice for ESPN as he will raise the ratings and ESPN’s game choices. He may even draw us here at home back to MNF teamed with Troy. FOX messed up big time. Like Buck or not he has called a lot of Super Bowls and World Series.
Angels are at normal payroll and there are legitimate concerns about Story’s bat in real ballparks.
He’ll hit much better on the bandboxes back East.
That said, Perry should’ve picked up a middle infielder somehow some way.
I still think Story would have been a worthwhile investment even at the numbers he signed for. Plus we had an opening at shortstop that other teams did not.So maybe he would have have taken shorter terms with us.
But PTP did pick up a middle infielder. His name is Matt Duffy.
Agreed. Story’s road splits scared me but then I read the Athletic today and it out those into perspective.
The glove and decent bat makes him a 4 WAR guy. That’s about what he’s getting paid. And we had the opening.
I did remember reading a story last year about how weak his throwing arm was at short last year. Maybe thats why other teams wanted to move him to a different position. However, I did not realize he was such a fast runner and Joe loves speed. I think thats why Tyler Wade is getting such an opportunity.
Didn’t Sparky Anderson used to say “Speed never slumps”?
Pictures from yesterday
The club had a full workout on the lower fields before game. Only the 6th day of camp.
Awesome, great, I’m envious of your talents. BTW Trouty looks to be in the best shape I’ve seen him in a long time, say 10 months. Keep the pics coming please.
It’s awesome that the Angels are going forward with Rengifo as a starter now that story is off the board.
That’s your story not mine
If Rengifo is prime SS candidate, it was odd his first start this Spring was at 2B and Fletch was put at SS.
Either way, it’s suboptimal he’s got regular playing time.
Suboptimal is not on the roster. In fact I haven’t seen him posting here for a while.
He became an A’s fan this year.
Barring injury, Fletch will be the starting SS. Duffy will be the starting 2B.
Not sure what will happen at 2B but I agree that Fletch is destined for shortstop. PTP and Joe have been talking about the switch for a while now…
Duffy signed a major league contract 2 weeks ago for $1,500,000. No way Cheap Arte eats that before opening day. 2 other infielders on the 40 man ( Captain Jack & Tyler Wade) have no options left while Rengifo has 1 left. Wade also has experience in the outfield and has elite speed. Captain jack has performed adequately at every infield position. Rengifo’s defensive metrics at every other position except short are not good and his offensive numbers last year were abysmal. While Duffy’s 2B defensive metrics ( albeit in a small sample size) have been excellent and his offense numbers have at least been league average.
So unless the Angels want to release Wade or Captain Jack, Rengifo won’t make the opening day roster let alone start.
Just one comment: Rengifo’s stats were better after being recalled from AAA at the end of the season. There was clearly an adjustment made – so his numbers for the year might not reflect where he is offensively, or how he is seen by the staff.
Thats what I Believed until I checked out the Game logs. I would have thought his September call up numbers would have improved enough ago at least exceed league averages but nope .
April 16th Thru July 27th. (.151/.189/.233)
September 4th to October 3rd (.250/.299/.386)
Improvement over abysmal can still result in inadequacy.
One spot or maybe two I would not let Capt. Jack or Wade go. If there are two backup OF spots, one would go to JUp and possibly Garcia. No matter what happens the call will be tough no matter what the call is.
Doesn’t Rengifo have some legal issues chasing him?
With the shortened spring, the Angels will have to carry at least an 8 man bullpen. That only leaves a max of 4 bench spots. With J Up guaranteed a seat on the pine and Suzuki taking up another that only leaves 2 open spots and at least one of those guys will need to play some defensive outfield. So I doubt Garcia will get a spot since hes not on the 40 man and as good as Taylor Ward always seems to hit in Arizona, I just don’t see a spot on the opening day roster with all of these other decisions that need to be made.
Nah, I think sooner than later Fletch will move to ss and Luis or whomever takes 2b.
Story to the Chowds.
Well, after a game Friday and again on Saturday we know that the Bats are there to bail out the pitchers. Wish we could take all of the Bats back to the Big A, Captain Jack looking better than good, Sierra looking like late inning and off day for Trouty good, Ward and Renny off to productive starts, Romaine Lettuce be thankful as backup catcher looks good too. JUp off the blocks fighting with Adell and Marsh for starting gig.
I am very optimistic and feeling positive right now and believe that PTP might have done and put something together a real live winning team together. I know it’s early yet but…….? 😀 😃 😎
I am still a little surprised that Cueto is still on the board. I thought he did enough last year to chase injury concerns away. Could be a consequence of different valuations – him thinking he is worth much more than teams have to pay a 4 ERA 36 year old pitcher (who threw only 120 innings last year).
On yesterdays broadcast Perry said that the average MLB team used 13 starting pitchers last year with the bulk of the working being done by 10 of them .
I suspect with the compressed schedule and injury concerns those numbers will be higher this year.
So where is Perry getting all 13 pitchers from ? Hell I’m not sure where we’re going to get a base of 10 competent pitchers from ?right now. Not unless he has more signings or a trade or 2 up his sleeve
I wonder if any team has 10, let alone 13, pitchers they are really happy to trot out in a starting role.
We have Ohtani, Thor, Sandoval, Lorenzen, Suarez, Barria listed as starting, and then Detmers, Junk, Crisswell, Diaz, followed by Ponce De Leon, Davis Daniel and Ryan Smith in AAA.
That is 10-13 pitchers. It doesn’t include the recently DFA’d Naughton and Tyler (both of which we could end up keeping), and it doesn’t include Canning (on the IL) or anyone currently listed at AA (Bachman, Pina, Yan).
I don’t know if it is a ‘good enough’ corps, but it is 10-13 live bodies that can (and have, for the most part) pitched at MLB.
I think all of the first 6, plus Detmers and Canning have shown they have MLB stuff to varying degrees. Everyone else would be forced into service earlier than we like.
Can we sign more starters? That depends on who we want to keep around – any starter signed makes a touch decision with Barria (no options), and further cuts for the 40-man. Sure, we will cut some of the MIF depth at some point, but after the competition (same perhaps with the bullpen corps, but we will see).
With Packys DFA yesterday and Kyle Tylers DFA today, the death match for the 6th starter to break camp with the team is taking shape.
Remaining candidates:
Barria, Junk, Detmers and possibly Daniel Ponce de Leon, Davis Daniel or Cooper Criswell.
Obviously Daniel didn’t help his cause with yesterday’s performance.
Kyle Tyler DFA? Thought we had more obvious cuts than him?
Isn’t he just far enough away that it would be risky to put him on the 40-man? One has to keep perhaps less accomplished players, but at positions where they can contribute from the bench (hence Naughton and Tyler getting cut rather than a Mayfield or Rojas).
Barria is the guy….if he has held onto his “surprise magic trickery” from last year. Like his “Grit Factor”.
The rest can use some time pounding the “AAA Salt”.
Whoopsie I forgot about JHonathan Diaz. PTP specifically mentioned him today on the game broadcast.
PTP will pick up some scraps (aka “dumpster diving”) when the roster cuts start happening leading into the start of the season.
I don’t think so with this years collection of arms and bats in camp.
Barria is out of options. It’s going to be him.
Junk is likely battling for a bullpen job.
The rest are headed to the minors.
Then why is Detmers starting today and not Barria?I would think you would want your scheduled starter to face the opponents better hitters In fact since Barria is scheduled to come in in the middle innings, it seems like he projected right now to be a bullpen.
With the shortened spring and the reduced amounts of games and opportunities, I think the Angels will be forced to make roster decisions earlier than they would have liked.
Castellanos signs with Phillies and Correa signs 3 year 105mil with the Twins, now there’s a go figure.
Uh oh, Boras wasn’t able to Jedi Mind Trick, a 10 yr 300+ Million contract out of an MLB team for his client.
Patience my friend patience . He’ll get his 340 mil but over 2 contracts
🤣
Teams have caught on to his shenanigans.
I think we will start seeing fewer and fewer of those 300 million plus contracts, and we will especially see fewer and fewer 7-10 year contracts.
Only the rare young talents like Tatis Jr. etc will get those.
And Shohei Ohtani.
The Angels will probably be one of only 4 teams ( Mets, Yankees, Doyers are the others) to be paying 3 players over a total of $105,000,000 in salary for the 2023 season.
Quien es mas macho?
Los Angeles Bullpen o Los Valientes bullpen?
Los Valientes:
Closer Kenley Jansen
Set Up Will Smith
Set Up Colin McHugh
Set Up Tyler Matzek
Set Up Luke Jackson
Set Up A.J. Minter
Injured : Kirby Yates
Los Angeles:
Closer Raisel Iglesias
Set Up Ryan Tepera
Set Up Aaron Loup
Set Up Archie Bradley
Set Up Mike Mayers
Set Up Austin Warren
Restricted: Ty Buttrey
The Braves still have the edge but it would appear that Perry has learned well from his former master Alex.
The real question is, would you rather have one Kenley “Man Do I Miss Baur’s Secret Goop” Jansen or Loup/Tepera for the same price?
I didn’t have time to prepare for the quiz, but my answer is Loup/ Tepera. I really, really like the Tepera signing. I think it was a bullpen game changer.
Man this makes me feel old.
https://twitter.com/MLBastian/status/1504905333356974080
Here’s the video:
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1504922976097079298
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1504908603920039936?s=20&t=w7GcR1kqp-U03NlLw_ESyw
I heard there’s baseball today.
Fancy that…
Renewed my sub with mlb.tv and wouldn’t you know its the free game of the day
Spring games are free to all on MLBtv. No need to pay until opening day.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1504874927584792578?s=20&t=cbbKybqPeC2UHRewH7e9bw
it just occurred to me that the pitch clock (is it in this year or are they still talking about it?) will result in more injuries to pitchers’ arms. I was watching Syndegaard throwing and thought if he hurries up he’s going to get hurt. A pitch clock will be especially deadly to guys coming back from arm troubles.
Next year
If you cut your mullet, you lose your special powers – Packy sent packing
Already, wow.
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1504864051657994242?s=20&t=hp3r-3iTBDAaIhHj8GbRAA
This is the time of year to let someone like Packy through waivers and stash them in AAA. We have depth in SP ahead of him, and need to keep relievers on the 40-man.
who are your 2 other someones?
I don’t know. Probably Rojas, Mayfield, Herget, or Wantz.
2002 is going to be Happy.
Nah, we didn’t get every single free agent available, and didn’t use our time machine to go back in time and draft all the guys who wound up being awesome.
Easy call in my eyes
The only power Packy had was being a pitcher on a team short of pitchers. No tears will be shed that his 6+ ERA will be causing fires elsewhere.
Those are definitely post mullet comments.
Spring is in the air; Spring Training is upon us while March Madness in ramping up. The snow is melting and soon the flowers will be popping up.
We are currently seeing what maybe our best Bullpen in 8 or 9 years and the potential of the starting staff is off the charts. The line up is going to cause problems for opposing pitchers with Trout and Ohtani in the line up all year.
Adell, Marsh and Walsh will be better no doubt as they learn how to pace themselves over a long season. In a walk year Stassi may look like Johnny Bench if he stays healthy.
Sandoval will emerge as the starting staff leader Wins and IP.
Fletcher will lead in Hits again for the fourth time in a row.
Marsh will lead in Triples and fullest beard.
Trout gets HRs and Runs Scored along with Batting Average and BB.
Shohei RBI’s and Doubles.
Thor will have the highest K totals.
Reid Detmers Team R/Y.
Raisel Iglesias Saves.
Well there is a whole lot of different team leaders on our Playoff bound winning Angels, what do you think I got right or wrong?
Wait til next year!!
It’s about time we have a injury free season for the starting eight and starting staff and Trout is still in his prime and rested up. I feel good about everything except maybe SS, but even that may work out.
Honestly I don’t mind giving up some offense at SS. IF they are a plus defender then it makes our staff better and shortens games to get to a strong pen. Offense SHOULDN’T be the issue with that lineup!!
But not at second base too.
Well, hopefully Fletcher’s high contact rate returns (and counts as offense)
Yah I don’t consider Fletcher a bad 2B on offense. The hits will be there.
Offense could be a problem. We don’t really know what to project for Marsh or Adell. Stassi is injury prone.
Exactly. But I think we have viable backups if the initial shortstop/second base & young corner outfielders do not produce.
JUp will be motivated to perform , And both Tyler Wade & Matt Duffy have an established history of getting on base. While Suzuki should be used very sparingly, Austin Romine may turn out to be a key signing. I’m just curious if he he’s not on the big league roster by a certain date he can opt out to another team.
I don’t think the angels want to sign a ss long term. Their ss prospect list is pretty deep. Kyren and vera just waiting.
Canning already on the 60 day DL.
Optimism = Spring Training
Pessimism = June
Maybe you are right, but I have to Believe in these guys to making the Playoffs to keep myself invested every day. We just can’t keep getting hit by the injury bug and this could be the season the stars are aligned, and we dodge the bug.
No mention of Rendon being back? Comeback player of the year candidate?
Me thinks you have set yourself up for a massive case of the blues around the June/July timeframe
https://www.reddit.com/r/angelsbaseball/comments/tgl491/summary_of_the_angels_bullpen_with_all_of_perrys/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Adding to the bullpen is what a minimally competent GM does. It still leaves us without a shortstop or enough top end SP. Not a passing grade for the Moreno/Minasian team. On the positive side, at least we have a ton of utility infielders.