Apparently Jared Walsh’s arm will not allow him to be a two way player anymore. Also in this story is the note that William Holmes is being groomed by the Angels to be a two way player. The story itself is about how unlikely anyone else can live up to the bar established by Shohei Ohtani. So who do you pick for your dodgeball team? Shohei Ohtani looked good in his first start of spring training, although he did hit a guy.
Speaking of dodgeball, college red shirt junior Ben Joyce can throw 104 MPH.
The Angels are planning to keep Raisel Iglesias to a one inning role this year. I think this tends to increase the concern about what happens between the fifth inning and the ninth inning.
Packy Naughton is packing for Jupiter (Florida that is).
Garrett Richards is officially a member of the Texas Rangers. It appears he will pitch in relief.
Jorge Soler has a three year deal with the Florida Marlins.
The Detroit Tigers signed Michael Pineda.
Missed it by that much. This link is about the people who almost made it to a top 100 prospects list.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Thor and the Minor league game pictures here
After Thor finished everyone left pretty much except Perry. He stayed and watched the minor games And he had his eyes more so on the Low-A game than the Hi-A game. Names I knew from Lo A game were Placentia and Ramirez who both played in Tempe last year.
Nice. How long was Thor in the game?
Fletch’s recap in tweets.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1506363559831236608
Went three
I found this nugget at mlbtraderumors: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/mlb-mlbpa-reach-tentative-agreement-to-reimplement-ghost-runner-in-2022.html
One rule that will be in effect permanently is a modification to the designated hitter, albeit one that only seems likely to affect one player. If a team uses the same player as both that day’s starting pitcher and as their DH, he can remain in the game as a hitter even after being removed from the mound. That’s obviously a provision designed to allow the Angels to keep Shohei Ohtani in the lineup deep into games he starts.
This is HUGE good news! The Angels will no longer be at a disadvantage when Ohtani pitches and they lose their DH in the late innings. Also a positive to remove the dilemma for Maddon when the scenario of Ohtani struggling late might happen— and not leaving him in one batter too long just for the sake of getting him to the plate again the next half-inning. Win for the Halos!!!
washingtonpost.com/sports…
Do why isn’t the family suing the agent?
Deep pocket syndrome.
Ah, you mean pitch like his career is on the line so he won’t need to bag groceries in the off-season? I get it, earn his wages. I’m down with that concept.
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1506317579333238786?s=20&t=86lYfjqn5MboaRH6IPfGgQ
Vera, Paris, Stassi, Blakey leading off Thor’s B game
Wonder who is on baby snakes?
This is the Hi A game, what’s interesting is Vera is SS and Paris is 2B.
The Low A game is going on too at 1pm right next to this game.
Joe is here too
Noah is going three- they’ve put some lumber on him, not that it means much.
Can’t figure out why Kyle Tyler was the guy put on options when Jimmy Herget is still here.
Eh. Just remember that all of our pitching prospects are horrible because Arte only gets cheap 20th round picks and you’ll feel fine.
It was about 40 man roster space but I agree why Tyler and not Herget
I doubt this would matter but Tyler was Billy’s pick. I know he wasn’t highly regarded in the prospect lists but I thought he had a breakout season last year. Considering our need for starting pitchers , this makes absolutely no sense to me.
Also we drafted 20 pitchers last year….no room at the inn might be the main reason. And Herget won the coin toss…..plus, cool glasses.
Arbitration cases are settled
We also lose Tyler to Res Sox
a win for me.. i’m struggling w/ the tyler and taylors
What about Tippecanoe too?
Eh, if we had Tippecanoe, he’d just die after 30 days anyways.
TrAdition?
So, both of the starting pitchers we DFAd were good enough to play elsewhere – when we need depth in the rotation.
At the same time, we have 10 IF on the 40-man.
MIF update – for IF practice- there’s two fields- the MLB one and the other one.
Out of all the 26 man MIF candidates , Ward is the only one with the big fellas.
The other field unfortunately is the one with better fan access—- but watching it is like watching Survivor – gladiator battle. – all the all candidates are here.
I meant Wade.
Haven’t seen Duffy yet.
Tyler Wade is pretty much 100% making this roster.
And I sure hope Taylor Ward does too – some how
🚨 Anthony Rendon lineup alert 🚨
https://twitter.com/Angels/status/1506288933579153409?s=20&t=mGI8DCyWKAIm5G8AdJ8cow
We could see some serious bullpen fatigue this year.
Innings limits on Thor and Ohtani. Guys like Sandova, Barria, and Suarez given quick hooks. Lots of 4 inning nights for the pen.
Based upon current 8 man bullpen projections, the Angels will have Raisel, Loup, Tepera, Bradley, Mayers, Quijada, Barria & Warren. Only Warren has the ability to be optioned to AAA and the only true multi inning reliever in that group is Barria.
I’m hoping that per the CBA, MLB will allow teams to carry an extra player to start the season. In this case I would think the Angels add an 9th man to the bullpen. But, if not, who are the Angels going to replace from that group? Quijada seems to be the only logical name. And remember even if the Angels option Warren (or any other player with options) they can only option them 5 times during the season now.
Oh and BTW Of the above 8 names, Only Warren, Mayers & Barria have gotten any A game action so far. with only 16 days until opening day should that concern us?
Oh and BTW we haven’t seen Thor, Sandy, or Suarez on any A games yet, should that concern us?
No because we’ve been getting reports of Thor’s & Sandy’s performances in B games. And I think Suarez pitches tomorrow with the big club.
My point was that you stated A games and reports about B games are not A games. Also some of the bullpen are late arrivals due to late signings
Thor is going in the Minor League game today.
So that’s my plan here too.
With the B games you might hear how a certain starter did but not position players or bullpen pitchers so we have no idea as to whether our other bullpen pitchers have been throwing in B games or not
Sorry if I’m not as brimming with confidence as you seem to be about the health of this ball club. But after living through last years team injury disinformation campaign, I’m a little jaded. And with this compressed spring training schedule that has definitely heightened my concerns.
The only reliable sources of information are the players performances in Cactus league games, the reports of players performances in B games form people that are there, Jeff Fletchers own observations & rex fregosi’s pictures.
If the information is not one of those sources , I’m not buying that silence and lack of information is a good thing.
I am not brimming with confidence about the health of this team but I am basically saying that an opinion on the bullpen based on how many have played in an A game is no different than how many starters or position players have played in an A game
shouldn’t concern us at all. This happens all the time. iirc, ohtani pitched primarily in B games last year.
B games give more flexibility and controlled environment. I wouldn’t read into it at all
Yeah, I kinda like the idea/plan of using Raisel strategically early in the season for 4 or maybe 5 outs max in high leverage spots. These early season games, especially against Division rivals like the Astros are so important. My thought is that you could use him in this manner for perhaps April only and then come May switch him to the 1 inning Closer role.
This does two things; it hopefully helps us win some key games early and get some momentum instead of ending April below .500 like we have so often. It also allows us a little time to sort out roles for all the other bullpen guys, since in many ways we don’t know what we have other than the 9th. In all likelihood Loup is the Set Up guy, but we need to see everyone else and how it all shakes out. I like the plan of being flexible in the pen and sometimes giving new guys a chance to save a game, and this should happen from time to time when Raisel needs rest, but more importantly it prepares guys with a mindset of flexibility. If we actually do make the playoffs it behooves a manager and the guys in the pen to be prepared for anything.
In short, unless you are blessed with an excess of really talented guys playing matchups sometimes and at other times going with the hot hand is the best way to work a pen.
Let’s hope our offense is powerful, consistent, mentally and physically exhausting on opposing pitching staffs……..lots of stress free low leverage innings for our staff.
It’s time they have a season where things just go right and the baseball gods touch us.
That’s the plan.
Over at MLB-TV the know it all’s chose the top 10 pitcher going into this season and how many picked Shohei in their top 10? 0, zip, nada, no one. We’ll see come September how the top 10 MLB starters shakes out. I think Shohei wins 12 games this year with a 2.50 era.
Plesac explained his vote. On pure stuff, he’s top 5, but all those other guys on Top 10 have been elite for several years; Shohei just has one year.
Good morning, get ready for a great day today along with an Angels win.
Ben Joyce throws baseballs 104 mph and 103 mph and 102, 101, even 100 mph. He now has hit every team’s radar for the upcoming draft. Several years ago, when Chapman played on the Reds I watched a game that he hit 104 on the radar. This 100+ mph stuff will result in moving the mound back by a foot. I just pity hitters that have to go up against that stuff that Joyce processes.
I pity how little time he has before his arm falls off.
lol