Good morning Angels fans, may the fourth be with you. You’re gonna need it, I know I am. Have some links.
Angels News
So, the Angels got shutout. Again. 3rd time in the last 4 games. Ow.
Jo Adell was sent back down. Yes, it was for his defense. Hey, maybe he is a late bloomer like Taylor Ward is? Jose Rojas is called up to be the 4th OF now.
Except that apparently, Jack Mayfield played LF yesterday instead? I am so confused.
Oh and the bad news gets worse, as Austin Warren gets hit in the face and his nose is now all messed up. I am starting to get scared here.
At least the Angels’ AA team Trash Pandas are having fun.
Around Baseball
Want to visit an MiLB team near you? Here’s a map for you! What about MLB parks? Here is a map for you too!
So, apparently, a wild idea is to have a giant designated fight enforcer on your team. Yeah that won’t happen.
Max Scherzer got ejected from a game he wasn’t even in due to a bad strike call on his teammate. People keep worrying about robot umps ruining the human element, or whatever, however, these calls are just way too bad to allow to exist anymore. Stop it.
The 2022 MLB All Star Game festivities have been announced. Dodgers have really spread this out this time.
The A’s have had stadium issues, with threats to move to Las Vegas. However, good news has arrived as a new Stadium in Oakland has just become easier.
It is Star Wars Day, look for teams to do so cool stuff!
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
another student of the month…
https://twitter.com/TC_DustDevils/status/1521950553806303232?s=20&t=8WUPcJOojmFAU3ZLDw6dvg
Rojas is left field tonight? Holy mother of mercy. I think I need to take a pill chugged with an Ale.
I knew that an Ale would be in there somewhere. When that doesn’t happen we are all in trouble.
Jose does not possess a better glove than the Farmer in The Adell. #beersstartedearly2day
I’m too GA to look it up, why was Upton referred to as Hot Pocket?
Hot and cold. Streaky guy. I can’t eat Hot Pockets myself, but I gather they heat rather unevenly in the microwave.
Erick Aybar said hello…….
https://twitter.com/danmorse_/status/1521936163358920704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1521936163358920704%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fmlb
Tattoo’s at bat was masochistic, Aybar, on the other hand, was just a swing and miss poor pitch recognition . I wonder if Angel Hernandez would have called that a strike.
Angel Hernandez would flip a coin to decide if ANY pitch was a ball or a strike.
Yes, there is a distinction……..but technically the Aybar pitcher is a masochist too. He threw a pitch at his nuts, not his fault Aybar’s pitch recognition was faulty.
Here is a first, while we should win today, I think I’ll lay off predicting the score. I will predict that we will win, both today and tomorrow. Why, because we are better than being shut out, even against good pitchers. Detmers is doing as well as can be expected, but Fenway can get in your head. But he will go 5 today. Our pen is doing very well on the road so far. It’s time for everybody to get back to “Taking care of Business” (BTO, 1974) and making contact. The good news is we only struck out 5 times yesterday. We hit the ball, just hit it to someone is all.
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1521947310657220609?s=20&t=tazNOx2gfFg5X-Bzh_BS6g
Now that is great news, it really looks like they are really doing well down at Double A ball.
This unpossible. Those are Angels prospects and we have no good prospects. It will be decades until we have a good farm. None of those players were drafted by Farhan Zaidi, Andrew Freidman, or any other POBO of note. Fake news.
This guy Silseth is a bit undersized but has a 4-pitch offering which may keep in the rotation. He battles, pulling for him. Where is Turk when I need him?
Marsh leading off after striking out in 10 of his last 14 at bats?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FR8CzpLVUAAjbM7?format=jpg&name=small
Maybe the same experiment as last year when they put Upton as lead off and it sparked a big month for him.
Perhaps. Just need him to lay off the high heat. I really like his skill set and think that losing Upton was addition by subtraction.
He got jobbed on a couple of high strike calls and it seems like he’s now expanded his zone.
18 straight innings w/o scoring a run. This team?
To say we’re “due” seems like an understatement.
Just win the next two, and we’re not gonna lose our jit.
Get shut out again, or creamed by 7 runs or something and a lot of us – not gonna mention any names (COUGHme) will be apoplectic.
Is it too much to ask for a 13-3 Angels win today, fer crissakes?
I am concerned that we might get shutout again tonight. The Red Sox have a guy named Whitlock pitching for them who has an ERA of 0.54 and a WHIP of 0.78 ! He has been pretty much unhittable thus far.
If Detmers gives up more than a run (which he will) we are losing this game.
We had a guy who had an ERA of 0.00, but we still managed to lose the next game. It is early, and it is baseball. We have a chance.
I would agree that we have a “chance,” but everything would have to fall our way. The HP ump would need to give Detmers the wide strike zone instead of the Red Sux pitcher/s, we would need to see a couple of errors from the Boston defense, Whitlock would need to be uncharacteristically wild, and we would have to capitalize on all scoring chances…
I don’t see all of those things happening.
We just need Detmers to pitch well, and the bats to become luke warm. This lineup is potent when things click – so we just need a good day from Trout, Ohtani and one or two support players (Rendon? Walsh? Marsh? Stassi?).
Besides, Whitlock lost his last two starts, and hasn’t pitched more than 4 innings this season (he is usually a reliever, and isn’t fully stretched out).
I just watched some video on Whitlock. Tall guy with a big arm and good looking stuff. Trout and Ohtani might be my picks vs him as he seems to work down in the zone a lot.
He couldn’t have lost his last two starts because he gave up zero runs in those last two starts, lol !
Well, they lost his last two starts.
And, he gave up a run in the April 28th start, in which they (and he) lost the game.
He only started two games, and they haven’t won one yet.
Look at his innings with 4 as his longest in the last three outings
So what. I will take 4 scoreless innings any time. Boston is trying to protect his arm. Most teams are doing this with their young arms.
True. Hopefully the Angels get rid of him after 4 innings so somebody less dialed in takes the mound.
I think that’s what the others are saying. We won’t be facing Whitlock long. Hopefully.
How do you propose we should get rid of the body then?
However they do it, it should not be in Ji-Man Choi’s elbow.
I hope you are right.
Is it too much to ask?
In a word : yes !
See my comment below.
Just a day off for Ward?
He’s due an off day……but IBS is still has a roster spot with us.
releasing upton is looking like an unfortunate decision.
I never understood the timing of that move. Rosters were expanded for a month and we had half a dozen middle infielders.
Odds are Upton was toast, but I’d have given him a few more weeks to see if that was the case or not.
And see if Adell was really ready…NOT!!
To me that’s the biggest concern/disappointment. I assume they were surprised with his play? He’s always been very bad defensively, but he regressed from last year, significantly….and last year was bad, but better then his rookie year.
Still think most of it is in his head and he can improve. Hope is that we get a barely average OF’er. Now he’s wasted a month of development when they probably should have known he needs more time at AAA. Probably go back and struggle early on to regain his bat, also with needing to work on the absolute fundamentals of catching and throwing a baseball can’t be good for his confidence.
So why hasn’t another team picked him up ? Word has it he only wants to play for a contender . So I doubt he wants to play for us anyways
I think you answered your own question. Upton gets paid regardless of whether he plays for another team, so he has no need to play for anything except a contender. Maybe he’ll get picked up mid-season if a contender has an OF/DH injury.
Come on Jeff, at the time you were lauding the move as the move to make. I loved the move and still do. It has given many an opportunity to play more. Hindsight is not always 20-20. Upton had slowed down considerably, was stiff, and was done. If we had kept him, he had no upside any longer and we needed that roster spot. At the looking back at the move the only other thing to have done was to sign a backup OF. Conforto was more than once mentioned here, and we know how that would have worked out. No one saw what was coming down the pike with Adell, no one.
This is a time when hopefully Maddon or Trout has called for a club house meeting, things may have gotten to fun and loose and now a slump, getting every player back to square one and doing a reset is in need. We are 1/6 th of the season through with a winning record, not exactly doom and gloom is it.
Back to JUp, no other team has reached out to him, not even NL teams thinking about the DH. “Toast”, bet your booty he is and was.
That’s some good inside knowledge about no team reaching out to upton.
I’ve said the same thing the entire time. I understood moving on if the FO was convinced Upton is toast but that given expanded rosters I didn’t see why the move was made at that time.
I said that when we did it.
Was very much premature.
I am all about helping the A’s, and not helping SF when it comes to them getting a new stadium.
That Scherzer call was no worse than a couple of calls the Angels got victimized by yesterday. If anything, I wish our bench would show a little more fight when they happen to us.
Rojas to replace Adell? Yeah, shuffle those deck chairs.
Yeah, not exciting at all. Adell needs to work everyday, 6 to 8 hours a day, shagging fly balls and ground balls in left field.
After bringing Fletch back up with his dead bat, we have caught the dead Bat syndrome and it spread quickly to the whole team, including Gubi and Duffy. All the Doomer’s have been out in force at the same Bat time, same Bat channel, with the same bad complaints.
The Angels are on the ropes, but have no fear, Mighty Mouse is here to save the day, no, wait, look to the sky, it’s a bird? it’s a plane? No it’s Supermen! Both mild mannered men dress in uniforms of the Angels, they quietly go about there day playing Major League Baseball, but tonight they will save the Planet with hitting Homeruns that will rain down on the streets of Beantown! Numbers 27 & 17, here they come to save the day.
Is it just a dream or is it that the “8 Ball” has gone Animal?
The Win Train sits idle on the back tracks somewhere in Fontana. Covid cleaning taking place so as not to waste time doing nothing. Advertisers on the train have all bailed out. *”With no particular place to go”*, “It’s a heartache, nothing but a heartache” being that our offense just shut ‘er down. I pity the poor pitcher that’s on the mound when the bats awaken. Stay tuned in for further developments as they happen.
Even though it sits idle, I hear it is sold out.
714 Tickets, 714 Tickets.
That is pretty cool to have events spread out throughout the city. Allows more people to experience a little something.
Don’t forget to Get Your Red On! Share and share alike, after all we share the SoCal market, right?
I live near Dodger Stadium (and near downtown), sounds like a lot of traffic to avoid for multiple days in a row. And no one better step on my grass!! (What, I don’t have a lawn?).
Yep, can’t wait for the All Star Yoga and beach cleanup.
Fkn California. I wonder how big a carbon footprint is created by leaving that virtue signal on full blast 24/7/365….
We should acquire a cheap veteran that is a true outfielder for depth. This team can’t always be one injury or demotion away from Rojas being a regular in the lineup and in the field.
I hear Upton is available, he is a veteran outfielder (not a good one) but cheap (league minimum) lol
Also Dexter Fowler.
Not sure what his skill set is since ACL reconstructive surgery last year. He did get 15 PA’s at the Blue Jays AAA affiliate before leaving the organization yesterday where he managed 5 singles and 2 BB’s.
Assuming he can still hobble around in the outfield on one good leg he’ll fit right in.
Upton still cheaper
I thought we were done trotting out washed up veterans – even if they are cheap.
I mean, I would rather Adell make a few errors than coax Jon Jay out of retirement, or sign Matt Joyce, Adam Eaton, Brian Goodwin (sounding familiar?) or the speedy Dyson or a slugger that no longer slugs (Khris Davis) – pick your poison? I would rather play Adell, Rojas, Sierra, Lund, Harrison, Orlando Martinez …
Totally agree about Eaton and Joyce, but I did like Brian Goodwin. He was still “good” (pun intended) when we got him. He may not have been a full-season starter good but he was definitely worth keeping as a 4th outfielder.
He *was* good, but that was 2 years ago now (and his bat has fallen off – in fact his time with us was his career peak). He is currently a FA (as are everyone I mentioned), and I am not in a rush to reunite with any of those ‘cheap’ vets.
Didn’t Eaton retire, in effect even if not officially. I seem to remember him being mentioned as a possible coach.
OOOH!!! I want to buy a ticket to the beach clean up!!!
Yes, I want to pay to pick up trash… NOT
Why don’t they have City of L.A. clean up instead? it would take at least few years and the Olympics will be there in 2028
All-Star Experiences: Come see LA’s one of a kind Skid Row to pick up needles with baseball legends Jose Canseco and Roger Clemens. Musical guest Skid Row to perform!
I wonder how much a Barry Bonds autographed steroid needle is worth.
Great idea. Maybe have a day and the person who picks up the most human feces wins tickets to the ASG.
That award winner would feel right at home at the Latrine.
I can see it now: a snapshot of 14 year old Tyler Jackson of Lincoln Middle School, smiling, next to mound of feces twice his height. Such an industrious budding young citizen! We asked Tyler is he’s excited about the ASG. “S**t yea I am!”
“Parking Lot Fight Club” sounds fun!
I would pay for a bench clean up. Angels bench, that is.