As I write these links on a beautiful OC Thursday afternoon it occurs to me that I’ve written two, TWO, Weekend Links since the Angels have last won a game. That seems impossible. Yet here we are.
And as I type this Thursday night, that streak is over! And look at the picture above to see the great seats Angels2020Champs had for that game.
Shohei Ohtani might not be from this world. 7 innings of 1 run ball from the mound and this;
One thing I’ve always loved is a good, biting nickname. And Turk’s Teeth coined one this morning. For our glorious manager, I give you: Nickelback Nevin.
It is so fitting for the cocksure, middle aged, former alleged steroid user. He seems like the type of guy who crushes some bicep curls while listening to Nickelback on his iPod before he watches some Blind Date, sprays on some Axe body spray, and heads to the ballpark.
While googling links on Nevin, I came across one for the most hated player for every franchise. He’s apparently the Padres nominee. You should know who the Angels is.
I’m glad I missed Wednesday’s game. Suffering through a loss is one thing. Nickelback is another. Fans just might want refunds for that torture.
This week the Angels medical staff said Trout should be fine. Then they brought up an outfielder. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. The Angels medical staff is always so transparent.
Speaking of medical teams, Nevin fought a really nasty bout of Covid and is now pretty outspoken about his experiences and how the vaccine saved his life.
The flip side to bringing up Dillon Thomas is the Angels DFA of Ty Buttrey. I’ve made no secret of my like of Ty as a person and I hope he stays with the franchise. If not, I’ll gladly root for him elsewhere. He’s really a class guy.
Another class guy who has done several interviews with me is Jahmai Jones. He was cut loose by Baltimore and is recovering from Tommy John surgery. I’d love to see him back on a minors deal.
Joe Bart had big shoes to fill. Huge. The greatest catcher in modern MLB history, one of the greatest to ever don the tools of ignorance. He’s struggling and was sent down to AAA.
Angel “Missed Call” Hernandez is claiming MLB manipulated reviews to disadvantage minority umpires, preventing them from becoming crew chiefs and getting post season assignments. Yeah, it is either that or him and CB Bucknor are the two worst umpires in the sport.
That said, the fact I can name about the only two minority umpires is not good. The players on the field are far more diverse than the crew calling the game. Granted, players turn over quickly whereas the Joe Wests of the world clog up umpire spots forever.
Let’s do some smiles. Does it get better than kids at the ballpark being coached by the players they admire?
Much respect to those players. That’s what baseball is really all about.
Did I mention the losing streak is over?
Have some fun this weekend. Watch the Angels. Watch the college regionals. And link what I missed.
https://twitter.com/AnthonyDiComo/status/1535390952436555776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1535390952436555776%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.chorus.fm%2Fbts%2Ftwitter.min-v4.html1535390952436555776
So he’s been too drunk to pitch the last few games?
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/a6fe6502-5379-4b45-b298-2ab08a9e858c
The worst part of that revelation is that he is choosing to drink Busch Light.
So where is Rengifo? Still in Labor?
We are undefeated when Dillon Dillon Thomas starts and Nevin sits him, hmm…
Optioned
The Angels are very late posting the line up and the starting pitcher. Maybe more surprises are in store?
Diaz on the mound.
Theyre still late eh? I wonder if Nevin carpooled with Maddon to the games lol
Rendon was activated for tonight!!!
Not even going to ask any questions, just love it!
Doomers hate this one weird roster move.
Click this link to find out!
Oh great, now there’s spyware on my computer
😆
Wow, the last I heard it was going to be late June or early July.
What the what?!?
New nickname…. SNEAK ATTACK!
My guess, Nevin stared at him until Anthony relented. Suit-up mo-fo!
you can’t trust what you read on the net! Last night I found a thing that said it was unlikely he’d be back before the end of this month. Wrong!!
Just a thing to think about.
I want a good farm. I love prospects and MiLB baseball. I love having prospects to trade. I want cheap depth for the Angels. I want this very much. I even follow teams whose farms I like.
One of those teams is the Tigers. Detroit…. they deserve something to go right at some point don’t they? They have a farm full of prospects I like a lot, even their fringy guys I like. But they are a good example of a reality I hope we face some day.
First, the cream. The top four prospects of theirs I envy. Spencer Torkelson, Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Riley Greene.
Torkelson is a hitting machine. He currently has an 80 OPS+ and -0.1 WAR in 50 games.
Casey Mize, a pitcher, looked pretty solid in some starts last year. He is now on his way to get TJS. So that sucks.
Manning, also a pitcher, got shelled last year, but this year has looked good…. for eight innings… the rest of the time he has also been out with shoulder issues.
Riley Greene, a very good outfielder, is hitting .250 in Toledo… in 11 games cause he’s been hurt.
Ryan Kreidler, a SS prospect I like, is having defensive issues at Toledo. 2018 3rd rounder Cody Clemens is a guy I like, looks very versatile, he has a.063 BA for the Tigers. Joey Wentz, and advanced pitching prospect I like, is looking pretty good at AAA Toledo.
Jason Foley, a strait to the pen prospect, is in Detroit and doing well.
Beau Breskie is also on the Tigers and looks about like Reid Detmers.
Tarik Skubal and Matt Faedo, the “lesser” pitching prospects compared to Manning and Mize are the bright spots. Both have pitched a significant number of good innings for the Tigers.
But folks, that is a highly ranked system. A system that drafted great picks from a high draft position for years. That’s a pile of really good prospects.
I’m just saying, if the collected situations of guys like Jo Adell, Griffin Canning etc stress you out then our farm jumping in rank, even if it becomes a top system, is probably not gonna make you happy. A lot of us would have turned on half of these prospects by now in favor of “the plumber” or whomever.
So yes. Please build the farm Perry. But if, as a fan, you can’t handle a significant amount of “prospect collapse” even after the farm’s “built” then you may want to switch to a more prospect safe sport like the NBA, rather than wasting years of your life demanding GMs and scouts and trainers and owners and parents and God be fired over this stuff.
So your saying you want a top farm system instead of a mediocre team
I’m saying a top farm, and even really good prospects, can still show up as mediocre at the MLB level, even for a couple years…
If I remember right, Skubal was actually the first big prospect to get a shot two seasons ago. After this season, it will have been 2-3 years since most of these kids first tasted the majors and as many as five years since they were drafted…. and these are successful prospects, not guys who flame out at AA. And still the Tigers are not very good.
So I’m saying that we may get what I want as far as the farm but CoachDad’s still gonna be yelling at us about what the #10 pick in the draft needs to do to be any good at baseball while Doomer whines about how it’s been 3 seasons and he just doesn’t see NAME REDACTED as a real MLB player.
Detmers may progress in a year or two to Skubal’s level. Not a great fit for a team trying to progress Trout to the playoffs and retain Ohtani.
If every pick from PTP’s draft last year doesn’t make the bigs then I think we should fire him.
Just sayin.
We should at least lay the blame squarely at his feet. I mean, we can only carry what? 12 pitchers at a time on the 25 man? Where do the other guys go, to football?
If he doesn’t successfully convert the other 8 to 2 way players then I think we should fire him.
Yes. The 2024 Angels should pretty much be Trout, Ohtani, Rendon, Iglesias, Walsh and 2020 draft picks.
I’ll give him until 2025.
That’s more than fair…. and incredibly realistic.
Well I mean take Taylor Ward as an example. How many of us would have traded him for a bucket of baseballs in 2020? Probably most of us.
Analyzing a farm system I’m sure takes a lot more knowledge than most of us here have. I say most, because we have Turks.
The jury is still out on Ward for me but clearly has made himself into something like you said.
Yah. It was still a small sample. I am not excited about Ward, I am excited to see if Ward’s for real.
this is so spot on. Recently I was clearing out a pile of old baseball america’s, circa 2009 to 2018. As I subscribed during that time, and as a collector kept them around. specifically the top 10 prospects issues. So as I went through them over the winter to burn in my wood stoves, I would read them. And it was enlightening to say the least to read the hype over and over again on prospects that ranged from complete busts to fringe major leaguers who were ranked in the tops of all these systems. with a few exceptions, most of the top ranked talent fizzled. (of course I kept all the Trout issues).
One fun thing to do is look at past drafts and see how so many didn’t pan out
yes, one interesting thing was how well the Asstros top ten did. , they hit on a lot of theirs , another fun one semi related was a espn mag article from 2010 ish saying the royals would win it in 2015. I hope that writer put some money down .
It seems baseball is just a lot harder to predict than most sports for whatever reason.
Suscriber of baseball america myself up until 2018, some of the writers left with whom I connected with. Always enjoyed the Top 10’s. I remember the big discussion back in 2011-ish when the talk of the baseball world was the Big 3 prospects: Bryce Harper, Matt Moore and Mike Trout. The writers weighed in on who would have the best career.
But yeah, majoirty of the Top 10’s or first rounders don’t make it. Odds are against it. With the contraction of MILB, I dont think this helps development. I wish the draft was 40-50 rounds deep, the draft and follow strategy is pretty much gone.
Thing is I’m not even talking about busts. Even the guys who do make it and hit it big for a team, many many of them take 2 or three years to do it. We all seem to want Tatis Jr… or at least Trout, where we can go “You know, in his first cup of coffee Trout sucked…” but then he’s good the next season.
But the Taylor Ward Experience, if it turns out to be genuine, is far more common.
Yeah, I would say at least 3 to 4 years of semi-regular play to settle in for hitters. I do remember Trout’s first cup of coffee, he sucked but you could sure see the talent oozing.
old people
https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1535011955672506384?s=20&t=aleLy6W8O_a7rWT-WXy4kQ
So he pulled a Maddon
Nope. The difference is that Maddon’s move was smart.
More specifically, it worked and the Angels won the game. In contrast to Maddon, La Russa’s move did not work AND the White Sox lost !
LOL..Still pushing that narrative? He’s gone now, it is ok to be critical. Nothing smart occurred.
I thought I would never see this weakness again but here comes another clueless manager, LaRussa.
Why do you hate Maddon so much?
Did he refuse to give you an autograph 20 years ago?
I get the impression that La Russa doesn’t even realize where he is half the time.
That said, now that the losing streak is over I went back on the offensive and made sure to let my White Sox buddies know that our guy did the IBB thing even better.
Get on our level chumps.
Maddon’s IBB led to 3 runs and TLRs IBB led to 3 runs. The difference: Halos’ offense and the Rangers’ pitching bailed out Magoo the next half-inning. If the White Sox came back in the 9th and won the game, doesn’t erase the gaff in my opinion.
La Russa will be gone soon too. Then he can go to the HOF and Maddon can watch the Muppets at home and eventually they can both start wearing diapers full of their own pee, maybe run for office. They’re both pretty washed up as managers.
I don’t understand. He decided to walk Turner after he had obtained a 1-2 count at the plate?
Seems like you got the gist of it, yea.
Yeah, without the 1-2 count there is no issue.
To me this is not even close to being comparable to what Maddon did with Seager.
I’m kind of surprised the pitcher or catcher didn’t subtly tell him to eat a bag of dicks when that sign got put up. There’s no big secret to keep with an IBB so the pitcher could have just yelled “TONY! I’ve got 2 strikes man!”
Prediction for roster moves today, Trout will play, Thomas optioned and Diaz recalled
My prediction — Trout scheduled for leg amputation.
LOL but its the groin, so I see a sports hernia
When I lived in Tokyo, one of the treats sold at a movie theater snack bar was squid on a stick. Tasty. Versus a bobblehead, the squid stick would be nice fan give away. The 3-run jack last night was just marvelous.
That sounds nightmarishly disgusting.
More than a masterful performance, it was a gutsy pitching performance by Shohei last night. It wasn’t a masterclass gem like he had previously against Boston or Houston, but he gutted it out and willed the team to win. He knew he had to pitch deeper in the game to avoid leaving the game to an unreliable bullpen right now, and so he did away with his usual strikeouts and pitched more to contact to preserve himself longer.
Gutsy, like only he can do.
Don’t forget to cast your Squid votes for the All-Star game
When I watched the game, I was laughing inside when Squid hit that HR, which ended up being the difference in the final score, because I was thinking about how people here were going to process that data. It had to be him. Or Rengifo. The hero that (along with Ohtani) saved our team.
When he hit the HR, I was literally sitting there thinking “they are right, this guy is just an automatic out, the defense is good, but it doesn’t justify… oh wait a second”
Now he will that up with a month of fly outs
Um, sentence structure. Um Kay? Thanks.
Ohtani put the Angels on his back last night. He gave our bullpen some much needed rest. MVP doing MVP things. Shohei was breathing fire last night and I loved it. Hopefully the team can build off of this win. My City Connect Jersey should be coming in today, a good start to the weekend. Lets hope the team can bounce back. Im done with all the negativity that the losing streak brought. LFG!!!
Not looking forward to the apple broadcast team again tonight.
Me either, will gave it on mute
SMFH, at least this is the last fing one. I just refuse to sign up for free giving up what I consider too much information. This was bad news on the doorstep, but now I can plan on something different than chasing all over to find where to watch, so thank you for the heads-up.
I use my kids account
oh noes. not again.
And Sundays game on ESPN
Yeah, screw that. I won’t be watching that dumpster fire broadcast.
Screw the Apple TV broadcast. I will NOT be watching. I absolutely hate the Apple TV, Facebook, (insert other “social media” channel here) games.
Every new beginning starts with one, and if we win then the progression begins. If we lose, One becomes the loneliest number.
I put on hold my sons getting tix for GMB and myself with 4 of my kids families in fear of a longer losing streak. Maybe the offer will Pop’s up again soon. 😃 ⚾
Go to the ballpark man! I went to loss 2 and loss 13 of the streak. Still had a good time with the fam.
I’m there tomorrow.
Would be a very kool summer if after the All ⭐ Star Game/Break if all Angels could return healthy and play the remainder of the season and in doing so we are in some sort of pennant race. I do hope for the Angels future that three things may occur. One, that Arte free’s up a lot more money for payroll. Two, That for many a long time, the team avoids the Injured List to the Prime Time Player’s. That I can learn to understand the motivation behind why Doomer’s Doom and learn how to turn the other cheek. Well, the first two anyway. 😂
Let the poppers pop and the breakers break!
Now that the Shidu curse is over Arte can get back together with Anaheim and work out a new deal
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1535306130322169856?s=20&t=daJ6dVgc5JvS706zUaq5OQ
Rendon also been busy cashing checks. 😀
Someone out there just read this and their thighs got all clenchy and their food lost all it’s taste.
I wear that “Team Doom” ballcap every now and then. 😂
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1535270371074527234?s=20&t=daJ6dVgc5JvS706zUaq5OQ
Have Mrs.Trout treat the groin, don’t trust the Angel phsysicians. We need you Mike!
Lol! Amen!
Should be moved for a pretty good prospect next month if we’re outta contention.
Let’s not sit on our hands like in recent years with Hansel Robles, and Dylan Bundy.
expanded playoff format – we will be in contention for a while.
👃
I agree.
One problem with this team over the years has been buying or standing pat when the smart move was to sell.
I will say one thing, though. Lorenzen chose to come here because his family is here. I’d talk about an extension first. See if we can keep him for a few years. Only if that didn’t work would I trade him.
Yeah. If Lorenzen stays solid I say it’s a win win. Extend him? Good, we need pitching and he has proven to be unbad. We have Ohtani and Sandoval for next year too…. so the “pitching disparity” ditch is a little less deep in November than normal.
Or trade him if we suck. Or hell, talk to him in July, trade him, then resign him to a longer contract this winter.
Or check with the 8 Ball. 👀
I have to admit, after eating a large helping of crow curry, that I would look to extend Lorenzen. I didn’t think he would be able to make the jump from a reliever to a solid starter by looking at his stats, but he proved me wrong and I think he has a mindset and attitude to improve further.
Iglesias last year, Exhibit A
Previous years, our stock has not been in demand. Unless we think Bunday was really worth much. Robles was not.
I waited 2 weeks to come back to the site. I was scared to see what was here during a very very dark time. The gaunlet is almost over. We still have a shot at the playoffs. This is still a good team, not the best, but good.
DOGPILE!!!!!
YArrrrrRRRRRRRuuuh! FactAttack! Drink from the Reality Hose!!!