Good morning Angeles fans, did you enjoy the All Star Game? Have some links!
Angels News
Only 2 Angels made the All Star Game and Trout did not play due to injury so only Ohtani actually did anything.
Shohei led off the game with a single! And then was picked off. Very Angels of him. At least he looks nice in a suit.
Trout and Ohtani were seen in their Angels uniforms together and talked to the press about how things are going.
Ohtani did like the cheers at Dodger Stadium and said it was one of his favorite places to play…
Around Baseball
So the AL won again. 9th time in a row. The 21st century has actually been dominated by the AL. 27-6-1 over the last 34 games.
Stanton won the All Star Game MVP for his 2 run home run. Since the AL Won 3-2, it made sense.
As for the uniforms, well, Manfred has basically said that these type of uniforms with all looking identical besides the name of each club will be here to stay. To be fair, the NL ones look great. As for the AL however… well, I am not a fan.
The All Stars said who their favorite players are. Lots of Troutani.
Everything isn’t happy in non All Star News, however. Manfred has insisted only 1 ball is being used, however, some old balls from last year may have slipped in?
Also on a messed up note, ads on jerseys are coming next year.
Anything I missed? Post below for Upvotes!
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Mike DiGiovanna’s recap of the epically lousy season we’ve had so far. Walsh is quoted that, it indeed, “sucks.”
https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2022-07-20/angels-second-half-mlb-season-outlook
“The Angels, according to a person familiar with their finances, also generate roughly $10 million a year in Ohtani-related stadium advertising and marketing agreements and don’t relish the idea of losing that revenue. And owner Arte Moreno is loath to part with such a superstar and marquee gate attraction.”
In Arte’s calculus, ROI from superstar marketing must be greater than ROI from winning. That’s all I can guess.
I was gonna say…I see his value more for his bat and pitching, both are which amongst the best in our lineup. But I guess there are other priorities.
Well, another bad call I would have made a few years back would have been to pick up Keuchel… I thought we missed out there. Oh well. (Well we can get him now)
Lol. Of course we could get him, just like we would be free to pick up any smelly garbage off the street… The question is why would you want to do that ?
Mickey Mantle has the most HR’s in World Series play, but as great as he was, he never got the Yankees to the World Series by himself, there were others like Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, to name just a few. Point is Baseball is a team sport and as much as we hope and pray that Troutani will deliver us to even the playoffs, the stars will have to align just the right way. “Right way?”, no injuries, career years, and lots of defense, hitting and great pitching. I think in ’24 we go all the way, yep, sounds about right. 🙂
What is your projected payroll for ‘24? Does it include Ohtani?
Fun little interview Ohtani did with Ben Verlander…
https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1549802062526889984?s=20&t=JBAeOUrIifVdJCssgKREww
“Burning it down” accomplishes nothing as long as Arte is still the owner.
Someone else said if you are going to lose, you might as well lose with Ohtani. I couldn’t agree more. At least it is fun to watch Shohei pitch and hit….
As for the importance of culture, despite the fact that some here don’t believe that it is an actual thing, in this clip from his show LeBron talks about the importance of “culture” to winning in team sports. The relevant dialogue comes in the first minute so you will not have to watch all 21 minutes. Enjoy :
LeBron James says he hates playing in Boston because Celtics fans are “racist as f–k” – YouTube
LeBron. OK.
I was going to say, using Lebron isn’t a credible source.
Ummmm. Sure. Okay.
(for those who did not pick up on it, this IS sarcasm).
Jack…. It’s best to leave the sarcasm to the Gitch….
Better known as…LeCon
Culture is so important to him that he’s constantly moving teams and forcing trades of his teammates.
There is nothing that says culture can’t be changed. LeBron definitely was THE instrumental force in creating a winning culture in Cleveland. It sure as heck was not done by Dan Gilbert.
The Heat of course already had a winning culture. That was installed by Pat Riley, who knows alot about creating a winning culture. For you Lakers fans out there, yes, LeBron did change the culture in LA (despite the long history of winning, they were currently in the doldrums and could not get out) and did it in a short period of time… Yes, the AD trade was also key in winning that title, but LeBron was the real catalyst in that season.
Riiiiight
Lebron doesn’t build a culture though. He shows up, plays LeGM, trades for his buddies, and then sucks a team dry of every ounce of success possible and then moves on with the franchise left in ruin.
Whatever culture he builds is gone the moment he leaves. It’s nothing lasting. He supports building a culture as long as it’s the culture of LeBron.
I’d rather model our team culture after someone like the Warriors. But it doesn’t really translate because Trout and Ohtani can’t carry us to October the way Steph and Klay can drag the Warriors to the playoffs.
Idk, just not the biggest Lebron fan.
True
Yeah, I get that. At least you are honest about it.
The thing that bothers me is that ALOT of LeBron haters, especially Lakers or “Kobe”fans
(not saying you are one of those I am about to reference) complain about his wanting to go where he can win and in the process conveniently forget two or three key points /things; 1) LeBron stuck it out in Cleveland for a LONG time before he left. And while there he took that team to new heights and places they had never even dreamed of getting (namely the NBA Finals.). And he did this more or less BY HIMSELF.
Go back and take a look at that Cavs roster the first time they made the Finals. LeBron put a team full of stiffs on his back and DRAGGED them to the Finals.
2) LeBron never left a team mid-contract or tried to force his way out the way that Durant is doing it right now… He only ever exercised his legitimate rights in Free Agency. He never bailed on a team or city without honoring the contract he signed.
3) the Kobe Lovers (many of whom are also LeBron Haters) conveniently forget that in the dark Laker days after Shaq left and before Gasol arrived Kobe like a spoiled child tried to force Dr. Buss to trade him, and he specifically threatened to go to the Clippers. Lucky for the Lakers Jerry West talked Kobe out of this.
So, in short LeBron gets a bad rap for no real reason other than people for some reason like to hate on him. The “Decision” was waaaay overblown in social media and people chose to chastise him for that (Maverick Carter was behind the admittedly poor wording of that) but never say that the money earned from that ESPN broadcast all went to charities for youth.
So i’m definitely not a big Kobe lover. Or Durant for that matter.
I just like to see guys stick around and try to build something. I respected the f*ck out of Trout for not leaving. Guys like Dirk and Tim Duncan are great role models for sticking around.
Steph and Klay could have left too.
I just don’t like the way Lebron, and a lot of other NBA stars have become more like mercenaries, and then start talking about culture.
I guess it’s why baseball is my #1. Players are still willing to stick around long term if the team will commit.
Perfectly willing to accept that we just disagree here 🙂
You brought up Dirk and Duncan. I love both those guys. Dirk gave back money several times so the Mavs could sign other players, and Duncan was one of the classiest Superstars ever.
I will say in regards to Timmy however that he had no reason to leave because he ALWAYS had Championship level talent around him; The Admiral early on then later Parker, Ginobili etc. Not to mention an all-time great coach in Pop, and perhaps the BEST NBA culture ever!
I am pretty sure if LeBron had that kind of talent and franchise top to bottom around him he would have happily stayed in one place.
In short, Dirk and Duncan were exceptions to the rule.
BTW; I totally agree about Trout. It is one of the reasons I feel so bad for him right now…
Here is an excecerpt from the Don Baylor page:
“After Tommy John allowed three runs through the first three innings of the 1982 American League Championship Series against the Brewers, Baylor came up to John and said, “If you hold them to three runs, I’m personally good for four runs against [Milwaukee starter Mike] Caldwell.”[13] Baylor delivered on his promise, batting in 5 runs that game as California came back to win 8–3.[13] John later called Baylor the team’s “catalyst”
So it is possible for a single baseball player to ignite a club
LeBron is the biggest racist in the NBA. Screw him
Ummmm, and just what kind of info or intel do you have to support that slander ???
Liberals call everyone racist all the time with no evidence whatsoever. If they do it, so can I
If you think listening to all the “Oh they’re wasting the best years of Troutani” diatribe is bad, wait til we get shitted on every single hour of every day if Shohei is traded. It will be like this:
I’m in favor of keeping him. So F it. If we go down with the ship and lose him to free agency so be it.
Yeah, I would love to be able to keep Shohei. What a pleasure when he pitches to know we have a TRUE Ace going to the mound!!
But with each game lost his leaving at the end of 2023 seems like as much of an inevitability as the Titanic ending up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after it hit that iceberg.
Does anyone think that there is more pressure to trade Ohtani now that Soto is getting traded? There are only so many teams that can afford Ohtani, and those are the same teams that can afford to extend Soto.
Also, has anyone else realized that the Nationals are pretty much what many of us wish the Angels would become?
Sweet sweet POBO? – check
Shedding a superstar they can’t afford down the road? – check
Meh farm? – check
Stuck with a couple huge contracts? – check
Traded everything else that could be traded for meh prospect return?– check
Similar franchise value/payroll? – check
Selling the team? – check
Obviously going to compete soon? – herr durr
I’m still fine with the idea of burning it down. I like watching orgs build and paying attention to prospects. Arte can sell too, I mean it’s gonna happen someday so we can shoot those dice now or later. But we really could end up looking the way the Nats will for the next few years.
My guess is absolutely zero pressure to trade Ohtani, and instead a mandate from Arte to Perry to retain him; Southern California Japanese market and billboard oligarch are muh reasons. But I could be very, very wrong. I think that’s why Perry went all pitcher draft. With our big-three eating so much payroll, we NEED a cheap staff top to bottom, starting and relief.
I don’t know what’s more cringe: an owner that refuses to spend money so they can build a team that competes? Or one who overpays or signs really good players just for (marketing purposes) but doesn’t build a team around them and does not compete every season?
To me the latter is worse since I can at least understand a bad team with a low payroll not competing.
Part of my current frustration is being so terrible with a $190m payroll and two of the best players of all time on the same team.
Can’t argue with this.
Although, it would be rough with the former situation too.
I remember my youth when I knew the Angels never played the market like the “big boys”, and whenever a superstar became available I never even thought that the Angels had a chance. It was always 2nd/3rd tier free agents for us. But I guess being used to it made it a little easier.
Yeah it’s frustrating to have Troutani and languish, but I’d hate to be a pirates/A’s fan even more. I’m sure Arte can see that the 60-70 mil we are behind the top payrolls could retain Sho and net us a SS. And he probably wouldn’t even have to cross the threshold. 40 more would do it. The timing is right. I hope he does it.
This is Arte we are talking about, I doubt he will do it.
I keep thinking how a lot of the rhetoric I read about Soto can apply to our Ohtani situation. I’ve seen commentators stress their opinion that Washington would be nuts not to trade him now while they can get maximum value, which sounds familiar.
Another similarity I see between the two organizations is having a player with a bloated contract and not being able to stay healthy. Strasburg has not been able to stay healthy ever since he signed that extension. It’s funny when I hear some of their fans coping about that contract
Angels have their own in Mike Trout, who is made out of glass.
I don’t know if there’s any pressure to trade him unless he signals he wants out.
Now…teams that lose out on Soto that had arranged massive packages of guys they mentally prepared themselves to trade…maybe they pick up the phone and see if they can land Ohtani instead.
Well, I completely forgot about the All Star Game and watched videos on cool time video remaping tricks in After Effects…. so, that’s how excited I am about baseball as it stands now. Even my “other teams” (Tigers, Reds, Pirates, Padres) have sucked of late.
I’m so short on shit to give that I’m actually just looking forward to Orioles v Yankees and Rays v Yankees just cause I want to see if those guys can take it to the Death Star. I’m also thinking of watching the Astros v AL ESPN teams just to cause it’s fun to see YankSux guy get beat by “cheaters” almost all of whom are not there anymore and are still really f-ing good without the help… or the payroll.
I guess I could start pulling for the Guardiandians… they seem to like taking on UCSB guys.
Rooting for complete Memory Decay over this 5 day period with no Angels Baseball.
Its nice…can’t wait for the off season.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and a new Covid wave will cancel the rest of the season.
Err mah gird! So not sensitive! Ah had person…..
Dark humor is best humor
Err Gird!!! Thrott ter democracer!
I’m now worried you may have had a stroke.
HARR! Ewe bake that tack!
My smoke detectors might not like if I start baking tacks.
i laughed
That’s…why i’m here…
Well, what is the temperature in the room….how did we do with the draft?
Using the universally accepted grading scale, Great-Meh-Suck…. add a plus or minus to each of these if needed.
it was Neto
Neto + ? or Neto – ?
Meh +
Honestly every draft is meh+. I can see why they took just about every one of those guys, but I can also see how all of them may not work out. I’m not gonna make the standard CtPG bitch about “our development guys” since I don’t know what’s been going on with that the past 18 months or so…. and because it looks like some of the younger prospects are actually developing.
We’ll see in four years = meh+
dude. our development guys suck. need a dark room to better develop this underexposed film.
I know they did suck. Do they still suck? I can’t tell yet.
The draft day we got Adell was a Great!
And it remained GREAT for several. more. years.
oh crap … shoot.
or a crapshoot
one of thems.
https://theathletic.com/3435987/2022/07/20/angels-draft-pick-ben-joyce-fastest-pitch/
This is Ben Joyce who wants to throw the fastest pitch of all time. When I look at this photo, it looks like his elbow is about to explode already.
Keith Law says we need to develop him and get him to The Show quickly because his arm will break quickly also
They drafted a “circus freak”…
along with the Thicc King that would be 2 circus freaks
Shohei is a freak…Trout is too…are you calling us a Circus?
Moreno Brothers Traveling Baseball Circus!!!
Come see the 106 MPH Flame throwing Freak!!!
Watch the fattest man ever to hit MLB pitching!!
Come see the two way Baseball God SHOHEI!!
See the Great TROUT rehabbing his most recent injury!!!!
Coming to a county near you!
I’m not a fan of Manfred, at all, but I did like both the NL and AL uniforms. Maybe because of the gold lettering, the AL unis did not bring to mind prison garb.
I also like having everyone wear the same except for the team name because otherwise it’s harder to differentiate
Although, not a fan of the ASG, I thought there was more “team cohesion” with the same unis. There is a lot of color confusion with everyone wearing their own. Carry on.
70 games left. We need to go something like 50-20 to make the playoffs. If we play at the rate we started (24-13) we’d win 45. So I guess we agree we’re not making it.
It’s cute that you’re still working the numbers like this….. 😀
Yeah. They needed to NOT suck in July. Apparently the memo had a typo.
I love this.
But you do know … we CAN go 70-and-0.
the record is 26 straight. Let’s see…that’d make us 65-53. Even if we tied the longest streak is mlb history we’d just maybe be in line for the last wild card spot. 😂
So we are almost certainly going to the playoffs.
Having the draft during the All Star break is great because the off days allow fans to focus almost exclusively on the players just acquired.
Angels draftees are an interesting bunch. Sonny DiChiara and Joyce could be something, but also may never make it past AA.
I’m rooting for the fat kid!
Sonny has eagle eyes – from the Athletic:
Asked what he thinks makes his son so dangerous, Mike recalled a vision test. One summer at LakePoint during a tournament, players participated in a test to see how many pitches they could recognize. The winner won a $250 gift certificate to a store called Better Baseball.
The challenge began with each boy peering into a device. Quickly, the device would flash a brief picture of a baseball. The young boys were tasked with guessing the pitch: fastball, curveball, changeup, etc. Sonny, according to Mike, guessed 41 out of 50 correct.
“Which was the best they’d ever seen,” Mike said. “The next closest was, like, 20. That’s when I knew something was great about his vision. He just sees it better than most.”
Which one?
All of them!
Angels signed Ben Joyce’s Tennessee catcher Evan Russell.
Those hands have to be calloused
He had the easiest job on the field: flash the sign for fastball, and hope to hell Joyce hits the glove.
There was a baseball game last night?
No.
yes, it was the Varsity squad vs. the JV team
So the Angels did play the Dodgers again?
Does the AL ASG win count for anything this year.
So many manfraud rule changes I can’t keep up!!
Yes, all the home runs hit were added to Albert Pujols’s career total.
I see Grandpa also gets to add 35 from the HRD.
WBC 2023…
Ohtani vs Trout!
Does Ohtani strike Trout out?
Does Trout get a Hit, Double, Triple, HR?
Does Ohtani never pitch vs Team USA?
If the WBC marketing departments don’t set that up somehow they will be missing out on a global audience ($$$$) event.
Good morning, the All-Star Game went well for the American League. I have to agree John henry here in that the American League’s uninform looked like a jail uni. Drab. I like when All-Stars wear their own team’s uniform as it is much easier to tell who we are looking at. Wearing National/American League same size fits all type uniforms was not well recieved at me la casa. Maybe not everything needs changing for changes sake. So happy NL did not tie the game up though, a HR derby to decide the winner would be making fun out of our own game.
I dislike Robert Manfred, I dislike him and his rule changing, he very clearly hates extra innings and even the game of Baseball and feels compelled to strange a game he hates. Smarting extra innings with a runner on second base. HR Derby after 9 innings in making a joke out of the game and is embarrassing. Bigger base bags? It’s coming, again making fun of the game by saying tou’ve been doing this all wrong all this time. Fans have been booing him for years because he wants to change the game in ridiculous ways. Advertising on uni’s, the game brings in 11 billion dollars a season and you want more. Jeez.
I liked the ASG home uniforms a lot.
I’m sure an Angel home is available.
Angel ASG jerseys and tee shirts only available in road grey.
I thought the HR derby after a 9th inning tie was a cool idea for the All Star game, since it’s only an exhibition game anyway. It’s like a soccer or hockey shoot out. Wouldn’t like it in a regular season game that actually matters though.
They should play “butts-up” with baseballs instead of extra innings. DO IT MANFRED