Matt Wise is credited with helping Tucker Davidson make some adjustments, at least with his changeup. Mike Trout is moving past his batting practice phase and is scheduled to face live pitching in the coming few days.
Alex Rodriguez says he wishes players would learn from his stupidity. He says it is heartbreaking to have to explain to his daughters that he will never be in the Hall of Fame. This is all in reaction to the PED suspension of Fernando Tatis Jr.
It is the part of the season when heads will roll. The Rangers fired their Manager Chris Woodward. Third base coach Tony Beasley will take over. The firings will continue until morale improves.
MLB released its postseason schedule.
The Guardians designated Jake Jewell for assignment while the Cardinals released T.J. McFarland. The Phillies placed Corey Knebel on the 15 day IL due to a right lat strain. The Blue Jays designated Bradley Zimmer for assignment. Walker Buehler will have season ending elbow surgery. The Mets placed infielder Luis Guillorme on the injured list with a groin strain. The Dodgers designated catcher Tony Wolters for assignment. First baseman Yoshi Tsutsugo is close to getting a minor league deal with the Blue Jays.
Juuuust a bit outside. Just a bit high.
Mike Clevinger trades a baseball for a beer from a fan. Meanwhile, Amir Garrett got a three day suspension and a fine for throwing a drink at a White Sox fan.
I forgot to link this yesterday. Tim Lincecum’s wife, Cristin Coleman, lost her battle with cancer on June 27th.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Phil’s fans saying Marsh just suffered a major knee injury
Looks pretty bad. But we’ll see.
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/phillies-brandon-marsh-injury-reds/
Angels signed free agent 1B Mike Ford to a minor league contract.
YES! We did it!
Oh, wait. It’s not 2019 is it.
A Ford that will probably play like a used Yugo.
Here’s a story in today’s LA Fishwrap about David and Ashley Eckstein:
https://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/story/2022-08-15/ashley-eckstein-david-angels-disney-acting-career
As much as I love David, Ashley might be my favorite of the two. She’s so awesome.
Ahsoka has been my favorite Star Wars character for years now. Hopefully we get to see her voice the character again.
I did not know about the animated Star wars shows until recently other than they existed. Then I got Disney+ (dang COVID era) and I got hooked. Really impressive, and better than several of live action Star wars movies.
In other news, aren’t you guys glad he’s not our headache?!
Mike Trout may be on the decline (still feels weird to write that), but at least we never dealt with this kind of shenanigans from him.
https://twitter.com/TalkingFriars/status/1559227169221402625
This guy just hates Tatis Jr cause he’s young and sassy and expressive and full of Latino passion. Tatis will be the new face of baseball when ever he’s not on suspension or a hospital bed.
Didn’t realize that Frisco was a Padres affiliate. So Tatis was Victor’s headache for a while?
I bet some fans on here would say that the contract they gave him is still worth it.
If he gets his act together, and player contracts continue to go up, he will likely be a fairly good value in a couple years. IF.
Just because Trout is hurt, doesn’t mean he is on the decline. I wouldn’t want to say that until he stops performing at an elite level on the field.
I, for one, give the halos credit for new and inventive ways to lose. It really is something to behold. It’s tough losing the same way all the time. Kudos. Thank goodness it’s football season.
Jack Frost last night mentioned how not only Stassi messed up on the rundown, but Loup too, for not covering home. I’d add Squid for not covering 3rd. That’s why we didn’t even that the out there. Rojas had to double pump until Squid got there…too late.
I’m 82% sure that most of the Angels org, from the FO down to the players, read this site all the time.
That being the case, when that tough play came up in the 9th last night, a bunch of players, all at once, were like “Man, this is hard. Why bother? These fans are assholes. Do I even want these people to be happy? I wish I was on another team. I wonder if Shohei will take me with him….”
annnnnd poop.
Yep. Poup was pitching and we were all bitching. 💩
What the hell happened to that guy? He was good for so long, then… poop.
IKR? It threw me for a Loup when he fell off a cliff.
He sure took a dump.
Playing for the Angels causes that.
Ju Ju so bad only signing Jorge Soler…. I mean Nick Castellanos…. I mean Avisail Garcia…. wait, I mean Joc Pederson, can solve it.
Remember at the trade deadline when people were saying “who cares about a catcher?” ha ha.
Stassi has fallen off with the bat and his once vaunted defense is gone. And he is, by far, the best catcher we had at any level until O’Hoppe was brought on board.
IDK Edgar Quero is developing fast. Not sure about his defense though.
Quero’s good. He’s also years away.
The problem here is that hitting is not the most important thing a catcher does. By far what is more important is how he calls a game and handles pitchers. These skills only become really good with experience, especially at the MLB level.
So, despite the fact that Stassi is struggling with the bat and the defense seems to have regressed, he still knows our staff and is better than average strategically. If we brought O’Hoppe up soon I think the offensive upgrade would be counteracted by the fact we would be hurt by his lack of big league experience, not knowing our staff or the hitters on other teams etc.. I have always said this, the catcher is SO important for these things; it is the reason I did not want to get rid of Maldonado.
With Bengie we were so blessed because he gave you all of that PLUS his bat was very good and incredibly clutch. We may never have another catcher like Bengie Molina. But, back to my point, young catchers don’t usually come up and thrive defensively. The exception might be somebody like Buster Posey, but I think he would be the exception that proves the rule. In summary, a catcher’s offense should be viewed as a luxury. You have to bring in a catcher that is great at those other things, then if he is decent offensively great, but you should not have your starting catcher be someone who is strong with the bat but lacking in those other things.
It might be better to bring O’Hoppe in as the backup catcher first and let him learn the league, the hitters and our staff with the goal of him becoming the main guy in a year or two.
Stassi was defensively good, called a good game, was trusted by pitchers, and hit fairly well…. till this year…. the year of the Sad Donkey.
That’s exactly why I don’t like WAR for catchers.
Take a look at the Giants in 2020 without Posey and in 2021 with Posey. Basically the same pitching staff went from decent to elite. Pitch calling had a lot to do with that.
My point is Stassi has declined severely this year and has only one year left on his contract. Outside of him there’s absolutely nobody.
I liked Marsh but I don’t think most people here recognized how dire the catching situation is and last night kind of epitomized it.
Well how about this: If the key to success is winning, In the month of August the Trash Pandas are 6-1 in games O’Hoppe was the catcher and 0-5 in games he did not played in .
So may be he has the Catcher grit factor.
I think all of this points to the fact that we need to get Mathis back. How’s the team been since Mathis left? Exactly. I am the winner. 💪  💪  💪  💪  💪 
Lyle? Is that you Mr Spencer?
Ye, I mean who?
Wow .You mean this site finally has Premium content?
Can we get Lance Parrish back?
I think Parish was better even adjusted for playing era than Bengie and we got him post prime during his 33 to 36 age seasons.
But I agree that Bengie was the only premier (notice I did not say “premium”) all around catcher that played for us during his prime.
The biggest complaint I had with Bengie is sometimes as the game went into the later innings he would get tired, got lazy and then had a propensity for more passed balls and wild pitches.
You’re not allowed to say anything negative about the old school glory of a Molina Brother. They were pudgy with grit!
Catchers? Interesting, today is Buck Rogers 84th birthday (your useless bit of baseball info for the day)
Other than Ohtani’s pitching, and Fletcher (when he plays), and Rengifo, what has not regressed this year?
Detmers? Quesadilla? Barria? meh
It has been a team effort to regression. Walsh and Stassi were guys we counted on to be quality MLB level contributors but have largely sucked. Same with Loup.
Bright spots for this year: Detmers, Rengifo, Fletcher, Ohtani on the mound, Barria.
Really that’s it.
I said it before the season started. Ohtani/Rendon/Trout. As they go, so goes the season. Walsh and Stassi flailing doesn’t help at all. Rengifo, Fletcher (when healthy), Velazquez, Ward, Barria, Detmers, Quijada, even Duffy have generally done their jobs. They are depth, french fries. Our big problem is the hamburgers, the Big 3 plus Tepera , Loup etc.
Which is why Arte should never pay anyone again.
Hamburgers? I’m looking for Prime Rib.
The big 4 (also a term for the top 4 accounting firms) if you count Archie Bradley as well.
Rengifo’s hitting is average at best and his fielding is atrocious. On a contending team no more than a backup. On the Angels, our second best hitter after Ohtani.
Looks like, as of now, Rengifo is 6% and 1.3 Wins better than average… which means he’s better than average on what ever team he’s on.
Alex Rodriguez and steroids. He had no regrets when he was making all those millions. If he didn’t get caught I doubt he would have any now.
And the crazy thing is he didn’t get caught by testing positive. His name was found on a list. How many other guys are just flying under the radar?
“None more. Well, maybe that guy over there.”
Now now, let’s not spread baseless rumors.
No one would shock me anymore, though.
I pretty much assume everyone who’s hitting a ton of homeruns is using something. Even if they’re already huge. Totally using steroids.
I do not know what types of drills the Angels go through. With that said I hope that the team is asked to come in early today and work out who goes where with runners on base and a hit ball. Yesterday I saw several cluster F***s on the field that never should have happened.
Last evening, I and GMB and my brother-in-Law shared the Dodgers and Angels game together and the 2 teams are polar opposites in not just skill levels but also in what can only be described as coaching levels. This comes from not only the ML level coaches, but what is taught at the earliest levels of the minor leagues by experienced coaches and teachers.
Even when Shohei has an off night he is focused and just a joy to watch. Never seems to just be going through the game in cruise control. Fletcher is removed from the game because of injury and the team un-glued. I was wrong about Rengifo being a Major Leaguer maybe, but not about the fact that he can’t field. He has a hard time knowing exactly what to do without thinking about it. A natural he is not with the glove.
They play like a little league team, without the coaching or the upside. They refuse to hold anyone accountable for this sad state of affairs. I believe yesterday’s defense was the worst in club history. Nevin is a sad excuse for a manager.
The no one covering home play was almost as bad as that Pirate first baseman who chased Baez back to home, instead of stepping on first base.
I missed the game last night, but the last time I remember nobody covering home was Fraudney, and we were all calling for his immediate benching.
I really think Loup deflected that ball just slightly, but in any case he shielded Rengifo from a clear look. Rengifo going home at that point was the right play – it just caught Walsh and Loup out of position (Stassi perhaps should have held the ball longer, knowing it was bit of a run for the others).
But sure, we are playing with our backup 2B and, what, our 3rd 3B.
The right play was to catch the liner in the first place.
So much fail on one single play
I had phenomenal seats to view that liner in the 9th. I’m not surprised he dropped it. That thing was a bullet.
I kind of figured that. Sometimes that happens. I think people are raging against Rengifo a bit too much about that play.
What had me speechless was the botched rundown at 3rd. Stassi clearly needed to run the guy back further.
And I forgot to mention that I was calling out (to no one else in the room) questioning why didn’t we pinch hit for Duggar in the 8th??? A huge scoring chance to put us in win position (and maybe bring in Quijada). Did we really have no one else to hit besides Duggar, who already had 3 SO that day? Seriously?
Why is Duggar even on the team? I would have much rather have watched Adell flail and fail but now we have to endure Duggar? It is bad enough we get 3 to 4 at bats of squid almost every night but how does Duggar ultimately help out our roster if Adell is not playing ?.
Exactly.
I know Nevin is still trying to win games. But I really don’t like that he’s pulling Adell late in close game situations. Let the kid learn and get his bearings – this is especially a good time because these games are close to meaningless. I understand pulling him out if the team is still fighting for a playoff spot. But they’re not.
Leave Adell in there in close games, and if he makes a mistake, so be it. It should be part of his learning process of playing defense in real close games. Especially if the team deems him more important than Marsh that he remained on the team (or the flip side, maybe no one wanted him anyway).
Me too. It was a frozen rope. but it hit him right in the glove.
Was he trying to make a DP happen? One of those fake drops and then end the inning with a DP
I was thinking the same thing. A BBB special but that thing was a rocket.
I think Rengifo playing so many different positions doesn’t suit him. I bet he would flourish if given one spot but seeing how the FO operates, doubtful we will ever know.
See Figgins, Chone.
Yep. The Mariners got hosed there.
I like Rengifo at second. He got moved last night because of Fletcher’s injury.
I think ideally we’d have an infield of Rendon, real SS, Rengifo, Fletcher next year with Fletcher moving around the diamond giving guys a day off here and there and allowing the manager to play match ups.
But Fletcher makes that play and second yesterday. I would like to see Rengifo move around the diamond instead of Fletch. Fletcher still looks like hes in pain to me ( maybe he’ll improve?) but seems the most comfortable at second .
I agree. Rendon, SS, Fletcher, Walsh, with Rengifo the IF on the bench. I would be happy with that (depending on who we get for SS).
Sometimes in life the heart will be broken beyond repair and those of us that have a child pass away will not for whatever reason get over it, I am one. I am sorry that Tim L. and his wife’s parents must go through this. R.I.P. Cristin.
Very sad news.
Amen Grandpa.
Can this team go one week without being an embarrassment to the league? JFC.
Also, Trout faced live BP yesterday.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1559314731776634882?s=20
Brutal news about Tim’s wife. RIP.