Archie Bradley is on his way back and Anthony Rendon is cleared for batting cages and some throwing.
The Twins designated Jake Jewell for assignment and selected Louie Varland. The Yankees designated Luke Bard for assignment and placed Josh Donaldson on the paternity list. Meanwhile the Pirates designated Josh VanMeter for assignment. The Mets, for their part, designated Adonis Medina for assignment. The Giants designated Andrew Knapp for assignment.
Upon being sued, Doug Gottlieb fully retracted his June 29 report that agent Casey Close did not communicate all offers to Freddie Freeman when they were negotiating Freeman’s new salary.
Max Scherzer is officially on the injured list with fatigue in an oblique muscle. Dylan Carlson is on the injured list with a thumb strain.
Marlins right hander Nick Niedert just had knee surgery of an unspecified sort.
The Pirates claimed both Zack Collins and Junior Fernandez off waivers. They got Collins from the Blue Jays and Fernandez from the Cardinals.
Former big league relief pitcher Mark Littell passed away at the age of 69.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Pitch clock and shift ban, I’m curious how this will go. Honestly, and maybe because I’m not a hard core traditionalist, but I don’t think Its too bad an idea. That’s and gritch’s mound adjustment, totally needed to happen yesterday.
Here’s the video re the handshake agreement with one of the Dominican players who was ‘signed’ (handshake agreement) – and then the Angels apparently backed out. This is the subject of the lawsuits mentioned earlier.
https://youtu.be/mty670HTAho
That is a compelling video, pulling at the emotions.
I agree it’s intended to at the heartstrings. I’m not sure what I think about handshake agreements. I pretty much think it’s unlikely to be enforceable unless there was some kind of reliance on it. The kid kept playing baseball and signed somewhere else. As a result I’m not certain I see the agreement as enforceable.
From a PR standpoint for Angels international scouting it’s not great as it likely has a tendency to negatively effect the trustworthiness of Organization in the eyes of the DR baseball community.
But what about DR courts? Aren’t the Angels subject to their overview?
I don’t know. I assume so, but I don’t know what that means in a Mickey Mouse shit hole like the DR. It’s not like doing business with France or something. I’m sure there’s a lot of wiggle and giggle in that legal system. I’m not sure what power they have to enforce anything on the Angels.
I also doubt that, especially with a new owner, many of DR kids are gonna say “aww hell no” when offered a contract to play baseball for a large sum of money even if this “hurts perception” or what ever.
The only issue here is if the Angels are specifically barred from doing business in DR do to these “transgressions” Maybe Manfraud in his feckless capitulation will acquiesce to the banana republic judge and use them to set an example for the league.
Ummmmm…. handshake agreements.
How much you want to bet these kids would have forgotten all about handshakes and maybe even hugs if they got offered 250K more from another team?
I mean sure, I feel bad for the kid. At the same time, he and his handler never thought “man, that scout sure said that fast and easy, I wonder when the actual contract’s gonna show up?”. What happened with these guys between then and now? Are they still worth signing? Are other teams out there trying to sign them and for some reason the Angels scout stopped them?
Reminds me of a lot of the bands I’ve known that were “pretty much signed”.
It’s the sports business. Not sports uncles or friends. We as a fans can’t get all butthurt about crying kids today while we wished Arte’d made Baldoquin cry a little yesterday. If these three guys are any good some other team will snap them up and they will come back to kick our ass. If the Angels actually broke a contract with them, then the Angels should pay them.
This also reminds me of the “Angels minor leaguers are starving” narrative when, in reality, Covid had put most organizations non-bonus players into hastily cobbled together living situations and pretty much every orgs non-bonus “prospects” get paid squat and eat hot dogs. But ARRRTTTTEEEE! SO CHEAP. SOOOOOO EVIL…. based on an article about a bitter failed prospect’s experiences. How much you want to bet the Angels aren’t the only team that’s pulled back an Int FA contract offer after a year and a half?
Spot on. Played with guys from the DR back in the day and to say the rules are different is a huge understatement. Lots of handlers/uncles and to riff on your band take every one of them says they discovered Van Halen back in the day only to get screwed by the label (teams).
I read some more on this suit. Read some of the stuff it’s been said came from the legal case too… a little. I still don’t understand. So you tell a 14 year old you intend to sign him. Then a new management team comes in. Then said 14 year old maybe doesn’t look as impressive at 15 years and 6 months. So the new bosses, who did not promise you shit, decide not to give you what the fired guy said he’d give you.
So… sue the company you never worked for… and also farm a bunch of emotion berries with a YouTube video… oh, and sign with another team, while suing the team you never signed with for four times what they did not pay you.
This isn’t sketchy at all. And no, I don’t give a shit that the little boy cried.
My main question is, if a DR kid (or rather his handler, his parents, and the loan sharks that fronted them a ton of money in expectation of a pay off that wasn’t guaranteed) can sue an MLB team for deciding not to sign said kid then can MLB teams sue a kid, or another MLB team, when said kid gets better from age 14-16 and signs for more money elsewhere?
I just don’t see how a court can find for these guys without opening up a huge can of worms that can hurt international players.
I say get it writing or it never happened. That said, it’s a weird reality when teams can buy, sell, send you Medicine Hat or trade you at will once you do sign. Sad truth is that most guys don’t have a ton of leverage or options and end up being minor league cannon fodder as the teams seek to promote their top prospects. Front office career concerns dictate that ‘their guys’ become successful.
Apologies, I may have veered off subject to vent based on personal experiences.
These guys can’t even get it in writing till they turn 16. Neither can the team.
So this is like if a hard throwing yet short kid from a Southern California high school draws some interest from the Reds and Indians at 16, but by the time he’s 17 they aren’t interested anymore, thus he is not picked in the draft at 18. So he sues the Reds.
The main difference being that the single scout that talked to these guys was 100 times more interested in them than the scout that saw the squat California HS pitcher. But even if that Cali scout had told the HS pitcher he’s gonna draft him at 16, then told him he’s not gonna draft him a year and a half later…. who cares? Why are the Reds and Indians suddenly liable? I’m (errr, I mean he’s) the one that didn’t get much better between 16 and 18.
The kid in the video was signed by the Rangers in 2021. The other kid, Willy Fanas, was signed by the Mets in January 2022 (incidentally, Eppler was in charge for both the handshake deal with the Angels and the Mets signing).
Speaking of core muscle injuries, I had a fun talk with a guy who is a very very successful CCL/NBC coach at work the other day. He’s coached a ton of MLB players over decades.
I asked him why we constantly here about torn obliques and abs and lats, etc now days when we never heard about that when I was a boy and all the players had George Brett’s body.
He said it’s pitching’s fault. Young pitchers built up to the point that we see something that used to be a once every 15 years thing every year…. namely 98-100MPH high school pitchers. Pitching as a whole has just gotten VERY good. Plus defensive shifts. Plus launch angle. Plus hitters getting paid for HR against this tougher over all pitching pool.
Hitters have become way too built up and, generally, it is to get an extra smidge of power. A guy has power or he doesn’t generally, but an extra 5 HR a year can mean millions. All the big power muscles build up, the smaller core muscles don’t build up to the same strength usually, so they tear. Same with tendons at the joints. He brought up guys breaking bones in their hands swinging…. WTF is that? That’s not a problem we saw in 1990….
But how do trainers tell players at any level “you need to stop getting stronger, you’re pulling your body apart.”? They can’t. He said they even try…. players blow them off.
His solution? Sounds crazy, but he said they should try moving the mound back by a foot, maybe 18 inches. That would mean hitters can be just a little less overwhelmed. I looked online and there is actually a fair amount of support for this idea… here’s a video looking at testing it in the Atlantic League.
Hitters can ease up on trying to catch up to velocity, but breaking balls and change ups will be even more effective… sounds kind of good to me.
Wow! This is fascinating
Yeah, at first I was like “Move the mound back. That’s stupid. Never gonna happen and won’t work.” but hey…. look at that. There was another video of a long podcast I saw where a guy was listing all the ways, over history, that MLB has messed with the “foundational” parts of baseball. The reality is moving the mound back’s not THAT big a deal.
This is a great idea. And wouldn’t hurt the “integrity of the game” for the teeth gnashers. Altho there will be lots of tears here because Manfred. MLB survived lowering the mound from 15 to 10 inches, so move the rubber back a foot, and let’s play ball!
“Prospects Willy Fañas, Keiderson Pavon suing Los Angeles Angels, alleging agreements pulled back by team“
ESPN
Why does the front office continue to embarrass the fan base?
Why is the fan base so easy to embarrass?
In fact, why are you embarrassed by this at all? The FO has nothing to do with you. Actually, I can’t tell yet, did the FO do anything wrong? Cause there’s a long line between actually doing something wrong and getting sued… I haven’t seen what actually happened yet.
It’s a pattern from the minor leagues to the majors.
What is? Some Angels fans being really easy to embarrass?
At least Betty and Veronica are excited.
Yay more fun Angels news… they’re being sued by 2 DR players.
Arte has got to be excited to be done with all of this stuff
so if we had a Pilates coach maybe Fletcher, Rendon, Trout, and now Stassi wouldn’t have succumbed to core, back, and hip issues and then we’d be sitting at 85 wins right now.
I vividly remember watching Ryan doing yoga stretches with Bill Singer back in the day which was pretty radical for back then. Singer had gone through tons of injuries prior to adopting that regimen and only last a few more seasons but Ryan was an inspiration for stretching to me that I’d later wish I had followed better. Weaver is a good example of a guy who disliked stretching and was used up early. Plyometrics is proven with guys like Brady in the NFL and others. Keeping muscles soft, pliable and ready to make quick start movements is somewhat age defying.
Who has the hottest bat among all Angel prospects? The answer might surprise you… https://www.milb.com/player/david-calabrese-683341?stats=gamelogs-r-hitting-mlb&year=2022
Pound for pound, that 2020 midget draft is shaping up to be a winner for us…
By Far , Billy’s best draft. So why was it so hard for him to draft viable prospects when he had 35+ more rounds each year?
It’s almost like prospects are a total crap shoot.
You know what’s funny? I heard a guy on one of the podcasts I listen to discussing the end of the year farm rankings and he was pretty funny. He basically said that experts won’t know the Dodgers and Rays systems suck until three years after they suck and the same is true of most bad systems turning good.
He said prospects from a good system always get a ton of extra shine and wind up on Top 100 lists, which is what system rankings are based on. He said he had Cleveland at #15 at the end of 2019, now he thinks they are #2 behind Baltimore (this was in July). It’s almost all the same players, they just look a lot better. He said the Yankees farm will crack the top ten, but if the same Brewers have the same farm they will be ranked 15 or something.
He also brought up the fact that there are big time farms, like recent Padres, Twins and Mariners systems that really only produce as much MLB WAR as a #10 or 15 ranked system.
It’s a total crap shoot… even when you have a bunch of dudes declaring that it’s not and they know one farm’s awesome and one farm isn’t it is often a crap shoot.
Nice post. Agree with what you laid out. Specifically about prospects for a good system getting extra shine. Used to be the Yanks and Dodgers would overhype their prospects only to watch them fade away. The last 5-6 years though, Dodgers have nailed good talent. It is a crapshoot but if I am shooting, would love to have a top 3 pick vs Top 15.
Angels are towards the bottom/last even with all the Panada fever, we’ll see how Perry’s picks pan out. I’m only high on like 2 pitchers and Neto, Quero. O’Hoppe is interesting as well. Bachman/Bush, thus far are relievers. Wasted picks IMHO, even if the game is going that direction.
Doug Gottleib, the pillar of the community that stole credit cards while at Notre Dame, spent ~$1k on the stolen credit cards and then was caught and summarily expelled from Notre Dame. Leopards don’t change their spots.
But he had to say SOMTHING right? Sure, it makes absolutely no sense for an agent who wants to remain an agent to just plain NOT tell a client about an offer from his original team…. but why would you give saying said agent did that a second thought when you can be the first to shit out that hot take?
But still holds the all time assists record at Tustin High school though.
Activate Rendon to serve his suspension. Then play a few games.
Start off Fresh next Season.
Yeah if he’s able to do BP or see live pitching, why not bring him back as the part time DH?
Serve the suspension, get a few ABs. Call it a year.
F you MLB. F you Mariners.
Only at DH if Ohtani doesn’t need every AB to land a second MVP
There was speculation that MLB would have to be convinced Rendon can play before the Angels activate him. He is traveling with the team, so maybe they activate him and send Seattle a big foam middle finger