10…9….8…yes, it is New Year all over again. This time Lunar New Year and the Year of the Rabbit, or is it Year of the Cat? Whatever it is, I’ll be hosting my annual shindig with live lion/dragon dancers, drums, egg rolls, and plenty of red envelopes.
Happy New Year, again!
We are officially closer to Opening Day 2023 than we are to the end of the World Series. Have the Angels done enough this off season?
I’m going to say no at the moment. Then again I’m also predicting some of the 2022 Trash Pandas to come up and pitch like stallions.
That’s Silseth to Luke Murphy to Eric Torres for a no-hitter last year. We’ve seen Silseth and I’ve linked Murphy since he was drafted. Torres is the under the radar guy and the lefty in that screen.
Eric Torres 2022 numbers: 42 games, 51 innings, 81 K’s, 0.94 WHIP, 1.59 ERA.
In case you’re wondering about my 2021 draft crush Luke Murphy, here are his numbers: 37 games, 44.2 innings, 52 K’s, 1.14 WHIP.
And then there’s this guy, who probably has the best raw stuff of the group:
That bullpen and position players like Zach Neto and Edgar Quero have some executives thinking the Angels farm system is under rated.
I think we have a handful of impact players at position of need, but there’s no frontline starting pitching, perhaps not much back end pitching either.
However, the Angels have two of the top 10 catching prospects between Quero and Logan O’Hoppe.
And the Angels added to that farm system with a large international class highlighted by a supposedly good shortstop. Come 2030, we could be cheering some of these guys.
Meanwhile the Padres went full Padres and paid $5.6 million for the top prospect, a catcher from Venezuela.
In less joyful Angels news, Arte also cheaps out on the Spanish language broadcast crew. Having a dude broadcast from essentially a closet is low. Really, we should be promoting such an accredited baseball guy, not hiding him.
Perhaps 2023 MLB will be the year of the rabbit on the base paths as new rules create more stolen base opportunities. Colorado’s Zac Veen is ready to run.
In news that made me smile, Andrew McCutchen set sail for home in Pittsburgh. That’s a good link from FanGraphs.
Hall of Fame voting is taking place and a player I truly loved is in danger of falling off the ballot. But Torii Hunter’s HOF case is stronger than a lot of people realize.
SI thinks eight players under the age of 30 are making HOF cases now.
The Hall of Fame may soon be full of shortstops from this era. Is this the golden age of MLB shortstops? In my 40 plus years on Earth, yes. I’ve seen some incredible ones but never an age with so many great shortstops spread around the league.
26 days until pitchers and catchers report. Have you booked your trip yet?
Have a great weekend and as always, link what I missed below.
First spring training pic of 2023 – the sign is up earlier than normal but the outfield grass has a way to go on the practice field
Getting ready
https://youtu.be/cA_1GXjPSIw
How Ironic that 3 of the 4 players pictured wont be spending much time with the team this spring while the 4th will probably be spending most his time rehabbing some injury or another.
Sunny in the IE today but freezing wind off of snow-covered mountains.
Youknowuloveit
Ahhh, I see whatcha did….
Happiness is seeing the IE in your rear view mirror.
unless you’re headed due west
Unless you’re headed to Brawley!! 🤣
But Palm Springs & Palm Desert are beautiful right now.
Palm Springs and Palm desert are nothing like Brawley.
Yes, but unfortunately, they share the same valley.
Coachella Valley is not the Imperial Valley
Worked in geothermal 9 years in Calipatria.
(200 ft below sea level and 10 ft above Hell)
first 2 yrs i lived in Brawley. Hell with that – next 7 yrs i moved back to Bermuda Dunes and just commuted 70 miles each way to work. it wasn’t a bad commute as it was wide open desert.
*picked up a few speeding tickets though
Looking forward to my SoCal Gas bill next week.
You aren’t looking forward to paying 5 times the national average to heat your home?
No I’m not……and opinions on that topic wouldn’t be suitable for this site.
We now live in a world where you can’t complain about high utility bills without it being political. Yayyyyy…. we’re awesome!
When citizens of one state are paying 5 times more for something than the other 49 states, the cause of that is pretty obvious.
The issue is the rabbit hole of replies and moving the topics, and…well you’ve seen the internet.
So I’ll sanction myself for pointing out the 5 times thing and end this thread.
I don’t mean here. The logic is simple here. Baseball site. Politics other sites.
I just mean in general. We’re almost to the point where “Cake or Pie?” is a question you can’t ask, or a statement you can’t make, without someone having attached a bunch of political poop to it.
It’s cool though. With my vast collection of gasoline, canned nuts, dune buggies, 70s goalie masks, toilet paper and sharp machetes this is all leading to a world I’ll do pretty well in.
I’m in spring training for spring training so I tried out my new lens last night and really wanted to see this guy
is it ok to like Russian hockey players these days?
it’s just getting harder all the time to separate politics from sports.
Russian hockey players are fine…No Dutch players, from any sports team. Not sure why, but this site draws the line with them.
Ovechkin is looking old with the gray hair. Prefer the Kings..Go Kings Go!
Looking forward to your ST 2023 camera work. Like your Flickr site..Nice work.
Thanks – I had a bottle of wine in me the night when I bought that lens and paid 10x more for one than I ever had.
*note to self – when free agency opens next winter, send alcohol to the Angels GM.
yeah I’m ready and can say if I’m able to get shots of hockey players indoors, I’m in the best shape of my life this spring.
It dawned on me lens are like baseball teams. If you have a cheap lens you won’t take good pics no matter how you try (or have to be incredibly lucky). But even if you go out and buy an expensive lens, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll take good pics; things could still go wrong and you still need a bit of luck. And even with a great lens, it could break, or you could still not know how to operate it and make bad choices like Staley or not care too much what you do like Maddon.
But it just helps tremendously to make good things happen when you spend more on quality. I’ll call this new lens Elvis. It’s all I could afford. It’s better than Wade but sure as hell not Dansby.
So you need a deep and varied supply of good quality lenses for every situation.
Do you develop these lens yourself? trade them with others or purchase them through an authorized agent? ( Which, of course is always the most expensive option)
Ivan Provorov better be home by eleven.
Wait Simba was Dutch and we all like Simba right?
right
So, do they now play professional hockey outdoors in the Valley of the Sun?
It’s indoors and and is about the same size as the rink in Big Bear.
In the years that the lake freezes we take our chances 😄
Yes baseball only.
Now that that’s settled can we finally just move along?
so what’s the latest on how Schilling is doing in the HOF voting?
Do you prefer wintergreen or spearmint gum?
You bastard – that is
sssoooo political. Everyone knows the right like’s Spearmint and the left wintergreen!!!!
This is why I roll with the “PIECAKEN” in all flavors. I don’t want to offend anyone.
https://www.piecakenbakeshop.com/shop
Year of the Rabbit Hole
Nuclear power isn’t cool in California so they don’t build power plants.
But there’s a big nuclear power plant in Arizona right next door and California buys all the power it can get from it. – it’s more ethical that way I guess.
Same ethics apply to oil, although we get that from the other side of the globe instead of Bakersfield.
speaking utilizes, this probably the safest time ever to mention how green my lawn is here in Phoenix. My front yard and backyard yard are both very lush all year round and I even am growing bamboo trees too.
It’s a good thing utilities don’t trigger people.
So, if I move to South Dakota where it is 5 times colder but the gas only cost 20% of California I would break even?
More importantly, which mlb teams are broadcast? Rockies? mariners? Twins?
Maybe even Kansas City. I guess there you probably wouldn’t get blacked out.
Yeah. I was gonna say ALL the teams if you want.
isn’t natural gas illegal now in California? are these rate’s because it has to be smuggled in?
On a far more serious note, I was thinking about the MLK column last week and thinking about if that column would have been extreme 30 years ago? In Arizona it would have maybe ( I didn’t live here then fwiw).
Arizona didn’t want to celebrate MLK Day and lost the 1993 Super Bowl because of it.
And sexual orientations as another topic – that has completely flipped too – how you feel was completely wrong/right 40 years ago now makes you now complete right/wrong today.
Things change all the time and my point is what is PC depends what decade it is. Topics like vaccines. Trigger point today but every thing was straight forward once ago.
Now here’s where I’m completely serious- I’m freezing my ass off in Phoenix this week and it’s too cold to go outside and it’d better change in 3 weeks or ST will suck. Can’t have ST in 50 F weather.
And if gets to the point where your opinion on the Shift or the DH is largely dependent on which side of the political aisle you’re on like a continually growing list of topics, we are doomed
Yep, Norns change and we can’t assume we’d have been on the correct side of an issue had we lived in the past.
But spring training better be awesome. I really need some sunny baseball days.
Although, the last time I went to the WBC in Phoenix it was miserable. I got hailed on at an Angels/ Dodgers game.
At least the WBC will be climate controlled.
This is California
Sun = Hot
Clouds = Cold
What the hell is going on?
Why didn’t I bring my wind breaker with me today?
I get cold here even during the summer. Once the sun about sets and that onshore breeze kicks in.
Guess you live in Bakersfield where it is 90 degrees at midnight long enough everything else feels cold.
Grew up in Palm Springs but have lived in Phoenix for 28 years and i always complain how cold it is in the winters here compared to the Coachella Valley.
I just don’t go outside when it’s lower than 58 F, it’s too cold 🥶 Seriously.
Bauer not signed by a team yet? I may lose my bet if he doesn’t sign by tomorrow night.
Somebody’s going to sign him, we all know that.
My money is on Bauer signing after camps. Be much better than bringing that media circus to your entire ball club.
I shudder and I mean shudder as to how many teams probably have already done a plus/minus on IF they sign him. That of course is PR plus/minus as pitching wise no-brainer.
I say the odds of about 30 teams doing so is pretty high.
I think every team and fan base probably has.
I love a big trade. Twins and Marlins just pulled one off.
I think this is a big win for both teams. Twins needed quality pitching as much as Miami needed an impact bat. No idea on the prospects and how they develop or don’t might change the winner/loser in a few years.
But for right now, this is a win/win.
In the back of my mind I am hoping Perry will still pull off a good trade, but we’ll see.
Might that make Chisholm a trade candidate? I know we are flush with 2B, but Chisholm is still an upgrade to several of our options and can play SS. Perhaps we could get him for Moniak/Adell (to play CF for them) and some of our pitching prospects (Silseth, Davidson) that have MLB experience?
Very interesting. They say Jazz will play center in Miami. But who knows?
He has never played OF, not even in the minors. Seems really strange to move an All Star SS to OF.
Feels like someone has soured on him (hard to see Segura/Wendle as the better IF choices). Sure, he is fast – but that doesn’t make an OF (see Billy Hamilton, Peter Bourjos, or even Jo Adell).
They clearly don’t believe in their OF depth, so I suspect that they are looking for more trades.
Hamilton himself was moved from infield to outfield.
It’s a desperate move by a team who needs sone crazy breaks to compete in the division.
Looks to me like they’re options are more a fast guy who never played CF to the position or play guys who simply can’t cover CF.
Devo was a third baseman. Of course he made the switch a lot sooner than Jazz to the outfield.
The more recent infamous transition would be the Dee Strange-Gordon experiment that Jer Jer tried back in 2018 which failed miserably.
That is why I think a trade might be an option. Would love to have Jazz at SS for us.
I like Chisholm but the fact that his team needs a shortstop and he’s not it (in addition to his actual numbers at short) isn’t telling you something? We’d LOVE him at SS but Rengifo or Fletcher would be a big problem?
This just sounds like more CtPG “I hate what I have so…. SOMETHING!” thinking.
I thought the Jazz were in Utah ( via New Orleans)
Eh. I love Torii, but that’s a weak ass midwinter baseball article with an even weaker case for Hunter in the HOF. “If you are wondering if Torii should be in…. look at Andrew Jones, who is also not in.”
Another way to look at this is that, if Torii has a strong case, then how much stronger is Andruw Jones, Jim Edmonds, Fred Lynn? Curtis Granderson is available for the Hall with 3 fewer WAR in 1500 less ABs….
It’s OK for a guy to just be in the Hall of Very Good. I love a bunch of those players, maybe even more than HOF players. Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans (should be in), Dave Parker, Bobby Grich (should also be in), Julio Franco, Brian Downing, Eric Davis…. one of the best things about being a long term fan of a team is you get familiar with that teams “greats”. They belong to the team and not all of baseball so much. That’s OK. It’s kind of cool.
But it switches to pathetic when we try to smoosh some argument together for, in our case, Jared Weaver, Tim Salmon or Torii Hunter to be HOFers. WTY is Dennis Leanord or John Tudor or Cliff Lee and that’s totally great.
I rate Torii as one of my all time favorite players. I’d make sure to catch the Twins games so I could watch him. He’s my all time favorite free agent signing.
He’s short of HOF. But it is a slow news time and Torii is a popular player around here so I linked the article.
Yah. Nothing wrong with linking it…. and NOTHIN wrong with lovin the Hula Doola Domino Rula. It’s just writers who should know better saying things they know are crap so they can get stupid people to advocate emotionally for favorite players that don’t belong in the HOF… while also probably complaining about similar players who make it, declaring the HOF a sham.
Cause writer’s gotta eat.
The HOF has so much more going on. It’s a wealth of cool stuff for a guy to write about in the off season.
Hell, write about some of the great “Hall of Good” players from days gone by… For example, who the heck is Allie Reynolds? cause it looks like there was a pretty long time where he was borderline. Lew Burdette? I had no idea Harvey Kuenn was such a beast for a while there, probably cause Not Yankee. Ken Boyer kind of makes him look like a hobo, he has HOF stats if he’s a Dodger. Maury Wills? Though he’ll probably get in someday for justice. Speaking of justice, why are Catfish Hunter and Don Drysdale in the HOF but Luis Tiant isn’t? That dude would make a great story….
Loved Luis Tiant. The dude battled including this epic duel with the Express. https://www.mlb.com/news/nolan-ryan-threw-235-pitches-in-one-game .
Even with my bitter hate of the Doyers…Steve Garvey should be in..or at least in the
MidgetLittle People Baseball HOF.That’s not bitter hate brother, that’s just sweet sweet standards. Moral fiber. Without it the world can’t take a shit and gets all backed up…. kind of like Chavez Latrine……
I’ve heard that Granderson is available we should try to get him.
But then we’d be out on Wilson.
I love that! What do you think it would take for him to get in?
Never talking about Wilson again?
3/45 ?
Happy New Year tomorrow! The year of the wabbit. Elmer Fudd must be stoked.
Year of the Rabbit…. underrated band…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak_MTXQALa0
https://youtu.be/WANNqr-vcx0
RIP David Crosby
As to SS eras, the late 90s included Jeter, Nomar, Arod, Barry Larkin, Omar Vizquel, Cal Ripken, Edgar Renteria, Miguel Tejada, and others. I think that was a pretty darn good SS time. So let’s not get too excited about now.
Gary Disarcina?
Good morning to you, sunny day today and can’t wait for the weekend. Is being linked a good thing?
Even with adverse weather in Buffalo, the Bills Game with the Bengals promises to be fun to watch.
5.5 spread. I could argue that either way. Wouldn’t touch it, though.
Bet the opposite, if you’re smart…..
Chiefs lay the 8.5 Chiefs pull away 2nd half win by 10
Giants +7.5 Giants keep it close but lose
Cowboys +4 23-20 score who ever wins
Bengals +5.5 Back end cover….love the under in this game. Officiating crew is averaging -13 on the point total.