This article is Rhett Bollinger projecting Angels’ opening day lineup.
So it begins: Nestor Cortes is out of the World Baseball Classic after tweaking his hamstring. Stay safe out there guys! By “tweaked” they mean a grade 2 strain. Kyle Freeland of the Rockies will replace Cortes on Team USA.
The ghost runner rule is here to stay for better or worse. It doesn’t seem to have done the Angels any favors from what I can recall. The Astros claimed reliever Matt Gage off waivers from the Blue Jays. The Tigers signed Matt Wisler to a minor league deal. I can’t remember if we already linked about this. The Reds and Guardians swapped outfielders. Will Benson went to Cincinnati while Justin Boyd went to Cleveland. Fangraphs has a ton of job postings around baseball right now if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Ted Lerner, owner of the Nationals, passed away at the age of 97.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
It Looks like Wacha Wacha is going to be making some Moola Moola from the Padres so I’m not sure we have wanted to offer that for a 6th starter. https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1625684972752306176
I am ready to baseball.
Canning being healthy would certainly be a fun surprise. Fingers crossed.
C-Rod staying healthy would be for me
Bollinger took an easy path. Those are the position players who should make the roster barring injury.
How often guys like Fletcher, Rengifo, Urshela, and Drury play and where is unknown.
I’m betting against Davidson as the sixth starter and on the bullpen getting at least one of Joyce or Torres early this year. Perhaps on day one.
I like Joyce but I think Ingram and Torres are ahead of him in the call up order. Joyce’s control was bad, his actual fastball movement isn’t fantastic, and his secondary pitch (forget which he has, probably slider) is also meh. Not a huge deal. It’s all stuff he can fix in the minors. But not a guy I want pitching to MLB hitters right now.
Point of reference. While Joyce’s top velo is a little higher, Jose Marte throws just about as hard and has the same problems as Joyce to a lesser degree… how excited are we about Marte? But I think if Joyce gets more than 20 innings in, say most of a season on the farm, he could be a guy who comes up this year to plug an injury for a couple weeks in August/Sept if he addresses some of those issues.
He got away with a lot of command stuff last year due to his velo. Just like he did in college.
Torres looks the most ready to me. I think Joyce gets quite a bit of run in Spring Training, which increases his odds of getting called up if he does well.
What makes me slightly happy is we have the Ingram/Joyce/Torres/Murphy (who I also actually think is ahead of Joyce) crew going now. Then you’ve got Kenyon Yovan, Emilker Guzman, Kyle Molnar, Hayden Seig, Ivan Armstrong… there are a lot of good pen arms coming through the system.
In the next few years we may see our team have a very “Rays Like” no name pen. Especially if the new Driveline guy they got, Hezel, can team with Axelrod (Former Vaquero/Foresters guy so go baby go!) and develop more kids and maybe find a couple Fairbanks type guys out there. I could totally see some really solid 20 million dollar bullpens in our future.
A lot of them will be gone at the trade deadline
I’d doubt it. Perry is very close to having an all homegrown, cost effective bullpen that should be quite effective.
Those savings will help him fill in other positions.
I also think that one of the drawbacks to a solid “build a pen” plan that we have is that pen arm prospects don’t carry as much value as A+ Ball starting pitchers who will be pen arms in 18 months.
Nothing wrong with that. The potential to upsize should always be considered.
We lost Molnar to FA
Oh yeah…. actually, Molnar’s the wrong guy too, I think. I was trying to remember someone else, but I’m blanking… Molnar was OK…. was it Dylan King? Is he ours?
Robinson Pina’s down there too but he’s a starter….
High A. Who knows? Molnar could be great later.
That makes me very happy.
Relievers get paid a lot nowadays and having an homegrown, solid bullpen will be a godsend for a club with two and hopefully three mega deals on the books.
I’m also tired of paying solid money to retread “inning eater” type guys who always seem to come here and suck. It is a waste of resources and demoralizing.
Having a hodgepodge of guys like Griffin Canning, Davis Daniel, etc. who can step up for a few weeks here and there is so much better.
So you’re not holding your breath for us picking up one of those end of spring training bullpen castoffs ?
We can, and will, likely do that too. Some Quad A arm or two. Nothing wrong with parking a couple of them in SLC. It’s just nice to have Moar Pidjin!
But but B Joy throws 105 mph man
Dude, you cannot be critical of Joyce even though everything you said was spot on. Come on, put your Groucho Marx spectacles on and raise your eyebrows two times in fast succession. Seriously, teams passed on him due to the points you brought out. I’d think Bachman would be more effective out of the pen on quick 1-inning stints. I don’t see Sam handling many consecutive innings with his physical limitations. If he could get his act together, then this pen might have a chance.
Well, Joyce has one thing you can’t teach. 105. And he only has what, 14 professional innings or something? There’s nothing that makes me think he can’t separate his off speed more, get a little more control, maybe goof with his fastball grip a little and increase movement some.
That’s one thing…. his arm slot…. how does he not have movement on his FB? But I guess it’s kinda strait. No reason he can’t be good down the line, just not next month.
“I can’t drive 105!” He’ll definitely be entertaining to watch. Angels might have caught lightning in a bottle with this guy but watching Tennessee last year, there is no mystery on what’s coming. I think he already has TJ out of the way, of course it could happen again.
Pitchers and catcher report today!!!
What a holiday!
It’s a good day. I won’t even have to use my AK.
I always enjoy just thinking that somewhere out there in Florida or Arizona a guy is embarking on the first day of a career where he’ll be a star for years to come.
And plays for Houston or the M’s……head shot to come in 3 years with how we missed out. Looking forward to it.
You have your very own Adam Kennedy?
No way! It’s my people’s rifle revolutionary weapon for when I am revolting.
For the Angels after the AK came the HK47. Equally deadly
I’ve heard that you’re revolting😎
Did I miss the Ohtani extension?
We’re all practicing patience waiting breathlessly for Rex to be right!!
im not feeling much at all in the holiday spirit. its a blustery winter day here with wind and grey clouds, tomorrow will be even colder for first workout (47F at 11am for first workout?) and for the Christmas tree it looks bleak
did Santa get the letter? get this done before he goes back to Japan for WBC
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Green Giant?
Hey, Angels suck with Ohtani and they can suck without him. After not getting not getting a new owner and new GM, he should leave if he has intelligence. Angels should ride him hard this year. 5 man rotation it is.
Looking forward to my first ST trip next month!
Nice. You’ll love it. If you have any questions at all hit me up. I’ve gone to 15 or so.
Or me. I’ve been doing it since 2008 as well.
Or Rex, he lives there!
ST is awesome. Are you just going to El Diablo de Fratgirl Blanca or are you checking out some other venues?
Right now we are going to see the Angels at Tempe Diablo one day and not sure what we are doing the next, maybe up to Salt River Fields.
Wacha off the board to Padres.
Bollinger must be physic, but what he predicated is what we all already knew. But a Monkey Wrench, which is not related to a Rally Monkey, could pop up with ST injury.
I wish Trouty would not play in the WBC, injury thing for me.
He lost me with including Tucker. If PTP can’t find anyone better than that for the pitching staff, he needs to hand the keys to someone more creative.
^THIS^
Annnnndddd…. watch, he’s gonna be one of our best pitchers just because I’m pretty sure he sucks and I am almost always wrong about these things.
I’m sure our balloon loving alien overlords are big fans of his pitching capabilities.
Sigh. When is our evil military industrial complex gonna stop shooting down Winnies the Pooh’s balloons? Just. Mean. I hate them hate them hate them.
Winnie’s evil secret plan is to takedown the Ballon Festivals industry…..who’s going to go to a balloon – wine – cheese festival in todays world?
Exactly. 😂
Bollinger is really Steve Physioc? Who knew?
Does he have a dog named Wonder?
Manfraud just will not let go of the Ghost Runner, or at least apply it to the twelfth inning on. An unearned run wins a game, almost an oxymoron. If you expand the roster, which was gone, how does this rule protecting the staff hurt. Or is this getting people home quicker and trumping real Baseball really just an ego boost for Manfraud? Obviosity I am not a fan of this rule, plus I enjoy free Baseball, the strategy is fun too.
It is all about getting folks home quicker and keeping eyeballs glued to TV screens. That runner on second brings immediate drama and puts the game in the balance starting with the first pitch of extra innings.
The fact it also helps a team playing the 5th of 10 straight games not burn through its entire pitching staff matters to the players.
But the ratings, the drama, the butts staying in seats as the game gets late. That’s what matters to Manfred and the owners.
The thinking around the ghost runner is fun for me because it shows me all the weird ways my brain can bend the way it views things.
The ghost runner is stupid! I hate losing a game just cause the Mariners get to start an inning with a RISP! Well, it’s OK when we win that way I guess. But I hate it because part of real baseball is the marathon aspect of the game! Plus extra innings is full of drama! Well, accept that marathon games are generally boring AF. How often have I lamented the roster exhaustion after we play a really long game? How many of these extra inning games actually provide me any actual drama? Honestly it seems most of them are between two shitty teams that couldn’t really score all game and then slouch their way through more crap innings until an outfielder starts pitching and finally gives up a run on a sac fly…. and then the home team farts away the bottom half of the inning. YAR! But what about that game against the Mariners when we clinched play offs and A’s v Rangers went extra on the scoreboard TV and drama drama momma!?! Awesome! Plus, don’t be a pussy! But, would those games have been less fun and dramatic if there had been ghost runner sudden death? Doesn’t it make the 10th way more urgent? Am I a pussy? No. I’m pretty sure I’m not. But what if Francis Ngannou was coming after you? Ok. Maybe a little.
In ten years, when many of the people complaining about ghost runners and the DH in the NL and interleague are dead, I bet 95% of fans won’t even be able to imagine sitting through a five hour game (or leaving, more likely) after watching pitchers hit (if you can call it that) for nine innings and never seeing the NLs star players play their team.
Face it. Manfraud is likely right about this stuff. It is also likely that the people attaching complaints about Manfraud’s ego etc are the ones flexing their own egos. “Man made me unhappy feelz. Thus he is huffy with ego!”
Even as a die hard fan, my interest in extra inning games really wanes after 1 or 2 innings without the ghost runner; especially in those low scoring games (which are often low scoring due to a strike zone the size of a garage door).
I start to look at the clock, wonder if the game will ever end, etc. At best I’ll do my nightly routine or some dishes or something and check in when the Angels bat.
However, with the ghost runner I stay engaged. I can’t flip the station because a run could score at any time.
Yeah. If they tried to ghost runner post season games I’d be pissed. But now I think I will eventually just adjust to the new tension… will a manager go all in trying to get ahead in the 8-9th? Or will he make defensive replacements? How fast should we blow through pinch hitters? etc.
It’s a different fun thing. Honestly I think it will be fun more often than the old school extra innings rules were for me in the long run.
It already is more fun for me. Even on nights the Angels aren’t playing and MLB Network does a live look in on a random Cleveland vs. Detroit game, having that winning run on second makes it instantly dramatic.
Before this, they’d flip through highlights waiting for somebody to actually make it to second base so they’d have a reason to jump in.
Good morning, Ghost Readers, Have yourself a great day. Stay warm too. Single digits forecast up here.
Single digits? Are we talking degrees Centigrade? 😆 Happy Valentine’s Day Gramps!