MLB.com predicts both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani will rank among the five guys who hit the most homers in 2023. Both of them also made this similar list from Bleacher Report.
Clayton Kershaw had to withdraw from the World Baseball Classic; apparently because he couldn’t get an insurance policy.
The Brewers just signed Justin Wilson to a one year major league deal even though he just had Tommy John surgery. There is a club option for another year.
The Reds signed Chase Anderson to a minor league deal. Meanwhile, Marcus Wilson signed his minor league deal with the Red Sox.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Position players reported today formally and fortunate to see Rendon, Urshela, Drury, Rengifo, Fletch, Adell, Neto, Thaiss all take BP. Another Ben Joyce sighting and Soriano too. Pictures link.
Middle IF looks a lot better. I’m in awe of Ben Joyce’s right arm.
These are fun to check out everyday. Thanks for posting as always
took me awhile to figure out Jo has a mouthguard. I thought at first he was smoking!
Barria and suarez need some of his fitness tips.
Yet another utility role guy…….plus Matt Thaiss, Taylor Ward, and everybody Eppler drafted. GOOD GAWD!! No Austin Riley or Pete Alonzo to be found……….
Clayton Kershaw is a non factor now. The Dodgers should’ve moved on from him after the 2020 WS, but then again 80% (LOL) of FANS ARE STUPID EMOTIONAL CREATURES NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY WATCH/READ MONEYBALL, OR BASEBALL REFERENCE.COM OVER AND OVER. BTW SP’S WON LOSS RECORDS STILL MATTER, ESPECIALLY AROUND FREE AGENCY TIME. Enjoy your President’s Day!
Breaking News……..If we had a better farm system and (like GPD in Seattle) GM/Pope/Prince then losing Ohtani wouldn’t be a problem.
He better keep it going, or the natives might get restless again.
https://www.change.org/p/seattle-mariners-fire-jerry-dipoto-and-scott-servais
Fighting words from last year..
https://www.seattlesportshell.com/2022/06/27/angels-manager-phil-nevin-is-a-worthless-pile-of-human-garbage/
That petition will be getting pretty full after this season as it will be:
48 years and counting never to win a World Series
48 years and counting never to appear in a World Series
22 years and counting since they last appeared in an ALCS.
🥹
https://twitter.com/jefffletcherocr/status/1627751479275847680?s=46&t=daWlOOiEBOCA64utL28Jig
I’d love to hear the smack off of Shohei’s bat turning that flat heater around at 125 MPH
Didn’t know Sho and Sandy are besties…it’s the year of “Sandoval”
“If you notice, (Sandoval) doesn’t stray too far away from Shohei,” Nevin said. “They’ve been together for quite a bit these last several weeks here in Arizona. They play catch together every day. They go to dinners together and they’ve become really close. And we all know Sho makes people around him better. And Sandy’s right there.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/02/19/angels-patrick-sandoval-embraces-higher-expectations
If this is a thing then Shohei’s gonna be an Astro. Also, Japan is infamously short on any oil reserves, so Shohei and his mom also LOVE oil refineries.
This just in.
Angels insiders says Ohtani to Astros.
Someone must have told Shohei that Texas is running out of oil cuz its on Kids. This $500 Million thing is going down mucho soon. https://twitter.com/Sarah_IsabelVee/status/1627768934538838016
This is obviously saying that Ohtani is extending here and, because he is a saint, it’s for 10/100M. PTP will also be giving Shohei his annoying son who said he’d never forgive him if Shohei left.
Wow, Gitcho this was my exact take.
I know! Two hearts living in just one mind!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMX1cPLBfAE
Must be fake news if he punches him in his nuts….Sho doesn’t like Sandoval….going to Seattle then, players don’t have scrotums up there.
Well, It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out their Manager was a Eunuch
Servais is joyless – – – —
https://youtu.be/2nLlKZQ8DB4?t=12
something missing from this article.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-owners-create-economic-reform-committee-as-worries-linger-over-steve-cohens-spending-broadcast-deals/
Maybe I missed it. There’s a mention of a salary cap but no salary floor.
I thought I saw a similar article another place and it seemed to imply that owners more want to stop spending at top but not necessarily tie that hands to having to spend a certain amount. Wonder if they are serious or just another reaction to big market clubs spending more than they like and widening the gap. Lots to unpack here – would the big market clubs really revenue share if they pulled media rights away from the Bally wreckage, players love the idea of a floor but not a cap, small market owners the reverse, etc. I guess I’m old enough to be cynical but I will believe in serious reforms when I actually see them. lol
I know. Seriously. Look you assholes. If you want ANY semblance of a salary cap you are gonna need a relatively high salary floor in trade. Need MLBPA members to vote for you? Want them to stop supporting the top 5% of players making too much cash? Then make it so that they have a shot at making a few million a year instead of having to go play in Mexico after arb year 1. Also, make those sad sacks you hate actually just giving money to fund a team or sell. I just don’t see the major downside for all but maybe six teams and all of them can handle it too if adjustments are made.
But, with unrealistic TV revenue bonanzas fading away we are heading toward a future where it’s the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies and Mets Vs “the poors” and that’s gonna suck ass.
PS. Salary cap wrangling will make the MLB off season a lot more exciting for us fans. I also think we are more likely to get some “Cohen lite” type owners if there’s a cap. Say it’s 250M. But an owners knows it can’t inflate more than that and 250M puts him on par with the Doyers and Yankees. Wouldn’t it then be more likely that we will sometimes see a guy who is a life long Indians or Marlins fan just decide to catch fire and spend the limit for a few years…. which gets the MLBPA paid? With rosters half the size of the NFL baseball is actually made perfectly to function like the NFL, with draft pick trading and everything else. Accept your lower level players will get paid more/longer.
But there’s no doubt that having football powerhouses in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Kansas City, Baltimore etc has helped that league and the players a lot more than it hurts them.
Yeah, these newbie owners, come in and spend like sailors on shore leave. But until the Met’s win a damn championship, not worried about his spending. After seeing his Mets fade into the oblivion over the next couple of years, Cohen will fire everyone and tighten the purse strings.
Steve Balmer is another idiot.
Yah. Fans aren’t backtracking their thinking at all. If Cohen can just act on his feelz and spend 400M on payroll he can just as easily get super excited about breeding polo horses and feel less happy about the Mets and cut them down to a 150M payroll just as suddenly. Having a guy who can just “go wild” isn’t the best ownership option. Beats the A’s owner, but I’d rather have the Red Sox type guys who understand they will generally have a high payroll, even if they are “low” this year, but they are smart about it.
But horses don’t like wearing Goggles and being splashed by Champagne.
Sure they do. They also love wearing big horse shoes made of flowers.
Five days till we get a lil’ baseball! Griffin Canning for Cy Young! Jo Adell for MVP!
Speaking of Arte destroying prospects with his evil, we need to figure out how he seeped into the IndiGuards fantastic farm system and managed to ruin two of the top prospects in baseball. Espino has two capsule tears in his shoulder…. but because the IndiGuards are not transparent they are saying he’ll be out for 8 weeks. If he’s only out two months with those booboos we need to kidnap their medical staff.
DeLauter was their first pick last year and had a broken foot at the time. He seemed to be healing up. Then Arte went out and broke that same foot again cause shoes cost money or something. Bummer. The AL Central has some really interesting farm systems in KC, Clev and Detroit and I am looking forward to watching them bloom and hopefully beat on the AL East and the other AL West teams.
There are officially no arms on the market that I want to pay to pitch as good or worse than Silseth/Bush/Canning will probably do for us this year.
You know what will be hilarious/sad in a “popcorn factory on fire” kind of way? If Ohtani has arm trouble this year. I wonder if PTP would blow a huge chunk of the farm on a guy like Burnes if that happened…. I wonder who will give Shohei the moon? Probably the Padres.
The Mets payroll is 374M. So I guess we’ll see what that gets em. Sheesh, if the Rays had any fans they’d have to be laughing at that. Red Sox fans are angry because John Henry won’t cross 300M and buy them a champiham sandwich. It’s probably because of his ego. He talked to the press and was transparent about it though and that probably fixed everything. If the Padres give Machado anywhere near 10/400 through his age 41 season we will know two things. They are stupid because they will need to pay Soto 500M and they are obviously being funded by cartel money.
Renfroe, Drury, Urshela…. I realized anew this morning that we added a lot of offense this winter, not to mention if Walsh, Trout and Rendon can be full strength most of the time. This makes me happy.
“There are officially no arms on the market that I want to pay to pitch as good or worse than Silseth/Bush/Canning will probably do for us this year.”
My thoughts exactly when Moore was signed.
Eh. If Moore can throw us the innings load he did last year, even a little less, with even an average ERA+ he’ll be useful. 7.5M a year useful? Eh.
Super secret conspiracy theory…. Moore can make a couple starts this year if they need him to.
And let the speculation begin…
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”et” dir=”ltr”>Perry is chatting with Shohei Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo. <a href=”https://t.co/wB7WMsKUcc”>pic.twitter.com/wB7WMsKUcc</a></p>— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) <a href=”https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1627737291883167745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>February 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
Obviously this means he will sign with the Dodgers.
“Angels insider reports Ohtani is leaning towards the Dodgers.”
It has to. After all Sam Blum knows better than anyone how evil Arturo is
Just a FYI..It’s Boston now…..don’t forget his Shoes come from Boston…..and Shohei’s mom is reportedly into shoes.
The Braves. They grow a lot of rice in Georgia and South Carolina. Shohei and his mom both like rice.
Shohei also drives. So Detroit.
This just in.
From a source close to the Angels.
Add Minnesota and the Doyers “for a different reason” to the list. Twins because it’s the land of 10,000 lakes and he likes to fish…..the Doyers because he’s an OG Thug and likes the criminal element at the Latrine.
I remember this story, the captain was trolling for Marlins and manta-Rays? Better add Florida to the list as well.
So deep down Ohtani really wants to be a Mariner?
If Shohei goes there, I’ll get over him real fast as I will be a heckler at his first game back at the little-A.
This just in.
“The Red Sox, Twins, Mets, Astros, Braves, Mariners, Dodgers, Tigers, Yankees, Padres, Rays, Marlins and Corpus Christy Hooks are the front runners to land Shohei Ohtani this off season. The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimps have heard Ohtani’s mom loves shrimp and are planning to make a push as well. When asked, Pirates owner Bob Nutting said “F**k no.”
Sources close to the Angels have disclosed.
You know… My co-worker’s neighbors husband has a friend who knows a guy who is friends with Arte’s 3rd cousins gardener. And he guarantees Shoei will be “An Angel for life” because JWA is a nice airport without direct flights to Japan.
I love the whole “direct flights to Japan” thing. I mean people who are serious about it. Like Shohei’s getting in line at the Cathay Pacific counter at LAX and buying a ticket…. but first class….
People. Private jets are ALL direct flights.
I realized I completely botched Embeding this tweet. So if someone can help with how to properly display a tweet in the comments I would appreciate it
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1627737291883167745
Far away but still can hear Perry crying
Tears of Joy.
Kershaw should have called Jake from State Farm
Trying to figure out which would make me happier:
Angels finishing 2nd and over .500 in AL West but missing the playoffs, or
Mariners finishing last in the AL West
It’s a tough choice…..
*note – obviously Angels making the playoffs would be preferable over any failure by the M’s
Good morning my friends. Are you ready for the rain and for some the snow? Depending on who you may have watched on the different newscast the local mountains will receive from 6 inches to two feet. So, we are guessing that we will get a foot. The skiing will be awesome this coming weekend. ⛷