What a brutal road trip. The Angels went out east and simply gave away 2 games with defensive miscues in bahstun, had a LOBster fest in the Bronx on Wednesday, then simply got beat down yesterday. It was all the pain of being a fan compressed into one brutal trip.
Hopefully some home cooking gets the team back on track. If a home stand of Oakland and Kansas City doesn’t produce a lot of wins, stick a fork in this team.
The big storyline this week was Ohtani vs. Judge. The media ate up Judge robbing an Ohtani bomb then hitting one himself. But Ohtani had his moments too.
Keeping Ohtani is a huge priority for the Angels. Is that mission behind the rapid promotion of Zach Neto?
Oh, yeah, it was such a whirlwind week the Angels promoted their top prospect and that gets second mention behind Ohtani.
Neto has looked solid at the plate and smacked two doubles on Wednesday night.
The Angels front office called Neto “an easy choice” in the first round of the 2022 draft.
To make room for Neto, fan favorite David Fletcher was sent to AAA and outrighted off the 40 man roster.
The Athletic did a nice piece on what this all means for Fletcher, and the challenges he’ll face getting back to the big club.
In more fun NY news, Logan O’Hoppe once threw back a HR ball he caught in Yankees Stadium. CC Sabathia talking about it is great.
It was a foregone conclusion but still shocking and sad the A’s will be in Oakland much longer. The team entered into a land sale agreement in Las Vegas.
That makes a full trifecta of sports teams leaving Oakland within a decade. And while I don’t think the Raiders or Warriors really wanted to stay, I think the City of Oakland really dropped the ball in not allowing the A’s to pay off the City’s debt and redevelop the existing lot. That proposal was years ago.
The news this week was like a late night infomercial: but wait, there’s more.
Mad Max Scherzer was ejected after an inspection for the sticky icky. Max claims it was only rosin but the umpires discussed the ejection and said his hand was the stickiest they’d seen since inspections started.
This is really interesting:
Max is getting hit with the mandatory 10 game suspension but plans on appealing.
Woman beater and cheater Domingo German should be facing the same. His hand was sticky, the umpires took his glove, and one ump clearly said “I told you to wipe it off” then let him go back on the mound. Coincidentally, his spin rates all dropped after he washed his hand.
A little further south, Fernando Tatis Jr. is set to return to MLB and says he’ll be better than ever.
I’ll be having the most fun I’ve ever had in my life tonight, coaching my son’s tee ball team. The organized chaos is just amazing and puts a smile on everybody’s faces. Giving my son a high five when he reaches first base is priceless
As is this video that keeps circulating around social media.
Enjoy your weekend. Head out the Big A if you can. And please link anything I missed.
