Good morning Angels fans! 3rd place, whoop whoop! Anyway have some links.
Angels News
Angels won yesterday, with them not blowing it this time. Yay for basic competence!
Bad news though, as Austin Warren got hurt and now Chase Silseth will be on the team. Him and Neto really fast tracking the minors…
Ohtani continues to be marketed all over the place including anime baseball cards.
Jose Suarez is still in the rotation. Yes it was Phil’s idea. Well, maybe he is fixed as Trout, Ohtani, and Wise all told him he was tipping his pitches. Sounds suspicious…
Around Baseball
The Twins finally beat the Yankees in a season series for the first time since 2001. Wow, that took a while.
Pirates actually keep Bryan Reynolds, extend him for 8/106M. There are now only 3 teams who never have given a 100M deal. A’s, Royals, White Sox.
Mets have a stupid ad on their jersey. Then they got mad when the stupid ad was the wrong color. Now their stupid ad is now blue and orange.
Meanwhile, Japan gets to have Pokemon hats and helmets, you know, a much less stupid ad. I prefer Eevee to Pikachu though.
Nats win their legal battle over MASN money dispute. Jeez, can these billionaires just get along?
Whiny parents now forced to ump games in one town. Someone called their bluff!
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
I’m not saying Bochy is so great, but he seems to uplift his teams, while Nevin doesn’t. Nevin hires guys who can’t spot pitch tipping, and seems to be an awful decionmaker.
Noone has a better seat to view pitch tipping than the CFer. Trout has done this with a few other Halo pitchers in the past.
And Shoehei, who was sitting on the bench next to the coaches who didn’t see it.
Source?
https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2023/04/25/shohei-ohtani-angels-tipping-pitches-jose-suarez
So your source is an astute Reddit User and not ChatGPT. Gotcha.
There’s video showing this. I don’t know why your source is credible and mine isn’t.
it could have been the other way around, though. Wise might have caught it and shortly after that Shohei was looking at it.
The video shows Ohtani & Ippei looking on an Ipad like they do between innings EVERY game that Ohtani DH’s.
Mr astute is speculating about everything else. I’m sure you are right and evil lying Nevin is just covering for his inept coaches.
I never said that. Neither one of us can know for sure. If this was the only thing Nevin missed, I wouldn’t have a problem. But in my view as a fan, the way he handles his bullpen, and infield rotations leaves much to be desired.
Actually that would be the opposing batter and the catcher behind the plate
As a catcher that is partially true (I was talking about friendlies), but the CFer has the best view to see the pitchers glove position and grip just prior to beginning delivery or pickoff attempt.
What does uplift his teams mean? Win?
To do the stuff John Wooden did for his teams.
Which is? Win?
To teach them to be better players and better people. If you don’t understand the difference between a great coach or manager and Phil Nevin, I’m not going to be able to explain it here.
Im not so sure even you do.
And how do you know thats not happening right now with Phil?
According to all reports, the players seem to really like him so does that mean he’s teaching how to lead a decadent lifestyle and be horrible human beings?
I think I do, but like everything I say, just my opinion. I guess you think he’s awesome, which is fine with me.
ML’s cloudy logic:: ” you question my unsubstantiated statements and opinions so therefore you must hate puppies and love serial killers”
👍
I could say all the same things about you, but that’s not the way I roll. Why don’t we just agree to disagree, and keep the personal insullts out of it.
What personal insult?
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/9cf3dc15-3930-46f0-8f03-70fb9d0d32e7#2YZ_vAY4.copy
The Angel revolution always ends up eating its self.
.
Uh oh. John Wooden reference. Argument over. Mamba Out!
He has the grit of 1000 Erstads
You know, what Bette Midler does.
You should be banned for this.
Sing it,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh….
Fly, fly, fly high against the sky
So high I almost touch the sky
Thank you, thank you
Maybe 2002 can use this song tomorrow for his song of the day?
Did you ever know that you’re my hero?
We can sing it about him/her/them: “Did you ever know that you’re a zero?”
From A Distance…. jeez, the world really would have been a better place without Bette Midler
I say love, it is a flower,
and you, it’s only seed.
I don’t think there is any question that Bochy is a far better manager than Nevin.
There is no comparison really … That does not mean Nevin is horrible, but I do have my doubts about him. The players liking him is only one aspect of being a manager. One could argue it is not even an essential aspect. I mean, the manager is not there to be friends with the players ..
Alot of Yankees didn’t like Billy Martin and he was a damn good manager.
A first year manager versus a grizzled veteran in his 26th season at the helm with 3 World Series Championships?
I would hope so.
You sounded like you were questioning that with ML…
I was curious why he thought that Bochy uplifted his teams more than Nevin and what that meant.
I’m still waiting for a response.
But if someone has managed for 26 years they should be better unless they have lost it ( See Maddon, Joe)
But Bochy has had a long long time in a dugout to learn how to manage. his overall record is still below .500 and he’s had some pretty horrible season records which maybe more about his key players aging or even retiring then his uplifting abilities
You’re focusing on a word and missing my point. By uplift, I didn’t mean an inspiring preacher in a church. I meant uplift their collective game, but whatever means necessary. The result is shown in the won/loss record. Bochy is raising the Rangers, Nevin is meh.
Well, we could’ve signed the World Series champ guy but went with the first year guy instead. That’s ownership and/or GM choice, and it wasn’t a good one in terms of trying to win this year.
That worked so well with Maddon.
you might put down Maddon but the Angels were 27-29 with him and 46-60 afterwards. And we’ve got that 46-60 manager still.
There were also the years before last year too.
But really, if I had to pick PTP or Maddon I was going PTP. Maddon didn’t DO anything…. just “be Joe”. and there enough zanny people in my life.
Could we have signed Botchy? Source? Was he waiting in the same spot where Vlad Guerrero Jr sat for weeks, begging to sign with the Angels? Did he mention how interested in managing the Angels he was and I missed it?
Cause I really wanted the guy and heard NOTHING about him till BLAMO! Rangers.
Agreed. There are many ways to manage. John Wooden terrified his players. He said he wasn’t there to be there friend, but to be their coach. Nevin is simply inexperienced and this is the year we’re playing to try to keep Shohei around so I’m just not digging the on the job training.
Terrified his players?
Source?
Yeah, agree. I never heard this Cowboy. And I’ve heard Kareem and Bill Walton and other ex-players talk about him. Despite their tremendous respect for him I never once heard them say they were terrified of him. The tone of their comments was more like one for a strict but loving father..
I think it is important to add that Wooden’s role as a collegiate coach was quite different from being a professional coach. He was shaping young men. He was just as much if not more about building character than teaching basketball fundamentals. A pro coach would view things very differently..A few rare guys got into this territory as pro coaches (Phil Jackson comes to mind) but normally they don’t take that role. So, clearly comparing Wooden to people who coached professional franchises might not be the best thing ..
I’m still gobsmacked that the players, not the coaches, discovered the pitch tipping. The fact that Suarez wasn’t demoted or DFA’d, and the coaches replaced, shows how dysfunctional the organization is. The explanation that he’s fun to be around also puts a lie to Minasian’s comment that roster decisions are merit based. Same with Loup. If you can demote Fletch, what the hell are those guys still doing on the roster.
Not sure this changes your rant but it would appear You’ve been smacked with fake news according to Phillip. https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1650994946177110016
Like that will change the rant. I don’t expect ML will ever stop ranting until they are the owner, gm, and field manager for the Angels. Then ML will ALWAYS be right.
To clarify, I want to be able to root for a team like Golden State, with a good owner, a functional front office, and a good coach that put their players in a position to win. I find it odd that posters like you and are so happy to accept failure and underperformance. I’ve been a fan since 1961 and I’m just not digging what I’m seeing. I’m glad you are. Lucky you.
So you were a Warriors fan in 2011?
I’m not a fan of that team at all. I just gave an example of a former crap franchise that was able to turn itself around through upgrading itself from top to bottom.
Like the Angels did from 2002 to 2009?
So you’re cool with the last 12 years of failure, much of it with two of the greatest players of all time.
not sure how you reached that leap of logic.
You keep cherry picking the parts of the team record that support your position and ignoring the parts that don’t. Nobody wins every year. Franchises, even great ones, go up and down. The Angels are in the part of their trajectory where they are going nowhere with Trout and Ohtani, and that’s sad to me.
I love the last 12 years of failure. They have been fairly fun AND I get to watch people like yourself writhe around like spoiled children. PLUS I got to waste Trout and Ohtani. This made me feel powerful. It’s been awesome.
I highly doubt any current Warriors fan even knows who Joe Barry Carroll is.
Ah my old College center.
But don’t you mean Joe Barely Cares?
Sorry I brought that up. I’m a Lakers fan, dislike Golden State intensely. A better example would be the Lakers who rocked when Jerry was the owner, and not so much now that Jeannie is. But even Pelinka was able to pivot away from the Westbrook disaster to a credible team with a chance to make some noise this year. I’d like to see Minasian make that kind of progress.
BOILER UP!
The good old days. The last time we made it to the final four .
I’ve never said I accept failure or that I’m happy with what the team has done thus far this season. However, I don’t see the point of repeatedly complaining on a message board about things that are completely out my control with respect to how the team is run or which players needs to be DFA’d, or how the batting order should be constructed. I don’t let what this team, or any team for that matter, does in their games impact my daily life to that degree; there far too many other important things. At the end of the day, it is nothing more than entertainment and we can all chose to not watch and also show our displeasure with our wallets.
I think you should do you and I’ll do me. I don’t tell you what opinions to have and I respect your right to say whatever’s on your mind. I try not to talk about the same things all the time. The Suarez game was troubling, losing to such a terrible team in such an ugly way. I guess we just react to the same thing differently, as is our rights. I would just appreciate you staying out of the area of personal insults.
Not sure where I personally insulted you, but you feel that I did so I apologize.
I appreciate that. I’ve got no bone to pick with you, so let’s just move on and root for the Angels in our own ways.
If a person’s not ready to accept A LOT of failure in their life they should probably get on drugs, get good at lying to themselves, or just eat a gun. Or all three.
They should not torture innocent baseball fans with constant angry outburst with a distant pile of baseball people as a stand in for those they blame for their lives.
I saw that too. I read elsewhere that Shohei and his translator spotted it first, told Montgomery, who passed it along to Nevin, just to clarify my “rant.”
There someone goes again injecting facts and proof into a discussion…..
This may be totally true. But I’m not going to believe it. My high and angry blood pressure is the only reason my dick works.
You lost (And probably most of us) me at “…DFAed..”
Ok. It’s just an opinion. I’m glad for you to enjoy seeing Suarez fail year after year, and what that says about our pitching staff.
So isn’t that an insulting presumptuous statement ML?
I think the only poster on this site who relishes this losing is 2002.
But that doesn’t mean your takes are correct.
So what were you thinking in April of 2002 after the Angels followed up another disastrous season in 2001 (75-87) with an ugly losing start of 6-14?
That Disney bunch including that loud mouth Tony Tavares are a bunch of cheap bastards?
That ex banker GM Bill Stoneman only cares about saving money and has no clue how to build a team?
Scioscia took too many hits at home plate and he’ll never be a winning major league manager?
Thank God you’re not in charge.
I don’t know why you keep saying I think all my takes are correct. I have no idea if they are. Just like you have no idea if your takes are correct.
That certainly wasn’t me who said any of that. I rooted for the team, that didn’t have anyone like Trout or Ohtani, and as the year went on they created a great winning, taking the extra base, developing an amazing shutdown bullpen etc.
I don’t know why you keep saying you don’t want me in charge. I don’t want to be in charge. I’m a fan. I root for my team. When they do well, I cheer. When they don’t, I call them out.
Again, why don’t you just do you and I’ll do me.
What about me? I have been told I relish losing. Oh wait, I’m just OK with mediocre….
If the Angels just play .500 baseball the rest of the way out the worst they can do is .500… Best season since in 8 years! I’m sure Ohtani will come back for this.
😉
Big game tonight, that will determine the fate of the entire season.
If we win, it will be “nice comeback to take the series, ok guys, let’s build with this and push to a playoff spot!”
If we lose, it will be “freakin’ crap, we lost a series to the A’s! This team is not competitive. Another losing season. We should trade Ohtani and anyone else we can and try for 2025.”
Uh We have to win tomorrow too if we want to “take the series.”
I forgot it was 4 game.
No. You just know they’re gonna win tomorrow already. I’m with ya.
Parents are the worst thing to happen to kids sports. I’m loving tee ball but know I’m going to dread some parents as my kid grows up.
I like the idea of the NJ Little League. I like the idea of simply banning ass hat parents from attending even more.
My oldest is 30. She played travel ball. Some of the parents were the worst. Riding their kids hard in the minuscule hope that there might be scholarship money available or a pro career. None of them ever got a scholarship and what was left were a bunch of angry teenagers. Not worth it – let the kids play and have fun. My daughter loved playing because we never took it too seriously.
I currently coach my sons 8-10 year old minors team (we are the Angels and coincidentally we are 5-5 haha). There is absolutely nothing worse than some of the parents I have had to deal with. The two biggest issues I commonly see are the parents telling me where their kid belongs on the field and the parent completely tearing into their child for normal mistakes (the kids are 8-10 afterall). We tell our parents that once they are in the dugout they are with us and to leave them alone during the game. It doesn’t always work but we try hard to keep them out of the game.
Well at least the coaches aren’t chain smoking in the dugout anymore.
Kind of like fans here.
Likelihood of making the major leagues is less than the chances of getting struck by lightning.
Likelihood of a parent believing their little Sam or Sally is gifted in today’s world- approximately 100%.
But I would think parents have more of a vested interest in this than us fans since College still costs more than season tickets (well at least a little bit more.)
Parents are always the worst, except for the Seniors LL team I once coached where the manager supplied cigarettes to his players (13-15 years olds). That was my last day with the team.
My folks wouldn’t let me play LL after t-ball in the 1970s due to insane parents, and it is way worse today. They had me play water polo instead. Hard to find shirts with 20” neck is mothers chief result.
What is Tamin’s Bullpen Matrix, and do the Angels still use it?
I love these charts that show how middle of the road the Angels have been.
Thats how we roll. I was looking back at the records between 2012 and now and we are around 844 wins 860 losses. Pretty middle of the road overall. Never bad enough to get a top tier draft pick and never good enough to make a run in the playoffs. Such is the life as an Angels fan.
Not bad enough to send me a way, not good enough to get me to spend a lot on tickets.
It’s the “Buttercup Policy”
They’re great – we are nailing mediocrity—— but they make me concerned about sRanger Danger
We are slipping each week.
I love these charts, except seeing the Angels slow creep to the center.
…so you’re sayin’ we have a chance?
ooo cart…..carteeegrephy….a map.
Good performance by Canning last night. If nothing else, he’s been consistent. Looking to be a serviceable 4th-5th starter. Hopefully he improves on his endurance and eventually pitches more than 5 innings.
It looks like Phil is being consistent on metrics on when he pulls his starters:
Pffft. That’s exactly what a stupid person would say. He needs to be fired oh so bad.
FIRE NEVIN!!! DARIN ERSTAD WOULD NEVER SAY SOMETHING STUPID LIKE THAT! HE HAZ THE GRIT! HE HAZ THE FIRE! HE ALMOST KILLED A CATCHER! HE HAS THE STUBBLE GRIT THIS TEAM NEEDS!
Exactly. We need to be led by the grittiest Punter ever.
Pitch shapes? This aint the dead ball era. Everyone knows the balls a perfectly round sphere you Jack ass.
Suarez is worth trying to fix. Why do it on a MLB roster?
He hurt his back last start, it explains his last outing, goes on IL. Try to fix his issues in the BP, Sim games, minor league rehab starts. An option used a thousand times to manage a struggling player.
Not expecting a positive outcome on Sunday.
Sometimes it’s the decisions you don’t make.
Because he doesn’t have options and will get picked up off of waivers.
He’s hurt..wink, wink.
until his agent goes to the mlbpa and says he’s not
I’m sure his agent might be ok with trying to get their player fixed.
Isn’t he from Rengifo’s hometown? Maybe the Angels can get a package deal and have them extradited back to Venezuela together?
For sure. Beats a DFA.
Over the past 2 years , Suarez has come out of the bullpen 11 times while compiling a 4-1 record and a 1.80 ERA. However in the 34 games hes started hes 12-15 with a 4.26 ERA
Not sure if its the lack of thinking too much or the inability to not tip his pitches or less of an impact due to his poor conditioning, but hes been way better out of the pen than in the starting rotation.
Man if you have stats like that for a player and they are divided by as much as you just wrote, how the hell is he not a bullpen guy? Some guys just kick butt from the bullpen and others are better starting the game. Look at the numbers, they always tell you the story and follow suit.
What are you doing bringing facts into this discussion? This discussion is to decide how the team should be run from the collective hive mind here from all of the former big league players, scouts and managers that participate here.
Out of curiosity, how are you uniquely qualified to be able to discount or insult opinions that are different than yours? Why do we have to be former players or managers to have an opinion on a fan site?
I’m a nobody.
I don’t think we have the available starter depth for a wink wink injury. If he’s “hurt” he still has to not baseball for ten days. Then some rehab starts. So you’re down a guy for 3 weeks. Silseth is the only guy ready to maybe fill in well right now. What if he falters?
Wink wink injuries will happen a lot easier when AAA/AA is full of guys with several 100 pitch starts under their belt.
15 days for pitchers.
At least under old rules, guys could rehab before the 15 days was up. They also get paid at the ML rate while on the IL. If Suarez went on the IL after Sunday’s start, there would be only one day when the Angels would need a 6th starter to keep everyone on the 6 day cycle before Suarez was eligible to come off the IL. Suarez could get at least one start at AAA to work on things and more if necessary.
I don’t see a whole lot of downside to a phantom IL stint.
Crow and Rosenberg look like they’re worth a shot in the majors.
Rosenberg got his cup of coffee last year with meh results. His walks per 9 are still just a little too high for me.
Crow on the other has gotten off to a great start at Rocket City even with the toxic coated slippery ball they use down there. A 2019 high school draftee hold over from the Billy administration, He may be this years Silseth by making the jump all the way to Anaheim sometime this season
Free Tucker. Spot start him a few times. Maybe already lost the endurance to go five? If not that, let him pitch his 2 innings with the lead. Throw him out there in the in the 6th and 7th and see how it works. Otherwise have him spot start on Sunday for Mr. Suarez.
Time for the good ole’ phantom IL stint
tonight’s Oakland starter is a rookie making his first appearance. He lacks control. In 9 1/3 innings in the minors this year he’s walked 8. I’m talking to you, Rengifo. Do not swing at the first pitch!
Luis Medina, career in the minors, 391 innings, 274 walks, 4.83 ERA. With Sandy going this should be an easy win. We’ll see how long Medina goes. He might just be an opener.
Cy Rookie about to go ham on us now
TrAdition.
I expect nothing less than the Angels making him look like the 2nd coming of Cy Young.
I also have a healthy fear of Cy Rookie.
Considering that I’m going to the game tonight the odds are extremely high.
Same. We have a knack for going out there and making these rookies look like the best players ever called up to the MLB.
5’10 and 225, suarez is pretty heavy set for a baseball player.
Little Bartolo
Without the pitching skills
…and without the pharmacist
He struggled early last season as well. Could be a conditioning work ethic issue.
It’s a totally groundless impression that could be totally wrong, but I always have the sense that Suarez is kind of stupid and lazy. It may be a totally unfair and inaccurate impression, but he just looks like being a professional MLB pitcher is too hard for him to work through a lot of the time and then SOMETIMES he focuses and tries and things work OK for a while.
On the other hand, a player can be mostly mediocre, but have the body language of a man fighting to save children, and we think he’s got “baseball IQ” and “grit” when really he’s just a guy with a 90 career OPS+. Honestly, I also think it helps if said player is white. Maybe white guys just culturally give off a “look how hard I’m trying” vibe that fellow whities like me can see more easily.
But Suarez has a serious DMV employee aura about him. It doesn’t help that he’s 25 years old and looks like Bartolo.
Go Halos!!
Amen.
BTW folks, Wantz is still looking for his first career save.
The way he looked on Monday he maybe looking for it for a long time.
Bad teams in April+hitters struggling to find their mechanics in early season cold weather=FALSE HOPE AND OPTIMISM. WAIT TILL SUMMER COMES, when the baseball starts looking like a beach ball. The Oakland A’s truly suck and we were very fortunate to take 2 of 3 from a also bad KC team.
BTW guess who’s only a half a game behind us in the standings, yep! It’s not like we got off to the TB Rays start.
💪 💪 💪 💪
I miss your oligarch rants GG.
you mean who’s a half game worse than us?
We haven’t really played any cold weather games…. maybe Boston, where they did not struggle to hit against us….
Very nice win last night. Canning was decent and would be solid as the #5 starter in a 5 man rotation. And the more rested bullpen looked better. I agree with Jeff that it would have been nice to go off book in game 1 and use a bullpen arm to secure that comeback win.
In my mind Suarez has one more start to see if the pitch tipping issue was the problem. I think that is a bit wishful thinking because to my eye it is a pitch location problem. That said – it’s nice that he has a ‘reason’ that can be pointed to as that might help him mentally. It’s a wait and see.
Even if Suarez becomes decent again, it might make good sense to use him in the bullpen and go to a five man rotation. I think it would give the team its best shot at extended winning streaks. And it might save the bullpen a bit because the law of averages makes it more likely that there will be an ineffective start each time through the rotation with 6 different pitchers than 5.
Tipping is a REAL problem. If hitters this good have ANY idea what’s coming you’re dead. Yu Darvish is a good pitcher. Remember how he looked when they knew what was coming?
It’s gonna eat at the mind for a while if the coaching staff don’t at least let Suarez start one more game and see how it looks. His location issues are gonna be really hard to differentiate from his tipping issues till he gets another start. Question is, has he been tipping all season? Cause he sucked all season.
I still think they better have Silseth or Davidson ready to go as Suarez makes this next start. I also think Suarez should go out to the pen and make spot starts along with Tucky D and Canning should be the main man at #5. Canning’s pretty much locked that down in all likelihood, and moving Suarez out there puts one more log under Loup.
So is 15% still the minimum?
Groundhog Day.
Looks like Thaiss has corrected his catcher’s interference issue. Wonder if that earpiece is uncomfortable. Are college and high school teams using this pitch comm tech yet?
If they are I’m guessing thaiss was drafted after it started
Boston got a key catchers interference call two days after we left.
I wouldn’t put it past Boston to creep back out of the box and try to cheat a bit. It is Boston.
What a perfectly composed action shot from last night.
That’s a great picture!
This picture’s caption in my head:
“Even a minor back issue can prevent a major league hitter from being able to make solid contact.”
If one of the Angel batters called for a timeout and then told the opposing pitcher that he was tipping his pitches, would we be proud of him for his sportsmanship and sense of fair play, or would we despise him for making life more difficult for his fellow Angel batters?
There is nothing unfair about taking advantage of a pitcher tipping pitches. I wouldn’t despise a player for warning another team’s pitcher, but I would criticize them. Tell them after the game if you want (or after the series for relievers), but don’t take away a perfectly fair advantage from your own team.
DESPISE HIM. I’d tell him to keep his mouth shut. If he wants to detect tipping, start with the Angels pitching staff! We obviously don’t have a pitching coach capable of it.
Baseball is such a tough game that you have to take advantage of any edge you find. Batters are consistently looking for any kind of tip for an advantage. It’s been part of the game likely from the very beginning (for ex stealing signs). Accordingly, I would think that player had lost his competitive edge (if not his mind).
Tar and feather! Taking advantage of tells is as old as baseball and the ability to pick up subtle ticks is regarded as wisdom. Some players/coaches are crazy good at noticing the slightest regrip of the ball, wrist angle, glove level and body language.
That will never happen. This is like asking a question that starts with “say you have a time machine…”
Does this question even need to be asked?
The Hyundai key to the game for today is “Stomp!” by the Brothers Johnson.
Sandoval and Silseth should keep the Oakland bats quiet while the Angel hitters should be having a high five party with a samurai battle helmet or two thrown in. It should be a good time tonight in Anaheim as the Angels get their funky early 80s groove on.
EVERYBODYTAKEITTOTHETOP
WE’RE GONNA STOMP!
ALL NIGHT!
https://youtu.be/tPBDMihPRJA
The were funky for sure… I remember this tune..Love the bass. But “Strawberry Letter 23” is still my fav by them …
Even Better than SL 24?
Love the slap bass sequence!