Zach Neto is getting plunked frequently enough to make history. He says he is used to it at this point. Fangraphs has the Angels in Tier 3 “Solid Contenders” in their latest power ranking, although the Angels have the lowest odds of making the playoffs of anybody in that tier.
Bryce Harper is cleared to return as the Phillies designated hitter. The Dodgers just designated catcher Austin Wynns for assignment. They only signed him a couple of weeks ago. The Guardians designated catcher Meibrys Viloria for assignment and selected the contract of catcher/infielder David Fry. They also traded Konnor Pilkington to the Diamondbacks for cash considerations. Diego Castillo cleared waivers and the Mariners will outright him to Triple-A Tacoma.
The Tigers signed lefty Sam Clay to a minor league deal. The Mets will select the contract of left handed relief pitcher Zach Muckenhirn. The Yankees were hopeful that Aaron Judge can stay off the injured list. He is headed for the 10 day IL, though. He will have plenty of company. Here is the Yankees list of guys on various injured lists as of May 1, 2023.
Ronald Acuna Jr. got zapped on the shoulder and had to leave the game yesterday.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Injury? AAA promotion? or?
https://twitter.com/Jared_Tims/status/1653483227091451904
Very interesting.
the Los Angeles Angels of St. Louis
Wheres Weaver the Older?
On the left.
It seems like WTY is looking more and more like WTO every day.
Catching help on the way?
Gary Sanchez opted out of his SF deal.
What’s he batting in AAA?
in 69 AAA PAs hes got a slash line of .164/..319/.182 ( hes only got 1 double of his 9 hits) So he would fit right in with this bunch.
Is Sanchez’ defense any better? We’d have to DFA one of our fine receivers to add him to the roster.
He’s probably just as bad as what we have.
The one spot we couldn’t afford an injury, we have an injury. Actually two.
That’s dirty!
Tepera UP
Wantz DOWN
Not sure about you, but I don’t like getting caught with my Wantz down.
Ya, not a pretty picture
This move is not what I Wantz, but if you let 75% of your inherited runners score and you got options left you’re going to be sent to the Salt Mines
We all have our Wantz and needs, but Nevin will keep us in the Loup when he has Moore information.
If Wantz is up for more than 4 days, he should seek medical attention.
i could see every move that a man could make
bring Tep up is his first mistake*
*RIP Gordon Lightfoot
I wouldn’t mind the move if they replaced Poup with Tep
It is truly “Sundown” for the Angels when Tep comes in the game.
And maybe the Halos are “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” waiting to happen ?
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the bullpen of Angels
We need Moore Wantz and less Tapera.
“We Wantz the money Lebowski”
OK, that’s all I got. Haha
No Ohtani in the lineup today. 🤔
where do you see a lineup? Checked angels pr, jeff fletcher, sam bummer… nothing
Also, I got an alert in my phone from MLB
https://www.baseballpress.com/lineups/2023-05-02
MLB.com gameday:
Rengafo in Centerfield?
😂 😂 😂 😂
renGAFFEo – should be Canseco-esque or Adell-esque. Must see TV
Even Phillips thinks it’s funny
Hope he doesn’t make a huge misplay/mistake that costs us the game. If this is Phil’s decision it confirms his idiocy. Reminds me of last year when he put Ikeman in CF and he made a big mistake that cost us the Sunday Night ESPN game vs the Mets.
I was there in the 400 level and saw that debacle first hand. Horrible misplay.
But I betcha he looked rico suave doing it.
Probably because he is pitching tomorrow.
Though, I will add that he has played previously the day before a start… This could be just a regularly scheduled rest/off-day. I am not completely opposed to this.
I think it’s puzzling because yesterday was an off day.
What’s better than one day off?
TWO days off.
Better for who? (Whom?)
Maybe better for Ohtani since he is pitching tomorrow.
Per J-Fletch: “Ohtani is off today. (Makes sense because he gets 2 in a row off and is pitching tomorrow.)”
Makes perfect sense IMO. We’ll need peak Ohtani tomorrow.
And better for him and the team long term… Load management is a real thing and has been acknowledged as valuable tool for increasing long-term (within the season) player performance in the NBA.
lol. Yes, make ‘im play EVERY DAY dammit!!! Slacker Ohtani!!! SHEESH. 😛
Soon he will want a four-day work week.
I think that is EXACTLY why they are doing it today DD.
+1… i wonder, too, if Matz being a lefty had anything to do with it? Although, by my Lylin’Eyes Shohei mashes lefties as well. Dunno.
if you’re going to give him a day off, it might as well be against a lefty. You’re right that he mashes lefties well, but he doesn’t mash them as well as he mashes righties.
Off topic: I’m looking forward to what should be a fun game at the Big A tonight with the CSULB Dirtbags taking on USC! $25 gen admission ticket gets you a voucher for a future Angels game.
I might join you. I’ve gone to a few dirtbags games up in Long Beach and they are fun.
Meanwhile I’m stuck in a jury waiting room
Yikes.
Missing life just so a guy can get paroled in 60 seconds.
Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy – out of Trashtros rotation for now with injuries
– that helps the cause immensely
Maybe. Unlike us the Astros have really good young arms they are ready and willing to bring up to the bigs. An example of their good, young SP is Hunter Brown who is starting tonight… He pitched in 7 games last season, but it is here in 2023 that he is flashing his talent, to the tune of a 2.37 ERA.
I don’t think the Astros will be hurt that much by missing those guys. Urquidy was probably their worst starting pitcher anyways …
Browns already in the rotation Jack. they need 2 additional young starters to fill this void. None of which have pitched in the majors before.
Unless Cy Rookies are playing the Angels, theres not guarantee that they’ll have the same success with Hunter Brown.
I know that. I was just using him as an example of their good young pitching.
And as I said, Urquidy is not really a loss — blessing in disguise.
Hunter Brown was already up and was, generally, the only big pitching prospect they had ready. Their other young arms are more of an Angels style crapshoot.
We’ll see.
Sitting at 15-14, i think we can go on a good run from here in our next 15 games say (12-3).
if we can get to 27-17, it will be amazing and then it would be smooth sailing from there on out and we can start making solid playoff plans
Just for context weren’t you also the one guaranteeing an Ohtani long term deal signing prior to the season? 😜
if you missed the inclusion of the record of 27-17 and assumed it was a random goal, you have fallen into the sarchasm (those who forget history are condemned to repeat it)
even if we rip off a good start to May, we probably aren’t going to get to 27-17, and it wont be the end of the world.
so 6-14 is out of the question?
Depends; if we lose 5 of 6 to Texas and Houston it likely WILL be the end of the world, or at leat of our playoff chances.
https://imgflip.com/i/17zwol
your imgur-fu is lacking
Yeeeaaahhhh…. we’re likely not gonna go 12-3 against the Cardinals, Rangers, Astros, Guardindians, and Orioles. But if we do catch em cold then hell yeah!
I think The Chasm of Sar almost took the whole site down.
Well played Sexy Rexy
Yep. I bit.
Well done.
Perfecto. 😝
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH the chasm…..
Looking at the month of May, it is a perfect prove it month for the Angels.
28 total games.
3 vs. Houston who is supposed to be much better than us.
16 vs. AL teams that are supposed to be our peers in Texas, Baltimore, bahstun, and Minnesota.
6 vs. teams we are supposed to be better than in the White Sox and Marlins.
3 vs a Cardinals team that is struggling at the moment.
A realistic scenario is to go 6-3 vs. the Cardinals, White Sox, and Marlins, and 9-7 vs. the peer group. Assuming a 1-2 series loss in Houston, that works out to 16-12 over the month.
31-26 isn’t ideal but it is above .500 as we head into June which appears to have a softer schedule.
That’s a darn tough schedule, I would think finishing even will be a chore unless of course we get help from the Angels from above 👼
I’m posting what a real playoff team would do with this schedule. I don’t think I’m shooting too high.
I would be extremely satisfied with 10-5 over the next 15.
12-3 would obviously be amazing, but it’s difficult to envision and I’m generally optimistic in these parts.
Jeremiah Jackson is slowly becoming somewhat of a utility guy over the last few years. More starts at 3B, CF, LF after primarily 2B and SS.
https://www.milb.com/news/jeremiah-jackson-april-30-sl-player-of-the-week
https://www.mlb.com/stories/prospect-team-of-the-week-2023-05-01
agree – i see him ahead of Adams even though Adams is at SLC
I like how calling someone a “utility guy” is really just a polite way to say a guy can’t hit
Or cant field . Or in the case of Rengafo cant do either.
😃 Yup there Cowboy, now slow the bronc down a bit ( 😅 ) and teel me ya’ll did knot just diss Renny.
Award taken away. 23 year old prospect officially banned. Good day.
https://youtu.be/mqLb_z52TmY
Love this film.
“You stole Fizzy Lifting drinks…” Ha ha ha.
It was really a great scene by Gene Wilder. Amazing.
He was great in that film. My favorite scene however is still the nightmare scene when the tour boat goes through the tunnel… it is mythological and fits the narrative very well.
Yikes. That scene used to scare the bejeezus out of me when I was a rugrat. I still FFWD through it to this day.
Yep. THAT is what makes it so good.
Johnny Dip couldn’t even hold Gene’s top hat
Awesome news about Jeremiah Jackson!
I see Trevor Bauer is not winning hearts, but influencing people in Japan with his antics.
😂 Could it possibly have gone any other way?
Taco Tuesday today, oh Hell yeah!!
Re Fangraphs:
I’m kind of annoyed with fangraphs. They have the Angels at a 46% win probability tonight, despite Sandoval having a better current and career ERA than Cardinal’s pitcher Steven Matz.
That’s really not bad considering the home field always gives an advantage
…. and Ohtani is not in the lineup either ..
Angels just need to start dominating to get these prognosticators to change their tune. Having said that, it’s time for the Angels to walk into the ballpark with their chest out and crush baseballs.
I actually don’t think Fangraphs changes the future probabilities mid-season. Rather, they are based on Zips + Steamer, or ATC start of season projections. Sandoval happens to be outperforming those projections and Matz is underperforming.
The projection, however, is still based on Fangraphs’ pre-season projection that Sandoval will be very slightly better than Matz. Add in that Sandoval might be replaced by Loup and it isn’t unreasonable to think the Cards might win. But I don’t have to ignore actual performance, nor do I have to be reasonable when expressing annoyance at a website.
46% is high in my opinion for a game in St Louis. I would think it would be closer to 40%.
Cards are -130 which means Vegas thinks they are around 65% to win.
Vegas odds aren’t an attempt to accurately predict win probability. They are designed to try to get about 50% of gamblers to bet on each outcome. Thus, they depend heavily on the number of fans that bet on a team and the tendency of those fans to bet their team will win because they want their team to win rather than think they will.
46% of Win Probability takes into consideration our trAditions 100% of the time.
It’s called the Sex Panther stat, 60% of the time, it works every time.
Brought to by Odion.
https://youtu.be/Xu84Yq8YJ5s
Maybe they understand TrAdition.
Yeah, but we have Loup in the bullpen.
Matz will pitch a CY game tonight, traDition you know.
The Hyundai key to the game for the Angels today is “Love It If We Made It” by my daughter’s favorite band, The 1975.
The Angel players should do whatever it takes to win today for the sake of their fans who have been patient through this long playoff drought. Matty Healy sings with the heartbreaking desperation we fans have been feeling these past few years. This time, we sense that the Halos are on the cusp of earning a wildcard spot, just a few tweaks. C’mon, Angels, we know you can do it. Show us tonight that the Great Pumpkin really exists.
MODERNITY HAS FAILED US
I’D LOVE IT IF WE MADE IT!
https://youtu.be/FGce7jiqIUk
In the 63 years the Angels and Cardinals had to make trades with each other, there have only been two that were significant.
The first one was in March of 2000 when the Angels finally traded one of their four star outfielders, Jim Edmonds, in exchange for Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy. Even though second base had been a black hole for years, I remember Angel fans being much more excited over the acquisition of Bottenfield, a starting pitcher coming off of an All-Star season. Kennedy was an afterthought who only had 33 games of MLB experience.
The other trade of significance was in November of 2013 when the Angels traded Peter Bourjos and Randall Grichuk for David Freese and Fernando Salas. Freese and Salas both helped the Angels go from third place in 2013 to first place in 2014.
these days when i think about Jim Edmonds and what he became, i think about Marsh.
that trade was a big deal – we did need a 2B just like we needed a C.
Freese helped us to a big 2014, but Grichuk coulda been better than the a Navapile. Or better than Kole?
Good gah people around here hated David Freese…. until they got a few years of seeing what an actual crap 3B looks like.
Then things got even more hate broiled when Arte totally ignored the pitching market, didn’t even try to sign Garrit Cole or Zack Wheeler, and signed the team captain of a World Champion team with a totally normal injury history at age 29 and gold glove defense to play at 3B. Apparently, at that point, we didn’t need a 3B anymore and it was also stupid because everyone knows that 3B over the age of 28 are always hurt while pitchers over the age of 28 never get injured. Because Arte never invests in the team’s needs.
This is why Arte needs to spend 600M on a two way player that is turning 29.
Got it? Good.
Your point about the huge risk of signing Ohtani is sound. I wonder if we will take Into account the Pujols and Rendon contracts as we evaluate Shohei. Teams often take these risks when they have nothing down on the farm to occupy the vacant positions, although we actually had a good first baseman when we signed Pujols. I bet the Padres thought they were genius when they locked up Tatis. I wonder how they feel now.
Upton is another example of a contract for a age 30 player that soured.
There are 2 differences for Ohtani. One, he pitches. Hopefully the Angels are doing research on age curves for pitchers similarly to Ohtani. If he can pitch into the mid-30s overpaying for a good pitcher (and part-time DH) won’t be as harmful as overpaying for a bad hitter.
Second, Ohtani’s marketability is higher than Pujols’ or Rendon’s. If Ohtani brings in money to the organization that sets off a part of his salary, then the Angels can afford to have a higher budget. I doubt re-signing Ohtani would work out, but I’d be less critical of a decision to overpay for someone to stay an Angel than I would be to overpay for a free agent superstar from another team.
There’s many more bad contracts in our history. I think these two were worst. The main concern is the injury risk, as he can get injured hitting and pitching. As well as the back end of most of these long contracts is usually pretty brutal.
Hamilton’s was worsier and Anthony is TBD
The research is in. Investing money in a pitcher over 30 is pretty stupid. “He pitches” is not landing on the plus side of an over 30 FA.
An Angels fan making the “But he’s marketable” argument makes me cry/laugh.
Yeah, but remember Ohtani sells merch baby!
💰 💰 💱 💹
The Edmonds trade looked quite reasonable. He was coming off an injury and hadn’t yet fully recovered and was heading into his age 30 season. It’s quite surprising that Edmonds got better in his 30s.
Well, steroids would explain it, but I’m not aware of any such allegations despite Edmonds having multiple characteristics that would align with such use (coming off an injury, entering a contract season, joining a team with Mark McGwire, getting better in his 30s).
Arte didn’t own the team when we traded Edmonds, so it’s no big deal.
Nothing to do with Arte, my opinion is based entirely on backwards-looking information.
Although I should mention I had no personal attachment to Edmonds. I stopped watching baseball in the early 90s and didn’t start again until the 1999 playoffs, which the Angels weren’t in. I don’t think I ever watched a game with Edmonds on the Angels.
Going to learn a lot about this team over the next 3 weeks.
Time for the offense to slip into a higher gear. Start by getting a few more of those April Scud Missiles we hit to fall safely down to earth and not become gold glove catches.
Get Ward back on track, hope Rendon can find his missing 2-bags, one had his glove in it, the other bag had his favorite socks and his beard oil. Less LOBster, more RiBI. Turn those blown saves into blow outs.
Go team.
Yes, now is the line to get everything lined up and firing on all cylinders.
Yep. I feel like the series against the 10-19 Cardinals is a “should win” yet I’m really nervous about a potential series loss.
Then there are 19 straight games against potential direct competitors for a wild card (and division championship). My optimism will be directly tied the outcome in that stretch. Less than 10 wins and I’ll be “starting to lose faith”, 10 wins = cautiously optimistic, 11/12 wins = feeling good about wild card chances, 13+ wins = wow, maybe there is a shot at the division?
I’m really hoping for the Angels to be at 31 wins by the end of May.
After just getting swept by the boys in blue I expect he cards to be ready to mash.
Stupid Doyers, always wreck things for us.
Given that the upcoming stretch of games is tough I’ll just be happy with .500. Anything above that is gravy. Gotta get over .500 against the poop teams and sneak maybe 5 wins from the really good ones. Even if they leave the end of May a game or two under .500 for the month I’ll be fine, but if they get eaten up to the point where a 10 game hot streak doesn’t put us solidly over .500 again I’ll be worried.
And just to help out those of you with special needs that require everything be clarified all the time, by 10 game hot streak I don’t mean winning 10 strait. I mean like 7-3.
What I’m digging is how the Cardinals were a “tough team that was sure to kick our ass” right up till enough people actually looked at them and now they are “a team the Angels MUST beat the snot out of or the Angels are doomed”.
No team is ever just “a team” and the iron has been left on in some room everywhere every day.
The Cardinals are 10-19. That’s the record of a team the Angels should beat the snot out of. However, our experience with the Cardinals and their playoff history tells us there is a good chance that 10-19 record doesn’t reflect the Cardinals’ true talent. Unless you follow the Cardinals closely enough to know whether they had roster changes or injury issues that explain their current record, the information we have is conflicting.
Anybody out there think the Cardinals are really gonna lose 100+ games this year? They do have injury issues and are short on pitching, but still….
Nope, but as far as I know, they could be a team that should lose 90 or one that should win 90.
April Angels MVP…..Shohei Ohtani, followed by Trout, Renfroe, O’Hoppe, Drury, Estavez.
the Arizona precinct had Neto in third place (they always value SS)
Happy Gubi Tuesday, next up the Cardinals of a famed past of legends such as the Gas House Gang, last years NL MVP Goldsmith and Arenado. Dodgers last weekend sweep the series from the Cards.
If we come away with 3 out of four I’ll be head over heels in joy. A 20 win month would Rock.
Let’s get start out right with a win tonight. GO ANGELS!!!!! WIN IT TONIGHT!!!!
when i think about Cardinal legends it starts with Bob Gibson – my first memories of baseball were 1967 World Series and 1968.
There was Whiteyball in the 1980s that was fun too.
I was rooting for Boston in ’67. My family moved to Portsmouth NH in August ’66 and my dad would take my brothers and I to Fenway to 4 games in August and another 4 in Sept. and the tickets were less than Angels or Dodgers. It was like going to Dodgers Stadium when the Angels played there, just a few thousand attending. In 1967 we were going to see games in the cold in April and May, hot in July and early August. The R/S were all of a sudden, the hottest team in the AL. Through mid-August with 8 teams in the league, the W/S, Angels, Tigers, Twins, Red Sox all were fighting it out. The family moved back to Redondo Beach in August, the day the Beatles manager passed away. We would go to the Big A a few times, but the Halos needed help to make anything happen. On the last day of the season the Angels beat the Tigers and the Red Sox beat the Twins and the Red Sox finished #1 with Yaz and Lonborg winning MVP and CY respectively. Gibson was returning from a broken leg, Briles, Carlton and Sadecki pitched well that year for the Cards. I had to snick my transistor with a wired earpiece into my classes to listen to the games, was caught twice, lol. Great 7 game series. Always felt the Angels gave the Cards an assist by taking Tony C. out, Jack Hamilton hit him in the head with a pitched ball. We share those memories of those 2 series.
Ronald Acuna Jr. is injury prone and has had one big season. Juan Soto is a very good player but neither he or Acuna are what they and others think they are.
Aaron Judge is one of the greatest to don a Yankees uniform, but once again injuries have slowed him down again.
Yankees are complaining about injuries and their fan base is blaming the manager Aaron Boone for not winning more.
I feel bad for players who have had injuries. Looking at Trouty’s career one has to wonder what he would have of accomplished were it not for injuries.
Very few can escape serious injury during a career. Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Cal Ripken Jr., Billy Williams, Pete Rose Derek Jeter all come to mind of those lucky enough to dodge the injury bug.