Anthony Rendon will not face any charges concerning the shirt grabbing incident with the Oakland fan in March. David Fletcher’s bat is heating up down in Salt Lake City.
The White Sox walked one off after a pitch went straight into the plate umpire’s mask. It’s almost like the catcher didn’t even try to catch it. Here is your basic Keystone Cops putout. Well, I guess it’s more like Dr. Anthony Fauci was playing catcher.
Injured List
The Giants placed Alex Wood on the 15 day injured list with a low back strain. San Diego has middle infield issues with both Xander Bogaerts and Roughned Odor dealing with injuries. The Dodgers are placing Trayce Thompson on the ten day injured list. Amir Garrett went on the 15 day injured list over the weekend retroactive to May 29. It’s his elbow. The article also discusses injuries to Jose Altuve and Amed Rosario. Chris Sale has a shoulder injury. Jose Quintana might be back from his injury pretty soon.
Transactions
The Guardians just designated Zach Plesac for assignment. The Diamondbacks extended Torey Lovullo through 2024.
Not that it even matters
https://sports.yahoo.com/rangers-place-ace-jacob-degrom-on-60-day-injured-list-schedule-mri-233254986.html
Oops, I totally forgot to add deGrom’s contract:
Jacob deGrom: $205MM x 6y (last year as team option)
Corey Seager: $325MM x 10y
Marcus Sieman: $175MM x 7y
Nathan Eovaldi: $34MM-$63MM x 2-3y with incentives.
Andrew Heaney: $25MM x 2y
Active payroll total: Excludes salary of players on IL
Texas: $151,484,800
Angels: $142,907,666
I wish it was easier to go back and search old comments, because a few of us called this lol.
Sucks for fans of the game, but at least it’s happening to Texas.
when Adell debuted for the Angels in Tempe (7/6/17), Soriano was pitching and i have a couple photos. i think the coaches were calling him The Stork in Spanish because of his long, lean frame
https://flic.kr/p/WfcZ55
https://flic.kr/p/Wve97p
Any credible (or even outright unreliable) whispers in Angel Land about Mike Trout… I mean this latest slump is starting to scream of an early onset of Father Time. Hope I’m way wrong of course.
The SO rate is roughly the same as it’s been for approx. 5 years so I’m not overly focused on that. He’s just making a lot more poor contact and it’s not simply the 98-101 mph stuff, either.
That’s what my eyes
tell me anyway.
Any gurus out there?
raw data on swing/miss fastballs is pretty credible
Definitely his defense. No longer willing to stretch out for a dive. He needs to be moved to left next year, Ward in right and Moniak in center. Screw his feelings.
If Shohei is a goner as most predict, I would like to see Trout moved to LF and take a lot of DH at bats.
Perhaps he can hone in on the craft of hitting (whatever that means) and become a Big Poppi like hitter on the backend of his career.
Having a rotating DH would really open up our options next year especially if PTP keeps dalot of epth on this roster going forward.
Of course this will only work if we do a the best job with matchups each night.
Something that Phillip, so far has been less than stellar on.
I love Shohei, but for baseball I just kinda stopped believing in “superstars”. Good players? Yes. We want many good players and few weak links. But I’ve never bought into the “wasted” star crap. There are just too many good teams that don’t have huge stars. They will have a really good player or two, maybe a guy whose career year results in an MVP….
But yeah. It will be hard to replace Shohei’s pitching. As for offense, if Perry adds three guys who can provide a 670-700 OPS with solid defense, even in platoon, along with a couple starters becoming 3.00 ERA arms, we will win more games than we do with Troutani.
Or two 8-7 pitchers?
Hasn’t hurt us before.
Dumbfk Angels fans love that shit but you know what they never bring up? Basically Ol’Buzz was right.
You’ll see his walks are down, K’s up, avg vs. fastball is massively down, and his swings and misses are much higher. You’d think with a better offense, he should be better, but maybe age has something to do with it. He showed signs of decline last year. I thought it was because the offense was disgustingly bad, and he was pressing.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/mike-trout-545361
So of course Lorenzen has looked great in his last 5-6 starts. Because of course he is, and we overpaid for Tyler Anderson.
Lorenzen had 5-6 starts with the Angels too where he looked great — it wasn’t all bad with him in his Halo year.
NAR! HARRIBLE LOKI! ARTE! SO MAD!
Huzzah!
Don’t forget Thor, that magical Dodger pitching coaching magic is just…..er….it’s just…..never mind.
Dude stole $21 million of Arte’s dough
And cost us a draft pick.
But if he also netted us Moniak was it work it?
Also O’Hoppe and Tucky D? I get confused, but O’Hoppe was for Marsh?
O’Hoppe came from Marsh . David the Tucker was the result of the D-Cell trade.
My computer home screen will now include those names to help me memorize the correct transactions. Thanks.
I liked March, but if O’Hoppe is even 75% of the player he flashed in this first month, it’s a grade trade for our side.
Catcher has been a bigger blackhole for longer than any other position IMO.
I just looked up what the normal healing time for shoulder labrum surgery. According to OrthoVirginia: 4 months. If Angels make postseason, there is at least a chance that he is back. At least, he is seen strong enough to handle Kabuto hand off duty.
Side note, when my eyes reached ‘OrthoVirginia” in your text, my mind auto-corrected to ‘OrthoVagina’, but I digress. It’s not me, it’s my mind, haha
Anyway, I would be a bit surprised to see the Angels opt to bring him back this season –
He is hopefully a long time cornerstone for the club. Don’t risk it IMO.
Well stated. O’Hoppe also looks like he has leadership skills. Marsh? Smok’n the weed, lurk in the background guy.
On Moniak, wait and see. It is unfortunate that he is now being iced in bench. Hopefully, Nevin gives him opportunities especially opponents starters are righty. Moniak should have been inserted for Trout yesterday.
No. There are very few things in the entire universe as valuable as a second round draft pick
It was a dumbass move, etch it
Hate to be a stickler for correctness, but I believe Phillies gave back proportional amount back when he was traded to them (or to be precise, Angels stop cutting a check for Thor).
Well they didn’t give us back our second round draft pick.
Anderson was expected to regress a bit and be a mid rotation guy. $13 million per year is about the going rate for a mid rotation guy.
The problem is Anderson has regressed to a back of the rotation guy.
However, if you take out his disastrous first start where he gave up 6 runs in 4 innings, his numbers are a lot better. Over his last four starts he’s given up 9 runs over 22 innings, good for an 3.68 ERA.
I’d say Anderson is more likely to continue on his current path than Lorenzen is on his his.
Anderson regressed into Joe Blanton
Anderson regressed into
Joe BlantonTyler Anderson.Somewhat worse than his normal self.
His one year with the Doyers is meaningless as to how he’ll pitch for us yesterday, today or tomorrow. Whatever it is they do over there to cheat, it worked on him.
Thor on the other hand is probably still infected with the trAdition Angel virus. That shit is hard to get rid of…like chlamydia….so I’ve been told.
Paid a bit move for a big arm in the playoffs would have landed Eovaldi. True, questionable to make every start but I bet Bochy is happy .
Chlamydia? All you have to do is put some dirt on your wee wee, and you are all good. It worked for me.
By the way, I did not know pitchers also participate in Slump Buster party. I did not imagine Thor to be someone who would get involved in 3P.
Trevor Cahill U.S. Marshall
Totally agree. This is the $$$ that the market will bear for a C+/B- range SP.
He’ll give us some solid starts, but his low end talent necessarily means he’ll get slapped around here and there.
Sandoval & Detmers regressing is the larger concern.
I don’t know if its fair to cherry pick a set of 4 games and say that is how he is performing on his current path.
He also has a 5.47 ERA this year overall. And is averaging nearly half a walk per inning. He has given up 5+ runs in 40% of his starts and 3+ in 60% of his starts.
Fire Matt Wise!
NAR! AH HAYT ACCERATE AN REALTASTIC INFO FACTS! ARTE! I SO ANGRY! WAHR ITZ DUH COMMITMUNK!?!?
….Because of course?
It cuts both ways. I lot of high prices FA agents are busting out worse than Anderson from an ROI standpoint.
I thought Perry had a solid offseason overall. Some guys are simply performing below reasonable expectations. Shrug.
If Perry weren’t a total asshole he’d have signed De Grom and we’d be in extreme first place.
At least…
Dumb asshole, let’s not group him in with all assholes.
Escape from Donkeyland….. to the far healthier environs of Detroit.
Gritcho-Sensei! You are alive. There have been rumors regarding your demise.
We were in Florida at a Furry Convention as the Angel Sad Donkey.
Donate now.
http://donkeyland.org/
Watching awesome Stanford vs Oklahoma softball game and thinking to provide some smile on CtPG readers, I let my Delusional Hyperbole fly!
You have heard about old Japanese tradition of arranged marriage. So, I am watching the Women’s College World Series for a candidate for Shohei’s wife. The purpose, you might ask? Isn’t it obvious? So, we at least would have a chance of seeing another Shohei in this century. If you have any good suggestion for Shohei’s partner, Japanese gossip magazines are interested.
And I hope that you will permit Shohei to have a fling or two with Mark Gracy’s Slump Buster even after he makes marriage vows. It is good for baseball.
The WCWS is intense. Those gals can play.
Stanford could’ve won it. They could not take advantage of runners on 1st and 2nd with no out in the extra inning. It sounds familiar, isn’t it?
I am 100% positive if I had a daughter, she would have been a softball player.
Are only Japanese women in play? It wouldn’t bother me, but my knowledge of Japanese Pop-Culture is almost nil.
Geneticist in me prefers that Shohei crosses ethnic line. Wild type is always superior to pure bred. For you mathematicians and physicists, law of entropy from DNA perspective.
I feign ignorance on Japanese Pop Culture.
If the goal is beautiful super athlete, here’s the answer:
World class German runner, Alica Schmidt, has been discussed by Japanese media for possible match. I don’t know whether she can throw or catch.
Your terms are acceptable. Wow.
One used to say perfect life comes with German sports car and Japanese wife, but German wife may not be that bad.
And your “Wow” is to praise the extensiveness of the research that Japanese media undertook, right?
In a word, yes.
Both countries fantastic Chefs knives as well.
Also thanks, um kay?
Designated runner like the As had in the day
As could probably use her playing all positions. It will probably help their attendance number.
Ummmmm. That’s an image of a very pretty woman. It’s problematic and I find it triggering. Um kay? Thanks.
Let my cancellation saga begin for I have
offended with words !!!!
Nice asset I wonder if that pole is fake.
As long as it is good feel for your hand and grip around, I don’t care if it is artificial silicone or water filled pole. We are talking about pole vault jumping contest, right?
She has incredible talent, wouldn’t you say?
I’m not entirely comfortable with you talking about poles !!!!
LoL
LMFAO
Grandpa now moonlighting for Manfraud?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/06/mlb-hires-albert-pujols-as-special-assistant.html
Even his 10 year $10 million PSC with the Angels is turning into a joke.
Does that mean that Angels may be able to extract some money back to them for failing to perform as written in the contract?
Nope. His personal services contract does not exclude him working for MLB. If he works for another team, then he would have to get the okay from The Angels.
Am I correct to assume PSC was included in the original contract at clever suggestion by Pujols agent because that $10 million would not be counted toward Luxury Tax and stupid Arte agreeing to it?
Survey says… Yes.
This is why Manfraud banned these provisions in future MLB contracts
While my baseball IQ is increasing because of CtPG, Arte’s such number is falling to hopeless range.
I still like the idea of complete extermination of baseball agents. It has to be healthy for baseball community.
To be fair, Arte wasn’t the first to come up with loopholes on the luxury tax threshold. There are some players from the 90s/early 2000s that have only recently been paid all of their money.
Prior owners used to sign “play x years and get paid over x + 20 year” contracts. When the MLB banned that, someone came up with the idea of a “personal service contract” to get around the rule because the team is purportedly not merely delaying payment for playing but rather for a post-retirement job. The MLB then closed that loophole.
The next tactic will be to sign someone to a 15-year extension, after which they might consider limiting contracts to 12 years or so.
I think Shohei and Ippei may be listening to our conversation, and they may talk Arte into purchasing Island of Hokkaido to be gifted upon Shohei and Ippei’s retirement. 😆
Bobby Bonilla Day is coming, but interesting some of the other deals with deferred money… The Bobby Bonilla All-Stars: Eight former players still getting paid by MLB teams | Sporting News
Makes sense, he was working for the other teams while being paid as an Angel.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2z9ny8
Is the Angels’ solution to their batting w/ RISP just around the corner? I’m highly skeptical, but it seems some numbers back it up, so take w/ a grain of salt:
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/06/05/angels-expect-anthony-rendons-return-to-boost-performance-with-runners-in-scoring-position/
I don’t believe it’s just one person who will turn this problem around. All players will have the opportunity to hit with RISP, and hitting is hitting. It just sounds crazy that one player will have the ability to make the entire team better, but we shall see.
Forgot to add in my post above – it’s a good read. Different viewpoints about hitting with RISP and what solutions to use. As expected (or maybe not), Phil thinks hitting w/ RISP (or for an RBI opportunity) is a skill, while Ward doesn’t think so and Drury is somewhere in the middle.
Also talks about Trout’s K problems this season
The ability to execute during RISPy situations is a real thing.
Some of it is psychology. Some players just choke in this situation while some others seem to be able to focus better in this situation.
The other part is having a RISPy plan. Many batters nowadays just don’t have one and go up hacking like they do in every other at bat. Other guys understand how they can achieve a productive out, which pitches are good for sac flies. Vilify him all you like, but Pujols was excellent at collecting the RBI. Many times during his tenure as an Angel I saw him purposefully dink an outside pitch just over the infield’s reach and drop a ball into shallow right field to score a runner from second or third. It was like he was playing billiards.
In high school and adult baseball league, I actually hated when bases were loaded. Felt too much pressure with my heart going at least 200 bpm.
There are players who can slow their heart rate and perform well in RISPy situations like Rendon or Pujols as you mention. Maybe Shohei and Trout would benefit from tea brewed with undernail goop of Rendon/Pujols?
whenever I’m in a tense spot I think to myself “isn’t that John Candy over there?”
is that totally obscure?
Agreed and many hitters nowadays don’t have a 2 strike approach at all.
With runners on, particularly a runner on third and less than two outs, a hitter should basically start his at bat using a 2 strike approach. I can see a guy with power getting one swing for the fences, but most guys need to shorten up and make sure the ball goes in play and at least one run scores.
We get K after K after K in those situations, resulting in way too many ducks left on the pond.
I have always been interested in why players on teams seem to go into slump all at once (or whether they really do, etc.). Rendon did show the ability this year to get the runner home from scoring position. Is this contagious among other players? Don’t know but it is an interesting question.
So is that why they all try to use the same slump buster?
Anaheim Department of Health wants to know if they have been recently screened for venereal disease. Whoops, venereal diseases show my age, I meant herpes simplex virus 1 & 2, human papilloma virus and mycoplasma genitalium.
Sounds like something one gets while performing duties on a personal services contract…..
On a per game basis, it might very well have to do with pitching. If one player finds a weakness or exploitable pattern and shares it with his teammates, they’ll all get hits off that pitcher, but if the only hits come on true mistake pitches, then only a few players will get hits off a particular pitcher that game.
Further proof that Rendon is the worst baseball mans ever..
Wherefore art our good friend gitchogrich? Has he gotten tired of the Angels uninspired play of late and so has turned his attention to the Pirates’ fanboards? With all the losing to the Astros, is he avoiding the sad donkeys? Perhaps something more important than baseball has commanded his attention. Maybe he has fallen into ill health.
I hope things are okay with him.
Hey Ghost Guest’s apparition changed . Is your sheet in the laundry?
Ten points for Slytherin if you can correctly identify the man who is my current avatar, and five bonus points if you can explain how he fits the theme of my presence on CtPG.
it looks like one of my favorite authors of all-time, Alan Sillitoe.
aha…it’s not. Reverse googled it. Ok. He’s well known. I can’t claim any points if I reverse google the guy. I’ll have to work on the bonus points section instead.
I thought it was David Letterman .
But I wasn’t too sure what a long suffering Reds fan has to do with this dysfunctional team.
Not familiar with Sillitoe, but his book-ography looks interesting.
Just a busy weekend. Astros losses suck, but whatever, one game over .500. Keep em pushin Angels. Beat some teams. Beat teams more than you lose. Rock on over London. Rock on Chicago. Rock n Roll McDonalds.
What’s up with Moniak? He’s hitting .327/.340/.694 with a 180 wRC+, which makes him the best hitter (small sample size) on the team this year. And yet, he didn’t get to play a single game in the Astros series.
I get that they don’t want him facing lefties, but Javier and France both throw right. Why not give Renfroe a day off on Saturday and Trout a day off Sunday since they are both slumping. Or at least why not let Moniak pinch hit for someone?
Exactly. I was excited when I heard at the beginning of the season that Nevin was going to play the hot hand, but that has turned out to be just talk.
Tampa Bay has three or so everyday starters and platoons the rest. No reason why we couldn’t do some version of that. We have several swiss army knife guys on our team who would fit that role perfectly. Unfortunately, our organization doesn’t seem to have the bandwidth to implement that kind of progressive approach. I don’t think any of them were honor students in the maths.
Unsustainable BABIP and a 34% SO rate will also hurt the case for time on the field.
The SoCal Seraphs scored just 12 runs in their four-game set with the Oxy Houstons. Here is the list of how many runs our individual Angel hitters produced this weekend:
4.00 Ohtani
2.00 Rengifo
2.00 Drury
1.25 Ward
1.00 Renfroe
0.50 Soto
0.50 Urshela
0.50 Trout
0.25 Walsh
Yeesh. No catchers. No Neto. Trout barely making an impact. But Ohtani is continuing his hot streak. This is the second series in a row he had led all Angel batters in Actual Runs Produced. He has led the team in ARP now six times this season. Trout is next in line having done it four times.
And here is the year-to-date list of Actual Runs Allowed per Batters Faced with BF in parenthesis:
0.00 Soriano (4)
0.05 Moore (94)
0.05 Bachman (22)
0.06 Estevez (103)
0.09 Ohtani (284)
0.09 Barria (136)
0.10 Sandoval (260)
0.11 Canning (204)
0.11 Devenski (63)
0.11 Weiss (9)
0.12 Wantz (85)
0.13 Anderson (239)
0.13 Detmers (227)
0.13 Silseth (84)
0.14 Joyce (14)
0.16 Herget (54)
0.16 Webb (28)
0.17 Davidson (106)
0.19 Suarez (123)
0.20 Loup (70)
Bachman’s low ARA/BF is directly correlated to the low-leverage situations Nevin has been putting him in lately. I have a feeling Webb’s ARA/BF will self-correct the larger his sample-size becomes.
I looked at Angel reliever WHIPs to see if there was a correlation with ARA/BF, but there isn’t one.
0.52 Webb
0.55 Devenski
0.97 Wantz
1.11 Estevez
1.46 Herget
1.70 Davidson
2.03 Loup
2.20 Bachman
2.40 Weiss
The amount of batters you allow to get on base tells us nothing about your ability to prevent runs from scoring. This speaks to either the dumb, random luck that is an inherent factor in the game of baseball, or it speaks to a pitcher’s mental ability to bear down when the pressure’s on. Bachman and Weiss have let a lot of batters reach base, but they have been effective at preventing runs from scoring. In Webb and Devenski’s case, it also speaks to the importance of not giving up home runs. If you don’t allow many runners to reach base but you give up homers, that’s going to jack up your ARA/BF.
tell me if I’ve got this right. Sandy leaves with the bases loaded. That’s six bases. Webb comes in and gives up a grand slam. That’s a total of 10 bases. 3rd to home is 1, 2 to home is 2, 1st to home is 3 and the homerun is 4 bases. So 4 runs scored and Sandy is responsible (as I understand it) for 1 1/2 runs (6 bases divided by 4) and Webb is responsible for 2 1/2.
Is that anywhere close to how you calculate this stuff?
That’s exactly correct. Although I conceptualize what you are calling one base as 0.25 runs, but it’s the same thing, really.
Good morning Halo fans.
We won’t snap our one game win streak today.
Go Halos!!
31-30
15th best record in the MLB
+3 run differential
It’s funny that we have performed absolutely perfectly to be a .500 team.
June is “on paper” the easiest month left on the schedule.
Really hope we go off, or it could be a long summer.
The Angels’ dedication to mediocrity is highly impressive.
OK- I was in Arizona handling my Dad’s estate sale and missed an awful lot. So what’s the deal with the Nevin deathwatch? Can somebody fill me in with the TL:DR version?
Real simple…we suck and managers are hired to be fired.
i’ve just seen noise on message boards, nothing in the press suggests its real or imminent
Wishful thinking?
Looks like nobody is volunteering, and feeling somewhat gleeful for planting a seed of Bobby V/Minasian conspiracy, here is my attempt:
Started when Nevin left Tyler Anderson too long to allow White Sox comeback with 5 runs and subsequently lost the game.
Calmed down with Angels win against White Sox on the last day of May, garnering 15 win of the month.
Restarted when Angels failed to own Houston’s cy-rookie Blanco despite many RISP chances. Detmers poor performance did not help the cause.
Peak for calling Nevin’s neck reached with 2nd and 3rd loss with combination of poor starting pitcher’s performance with Ohtani and Sandoval and blowing RISP time and time again.
Conjectures flourished regarding imminent change of manager, which led to who will replace Nevin. While some people thought that it should go to Benji Gill, many speculated that it could go to Bobby V, based on the fact that Perry brought him as “technical” advisor when he started as GM and well known fact that Valentine and Perry’s father are long time BFF.
Nevin survives because Angels won yesterday. The saga will continue.
sorry to hear about your dad.
Thanks, Jeff. He made it to 3 days short of his 98th birthday. Didn’t get cheated.
I am sorry for your loss, sir. That should have been the first line of my previous post.
this is fun
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/athletics/article/a-s-fans-raise-thousands-make-sell-shirts-18134802.php
I stole this line about Rendon from a comment on another site, “He should be arrested for impersonating a productive ballplayer.”
I doubt the author of that comment would be too upset about you stealing it since it’s obvious he didnt spend too much time creating it.
He got a ton of “”thumbs ups” over there at The Athletic, way more than I do here for pointing out Rendon’s flaws and bloated contract. Maybe my sin is doing it too often, especially when there’s so much other long hanging fruit when it comes to our ongoing woes.
A bit and familiarity. We have a smaller group of commenters so it is easier to sound like a broken record here than on a larger, more anonymous site like The Athletic.
I’m like that blowhard uncle that everybody tries to avoid at the holiday dinner. I’ll try to work on that.😀
“I’m posting this comment…. for a friend….”
Sonny D is back.
https://www.mlb.com/video/sonny-dichiara-s-two-run-home-run?t=mlb-pipeline
6’1″ & 263lbs at just 23 years old doesn’t bode well for either his work ethic or future prospects.
The Thick King. Oh to be young again.
Paul McAnulty II
Big Mac with extra sauce
Hold the Big Mac. Just fill the box up with Sauce!
what a crowd!
Also interesting to me that Sonny touches each base with his left foot. The right foot seems more natural to me.
TTHHIICCKK KING.
That Rangers play looks like the catcher was running a man on 3B, ground ball simulation drill.
The Rangers are so good right now, it was probably a designed play.
Where we have trouble just catching and throwing, they are running sophisticated gimmick plays for fun.
Corey Seager: $325MM x 10y
Marcus Sieman: $175MM x 7y
Nathan Eovaldi: $34MM-$63MM x 2-3y with incentives.
Andrew Heaney: $25MM x 2y
I admit that I was lazy this morning. I just copied and pasted.
The Angels have given out huge contracts as well and they still suck
My guess is that they’ll hate the Seager and perhaps Semien contracts before they’re up. 10 years has just proven to be too long.
That’s one thing I learned by participating on this site. Anything longer than 5 year makes no sense. Do you think having hard cap like NBA should be done in MLB for “fairness”? I know owners (except Cohen of Mets) would love that but players would fight tooth and nail against it.
The MLB owners are their own worst enemies and continue to dish out ridiculously long big money deals. The players and the MLBPA will continue to cry collusion every time they try to ratchet down spending as it’s worked for decades. The us versus them mentality that is born from MiLB guys being so underpaid with lousy work conditions has MLB guys understandably focussed on their needs alone as their next deal isn’t guaranteed to come.
You have succinctly summed up the labor relations between the owners and players since Reggie Jackson signed $3.5MM x 5 yr contract with MFYankees.
I hope you are not a lawyer, but executing all lawyers may solve this problem, too. 😆 Especially baseball agents. 😂
You gotta give it to David Stern and Adam Silver for smartly promoting NBA and working with players to establish hard cap in terms of dollar figures and length of years. That’s why we see a small market like Denver to reach the finals for the first time in their history and possibly winning the whole thing.
Since you’re a recent arrival, perhaps you can help me understand the seemingly universal hatred of agents. it seems to me, if I was in a position to negotiate for my services with an employer, I would want the maximum I could get in dollars, given my career path is not guaranteed.
Why is that so gut wrenching for everyone? Would YOU give your employer a discount just “because” ?
Clearly, I am not an expert on this subject as I am learning everyday. If one focuses on MLB, however, the labor relationship between owners and players is not only unhealthy but also potentially destructive. We almost did not have baseball last year, leading to late start last year. I looked up just now to discover the present CBA is for 5 years. I just see that agents like Scott Boras take advantage of the conflict to fatten their wallets and unknowingly provide further steps to possible eventual demise of the league.
Mr. Manfraud ought to listen to Adam Silver.
By the way, I totally agree with your opinion on utilizing an agent/lawyer on your behalf in negotiating job contract. I have used them myself. I just love to rag on lawyers. Some of my friends are lawyers who just smile at my stupid lawyer jokes.
I think the Seager contract is far worse for the size and length of it. This is Semien’s second year of being a stud so it’s already close to being a good contract, no matter what happens later.
What’s funny with Semien is that he’s at .257 BA lifetime with a OPS+ at 111 which is just good not great. Big power number some years but defense has been spotty from season to season as well.
Growth as a player isn’t always linear. Semien is an example of that, it seems.
Most teams hate long contracts like that, especially when they’re usually backloaded.
I did copy and paste, but not completely. I said people sneered at Texas last season for giving Semian and Seager huge contracts. Padres and Mets are struggling despite their overspending. Money does not guarantee play off spot. Texas happen to do well with their additions off season, but that Josh Jung is a legit candidate for AL ROY.
Trout had a downright atrocious (for him) May, slashing .245/.339/.449 for 116 wRC+. But, here’s some bright spots for optimism.
Over his career, Trout has a pattern of hot start, drop off in May, bounce back in June. He has been worse in May than April and June every year except 2013 and 2016. However, those years also follow the pattern, because Trout started slow out of the gate in April followed by a hot May and June drop off.
Over his career, Trout’s second worst month is May (.290/.401/.581, 165 wRC+), next to August (.287/.405/.556, 163 wRC+).
May 2023 was not Trout’s career worst. That honor belongs to August 2015, the only month in Trout’s career when he was worse than average (218/.352/.337, wRC+ 99). May was also bad for Trout that year (.272/.331/.509, wRC+ 126), but Trout still put up 9.3 WAR that season.
In sum, while Trout’s precipitous drop-off this May is rare in its severity, it is inline with his usual tendencies and even its severity is not unprecedented. There is a very real chance Trout will rebound in June, go on a hot streak, and again finish the season with 6+ WAR.
Note: The above stats don’t consider partial months in which Trout was injured.
It is obvious to me that he cant see the ball very well at all at Enron Field.
Why the Angels still insist on playing him in every game there is beyond baffling.
So they can give him a maintenance day in a park where he can see.
The rate that he is seeing four seam fastballs thrown to him is more of a concern for me. He leads baseball by a pretty wide margin on four seamers thrown to as he’s not doing well with high velocity especially up in the zone. That’s not new information for Angel fans but the increased degree to which guys are throwing it suggest that he’s consistently been late which the eyeball test also supports.
bat quickness on hard stuff up in the zone is one of the first signs of age….unless you’re “Tony no-bags” and walking causes debilitating injuries.
I had the same thought while typing my comment but didn’t want to speak the evil. Mike Trout is by far and away the best Angel player ever but what have done and what you will do are two different things.
I still think that he’s quick and strong enough to do lots of damage if he changed his approach to be closer to what it was earlier in his career. Line drive hitters are coming back into favor as teams are starting to see how swing and miss impacts things without extreme shifts.
Only 7-1/2 years and $275 Million to go.
It’s going to be fun.
We’re used to it. As fans of this organization.
I can live with it for Trout, he has earned whatever he is going to get paid. Not only has he been a great player for the Angels (by far their best ever), but he has been a great example for young fans and has always taken the time engage with the young fans at the ballpark. He is everything you would want the face of your franchise to be, not a whiff of controversy, no bad behavior. The most positive thing I can say about Trout is that he plays the game the way my dad would have enjoyed watching him if he not passed before Trout, the closest player to Trout the Angels ever had was perhaps Salmon for the all around package. Fish of a feather.
As always enjoy your day, and hang in there, the Angels are due for some good things very soon.
The idea of terminating our pitching coach(es) is not working for me. I think that the players are being treated with kid gloves Let me express that I am speculating in this but are players on a day off such as today going to show up and work out at what are their issues with what they need to fix.
The things we have been subjective to are easily fix and can be worked on with more work with coaches, especially with fielding. Our infield fielding makes to many mental errors by not being ready for the ball. How many of our infielders are doing the simple things like ground to up when the ball is hit in their zone. Thier gloves are just late to the play.
Before pregame infield and batting are the coaches and infielders going over the opponents like up and hitting tendencies? Or is it “These are Major League player’s and grown men and not high school kids”. It’s in the detail and prep that is clearly missing.