Here is an interesting read about players who come to the United States without speaking or understanding English. It is especially geared toward young minor league players. Superstars are likely to get interpreters. Minor league newbies maybe not so much. Imagine making that little money while also constantly wondering what is going on around you.
The White Sox and Yankees are set to play a double header today because yesterday’s game was canceled due to crappy air. The Tigers versus the Phillies in Philadelphia was also postponed for the same reason. It’s also rescheduled for today.
The Texas Rangers will release outfielder Rafael Ortega so he can go look for a better opportunity. The Nationals will designate Erasmo Ramirez for assignment. The Brewers reinstated Willy Adames from the concussion list. He is the guy who got zapped in the head by a foul ball while he was in the dugout. The Mariners will keep Bryan Woo in their rotation notwithstanding his recent tough outing. The Phillies outrighted outfielder Cal Stevenson. The Braves designated Nick Solak for assignment and acquired Ben Heller.
Tigers right-hander Freddy Pacheco underwent a UCL procedure on June 5th.
The Royals came right out and said what they want for Aroldis Chapman at the trade deadline.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Cubs. Remember when I wanted Mervis, Taillon and Mancini?
I do.
Can’t recall if I actually put them in my IIWPTP, but I know they were on my list of options.
Great link on the spanish speaking minor leaguers.
There’s a link on that piece about players using the “lost” season of 2020 to really change and elevate their games. I reccomend it as well.
Sorry if you already read my post talking about the same link. However, if you didn’t read my post written 5 hours ago, I would love you to read it, Jeff. It might just bring a little smile on your face.
Fast forward 25 years…my Kaiser statement comes with a phonebook think list of different languages (I swear some aren’t real) for assistance with an interpreter. Come a long ways, not to mention what Goggle can do to help translate
There was a really good baseball movie in 2008 called Sugar about a young Dominican learning how to live as a fish-out-of-water minor leaguer in America, in case you missed it.
WC1. Orioles 38-24
WC2. Astros 36-26
WC3. Yankees 36-27
Blue Jays 35-28
Angels 33-30
Red Sox 31-31
Rest of today’s games:
Astros vs Blue Jays
Yankees vs White Sox
Angels vs Cubs
Red Sox vs Guardians
👀👀👀👀
Looks like rainbow-farters have taken over the site and Team Eeyore has vanished. Rest assured: lose a game or two and the Doomers will be back!
Not official. We are moving up.
Meh Donkey + +. With the unconfirmed rumor, a slight chance of Happy Donkey – with another win tonight.
I want Party Donkey…. which I believe is that Zebra. The “Serious Win” Zebra
Winning is like sunshine, it drives the trolls under the bridges.
the rainbow-ers and the Doomers are the same people!
It is a sickness and we do not want it!
King Jo is back !!
I was selfishly hoping Trout and/or Ohtani would sit today and ensure they play on Sunday when I’m at the Big A. Oh well
Ward LF
Ohtani DH
Trout CF
Drury 1B
Urshela 3B
Adell RF
Rengifo 2B
Wallach C
Neto SS
The depth Perry built is damn impressive.
No Moniak?
No righty means no Moniak. Same withThaiss
Which is ironic because Smyly has reverse splits lol
All this math stuff is the kind of thing Perry could mention. He’s been told to stay in his lane about in game decisions, though. I’m not sure what Arte told him about line up cards or whether Nevin deems that an “in game” decision..
At your service:
Drew Smyly:
Against RHB:0.199/0.255/0.339
Against LHB:0.322/0.365/0.542
My problem with splits as shown here is sample size. Maybe only great left-handed batters get put in the lineup against him? I have the same problem when the announcers, especially Gubi, say that a particular pitcher is great the third time through the order. Well, he is likely only in a game the third time through the order because he is pitching a gem! In an average outing, he has likely been relieved.
You are absolutely correct. As a math major with probability and statistics emphasis, I have long learned that one can manipulate numbers however his or her desire to express his or her point.
The slash lines above are based on 12 games, so it’s not too small but it is not season long. Obviously Nevin (or Minasian) chose to ignore the reverse split for this game.
Poor cause-effect analysis like this drives me nuts. Football in particular is filled with this crap. “When Player gets more than 20 carries a game, the team is 12-2”
Stats are stats. Do with them what you would like.
I prefer to use my eyes and see if the numbers support what I see, but I support analytics as a whole in sports.
Same here. You mean to tell me you can run the ball more when you are winning the game or the score is close? I’m shocked.
yup. My biggest problem with this whole thing is that grown ass men can’t just accept the way things are. Yes, CtPG Guy. You love Moniak. Yes, you love bitching about men who know ten times more than you about baseball even more. Found a stat that helps you? Neat. Does it change the fact that Moniak can’t hit lefties or make Smilee right handed? Nope.
Looks like stupid Phillip and stoopid Perry are out to fk you CtPG Guy. Orrrrrr… all is as it should be.
Look at his career splits Chanster. That’s only 60 PAs vs Lefties for this year
I just report the facts, sir. As a conniving math major with probability and statistics emphasis. Almost thought about being an actuary at some point.
Yes. He has looked so bad against LHP that they don’t bother giving him more than 60 PA.
For a small sample size this year . Career wise including last year righties have a consistent 100 point + higher OPS
Reverse splits for a LHP don’t make him NOT a LHP…. which is what our beloved Mick can’t hit.
No argument from me.
Not sure how Mick is supposed to get better (or fail more) if never given the chance
I’ve got a close friend that played in MLB. He talks more about guys getting a real opportunity to play and fail than anyone I know. Thaiss got a real opportunity this year and is finally starting to produce. Not sure if it’s the chicken or the egg.
I understand the theory, but is there ever a time to go with the hot hand regardless of matchup?
Good question. What do Tampa and the Doyers do ?
Wait…. you want actual facts and research regarding the teams we would like to emulate? Screw that.
I’m just gonna bitch about Arte not being “the Rays”. And if he ever does what the Rays do I will die of dehydration from all the crying and shitting myself.
you seem angry, friend.
😂😂
I would characterize it as Equal Opportunity Wrath. One thing for certain is, except for one or two individuals since I joined this site, everyone is PASSIONATE about Angels success. At the end of the day, all we want is Angel’s victory however they do it.
I’m very aware lol.
That post had a little extra oomph in it
Is that rhetorical? I don’t follow other teams beyond the occasional twitter highlight or glance at the standings.
Not at all. I don’t follow lineup construction of other teams that closely unless it’s game day against the Angels but maybe it’s productive to learn from the competition to emulate their success
If you want to actually institute a platoon system, no not really. Maybe a couple of times a season. But generally nope.
If the actual definition of “platoon”is what you’re focused on here, yes, but I’m bringing my gut feeling and lack of knowledge to the table, pal !!!
How dare you.
This is my thinking. I’ve often likened managerial decisions to playing blackjack. You know the odds and should play them most of the time but sometimes you have to buck them.
When a guy is hot, ride him.
With a regression to the mean from Trout,
Sandoval and Detmers – look out AL
Yep.
You and I are twins on here haha
And let me apologize in advance for cursing you. Lulz
Our favorite Piñata figure, Muffin man continues to terrorize Cubs:
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1666917586582523904
Wait. Wheres Moniak & Thaiss?
We only have 7 batters?
Wallach batting 8th, Neto 9th.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/cubs-vs-angels/2023/06/08/717838/preview
You gotta click to see the whole line up. I am not computer code savvy enough to reveal the whole twitter area. Sorry.
You got 2 right, and I got 1 right. You won our brain stimulating predication game. If Angels win tonight, who cares. If they lose, we will analyze why they lost intelligently post game based on our predicted line up. So much fun.
I said that Rengifo wouldn’t play unless Rendon was given the day off so technically the judges have ruled that I got all of it right.
https://crashingthepearlygates.com/2023/06/07/rengifo-trout-and-moniak-steal-the-show-in-6-2-halo-win-over-the-cubbies/#comment-256418
2-0 or 3-1, it’s still a win for you and a loss for me. As I said, who cares who starts as long as Angels win.
I hope that Jo Adell really shows his batting prowess to raise trade value and enables Angels front office to acquire additional bullpen help, starter, or consistent big bat OF with competent glove.
How do you say “ace” in Panamanian?
El Numero Uno?
Haha
Brewers are going for a sweep of the Orioles right now
I appreciate their contribution to “get Troutani into the ‘offs”
Baltimore has a +21 run differential at 37-24, they are winning close games. Perhaps, there has been some luck in their record and their expected record based on the differential is 33-28. They are a good team but perhaps coming back down to earth.
I kinda gave Tampa Bay, Texas, Houston and Baltimore AL playoff spots. Angels, MFYankees, Toronto, and Red Sux will be competing for the last wild card in my humble opinion. Losing Cedric Mullins hurt Orioles now falling behind Rays 6.5 games behind, but firmly 3rd best in AL.
Ever since I posted in game scores of Houston and Texas before, they have won come from behind almost every time. I am superstitious when it comes to baseball. So, I stopped doing it.
I can’t find any statistics regarding win loss records between AL and NL in interleague matchups, but my eye test so far says AL over NL by 20+ games.
Brewers self destructed in the 8th inning, which was unfortunate.
I do believe the Orioles will eventually come back to the pack — they aren’t *that* good.
Yankees are getting bit by the injury bug and they struggle immensely without Judge.
I think the Astros will get WC1 and leave the Orioles, Yankees, Blue Jays, Angels, Red Sox, Mariners battling for the last 2 spots.
We’ll they’re better than us for about 1/3 of the cost
Watching Yankees game now (little surprised that they are, but the air quality does look better today), Severino is struggling. You probably heard
Nestor Cortes is on IL. Their starting rotation is in mess. Judge with turf toe. (Remember Justin Upton?)
Right now Blue Jays are the only team that scares me the most. Even though Manoah is optioned, the rest of their starting rotation is really good and their offense appears to have found their track with Bochette and Kiermeier leading their bats.
I don’t know when Cedric Mullins will be back. My best estimate is shortly after All-Star break. Once he is back, we are not catching them.
I expect Red Sox to be around 0.500 or below. Their pitching staff are in mess, worse than Yankees, and their defense has Angels like characteristics.
As you do, I will continue to cheer against AL East teams, Houston, Texas, and Seattle.
I will especially cheer for As when they play against those above mentioned teams.
Blame 🇨🇦
Is it possible Baseball God is looking after Angels? The first game Angels would play in northeast US is July 25 game @ Detroit. I don’t see how MFYankees would play their double header today. Nationals game has already been postponed.
https://twitter.com/NWSNewYorkNY/status/1666774948671795202
Free Terrance and Phillip!
Am I being immature, that I laugh a little every time I see the short ad for Angels on TV where the announcer exclaims “Mike Trout just ripped one!”
No. Because like boners, farts are hilarious
Queefs, on the other hand, are disgusting.
I’m in central Virginia (Charlottesville area) and today has been the worst day thus far. The sky is an orange haze, and there is a general smoke smell in the air. For the smoke to have an impact this far away, the fires in Canada must be enormous.
My wife and I had to live through the horrible 2020 Oregon wildfire and came too close for comfort from losing our house. I vividly remember the orange haze with multitude of small particles floating in the air with smoke smell lasting for days.
I’ve got photos on my phone from 2020 where one direction is beautiful clear blue sky and the other direction is orange.
That’s what happens in CA when the Santa Ana winds blow. The contrast can be striking.
Sister and Niece live in and around Manassas, VA …sent pictures today, really bad.
Last add on MLB vs NBA post-season (PS).
If MLB PS started right now, the top eight AL teams (Division winners guaranteed) going to the PS would include the Blue Jays and the Angels, if NBA PS rules were applied.
With the play in format that NBA now employs, it would also include Red Sux as 9th seed and Mariners as 10th. So Angels would play Red Sux in Anaheim, and so on.
We might be still playing baseball around Thanksgiving Day.
LOL, yeah 5 rounds of MLB play-offs, who’d be “Mr. November?”
I miss old Mike
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1666838235161714694?s=20
Last night was a good “Start.”
Technically this is old Mike
As long as we keep playing Central teams we have a chance!!
Which begs a question “Should MLB consider changing current playoff rules to NBA style now that we play everybody like NBA? Why should Central (both NL and AL) always get to send a team for playoff not matter how bad they are?
That begs the answer, NO!”
The NHL and the NBA where everyone (Just about) gets to the post-season is not the answer. It makes the regular season almost unimportant. Just my unasked for and unvalued opinion.
With current CBA running through 2026, it is probably a good bet that new playoff rule will be one of the topics MLB/Manfraud and MLBPA/Clark will be discussing. MLB wants more playoff games, and MLBPA will try to get more in exchange of allowing additional playoff games.
I actually see the good in two/three WCs, from each league, in the MLB post-season. I think the best overall league record should get a first round PS bye, like the NFL. That way there’s more motivation to play towards attaining the best record.
Of course that means 5/15 teams, 33.3%, make the MLB PS.
Does having an entire week off, which you would get from a bye, help or hurt in baseball? Lots of teams struggle after even the All-Star Break, and we talk about players losing their feel after sitting just one game.
I think most of that is a team not focusing on what you need to do during that week. The Showtime Lakers had a week off every play-offs for years and it never hurt them. They’d sweep Denver & Phoenix and then play meaningful play-off games.
It doesn’t seem to hurt NFL teams.
I agree the baseball play-off’s are watered down enough as is and winning your division should mean something regardless of your record.
In the NBA being 8th best in your division gets you to the PS. That’s horrendous (Ouch my Lakers!).
I can’t recall what seed Lakers ended up at the end of regular season, but I do remember that they had to come out of play-in games. Since my Blazers were way out of contention, I was cheering for Lakers to do well. (I guess I am not a true Blazers fan for supporting Lakers. 😆 ). I liked this season’s Lakers because they added Rui Hachimura in mid-season. Do you think Lakers will keep Rui?
I think they were the 7 seed. Couldn’t be 8 or they’d have played Denver earlier
You are right. Lakers beat Timberwolves to secure 7th seed in play in game. Just too many games to keep track, and it is taxing on my ever shrinking brain matter.
I concur.
AR15 and Rui are must keeps
I know Rui is in heaven to be able to play with LeBron and the UniBrow. I did not follow Austin Reaves in college basketball, but he started at Wichita State and transferred to Oklahoma. I went to Creighton, who used to play Wichita State in Missouri Valley and was always impressed how physical those Shockers used to play. Fred VanVleet is a great example.
In the NHL the 8th seed is in the Stanley Cup Final, knocking out the 1,2,3 seeds to get there.
Sometimes records don’t matter. But that being said, rather not see them expand the playoffs. All it’ll do is put a band aid on fading interest like interleague play and having the all star game count for home field advantage did. Or am I making that all star part up? Damn I’m forgetting stuff and I used to love baseball. Ah well back to cooking shows. Now that’s excitement!
Just to stir things up, how about do a combination of relegation/promotion like Premier League soccer, drop the 2 worst teams from MLB, go 7 team x 4 divisions, and only the division winners will reach playoff like the old days? Also relegation rule will prevent teams from intentional tanking.
This year As and KC will be dropped, not the worst thing in the world.
Who gets bumped up? A relegation/promotion system requires functioning, vibrant lower leagues. MLB, in contrast, is cutting back on AAA.
You might have just answered your own question by saying that it requires functioning, vibrant lower leagues. By dropping As and KC to 3A level will force poor functioning and lifeless teams to either revitalize or extinguish. As and KC will be eligible to compete for promotion with the 2 worst teams of 2023, for example. I am certain there are sufficient number of entrepreneurs on 3A level who would be innovative enough to challenge owners like Arte Moreno.
Honestly I’d love going back to the old ways in baseball and the premiere league idea would be awesome but not a one of these owners would agree to any kind of setup like this.
You are right. Owners like Arte would never agree to that, and MLBPA will side with the owner side on this one. (Imagine owners and players agree on anything!) Players will never go for contraction of the league, either. The most ideal and logical system of league competition bites the dust in the facade of capitalistic, corporate world.
In real life no one want to get the best choice (Employment, dating, purchases, etc.) but then have secondary and tertiary choices thrown in that to have a chance to be your “Best” choice. i.e. want to buy a Corvette, but Camry and Smart car added to mandatory potentials….LOL
That’s a great point.
No. They already lowered the bar to afford Trout/Ohtani playoff exposure, and will be soon a non winning team (under .500) gets in.
For any non English speaker from another culture, it is down right scary to navigate through simple tasks that natives take for granted. I read the article with interest about Dominican Republic minor league player who just arrived in Helena, Montana and did not understand a simple instruction that he was to find an apartment and ended up incurring $2000 motel bill.
For me, it was baseball which facilitated my life in America. I still maintain that I learned English not from ESL classes but more from interactions with teammates who became good friends. How else do you learn phrases like “What’s up”, and being laughed at when I looked up in the sky. How about those slangs you are not supposed to utter in public.
I am aware that Angels fans are in good mood because of current 3 game winning streak. In order to extend the happy feelings little longer, let me leave you with a bitter sweet mini story that illustrates my early language and cultural lack of understanding.
Some of you may be familiar with the tradition of giving flower lei in Hawaii for special occasions. High school dance party was such occasion where I bought white carnation lei which cost me $25 (my monthly allowance $50) for my date. Japanese custom and tradition is that one is supposed to say something along the line of “I apologize for giving you something cheap, not worthy of your greatness.” before you give your gift. And that is exactly what I said to my date. She did not say anything, but you can imagine that I did not get lei’d that night.
When I started playing pro ball I was several months from my 18th B-Day and I ended up with a (Barely) 16 year-old Dominican roommate. He did speak some English, much more than I spoke Spanish, but his culture shock was intense. He was good, but he quit because of the language & cultural pressures and lack of familial support (First time away from home/country).
I played a partial season in Mexico, but I admit that is much different than vice-versa with foreign players.
Same for me, I played in the early 80s and we had 10 or 12 guys from the DR. I was getting $650 a month and living on Taco Bell and they were only making $450ish with no U.S. life skills or English. They all pooled their funds to rent ONE apartment and one of the guys Mama came over from the DR to “take care of her boys”.
Even though my Spanish is minimal I got along with them really well and ended up eating most of my non travel meals at their place by the end of the season. Everyone would throw in $2 and Mama would make a huge pot of rice, beans and pork/chicken that would last for several days.
Love hearing stories like that, thank you. That reminded me of one really outgoing teammate in high school, who invited me to his house over holidays for stay over. I got to know their parents and loved that huli huli chicken dish his mother made. He was really smart, went to Havery-Mudd and became an electrical engineer.
I bet you taught those DR players some choice English words and phrases and you learned the same in Spanish in exchange. I am sure they appreciated your friendship and kindness.
They were good guys who liked to drink, go fishing and laugh a lot. They were crazy inventive and would come up with wild schemes to get to the best looking fishing spots while I tried communicate that climbing the Coast Guard fence might get them deported. 50lb grouper on a can with string is really a thing to witness.
50# grouper on any light tackle would be a sight…FUN!!!
Hmmm, giant servings of Sashimi with a side of Wasabi and 6 pack of Primo beer!
With his home run last night, Mike Trout passed Mark McGwire and took sole possession of third place on the AL West All Time HR Leaderboard.
Ken Griffey, Jr. (SEA) 417Juan Gonzalez (TEX) 372Mike Trout (LAA) 364Mark McGwire (OAK) 363Reggie Jackson (OAK/CAL) 362Alex Rodriguez (SEA/TEX) 345Rafael Palmeiro (TEX) 321Nelson Cruz (TEX/SEA) 320George Brett (KCR) 317Edgar Martinez(SEA) 309
9 losses back in the AL West
6 losses back of WC1
4 losses back of W2 and W3
Halos 6/8 Rooting Guide
Angels > Cubs
Brewers > Orioles
White Sox > Yankees
White Sox > Yankees
Blue Jays or Astros (win-win)
Guardians > Red Sox
My two wishes this morning.
1.Manfraud changes rules so that if Blue Jays vs Astros ends up in a tie after 9 innings, they both lose.
2.White Sox vs MFYankess games are again postponed today due to poor air quality.
#1 actually sounds like some new insanity he might try..
From day 1 I’ve thought allowing tie games in non-playoff games after 12 (or so) innings is a better idea than the ghost runner.
Works in Japan
That started when Japan was forced to save energy when Middle East squeezed all developed nations with their oil embargo in 1970s. The games had to start sooner, and they did not allow the game to enter new inning past 9:30 pm. so some games ended with only 7 or 8 innings. (Too bad they did not think of pitch clock rule.)
Today, they play up to 12 innings and can end up in a tie. No Manfred Ghost runner utilized there.
The FBM keystone of the game for the Angels later today is “The Kid Is Hot Tonight” by Loverboy.
The kid, is hot tonight
Whoa, so hot tonight
But where will he be tomorrow-oh?
The lyrics to the chorus of this song speak to the awesomeness that is Mickey Moniac both with the glove and with his ability to come up with the clutch extra-base hit.
But unfortunately, the lyrics here also speak to Phil Nevin’s inexplicable strategy of sitting the hot hand. Trout hits two HRs to come out of his slump? Ride the pine Trout and slump some more. Moniak is blistering hot against RHP and the Astros are starting two of them in the four-game set? Sorry Moniak, no soup for you.
https://youtu.be/AnaHnRqUdzA
I played in rock bands in the 80s and covered some of this stuff. I’m pleased that not too many of those pictures where I was dressed in a fashion similar to this have survived. Good, well written songs are timeless while this one definitely had an expiration date attached.
You kept the leather pants I hope.😀
No it’s worse than that as spandex was involved. I know some friend will eventually post a flyer or band picture on Facebook to shame me.
Angels make the playoffs? You share it here. I’ll remember.
I still like the first Loverboy album.
I’ll confess that I still have the original LP that I got when it came out.
That was a nice win last night. It felt solid. Even Loup had a good outing.
I suppose in some ways that could be bad because it means Loup is going to stay on the roster longer. However, I’m going to choose the optimistic route. Perry clearly has more confidence in Loup than Tepera, so maybe they saw something in Loup that makes them believe he could work through the issues. I’ll take last night as a sign that he has.
His few pitches got absolutely destroyed.
He got through an inning on 8 pitches, 0 hits, and 1 K. That’s a good outing. He even got a swing and miss in the first at bat. Yes, he allowed two “hard-hit” balls in play, but 6 of his 8 pitches were not absolutely destroyed. Take what you can get.
About 802 feet of rocket outs.
“Loup had a good outing”
I understand each of those words individually; but when you put them together in that order, it makes no sense.
LET EM KNOW
Except when we try to serve Miami South Beach Cuisine.