Shohei Ohtani did, in fact, win player of the week for being the player of the week. Probably to no one’s surprise, Gio Urshela will not return from his pelvic fracture in ten days. In fact, he’s probably out for the season. Perry Minasian considers the treatment of Shohei Ohtani to be pretty self explanatory between now and the trade deadline. You know what that means. This is a fairly wide ranging Mike Trout interview. (Video Link). Jo Adell just hit a homer 514 feet. No word on whether insurance is paying for a car windshield.
Some former MLB scouts are suing Rob Manfred. Pop up some popcorn. This could be promising.
The Red Sox selected catcher Caleb Hamilton. The Guardians straight up released Mike Zunino while the Rangers released Sandy Leon. The Guardians designated Daniel Norris for assignment.
I guess finger wagging is a thing again.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Yay! It’s 8:48pm and we aren’t losing nor bickering on CtPG!
Just to give you a little smile on your face provided by former Kabuto handler.
https://twitter.com/SaltLakeBees/status/1672058284491313152
Even he was almost out…..
If NY reviewed that play he probably would have been
Good plan to lose the helmet, no chance of a phantom tag there this time.
I’m just stunned he actually hit the ball!
All quiet on the western front!
FYI David Fletcher was pulled out of the SLC game tonight in the 7th hopefully this was the last AAA he’ll ever have to play since he’s on his way Denver
“This is the last worthless evening”
I will sleep well tonight with pleasant thought of seeing Fletch in Angels uniform in Denver tomorrow.
Or he might just be injured 👳🏼♀️
..or he might have had Taco Bell before the game.
MLBTR wrote an article regarding Thaiss, pretty much everything frequent visitors of CtPG have known for a while.
The Silver Lining Of The Angels’ Catching Injuries
Coming into 2023, he was out of options on account of languishing in the minors for most of the previous three years, but he was on the catching depth chart again. Although the Angels had initially moved him to first base and had also tried him at third, they moved him back behind the plate in 2021. He got into 54 games as a catcher for Triple-A Salt Lake that year. In 2022, he was behind the plate for 45 more Triple-A games and 14 in the big leagues.
It seemed like a fork in the road was coming at the start of 2023. He was out of options and was blocked by one player with a longer major league track record as well as a younger and shinier prospect. Although Thaiss was a former first-round pick and had plenty of minor league success, it seemed like he was destined to be cut from the roster.
He may not be a superstar but he’s inflated his own stock significantly in a few months. The roster squeeze won’t be coming back anytime soon, since O’Hoppe probably won’t be back until rosters expand in September — if he returns at all this season. Stassi’s timeline is completely unknown. He still has one guaranteed year left on his extension at $7MM, plus a $500K buyout on a 2025 club option, but after a dismal campaign in 2022 and this year potentially being entirely lost, he’s won’t be guaranteed any roster spots going forward.
Thaiss came into this year with one year and 38 days of service time, meaning he will finish this season at 2.038. That will leave him shy of Super Two status, allowing the Angels to potentially retain him cheaply for next year and three more arbitration campaigns beyond that. His defense still seems like a work in progress, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect continued improvements there given his relatively short amount of time getting reacquainted with the position.
Let him give 1B a try….it’s one of the easier positions to pick up
He’s too short
He has temper issues, they have distemper shots for that.
in Ky Bush’s 2023 AA debut so far its going OK 2 IP 0 Hits 4 Ks but 3 BBs. He a little rusty probably only throwing about 50% strikes but I guess that s to be expected.
We may have found our Loup replacement to fill out the bullpen, Halo faithful.
I’d bet my mortgage that the Angels aren’t winning 15 in July because there are only 23 games in that month. This magical “15 wins a month” thing is an average not a minimum. The Angels needed to finish something like 47-37 this month… they’ll have to squeeze something out not nothing. Honestly this season is mostly going to come down to the 5ish games we’ve really blown, starting with opening day. We’re destined for something like 85-77 about 5-6 games out if the Wild Card. I was starting to believe but , the writing is in the wall. The problem is that trading Shohei is waving the white flag as an organization and that sends an awful message to every man in that Locker room and every true super star free agent. It’s basically saying we suck and gave up.
No Bobby Miller or James Outman is going to change the direction of the franchise. The secret sauce that Perry still hasn’t found on in 4 years is the analytics or scouting thing that they plug n play with all their guys. Shohei summed it up last night saying batters only swung at specific pitches. Thames told his guys just swing at the first pitch. Pitching wise we’re relying on guys’ stuff but it took awhile to find game plans. Detmers had to figure out his own wrist slot, not a scientist sitting behind a desk.
You are absolutely correct. In order to win 15 out of 23 (65% winning rate) in July, Angels have to win every series vs (vs Padres, MFYankees, Asstros, Bucs, Tigers, Toronto, and split with Doyers and Arizona). Formidable proposition at best. Fangraph puts Angels chance of reaching WC at 24.3% today.
However, the reverse is also true. Angels longest losing streak this season is 3 games (happened 3 times). Unless we have another 14 game losing streak in next 15 games before ASG, Angels will technically retain a reasonable chance for WC spot, come trade deadline. In short, I do not see Angels trading Shohei before August 1, and we just have to hope that Angels somehow manage to grab a WC spot so that we can enjoy Shohei and Mike Trout in October for the first time and likely the last time together.
P.S. Ho-hum news of the day. MLB.com confirms that Shohei is All Star.
The upcoming three games in Colorado are big. Angels need a sweep or at worst 2-1 series win. They also need more consistent starting pitching the rest of the year. I don’t really see it — but it’s possible I think.
as Kiyotchan reported, Shohei said this:
“Strong teams tend to have sound game plan that all players adhere to, like Astros and Yankees. I feel that good teams have that characteristic.”
implying that the Angels don’t have a sound game plan
Yankees? I don’t see that. Maybe it is the no facial hair that all players must adhere to.
Japanese media tend to ask Shohei what his impression of the team he has just played against. He answers in the same phrase to express respect to other teams. There could also be some nuance lost in translation. I do not know what he really thinks of MFYankees or cheating Asstros. He has learned to utilize F word to express his frustrations after unfruitful at bats on TV; and it has certainly exceeded CtPG maximum rule of once a month.
Still can’t believe that’s a rule lol what a dipshit franchise.
My feeling is you have to strike while the iron is hot on Ohtani. Unless he agrees to sign a contract then you are setting the franchise back years if he leaves for nothing.
I think you reach out right now to his agent and make your best offer. If it is declined- you have to trade him. You are right it would be devastating to the Franchise to get nothing for him and have him walk.
I agree with you 100%.
You guys are totally wrong on this… First, you are assuming we’d be getting back franchise changing talent.
A lot of people here have already pointed out that it likely wouldn’t happen that way as teams would not give that young, cost controlled talent up for half a season of Ohtani…
Furthermore; HE IS NOT GETTING TRADED !!
Get it through your thick skulls and stop talking about it !!
If you scream your position in all-caps that must mean you are really correct!
I am just sick you you going on and on about how they have to trade Ohtani or it will destroy the franchise for eternity…. That idea is just ridiculous.
Besides, he’s not getting traded. Get over it.
So anyone who doesn’t agree with you is wrong? Why should we even have a forum here.? You can just honor us with your thoughts and knowledge and we can just read your brilliance without comment.
If you are so convinced I am wrong how about a little wager ?
We’ll find out who was right and who was wrong … And one of us will be paying for their hubris.
I’ve got no hubris. Just my thoughts and opinions. None of this is that important to get upset. Why does this upset you so much? Why can’t reasonable people disagree without anger or hubris?
At the end of the day neither of us knows anything about any of this. So it’s just baseball bullshit. Not worth getting your panties in a bunch.
Oh damn. There is bickering going on. Ok. See yall mañana
I agree that long term the best move definitely is to trade Ohtani. This team has young talent finally and bolstering it with more MLB ready prospects would do wonders long term.
But I also agree that we will not get a huge haul for him. Keeping him will not set us back years, but it is still the right decision.
Uh. not nothing. We get a compensation draft pick which is equivalent to an early 3rd round draft pick.
That’s basically nothing compared to the haul of prospects likely available at the deadline.
Agreed. My biggest fear is that we’re about where we are now at the deadline, we keep Ohtani and grab a tier 2 rental, then either barely miss the playoffs or get bounced in the wildcard. No Ohtani, no real playoff fun, and a window that may have been open just a crack that is now slammed shut and reinforced with dark magic.
We’ve lost with Shohei thus far so is there really anything to fear?
So what you’re really saying about Shohei is :
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/bfd291b3-e100-4db3-a1ce-ce3851461f43
Arte’s going to fear losing his main draw and $$$$$$$$$
I hear what you are saying. I would love to see the financial analysis as to how much revenue is specifically tied to Shohei ….and how it compares to the $50 million per that it will likely take to sign him.
If the analysis is that Shohei generates $25m – $30m in revenue for the team by himself, then a $50 million per year offer probably makes good financial sense particularly since the team has a better chance at a Championship with Ohtani and additional potential revenues from being in the playoffs/winning a Champion would factor in. Also, the length of the contract is an issue because father-time waits for no one and Ohtani is already 30.
I would love to see the financial analysis. At what point is the cost of Ohtani not justified given his age? At what amount do the top prospects that would come back in return mean better long term health of the franchise?
Ultimately, I think I would approach Shohei with a 7-year $350 million offer. If he takes it, great. If he does not, I think you trade him as difficult of a pill as it would be to swallow.
No much data on this but at least one Japanese station pays $22MM annually to broadcast every Angels game in Japan. The broadcast includes a specific Shohei camera where Japanese viewers can check on every move that Shohei makes during the game. I have no idea how much of this goes to Angels directly.
https://twitter.com/NashvilleStars/status/1413226387561877505
Additional info on NHK, government subsidized TV station. One must pay approximately $10 for land only TV set or $20 for satellite reception per month to subscribe to the station. So, it’s not quite free to watch Angels game in Japan. It is reported that approximately 60% of Japanese TVs are tuned into Angels game.
Change “must” to “supposed to.” I know tons of Nihonjin that pretend they are not home to avoid paying the tv fee. I often wonder if the camera at every door in the safest country on earth is installed just to figure out when to ignore the tax collector!
There are 125 million people living in Japan who want to watch every Angels game. Arte should approach the Country and ask for $5 per Japanese citizen for 10 years of media access. Then take that money and sign Ohtani. Easy peasy. 😂
125 million x $5 = $625 MM. Shohei only gets $50 MM and Arte pockets the remainder. That is capitalism at its finest.
Well I meant then use the $625m to sign Shohei for 10 years
I get it. It’s like if one wins Powerball, he or she should choose lump sum rather than annual payment.
I went to Gritcho-Sensei’s school of reasonable baseball contract. I am a certified drinker of tea brewed with undernail goop of the master. He professes that a contract of longer than 4-5 years long is detrimental to the organization. Thus, I recommend 4 years of $200MM with third and fourth year at player option. (In truth, this is 2 year contract with player option at 3rd and 4th year.). The player option clause would nudge Angels/Minasian to continue to surround Ohtani with armamentarium of decent sidekicks to compete for WS every year.
I would go for that but I think chances of Shohei agreeing to only 4 years are minuscule.
From Angel’s intelligent fans point of view, I still maintain that Angels must not offer anything longer than 5 years.
Having said that, I don’t think he will decline 10+ year contract if he is offered by the team he desires, but I predict that he will retain player option at multiple of 2 years and no trade clause. The longest contract that was ever offered to NPB player is Masahiro Tanaka’s 7 year for $155 MM.
Verlander and Scherzer are getting $44m a season and they only pitch. My BAFO to Ohtani would be 5 years $310M.
It’s possible the risk/reward equation is enough for Arte to decide to saddle the team payroll to pay Ohtani for his decline. He had no problem doing the same for Grandpa, and in fact noted the “marketing” angle when signing him.
Shohei is 28, not 30.
Shohei already is making 30M this year. Signing him to a 50M contract only add 20M to the payroll. That is Tepera (7M), Loup (7M) and Stassi (7M), all of whom we have practically replaced or moved on from (we have Loup, but do we even want to?).
Where do we find a replacement for a) ace pitcher + b) all-star DH hitting 24 HR before the all star break, for less than 50M? (where do you get either of those on the FA or trade market?).
It is possible to resign him, and we need to do so. I do not think we get outbid necessarily – I don’t think it is all about the money, and I think the intangibles (playing with Trout, out of the limelight/massive media coverage, setting your own tone with pitching/hitting regimens, familiarity and stability) all play to our favor.
I respect this opinion. The “30 years old” comes from the fact he turns 29 on July 5. So he will turn 30 in the first year of the new contract.
I am not concerned about Ohtani at ages 30-34. I think he will likely continue to provide elite play justifying $50+ million per year.
My concern is his age 35-39 seasons at 50 mil+ per year.
If the Angels are to sign him I’d prefer 6 years at 60 million per over 10 years at $50m per.
Ultimately the risk of not signing him at the end of this season is why I would approach with my best offer now and if he doesn’t take it, entertain offers at the trade deadline.
Trout thinks Ohtani still has 5-6 years of great two-way play. I think he’s being generous. For me, it’s more 3-4 years of excellent two-way play. Then fatigue would start to kick in, and eventually the team will have to decide which “one-way play” Shohei would go. Maybe he can be a reliever or closer instead of a starter? I dunno how that would even work.
Or maybe they would start by making him concentrate on just pitching on days he pitches.
He’s not going to be a two-way player for the duration of his contract, that’s for sure.
If we’ve learned one thing over the last decade it’s that Arte doesn’t give a shit at all. He talks a good game – but that’s it.
He’s leaving for compensation pick. Angels are not trading him. Arte will not sign off on any trade.
We are on the same page, sir. I pretty much said the same thing about 15 seconds ago.
Total conjecture on my part and I probably watched too many Yakuza movies, but there is a Japanese phrase, 仁義を通す, which roughly translates as ‘silent respectful agreement on what is morally justified regardless of financial cost’. I picture Arte as one gangsta boss, and Shohei as another (Ippei as assistant head). Shohei essentially fell on Arte’s lap out of Baseball Heaven 5 1/2 years ago. Arte, of course, ignoring sensical Angels fans plea to trade Shohei, persists not to do so and understands and accepts Shohei’s refusal to extend contract even at the likely expense of the two way player walking away (only with compensatory draft pick) essentially scot free. Why would Arte do that? Contrary to popular belief, it is not to spite Angels faithfuls, but because Arte is emotionally stricken with Shohei’s selfless, tireless devotion thus far to Angels. This is a beautiful Hollywood movie script worthy of Oscar nomination for the best movie of the year.
P.S. Of course Arte is smiling with $$$$$ after packed capacity at Big A for the past 2 nights.
You do know that once we sign Ohtani to a long-term, multi-million dollar contract, all of his future years with the Angels will be as only a shell of his former greatness in the likes of Wells, Pujols, Hamilton, Rendon, and Wilson.
trAdition at it’s finest
Rough to lose Gio. Neto and Rendon need to get back ASAP. If we really are going to let Ohtani walk, they better get to the freaking playoffs or it’ll be the bust of the century. Get on it, Perry.
Seriously, Angels need to pounce first and get after it. I’d like a Corbin Burnes and smaller deal to get Jack Flaherty.
The team cannot depend on Rendon. He’s proven that over and over again.
Yeah, every single time he has come back from injury, I think, OK he is finally gonna get it together and prove the haters wrong. I think I am 0-3 this year.
I want to win games and don’t really care who it’s against. I’m not overly concerned about this series except that zero runs is ….uh, unfortunate. But if we beat up on Colorado (will we? I hope so!) then it’ll balance out.
In case many of you who went to bed early disgusted after the disappointing loss and missed last night post around midnight west coast time:
Shohei Q&A session with Japanese media:
Q;Looking at your last two outings, your pitching appears to have returned to the level of early part of the season.
A:Today’s outing was better than the last. It just felt so much better than last outing.
Q:As far as hitting is concerned, did you have difficulty with facing different pitcher every time at bat?
A:I went over the data of each pitcher. This was not the first time that the opponent team used bull pen day strategy, but I was not able to respond offensively well today.
Q:You threw many fastballs and cut balls compared to sweepers.
A:It was partly overall game plan and partly tendency of each batter I faced today. Overall, I felt good with fastballs, so the result was that I threw quite a few of them.
Q:What contributes to your feeling good with certain pitches?
A:At the time of coming to set, for example, when I have two strikes, I can draw a clear picture in my mind to strike out the batter I am facing. The confidence often comes from the way I am holding baseball, which leads to good command of breaking balls and fast balls with effective movements. Today, once I came to set, I strongly felt the pitch was going to locate where I desired.
Q:With these two good outings, do you feel that you have overcome the string of bad outings?
A:It would be best if I can maintain the upward trend, but I am aware that it is just as easy to lose the good feelings that I had today. My job is to continue to search for a key to prolong optimum pitching in bullpen session after a couple days of rest.
Q:At last outing, you mentioned that you reviewed your pitching between innings for fine tuning, but did you find a solution today?
A:I really felt good today. It started right out of pregame preparation in bullpen, and I was able to maintain the good feel throughout the game. It is rather difficult to express in words what that good feel is, but I know the most difficult part of baseball is to sustain the good feel.
Q:The pitch that Freeman hit for home run, was it where you desired to locate?
A:I wanted the pitch to go lower, actually outside the strike zone. The pitch went higher than I planned to locate. Freeman is an excellent batter, who would not miss a pitch in the zone. That was a mistake pitch on my part.
Q:You must have issues with limited time to prepare for both hitting and pitching in the same game.
A:Physically I feel I am doing ok with doing both, but mentally, I find it tough to separate them at times. Today, my batting was not up to par, and I find that there are more psychological obstacles to perform as two way player.
Q;There have been many injuries on Angels. Do you feel like you have to perform to make up for those missing players?
A:All active players on the team are doing their best. But, injured players like Urshela and Rendon must be really frustrated that they cannot contribute. For their sake, especially the core part of offense need to hit well. If the essential part of the line up do not perform, then we don’t score like today.
Q:You faced Dodgers for the first time as pitcher today.
A:Strong teams tend to have sound game plan that all players adhere to, like Astros and Yankees. I feel that good teams have that characteristic.
Q:Any specific example of the strong characteristic that you sensed from Dodgers?
A:It is not just one strategy, but depending on the count, Dodger’s batters were eliminating certain pitches and they were pretty uniform in selecting pitches to swing at. Today, I happen to feel that I was controlling the tempo not to allow their strategy to succeed. But, I constantly felt the threat of Dodgers batters where it could have gone the other way just as quickly.
Q:When you were in high school, Dodgers strongly recruited you. Do you have special thought about them?
A;Not just the Dodgers, but when I came to be interviewed, I am thankful to many teams who displayed passionate interest in recruiting me. But, now that I am an Angel, I do not hold any special feelings for any team when it comes to my playing against them.
Q:Many Dodgers fans would like you to become a Dodger next year.
A:I would like to continue to concentrate on my season (as Angel). I delegated all communications regarding my future to my agent. It is my wish that I am allowed to continue to concentrate on my season.
According to your graphic, we should be the third best team in MLB. Is it Nevin/Minasian’s fault or players just not performing? We can always default the blame to Arte, I suppose.
Fourth, behind Rays, Texas, Atlanta.
I need to go to an optometrist ASAP. Thank you.
Meh, you probably just scrolled the Rays off the screen. They’re such a huge outlier that it’s easy to miss them.
And an argument could be added for Jays, O’s, and Giants, depending on how much relative value you place on pitching and hitting.
More people are talking about amazing Reds with their 11 game winning streak, but SF Giants are quietly surging with their 10 game winning streak, having soundly swept both Doyers and Padres. Angels are fortunate that they are not playing Giants right this week.
Thanks for this and we are looking good.
MLB did not punish any Houston players after a league investigation confirmed the Astros had cheated by using a camera-based sign-stealing system during the regular season and playoffs of their World Series-winning 2017 season and during part of the 2018 regular season.
“I might have gone about the investigative process without that grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with, I’m not going to punish anybody, maybe not my best decision ever.”
Kenyan Middleton called Carlos Correa a cheater after he struck out the Twins star SS–the latest example that MLB community have not forgotten the saga.
https://time.com/collection/time100-companies-2023/6284871/major-league-baseball/
I am disgusted that Time did not ask Manfraud about his ghost runner rule.
And the winner for understatement of the year is….
Manfraud gets some epiphany on this issue 4 years after it’s exposed? How we we all supposed to feel about this? You probably should have done your job properly back in 2019 when the shit hit the fan the first time.
And BTW what about the MFY’s, The Chowds and our crosstown Doyers who by all accounts now were equally or more culpable with their technology cheating schemes during the late 2010’s? Pretty much every established contender was doing whatever they wanted to do to steal signs on a consistent basis with impunity.
. In fact if it wasn’t for Mike Fiers succumbing to his own guilt conscience (or retaliation for hurt feelings-Who really knows?) to finally blow the lid off of the trashcanstros, this thing would still be just a bunch of whispers and innuendos.
AND likely still doing it.
MLB did not punish any Houston players after a league investigation confirmed the Astros had cheated by using a camera-based sign-stealing system during the regular season and playoffs of their World Series-winning 2017 season and during part of the 2018 regular season.
“I might have gone about the investigative process without that grant of immunity and see where it takes us. Starting with, I’m not going to punish anybody, maybe not my best decision ever.”
White Sox pitcher Keynan Middleton called Twins shortstop Carlos Correa “a cheater” last month after striking out the former Astros star — the latest example that some in the MLB community have not forgotten the saga.
https://time.com/collection/time100-companies-2023/6284871/major-league-baseball/
I am surprised that they did not discuss Manfraud ghost runner rule.
7 winnable games coming up against very mediocre clubs. Angels need to go at least 5-2. Cause then it gets hard.
so 3-4 it is!
Which is also our record since losing Neto.
Cold bats against a bad bullpen. That was just ugly.
Jobu needs more rum.
Can the help Trout hit a fastball?
Fraternizing with the enemy? Not going to the equipment room and breaking 20 bats to vent your frustration after a demoralizing pair of losses? The times, they are a-changing.
Only the crazy fans like us care that much. You are referencing a time when players made very little money and winning or losing could be the difference in putting food on the table. These guys are all so rich it’s a Club.
Plus, with player mobility, you might be playing on the same team as that guy tomorrow.
True, but I believe there is an actual rule to prohibit fraternization; I’m to GA to look it up
You’re right!
4.06 No Fraternization
Players in uniform shall not address or mingle with spectators, nor sit in the stands before, during, or after a game. No manager, coach or player shall address any spectator before or during a game. Players of opposing teams shall not fraternize at any time while in uniform.
Good thing they took their jerseys off. Otherwise that’s probably a 20 game suspension.
What a joke rule – I wonder if it has ever been enforced at any time in history.
They’re legit friends apparently.
Trout signed it “K.Out”.
This goes on in every major sport now… I certainly won’t pick on Mike for this… It was probably Mookie’s idea anyways…
I feel like the guy with the stitches. Especially at the 1:18 mark.
https://youtu.be/9W-VGUOiVDc
This is so unbelievably bizarre.
https://youtu.be/UmzsWxPLIOo
The last 2 games suck because:
I get losing the first game. Kershaw is still a tough pitcher to face, but it wasn’t like he completely shut us down, the team had some decent chances to score against him. But losing the second game isn’t just something a good playoff-bound teams lose.
Oh well, turn the page, move on. We’ll see the team’s resiliency after these letdown losses in how they respond in CO. Like one anonymous player said, they wouldn’t have lost 14 in a row last year if Nevin was the manager. So far, Nevin and the team has indeed stopped potential ugly losing streaks from happening. Hopefully that trend continues.
8 in a row to the Latrine Dwellers. We may play the cheaters more but they dont infest our stadium with their moronic dumb-as-dirt fans.
Let’s face it , right now we are the Doyer’s bitches. Not sure Phillip who still is looking for his first victory against them understands or appreciates this rivalry. (you would think as a player here and in SD he would)
Looking ahead, I noticed Sandoval/Canning/Anderson as projected starters in Rockies series. Assuming that Nevin is thinking about using Shohei in the second series with the Doyers just before ASG, do you think that Nevin may go to 5 man rotation moving Barria back to bullpen/long middle inning relief? If that occurs, Shohei would be pitching on 6/26 vs White Sox, 7/1 vs Arizona, and 7/7 vs Doyers @ Chaves Latrine.
It was indeed disappointing and frustrating to see Angels could not do anything against supposedly 2nd worst bullpen. Sorta similar to what happened when we faced Marlins bullpen, Angels bats eerily turned into a pumpkin.
However, for the month of June, we are still 11-8. We got 3 in Denver, and 4 in Southside of Chicago with one at home against mighty Diamondbacks. Taking at least 2 from Rockies and 2 from White Sox is quite doable even with this M*A*S*H version of Angels. Thus, we are looking good to accomplish 3rd month in a row of at least 15 wins per month. 15 x 6 = 90 wins. With Rendon and Moore returning soon, we will not mind adding few more wins to the 15 minimum quota.
Respectfully, it doesn’t matter the record of who we play. We seem to play down to the lesser competition.
We have to fill the holes in the lineup. Until we do that, there’s no guarentees.
You are right. Even with so called lesser competition, Angels do play down to their level and end up making those games “more exciting” and causing more ulcers in our gastrointestinal tracts. I only recall 2 or 3 stress free games against <0.500 teams. Angels did manage to sweep Cubs and Cardinals, though.
However, psychologically, it is important to stay in the competition for WC spot. Thankfully, Texas are playing Houston soon, so we still have good chance to be back in WC position before ASG.
This is Nevin’s response to the bullpen game. from Sam Blum
Vintage Nevin, always trying to rationalize why Angels lost without putting blames on the players or himself. Gotta give credit to wily Dave Roberts, pulling the projected starter at the last minute and even warming up the ERA 8+ ‘starter’ in bullpen, giving Angels a false impression that they would be able to mount a comeback easily.
To some extent, I can understand Nevin’s point. Yes, there’s some difficulty in facing a lot of different pitchers in one game because part of the game of baseball is you study how the pitchers evolve during the game. That’s why there’s lots of stats about 1st time, 2nd time, 3rd time through the order, etc. We’ve already seen that affect our young pitchers in Silseth and Detmers.
But for crying out loud, the Dodgers changing the pitchers so often last night is not the reason nor the excuse for the hitters to keep swinging at first pitches!!! It’s a new pitcher? Then let him pitch a couple to see what he offers.
Plus, it was a low scoring game. It wasn’t as if the Dodgers were dropping bombs here and there. I don’t think it’s unfair to expect a lousy HR, or two, from one of our “power” hitters against the 6+ ERA pitcher parade that the Dodgers had last night. There were three of those pitchers in succession last night, and they did squat against any and all of them.
If it’s so great when are you going to do it Phillip?
Yup. Turn & burn.
This must be manfraud’s doing.
Everything is better with bacon.
Macon Bacon, collegiate summer league baseball team, faces call to change name over ‘glorification of bacon’ | Fox News
So the local Doctors are against Sex? Thats an interesting position to take.
This is why vegans get stereotyped.
“Yeah, but bacon tastes good.”
Ban it or shut the hell up. Pass the bacon.
https://youtu.be/61g2-EVJ-mo
We have to play about .600+ ball to stay in this thing.
Our 15-24 versus teams over .500 isn’t going to cut it.
The team has too many holes in the lineup right now and it’s easy to pitch around the hot bats. Trout is Trout, whatever he provides will need to be good enough. Ohtani needs protection in the lines, and Rendon and Renfroe are not the answers.
Every game matters for this team, we’re just not good enough to “turn the page” after losses. Perry needs to step up and make a trade to strengthen performance at 1B and 3B. Neto will be back soon, so we can ride the squid until then.