Perry has emptied the farm to bring in established MLB players. The roster looks a lot different today than it did just a couple of weeks ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wore name tags for a while.
The one thing that hasn’t changed is the inability to beat good teams. This road trip was a perfect snapshot of the Angels season: sweep the bad team, lose 2 out of 3 to the good teams. Well, there aren’t any bad teams for a while.
Another thing that didn’t change is FanGraphs prediction of a playoff spot for the Angels. In fact, our odds are slightly worse today than they were 2 weeks ago.
To add more fuel to the need to win fire, the Angels gave up 4 of the top rated 50 prospects dealt at the deadline. If you want to ease that pain a bit, most are 40 future value picks with Quero coming in at 50. On a scale that goes to 80, it might not be much. But if any of them pan out, it will sting.
To say the marquee trade has gotten off to a bad start would be an understatement. Lucas Gioltio has given up 12 runs over 9 innings. I wasn’t a math major, but I’m confident that’s an ERA of 12.
However, the Randall Grichuk trade has already been notable for two reasons. One is the obvious return to the team. The other is the number he is wearing.
Early on, Grichuk is playing like a man worthy of the number.
As of today our playoff odds sit at 11%. We need to win and win now.
Shohei Ohtani is great at winning and kicked off a pivotal 7 game home stand. 4 vs. Seattle followed by 3 against San Francisco. We really need to win 5 out of 7 to set up a crucial Texas two step next week.
How great is Ohtani? For the second consecutive month he was the best in the game.
And the Angels could be getting quite a bit of reinforcements over the next month. We really need to play good ball until they get here.
One guy looking to get here in a hurry is 2023 first round pick Nolan Schanuel. Dude was dropped into AA and took off running.
And it wasn’t just the hits. I’d imagine a high profile first round pick would step to the plate when the bases are loaded and look to hit a monster home run. In just his second game in professional baseball, Schanuel stepped to the plate in just that scenario, stuck with the game plan, and worked a walk. Our big league boys could pay attention to that.
One of the biggest trade stories this week was a trade that didn’t happen. Eduardo Rodriguez reminded everybody that baseball players have families and some value family time even more than winning.
In the realm of fortunate/unfortunate, Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette injured his knee the night before the trade deadline. Thankfully it isn’t serious. But the timing allowed Toronto to trade for Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong the day of the deadline.
The Mets won the off season but not the regular season. This week they traded away their 2023 hopes and perhaps their chance at luring Ohtani.
There were a lot of trades this week. Here’s a good recap including way too early grades on how everybody made out.
Enjoy your weekend everybody. I plan on enjoying the game and a helmet sundae with my son on Sunday afternoon.
