The MLBPA is jumping into the fray about all the complaints about the uniforms this year.
Mike Trout says asking for a trade is the easy way out.
Liam Hendriks got a two year deal with the Red Sox for $10 Million plus incentives. He will be sitting out 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. Luke Voit got a minor league deal with the Mets. Brandon Woodruff got a two year deal with the Brewers. He will also be sitting out 2024 due to his recent shoulder surgery. The Tigers acquired Blake Dickerson from the Padres in exchange for $500,000 in bonus pool money. The Kansas City Royals acquired John Schreiber from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league right-hander David Sandlin. Bryan Shaw got a minor league deal with the White Sox. Zach Davies got his minor league deal with the Nationals.
Justin Verlander had a “hiccup” in his shoulder that puts him a couple of weeks behind schedule in getting ready for the season. Rangers third baseman Josh Jung has a calf strain that will sideline him for two to three weeks. Randal Grichuk might miss a week or two of the season as he recovers from ankle surgery. He is with the Diamondbacks now.
I guess the Nationals are not getting sold now.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
And Sam the
HatPutz wonders why none of the players coaches or management like him….https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1760072354343055425
Blum is full of angst and plays into the Angels Twitter too much.
We get it bro, Arte and Rendone are the worst. I promise, we get it without the constant reminders.
A significantly important duty of being a reporter is building and maintaining relationships with those in the industry you cover. I’ve never understood why Blum insists on being antagonistic at every turn. But yet he wonders out loud on Twitter why he can’t get interviews lol.
By this point he knows how Arte and the team he is paid to cover operates. Why always attack, attack, attack?
He either lacks self awareness or chooses to be an embattled journalist. An odd dude.
He should have been an investigative reporter, not a beat writer.
maybe he thinks being a beat writer means he has to beat the team down every chance gets? Or he never heard the adage you catch more flies with honey than vinegar?
rule #1 for a journalist is don’t make yourself the story. he flunked badly.
I know you don’t want to hear it and you probably expect me to say it, but in fairness and to address both sides of the story, I think Blum is honest in his reporting. There is a story there and Blum is reporting it as he sees it. 2 MVPs on the same team and it can’t win 80 games. A 3rd baseman being paid nearly $40 million per season who doesn’t want to play baseball. A drug dealer within the Org that results in the death of a star pitcher. A minor league system rated the worst in MLB. It goes on and on. Blum would be dishonest to not try to expose the deep problems with this Org.
Yes it’s Spring Training and the folks around here want to be excited and optimistic..That’s a rights of passage and totally understandable. Blum’s reporting doesn’t follow that happy narrative. But Blum has a right to report on these issues – and these issues are real and ugly.
I personally respect his writing. It takes guts.
Wow I’ve never heard this angle before. Blum truly is a brave journalist . Guys like Bob Woodward couldn’t hold a candle to him.
7 days, No hips, no obliques?
who we really have as a manager
Funny that Yoda would not be more sought out….
the local paper’s Spring Training In-depth Guide
note that everything is cashless in every park
definitely worth reading if you’re coming this way but not too helpful if its just Tempe Diablo you’re going to.
Good article… what are your favorite ST ballpark, Tempe Diablo excluded? For kids?
others would have a better recommendation for kids and i haven’t been much to the west side- just Goodyear and Peoria once each > 10 years ago.
Scottsdale (SF) has a better feel overall and would be the recommendation for adults – the park is in downtown Snottsdale. Salt River (Rocks/Snakes) , and Cubs seem similar to me, but Hohokam (A’s) is much older and is cool too.
Probably Salt River is great for kids.
look for a big lawn area if they’re young. or take them to see their favorite players if they’re older.
a family from Knoxville showed up yesterday, it was their son’s 10th birthday and he wanted both Joyce and Trout’s signature on a poster he brought. He got them both and that kid was over the moon thrilled.
More Hopium this time on the new pitching philosophy.
https://twitter.com/BeyondTheHalo/status/1760083133377151172
This change is worth at least 5 WAR – which is accretive to Wash’s 15 WAR, the 10 WAR from the coaching changes throughout the minor leagues, the 5 WAR from winning the coin flip that Rendon has decided to play this year, and the 10 WAR from Perry’s extreme bullpen makeover.
There’s clearly no excuse for not being undefeated this season….
Word has it that Shufflebot was spotted at a dance studio in NYC, learning a whole new move.
That will add an extra 1.5 WAR to the team.
I will believe the NYC Dance Studio……and not that he was dead, and made into wind chime
The Angels were one of the 3 worst teams in the AL in issuing walks the last 3 years . Maybe if they can cut down the walks they might give up less runs and tire out the bullpen. What a novel concept.
Isn’t Snell the leader in walks or something like that?
He’d fit in fine then.
Man, we’re not as dumb as we look, we’ve been complaining about these things for years. I don’t know how many wins it will translate to but I like what Walsh is doing.
Definitely hope he takes the Ls out of ÅngeLs
We did this as high school softball players…c’mon Angels. 💀
Speaking of jerseys, can we take a moment to complain about how awful the selection of jerseys is at MLBshop.com?
The player other than Trout with a wide selection of options is Rendon, which is a joke
There is no O’Hoppe, no Neto, no Detmers, no Sandoval.
But if you’d like, they have Urshela, Giolito, Suarez, Syndergaard, and Cozart available. WTF is going on over there?
Tell me about it!!! I finally gave up on my pursuit of a vaunted Jack Mayfield jersey. Talk about missing the mark! Total marketing failure by a marketing genius.
😆
a guy from Boston showed up yesterday in a #37 Wash jersey. He was a big fan – the only reason he flew to Tempe was to see Wash.
My big wants (not Wantz) would be Hilly Hathaway and Taylor Featherston
Maybe the genius move is to make the selections so bad, you are forced to pay up for a custom jersey to get the player you want.
Let me know if you come across Taylor Featherston.
get in line, buddy!!
BITD, I wanted a Joe Smith jersey, but they said I was lying about the name.
Cozart???? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I might be late to the party, but I didn’t know that the Atlanta Braves are a publicly traded stock:
Atlanta Braves Holdings
Atlanta Braves Holdings, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Braves Holdings, LLC, indirectly owns the Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball club and the associated mixed-use development project, The Battery Atlanta.
The Series A and Series C Atlanta Braves Holdings common stock trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the stock symbols BATRA and BATRK, respectively. The Series B Atlanta Braves Holdings common stock is quoted on the OTC Markets under the symbol BATRB.
Originally Part of the Time Warner Corp?
We should review their financials it would provide insight on where the other teams are at.
I looked at them years ago but it was around COVID so all the numbers were jacked
I thought the Pack were the only publicly traded pro franchise.
Fun to see the ‘we are wasting MNT best years’ to ‘teams best suited to trade for MNT’
https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/3-mlb-teams-primed-to-trade-for-mike-trout-if-he-asks-out
Mets
Giants
Phillies
If he asks out, he’s going to provide even less value in return than if the Angels traded him on their own. That’s why all this hype about “does Mike want to be traded” is foolish.
Implies his best years are behind him
We’re wasting Mike Trout’s twilight years now!!!
The Diego Castillo Travelling Show is over!
Rendon working with Washington today.
https://x.com/LockedOnAngels/status/1759428080836493329?s=20
thats the video of the Sunday session of the Church of Ron and the Redemption of Anthony Rendon. Its a good companion piece to my photos
I just watched the Mike Trout and Rendon interviews. I can’t imagine two such polar opposites. MIke said he is loyal to the franchise and wants to win here. Rendon doesn’t even want to play MLB ball at all, let alone for the Angels. Never did. How they didn’t discover that before they paid out $250 million is beyond me.
Rendon was Arte’s big splash and with all the games he’s missed, Arte gets reimbursed via insurance while the rest of the players/fans are hamstrung. Arte loves double dipping.
So Arte runs The Angels similar to how the stage play was run in the classic film “The Producers “?
So right now is Springtime for Hitler?
Polar opposites?
They both are stating the best of American values.
There have been a lot of uniform grievances on this site for a long time. Many have decried Rendon being in an Angels uniform.
Tony Clark via Fletcher/OCR
“Clark also said that there didn’t seem to a concern among Angels players that the team is using minor-league facilities for spring training for a fourth consecutive year. “We haven’t heard complaints at this point,”
He obviously doesn’t follow Sammy. And actually because it’s not a bad facility, and its better than what they have at the main clubhouse. More convenient for the players too. Sammy needs to talk to City of Tempe about it – all he sees is no upgrade/no progress, so to him, it’s just automatic that it’s Arte’s fault.
Let’s just consider this for a minute:
The Angels are preparing for a major league season in a minor league facility. For a fourth consecutive season. Fourth.
buts its better than their major league facility here the last 30 years lol
definitely time for an upgrade of course, but there’s better places to spend the money and Tempe city government here is always a mess too – (the citizens rejected an NHL franchise for basically free and would have gotten their toxic waste dump cleaned up too for free, but the commies ran a better campaign, so now they just have a toxic waste dump and no NHL franchise)
maybe us and the Brewers should team up, and see if the City of Chandler wants to have a ST team again and will get a new facility?
but if your main home is a mess too and we need to build up coaching and analytics, would you throw money at the second home you only use a month a year?
fwiw, the Giants have a odd set-up in Scottsdale
So now you’re saying the Angels are a toxic waste dump?
the obvious move to take place in 2030 of course is for Arte and the City of Tempe build us a “new” complex at that aforementioned toxic waste dump
Better than on top of an old
IndianNative AmericanIndigenous people burial ground?I can’t imagine why our guys are always hurt and usually come out of the gates slowly.
Even when I walked the Tempe grounds prior to 2020 it was evident the players in other organizations were training and preparing under far better circumstances.
Training staff got better about 5 years ago though i should note there’s new ones this year and is looking like another upgrade.
This is what i just saw in the AZ republic preview:
With a commitment to host the team through at least 2035, a planned renovation will feature a new, three-level building on the third-base side of the stadium to house a new home team locker room, more suites, Angels offices and a team store. A second phase will bring a new concourse with a 360-degree experience and improvements, including new shade structures and modernized restrooms.
I believe it when i see it. And this doesn’t address training facilities, just more income for Arte.
My main point is when you have a primary residence (11 months) and a second home (1 month), and both are in need of upgrades, i’d put my money at the Big A, or spend on staffing/infrastructure or Belli than Tempe, especially if players aren’t complaining to the PA. Its definitely more convenient for them
i agree sadly we are probably in the bottom 5 again wrt ST facilities.
Kolton Ingram DFA’d!
Perry can put the band back together!
I’d prefer he signs with the White Sox. he has more friends there.
Michael Nelson Trout is going full Captain Smith by going down with the HMS Angels.
Relish it in the days of pro athletes signing a big contract with a sucka$$ team, then you go into the media to demand a trade.
#ROBINSONCANOE
#MANYNBAPLAYERS
It amazes me that people still watch the NBA.
If it wasn’t for the Angels, I would be fully extricated from corporate team sports. I despise all of these leagues because they despise us.
Certainly the NBA has degenerated into the NDA (No Defense Association).
200 points for one of the teams. Defense was not allowed.
I was talking about regular games-I still remember when the Lakers gave out coupons for free food if they held a team below 100 points. I guess that threshold would probably now be 125..?
NBA is bigger than ever but i agree, last twenty years, i’ve watched a whole lot more NHL than the NBA. In other words, I’ve been a bigger Kings fan and less of a Lakers fan.
College BB has been a better product to watch. And college football has just as much going for it as the NFL does.
College baseball usually has hella scoring.
not like 1998. Final game then was 21-14 and that ended the Gorrilla ball era.
Prior to the 1999 season, the NCAA adopted restrictions on aluminum bats, requiring the difference between the length and weight (“drop”) of the bat to be no more than three (e.g. a 34-inch bat could not weigh less than 31 ounces). This reduced home run output slightly, but it was not until more sweeping changes in 2011 before aluminum bats would perform more like their wood counterparts.
Didn’t they rebrand and are now known as AND1 Mixtape Tour With saucy names??
I gave up on basketball when they stopped calling traveling. So that’d be 1990-something
Same here.
After the officiating during the back-back Bulls/Jazz Finals, I was done with the NBA.
I was biased of course because I was a Jazz Fan at the time (and the Bad Boys era Detroit Pistons prior to that), but I was done after that.
NFL is pretty ridiculous, too, with the way QB’s and WR’s are handled so the current stats and subsequent accolades are inflated. But that’s a different topic.
i was at Kareem’s last game. you probably refer to it in a different manner. i just remember also both Laker guards were out.
I prefer Jimmy Doolittle, superior individual with a big heart, heading out with jerry-rigged equipment on a questionable mission.
American League – you’re in for a big surprise
As far as PR missions ago, that was a tuurible assignment.
At least Smith was convinced his ship was unsinkable.
Trout has no such notions lol.
Underrated response. Haha
It’s RMS Angels. HMS is reserved for Royal Navy ships. RMS Titanic means Royal Mail Ship. That’s today’s moment of Pedantic Geekiness.
We could use a little moar of it, btw… do you pitch?
The correction was necessary.
I think you meant, Captain Morgan. Living in Newport, he’s a son of a sailor.
RIP Jimmy Buffett
No Rosario for us!
I think that would’ve been an okay signing given the cheap price. We just don’t have any backup for Neto.
Soto?
domo arigato mr roboto?
I was thinking about someone better than Soto, who could actually function at league average or better.
Two weeks ago, Soto wasn’t good enough to be on our 40 man.
Is my memory bad, or was there a great gnashing of teeth over losing Soto?
MLBPA weighs in on new craptastic jerseys:
https://theathletic.com/5288092/2024/02/20/mlbpa-mlb-uniforms-issues/?amp=1
Side note… didn’t you used to have to pay to access The Athletic (I don’t pay and can read their articles) and OCR used to have free access now you have to pay to get it? One trade that’s worked out exponentially in my favor!!
Maybe it dawned on others a long time ago but the Rendon/Josh Hamilton comps are eerie. Take away the drug addiction and you have two guys who are insecure and fragile at their core.
Instead of facing the music or just shutting up, all the media interactions are self destructive because they are defensive and not being good at baseball while getting paid a ton of money cracks their ego. Both guys cannot help themselves and are incapable of just giving a Trout stock answer and avoiding a distraction.
Good insight. Hadn’t considered it.
Both were brought in after a failed pursuit of a much needed pitcher too.
I remember reading about how Washington’s open door policy went a long way toward keeping Hamilton on the straight and narrow. When Hamilton was not feeling right, he would go around and have a talk with his manager. Maybe if Washington can bond with Rendon, then it might help Tony to be less of a jackass.
He also had CJ Wilson to go into a closet with when it came time to celebrate a pennant or series win
Actually they also hired a responsibility partner for him in Texas. in fact our current Catching Coach and ex Angel Jerry Narron had that role. Maybe now he also works closely with Wash in this area?
So he kept the lines open?
You can put Grandpa Groundout in that group too although his was more about lying about his age and then lashing out anyone who questioned it but had no problem taking Arte’s money despite the fraud.
Rolling on “Grandpa Groundout,” especially since it took me a while to figure out who that was…..
When CJ (Photographer) Wilson pointed out how Arte balked on buying a $7500 treadmill for Pujols, I can’t help but think Arte should’ve paid for one of those Josh Hamilton babysitters and maybe Josh
Big Vic !
“RHP Victor Mederos will start the Cactus League opener against the Dodgers on Saturday. Ron Washington said it’s because Mederos is ahead of the other pitchers and will have thrown two live BPs ahead of his start.”
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1759981712300458197?t=kEP_vzsXv02Tp4KYdNWEFA&s=19
Mickey, Logan, Neto and Shanty will have a good year. Trout will Trout but play 70% of games this year. Pitching will be good. Bullpen will be the nails. Drury will slide off a bit. Ward will be ok. Rendon Adell and Rengifo will be the ones to have a great year. Wash will fix Rengifo on defense. Adell will continue to put it together and challenge Trout for team HR leader. Rendon will start off slow and steadily get better. Angels will be in it at the trade deadline.
Do they stay in it?
Do a few minor league pitchers finally show up? (Torres, Daniels)
One minor league position player show up?
Can Perry add the right trade deadline guys this year?
We will see, but I think we will be in the hunt in July.
I’d be ok with a. 500 season, but I would love to make the playoffs the year right after Sho left us.
I guess it’s early, that’s a lot of optimism. 😀 . I hope it all happens.
I commend your optimism. However, I prefer to deal with “logic.” It compels me to state that nothing happened in the offseason to improve this team. Ohtani leaving was a gut shot. This is a .500-at-best team once again.
Why can’t we have some fun with the upcoming season… for every blowpen game, we eat a blowpop? For every buttercup, a Reese’s peanut butter cup? For every 2002heaven post, a tootsie pop? I’m up for variations and/or suggestions.
If I play that game, knowing this team’s recent track record as well as 2002’s posts, I may be up for diabetes.
Yesss 🤣
Also low key hopiuming for moar people to go after one another like a spider monkey:
CtPG, I’m all jacked up on Mountain Dew!
The facial expressions from Will Farrell’s wife are what make this scene.
Funny movie. Setting the scene….
Therapist : Frank, this is a safe place. A place where we can feel free sharing our feelings. Think of my office as a nest in a tree of trust and understanding. We can say anything here.
Frank : Anything? Well, uh I guess I, deep down, am feeling a little confused. I mean, suddenly, you get married, and you’re supposed to be this entirely different guy. I don’t feel different. I mean, take yesterday for example. We were out at the Olive Garden for dinner, which was lovely. And, uh, I happen to look over at a certain point during the meal and see a waitress taking an order, and I found myself wondering what color her underpants might be. Her panties. Uh, odds are they are probably basic white, cotton, underpants. But I sort of think, well, maybe they’re silk panties, maybe it’s a thong. Maybe it’s something really cool that I don’t even know about. You know, and uh, and I started feeling… what? What, I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
😂
Adding Wash improved this team.
Trout and Rendon and O’Hoppe and Ward got healthy.
Hope for playoffs rests on all the young guys with MLB experience getting better on the field. Talent is there and they’re all top picks.
I would have a whole lot more hope if we could get a bigger bat in this line-up.
Once again?
It wasn’t happened since 2015.
It would be an achievement!
And we’ll still only win 75 games .
TrAdition
Obviously we’ll need to win 75 on our way to 80+
Shanty? Lol.
Oh boy.
Somone is in a fine headspace
I love seeing the bandwagoners and fairweather fans jump on board as the season progresses.