It’s Miguel Sano who arrived at camp in the best shape of his life this year. The Angels released Francisco Mejia over the weekend. In the same link: Michael Stefanic has a left quad strain and Luis Rengifo has hamstring tightness. Mike Trout stacks up pretty well against some great names. Let’s hope he can regain some of his old form this season. Aaron Hicks came to play.
In other news, Kodai Senga has a posterior capsule strain on his right shoulder. The Tigers designated TJ Hopkins for assignment to make room for Gio Urshela. The Mets claimed Kolton Ingram off waivers from the Tigers.
Cody Bellinger is going to the Cubs. High five! For his part, Tim Anderson went to the Marlins.
Get a load of this bizarre inside the park homer by Kameron Misner of the Rays.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
$4 Million for Kiki?
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/dodgers-close-to-one-year-deal-with-enrique-hernandez.html
The Dumbass Doyers are ruining baseball. They should have been able to get that ass clown (or equivalent) for a 1/4 of that price.
I’m glad they got him. Now I don’t have to see him in an Angels uniform.
OTOH, this seems to ensure that Livan Soto is basically our IF depth. (Not sure if I want to count Paris yet). Given the presence of Rendon, inexperience of Neto, and less than steady glove of Rengifo, that’s not a very reassuring thought.
Nice to see an absolute cannon arm on Hicks. If you haven’t seen that Inside-the-park homer by the Rays, click on the link. It’s a killer.
I think the modest guarantees paid to Urshela and Anderson are signs the Angels truly are done. There might be a minor league signing or two, but that’s it.
The team baffles me. It’s like there’s not enough courage to either go for it or go for a rebuild. What they’re choosing, intentional mediocrity, feels like malpractice.
I’ve been saying that for years. Going for “competitive” is a race to those middle
not really…..
we had a better offer to Urshela, he chose more playing time
Anderson got the starting SS job, something we could not offer
Yeah, at first I thought it looked bad that we didn’t sign either one, but the argument that both wanted starting jobs makes a lot of sense.
Dodgers to sign Kike!
They woke up this morning and said “Hey guys, it has been at least a month since there was a headline saying ‘Dodgers steal player from Angels’, so we better do something.”
Their final move will be to wait for MLBTR to report “Angels negotiating contract with Snell” and then they will offer him an 8-year $250MM contract that pays him $100 in 2024 and snatch him from us.
Bellinger off the boards.
who’s he?
Some washed up comedian I think…
A member of the 2002 MLB World Series Champions (Well he got a ring at least)
Was getting it no matter the Angels or Giants won. He was a local hero here in the greater Cooperstown area.
Catching prospect Juan Flores turned 18 years old on Feb. 13, but he is already impressing in his first Major League camp.
A Venezuela native, Flores signed with the Angels in 2023 for $300,000. He saw his first action in pro ball last year, hitting .236/.352/.388 with six homers, seven doubles and 26 RBIs in 46 games. He’s also considered a strong defender with an elite throwing arm.
Special assistant Kurt Suzuki liked what he saw from Flores, and Washington went as far as to compare him to a Hall of Famer on Sunday. But the skipper also cautioned that Flores still needs a ton of experience before he’s a finished product.
“He’s a little Pudge Rodriguez,” Washington said. “He has a skill set that some veterans take three, four or five years to gather. He has it already. But he has to continue to work and get better. He’s already pretty good. He’s 18 years old and he’s got to play.”
that’s a young pup
Wow, he actually looks like Rodriguez quite a bit! :0
Nice to have a catching prospect that people are exciting about sticking at the position (unlike Thaiss, Ward).
I saw Ward catch @ Inland Empire and I was excited, just sayin’…..
We had a Top 100 catching prospect last year, until Minasian traded him away for a two week rental.
Quero is offensive first, and there are still questions whether he can stick at the position (or learn along the way?). More Napoli than Premium?
I am happier with O’Hoppe.
(That said, still not pleased at having traded Quero for what the return amounted to).
Of course. I was just pointing out we wasted a decent catching prospect for no useful reason. Whether Quero is nothing more than Mejia 2.0 remains to be seen.
But is he Premium?
There was a strong Adell lobby yesterday and suggestions for him to get 500 ABs this year. Since it appears the Angels are not really trying to win, I would support that for discovery purposes. In order to make this happen, he would have to replace one of the currently starting OFs or Drury. What would be your choice? I just don’t see that happening unless they moved one of them.
The easy OF to cut or replace is Aaron Hicks. The Angels are paying him league minimum.
Adell’s new swing looked nice on Saturday but he’s yet to face many breaking pitches. The jury should be out until he does.
To get 500 ABs, he would need to play almost everyday and that means we’re talking about specifically replacing one of Ward, Moniak, or Drury who are already in the line up. Hicks is on the bench.
Good point. If we’re going with that big of a youth movement then Ward is the obvious trade chip.
Ward has two years of club control remaining and has posted far better MLB numbers than Moniak.
Drury has basically no trade value. He’s a good player getting paid like a good player. And we have no infield depth.
All true even though Ward is probably my favorite player.
It’s the Angels. Between their “almost guaranteed” poor play and injuries, those players mentioned will be replaced by someone not mentioned.
trAdition
I really like Ward, too.
He signed a ball for my son last Spring. We briefly talked about life in the Central Valley (he’s a Fresno State guy) then he signed for several more kids.
If we’re rotating different players at DH + giving guys periodic off days, I think 500 AB’s for Adell is feasible.
I don’t think it’s as easy as it sounds. As Matthias stated earlier there are approximately 2200 ABs split between the 3 OFs and the DH and they’re not going to just rotate everyone. It isn’t likely that many of the ABs are going to come from Trout or Ward so Adell will have to get almost 250 a piece from Moniak and Drury. Last year Drury had 523 plate appearances and Moniak had 323. I don’t see Drury sitting that often and, there are several other OFs competing for ABs as well. There may be injuries that provide additional opportunities. Hunter Renfroe played in 126 games and had 504 plate appearances last year so Adell is going to have to do something similar. For that to happen, it will have to be the result of an intentional effort by the ball club, which is certainly possible. But it won’t happen unintentionally without a lot of injuries.
Agree, Adell has shown flashes of being good then fades in regular season. Was at last seasons final game and saw him strike out 3x in a row to weak Oakland pitchers. Hoping that new swing works out.
I’m not convinced Perry would ride out Adell getting in a slump. I suspect the first slump and he’s on the bench or worse.
Probably true. I’m supportive of using the year to evaluate personnel but it would require patience and making some difficult decisions.
I think it depends on the slump.
A slump in which Adell is making contact and playing solid defense is not the same as a slump because he still can’t hit breaking balls.
There are 2200 ABs in the OF and DH for grabs. The rotation alone gets anyone close to that, so there should be plenty of ABs for Adell as long as he outperforms Hicks in camp and continues that into the season.
I imagine Drury is going to get plenty of ABs in the IF given that we already have injuries there, and we don’t know if we can count on Rendon.
Since we’re not trying to compete this year, it makes total sense to see what we’ve got with Adell, which means seeing him get a real chance to show what he’s got. Removing Hicks seems like the easy choice, who cares that he’s on a cheap contract, he’s 34 and not part of the future.
Anybody seen anything about who the PxP announcers are for the regular season? Who is joining Gubi in the booth? Is Patrick O’Neal still part of the television broadcast team?
Wayne has been with him both broadcasts from the weekend. Erica is here too.
Patrick is still with the Kings.
Haven’t seen anything official but it seems like it is all the same as last year
Thank you!
According to the Angels website it’s the same as last year
Lineups are posted.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/angels-vs-giants/2024/02/26/748220/preview
Soler would have looked good in our line-up
Great to have actual baseball to link and watch. I went to the Dirtbags game yesterday and saw this beauty of a catch.
https://x.com/LBDirtbags/status/1761864753348255827?s=20
Urshela or Tim Anderson probably would have helped with the current depth issue
I have a feeling Kike is on the way
🤮
Maybe. The issue is the starting IF seems to be Rendon, Neto, Rengifo, and Schanuel. Drury has to play somewhere so we will be in the mix at 1B, 2B and maybe 3B (or Rengifo will move there).
OF was the 4-5 names listed above. They can use the DH spot to get all of these guys some ABs.
They could use Kike to fill in for injuries. Or they can be cheap and use Soto or someone like that.
Soto, Paris, Adrianza, Stefanic + Dozier, Sano and White. I am not seeing a need to add another potential comeback player to the list.
Is Kike more versatile than these players? Better at this point?
Yes. I think Dozier and Sano are in the mix as to their potential plans. They should spend money on pitching
“They should spend money on pitching”
That has indeed been a true statement for about a decade!
😀
On his way to the Dodgers. Arte’s checkbook is closed.
for $4 million a year it better be.
To the Latrine.
Good morning faithful and Hopeiums 😃
Why it matters. The Halos have started out a little slow with the bats this Spring and our record is a bit dismal right now, so does it really matter what kind of record your team has in Spring Training, as after all the Brass is interested in trying out new players for a week or two to assist them with evaluation for the future needs they are looking for both the player and the team.
Player X comes into camp as promptly racks up 7 hits in week one and in doing so inspires others to the batting cage sooner which produces impressive results also. The team maybe playing over their heads, but the results are providing a dilemma for the coaches with who is to be looked at as a leader on a lousy team because of a hot hand. P Y has potential to put up a good year on the club but in ST starts out slow, but the team keeps winning just the same.
in Preseason polls it is thought that this team will finish 4th out of 5 teams and as the season opens the team believes in itself and in April starts out 19-6 and after that in May with a 13-13 W/L record.
The team does not know it should be losing and is expected to be struggling but is looking to be just maybe a better-than-expected team of winners.
Most or more than half the roster does very well in ST which equates to a winning record and the team over performs, does that mean they will win and season long? It is not uncommon, for many teams preseason expedtations are published and every season some teams will maybe either get lucky or come together and play at the level that many thought possible with it all jellying in ST.
Does a bad ST record of winning mean the team will do well in the regular season, the answer of course is no. But starting a season on a high note is better than starting on a low note with a losing record in ST. Positive attitude is easier to attain with a winning record as a team because more players are doing well enough that the future looks brighter and then becomes a motivator.
On the whole I would as a coach rather see the team come out of ST with a winning record. 😃
Always a pleasure to read your posts. I’ve always wanted the Angels to hit a thousand and their pitcher to have an ERA of 0.00 I figure the better everybody does, the better the team will be in the regular season… and at the very least, the players who don’t make the team will be more valuable for trades.
While I’d prefer winning, I know Spring Training is the time to work on new things. David Fletcher once directly told me he spent every at bat for two weeks then scrapped it and used his actual in game approach.
I’ve had pitchers tell me they were working on a certain pitch and threw it a disproportionate amount of times in Spring. Some got clobbered because guys saw it so often.
So, while I do like wins, I also take Spring Training with a huge grain of salt.
Haven’t we been at the top of ST wins for the past 2 years – maybe 3? Where has that gotten us?
Spring Dynasty?
In Fletch’s case he shouldn’t have scrapped it.
I’m really impressed with the new strength and conditioning coaches for The Angels. Both Stefanie and Rengifo go down before the first spring training game has even ended! 🤨 Apparently, neither of those two showed up to camp “in the best shape of their life”.
trÅdition
trAdition, but the good news is Trouty is not on the IL yet. 😍
It’s not the coaches, it’s the genetics of the guys we draft. At the very least, we must be a magnet for the weak and fragile players. 😂
Hamstring and Quad injuries generally can be avoided with proper stretching and muscle conditioning.
It’s Griffin Time!!!