Jeff Passan says that MLB expansion is inevitable with Nashville being considered a most favorable location followed by Salt Lake City. Tony Clark is upset about the two second reduction on the time of the pitch clock. I guess the player representatives got outvoted. Here is the schedule of the events during All Star Week.
The Cardinals will sign shortstop Brandon Crawford. The Giants signed Nick Ahmed to a minor league deal. Another infielder is off the boards. The Cubs signed first baseman Garrett Cooper, also to a minor league deal.The Dodgers sent Manuel Margot and Rayne Doncon to the Twins in exchange for minor league infielder Noah Miller.
Former all star outfielder Carlos Gomez is hoping to qualify for the Olympics in the 500 meter velodrome cycling event.
The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp will be sporting some unusual jerseys for “Public Domain Night.”
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
So we got Soto back just in time for 3 hits today. 🙂 I’ve always liked him for no good reason.
I think his 3 hits traveled a combined total of 250 feet but I’ll take it
Again more news on Snell and Yanks? Supposedly turned down 6yr 28 million!! Yanks don’t like his short term opt out deal either. Is now time for Perry to move? Maybe 3yrs for 90mil with team option and player opt out after 2? Also starting to really think Snell doesn’t want Angels period.
My prediction
Snell to NYY
Chapman to SFG
Monty to BOS
Yes. I think that is probably a good prediction.
If the goal is the re-enter free agency when teams have more money, I wouldn’t want to risk playing for a bad Angels team either.
The Yankees though play in a hitters park in a hitters division. If he goes short term, I think it will be the Giants.
How does Charles Leblanc look exactly like Taylor Ward??!!!
Pretty crazy since I dont think Blake is French
But did you notice how Livan Soto looks alot like a mini Nolan Schanuel.
These are the saddest of possible words
Shohei Ohtani homers (1) on a fly ball to left center field. Jose Ramos scores.
Not as sad as being truebluejunior 🙄
Who?
I guess the latest human the Dodgers bought to try to ensure a title after spending six billion dollars hit a home run…. in February…. and it’s news.
Especially since it comes with him wearing a Doyers uniform.
That was the most significant spring training home run evahhh. Just think, we could have watched that STHR if only Arte had taken the contract Shohei offered him which was exactly like the one he offered the Dodgers.
I wonder what kind of car Shohei likes. I bet if I sell my house and buy said car Shohei would totally go on a road trip with me right? We can stop at Red Lobster for food in every city and I can tell him my thoughts on Samurai culture… it’s gonna be so cool.
Always a possibility
Mike Trout is going to be a papa again. Another son.
Someone to pitch to BAT??
Definitely!
I hope the kid’s nick name is Clutch and not Lil LOBster
Maybe his name will be Henry Isaac Trout ?
BAT and HIT. You nailed it!
Great news for the Trout family and bad news for the Angels
Right? 😬🤦🏼♀️
I guess he was not injured during the offseason…..
He didn’t strike out and got good wood on it.
So Natalie not Brandon?
Natalie doesn’t float.
Nice! Hope he doesn’t loose too much sleep in the Summer. Guy has a hard enough time staying healthy as-is.
Sleestak is on pace for 9.00 ERA through two innings.
MNT with a 1st inning sacfly RBI.
Plesac is wearing Adenhart’s #34…#45 is still special.
Did Plesac call Thor to make sure it was ok?
MySpace forever
Joyce’s struggles on the mound underscore Perry’s effort to upgrade the BP with waves of arms.
We all love dudes that can throw 100, but the question always remains:
Can he pitch?
I hate sounding like a grumpy old guy but all the science in baseball is burying the art of pitching.
Velo is one component of that art. So is spin. But a lot of it can’t be quantified. Getting a hitter guessing, being unpredictable, disguising your delivery, knowing when to take a little off a pitch to induce weak contact.
I remember when 95 mph was considered to be really good in terms of fastball velocity and now it’s dismissed as “Meh”….
Inflation
Tinged with “Get Off My Lawn” syndrome.
Hey, I let Mia stay there for 2 hours!
I agree, guys currently in the game keep saying that it’s a balancing act but it would be hard to digest so much information and not TRY to apply it. Getting out of your own head is half the battle and aggression can be stifled by too much thought. It used to be that guys who hated to lose the most (way different the liking to win BTW) found a way regardless of stuff and somehow figured out how to beat you on the fly. Looking back Weaver and Tanana were like that.
Can anyone say, “Greg Maddux”?
Full agreement. It’s all about impacting the hitters expectations for timing and location. Guby knows what he’s talking about.
Wait…. are we NOT being pissed off every time the Angels promote or use a pitcher other than Joyce now? Cause most of us were doing that last year and this is the same wild as fk guy. I can’t tell what I’m supposed to be outraged about. Someone help me. How is Perry stupid?
If expansion occurs, I’m guessing there’s a possibility of realignment of the leagues… Maybe the end of the NL-AL? It makes sense from a logistics standpoint, but I don’t know if enough of the old baseball fans are out there to stop it. Having no (at least as far as I can think of) difference in the rules between the leagues with the DH, maybe and East-West like the NBA with regions for divisions would happen?
AL-NL would remain IMO, but divisional realignments based on geography could make sense.
It makes little sense to me that both Tejas teams are in the AL West and if Portland landed a franchise, they would be a natural fit for the AL West.
Since you guys were talking about Portland, I had to butt in. It is good to know that I can still log in and comment. As Eric in Portland stated, there is almost no chance that baseball stadium would be built on Red Tail Golf Course. It would be a huge nightmare in the area where traffic has already been a problem. My wife who works near the golf course will become a hater of MLB if that happens. The only explanation that City of Portland would back this plan is the traffic would be so bad that more motorists would abandon their cars and commute with bicycles. City of Portland hates cars.
Is our meeting at Petco and buying each other a pint of brew still in play? Let me know when you are going to be there; it would be great if the game is against Dodgers, but does not have to be.
Ohtani was struck out looking in the first at bat as Dodger.
大谷三振、また会いましょう
😀
I hope you visit us regularly!
Good to hear from you, Lana. I will visit occasionally with my comments, but will be regular read-only participant. I have become a huge fan of young puppies, like Neto and O’Hoppe.
I have already bought tickets to watch Dodgers vs Mets on Memorial Day in NYC, where my second son lives and works. I am really looking forward to watching Shohei live in person with my son. We are already planning to have Korean BBQ in Flushing after the game; some people mentioned that Korean BBQ in Flushing is second only to that of Seoul, Korea.
Great!
My grandson, who is 9, was afraid to tell me he got a Blue Dodgers cap with Shohei’s name on the side.
He just hit a home run! To the opposite field. I am glad your grandson is a fan of Shohei.
Pretty good for 9 year old.
🤣 🤣
My grandson thinks he looks like Shohei (looked when he was a kid). I think so, too.
Shohei is a pretty good looking guy. Does your grandson have any asian blood? My sons are mixture of Korean (50%), Irish (25%) and Polish (25%). Both of them are good looking, if I may say so. I cannot take any credit for their look; all credit goes to my wife.
I learned quickly in our marriage not to make her angry, by the way. Not that I am saying Irish and Polish people are hot-tempered. 😉
My daughter-in-law is Vietnamese, so he is 50% Asian, and very good looking.
Would love to meet you and your family when I visit Anaheim in September, Lana. I am coming to a game when Shohei returns to Angels stadium. 😘
That would be great! I go to quite a few games. My best friend works at the stadium in guest relations.
Tell ladybug we miss her.
LA has better Korean BBQ than NYC.
Welcome back.
That’s what my older son said.
I ask you again. When are we getting together at Petco in San Diego? We have to buy each other a cold one or two.
Try to give me a couple of weeks heads up and I should be able to meet up with you. I’m in Laguna Niguel so it’s not that far for me.
Nice. I grew up there, and became the Angels fan I am now while there.
I’m the opposite.
I’m from and spent most of my life in various parts of LA and moved to OC 5 years ago.
If it goes regional, I think you have to get rid of AL-NL. I don’t see how you get SD, LAD, SF, LAA into the same division and hold onto AL-NL.
Seattle and Arizona fall into the AL/NL West and if either Portland or SLC get a franchise, they would slot in the West as well.
Oh, and I forgot the A’s.
Portland ain’t gonna happen!
You’re probably correct.
The NBA model would also be a godsend for the networks as it keeps the vast majority of games in prime time. For that reason alone I think they go that way.
NBA teams play 4 games each year vs. each team in their conference and 2 vs. the opposite coast. The 4 games are played in your time zone or at worst one hour off and half of the other 2 are at home, so in your time zone.
That makes a lot of sense. I think I’d even like it better as the games would be on during a time when I’d like to watch them. Follow the money.
BTW, I know I’ve made a decent post when Jeff replies.
It works in the other direction as well 😉
Because of MLB’s massive schedule of games and long series’ I don’t think the “get away” game time will be tossed aside anytime soon. I would have to believe the Players Association has advocated for this …. it cuts out most of those 3am and 4am arrival times after travel. But we’ll see.
Let’s face it, there is nothing better than a middle of the week 1PM start for playing hookie (and pulling the kid out to play hookie too) and catching a game.
Those are the games I prefer to attend
Hey, jeff.. do you know if opie from HH made her way over to this site? If she posts here under a new name, my apologies.
I talk with Opie all the time on FB. I believe she’s aware of the site. But I’ll let her know people have been asking.
Thanks. I actually recognized you on a random baseball post on fb. I tried to shoot you a friend request but your fb doesn’t allow it.
The report from Portland is that there’s a group that wants a team but there is little popular support.
Nobody can say where a park would be built. I’m pretty sure a bond measure would be voted down. In short, it’s not going to happen.
Didn’t they just get a site around an old golf course, Red Tail, near Beaverton?
they seem organized but that’s about it. I definitely don’t see them in the top 2
my oldest daughter Miss UCD spent three years there after graduating college ….she left yesterday with her friends and are headed to Brooklyn…it was the rain more than anything but doubts she’ll ever go back.
i saw games in the late 1960s there in the old park.
right, they’re talking about that golf course area but then there’s a big transportation problem. Not enough public transit going there and traffic would be a mess. This is after considering Lloyd Center (an obsolete mall) which would have been better, I think.
The old ballpark you refer to has now been converted to a soccer stadium. I remember it was like 280 to left field and 560 to right. I might be exaggerating.
I would love to see it but I just don’t see the PPGP (People’s Republic of Greater Portland) ever passing a bond measure. It also doesn’t appear that Phil Knight is going to parachute in with bags of money to save the day.
I don’t see baseball working in Portland. The city prides itself on being counter culture and baseball is as establishment as it comes.
No way a bond measure gets passed and Phil Knight can’t use slaves to build the stadium the way he does to make his shoes.
Wait, you’re saying it doesn’t cost $200 to make that $250 shoe?
It’s crazy but I’ve known Nike folks who worked overseas and they told me that there were often 1000-2000 person waiting list for those $1.20 an hour Nike jobs.
It is so good to read intelligent comments about baseball, my friends. I still think CtPG is the best online baseball community by far. Since you guys are talking about Portland, I need to give my 3 cents, used to be 2 cents, but you know, inflation.
As Jeff has pointed out, Portland does not like baseball because it symbolizes old establishment, It essentially kicked 3A affiliate of SF Giants out of the old civic stadium (I.played over 35 baseball game there once.) and turned into MLS stadium for the Timbers. I do like soccer, but not as much as baseball.
City of Hillsboro does have a stadium and is seeking millions of dollars from State of Oregon to finance the remodeling to fit MLB requirements. Unfortunately, that will not happen, and Hillsboro will lose the single A Hops.
It is too bad that there are many good high schools in Portland that produce good baseball players like Adley Rutschmann and there are many baseball fans in the suburbs.
Ohtani grounded into double play at his second at bat.
Fans in Portland would probably take a knee for the first pitch.
While wearing their little black uniforms and breaking windows.
Agreed. Utah and Nashville also just feel like baseball markets. And there’s a desire for the product there, they’re growing etc.
With all due respect, Nashville and SLC seem low rent for MLB franchises, which makes them perfect picks for the Manfraud let’s destroy baseball farewell tour.
Nashville has NFL and NHL franchises. It seems the far better option of the two.
San Antonio and Austin make far more sense than either of them.
Have you been to Austin recently? I can’t imagine the unwashed hipsters from LA that now dominate Austin supporting baseball. I don’t know much at San Antonio so that might work, but I think Nashville could work. That city is currently booming.
Tennessee is a hot spot for California ppl right now as well, especially nashville.
This is anecdotal, but the California people moving to Austin are generally quite different than the Cali people moving to Nashville.
I’ll leave it at that lest I get reprimanded for saying more. Haha
Pretty sure Nashville is a heavy favorite but Montreal would be my top #1. I really hope this happens.
Nashville is perfect to be honest. Exploding city that has an incredibly passionate fanbase for hockey. Players would want to live/play there. It would get tourism/road fans regularly.
Its a no brainer
I just read elsewhere Angels have a hand in Snell and Montgomery. They are waiting to see what the price is and maybe will grab one. They should sign one. They can include opt-outs which might make it effectively a one or two year deal if the pitcher does well.
Hope not Monty, that is if his Boreass price is high and more than 2 yrs. He was just ok with Cards then great after joining Rangers playoff run. Can’t count how many players we signed who had 1 great year or post season and came here to flop. One’s that come to mind Gary Mathews , Cozart, Cameron Maybin, and of course Anderson. Hopefully skip the Hyundai, pay more for the Toyota .
I thought Maybin was acquired via low stakes trade?
Yep we traded away this dude for 4 months of Maybin: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/alcanvi01.shtml
At the time, I thought Maybin would be a really good leadoff man for the Angels.
Cozart got hurt, so hard to pin that one on poor signing. David Freese though – I am not sure he lived up to his hype (he was ok but, much like CJ Wilson, one might have hoped for better).
Rendone !
Lower years, lower AVV, load them with opt-outs as you say. If these guys do cave on their demands, believe these guys would prefer to hook-on with a contender with an opt-out on year 1. It would require the Angels to give them more contract years to sign here.
Prefer Plesac shows good form today to possibly influence Arte to stand pat. Don’t need either one of them.
Do Snell for six years at $25 million per with multiple opt-outs. If he pitches well, he will think he’s underpaid and go for more money. Let him. They paid Thor $21 mill for one year.
If they give him six years he’ll have one decent one then maybe opt out instead of being a Hamilton/Pujols/Rendon (Can we call it an HPR to make typing easier?) on the team.
All the talk about expansion is interesting in light of about dozen teams that aren’t interested in long term spending because of the TV deal issues. I would think that MLB would have a strong vested interest in fixing that problem sooner as opposed to later.
If they are working with different media (say, streaming services other than their own) in course of fixing the TV mess, one should hope they do something about the blackout problem, but, what am I kidding…
A new reporting system? It wont take long and they’ll need a second sheet.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1762151952430121181
The infielders are dropping like flies. Isn’t Evan White the 1B we picked up from ATL and wasn’t part of his issue in Atlanta that he couldn’t stay healthy. I’ll take a flier for a million dollars and I will definitely be injured. 🙂
He isn’t top of the depth chart in any case (behind Schnauel, Drury, and Sano, I would think).
Joyce got lit up yesterday – I was expecting to see him on the injury list too…
He got lit up because he couldn’t find the strike zone after striking out the first batter he faced but was routinely throwing 3 digits.
It was a “mental flu” problem not an “Angel Flu elbow” problem. Well not yet anyways.
Of he was working on things? So hard to read anyone in the first few games of spring training.
Eppler isn’t our GM, remember?
Reams of paper are needed.
Thank goodness we’ve got so much depth on the 40 man to cover for this. I expect Eric in Portland to be activated to cover some of the holes.
So he can pitch.
We need to ask him, but I bet better than a couple of Minasian’s low end retread signings.
I’m afraid the rotator cuff thing has made my arm inadequate for the task. However I *am* available to pinch-run
If we need a 60 year old catcher who would bat maybe .010 vs MLB pitching, I’m available.
Aged Premium?
At least I’m honest about my [lack of] batting skills.
This is Eric’s breakout year!
Todays lineup.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/brewers-vs-angels/2024/02/27/748197/preview
So we can expect our old Junk to be another teams treasure, trÅdition
Also nice to see Rendon getting some rest after some game action this weekend. Sigh
C’mon, baseball is just a job – and everyone with a job gets a day off after working a day. Don’t harsh Rendon’s mellow.
No Rendon. Again.
Too bad Adell can’t play 3B, It would be much easier for him to get his ABs.
He’s probably just chilling somewhere and didn’t even come to the complex today to hit or take grounders. Maybe he just wanted to go to the zoo with the family.
😃 Rada in Rad!
Yesterday I opined about winning games in ST and the cause and effect on the start of the season, never implying that all should be about winning at the cost of seeing and evaluating those in camp. And yes, we have had 3 straight winning records in ST and the last 3 seasons we have had upside down W/L records with the last two being 73 wins but had much worse could it have been without winning ST as opposed to those winning ST games resulting in only 73 wins.
We won a ST game, batted almost everyone, pitching with Canning going two and looking good. It was a fun game to watch. 😀 😃 😆
Tony Clark is really a ball-less sack. Giving up 2 seconds so batting gloves maybe adjusted faster is really going to hurt, call Larry H. Parker at 1-800-WHAA. Tony quit crying, players now become millionaires very quickly in MLB nowadays and you do pretty well also with what you bank. Manfraud works for you guys pretty well, how many players are pulling down 25 million per season nowadays STFU and go count your money and try hard for what the players can do for the fans and the games improvement. Give me , give me give me.
Actually, GPB, I believe the concern was for the potential injuries to the pitchers, not the batters.
Money, money, money $$ There is not enough quality, Major League Baseball players already in the system now but the owners do not care about that but charging two new owners 20-25 Billion Dollars each to join the fraternity is just to difficult to turn down. Heck, how about fixing the A’s first with new ownership and then putting a team in San Antonio or Austin before thinking of SLC or Nashville. For that matter fix the ownership and stadium issue in Orange County before expansion. Jeez, oh boy, oh my, do I hate greed.
Definitely going to be Nashville as the players seem to want a team there too. With the Texas population expanding, you might see them get another team, but football still rules Texas, so who knows. I doubt Austin would get a team.
Couldn’t agree more! Dont have to look further than our own ÅÅÅ Halos this year. Even the United Football League players will get $5500/week. When our pipeline is training out of tents (AZ) or shacks (DR) and not receiving proper nutrition, strength/conditioning etc it’s no wonder we have the lack of results we do. But I disgress, and am looking forward to the kids playing. Plus going to the park, I don’t care about seeing every at bat. Time for meandering.
I read that our Arizona-based prospects subsist on moldy fry bread and get a half-off coupon for LA Fitness in lieu of a conditioning program.
LA Fitness employment would be better than Uber, Lyft, Best Buy & sleeping in a car.
You mean Michelin rated Blue Cheese Halo Fries?! Those things are considered a delicacy!