Cactus League play is now two weeks old and the routine of baseball feels normal again. As of now there are plenty of at bats to go around and rosters are fluid. But some rosters shakeups are looming.
Nearly two dozen players in Major League camps are out of options meaning they can not be sent back down to the minors without being exposed to the waiver wire. Six of those players are in Angels camp.
There are some pretty notable names across baseball that are out of options and facing a do or die spring. Undoubtedly some will be traded and some placed on waivers.
Big news out of San Francisco last weekend was the signing of Matt Chapman. The Giants already had a decent third baseman in JD Davis. Will they trade him? Where?
An above average bat capable of playing first and third would fit in perfectly in Anaheim. He’s even on a one year deal. The annual Anthony Rendon not playing baseball tradition has already started.
This injury doesn’t appear to be major. Rendon should get into enough Cactus League games to be in shape for his usual 42% on Angels games this season.
You know how the Angels call a college draftee up super early every season? Cole Fontenelle is getting looks in Tempe and just might be the 2024 player to pretty much skip the minors. Here’s a cool clip from the first time I remember seeing him.
One guy who is definitely in shape is Mike Trout. He looks slimmer and he stole a base against the Dodgers this week.
Getting a season of vintage Mike Trout would be awesome. He was an all around beast for so long and I think people are starting to forget just how incredible of a ball player he was, and hopefully can be again. He’s working on something in his swing, but it looked just fine against Oakland.
There are still plenty of free agents on the market. The Chapman signing means the Boras Four is down to two. Boras says that teams are starting to panic, but it could be the other way around.
Two intriguing arms not tied to Boras or draft compensation are Mike Clevinger and local boy Michael Lorenzen. I’m open to adding one or the other and pushing Silseth to depth. One holdup might be giving Lorenzen a second year. No work on Clevinger’s market.
Last week I linked a really cool piece by Matt Welch and the link was bonkers. It is too good of a piece to miss. So here it is again.
Enjoy your weekend and get out in the sun. We have our first game of Spring Ball tomorrow followed by the all important team pizza party. It really doesn’t get any better than that.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/padres-vs-angels/2024/03/10/748022/preview
Todays Lineup:
Rengifo
Nolan Ryan S
Trout
#6
Hicks
Ward
Drury
O’Hoppe
Neto
Looking moar and moar like an Opening Day lineup
Seems like it. Rengifo as a DH today with #6 in the lineup. RF is probably the platoon position this year.
This does not include Adell, Moniak, or Marisnick.
I’m preparing myself for Hicks as the regular with trades coming
It’s being well reported that Buster Olney thinks the Angels will sign Snell-you know the pitcher-not smell. He has won 2 CYA with pitching in 180 each time. After that he is injured and pitches in 128 as the most. He has little control as he walks a lot of batters.
Please Perry do not waste the money on this guy, save the $ for another day-he is the pitchers version of Rendone.
Hearing same, safe to assume this will be another bad contract.
If it’s true….
first game pitching line with us, 4.2 innings, 6 hits, 3 walks, 3 runs, 109 pitches.
Great opinion GB, but I say yes on Snell, if contract is short 3yr with team option after 2. We need a big splash, obviously fan morale is at an epic low after losing the best player in baseball to crosstown team. And the continuous criticism we hear MLB media to just give up, trade Trout to a contender for nothing and pay most of his salary. Just except becoming a Pirates or A’s and put all your faith in draft and minor league hopefuls. F them. Not against a future rebuild, but not right now after everything that’s happened. And yeah, piss haters off and get Bauer too.
Faith in the draft was worked out great for the Orioles. They look to be .sustainable as well. Reds too and the Pirates are coming along.
Snell bells are ringing loudly today – cmon Arte – do it!
Also being reported Snell is amenable to a shorter term deal. The guy won the Cy Young twice. If they can get him on a 2-3 year deal, it’s worth it.
Callis, Dykstra and Mayo ranked all 30 farm systems…..we’re #30!
https://www.mlb.com/news/farm-system-rankings-2024-preseason?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
Old news, but the rumor did start about 6 years ago. 😁
Yeah, to no surprise. Fangraphs gave the same pretty much. Bottom or second to the bottom. Not sure Schauny Singles even cracked the top 100. And on Fangraphs list of guys outside the top 100 to keep an eye on, I think the Angels were a goose egg, no players. Even if Neto was still down in the farm system, bottom 3rd. But Perry is doing a great job. Continuity, we need moar continuity.
saying “Schauny Singles” on a day when he hit a homerun seems ill-timed.
Even Tyler Featherston would run into one
Who?
Taylor’s brother
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1766506974961680515?s=20
Something to ‘look forward to’ tomorrow 🙄
I’ll be needing a dose of Hopeium 😎
It’s too bad, man…
😉
Best hopium I got this spring was a fan reminding me the NL All Star infield each game this decade is essentially Braves.
Angel Hernandez in mid season form. Ejects Lance Lynn (who then gets ejected from the bullpen trying to continue his workout) and Oli Marmol. He’s single handedly going to make robo umps come to fruition sooner than later:
https://fansided.com/posts/ump-show-angel-hernandez-in-midseason-form-ejecting-lance-lynn-oli-marmol-in-spring-training-01hrhwzje701
The one place where Manfraud needs to step in and say “enough of this bullshit”, and permanently demote him to MILB, or go through the process of permanently retiring him. It has now become completely absurd.
Completely agree!!
He even lost his racial discrimination lawsuit against MLB. I guess the umps union is doing a good job of pleading learned ignorance in his case.
Funny enough, I had a college professor call herself a triple threat (gender, ethnicity, age) and that she couldn’t be fired. We recently met up for lunch. When I mentioned that, we both chuckled and she said she’s missing the 2024 other part of the quadrant (she’s hetero). Maybe Angel has another card he’s playing we dont know about. 2024 y’all
Manfraud just needs to be tougher than the Umpires Union by not agreeing to any new contract if the Union does not agree to police their own. Just how does the Umpires Union justify having a thin-skinned, chip on the shoulder, bad judgement calling who is not learning or improving allowed to take the field. There needs to be some standards applied in the profession. % of bad calls in a season per game. Weight is another issue when it comes to mobility. A written test yearly on the rules. Mental evaluations, stress tests, yearly eye exams. These would be my starting points.
Hernandez not only checks the box for Balls and Strikes, but also for many other boxes as well, he has no business being on the field at any level of Baseball.
It’s spring training. The teams should have agreed to eject Angel Hernandez and play the game short an umpire.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/angels-vs-guardians/2024/03/09/748045/preview
Todays lineup:
Neto
Nolan
Trout
Ward
Rengifo
Thiass
Marisnick
Calhoun
Adrianza
Fun to see the top 1/2 of the lineup get some work in as that will be our Opening Day one, hope the bottom 1/2 can prove a little something to earn some more playing time.
I prefer Neto, at this juncture, in the 9-hole, but this job is obviously wide open.
Adrianza has come back to earth after
a torrid first few games. I wonder if his spot is such a lock after all….
Neto at 9 is pretty ideal, means the rest of the order is pulling their weight. Don’t mind seeing him lead off in ST. Might as well get a look.
I look at who plays Short when Neto doesn’t and right now it’s race between Soto and Adrianza. If Soto keeps hitting better then he he might give Adrianza a run for his money, but considering Ehire is a switch hitter and at 34 can ride the pine indefinitely I think he still gets the nod especially with his relationship with Wash. The Angels probably would still prefer to have Soto continue to develop at AAA.
But who’s going to play third?
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rumors-trades-and-signings?t=trades-and-transactions
Meh, yesterday it the M’s. Just Borass churning the media machine to try to increase bidders for his client. We know Arte won’t sign high priced pitchers.
As far as who plays 3B, platoon it until someone steps up and earns it. No one is deserving thus far.
You must be unaware of the Triumvirate that is Rendon, Rengifo & Sano.
A Triumvirate that needs to be overthrown. LOL
So Betts is going to be be the Dodgers daily SS at the MLB level not having played since his youth? He’s one of my favorite players and one of, if not, the best athlete in baseball. But he’s going to get exposed. I always wondered why he played second coming up and not short, because he has a rifle of an arm. All that being said, it will be awesome to watch his development which is cool to say for a guy that’s a future HOFer. I bet there’s a measurable difference by the end of the year, and we’ll see some web gems, but we’re going to see some errors on some routine plays too. The only position to get rushed like the SS is the catcher. This play is one of my all-time favorites. (Nothing beats the Edmonds catch). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ele_6M4rUHQ
Pretty crazy. He’s such a good athlete I want to think he’ll pull it off. But, we’ll see.
I think he’s so good he’ll get there. But I can’t see anyone being good enough of an athlete to pull off that switch without some serious hiccups. The average fan doesn’t get how good these SS’s are. They are moving Gavin Lux out, a primary SS, because he was struggling. They have to know there will be issues but know what Betts can be and think he’ll adapt fast enough. I’m going to enjoy watching him.
It will be interesting to see what he does with plus runners. This play is such a great example of something that looks routine to most fans. Ball hit mid 90’s off the bat. Right at Anderson. No shuffle. Throws with intent. And it’s bang-bang. He shuffles – he’s safe. Witt went down the line in under 3.7 from the right side. (Witt legitimate 5 tool – there aren’t many). The speed creates pressure, but Anderson stayed smooth. MLB SS’s have to make this play. Altuve beat out a hit against us a few years ago on the same play, and it sparked the Astros to come back and win a tight game. ($5 million a win folks) I don’t remember who our SS was on it, but I remember seeing how thinking we need a SS. I like that we have one now, even though he’s going to have a learning curve too.
https://www.mlb.com/rays/video/bobby-witt-jr-grounds-out-shortstop-tim-anderson-to-first-baseman-jose-ab
Well 4+ tool player Witts glove work still needs some Wash.
He statistically could have easily won the Gold Glove last year. But, I am in agreement. He is as athletic as anyone at the position, but he still plays a little stiff. He made huge improvements since he’s come in the league, though, and I know he works at it. If he played in New York, he would have won it last year.
Well if the stats they use to determine who wins a GG indicate he was a finalist then it’s time to get some different statistics.
The Fielding Bible has him in the bottom Quintile of the entire league he DRS so hes got a lot to work on there.
He had a .977 fielding percentage. He also gets to balls the majority of guys can’t get to. I also think DRS and dWAR stats are absolutely bonkers. Absolutely, not enough data on DRS in a season as there aren’t enough challenge balls and they aren’t distributed equally across the league. Remember how good Squid looked in that stat and how his skillset caught up to him the next season? And dWAR basically had Keith Hernandez as a replacement level defender with 11 GG’s. Both are crap stats in my opinion.
Are we now calling Trout a 3 tool player?
I’m surprised that an organization as sharp as the Dodgers would do this. They have enough offense to absorb Lux not hitting if that was the case, and if he’s struggling a little defensively, he’ll likely work it out. He’s a real SS. It’s a very impulsive and panicky move that is uncharacteristic of their organization. It risks potential injury to their best player and is essentially an unnecessary experiment for a team looking to win a championship. If they’re really that down on lux they should just trade for a real SS.
I’m not . The”sharp” organization let both Kyle Seager and Trea Turner walk in free agency when it was clear they had no one in the organization to replace them.
This arrogance has helped lead to a continual early exit in the playoffs . I cant wait to see how they botch 2024.
I don’t remember losing those players causing any real effect on Dodger dominance. They seem to know what they are doing better than anyone save perhaps Tampa
I think you mean dominance of the regular season. As its obvious Their shit dont work in the playoffs.
BTW who was the MVP of their only recent World Series (faux as it was) championship?
Hint: he was also the MVP of the 2023 World Series. But despite my stupidity he wasn’t named Kyle
At least we agree, i don’t think it’s a smart move.
Betts will do fine at SS, the runs they score and elite pitching will cover what misplays he has. A true RED SOX legend, should have retired with them. But with the FA thing in his last year they knew he was not signing an extension and testing the market. So he got traded to the F Dodgers and what happened……signed an extension with them when could have made way more $$ as FA. Just another example how an MVP player falls into LA.
Played SS in 11 games last year and often in the minors.
Who would have ever believed that Albert’s or Hamilton’s contracts while vying for first place as the worst contracts the Angels ever agreed to were not at the top of the list. Rendon is just far out the worst ever, maybe of all time in MLB history, BTW-all three were Arte’s picks, lol.
Over 30-less than 6. Any player signed to any part of a 5 yr contract will hurt the signing team somewhere down the road 90% of the time. Oh sure there are a few exceptions up until now but, have they finished those contracts out? (i.e. Harper)
Does anybody care what time it is? Time to release the Rendone time. Who cares if he has a 3War somewhere else as I don’t believe the fans really care any more.
I disagree G-Pa, Strasburg has the worst MLB contract ever.
I disagree with your disagree… I’d say Pooholes, Hambone, and Rendone are significantly worse than WS MVP Strasburg resigning with the team that drafted him. The majority of Strasburg’s contract will be paid out by insurance, so the owner is really only hamstrung by luxury tax. The same can’t be said for the aforementioned FA Halo pickups. At least Albertross tried (imo his playing of HS ball as a 21+ year old is worse than his contract here), Hambone’s warts were known, but Rendone is the worstestest of the bunch. Hitting a fan, hitting another player while out ‘injured’, coupled with his complete lack of awareness yet smug holier than thou attitude take the cake.
In terms of releasing Rendone, I agree, but there’s no purpose in letting his apathetic ass take up any rent in my head or emotions.
It is what is. Wait for him get hurt sometime in May and we can enjoy watching Miggy Sano launch 30+ 💣.
You think he makes it to May? Aren’t we the eternal optimist?
Speak it into existence, over and over and over and over again 🤣
Hope the guy is right. Sano missed all last year in MLB (his ‘22 numbers are even worse than his ‘24 ST numbers) then lost 60 lbs so it’s a fair question if he can even make it through 1/2 the season with his new bod.
Personally, I’m going to let a few weeks then months of the actual season play out before I get all rah rah on a guy. Hopefully there are multiple surprises but I don’t need to ‘call it’ beforehand to inflate my pride/ego… but to each their own.
Rumor that Monty is looking for a 7 year deal…
No wonder he hasn’t been signed.
I’m firmly in the sign Monty and not Snell camp, but for 7 years, I say forget it and roll with who we have. Maybe grab Clevinger or Lorenzen.
I’d rather drop big coin on Soto, Burnes or Fried next year.
Rumor has it that teams are panicking about pitching now (source: Boras)
Also 4 new mystery teams are now in on Montgomery and Snell (source: Boras)
Fucking rendone and his milking injuries. My least favorite angel ever.
Where’d you hear he’s milking his injuries? Same source that investigated and found out he doesn’t even like baseball?
He plays thru his injuries as well as Trouty after all. 😀
Sad. True.
Kolarek to the minors camp. Stay there!!
Votto to Jays.
So that rumor mill is put to rest.
Makes sense being a Canadian. Hope he does well.
Damn a minor league deal, he really wants to play.
Maybe now we should sign this dude to a minor league deal?
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/beltbr01.shtml
I’d be good with that. A true first baseman. I also like Eric Lauer but he got picked off by the Pirates this week on a minor league deal.
This assumes a 36 yo with bad knees, over 100 million in earning and 2x WS trophy is open to spending any time in the minors.
If Joey could do it, maybe Brandon?
Possibly but Brandons not chasing a WS trophy which is usually the reason players like Votto hang around.
Plus he was a big Astro fan growing up ( at least that’s what he told my daughter) so maybe he’s holding out for them ?
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10112010-the-2024-best-case-scenarios-for-every-mlb-team
Yes, it’s “just” BR – but it’s still brutal:
Also known as the A Rod Theory. Go look at the 2000 to 2001 Seattle Mariners and the 2003 to 2004 Texas Rangers .
But too bad I wasted 2 minutes of my life reading the BR’s trash. Boy I would think the next time they have anything relevant to say or accurately predict will be the first time.
People just need to move past Rendon. Put him and his issues out of our thought process. He does not represent the future. One inning played wearing an Angel uniform is too many. Time for a Russell Wilson jobber on his a$$.
Today’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/rockies-vs-angels/2024/03/08/748058/preview
2 off days in a row for the youngsters Neto & Schanuel?
Man when I was their age I could play everyday twice a day.
Some guys getting last looks?
Did you also walk to school, up hill in both directions during a snow storm !!!
The Angels are going to the ST World Series!! Woot-woot!!
Eat it 2020 Doyers!!
Wash better not use up his promised 15 WAR during spring training……
😂
I sure do remember pre-husband, pre-dad, vintage Trout. My 12-year old daughter bought me the goofy cap with a Trout coming out of it because she knew my over the top fanfare for the Millville Meteor. It’s time to get after it again, Mike.
Mike’s second half of his career should just be entirely be about training his body for endurance over explosiveness. Swap out the power lifting stuff for yoga and pilates and just keep the base healthy. Get on base, hit doubles and play more games.
I don’t know, is he power lifting? He has a rare back condition so I’m guessing he is training to keep fit over power lifts. Highly doubt he is trying to add muscle mass but training his body to keep an explosive first step is something he should be doing.
barry bonds should be the template.
You’re saying Trout should use ‘roids?
No. Just the clear.
😀
I think having to run around and chase his kid has put him back in running shape!
I fully expect Rendone to play 8 games and then have to undergo a groin- ectomy and be out until the last week of the season.
That’s not enough games to get past his yearly slow start and get into a fan shouting match.
I actually prefer that he not play. Until something better comes along, Rengifo takes over 3rd while Drury mans 2nd.
My sources have shared that Rendon is suffering from Dysmenorrhea and will be ready to resume baseball related activities in 7 to 10 days.
The fate of those without further options will be interesting to see. Let’s get to the regular season before we start denigrating the team or certain players for injuries. It’s all about the games that count in the standings.
The Angels obviously could use a key dependable starter. Wantz and Soriano becoming starters doesn’t sound like outside FA help is coming. But it does sound like plenty of arms exist in the bullpen.
I’m unsure Pomerantz will be one. But there is still time left. It’s a great story if he makes it back and is effective. I expect Sano to make the MLB club. We will see though.
If Ren-Ren is healthy to start the season your expectations will not be met At least not in the beginning of the season anyways . Sano will go the Great Salt Lake to find his swing along with his previously dispatched buddies Hunter Dozier and Charles LeBlanc. I’m sure all 3 have out clauses in their minor league deals but I have no idea when they are and if any other team would even have interest.
Matt Welch read was cool… what I wouldn’t give for a revhalofan hamilton-esque piece on hypochrisitan rendon.
Are there other years besides ‘61-‘63 for Welch?
He said he will be slowly rolling out the following years eventually
Gawddang – how did I remember this. Can’t remember something from yesterday, but I remember Matt Welch’s funky “bro-fist” gif from like 2008.
The iconic ‘boom goes the dynamite’