Byron Buxton nearly got taken out by Sausage Number 1, AKA Bratwurst. Look both ways, kids. It could have been embarrassing. “Byron Buxton is on the ten day IL due to sausage obstruction.”
Patrick Sandoval had a good game yesterday, as many of you may know. Looking forward, Friday will be the Angels’ home opener and first game of the Boston series. I wonder if Kutter Crawford throws a cutter.
I might have thought Mike Trout had seen Twister a bunch of times. I guess his answer here makes sense, though. (Same year coincidentally).
Texas also won so unfortunately the Angels still have to share first place in the AL West. They are on a pace to win 108 games.
I guess the Phillies knew what they were doing taking Brandon Marsh over Jo Adell. Luckily, Logan O’Hoppe is no slouch either. (Referring to below video.)
The Mets started the season 0-4 and now have added Julio Teheran to go with Jose Quintana in their rotation. Maybe they should bring back Syndergaard and Matt Harvey as long as they are using Angels rejects.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Dammit every time I see this title I want a bratwurst.
Sometimes I think about the time ippei “stole” 4.5 million from ohtani and I wonder if Pepperidge farm even remembers?
Years from now, Ippei will tell his grandkids, “….one time at gambling camp…”
Ayyyy
https://x.com/saltlakebees/status/1776070059791978882?s=61&t=hoIQ3bmt5moqwDOuhkI_KA
That Bee all right.
And tonights losing pitcher.( He gave up 1 run in 6 innings) Unfortunately, The Bees offense this year has been pAthetic
Are you saying we may have SP depth?
Five deep baby!!
Not the same as being hidden in Anaheim all these years
I like the part where he said through the interpreter that he had talked to them and they said they hadn’t talked to him. Who is the liar now Ippie or Ohtani. Haha
Or maybe the unicorn is just a liar?
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1776069710318354471
But…how much did that fan lose while gambling?
Sam Blum at it again except now he’s reporting bad news on the dodgers. Does he ever report positive news
At least he’s an equal opportunity negasarous.
https://apple.news/APIAcJcgmS8CkFINTqQKiNg
Not sure if anyone said anything about this already but there wasn’t much of a honeymoon with the dodgers before bad press is dogging the dodgers. He hit his first homerun last night but not everyone was happy about it, especially the fan who got the ball. Haha gotta love the drama over there and not here
The Drew gave up 4 runs on 5 hits in his Doyer AAA debut. https://twitter.com/BeyondTheHalo/status/1775705427285852599
Mets win! Lol
Bet that’s a hell of a win probability graph.
I wonder how big the herd of sad donkeys at the Tigers site is……
The Tigers are like us, accustomed to misery.
WTF are we supposed to do tonight?
You could read the uplifting and predictable Offseason Review…
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/04/offseason-in-review-los-angeles-angels-13.html
The gist of that article: How on earth will they ever survive without Ohtani!!!!!!!!
The answer…
Take the fortune your family amassed killing tons of Mexican, Irish and Welsh mine workers, and then the other fortune they amassed housing “the poors” in slums in major East Coast cities. Mix in a little war profiteering. Invest it for about 100 years and let it become massive.
Then buy yourself Magic Johnson to be the face of your ownership group. Next, buy Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Tyler Glasnow, Trevor Bauer, and a dozen other really good baseball players. Oh, and cheat. And probably use steroids.
You’ll be fine. You may even buy yourself a proper World Series title after 4 Billion dollars or so…. it’s gonna feel just like you earned it all the hard way.
GO BLUE CHEW!!!
Ahh, capitalism….
The Guggenheim way
White Sox v. KC
or
Godzilla x Kong
Or, take a look at the Trash Pandas Roster. Season starts tomorrow.
https://www.milb.com/rocket-city/roster
How long until C Juan Flores becomes a Trash Panda?
The Office re-runs it is!
Same! We’re watching it from the start with our daughter.
Exchange pithy and snarky comments….. oh wait, we do that anyway.
We’re goddamn experts at this point.
Thank You Victor.
https://twitter.com/VictorRojas/status/1775286070055211043
And his team is currently tied for 1st.
Victor has been ride or die since day 1.
We need him back in the organization in some capacity.
I bet Chris Rose is a lonely man.
It’s been kinda sad to watch him become a basement podcaster.
“Mom’s basement podcaster” would be worse…
Sounds like a profession for 2002.
Nice article by Fletcher on Rengifo.
“ANAHEIM — If only the Angels could get a whole season out of the Luis Rengifo who they have seen for stretches at the end of the last two seasons, they might really have something.
Rengifo, 27, enters this season as the Angels’ primary backup at second base, third base and shortstop. He figures to get plenty of playing time, even if it’s not at one position.
The larger question is which Rengifo is going to show up when he’s at the plate.
In 2022, Rengifo had a .572 OPS through his first 112 plate appearances, and then a .764 OPS over his last 399. Last season he had a .590 OPS through his first 226 plate appearances, followed by a .980 OPS over the last 219 trips to the plate.
“The good version, that guy’s a good player,” Angels hitting coach Johnny Washington said. “I think with just a few more at-bats, he’ll find his spot again and continue to play the way he did in the second half last year.”
The hot stretch in 2023 was ended prematurely, when he ruptured his biceps tendon in September, requiring surgery. Rengifo said he wasn’t back to 100% until late December, but that was still enough time in the offseason to go through videos searching for the key to his swing.
Rengifo, who is 3 for 10 with two doubles so far this season, said that he’s better when he goes to the plate with “a game plan.”
“The most important thing is to keep battling every single time when I’m in the box,” Rengifo said. “It’s more about being in the game all the time. Know the situation. Know the plan when you hit.”
He now has two new hitting coaches – Washington and Tim Laker – who will be trying to keep the good version of Rengifo on the field.
Washington said the work has been good so far, but Rengifo missed time with a hamstring injury for two stints during spring training, so he’s still catching up to where he would be.
“He’s taking huge strides,” Washington, the hitting coach, said. “He’s just going up to the plate with conviction and understanding his plan, his approach and being able to be selective with his pitch selection, given the game state and understand the story of the pitcher: what he throws, how he’s going to use it, how he’s going to attack him. I think he has a tremendous understanding of that. He is growing with it. I’m excited.”
They’ll also try to get the switch-hitter to be as effective against righties as he has been against lefties. Rengifo has a career .757 OPS against lefties, compared with .667 from the other side.
“We’re trying to eliminate those highs and lows,” Manager Ron Washington said. “We just want highs. A low happens for three, four, five at-bats, and then you’re high again. That’s what you call consistency. He just has to learn that consistency and when he finds his swing, he needs to hold on to it for a long time. Sometimes young kids when they find something they take it for granted. But hopefully we can get them to understand in the game of baseball, you can’t take anything for granted.”
Ron Washington said earlier this spring he was encouraged by the work Rengifo has done.
“Every day he’s stimulating his mind,” Washington said. “I don’t know how often he’s had conversations about things, but here we’re talking every single day about every single thing.”
Ron Washington has used Rengifo as a leadoff hitter at times in the spring, but he concedes that he needs work to stay in that spot.
“Down here he’s making too many outs on first pitches,” Washington said. “If you’re going to be in the leadoff spot, you have to work the pitcher a little bit.”
Defensively, Rengifo got a late start in working with his new manager on his famed progression of ground ball drills, because he suffered a hamstring injury early in camp.
Rengifo said he heard from two friends with the Atlanta Braves, Orlando Arcia and Ozzie Albies, that Washington would make him better in the field.
“They said that guy is going to help you a lot,” Rengifo said. “That’s good. I want to work. And I want to be better every single day.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/04/04/angels-looking-to-get-inconsistency-smoothed-out-of-luis-rengifos-game/
Was lifted from Wednesday’s game in Miami after feeling lightheaded.
Any update from Fletch? We are the Angels, assuming the worst when it comes to injuries.
Fletch is currently in the Braves Minor League system!
Cranial Tommy John surgery?
The Cranium bone is connected to the hip bone. The hip bone is connected to the oblique bone.
Where’s the Redbone?
Leon? Or, the band Redbone?
“Come and get your love!”
I wonder if that’s related to the Nike uniform issue.
I like the comments from the hitting coaches about an approach. Hopefully it translates to real action. Although their work is cut out for them as we still see too many batters 1st pitch swinging when the pitcher is having control issues. Like the other day when they walked the bases loaded and the next three hitters swung at the first pitch. You just want to ask them if they’re even watching the game.
I always was a Marsh supporter and am glad he is turning out to maturing into an All*Star player. Phillies needed a great fielding CF and we needed a young catcher with future. Win-Win, but I still wish Adell would have been the chosen one.
They may have wanted a centerfielder but the Phillies have played Marshy more In left field since his defense is much more inferior than Rojas’. But Rojas is still learning how to hit. Marsh can certainly hit but he can also strike out at even a higher rate than Adell or Trout
A’s to play in a 14,000 seat park in Sacramento for 3!!!! years!!!!
There will still be 9000 available seats every night. 😀
I think you underestimate them. I bet they can get 14k empty seats after signing a few good free agents.
May have to make the trip from So. Cal for a series. I was in Sacramento in October of 2023 and it sure was better than Oaktown.
I may have to make the trip up there on the Bullet Train from SoCal for a series.
🤣
Attendance would be better in Sacramento. I don’t know about the TV deal.
Keep them there, Las Vegas does not want Fisher’s sorry ass
Some of do if it’ll put the Angels into an “out of market” team
I fear the A’s landing in Sac-town more than Vegas, they d be better off long term in no cal
So just 13500 seats will be empty at home games?
“The first 1500 fans to the park will get plastic self-defense knuckles”
At least that stadium is supposed to be pretty cool
I live in Sacramento. The stadium is pretty cool and a much better place to watch a game than the Coliseum. I would guess that attendance will be decent. I know I’ll go to a bunch of games (especially when the Angels come to town).
There are a fair number of A’s fans around although the Giants certainly have more. I think they’ll at least come close to the 10,000 per game they’ve been getting in Oakland and will probably exceed it. The RiverCats peaked at 12,000 per game in 2001.
I’m at science camp this week with my sixth graders. We were doing the zip line yesterday and I put the radio broadcast on my bluetooth speaker. That’ll be a great memory for me, kids having time of their lives with a great Angels victory in the background.
this might not be the proper place to vent, but i’ve had a long standing argument with my friend and fellow classmate that our 6th grade science camp was at idyllwild and he insists it was at camp arbolado.
its been a back and forth for decades.
I wasn’t smart enough for science camp, so I was sent to “Remedial camp” I swear it looked an awful lot like the back of the school alley.
I wasn’t smart enough for “Remedial camp”…..“Prison Camp” for me.
You guys got to go to Camp?
Lucky
Once I was even sent to a Concentration Camp, but escaped in a laundry cart….Good times!
Unfortunately, Marsh was not anything close to that player in our organization, which is why they traded him. Probably more of a comment on the organization he left.
Or simply normal maturation process taking hold? They bet on potential upside and it appears to have worked out. For both clubs.
50/50..
Hopefully O’Hopp becomes a great/very good defender behind the plate.
Today, Marsh cannot hit left handers and strikes out at an alarming rate. Is there really a change?
That is a valid question although he apparently hitting right handers better now than before. I’d rather have Logan.
O’Hoppe > Marsh
Marsh has 8 strike outs and 0 walks in 18 AB’s though he is batting .333
Nice to see Marsh doing well. Hated to see him go but it is looking like a rare good trade for both teams with O’Hoppe coming to the Halos.
A lot of people dunking on the Angels’ sweep of Miami as if it means nothing, then pre-gaming the 5-2 Red Sox coming in hot to face the Angels, because they’re coming off a sweep themselves….
Of the A’s.
Who cares if Miami is a bad team right now?! A sweep is a sweep, whenever it happens during the season. Someone said yesterday on the post-game thread that it’s actually nice the Angels swept the series, because most past Angels teams would have been content with a series win, and the 3rd game is usually a letdown.
But instead of having a letdown, Angels stepped their foot on the gas harder to put an exclamation point on the sweep. A sign that things are going our way?! Nolan extends his on-base streak on a day he PH’ed because he got HBP!!! How lucky is that?!
I would suggest that EVEN IF the Marlins are a bad team, they’re way better and more talented than the A’s that the Red Sox swept. But somehow the Red Sox is on another level, and our sweep means barely anything?!
I think the Angels and Red Sox are actually pretty even this year, with similar traits that mire them right in the middle of the pack, not horrible like the A’s, but not world-beaters like the Yankees currently are.
Should be a good series. Hope the Angels beat the Sox and their obnoxious fans.
I actually said a little bit of both… while I did remind everyone what steelgolf also said, namely that Miami is not a good team, I also added both that the recovery from the first two games in Baltimore, and the focus to finish the series with a win and sweep was a good sign. In recent past seasons yesterday’s game was the kind of game the Angels would have taken their foot off the gas and lost.
They didn’t do that, so kudos to them. That said, I don’t think we should get overly excited. Until we win series’ against our chief division rivals (so, everyone not named the A’s) we won’t know if we are truly contenders.
I don’t think anyone is seriously at that point at this time (Jokes about playoff tix and apologizing to Arte are funny to some degree). I think the majority is just saying that these wins are a nice bounceback to the horrible beating we took from Baltimore, and there’s nothing wrong in enjoying these wins as fans, and enjoying the fact that they’re currently playing well.
Sure, go ahead and enjoy them. I did. But just keep things in perspective.
Wining is better than losing and 4 of the last 6 is a good slice in time. Agreed it says nothing about where we’ll be after 162.
Wining and dining is even better than just wining.
Very good post Smithy.
I believe you will be tagged for a CTPG rule violation.
1.05.10(a) states: One shall never write anything complimentary, nice, approving, or in any way positive when the Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Dodgers, Mariners, and A’s are concerned. Ass is always encouraged to be used in any team name, along with 8-year-old “butthole” playground names to show how much you are a SUPER Angel fan, and a “cool bro”.
What if, like maybe, we are good?
With 15 WAR Wash anything is possible!
Many miles to go to evaluate that properly. The ‘23 Angels started out 4-2. Can’t make too much out of playing Miami.
As I suggested last season, wait until around June 15 for any real analysis.
That said – I really enjoy watching the kids play.
Fair enough 🤝
I overdosed on hopium this morning, and see a 23-7 record in our future at the of the month. We will be unstoppable once 👑 Luis takes over 3B on a close to full-time basis.
If the team is even at .500 at the end of this month I will consider it a success. If they are 23-7 I’ll join you in the hopium den.
If they start 23-7, I fully expect you to break up the bricks, make the lines and pass along the rolled up $100 bill….. or something like that.
I’m not sure that Rengifo is the answer to our leadoff hitter issues, but it’s surely not Rendon.
Time to end the experiment, Wash.
We don’t really have a real lead off hitter so we’ll have to make do. As Turk noted, Rengifo has hit much better in the lead off spot than other places in the order, exceptionally so. Not a bad choice to see if it’s sustainable. It’s a year of evaluating.
I know it’s not a popular opinion here, but I actually liked Moniak at leadoff against RHPs. Yes, he doesn’t walk often, but he did hit well when they brought him up in May and put him in leadoff. He has decent speed too.
I really like him around 7. You don’t have to count on him and he surprises you with good production for a #7 hitter.
Rengifo isn’t the answer to anything!
Well, he is, just maybe not to the questions we’re asking.
Any production from 3B would be an upgrade for the team
The winning team.
The team in 1st Place.
The team on pace for over 100 wins.
I hope with the “on-pace” thing you are one of the jokesters… I suspect it is so, but ever since Eric started in doing that regularly others have joined in… some take it seriously but most make it a source of humor ….
15 Warsh
I looked on Fangraphs… .48 WAR for Wash so far.
Hogwash. Skip calls a team meeting and we rip off 4 straight Ws. That’s good for at least 1.5 WAR