Morning Angels fans. How are you? Have some links.
Angels News
The Angels lost last night due to not being able to play defense. Or be a good bullpen. But maybe it was just unlucky that the tag was a bit too late. Still, Mike Trout is doing well. As is Anthony Rendon, shockingly. That is a glimmer of hope for such a hopeless team.
We also saw the new post homerun celebration. A Halo. Fitting, since it is a bit goofy, but still on brand.
Also some small shakeups. With Jose Soriano replacing Silseth, Plesac and Soto were DFA-ed. To join them is Angel Felipe, who was signed to a MiLB deal, a 2 year one, since he just had Tommy John Surgery and won’t pitch in 2024.
Around Baseball
Julio Urias DID get hit with some criminal charges after all. Behave yourselves in the comments.
More pitching injuries! Boston loses Pivetta , Astros lose Valdez, Nats lose Gray. They keep piling up. The Braves are even not willing to discuss how bad Strider’s arm is.
As players, front offices, writers, doctors, and fans try to figure out why there are so many arm injuries, one thing stands out, fastball speed. It has climbed significantly since 2008, and no doubt even more before then.
Pitchers are not the only ones with injuries, Trevor Story is out for the year, and he, and his teammates did not take that news well.
The White Sox have not had a good few years. And their fans have suffered.
A’s are going to be in Sacramento for 3 years. This was not how the plan was supposed to unfold. Very weird.
Marlins are 1-11. That’s bad. Last time they were this bad, they lost 108 games.
FAN MEETUP
Yes, you saw that right. After all this time we will finally have a Crashing the Pearly Gates fan meetup at the Big A! SATURDAY APRIL 27th! We can even sit together and have a good time with STAR WARS WEEKEND. If you want to join, we will have a sheet up and a post reminding people. Or you can just go and meet us there. Maybe we can even have Crashing the Pearly Gates on the Video Board.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
So, about the meetup.
Why the 27th? It is a game that Jeff and I were going to anyway, it is a Saturday, meaning more likely for people to come, it is still early enough in the season for those with optimism to feel optimistic, it has fireworks, and Rally Monkey Mando Giveaway.
Yes, we wished to get the news out sooner, but getting people to agree to move forward with ANYTHING is difficult as it is. Maybe we can do another one later on in the season, but, it is what it is.
EDIT: Yes, we will have tickets available so we can sit together. Jeff or I will be buying them. More details on the specifics tomorrow, but we will be using the group discount to make this as affordable as we can while trying not to sit in the 500 section.
iiWii
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
Appreciate the explanation JHW. I’m guessing it’s not a block of tickets being purchased so the meet up would be general hang out area (LF/RF)? We might make it and I can be a DD if needed, but kinda eyeing the drone show Friday night game (much cheaper tix, haven’t seen that before).
Star Wars nights are generally really popular and crowded. If you’re open to unsolicited suggestions, a second meet up without a giveaway/cheaper tickets might be a good option as well. I’ve been asking for a meet up for at least three years so please don’t take this post as anything negative, we still might end up going (I’ve never seen Star Wars, I should at least watch the first 6 movies I know, so there’s that too). I didn’t know spaceballs was a spoof movie until the 90s lol. I think it’s awesome you all are putting it together and it’s sure to be an enjoyable night for many!! Go Angels
It IS going to be block tickets. One of me or Jeff will be buying them.
Awesome! That puts me over the 50/50 on going. I’m sure more info is to come and looking forward to it
SATURDAY APRIL 27th?
Is that Sell Atre Sell Shersey night? Or, is it Angel Pitch Fork and Torch Night?
That would be hilarious.
Both – but whatever is done it must include all participants wearing Ippei masks!
I know where to get the wigs.
What if we all wear a shirt with one big letter and we spell out “FREEIPPEI” then a few go to the bathroom and we spell “FREEPIE”
I am a Shohei fan who became a big fan of the Angels as well. I rarely commented because I felt that I was too ignorant in baseball matters to say anything. I had been rooting for Trout to become MVP again, as well as for the young guns to step it up.
I can’t understand the hatred you have for someone who played his heart and elbow out for the team and who was never given a reasonable offer by Arte.
To lionize Ippei, who is the only verified gambler and who very well could be a massive embezzler and liar, is ridiculous. Whatever the facts, which take time to resolve, if Shohei was still on the Angels team how opposite your biases would be.
You do no service to many residual fans who want to like both teams, but are starting to hope you lose.
Just having some fun Nhan…it’s a long season, a team that’s been horrrrrible for a long, long, time. I’m going to say most people here in no way hate Shohei (but, might hate the Doyers) 😀 .
Jokes about Ippei are harmless, the league, the media, the Doyers all will conceal what really happened. The scandal will die of natural causes before they come out with their phony report. Most have already forgotten about it.
Your dual citizenship as a fan, is always welcome.
I don’t believe most around here are lionizing Ippei – in my humble opinion he’s been completely thrown under the bus by those who consider Ohtani their vehicle to generational wealth.
I wouldn’t go as far as to consider Ippei or Ohtani as “victims” in this situation, again in my opinion the blame lands on both.
When given the choice to either laugh or cry, always choose to laugh. In the situation with Ohtani taking the easy path to the Dodgers and then immediately having to deal with a gambling scandal, I find the timing of the circumstances humorous. Hence it’s time to parade the corridors with Ippei masks as a reminder that he took the pain to protect Ohtani’s reputation.
Don’t take anything written on this board as personal. We true Angels fans have had the sky fall on us so often that we often take a fatalistic view of anything that has anything to do with our team.
I have nothing against Shohei except that he is not on my team any more so I basically feel nothing toward him. I hate the Dodgers because when I was an young Angel fan we are talking about long ago in a galaxy far away or the mid-60’s when everyone I knew growing up in the Sin Fernando valley were Dodger fans and let me have everytime we talked baseball.
Anyway everything that is written here is all in the name of good clean fun.
TickPick has lots of good inexpensive tickets.
Please do another one later in the season. For various reasons, I’m doing family Passover on the 27th. Hope y’all have a good time at the game!
Of course, of course.
That sounds fun. Wish I could join you, but enjoy and sending positive mojo your way.
Love the idea and hope there will be another one at later date since celebrating sister’s bday that day.
Haha!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5jZLrLuqAQ/?igsh=Y2RkOTNiMDgwYQ%3D%3D
Last nights Plate Umpiring was just awful. That Umpire was too old and fat like most of us are getting to be as we age, but our positions in life don’t require us to be in shape enough to run down a 90-foot base lane, bend low enough for 9+ innings to see the plate well enough to use our twenty-twenty vision.
Umpires at all levels of baseball have the best-the very good, average and below average and the why are you here umpires. Before the next contract signing with Umpires Union, the commissioner needs to set down some rules, if the Union says no to any of them, then start from scratch.
No professional Umpire may advance from the level he is assigned at the first game of that to the next level without working a minimum of 50% of that level’s games.
No Umpire may advance to the next level without taking a test of 50 or more questions, here within referred to as a Written Test, and have been evaluated by 3 certified Umpires of a league level consisting of 2 from one league higher and one present league level.
Written Test applicant may not miss more the 2 questions or less than 95%.
Umpires need a yearly physical and eye exam in which to qualify as an umpire at any level and a passed written exam prior to the last opening day for any team in the league or by the first game scheduled as an Umpire at any position assigned to.
Weight must not exceed 30% body fat of total weigh in prior to February 1st of any calendar year.
Umpires shall always be dressed in than in league or association required dress standards.
League or association may add a series of questions pertaining to that league or associations local rules without over riding any rules set forth by the rule book published by MLB for that current season.
Any and all Umpires must past all physical and rule test for a second time prior to July 15th of current calendar year or may be disqualified or suspended from level or associated games without compensation(s). Said Umpire has 72 hours to apply for a review by that same association.
Major League Baseball and affiliated Minor League Baseball. Here within may be referred to as MLB or MiLB.
All MLB & MiLB Umpires are to go thru an annual review of their performance and evaluated of such performance. Results are to determine if an individual must as a result of such review remain at the level they are working at or are as follows:
The bottom 10% at each level will be changed automatically regardless of terms of service or prior statis.
Umpiring is a commitment that is expected to be accepted as such so that performance is at the highest levels possible and is expected as such. At any level change or demotion an individual has 72 hours to request an appeal.
If an individual is demined to need glasses, then that person shall be required to perform duties with the most current prescription of eyewear possible in performance of duties.
It is up to each Umpire to be responsible for their diet and weight control and prescription medications.
Umpires full and part time will be presented with 2 uniforms of level of performance and must purchase any additional uniform they deem necessary.
Let’s take a series this afternoon and take another series in Beantown.
Go Halos!
Not very happy about Thaiss catching Soriano. I do get that O’Hoppe finally needs a day off, but just wish it was not when Soriano was starting….
I suspect that Soriano will again have trouble getting the slider over and the Rays will thus sit on his fastball. He’ll give up some runs… I think we will have to score more than 3 runs if we want to win this game today. I for sure don’t see Jose pitching 5 shutout innings…
Wish the meet-up wasn’t the 27th. Gitcho and I have a gig that night in Santa Barbara in our incredibly talented band Do You Compute. We’ll be with you all in spirit. Hopefully there’ll be another later in the season. And hopefully we’ll all still be optimistic by then.
What happened to Easter Teeth?
The short version is Gitcho thought he was moving away, so we put Easter Teeth on hold. Then I started Do You Compute without Gitcho. Then we had a line-up change and Gitcho joined on drums. But I still love what we were doing and maybe we’ll get back to it someday.
Whew!!
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1778121666662637985
Great news.
Good news but he’s out for a while probably 4-6 weeks or more.
Yippee!!!
#KICKHICKS
Yea, the 27th turned into a meetup rather quickly. Try to make it if you can.
I’ll be there with my wife and son. So feel free to bring your crew as well.
The last meet-up I went to was a HH one in 2010! My daughter was less than 6 months old and my son wasn’t born yet. Everyone on HH knew my daughter’s whole story being born very premature and was cheering her on to good health. So to bring her to a game to meet the likes of Rev Halofan and Red Floyd was really meaningful to me.
That’s awesome. Bring the crew if you can.
Won’t be able to make the 27th (see other comment above), but hopefully the next one!
That was the AN game! Was it also the game where your tickets got messed up and Pattimelt fixed everything for you?
I don’t know what you mean by AN. Remind me. And yes, Pattimelt did indeed hook us up. She’s a legend!
Today’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/rays-vs-angels/2024/04/10/746247/preview
One of my favorite lineups of the season !
I’ll take a stab at today’s lineup:
3B – Rendon
2B – Rengifo
DH – Trout
LF – Ward
1B – Drury
RF – Moniak
C – Thaiss
DH – Adell
SS – Neto
Adell is in.
https://x.com/AngelsNews27/status/1778106944240361913
O’Hoppe was definitely due for an off day. I thought Wash might go with Rendon today since he’s heating up, but I get it.
Trout at DH and Adell in Center warms the heart.
So the homerun hat is a lit up Halo…I want one!!
https://youtu.be/ll2mg2Nc7C8?t=41
Found it for sale.
https://www.degemmill.com/product/illumagear-halo-light/
I don’t have a Twitter account. Does anyone know the lineup today?
No one’s posted it yet from what I’ve seen.
lol five seconds later I found a tweet.
Let me check MySpace.
Hop on your MindSpring dial-up
What we’re seeing is the coaching staff and the players trying to win when the organization has not put them in a position to succeed. They could have easily signed a 1B and SS and given Neto and Schanuel a opportunity to develop in the minors. If they were tearing it up, they could always promote them and trade the other guys. This team would look a lot different with a legitimate 1B and SS. They still might not win, but at least they wouldn’t be playing with one hand tied behind their back.
How quickly we have stopped pushing for the youth movement. “Let the Vets play!!!”
That’s not what I said. Letting the kids play and forcing kids to play who may not be ready are two different things. I am not a fan of Hicks and Sano taking playing time away from Adell and Moniak, and I do think that Neto can learn on the job. However, it might have been a mistake to expect Schanuel to start the season in the major leagues this year. Your position would be what? Signing people for one year to allow a couple of them to finish developing is not blocking the youth movement. It’s not like Schanuel is hitting .200, he’s 2 for 31.
Free Jo Adell.
Let him swing away there in the 9th. Miguel Sano is 4 for 18 with no walks and 9 K’s lifetime as a pinch hitter.
If Adell is only going to receive periodic “pinch-hitting” opportunities, he’s not going to progress. I’m not sure why Wash has thus far given Sano 3x more hitting opportunities than Adell.
If Schanny continues to, you know, not hit, the Angels should rotate Drury/Sano at 1st and allow Adell to DH.
That. Is a good idea.
Agree. Logically, I understand that PH’ing Sano over Adell is the right move there, if you’re trying to win. In the sense that Sano is more of a known product than Adell, and of course, the potential of power. This is Wash choosing the chance to win over learning opportunities for Adell.
But last night is probably the game I would have been fine with Wash not “trying” to win (you can’t chase wins every night, so to speak), and let Adell take his growing pains in that situation. No one will ever know what they have with the kid if they take away all the big situations from him.
I kinda disagree with everyone saying Adell hasn’t had enough opportunity to develop. It’s his 5th frickin season. They increased his playing time considerably from ’21 to ’22 and he responded by getting worse. He’s not a kid anymore. He’s 25. I hate to say it, but I think we know what we have in the kid. Of course, I’d be glad to be wrong.
Let’s take the rubber game and take this series!
Go Halos!
Win the series today. A 7-5 start would have us pacing for 94 wins (yes, I know it’s early lol).
Soriano’s 1st start of the season with a rested Estevez-Moore-Cimber and an off day tomorrow.
World Series tracker says we’re still in play for a 6-and-14 start.
What are we on pace for ??
Aren’t 6 and 14 the first two numbers in the fibonacci sequence? And could one consider the fibonacci sequence an ETERNAL HALO?!!! 🙀
Yikes!!! You’re way to smart to be an Angel Fan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence
Going to the Big A today hoping to take 2/3 from Rays. Canning pitching so bats need to show up. Schanuel needs to get sent down already for more experience. Wish they would sign the ‘Captain’ Brandon Belt to a cheap one year. Guy still has plenty of power and it’s from the left side, plus was the leader on those Giants WS teams.
Soriano is starting today. Have a great time!
Brandon Belt locked into my mind as the destroyer of Barria
https://youtu.be/T6FTg1XwLfg?si=sGJv6_lVy1tqT-Cb
We will be there too, lessssgo Halos!!
So that bad miscue by Moniak was changed from an error to a hit, when it was clear he just missed catching it? But Schanuel’s hustle single is an error? Got it.
Still bitter about that.
Oh Mickey, what the Hell was that?
Not so fine?
And it didn’t blow my mind.
It looked strange. At the last second he looked like he lost the ball and flinched. It was a fairly easy catch and he is solid defensive OF.
Mickey doesn’t gaffe often, but when he does, it’s fugly. I’m thinking of a particularly bad play in Center last year.
Yeah, hopefully he got that out of his system.