On Friday the News came out that David Fletcher placed bets with the illegal bookie at the center of the Ippei Mizuhara gambling scandal. Fletcher supposedly did not bet on baseball. He has a friend, former minor league infielder Colby Schultz, who was a part of the same gambling ring. Shultz did bet on Angels games while Fletcher played for the Angels.
In Angels news, the Angels took the weekend series against the Rangers winning two games out of the three. Amir Garrett elected free agency over the weekend.
The Mets offered Pete Alonso an extension for seven yeas at $158 Million last summer. He will be a free agent next off season, but apparently will not be cheap.
The Dodgers placed Max Muncy on their injured list with a right oblique strain. Jung-Hoo Lee will have season ending labrum surgery thanks to that dislocated shoulder he got last week.
As Jack Frost noted in his response to this, due to the insanity of the MLB scheduling team, they’ve corrected the ship before they played us.
Then again, I could be wrong.
Tonight’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/angels-vs-astros/2024/05/20/746390/preview
Good for the other Joyce. This is a great reminder for all of us:
https://x.com/joyce_zach/status/1792593405693800670
Someday I would love to see both Joyces manning our bullpen and keeping the opposition guessing on who they will be facing each night
Now I’m thinking about that cute video of some guy named Ohtani and Ippei in the dugout, playing some game where they flipped something (bottle caps?) against the little ridge near the first step. They were obviously competing against each other, with some guy named Ohtani winning and laughing.
And I’m wondering if they had money on it
The Royals just DFA’d Sauer.
The Astros just signed Lauer.
Time for us to sign Bauer?
I think Hank is dead but why would that stop us?
If we need a backup catcher maybe we could lure Mauer out of retirement.
call up Cowart
With Rendon’s injury and Sano’s, too, maybe we should sign Rich Dauer
As the season goes on, the more and more Jo gives 2 shits about hitting with 2 strikes. Dare I say he works the count more times than not….sering more and more pitches, lots of 3-2 counts. No reason to think he wont continue to see more improvement this year.
MORE JO!
Adell drew two walks on Saturday night, only the second time in his career he had drawn multiple walks in a game. He also hit a homer and threw out a runner at the plate.
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/05/19/angels-jo-adell-showing-improved-plate-discipline-this-season/
But this, and the fact Anderson and Soriano are pitching so well, contradicts the narrative that Perry’s coaching hires, and therefore Perry himself, are not improving the team at all and must be replaced!
The question is always should be:
Is Perry improving the team, the farm system and the baseball operations enough to compete and beat out the other 29 teams?
Sure, that is a good question. How do you measure that in reality, at the current moment, if we’re going through a rebuild?
And is Perry accountable for improving the “baseball operations”? That seems firmly in the owner’s grip, from what we’ve seen for 22 years.
Not necessarily, you’re talking about 3 players out of 25 and the odds are some will improve and some won’t. It’s a slice in time that is slightly more than 1/4 of the season, less for Jo and Soriano. You could be right. Let’s see where things end up at the end of the season. Not sure I’ve heard many here complain about the coaching staff or firing them. Certainly Wash has made some head scratching decisions and there are one or two that do not like him for legitimate reasons. As I have previously stated, I disagree with you about Perry, and I feel his record speaks for itself. But, I don’t have any inside information, I would have to know a lot more before making any decisions, like what’s really going on, what the plan is going forward, and I would want answers about some things I have questions about. It’s not so simple.
If Adell were to finish the season with his current rate numbers and OPS+, we would be ecstatic. We need to see where he ends up.
Agreed. Jo looks like a legitimate building block for the future. And the fans really like him, which is a bonus.
One thing I noticed this year about Jo is how much better he is at laying off the high FB. In earlier years he is easily fooled at those FBs at the letters. I still see he is sometimes fooled by the changeup down in the plate, but not as much as before. He’s really been much better at pitch selections, and choosing HIS pitch to drive.
He has finally the chance to experience the ebbs and flows of a full season, so I hope his numbers stay where they are. I know there will be hot and cold streaks, but there’s no doubt Jo has improved so much this year. Good for him for putting in the work.
Still thinking about Jose Soriano… can’t stop lol
I’m curious — what do you think Soriano’s ceiling is?
#1 right?
On the Angels, certainly.
On the Angels,
certainly. he is.He has the stuff, obviously, but to be a true #1, he needs to consistently pitch 6-7 innings.
Just needs time, game experiences and health
It took Burnes 3-4 years once he hit the bigs
Certainly on this team, but you have to define it. When I think of a #1, I think of someone who is consistently very good, and bad outings are the rare exception. There isn’t one on every team unless you’re just referring to the best pitcher on our team. There are probably only 10 or less in each league depending on your criteria, so using that, one measure is being at least one of the top 10 starting pitchers in the league.
He’s getting to the point now where teams can effectively game plan for him. So I think the next few starts will be telling.
Baseball is all about adjustments. If hitters adjust to him and he’s still effective, I’ll be stoked.
I also want to shut him down before he blows his arm out again.
One of the rare things you can’t peg on ownership but just generally speaking its kind of wild how the franchise as a whole is just a massive scandal-magnet.
Say what. If the ownership says to the management team you how have X amount of budget, then you put together the minor leagues as much as you have to spend. Our team’s owner does not spend on the minors except the bare minimum with no or few scouts. Arte was over the top happy when his vote was to subtract a minor league team and the money saved went right into his pocket you can bet. Upset the losers and you will always have scandal with unhappy people. With very little in comparison to other teams who win by building the minor leagues, scandal will and has taken place because a good scout will know about the player his is scouting and the kid’s history and family and schooling etc. Scandal at the majors is there and exists because of the disjoined way the organization is run from the top. Arturo is accountable from the top down and his exit will be welcomed.
It’s all about leadership, and this franchise has been woefully inadequate in that regards during last 10 years or so of Arte’s tenure. Washington is the first disciplined leader baseball operations has had since Soth lost interest. Arte is autocratic, and his minions (Kuhl and Carpino) have their heads so far up Arte’s ass it’s impossible to determine where they end and Arte begins.
I’m not surprised when long-time bad leaders/owners become shit magnets.
Karma is real, explainable, or not.
this is cool.
https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1792254148185817525
Hey Jeff,
I submitted a fan post last week, was wondering if it was received or if I screwed up the format lol
While it sucks about Fletcher, I’m not really surprised.
He’s one of those guys who constantly wants to compete at something. Hoops, board games, something. I can see that mentality leading to having some action on Monday Night Football.
He is a very intelligent guy, though. Zero chance we’ll find out he bet on baseball.
I hope you are right Jeff. It seems he had/has the gambling “bug.” He has been very active in cash games of Texas Hold em’ and even played in a few big televised tournaments.
I’m going to go with above zero. Competitive guys like to think they can beat the odds.
Meh, good with Fletcher. He just hasn’t been a good baseball player since 2019.
If someone wants to make a bet, let them. For some, it’s great to have some action on the games while you watch. I’m sure betting with the bookmaker is much easier than have a friend out of state place a legal bet. It’s just that the State of California that wants their cut of the proceeds.
There are easy workarounds with Fanduel and others if you live out of their states of business. Not hard to get an account if you really want one. And lots of offshore sites too. I guess it might be the amounts rich people want to bet, higher amounts with a local bookmaker? Shop odds too. He probably has a local book, Vegas credit, Indian casinos credit, Online, Atlantic City, NY., cover all his bases, if he likes his sweet action.
The Indian casinos won’t ever let it happen.
It’s nice to beat Texas in the series and hurt their chances of winning the division, but at the same time, it sucks to help the Mariners and Astros.
We are still in May.
Winning helps us haha
Shoulda been a sweep
2/3 is Hella good for this season, especially from the “Defending World Series Champions.”
We gonna have to beat them too, not to show favoritism.
Good plan.
LOL @ R. Acuna Jr.’s clanker in RF against the Padres.
Nice to see it from other teams.
The play you mention:
https://youtu.be/Fv4FZXZPvFs?si=Wrlw4UFuSSM08vxD
Wow. Stopped a step to so too early.
He handcuffed himself.
I think he must have lost it in the grass! 😂
My son couldn’t wait to show me that clip this morning. 😆
Jose Soriano in May
4 starts
23.2 IP
1.9 ERA
1.1 WHIP
⚡️⚡️⚡️
That’s epic
Problem is, we have to win TODAY before we can win tomorrow. And today does not look good. We have a struggling Detmers on the mound the Astros have been hittting the cover off the ball lately… and they send Framber Valdez to the hill. He with a 2.95 ERA and 1.20 WHIP.
The Astros are (-204) favorites. I wouldn’t be expecting the Shufflebot on Tuesday night, or anytime soon.
Reid is due.
Barry has fixed Anderson and Soriano, and has Sandy and Canning looking great this month.
Confident Detmers gets it together and continues our streak of good SP.
Well, I can’t disagree with you that Reid is due. That much is true. But you’d rather it be almost any other team than the Astros that he is trying to turn it around against. I think Altuve and Alvarez hit HR’s and Houston wins this 6-2.
I agree. Reid has been getting worse with every start and Houston is hot. It’s not a good combination. This could be a rough series for us.
Plus its the Asstros.
Don’t you know how much I hate the Asstros?
Reid is definitely due for a good start. He’s not as great as he was the first few starts but he’s certainly better than he’s been the last few starts.
Valdez has absolutely owned us, however.
I really like Shohei a lot. I am not going to speculate on what happened and what will happen down the road. But I do know this, since Babe Ruth there has never been any bigger attraction in MLB history than Shohei. He generates more money to the game than anyone ever and by a lot. Now let’s say you are an owner of a franchise, are you going to instruct the Commissioner to get to the bottom of Shohei’s dealing with a high roller bookie and watch as 10-20-30 percent of the value to your franchise goes up in smoke?
We will not learn any more than what we have knowledge of now, to much money riding on the truth, so if you can’t release the truth, make up your story to tell the fans.
Shohei is the face of the game all over the world, unlike anyone before him or at least since Ruth. He may never pitch again and he will still pack them in. But money talks any that is never truer than now.
There have been many players with bigger attraction than that guy…to name few.
Willie Mays
Mickey Mantle
Ted Williams
Reggie Jackson
Cal Ripkin
Nolan Ryan
Bo Jackson
That’s just a few I can think of quickly…plus a bunch more for the wrong reasons.
Don’t forget:
Daryl Sconiers
Floyd Youman
Darryl Strawberry
Dale Berra
Dwight Gooden
Oil Can Boyd
Oh, sorry these MLB players attracted drug dealer attention, never mind….
I’d never heard of Floyd Youmans (it’s with an s) but he was in that “other” league.
Youman’s Gooden’s cousin, he played at a rival HS when I played and we hit him pretty well when we faced him. He was in MLB for bit though, but the drugs took him down faster that Gooden.
I agree! If buying merchandise and traveling to different states to see a player (while dragging along the family) define being a big fan, then count me in the big fan of Ohtani category. But that doesn’t make for great conversation.
As a DH, Ohtani is on his way as a HOF’er, like Edgar Martinez. Well above average. I don’t recall a single walk off hit or him doing much of anything as a hitter from the 7th inning on though. I guess he’s having a good year up the 5. Still plenty of career left as a hitter to define his legacy.
As a pitcher, I don’t know who a good comparison would be considering he pitches every 6th day, is prone to both big boo-boos and little boo-boos (blisters, finger nails, etc) and doesn’t pitch deep into ball games. He’s usually been on some sort of pitch count and I’ve seen Ohtani get rocked more than a handful of times as a pitcher, which has been for one full season?
I guess defense doesn’t matter too much in MLB? It’s non existent in his case.
Not everyone can be as clutch as Kevin Pillar at the plate. Give the guy a break.
In all seriousness, he has been a significantly above average pitcher when healthy, and that was with Matt Wise telling him god knows what from a “coaching” perspective.
Once the Dodgers get their pitching guru team on him, he will likely be a perennial Cy Young candidate.
You can say that again
I think Shohei created his own routine. He had free rein with his pitching, he dictated to them. I doubt Wise had much input.
That’s very possible, but it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t benefit from getting legitimate positional coaching for the first time in his MLB career.
Yes, they will make him better with the Doyer way. Watching other doyer pitchers every night will help too.
And no longer being exposed to the likes of Suarez and the long list of clowns they run through the Angel’s squalid bullpens will make him better.
And Shohei will also benefit from whatever illegal secret sauce they got going on there.
That poop juice works!!
Like it or not, in this day and age with 24 hour news and social media, Ohtani is a giant star, magnitudes bigger than any of those players you listed.
Clearly you have stars in your eyes.
I wasn’t referring to me personally or even to serious baseball fans, I was speaking generically regarding the world wide public.
I’m going to disagree with you. First, Ripken and Bo don’t belong on that list. Ripken was a big draw only as he approached Gehrig’s record. Bo Jackson was a guy who would wow you when you went to the park but you didn’t think “I’m gonna go see Bo play”. At least I never did.
The others were huge stars, worth a trip just to see them. Jackie Robinson and Fernando Valenzuela (for one year) were kind of like Ohtani.
Mantle was like Trout. When I was a kid and my Dad took me to Yankee Stadium I was going to see Mickey….and Yogi….and Whitey… The others were out of town players who I knew were terrific but not a constant source of news like this Ohtani, whoever he is.
I saw all but two of those guys play and while I love Ryan nobody other than Fernando created this type of buzz. He is an international star and most of the guys you mentioned wouldn’t have been recognized if their picture was shown outside of North America.
Babe Ruth is the one icon I can think of that is universally recognized.
Fernando Mania, that was really something. How did I forget that? But while he was huge his time at the top of the ladder was shorter than what Shohei has done. All those that Halofan ’78 mentioned were big gate attractions on the road except Williams. Even at home he couldn’t draw flies. But none of those players as great as they were could be recognized internationally as Shohei is, especially in “Baseball playing countries” as Shohei is. So I agree with you that Fernando was huge, I forgot about him and Nomo to a smaller extent.
I vividly remember going to the 1989 All Star workout and HR derby prior to the AS game at Angel Stadium which cost me a whole $5 to get into. We just walked up and bought tickets at the gate as it wasn’t nearly as popularized back then. In BP I watched Bo Jackson line 8 or 10 line drive shots in a row over the left center wall all landing within about 10′ of each other and was just awestruck by his athleticism. He went on to win the MVP in that all star game.
I was there on that day too.
Field level left field foul pole.
You couldn’t be more wrong 78! The players you mentioned were great. However, their fame/marketability was generally restricted to the US. Ohtani is the most internationally regarded US sports star since Ali. No contest!
On Sep 27,1973 Nolan Ryan set the all time strike out record of 383 versus the Twins at Anaheim Stadium. I was there along with a whopping 9099 other fans, so for whatever reason, that game was an attendance embarrassment. If Ohtani is on the verge of setting any kind of record, he’s filling the stadium no matter where the Dodgers are playing
Who?
LOLZ!!
I will reply to all of the above replies to me by agreeing with C26…WHO!!!
I think I heard of this guy. As I recall he did pretty well as a pitcher but is only a DH now.
More seriously. So, two people from the same team bet with the same illegal bookie? That’s not a coincidence. At least those two were both in on it and the idea that Ohtani had no idea $16m or more had been stolen from his
secretseparate account without him knowing gets me to the point where I’m going with Pete Rose for the first time in 40 years… “If I’d had an interpreter I would have gotten away with it.”Billy Bot Eppler is being held over the fire for extending 3 players contracts, one of those is Edwin Diaz, one of the best relief pitchers in MLB but now throws lollipops up to the plate. Poor Billy, 2 owners who are the GM’s. Is it any wonder he will only be remembered as the guy who got us Ohtani.
Not to me . To me he will be remembered as the guy who wrecked our farm system
I blame Arte for this… but I can see your argument.
The farm system was already wrecked by time of his arrival although he did make things worse, but he had limited scouting.
Long-term contracts are stupid bets made by people with the ability to spend other people’s money. Long-term contracts for relief pitchers are simply insane!
Let’s see: Ohtani’s “girl Friday” steals $16m from him to place $40m in bets that lost a staggering $24m. Ohtani’s closest friend on the Angels, David Fletcher, used the bookie at the core of the FBI investigation into the same gambling ring that snared Ohtani’s “girl Friday”. Fletcher allegedly bet on sports “not including baseball”. Meanwhile Fletcher’s close friend also gambled using the same bookie but allegedly did bet on baseball to include Angel games that potentially involved Fletcher.
Sure, there’s nothing more to see here…
Full circle back to the question of : Who extends a line of credit, for 17 million dollars, to an interpreter making less than 100k?
If the interpreter lies about placing the bets on behalf of his extremely wealthy boss, every single illegal bookie in the entire world.
It’s possible Ohtani was involved, but it’s at least equally possible he wasn’t.
Again, my math is not great….They claim 100’s of Millions of $ were wagered on that account. I want to hear the trail of money exchanged to get to the final $40,000,000.00 of losses. None of this adds up.
Don’t mess with the golden goose…MLB might investigate CtPG.
i just assumed Ippei won a bunch before losing it all
Agree. Not only that, but the amounts allegedly wagered and the time frame are highly suspicious as well…Something is off about the whole thing…
The only reasonable explanation is a bookie that believes the person placing the bets has access to significantly more money than is being wagered or lost.
As in the famous line in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s nothing behind that curtain!”
Wouldn’t Ippei be a “Guy Friday”
I thought it was Joe Friday.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f08c476c-8b13-4651-b9b6-8762ec1143b3