Rhett Bollinger breaks down swing data analytics as they relate to the Angels hitters. We scored second on this list of the ten most depressed fan bases in major league baseball. The Cardinals revealed their new City Connect Uniforms that say, “The Lou.” Over on the other side of the pond, the loo is what they call the bathroom.
Trades and Signings
The Mets traded right-hander Yohan Ramirez to the Dodgers for cash. Meanwhile, the Mets signed right-hander Matt Festa to a minor league contract and released Joey Wendle. The Astros signed left hander Eric Lauer to a minor league deal.
Injuries
The Mariners lost utility player Sam Haggerty to a torn achilles tendon. Xander Bogaerts dove for a grounder and injured his shoulder. Zach Eflin is also on the injured list. Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan just had Tommy John surgery.
DFAs
The Royals designated right-hander Matt Sauer for assignment while the Brewers did the same to Thyago Viera. The Cardinals DFAd first baseman/outfielder Alfonso Rivas while the Guardians DFAd Ramon Laureano. The Yankees designated Colby White for assignment. The White Sox DFAd Brad Keller.
Bad Behavior
Former Red Sox pitcher Austin Maddox was arrested in Florida in an underage sex sting.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
More fun stats of the Four Horsemen:
Can Adell go on an insane HR Streak?!
Anybody else notice that Neto got buzzed in the next at bat after his homer?
He struck a pose (not much of one) after he hit it. Ass’tros probably wanted to make a kid on a shitty team thinks twice. I loved it! Like the kids feeling it, feeling like they belong.
We do what we want. F’ the Ass’tros!
I did too. But I loved Neto’s reaction: he just shrugged off as part of the game got back in box and swung away.
Good for him.
4 Horsemen ride again
Tonight’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/angels-vs-astros/2024/05/21/746385/preview
Still amazes me seeing 5 players with OPS .800+ in the lineup. If we get Mike and Drury back, the offense could be good?
Can’t wait for Sano to get back so I don’t have to see Giullorme/Paris/Tucker anymore.
At least for now, Calhoun is greatly out performing anything Drury did this year.
Me too.
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1792950093206671513
I remember us all debating Betts moving to Shortstop when the move was announced. I like this follow-up article. I think they’ve been gentle on some hits vs errors scoring with him, and while he as struggled, he’s surprisingly played better than I thought. It’s a long season, so let’s see how it finishes.
https://www.mlb.com/news/mookie-betts-on-playing-shortstop-working-on-improving
We got Neto there. 😉
Who?
F the Dodgers
What you said bobblanton!!!
Last night was an interesting exercise in in-game hitting Strategery.
Last season hitting coach Thames advocated a constant approach of so much first pitch swinging it seemed to get to a point where the opposition could plan for and knew exactly what all our hitters were doing.
However in last nights game the Angels learned and waited until the pivotal 7 run 5th inning to adapt their strategy to a tiring pitcher who was initiating most batters with a first pitch cookie. All 3 home runs and 1 of the 3 singles in that inning came off of a first pitch off speed pitches that got way too much of the plate. It’s as if the Angel batters and their coaches figured out what was going on and encouraged the hitters that inning to be more aggressive early in the count against a very good pitcher. I doubt we would have seen so prevalent of these in game adjustments at any time last year.
How long has Trout been out? Any word on how he is doing?
Who?
Hey Lana!
I think I remember watching that guy play when I was younger. Wasn’t he really good once?
https://youtu.be/_pglET3LgvE?si=wsApvBPIr5q3cFq-
Heard he’s doing a great job coaching Bekham’s team – and I have NO PROBLEM with him doing that. Enjoy.
There’s a lot of hopium flying around in here. We need a good 10 run drubbing by the Astros tonight to get us back in our donkey cages.
The hopium is crazy out of control!
Get it in while we can. 😀
Let us enjoy our joy at least for 2.5 more hours! I have been thinking about last night’s game all day.
We’ve been harvesting crops of Hopium! Woo hoo
Scanned through the comments…
I’m the only one who noticed the Cards had the Loo and the Poo-holes.
Aw crap
Am I the only one that had to do mental gymnastics to understand the Cards CC jersey?
The phrase “The birds. The bat. The Lou.” immediately made me think of Louisville sluggers and then I couldn’t figure out why they were naming their jerseys after Louisville.
Didn’t connect Lou until the Nelly lyrics at the bottom of the article smh
Worth repeating. Might be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. named The 4 Horsemen by WallyChuck yesterday….maybe a Boyband needs to be added.
But their potential was on full display on Monday, as Nolan Schanuel, Logan O’Hoppe, Jo Adell and Zach Neto all went deep in an improbable two-inning span to lead the Angels to a stunning 9-7 comeback win over the Astros at Minute Maid Park. The group made history, as it marked the first time that the club received four homers in a game from players 25 years old or younger. It was also the first time in NL/AL history a club had homers from a 25-year-old, a 24-year-old, a 23-year-old and a 22-year-old in the same game.
https://www.mlb.com/news/angels-hit-4-homers-vs-astros-score-7-runs-in-fifth-inning
The four of them have to be off limits at the deadline…the future is now.
Question is: Will Perry be able to realize they could be a ten year core?
If so first things first…they all need to be signed to contract extensions.
It’s a little early for that, lets see where they’re at at the end of the year, and there’s no reason to do that until they hit arbitration.
It’s never “too early” to do the right thing.
In my opinion, it would be very foolish to do that right now and totally unnecessary. And you’re basing this on 58 games.
For a warning, see “David Fletcher “
Rule #7 applies…You Snooze You Lose.
There’s nothing to lose at this point and Impulsive behavior is what got this club in trouble.
might not have started with Upton but his long contract was a good example.
Adell’s been really impressing this season. There’s huge improvements in all facets of his game, but personally I’m most impressed with his oppo tacos. That shows he’s not pulling the ball to sell out for power. That HR last night was really impressive where it landed. Dare I say it reminded me of a young Trout, the one who focused on hitting all over the field, more than hitting a HR each at bat.
Even on the ABs he made an out, he worked the counts. He’s getting to more 3-2 counts, waiting for his pitch, and not getting fooled by pitches that used to easily get him out earlier. He’s gladly taking the walks even if it means losing an RBI opportunity.
I’m sure the league will eventually adjust, but I hope he adjusts back, and really settle into this role and be our everyday RF from this point forward.
You can see that he’s really having fun out there. Not surprising when you consider that he’s had quite the journey from uber prospect to possibly not making it out of Spring Training this year. Now he’s starting, thriving and on pace for 30+ jacks and possibly 100 RBI.
Essentially prime Justin Upton
Good comp
J-Up put up a couple 5+ WAR seasons, plus two 4+ WAR seasons.
Jo Jo has a ways to go – let’s hope.
I agree with you but he did have one AB where he struck out on 3 pitches by swinging at 2 that were well out of the strike zone. He still does that every once in a while.
He’ll definitely still have bad ABs. But I guess what I’m seeing differently is he doesn’t look as helpless and clueless anymore at the batter’s box, the way he did for parts of 2020-2022.
Absolutely! No question.
Yes, Adell has always had all fields HR power, he just swung over the ball consistently trying to pull the ball all the time. There are only a few MLB players that can employ a short compact swing and still hit monster HRs, Adell is part of that small number (Trout is another).
Now, if Moniak can just take a look at what Ward and Adell are doing. Moniak constantly swings over middle & out pitches.
every time I watch Jo’s 9th inning catch I shudder about Estevez
They were pretty fortunate. He grooved a bunch of pitches and it could have been way uglier.
All _layers have horrible At Bats But I think the most important area of growth, I see is he does not carry over terrible At bats with him to the plate the next time hes up. He seems to be learning in game form at bat to At bat and form pitch to pitch. Kind of like I remember we used to see in a young Mike Trout.
I agree. It’s just that every once in a while he has one of those uncharacteristic ABs that remind you of the old Adell, and I’m like, knock it off!
TrojanBoiler mentioned this interview in the postgame…the future is now.
https://www.mlb.com/angels/news/angels-hit-4-homers-vs-astros-score-7-runs-in-fifth-inning
RenDone has progressed to walk on an incline at the nursing home. Well done!
Can he walk the full length of the handicap ramp?
Awesome, president and ex-president mobility at last!
I laughed out loud at my desk when I read nursing home
We should be on a 7-game winning streak tbh.
26 games until we meet Shohei and Co. at Dodger Stadium. I would like to be .500 by that time, and to do that would require we go at least 18-8.
It can happen.
I just hope we win the dodgers series.
I want to enter the series as a respectable team, and leave with the mini-sweep.
Would mean something special to me.
I’d trade respectable in 2024 to end up with a lot of ping pong balls. This roster has a long way to go.
I hear you. I’m not opposed to the tank at all, but dammit a .500 season after losing Ohtani with Trouty and Rendone on the shelf would be sweet.
Been time to change the culture.
Obviously it’s still early in the season, but I never thought we’d ever see Nolan (5) having more homers than Logan (4) at any point in time in the season.
Detmers needs some serious intervention. Whatever Enright did to Sandy during the season, or whatever he did to Tyler during the offseason, he needs to do to Reid, stat.
Esty is losing it as a closer, but I don’t know who else might be a viable option at this point. Strickland might be it, but maybe he’s effective where he is, not as a closer.
Anyway, what a great win! And what a way to wipe that smug smile of Framber last night!
I would not assume Enright “did” anything to Tyler. He had one bad season with us last year. Prior to that he was All Star caliber for the Dodgers. In his very recent history he had proven he could be very good. There wasn’t anything to do really. Baseball is a game of ups and downs. Guys who have proven they can be good or like Tyler, very good, more likely than not will get back to that level at some point. The far end of the aging process would be the exception here… It is more feasible that Enright is making a big impact with the younger guys… Though Sandy has also been good before he was not as consistently great as Anderson was in 2022. I’d be more likely to believe that he helped Sandoval in some basic way.. though, I am of course not in their meetings, so at the end of the day it is all speculation on both our parts.
Other than that one AS season he was a very average to below average pitcher. He had one solid year w/a stud team behind him so history shows he wasn’t doing it on his own before that.
Something changed for the better. Are those voices that weren’t coaches flatting around the locker room supposedly (probably) telling players what types of pitches to throw gone now? An adjustment here or there? Whatever it is it’s consistently working.
Whatever is going on w/Detmers really has to be addressed. Dude was to the point we drunkenly thought we might actually have 2 starters that were above being 4-5’a on other teams. His fall from being a “maybe we have a shot this game” pitcher has been brutal.
Adell robbing a HR?!? Seems like only yesterday he was helping them over the wall. He put in the work and if he becomes an average OF and keeps improving that eye, we are so lucky we didn’t trade him. God knows we woulda screwed that up too.
Yeah, what is going on with Detmers is more than a little mysterious. If a guy like him starts really well it is not unusual to see one or maybe two poor starts afterwards… we can view that as a regression to the mean etc.. but this is now like four or five times straight that he has crapped the bed.
It seems to be more than arm fatigue, if I was guessing. Is he perhaps tipping his pitches ? Is something mechanically wrong? This would be Enright’s job to figure out (along with Reid of course). Let’s hope it happens soon. I can’t believe a guy with his stuff and potential would just fall apart this quickly, unless he’s hiding an injury of some sort…
It’s going to be fun when Schanuel consistently starts driving the ball.
20-25 HRs would be a solid outcome.
Nor did I ever think that O’Hoppe would have a higher OBP than Schanuel ( .321 to .306)
Baseball is weird.
I think pitchers are aware of the damage that O’Hoppe can do and they are being more careful with him. And it is a testament to him as well that he is willing to be patient and take those walks when they are available …
From the recap last night:
I wouldn’t characterize it as “too late” since it’s only May, but I’m glad he’s adjusting. Looking for more gap power soon.
So far, Neto and Adell have shown the most improvement when comparing their OPS+s from last year to this year. O’hoppe is not performing as well as last year because of the much lower HR rate, and Schanuel, for all that he’s done lately, still sits at 86 for his OPS+ which is awful for anyone and really awful for a 1B. He has obviously hit better lately but he has a ways to go yet. He’s also the youngest and has the least experience. As long as they get there by the end of the year, We’ll be ready to move forward next year with a much different looking team.
O’Hoppe has a lower HR rate, HOWEVER, he has a much better batting average. I might actually chose that version of him… and he hasn’t totally given up his power to get it.
I am happy with his BA and OBA improvements but not at the expense of 100 points of slugging Avg. I believe he can maintain those and get back to getting more XBHs.
You know how last year O’Hoppe exploded with a lot of HRs when he came back from injury, and we expected that to carry over this season? However, it doesn’t look like it, yet?
I’m guessing he was able to hit those HRs coming back from injury because he was relatively fresh, not sore, not fatigued from a season’s worth of work. This year, when he is now undoubtedly the starting catcher, the toll is catching up, even to a kid like him. I like he has a power potential, but I also don’t want him to empty the tank early in the season. If it’s gap-to-gap power, more than HRs, then so be it, as long as he stays healthy.
The issue isn’t just his HR rate, it’s XBHs in general. His slugging Pct is 100 points lower than last year so far. Yes his BA and OBA are better (which is good) but with the drastic reduction in SLG Pct he is a less valuable hitter. I’m not advocating trying to pull the ball or swinging for the fences, and I do believe his power will return, but based on OPS+, his is not as productive of a hitter so far.
That Statcast, an MLB owned company/service, added “Swords” as a trackable stat tells you all you need to know about Manfred. I’m not one of these commissioner haters, but I hate what that guy is doing to the game. Next up, they will be tracking BFH – Bat Flip Height. I wish this guy would go away.
I don’t know what a sword is and from the tone of your comment I think I don’t want to know
In baseball, “sword” is a slang term used to describe a powerful swing by a batter that makes them look like they’re swinging a sword. The term is often used when a batter takes a bad-looking swing and misses the ball. The term is similar to someone swinging a sword because the hitter is obviously fooled by a pitch and their swing comes out as more of a hacking slashing motion than a swing. You can also get sworded by the pitcher after it happens.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=928812441298460
Of course Suarez was the winning pitcher last night…let’s do that again!!
Imagine being told that Detmers would give up 6 run over 4 innings, we would be trailing by 5 runs at the time Suarez was brought in and we still came all way back by lightning up Framber of all opponents.
Incredibly unlikely to say the least.
Suarez last 4 outings: 9-1/3 Innings 1.93 ERA 12 K’s 4 walks 1.07 WHIP .514 OPS against.
Fools gold?
Not likely that good but can eat up innings. Sure, it’s fun to poke fun at him but this value should not be overlooked.
He sucks
Did Enright score some blue juice?
If so give some to Detmers quick.
He sucks
It’s why he’s the proverbial cat with 900 lives who gets brought back despite being bad at pitching. He always shows up out of shape and then figures out something later in the year to the point that the Angels think they may have a real pitcher. Unfortunately for those of us watching he always regresses to begin the ugly cycle again. He’s always been in my guys I’d like to see DFA’d top three list.
To paraphrase Charles Barkley: “He just doesn’t know that he sucks yet”.