West Coast living has been pretty good for the Angels. First there was a split of a two game series in Chavez Ravine then a sweep at home against the Oakland A’s. So a 4-1 stretch as I type these up on Thursday afternoon.
Plenty of contestants for highlight of the week this week but I’m going with Mickey Moniak’s first career grand slam.
For one, a grand slam is always cool and this one gave us the lead. But also I had two of my sisters and their families with me that night. Wife, 2 sisters, their husbands, my son, 8 nieces and nephews, and a dear friend at what was a great night at the ballpark. Just smiles and ice cream all around.
That grand slam was the second hard hit ball for Moniak that night. The first was a line out to the warning track. Between the hard contact and nice glove work this week you can see the talent that made him the first overall pick in the draft. Consistency is his problem, not talent. Let’s see how his year plays out.
For the month of June, Moniak is slashing .242/.329/.452 and that doesn’t appear to be luck as his BABIP is only .302. The key for Moniak is always going to be pitch selection. He’s generally a free swinger but has walked in 10% of his plate appearances while striking out at half his usual rate (17% in June). If he’s able to ever learn the strike zone well enough to keep a double digit walk rate, he should be a productive hitter.
And he’s had some moments with the glove this week.
So far the book is still out on most of the kids. O’Hoppe looks like a stud, Neto like a starter on a good team, but Moniak, Adell, and Schanule have had more struggles than successes. There’s still about half a season to go, but a grade of C- for the team seems about right.
The win/loss record could continue to improve as the upcoming schedule includes the four game set with Detroit followed by three more at Oakland. Add in three in Wrigley and the Angels don’t face a winning team until July 11th against Seattle.
Of course heading into July means getting closer to the trade deadline. I’m cruising trade sites and will post one trade each week from the simulator’s trade board I think is interesting. This week we trade our present for a chunk of the Dodgers future.
Kyle Hurt could be the steal in this scenario. He has a huge fastball and has learned quite a bit of control this year. James Outman has been bad in 2024 but carried a 118 OPS+ through his first 583 plate appearances and plays a solid centerfield. Young and cost controlled he could be a solid but not spectacular starter for several years. Miguel Vargas helps the team while it rebuilds and Jake Gelof is a lottery ticket third baseman.
And if any of you are considering heading to the Big A, the Angels are basically throwing in field box seats for $5 if you’ll spend $20 on food. That is clearly a sign of desperation, but when a promo for a $25 bundle for a field box seat and $20 food voucher hits my inbox I figured I’ll let you know.
Ron Washington seems like a good mentor for young players and he appears to have helped Neto find better results at the plate. That talk led to this game winning hit.
To change gears, Monday will unbelievably mark the 5 year anniversary of Tyler Skaggs death. Sam Blum and the staff at The Athletic have done an incredible job the last couple of weeks of bringing multiple pieces of the story together for interviews and introspection. This week Eric Kay granted an exclusive interview that is worth a read. Really the entire coverage lately is worth the cost of the subscription.
For those without a subscription, here’s a recap of the piece.
This story touches on many sad realities of the opiate epidemic. Your longform reading this week is from the LA Times and recounts the final few hours of Skaggs while weaving many of those elements together.
From around baseball:
The best thing I saw this week was this fan catch in Baltimore.
Meanwhile the strangest happened in Detroit. I can understand the 1-3 double play, but that runner on third absolutely can not become out number 3.
Have a great weekend and link what I missed. We spent this week hosting sisters and cousins at the beach, Disneyland, and the Big A. This weekend my son gets spoiled by grandparents. Life is good in so many ways and I’m happy to have my Angels family on this site.
I am all for Rendon coming back without a rehab assignment. Would love to increase our odds in the Jace Laviolette sweepstakes. Come back now, bat lead off. https://halohangout.com/posts/anthony-rendon-absurd-assertion-will-have-angels-fans-dying-of-laughter-01j1cs01ambt
I saw the trade proposal above. The desire is to trade a guy in his prime leading the league in hitting with 20 SBs plus a middle of the order run producer to an arch rival for a guy named Outman who has been bad (read: Moniak II) and a few “hot” prospects that may never amount to anything????
Ah, no thanks. We aren’t trying to gift the Dodgers a world title, we are trying to build one here. These are the types of deals that blow up in the faces of the Halos. They aren’t good at them.
Angels need real talent in return from anyone. Perry hasn’t shown an ability to choose well either.
I’d prefer a deal with the Braves where Perry might know an actual prospect or two inside and out. Or an O’Hoppe type where the player is universally understood to be good but is simply blocked at the MLB level by a long-term veteran.
BTW if you are trading an INF to the Dodgers, you can at least get Lux back. No “lottery tickets” please.
Agree on the Oatman part, at least. Dude has AAAA lifer written all over him.
Lyke I tell eberyone, educashun is for the peeple that doen’t have naturel lyfe skils.
Tonight’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/tigers-vs-angels/2024/06/28/746214/preview
I forgot about Plesac. And no customary Calhoun as DH
Guess I’ll be at tonight’s game. Apparently they have school fundraisers tickets even though schools are out for the summer.
Arte and Co are going all out to get butts in seats this year. Way more Little League Days than I’ve seen in the past. The $25 promo above. School tickets.
A lot of this is minor league baseball level stuff but it shows they can get a little motivated when money is on the line.
Maybe my Alma Mater is raising funds, that would be The school for the educationally aversive.
Jeff, going back to the mention of your Davis Daniel interviews, I wanted to say they were among my favorites that you’ve done, along with Jahmai Jones and anything involving anyone named Fletcher.
Nice. Thank you.
Just a heads up for the site in general: I’m crazy buried at work right now but did add Nolan as an intern. Figuring he’s the perfect social media age I’m going to have him and possibly a new intern fire up our old Twitter account and set up an IG.
I got most of my interviews through Facebook back when we had a large social media following and the players were intrigued.
So, in short I’m adding some talent to the site in an effort to raise the profile and bring in more content.
If you know somebody who would like some college intern credit to create and manage our social media feeds, hit me up.
If not, give me some time and I’ll have us back up to former glory with plenty of interviews.
More content is always good. Glad to hear it.
After last night’s performance by Daniels, if Enright or Bachman still have any red facial hair by this morning, just release them now.
#nomoreredbeards
Jeff, Thanks for the post and I hope you have enjoyed the family time! We’ll have a few loved ones who have moved on and will be missed at our next reunion so perspective is easily found.
It was great. Enjoy your reunion but the missing ones are always missed.
I assumed Davis Daniel was having at least a decent year in the minors given his call-up and how good he looked last night.
He was sporting a 5.33 ERA with a 1.50 WHIP through 14 starts.
Last night was an aberration, don’t get excited folks.
I’m in a glass case of emotions with this franchise. I don’t know whether to be thrilled the team has turned the corner, or if I’m being “buttercupped” yet again.
Oh, they are always finding new ways to buttercup us.
I’m just going to sit back and enjoy all the ShuffleBotting that’s going on right now! The Kids and the RagTag group of MLB retreads are finding themselves.
It will all come crashing down when Grandpa Trout and Rendon come back home and mess up our MoJo. No more playing ball in the house, forced to eat our vegetables, pea protein meatballs and going to bed by 10:00, yelling at us to wash our hands!
Yep…that whole adult thing is highly overrated.
The year after their first World Series, the Marlins finished with the season with 54 wins. But even they had a month where they won 60% of their games, so while I’m happy to see the team winning, I’ll temper my expectations.
You didn’t need to go cross country even. The year after their first World Series, the Hard-nosed gritty Angels won 77 games.
And the year before the WS Championship they won only 75 games which included two 5 game winning streaks and one 6 game winning streak.
Two years before winning the WS the Angels had a guy who had 240 hits (Erstad), and they finished 82-80.
Misty watercolored mem-O-reees…of two years….before.
3 years before, in 1999, Tim Belcher and Chan Ho Park got into a “parking lot fight” inside the latrine. Park decided to go full kung fu and kick Timmy. Timmy said I’ll have none of that, and took him to the ground and wrestled a knife from Chan Ho. The Doyers that year had a 77-85 record. This was long before they started injecting their players with their proprietary secret JuJu sauce. Or had a Payroll of $250 million, or in reality $400 million if you count all of the absurd amount of deferred money. It was later discovered that was the first year the Doyers tried an experimental drug on Éric Gagné. It was derived from what might be an undetectable concoction of Horse Testosterone and Poppy seeds, it was eventually detected. The version they use today is sadly yet to be uncovered. F’ing cheaters.
*Fun Fact, with all the cheating the Doyers do, all the hundreds of millions they send on payroll every year, they haven’t won a World Series since 1988.
that *is* fun!
Are you a Laker fan? Point out how another team sucks more is the classic Laker Fan Defense.
Can’t take SLC #s seriously
You can take the pitcher out of SLC.
But you can’t take the SLC out of the pitcher?
HRs true, BA and pitching stats, untrue.
His HR rate isn’t his problem anyway – only 5 allowed in 14 starts.
To an extent altitude does impact pitching. Less air = spin generates less movement on breaking pitches.
From what I understand, SLC is one of the smaller parks in MiLB
Smaller and 4,300′ elevation yikes!
An absolutely horrible place to prepare ballplayers to play in a regular sized ballpark at sea level.
They aren’t the only team with that problem. Most of the Pacific Coast League play at a high elevation, problem remains for them on many road games too. I know they use humidors with around 1/3 (or more by now) of the league.
There are 4 PCL parks at higher elevation :
Reno
Salt Lake
Las Vegas
Albuquerque
The other 6 ( Round Rock, Sugarland, Tacoma, OKC, Sacramento, El Paso) are all at 1000′ or less.
Unless you play for Colorado.
#OUTLIER
Aw gee thanks for the sober admonishment. Like nobody else here was aware of his 2024 minor league stats.
He’s a Tommy John survivor who’s always nipped at the edges of our top prospects lists. Started off the season great. Lost his way and obviously made an adjustment. Looking forward to his next start.
It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it
“Nope, that wasn’t fun. That was that cold hearted bitch fate trying to trick you into enjoying something, knowing full well that it probably won’t be awesome for the rest of your life. What a gyp. I’m here tuh tell yuh. Everything dies. Everything. You like that sun? Yeah? Some day it will explode and then become a black hole. Enjoy that black hole Polly Anna…. and don’t get me started on where every meal you enjoy ends up….”
One thing that was overlooked from last night was Chase Silseths start in AAA. He was awful giving up 10 hits 2 BB’s and 5 ER’s in 5-2/3 innings of work. So Perry and the boys made the right call leaving him down at the farm to fix whatever’s ailing him. Detmers has another start scheduled for Sunday while Bachman starts for the Trash Pandas on Saturday.
Since Soriano has still not thrown off a mound since his convenient load management “illness” ( The timing couldn’t be better As Steel Golf pointed out) he wont be ready to pitch by next Saturday. So Unless the Angels like something they see in either one of Bachman or Detmers continual auditions, it sounds like we are stuck with another Roansy bullpen game or two before the All Star Break.
This is the Angels. His original issue was “elbow inflammation”. When they do the next scan his prognosis will likely transition to a 2026 return date.
At least it wasn’t dehydration. 😄
Yep, this time the spin of the “random injury ailments” wheel landed on “inflammation”.
Are we talking about bowel or elbow inflammation?
Ah so you think this stomach thing is just a beard for another elbow problem? I hope not.
Davis Daniel painted the corners last night like MF’in Michelangelo. Joy to watch.
Enright needs to use this Daniel performance as a huge “I told you so” teaching moment. It was so nice to watch pitching done as it should be, by a guy without 100 mph and unbelievable spin rate. With pitchers’ arms falling off left and right, baseball leaders must rediscover “the art of pitching” to save our beloved game.
How much of that was on the Umpire?
If people remember, Daniel looked decent when he was up before. He seems to have good stuff and a level head. We can all hope for the best. Yes, it does help to face the Tigers instead of Yankees or Dodgers but still. Good for him.
I saw in tennis Djokovic is returning in one month after meniscus surgery to play Wimbledon at age 37. Can we get close to having Trout back please?
I assume the Halos want to play other people before the All-Star break to see who they can move, but c’mon. Best wishes all.
Fkn CheapnEvil.
The whole Skaggs/Kay debacle is something that should never have happened. Two wrongs that prove you can’t make a right. I have personally had interactions with the Kay family and it’s been devastating for all. This is where drug abuse often ends, with tragedy for all involved. Two drug abusers leading secret, separate lives ruled by THEIR choice.
I completely agree steel. It’s standard these days to have total polar opposites of victim and perpetrator. Everyone in this story seems like enablers to me. Play dumb and blame, no accountability or ownership in any side.
I know it was THEIR choices and mouths and noses and veins. But who do I BLAME? Where do I point my rage boner? Is there someone I can sue?
The Sackler family is a good target. They unleased Oxy under a host of lies and really kickstarted this entire thing. And, of course, our FDA is as diligent as Barney Fife.
Obviously nothing is that simple, but they peddled legal heroin and purposely targeted the hardest working Americans. The blue collar guys who mine, build, and farm.
I highly recommend Dopesick on Hulu. Yeah it is TV but sticks to the facts pretty well.
I’ve had two close friends die from fentanyl and saw another close friend bury his 22 year old son due to it.
One of those was a serious drug user, the other a normal guy who hurt his neck and was prescribed Oxy by a doctor and got hooked, the third a kid who took something at a party.
This isn’t like the drugs we grew up with. There’s zero margin for error here and doctors ae often the pathway to it, like with Skaggs and my friend.
As a father it is frightening.
Davis Daniel walked to the mound looking like a big kid still going through puberty, and stunned Angel fans and Detroit Tigers hitters. All of MLB now has coaches reviewing game video of last night’s gem.
Top 10 BA in MLB:
Ohtani
Profar
Rengifo
Witt Jr.
Arraez
Correa
Judge
Betts
Harper
Altuve
I believe these are the good ol days friends, rejoice and enjoy.
Going for #5 in a row tonight
Only one start but maybe that Daniel kid looks good. Hurry up and package him, Schanuel, and Adell to Toronto for Vlad Jr. Sentimental here, just because I think it would be great for him to follow his dad and be part of the big A. He is still young too. Jays ship is sinking and they are sellers. Thrown in a deal for Bichette too. Dad Dante played here also and we just saw him few months ago practicing with youngsters at park in Torrance, so family is local.
EXTEND RENGIFO
Extend them all! Daniel or Davis is the second coming of Greg Maddox. Don’t sell Perry, buy buy buy!
Trading Anderson, Ward, Charlie Sheen, Pillar, etc. makes all the sense.
Now, when you have a 27 year old stud leading the American League in BA you have to trade him away! You have to !!!
Our farm system must be overflowing with talented infielders to replace our best hitter, right?
Well Keston Huira is still only 27 years old . Has a MLB Career OPS of .771 has at least 2 more seasons of control and is absolutely destroying the PCL since we signed him in early June slashing .392/.446/.824 .
So there is at least one option to keep second base warm if the Angels want to maximize Rengifo’s trade value until one of our limited pool of youngsters like Kyren Paris finally figure it out.
If we do call him up, can we make sure the other MLB teams call up the AAA pitching he is mashing against?
Understand the inflation concerns but he’s already proven he can hit at the Major League level with over 1000 career Major League At Bats slashing .238/.318/.453
Thats a proven commodity that would be the 4th highest OPS on this current Roster.
His Nickname is Kestdaddy. Anyone with Daddy at the end of their NN, is an OG Baller.
Has a little speed too. If his glove is solid, bring him up and move on from Guillliiormei (not sure how to spell his name, the slow fat’ish heavenly bearded guy with a solid glove)
Free younger, faster, more Hitter’ish Yutes!
Hitter’ish Yutes! LOL
You should name a podcast or youtube that. Vinny Gambini endorses this message.
KestDaddy is exactly who you extend if he comes up and does well for a few months. Lowish cost contract that keeps him here through the rebuild… then maybe beyond.
Jed Lowrie.
I like the galaxy brain thought process here, but I’ve learned to not take stock in AAA #s.
Yes. If you want the pain of being a sub-.500 team with a couple really good players on it to end before 2036 then YES you have to trade those actually good valuable players.
Everyone can stop asking. Yes, you trade those players. Yes, the team will be bad. Yes, you probably deserve it. No, no word on Arte selling. Yes, he hates you personally and that’s why he’s doing this.
9 1/2 back in the Wild Card with 82 to play…Hopeium is good!!
And only 2-1/2 GB from the turd place Rangers. Lets Goooooo
This is what I’m aiming for right now. Ultimately this team will most likely miss the playoffs, but it will be nice to either have more wins than last year, or finish higher than a team other than the As. Or both.
Baby steps!
And all of that without Evil Shohei and his Mom……and once again without Trout and Rendon.
Kids play for Free!
Remember how pathetic everyone around here got about Ohtani? I do. So does Kayoko…
I hear Shohei’s mom is best friends with Yoko Ono.