3-1 Athletics
Tyler Anderson threw together yet another phenomenal start, and the Angels threw together yet another phenomenal defeat.
Who of us is asking Tyler Anderson to be perfect in what could (or could not) be his last start as an Angel? A 3-spot in the first is certainly not ideal, but the offense let down an arm that would go on to pitch to 6.2 additional innings of shutout ball while tying his career high in strikeouts at 10. This would have been winnable if we weren’t in our Seattle-level bats character arc.
Credit to Schanuel, who managed to account for 3/7 of the Angel baserunners tonight and the lone run on a nice yellow-liner liner in the third. Aside from him though, the name of the game was weak contact.
All in all, the Angels have limped right back where they started prior to the Mariners series. They will look to avoid following up their sweep by getting swept tomorrow against Osvaldo Bido.
Today’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/athletics-vs-angels/2024/07/28/746195/preview
So sick and tired of seeing the Ward/Calhoun tandem and Drury in the line-up.
Rendon not starting two days in a row after DH Friday 🧐
Are you insinuating a………possible injury?
Are you just following trAdition in thinking his availability is in question?
Asking for a friend 😀😀😀😀
I was thinking more that the Angels are moving on.
with an off day tomorrow. Must be on his summer vacation.
Must not want to overtax his work load.
Rendon working from home.
People are over in the trade thread.
They’re everywhere, I have no idea where to go. 🙂
Well if 2002 is here I’m going to the trade thread.
Too late he there now too. 😩
😎
You’re always up early Twebur. Happy Sunday. Rengifo and Anderson should net us at least one quality player each. We have a couple of relievers we can trade as well. I know we need numbers, but as Gitch mentioned, I would rather have quality over quantify. We got two pretty good ones yesterday. If we get aggressive, I think we could get a nice jump on the rebuild. It would be nice if we could find a blocked power hitting 3B. If not, just get the best players you can get. If Ward has a really good year next year he could net us something good as well. I am optimistic after the Estevez trade.
Same Doyer Drum beat….If it were me, I’d dump everything that not bolted down, and keep Rengifo. His versatility and bat is worth another year. Trade him in 2025. We need to field a team next year. I’m worried that such a young team with the likelihood of more losing, these kids are going to become frustrated, and become comfortable with losing. He might help the offense stay afloat.
And it will be interesting to see where all these moves, move our minor league rankings. Assuming we aren’t done, and the remaining gentleman will net us solid top prospects.
I bet now matter what, it will be underwhelming……because if all our tradition.
Meet Brock Wilkin of the Brewers
Estevez farewell.
https://x.com/hoppeday1/status/1817332536852238368
Not sure if this is new….some might have quotes from it.
https://x.com/MattGelb/status/1817335249241534870
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5339511/2024/03/15/sam-aldegheri-italian-pitcher-phillies-mlb/
If someone would be so kind to cut paste post?
I plan on setting out my tin cup on my local street corner to help pay for my future subscription……
But I’m too GA today to do it….. it’s hot.
The Gray Lady aint going top like it but here you go:
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Sam Aldegheri fell in love with baseball by accident. As a kid in San Martino Buon Albergo — a small town in Verona, Italy — his only connection to Major League Baseball was forged through YouTube videos of Clayton Kershaw. One of the few baseball fields in Verona was five minutes from his house. His older brother was a pitcher. The boys’ parents were too busy with work to take them to soccer, so this was it.
I grew up at the baseball field,” Aldehgeri said.
This is a perfectly American story that happened in the unlikeliest of places — a medieval town that was the setting for “Romeo and Juliet.” Aldegheri discovered he threw better with his left hand. His brother, a righty, taught him how to pitch. Some Italian coaches offered cursory advice. He discovered MLB through internet highlight reels.
And, when he was 15, a scout from the Kansas City Royals noticed Aldegheri at a tournament in Spain. “You might be a prospect,” the scout told him. Aldegheri had to convince his mother it wasn’t a joke.
That’s when he knew.
“I need to be a big leaguer,” Aldegheri said. “I need to sign for a professional team.”
The Phillies paid him a $210,000 bonus to sign in 2019. The kid from Verona, Italy, can reach 95 mph now. He is not a top prospect, but he’s intriguing to rival evaluators, some of whom have projected him as a possible back-of-the-rotation pitcher in the majors. Aldegheri, 22, has pitched only 117 innings since signing and finished last season at High A. But the Phillies put Aldegheri on their prospect team for a showcase game Saturday.
“It’s an interesting profile,” Phillies assistant general manager Preston Mattingly said of Aldegheri. “It’s what starting pitchers look like in the minor leagues.”
It’s been 74 years since an Italian-born player threw a pitch in an MLB game. Marino Pieretti, a righty who appeared in 194 games from 1945-50, moved to America before he turned 1. Alex Liddi, an infielder, played 61 games for the Seattle Mariners from 2011-13. He was the first one raised in Italy to reach the majors.
Aldegheri would be the first Italian-born-and-raised pitcher.
“Oh, I’m a hundred percent sure that I will make it,” Aldegheri said. “I don’t know how and when. But I’m sure I will make it to the bigs.”
Why?
“Because it’s my life,” he said. “I’m working out every day. It’s my dream. I am living to be a big leaguer. I’ve made a lot of sacrifices. I’m far from home, from my family. I left everything there. That’s what I feel like I’m living for. So I’m 100 percent sure. I know I’m a good pitcher. I have good stuff.”
The Phillies employ a scout, Claudio Scerrato, whose job is to roam all of Europe. “It’s not always that productive, but he knows the players,” said Sal Agostinelli, the Phillies’ longtime international scouting boss. Scerrato, who is based in Italy, called Agostinelli in 2019 with a tip about Aldegheri. Agostinelli was planning to attend a European tournament, but this sealed it.
“I remember like it was today,” Agostinelli said. “He comes out to start the game and he’s 88 to 91 (mph). A left-handed, 17-year-old kid. I’m like, ‘What the f— is this?’ I’m like, ‘Holy s—.’ And the thing is, he did it easy.”
It was confusing because Aldegheri looked more polished than most Italian-born pitchers. The only professional league in the country plays on weekends. It’s the equivalent of Low-A ball — maybe. Italian descendants have starred in the majors. But the sport has not evolved there.
“In Italy, I didn’t even know what arm care was,” Aldegheri said. “I didn’t even know how to do medicine ball exercises or anything like that. So everything was like, ‘Wow.’ Even the Trackman during bullpens. At first, when they showed me the numbers, I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re showing me, man.’ For me, everything here is new.”
Aldegheri credited his older brother, Mattia, who has pitched five years in Italian Serie A, with developing his mechanics. “I don’t know if he saw something in me, or just because he was my brother and wanted to help,” Aldegheri said. He urged Sam to keep trying. Sam called Mattia “my hero.”
It took months to negotiate the deal with the Phillies in 2019. Agostinelli, the son of Italian immigrants, feared that Aldegheri’s father was shopping the Phillies’ offer to other teams.
“And it wasn’t that at all,” Agostinelli said. “He just was worried.”
Severino, Aldegheri’s father, works with glass windows. His mother works in a large bakery. “Especially for Italians, family is really important,” Aldegheri said. “It’s the first thing.” It’s not as if his parents did not believe in him.
They just didn’t want to accept that I was leaving home,” Aldegheri said. “But now they’re happy.”
This month, Aldegheri’s parents are coming to America to see him pitch for the first time. One of Agostinelli’s favorite wines in the entire world — Amarone — is from Verona.
Severino is bringing a few bottles for Agostinelli.
Aldegheri has a photo on his iPhone of a ticket stub from Aug. 24, 2021 — the only big-league game he’s attended. The Phillies flew him to Philadelphia so he could meet with team doctors. He sat in Section 121 at Citizens Bank Park and watched the Phillies lose to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The dream wasn’t as bright then. The pandemic prevented him from coming to America in 2020 and delayed his arrival in 2021. By August 2021, Aldegheri had been diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. He rested it, then reinjured it in 2022. He never had surgery. He weathered his first full professional season in 2023 and posted a 4.20 ERA in 83 2/3 innings with a 27 percent strikeout rate and 10 percent walk rate. He could spin the ball. His fastball sat 92.5 mph. He gained physical and mental strength.
He spent October and November at the Phillies’ complex in Florida. He flew home to Italy for the holidays, then returned to America on Jan. 7. As the big-league pitchers arrived, Aldegheri found a daily spot behind the mounds to watch Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Ranger Suárez. He marveled at the cameras and attention devoted to routine throwing sessions.
“Being that close to big leaguers,” Aldegheri said, “we can touch it.”
He has not considered his potential place in MLB history. His teammates tease him about it; they call him the Italian Stallion. Aldegheri could reach the majors in the city that fetishizes Rocky Balboa. He’s aware of the strong Italian culture in Philadelphia.
“That’s why I want to play there,” he said.
“I mean, he’s got a chance,” Agostinelli said. “He’s a lefty. Put it this way: If he stays healthy, he’ll pitch in the big leagues. He will.”
But Aldegheri still has much to prove. He’ll begin the season at High-A Jersey Shore and, by the end of the season, he hopes to have forced the Phillies to add him to the 40-man roster. He called himself “a normal kid from Italy,” but knows that as his profile grows, he could become an inspiration for another generation of Italian baseball players.
“Follow your dreams and work hard,” Aldegheri said. “Because it’s worth it. I’m living a dream and I can say, ‘Thank God, I’m here.’”
Sorry Twebs I tried to post it but the Gray Lady and her evil gestapo blocked it.
Basically in a nutshell his Brother taught him how to pitch and some scouts saw him pitching 90 MPH in the Pizza League. The Phillies employ a full-time scout in Europe who got them to sign him to an international signing bonus of $210K after long negotiations with the family.
His teammates nicknamed him the Italian Stallion and thought it would be really cool for him to debut in the original Rocky town of Philadelphia but the Angels ruined that idea yesterday . He has only been to one MLB game but his life long dream is to pitch in the Majors and he knows hes going to do it someday.(I wonder if the Angels already told him it would be next week)
Thanks. Life long friend nickname is the Italian Stallion…
Pizza league? Which pizza will we have? Pizza oven cooked artisan pizza, maybe a nice delicious Chicago deep dish?
Or, because trAdition, Frozen Genos Pizza Rolls?
Maybe the dry, crappy Oggi’s Stadium Pizza ?
$6 for section 105 for today. Is it worth it….. The last time I went this year we got destroyed bu the M’s
Simone Biles is tougher than Mike Trout.
Just sayin’
Both Biles and Trout are 🐐 🐐
more trades, more trades!!!
Pumped to see Soriano in person today
🎙 This is the news that the fans have been waiting to hear with bated breath, the Angels communicated 📱 with each other and made a trade, time ⏰ to 💣 blow the roster up and trade ’em all. Let’s hear 📻 some more great trading news ’bout some great trading and shuffling that’s going down to get this transformation going. It’s 🔛 baby, no going 🔙 . Trade them all for mas ninos, let’s get this rebuild going. 😃
GOOD NEWS!!! Today’s game is the last one against the A’ss.
💯
At least OHoppe, Neto, and Schanuel are doing ok for rookies. The game plan this year was for the veteran guys to supplement them for us to be a 500 club.. But nope, all of the veteran position players sucked/didn’t show this year: Rendone, Drury, Ward, Sano, and Trout. Add Moniak and Adell who both aren’t consistent, and your gonna be bad.
I resent that other teams get to fatten up against the white sox and we don’t get to play them until it’s way too late to matter…(he says after noticing the Nariners whomping on Chicago)
Remember when we used to say that about Oakland?
not sure if I want to sigh or sob
It really doesn’t matter. All about the trades at this point.
And the development of our young players both here and in the minors