About three years ago, these guys in the cover photo were “the kids” or “the yutes” down at the Arizona Complex League. In the meantime, we have gone out and gotten some more kids. Some of the new kids are working out. Others are not working out. There is a learning curve. Of those 2021 kids, William Holmes retired a little over a year ago. David Calabrese is limping along at Rocket City with a .223 batting average that is a slight improvement over his career average. Brandon Marsh was there in 2021, although not in this photo. I guess Marsh is doing OK with 3.3 WAR so far this season.
Both Jo Adell and Kevin Pillar wound up on the injured list over the weekend. For Adell, the season is over. He was transferred to the 60 day IL to make room on the 40 man roster for (drum roll please!) Jose Suarez. I still think they should have converted Sano to a pitcher.
Although he’s not one of the kids, Mike Trout has been keeping himself busy. He is one of the 2024 nominees for the Roberto Clemente Award. Taylor Ward is trying to finish out the season on a high note.
For those of you into fantasy baseball, Ben Joyce is a hot commodity right now. In the no-brainer category, the Angels should have traded Luis Rengifo and Tyler Anderson at the trade deadline. Thank you Captain Obvious.
Non-Angels Links
For today’s argument, Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge?
Here is the gratuitous article where we can gleefully watch the Astros and Justin Verlander struggle. Here is Verlander on his awesome era.
The Mariners picked up Austin Kitchen off waivers and designated Jason Vosler for assignment. The Guardians designated Anthony Gose for assignment. The Mets designated Pablo Reyes for assignment and selected Eddy Alvarez who they just acquired from the Red Sox for cash.
Notable deaths
Ed Kranepool, one of the original Mets.
James Earl Jones, of Sandlot and Field of Dreams fame.
Cover photo: Rex Fregosi
Tonight’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/angels-vs-twins/2024/09/10/745856/preview
Joyce to IL with a sore shoulder. We just don’t get anything nice.
Wait, RenDone to IL, too. Again. At least there’s that.
Right after Wash told Jeff Fletcher that Joyce was fine?
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1833331640023535907
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNeVjVu9O6w
The human shoulder was not built to throw 105 mph. I sincerely hope it’s not the rotator cuff or an impingement injury.
As for Rendon, hopefully that’s the last we’ll see him in an Angels uniform
I know we have some members that live in our mountain communities, I hope you’re all staying safe and indoors with all these fires going on. SoCal skies are looking crazy today.
Luckily the Angels are in Minnesota.
Came here to say something similar.
Great minds and all that. How ya been, dude?
There was one here in the OC too, near one co-worker’s house, but I believe the fire’s under control.
There’s one in Trabuco Canyon, one in Mt. Baldy, and one in the Highland area.
Brutal for our fire crews.
During the period of time the Angels Organization has been in existence the Twins have produced 6 Hall of Famers.
Are Maitan and Baldoquin still considered kids?
(Wherever in the Hell they are)
Baldoquin apparently went back to Cuba. Go on, take the money and run.
I heard Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez appointed him Treasury Secretary.
hes a hell of a lot better negotiator than a baseball player thats for sure.
He wasn’t from Cuba
“I’m not from Cuba you fargin’ bastiches!”
All apologies to Johnny Dangerously.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=baldoq000rob
says born in Las Tunas, Cuba.
In the years Ohtani only serves as a DH, I have to take Judge. Dude plays a mean outfield and brings a lot of value there.
When Ohtani is a two way phenom, the decision is Ohtani over everybody who has ever played the game.
I’ve been looking at it through the lens of “Who would you want on your team?” and, for me, Ohtani is the clear choice. It’s easy to see him winning MVP this year, and if he returns as a pitcher, he could easily win two more. From a baseball perspective, his pitching provides too much value to overlook. Simply adding up his hitting and pitching WAR doesn’t fully capture how impactful he really is.
Imagine if we had ohtani.
We have 18 games left and 6 are against the White Sox so I think we can go 9-9 for a total of 69 wins.
Compared to last year that’s only a drop off of 4 wins which isn’t too bad considering we don’t have Ohtani‘s 46/47.
But I think we all agree we’d be a much better team if we’d traded the guy, landed good prospects and used the money we previously paid him to sign 2 quality FAs
Certainly Arte would’ve appeared to have a much smarter baseball mind than his current 1.5 rotten tomato score.
We’d be headed towards 73 wins!!
We’d still be out of the playoffs but not actually eliminated for another 7-10 days.
DH Ohtani vs. CF Judge is tough but, I’ll take Ohtani because he swipes bags & hits triples to go with the homers. Moreover, Shohei brings more on the marketing front IMO.
I think 45/45 (and possibly 50/50) trumps 62. Definitely Ohtani.
Let’s remember that steal numbers are inflated nowadays with the new rules. I still remember Ohtani being a subpar base stealer before the rule changes.
You mean the Angels don’t steal bases policy?
Poor Trout couldn’t steal a base, even if it was given to him.
I’m taking Aaron Judge.
He has higher bWAR (9.6 to 7.3) and also leads in other categories (AVG/HR/RBI) etc.
Plus he plays defense.
(their offensive stats are similar – that big difference in WAR i’m guessing is largely due to the delta in playing defense.
Ohtani may hit 8.5-9 WAR from the DH position – ie no defense contribution. That is insane. If he were pitching this might have been a 15 WAR season for him.
This is his max output as an offensive player, which is enabled by him not pitching or defending. Once he pitches again these offensive numbers will not continue, resulting in no 15 WAR season for him.
Correct. It’s all theoretical. And you are right if he were pitching, his offensive numbers would be lower. But he easily could be looking at a 12 war season this year if he were pitching.
The WAR difference is probably largely due to the defensive contribution, but don’t discount the fact that Judge’s pure offensive production is much better than Ohtani’s.
I liken it to Trout’s first 8 years in the big leagues. Every year there was a new player who was having a career year coming for Trout yet Trout’s AVERAGE SEASON in that timeframe was better than their career years.
This is Ohtani’s career year on offense, and it’s not even as good as Judge’s average year. Judge’s career OPS is 1.00 while Ohtani has 0.993 this year. Judge is beating Ohtani in OBP this year by 80 points!
The two way phenom has a peak WAR of around 10 if I’m not mistaken. That is nowhere near the best player ever. Trout had several seasons with greater WAR and even Judge will have several seasons with significantly greater WAR.
Greatest player ever regardless of era is Bonds without question.
Usually I wouldn’t pick a Guy still recover from TJ Surgery.
To bad Ohtani couldn’t just shag balls in Right and throw it in to a cut off man. He is a good Outfielder from want we have seen at the Big A.
If I had to choose between Ohtani and Judge, I’d pick Ohtani every time, even if we’re only talking about him as a DH. Not only is he an elite hitter, but he’s also a pitcher, and he’s put together two of the most impressive seasons I’ve ever seen. Even during Judge’s 62-home run season (with juiced balls), I still felt Ohtani had the better year. Sure, Judge hit a ton of homers, but Ohtani was dominating on the mound. He should’ve been the MVP that year, despite Judge’s home run total. Ohtani continues to do things no one else has, while Judge doesn’t—and let’s not forget, Judge plays for the MF Yankees.
I like the young talent, but it feels like too little, too late. Correct me if I’m wrong, but back in the 2000s, didn’t we have a few of these promising prospects coming up every season? Our system should consistently be developing future MLB players, especially pitchers. That’s affordable production and valuable trade deadline currency—something we’ve been missing for the last 15 years.
If we are only considering Judge’s offense vs Ohtani’s offense there is simply no comparison. Judge is in a whole other stratosphere. You can see that by simply looking at their OPS+ (218 to 177).
Now, if we consider Ohtani is pitching, then you can reasonably assume reduced offensive production and limited innings, and all of a sudden it’s a fairly close comparison in value between the two.
And while I understand hating Judge for playing for the MF Yankees, Ohtani plays for the Doyers, who I hate even more. Not to mention Ohtani personally stabbed me in the back when he left.
I see you guys like focusing on our young core with an eye for the future. While I respect that, I take a different approach in my baseball fandom. I like to look through the stats of opposing players so I can tear them down and say “you’re not that good!”
You have a lot of home runs but your OBP is .320? You suck!
You have a good WHIP and ERA but you can’t pitch more than 100 innings (Glasnow & Yamamoto)? You suck!
You have a lot of stolen bases this year and everyone calls you a uNiCOrn not only for hitting and pitching but also for reaching 50HR/50SB? You also suck! I remember you were caught stealing nearly 30% of the time with us!
We got a new pitcher also named Jose Suarez?
This Jose is much better than the last one….
Jo Adell – I suspect we’ll retain him with an arbitration pay bump and hold out hope that he can improve his BA the way he improved his defense. Oh, and figure out how to avoid another Lat injury.
He’s looked good enough, give him another year to see if the growth continues. Perry keeping him the line-up regardless of success has helped. Pencil him in as the starting RF.
Meh
Agreed, I wonder how much we settle because the team is so bad overall.
I see him as part of our core, not a lead guy but still useful.
Jo became a GG caliber defender in 1 season with Wash and Co. His bat dramatically improved after ditching the leg kick.
I’m ready for the Jo Adell 2025 breakout campaign.
With no replacements in the organization, it’s a much easier sell for status-quo. Another year of let the kids play is in order.
which is objectively the correct decision
I’d say maybe Silver glove at times, he still takes some bad routes.
One of those yoots in the photo is Alexander Ramirez, pretty sure. Still only 22 but seems like he’s been in the org forever. Having maybe his best pro season to date in 2024 in the IE (.274, 9 HR in 146 ABs) but I wonder if his window is closing. He just turned 22 two weeks ago.
Well Wash, maybe if you hadn’t brought in Mederos to protect a 2 run lead on Saturday night you may have had a save opportunity for your closer who isn’t getting enough work.
Duh.
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1833325902534467734
Prospect or not? David Calabrese, since the OP brought him up.
Diminutive Canadian HS draftee seemed like the hot developmental commodity two years ago as a 20-year-old in spring training… good speed, a bit of power, like a poor man’s Corbin Carroll… subsequently played more like a homeless man’s Corbin Carroll that season in AA (.194/.309/.654), but hey, he was four years younger than the average player in the Southern League, and those on-base skills remained tantalizing… went to the IL early this season, but has played well (.260/4 HR in 50 ABs) since returning.
I like him. “Seems” like he has more in the tank than Adams or Theodosio… not far behind Rada, truly.
Numbers since returning from IL in mid August: 17 Games 64 PAs .260/.393/.540 11 Walks 18 strikeouts and 2 SBs in 4 attempts.
A homeless man’s Corbin Carroll is good analogy. Still concerned bout that low average but he has the skills and hes young enough to keep improving.
I like him. We could use a guy like him if he can reach his potential.
I hope he can get it together. It’s not like our outfield is so studly that we won’t ever need to bring up any new guys. It’s not that long before Ward is outta here.
Poor Justin Verwhiner. All he gets to do is enjoy his millions and then go home and sleep with Kate Upton.
I mean, it’s not like someone bunted on him to break up a no-no or anything…
I want every team that faces him to try the bunt, multiple times if possible, just to get in his head.
OTOH, since random teams seem to be able to plate eight runs against him in a few innings, swinging away also is a good option.
‘random teams’?
the defending National League Champions again have baseball all aligned that they’re nobodies.
Perfect, heading into October!
Detmers id showing up to play, now that’s a sign pointing in the right direction. Suarez will do just well enough to return in ’25-good gravy that is a scary thought and it’s not Halloween just yet.
Should have traded Rengifo – agree.
Should have traded Anderson- agree as long as there were actually meaningful offers.
Should have traded Ohtani – left over from last season and the season before. 😎
It’s a lot of woulda coulda shoulda.
I don’t think trading Rengifo was the no brainer that many presume. He was damaged goods around the deadline and I believe the word was out league wide.
Ohtani in hindsight was a massive miss. The moment he said he wouldn’t discuss an extension entering his final year, the club should’ve moved him. He’s currently at 46 HR / 47 SB. What a player.
One of the dummest moves ever. Minasian/Arturo are The Two Stooges.
I suspect that was an Arte call.
MOAR BILLBOARDZ!!!!!
That was confirmed at this year’s trade deadline in response to criticisms about the failure to make trades. Something like:
“Did Arte provide instructions not to trade Trout and Ohtani. Yes. But Ward, Rengifo and Anderson are not Trout or Ohtani.”
Agreed, no matter how good Ohtani is, I wouldn’t pay $70MM per year for him. But yeah, once it was obvious we weren’t going to keep him, trade him for something more than just a comp pick.
Did Suarez score some blue juice from across town while on waivers?
If last night was any indication, then yes he did.
Eh, don’t worry, Suarez will remember who he is and Suarez his next outing.
Wish I could argue about that, but Suarez gonna Suarez.
No, he just pitched against the twins. I honestly couldn’t name one player on the twins right now.
Joe Mauer
Well played