Woo hoo! Only one Angel made it onto the 2024 Blooper Reel! That’s saying a lot. Two umpires made it. Hint: It’s “Crazy Legs” Schanuel.
Here is Babe Ruth showing his fastball, curveball, and knuckleball grips. Jimmy Carter threw strikes. (No politics.) This is cool. It’s Babe Ruth batting against Walter Johnson.
Josh Bell signed a one year deal with the Nationals. The Nationals will also re-sign Trevor Williams. Right-hander Ben Heller is getting a minor league deal with the Cubs. Reliever Miguel Castro got a minor league deal with the Astros. Paul Goldschmidt to the Yankees is now official.
Former big leaguer Lenny Randle passed away at the age of 75.
Be safe out there tonight!
Hope everyone has a chance to party tonight and enjoy turning the page on a total crap season. As an Angel fan, honestly the hardest ever: Losing Ohtani to hated blue neighbor, him going 50/50 & WS win, most losses 99, Trout hurt again, stadium parking went up $10-20. When you are down in the dumps the only place you can go is UP. Happy 2025 CTPG faithful.
Don’t forget the Aaron Hicks experiment. That was agonizing lol
Someone told him he was going to play every day.
…and unfortunately, he did…..
I had completely blocked that out. Thanks for the Happy New Years kick in the nuts!
2025 is going to be great. Not so much for the Halos though.
Really looking forward to seeing Moore in Tempe.
https://www.si.com/mlb/angels/angels-news/angels-top-prospect-should-make-an-impact-in-2025-01jgcvvay9c9
Would love to see CMo win the 2nd base job in ST.
After the revolving door of moron managers, it’s refreshing to have Wash at the helm. Hope he sticks around a little longer (his contract expires after 2025).
“I think when you’ve been through something for the first time and you’ve weathered the storm, the expectations go up,” Washington said at the Winter Meetings. “But it’s not the expectations that will bog them down. It’s an expectation that they should envision wanting for themselves, and that’s to be successful. I think my young group last year did a tremendous job of staying in the fight and making it through the 162-game grind, and they know what it’s about now.”
I still think the last Halos skipper shouldn’t have been let go.
I didn’t know Phil Nevin had supporters 🤯
I like Phil because we have the same first name…clown show otherwise.
And here I thought your first name was Halo.
Made me laugh 26!!
They should’ve given him another year with the youngins.
Uhhhh, Washington led the team to its worst season ever, in the history of the franchise! I’m not sure what he has done to make him a better manager than any of the last 3 managers. I know people like to say he works on defense and infielders, yet during the last couple of series in 2024, the team was a comedy of errors. But, whatever. I’m on record as not being a Washington fan.
IMNSHO the Ron Washington era to this point is a total fail.
Look at the roster he was given. No manager was squeezing out more than 70-75 wins imo.
A few positives from last season that I’ll attribute to Wash and his staff:
— Zach Neto 🌟
— Jo Adell GG finalist
— From June 15th, our bullpen ranked 3rd overall with a 3.15 ERA
— Schanuel’s improved defense (went from -2 def runs saved in 244 innings to +1 DRS in 1211 innings)
The strongest part of Wash’s resume is player development. We saw real development with the majority of our important young players — Neto, Adell, Schanuel, Soriano, Joyce, Kochanowicz.
The roster sucked and we had the annual injuries to Trout+Rendone. So if you would like to grade Wash strictly off W/L %, sure he’s a bum.
Biggest problem I have with Wash is bad mouthing players in the media.
Only when they failed to lay down a bunt ( which is pretty much 75% of the league now)
I agree it wasn’t a good look by Wash. However, the longer I thought about it the less I cared as baseball as a job is brutal and your mental toughness will be tested. If a Manager calling you out for something you really should know spins you out then perhaps you don’t have what it takes.
Yes Wash squeezed 63 wins out of a 70 win lineup 😂
Turned Neto into a star and successfully steered the tank into the 2025 #2 pick. 🫡
Boy you really stick to your narratives….
Wash’s effect on Neto has been well documented, so yea.
Thought it was a clear joke about the tank lol
The significant improvement was his hitting and I’m not sure Walsh had anything to do with that. He’s still reckless as a player and swings at way too many bad pitches.
The pot calling the kettle waat?
….yeah, that…
Whether one likes Washington or not, he is the least of their problems.
“the last couple of series in 2024, the team was a comedy of errors”
here’s the lineup we put out there for one of those games:
Taylor Ward
Jack Lopez
Eric Wagaman
Kevin Pillar
Matt Thaiss
Brandon Drury
Gustavo Campero
Niko Kavadas
Michael Stefanic
I agree, we should absolutely rip Wash apart for the errors that this lineup gave up.
“A craftsman does not blame his tools” ~ Perry Minasian
“Money is immaterial. Teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” ~ Arte Moreno
“Whatever Arte says is correct.” ~ John Carpino
“Appropriation of others wise statements does not make oneself wise” – Ron Washington
“Stay away from my sister or I will hurt you bad” – All the big brothers of girls I pressed up yo in High School
I’d be willing to bet that none of those players will be on our opening day MLB roster
Even Ward?. The problem is, that’s what our roster looks like at the end of every year just with different names.
Perry does this little annoying thing year after year, signs guys that no organization wanted only to prove those organizations were right. Much prefer to bring up players from the farm. Jack Lopez…just stop.
You mean minor league deals that every team utilizes to build the depth of the upper levels of their farm system?
Of course not every team has such a lack of depth on their 40 man roster, such significant amount of injuries with their 26 man roster and a severe shortage of major league ready prospects in their system like the Angels which is why more recently we get to see alot of the Jack Lopez’s, Eric Wagaman’s or Gustavo Camperos’ in the bigs.
Understand the process but Lopez is more palatable in AAA. He’s depth that should have never been signed. Amassed like 79 ABs, played in 27 games, way too much. Perry runs his club like a half-way house for older minor leaguers waiting for their time in the Show. No issue with Campero. He’s been coming up thru the Angel farm at a young age.
This is very typical of all teams since they need to fill minor league rosters. It’s just that the Angels call these guys up to the majors more often it seems.
You are willing to give him full credit for Neto but apply no responsibility at all for how the season ended. Well you were the one who dubbed him 15 WAR Wash so I get it.
Wash is an average field manager who had the benefit of some very good teams in Texas. He is meh in my opinion and to buy into his soundbites is like believing Arte and Perry when they say the word “compete”.
That said, I’m not sold that a field manager has much of an impact on the team’s performance during the regular season except maybe in very close and tight games. I see nothing about Wash that makes me believe he is particularly good in these situations (like Bochy is).
If the focus is his teaching of solid defense – that can be accomplished with good coaches. That is probably not the right metric to evaluate a field manager whose main job is making lineup and key in-game decisions.
And get himself ejected instead of a key player who is griping to an umpire. I guess that is a key in-game decision now that I think about it.
Yes but playing first base is incredibly hard
Especially for Chris Pratt.
https://youtu.be/gzDYgRc6eic
Moneyball, what a joke of a concept and movie.
LOL, that’s because we had Wagaman and Chico Esquella patrolling the diamond at the Big A at that point.
No say bad about Chico. Pedro and Chico come from same place and beeseball have been berry, berry good to us.
I agree but I am far less optimistic, talent matters.
Just ask Dave “He threw a ball somewhat near me and I feel threatened” Roberts.
Man that guy is so “LA”. The type of guy who probably refers to his “journey” a lot and can be talking about any topic and insert some dead loved one into it for some reason so he can quaver talk a little and be “real”.
Yup. He’s a champion and most winningest.
I hope he makes an impact in ST, then gets called up just soon enough to enable another year of control.
No doubt they will time it like this if Moore looks good. The pessimistic side would be he doesn’t look good enough to be called up soon and it takes until September. I hope not.
Happy New Year all!
I’m actually OK if he struggles. If he just breezes through a couple months total of the MiLB (yes ActuallyMan, I know about his last couple weeks last season) I feel less comfortable than if he actually hits some snags and figures them out before he has to come to the MLB, which will be all snags.