Arr Mateys. It be a time for links says I!
Angels News
The Angels are facing the Pirates. Game 1 went badly. Very badly.
But at least Mike Trout made a cool catch? It’s something.
Fangraphs likes Zeferjahn. Nice. Good article about pitching, pitches, and technical stuff like that.
Around Baseball
Sneks get new City Connect Jerseys. Purple ones.
The White Sox continue to lose, are 52-152 in the last year and a half. And that’s terrible.
New Baseball fan stats are out. Younger fans more likely to watch fewer games this year. Shocker.
Oregon is throwing money for an MLB ballpark and team. Critics say it makes no sense financially.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Maybe we should give Carter Kieboom a chance at 3B. Through 14 games, he’s slashing .375/.407/.643 with four home runs and three stolen bases.
Perry loves his recycled #1 draft picks…. How much longer is Paris’s leash? Lots of K’ing and not much hitting
He seems to be a little banged up. He went 0-for-8 with three Ks in the last two games he played, and then he hasn’t been seen in action in a full week.
Note to Washington…… Let a Bullpen arm start the 1st for JacKo?
I’m happy with LogO but would any of you rather have had max meyer p. from Miami in a trade?
What rumored angel trade do you wish would have happened might be a fun topic for travel mondays.
Miami was gonna trade Meyer? I remember when he got hurt and was gonna be out for a while but I don’t recall the Marlins saying “screw this #1 pitching prospect let’s trade him for an average player.”
Yea allegedly the angels walked away from the table.
https://amp.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article252345073.html
Well we wanted Ward out of the leadoff spot… but we got Soler there instead? Wash is definitely a man of the people.
This collection of hitters is not very good…. None of which are a good candidate to bat leadoff.
You see my friend. We have to use data and optimize the hot stick…. or something.
I assume this is tonight’s lineup and Soler is leading off?
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/pirates-vs-angels/2025/04/23/778202/preview
And I assume Paris will have 3 K’s.
This batting order is an absolute disaster. Can someone make sure Wash is ok?
Ice cold Ward moved to clean-up and somehow d’Arnaud is making his like 8th consecutive start in the 5 spot. WTF is he thinking?
I am enraged. This shit’s gonna cost us a shot at the Super Bowl.
Soler at lead off? 😲😲🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
As per the post game information yesterday:
“It was just the third time in his (Soriano) career that he’s allowed five or more runs in fewer than five innings.”
After last night, I have now been at two of them. Lucky me.
The moral of the story: “AngelsFanInHell should avoid going to any games that Soriano pitches”
Old friend Andrew Heaney faces the Angels tonight. And he is actually having a pretty good season so far; 2.13 ERA, 0.91 WHIP. I predict that he shuts down our bats tonight and yes, the Pirates beat us again.
Not only that, I think they will pull out a close 5-4 win on Thursday and complete a sweep of the series. At that point we’ll again be saying “when do pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training?”
Shut down our bats.
Doesn’t that imply that they were working?
By coincidence, my 5 to 7 year old Angels squad is playing the 5 to 7 year old Pirates squad tonight.
So far we’ve beaten them twice and I do expect another W tonight. Most of that team should be in Tee Ball, though, and the parents are cool.
Well, I guess the part from the first four series is over.
s/part/party/g
I just read that Nico I-am-a-leaving’s brother Madden is also a-leaving, telling Arkansas he’s going into the transfer portal after cashing his NIL check and having never played a game for the Hogs or whatever they’re called.
What a family!
I remember writing an essay in college on how absurd it was that Jeremy Bloom couldn’t receive money to help his Olympic ski career because he played college football at Colorado (how has he NOT had his jersey retired yet?!). Odd considering MiLB players get paid and can play college ball plus all the other nonsense through the years. Anyway, I don’t necessarily like the college football landscape as mush as I did a yout, but at the same time I’m ok with these kids getting paid.
I’ve long been on the “pay the kids” wagon as the money in college football is just insane.
The issue is that being a college player is a better deal than being a pro. It is unlimited free agency every single year.
Ideally the revenue creating sports would give stipends to players. But then you’d run into Title IX issues because outside of a handful of women’s basketball programs all the revenue creators are men.
Agreed. Nico got more money from Tennessee than Brock Purdy’s NFL contract has paid thus far and he’s been to two conference championship and a Super Bowl in 4 years 🤷🏼♂️
That article on ZJ was fun. His stuff definitely passes the eye test. Still pleasantly surprised with what Perry was able to get at the trade deadline last year.
That’s why we need to trade for MOAR YUTES later this summer.
YUETS & KIDZ…. our firm
Great piece. FanGraphs writers are consistently great.
Perry has really nailed the trades when he’s been allowed to target talent rather than just dump salary. Hopefully he is allowed to do that again this deadline.
I actually think Minasian’s trade history has been very meh until Estevez/Garcia.
Hell, just look at the Braves trades alone, and it’s years of empty gestures.
https://housethathankbuilt.com/here-is-every-trade-braves-have-made-with-angels-since-perry-minasian-left
But July 30, 2024 was a good day, yes.
These are all bottom-of-the-barrel trades though. Almost every single one was for cash or as a salary dump.
Last year was probably the first time we really saw him operate and truly sell some assets, other than when he acquired O’Hoppe and Moniak
But that’s kind of the point – he doesn’t make impact trades unless his hand is forced. In the case of Estevez and Garcia, they were on quickly expiring contracts. What he got in return surprised everyone, because his trading history alternated between meh and terrible before that.
If a GM only makes impact trades every 3-5 years, is that evidence of an executive who is an ace trader, or an executive who is deeply reluctant to trade unless it’s to shed salary? In Minasian’s case we have tens of non-impact trades, many with the Braves, a disastrous prospect and salary dump in Ohtani’s last year, and a recent flip of two relievers for some solid pitching prospects.
In the past decade, we actually saw more substantial and more frequent trades – like Simmons for Aybar/Newcomb, Kendrick-for-Heaney, Trumbo-for-Skaggs/Santiago. July 2024 is unusual in that it’s the exception to the rule under Minasian.
I mean he has only been the GM for 4 full seasons. And in that time he made 1 impact trade for O’Hoppe in 2022 and the two from last year that look good so far. It’s more frequent than every 3-5 years.
2023 was gross for sure, but I can’t help but think some of that was Arte’s influence and the desperate need to try to seduce Ohtani.
This summer should be telling. If he has a fire sale again this year, especially if we are near .500, I’ll find it encouraging.
It’s also helpful to have the players on expiring contracts Healthy and playing well at the trade deadline. As we all know, Perry hasn’t had that luxury in abundance.
Full on bored day balls out what if….
The Cubs have a legit shot at a WS. They need to really enthrall Tucker and sign him. They are in full on go for it mode. Their pen is meh and they lost Steele in their rotation.
What if Perry went at them early and offered Jansen and Tyler Anderson for something like Kevin Alcantera, Christian Hernandez and Ben Cowels? Or even tried to get Brandon Birdsell with Alcantera?
It would surely dampen our 2025 early…. but it may get us some pretty solid return for what we all thought of as a meh burger on March 15th AND it could screw the Doyers too.
The sooner we trade the easier it’ll be to blame the trades for our decline
My plan issszzz comb pleeeeet.
MLB channel was saying that the same guys who accurate estimated Vlad’s contract are saying 12 years and mid $500’s for Tucker. Seems crazy to me but teams keep doing it.
by the way, I saw you don’t like Arquette at #2. Any reason, other than you think he’s more like a #10 to 15?
Yeah. I just don’t like him at #2. I think he’s gonna strike out a lot and won’t stay at SS… which is fine for a later pick. But if we passed on Hernandez or arnold for him…. gross.
I think with a #2 pick, which won’t come around often…and we don’t want it to, we don’t want to go under slot. We have to take either the best hitter available or the best pitcher available. Who that might be, I couldn’t tell you. I see Laviolette has picked it up. I have no idea what Holliday is doing.
Yeah. I say dream big. Shoot for the stars. Be the best you. Shit from cheap wooden signs that yuppy wives buy and put up everywhere…..
BPA all the way.
George Klassen is looking really good early. K’s are still high but the walks are down from last year.
https://twitter.com/MLBPipeline/status/1914862320183845351
Caden Dana threw a gem last night:
https://twitter.com/SaltLakeBees/status/1914729688578306089
Happy for Klassen, my favorite of the two. Angels would be wise to give these arms plenty of action in the minors before promoting them. Especially Dana, he has yet to show he knows how to get big leagues out. Teams are hitting a robust .300 off of him. It’s not like he has lights out stuff.
Yah. Not to be a fatalist, but when REALITY has really sunk in with the 2025 Angels I am hoping to have Dana/Aldegeri/Klassen etc to look forward to watching in August.
I’m fine if we have those 3 plus Detmers all competing for spots next year. It’s way early and there are already things making the future look hopeful.
And there’s a chance to add Jaime Arnold in the draft to have yet another stud coming up behind them.
Same here. My hopiest of hopium scenarios is that Dana is pitching so well we are excited to trade Tyler Anderson and promote Caden.
I’d also like Detmers to earn Hendricks rotation spot by the end of the year.
Re: Dana. That’s circular logic, broham. There’s no way for Dana to “show he knows how to get big leagues out” until you give him big league innings. And he seemingly has little left to prove in AAA. Teams are batting .207 off him.
Well…he’s pitched 16 innings total in AAA, at a time when pitchers are a little ahead of hitters.
I’d still give him 60+ IP in AAA before making too many categorical statements, given an otherwise tough spring and first cup of coffee for a guy in his age 21 season.
True enough… but the season thus far could hardly be going better for him.
Aldegheri has also been pitching better than his ERA suggests.
He was carrying a one-run ballgame into the sixth over the weekend, and things unraveled with some uneven defense and a patchy strikezone, and the bullpen didn’t help matters when he left. Half of the runs he’s given up in the first three games came in that one inning – he went from a sub-2 ERA to a 5 ERA in five min flat.
Really important to stay the course with these young pitchers. Give them the time and the rope to fully develop, lest we end up with more demoralized young guys like Detmers, etc.
That video clip is actually from Thursday last week. Caden pitches later tonight for the Bees.
Dang it. The kid is on fire early this season.
I love the Sneks and their twenty different hats and uniforms. Swimming pool in the stadium. Cougars. Great fun to watch roster. Most of their uniforms look stupid to me but at least they try stuff out. Those Serpentes unis from a while ago are great. But they just don’t understand how rad it is having the same boring ass uniforms for 25 years.
In Portland. That spot they are talking about? Is it by the Life Sciences building, by the Ross Bridge? or on the other side of the bridge by the train thing? Or they will tear down shit like that TRD motors place or something? None of it really looks big enough for a stadium to me? Does it matter? If they declare they will tax jocks then those fkin hippies will demand the money go to fund statues of gay dolphins or something…. likely not realizing that they jocks actually have to play there to get taxed.
I think it would be great for Portland to get a team. I just don’t think the population of the place will ever really go for it.
I’m bored. I wish Arte would sell the team today. That would be fun. Might get new uniforms.
The Snakes dark grey unis are the bomb.com. I watched their first game with them and the Dodgers announcers were just so obsessed all d@mn game with how ugly they thought they were.
Yep. The gray ones aren’t bad. None of them are BAD… they just have a team brand that’s a little out there.
I disagree with Portland as a baseball city-After they lost a home game, all the millennials would hang at the park after the game saying, “No, we didn’t lose, explain this to me!”
I know of only one group of people who are still whining that they didn’t lose, and this is from a contest years ago, and those people aren’t millennials
The proposed Portland site is near the Ross Island Bridge but before that it was a few miles north and before that it was the Lloyd Center mall and before that it was slightly out of town where there’s a golf course. That these people have actually bought a piece of property is a big “so what?”
In other Portland news, the f***ing hippy group with the gay dolphin show is gaining traction. I spent last weekend moving my daughter into an apartment in the Pearl District. Nice building, good restaurants with lots of unhinged people.
I’m from Santa Barbara area…. no one’s dolphins will ever outgay our dolphins. But Portland will try.
Enthusiasm is low in Portland because there’s no visible big money backer. Some fairly anonymous people have purchased a lot and hired an architectural firm to come up with drawings.
It’s not taken too seriously by the general public
They’ll need a retractable roof also.
The proposal and renderings all include a retractable roof, yes.
But is the “not taken seriously” largely due to years of failed or (very) hypothetical efforts? The fact that the mayor, governor and all major state-level electeds are behind the project feels like more momentum than I’ve personally seen in Portland in a couple decades. You rarely see bipartisan support for a stadium project, let alone 800M in bonds authorized through the legislature in a matter of weeks.
That’s quite a departure from previous proposals, where there was no obvious funding mechanism, and the proposed sites didn’t even have a settled ownership group.
yes to the years of hypothetical efforts but with no owner in sight, no guiding hand, it feels like this effort is also not much of anything. There’s no real vision other than let’s build a stadium. And then what?
Sorry everyone, it was set to 10AM by mistake.
Swab the decks.
D: