LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: I hate NY

Morning Angels fans. Have some links.

Angels News

The Angels lost. Again. In NY. Again. Against the Mets. AGAIN. While having the lead. AGAIN! I have the postgame today as well, so, this is not fun.

Who is starting tomorrow anyway? BULLPEN GAME? Oh no…

It is official. The Angels have signed every player of their 2025 draft. Look at that.

Perry had a plan and he executed it. Not Turk’s Teeth’s plan, but A plan

Around Baseball

Gambling in becoming a problem. Betters are harassing players after games. Lucas Giolito gets it after EVERY game. Oh no, who could have seen THAT coming?! /s

The Mariners stole burgers from the people of Milwaukie. And by that I mean the Mariners beat the Brewers when they were one win away from getting free burgers from a food chain. I knew that the mariners were the bad guys!

With the Rays sold and the A’s Las Vegas stadium finally breaking ground, MLB Expansion is back on people’s minds. Those minds include MLB and someone leaked that Salt lake City is the favorite.

Ethan Holliday, son of Matt Holiday, has signed with the Rockies for 9 Million US dollars, the most ever given to a High School player. Yes it was over slot.

Rich Hill made his 2025 debut for his 14th team, the Royals. Yes, the 45 year old pitcher is still pitching and had a solid day for Kansas City. The man called “Dick Mountain” made his MLB debut 20 years ago in June 2005 for the Cubs and has pitched for the Red Sox, Dodgers, Cleveland, Pirates, Rays, Orioles, Yankees, A’s, Mets, Padres, Twins, and Angels as well in his long career. Excellent Immaculate Grid answer.

Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!

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gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

It never happens but this might make me and CtPG Guy happy…..

Trade Taylor Ward and Jansen to the Doyers. Barf a little. Get Mike Sirota 9CF), Joendry Vargas (3B), Chase Harlan (3B/OF) and Pete Heubeck(P). This may be a big over pay, I just lost my trade sim access and my crack habit precludes me from re-uping, but we’re already working from the dream that Jansen has real value, so the sim would laugh this off anyway.

Then tell Ward we’ll sign him this winter if he wants and bring him back on a four year deal. He is a rental who doesn’t even need to move houses. I’ve never actually seen him say it, but if he really wants to stay here he gets to. Old Man Stand Pat gets his Ward production next year. Fk the Doyers.

BannedInLA
Super Member
1 day ago

Ward strikes me as the type of guy who would prefer Corona Del Mar over the insufferably hipster haven of Silverlake.

2pints
Trusted Member
1 day ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

having a legit shot at a championship would likely help him cope.

BannedInLA
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  2pints

Probably.

Shohei seems happy enough.

Charles Sutton
Editor
Super Member
23 hours ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

Showho?

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 day ago

Ward is signed through 2026, isn’t he? https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wardta01.shtml
This is why I don’t think it will happen. The team looks like it might compete in 2026… no sense trading him unless you’ve got a replacement.

Turk's Teeth
Editor
Super Member
1 day ago

Does it really look like the team will compete in 2026?

They need three starting pitchers, a closer, third baseman and outfielder in the offseason – and that both assumes Moore becomes an average 2B, and no one gets hurt, because there’s no depth chart beneath them. That’s just to field a 25 man roster and assume it’s stable for 162 games. And Rendon, Trout and Soler ($13M) all still on the books for 2026 – so there’s not a lot of cash to address the problem.

Meanwhile, the current team is either at the bottom, or near bottom, in so many facets of the game: pitching, defense, baserunning efficiency, striking out, walks surrendered. They hit home runs – that’s the one positive.

This hovering a few games shy of .500 for much of the season is masking pretty severe deficiencies and leading to fans expecting unrealistic future outperformance, imo.

There’s this narrative that’s calcifying that the Angels are improving and that progress is only going to move in one direction. But there’s not a prospect pipeline in the upper minors to fill future gaps, or to ballast the team in the event of inevitable injury. I think the improvement narrative is on pretty shaky ground, and this putative contention window is going to be pushed back absent major changes.

Roy Hobbs
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  Turk's Teeth

That is reality.

Roy Hobbs
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  Turk's Teeth

I agree, there is a much more likely chance for regression next year.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Turk's Teeth

The team’s improved. That’s great. But I’ll say it again. I watch about 5 other teams, all but one of whom are not running away with a play off spot. ALL OF THEM are noticeably better than my Angels.

There is a really good chance 2025 and 2026 will be “good” because more and more players seem to be finding their footing. Nice. But this is not a good team. Not even close.

I’ll use the Diamondbacks as a measure. Even at full strength they are a fringe play off contender. Maybe the tenth best team in baseball? They are way better than the Angels…. even with all their injuries.

Gotta build, and it’s not likely to be fast.

Turk's Teeth
Editor
Super Member
1 day ago

Right now, the DBacks are the only team in the MLB with a positive run differential but a negative W-L record – and that’s just two games under .500.

I think they’re better than their record (and yes, better than the Angels), which I’m sure makes selling at the deadline tough for them. But sell they should.

Turk's Teeth
Editor
Super Member
1 day ago

The team has improved relative to its lowest point in history (last year), but prior to that bottoming out, its median performance in the post-Dipoto era has been about 76 wins – the midpoint of a very tight band of 72-80 wins every year for a decade. Markedly consistent.

And this team looks like a 76 win team to me. In fact their current projection is 76.7 wins. The troll in me would use fewer words:

Median suckage.

I think you throw away the outlier, and this team is no better or worse than the Angels have been for 10+ years. It just slugs more and has been a little lucky with player health.

Jeff Joiner
Editor
Legend
21 hours ago
Reply to  Turk's Teeth

Agreed. I’m enjoying the young core and can see a brighter future with them but they need serious amounts of help.

It takes a good 35 players to actually compete for a playoff spot. Not only do you need a full starting 9 but backups across the diamond and in AAA.

We don’t have that.

We have Neto, Schanuel, Adell, Detmers, Ward, Soriano, Jansen, Anderson in the “good” bucket with Trout still not shabby. That’s 8 and 3 of them are free agents at the end of the year so the 2026 squad has 6.

In the “OK”/depth department I think Brogdon, Burke, d’Arnaud are perfectly fine as backups and in low leverage bullpen spots. All are around next year.

So now we’re up to 9 good to OK players for 2026.

Currently knocking down the door in the minors we have 0.

Meaning we have 9 good to OK players lined up for next year. We still have the Rendon albatross contract and Trout’s isn’t pretty. Soler will soak up another $12 million. Stephenson $11 million.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Ward is signed through next years. THUS HE HAS TRADE VALUE.

BannedInLA
Super Member
1 day ago

We are a team that needs pitching now and in the future so I don’t understand the wisdom of trading away Soriano, Kikuchi and possibly even Detmers.

RexFregosi
Super Member
1 day ago

Kenny this morning at TA. Nothing solid or new, just spitballing.

The odds of Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno authorizing an all-out sale are exceedingly slim, but imagine if it happened.

The Angels could all but control the deadline, peddling righty José Soriano (three additional years of club control), lefty Yusei Kikuchi (owed $42 million in 2026-27) and lefty reliever Reid Detmers (three more years of control, and a number of clubs would want him to return to starting). They also could trade outfielder Taylor Ward (free agent after 2026) and perhaps even sell high on Jo Adell (free agent after ‘27).
The more likely scenario for the Angels is to trade potential free agents such as lefty Tyler Anderson, closer Kenley Jansen, infielder Luis Rengifo and third baseman Yoan Moncada. If they somehow buy — you never know with Moreno — they could upgrade virtually any part of their roster.

RexFregosi
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  RexFregosi

If there’s any team more looney tunes about buying at the deadline more than us, it’s easily KC.

Behind us in the standings, their rotation is in such great shape they sign a 45 yr old guy?? Why would KC be buyers?

Pineapple12
Legend
1 day ago
Reply to  RexFregosi

I’m a firm no on trading Sori, Detmers, or Jo. Kikuchi is interesting as a sell high opportunity.

FWIW, Passan this morning:

Los Angeles Angels: Will they really add?
Biggest need: Pitching
Best asset: Reid Detmers, SP/RP
Best fit: Sandy Alcantara, SP

The latest: The Angels are acting as if they’re going to add, which has the feel of 2023, when in an effort to show Shohei Ohtani they were serious about winning they acquired Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, only to let them go via waivers a month later.

It’s easy to like Los Angeles’ lineup. Shortstop Zach Neto is a power-and-speed leading man, and with Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, Logan O’Hoppe and a healthy Mike Trout, they mash home runs — the fourth most in MLB. But the pitching. Man, the pitching. It’s bad. And the defense. Yikes. It’s bad, too.

As much as Alcantara is the sort who would appeal to a lover of brand names like Angels owner Arte Moreno, adding him alone wouldn’t solve Los Angeles’ problems. To put together a representative staff that would allow them to leap four teams ahead of them for the third wild-card slot, the Angels would need, at minimum, three quality arms — and probably more like four or five. Perhaps the arrival of the hard-throwing George Klassen and the return of right-hander Caden Dana help, but even then, the Angels’ strength in putting runs on the board is mitigated by their ability to give up even more.

This is a better team than many expected. It’s just one that should train its attention more on 2026 and beyond than 2025.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45794701/2025-mlb-trade-deadline-preview-passan-rumors-intel-yankees-cubs-phillies-suarez-clase#laa

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Pineapple12

I may be the only guy in the baseball watching world that doesn’t think Sandy Alcantara is worth the squeeze. I mean, yes, he sucks right now. But he has also been meh pretty much all the time other than when he won a Cy Young. I wouldn’t empty the farm for that dude at all.

PedroCerrano
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

Angels line up hits a lot of home runs but it isn’t great at anything else. They lead the AL in strike outs, are second worst in stolen bases, third worst in walks and in the lower half on pretty much everything else. As you said, the defense and pitching as a whole are pretty awful so being three games under .500 involves some good fortune.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  RexFregosi

Man. That would HURT me. But it would also be bonkers and it’s not like what we have now is awesome. But man. If we made those trades with say the Brewers, Cubs, Red Sox and Rays…. we’d no longer have a bottom ten farm. I’ll say that much. That’s not just more kids. That’s MOAR KIDZ!

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 day ago

Truly impressive work, inking all 21 players… even if they weren’t the consensus preferred players. Didn’t think it was possible with all that HS talent. Still wonder if we could have done “better” with the Bremner pick… $7.8 was probably enough to get Hernandez for instance. Still preferred him to Doyle. We’ll see.

RexFregosi
Super Member
1 day ago

Signing all 21 players is just one component of a “successful draft”.

It increases the odds and makes the foundation stronger but to be a “successful draft”, these dudes need to have an impact at the MLB level. Our 2009 was one of the best drafts in history but of the first 20 picks of ours in 2009, 5 did not sign.

RexFregosi
Super Member
1 day ago

“ok” with this draft while wondering what is the plans for 3b in Anaheim the next decade?

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  RexFregosi

We will sign a wheelchair bound Matt Chapman. Actually, we should try that. Instead of signing FAs with pretty strait forward or even minimal injury histories we should sign medical risks and watch them bloom into healthy and productive old men.

PedroCerrano
Super Member
1 day ago

Extend Rendon

Last edited 1 day ago by PedroCerrano
gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  PedroCerrano

You see where I’m going….

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

True. While we were watching that draft I was thinking “The wailing’s gonna get even louder when a couple of these kids go to college”. Welp. Wrong again. If I have a thought regarding what will happen in the draft it will be wrong.

BannedInLA
Super Member
1 day ago

BP game + Chris Taylor at 3B. My Gawd do we need a 3rd baseman.

IMG_6822
RexFregosi
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

Godspeed Anthony

smithy610
Super Member
1 day ago

Sam Blum
@SamBlum3
·
12h
Mike Trout on if he puts pressure on himself in late/close situations (6-for-50, with 1 HR this year):

“Nah, I think when I feel good and when my swing is where it should be, I get good results. I feel like I’ve just been battling through some stuff in the cage sicne the break.”

RexFregosi
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  smithy610

He was a bit off this trip but still elite.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  smithy610

No reason to think Trout’s wrong. Honestly, he looked to my ignorant eyes like he was trying to mash a 12000 ft home run in Philly cause he was in Philly.

PedroCerrano
Super Member
1 day ago

At a certain point you would think that Trout’s ego would kick in and lead him to cut down his swing. It was very clear that Philly’s approach was: “Here’s velocity, bet you can’t hit it.” It was an embarrassment.

smithy610
Super Member
1 day ago

As much as I would have loved an Ethan Holliday on the Angels’ farm, he would have probably wanted slot at #2, or maybe even more. Which would have affected the prep arms in the later rounds.

As much as I don’t prefer the “slot savings” strategy at the top picks, it does have some value to it.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  smithy610

It’s less fun cause you kind of have to say “Oh yeah? Well wait till 2028 when we have two starters and two pen arms to enjoy instead of that beast 3B.” It’s true, it may actually fill more needs for us. But it is a bowl of oatmeal.

Turk's Teeth
Editor
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  smithy610

I dunno – sounds like a good thing to me to “affect the prep arms” strategy in later rounds. It’s a pretty high risk strategy focused on team building for 2030 and beyond, not 2026-8.

It’s like saying: “if I spent the household funds on food, gas and electricity, I wouldn’t have been able to able to buy these 500 lottery tickets!”

I also think Holliday demanding slot is speculative at best – he had a number, and he got his number from the Rockies. I don’t think that would have changed at #2 vs #4. Scott Boras’s other big fish, Kade Anderson, signed for $700k under slot at #3, so there’s no evidence that his clients won’t take a discount.

And there was no need to give Chase Shores full slot in the second round – he’d be a senior reliever in 2026 with a long injury track record, lucky to nab a $500k bonus at age 22+ reentering the draft.

Point being: the Angels could have signed Holliday and had plenty of pool savings to sign two or three prep arms – just not seven of them. Then they would have focused more on college bats and starting pitchers, which they need far more direly than they needed to spend a third of their draft class on kids likely to make an impact 6+ yrs down the road.

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
1 day ago

The Angels are just proving that this team is not a playoff capable team just yet. Just sell babt, sell.

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
1 day ago

MLB expansion is not going to help the sport. Currently there is 30 teams in MLB, do you believe more is needed when there are not enough Pitchers filling the available openings that exist now. How about Third Basemen or Catchers or even Centerfielders, there are not enough to fill all 30 teams.

So, what is the motivation behind expansion in MLB? I can sum it up in one word, Greed.
Plain old fashion and really unnecessary Greed. The commissioner Manfraud will be a hero to the existing owners if he charges each newcomer into the league 30 billion dollars to play ball. That’s 2 billion dollars per team owners; not bad extra income now is it.

So where will they play when, not if, the owners approve the new teams to join. Well, there are ownership groups in Orlando Florida, Charolette North Carolina, Nashville Tennessee, Sacramento California, Portland Oregon, Salt Lake City Utah, San Antonio and Austin Texas and most likely in other areas like Oklahoma City and New Orleans. So, the point is that there is no shortage of newcomers out there.

It could be argued that there are two teams to many now, maybe even four to many simply because there are not enough good to great players available now to go around so the sport currently is diluted and void of enough good players that we can yearly see the White Sox, Rockies, Pirates, Marlins, Rays all able to compete, so how will Baseball be able to fill up two more roster’s and/or stadiums?

Will the greedy and stupid please stand up, ok, all thirty of you may now sit down.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

The player dilution is a problem but I think it will ease with time. There are still tons of Latin players out there, and all of Japan and Korea and Australia. It is also likely that more kids in an area start playing baseball when they have a team. I know that happened in Colorado.

The league is too “coastal” still. I think they would be smart to get a team in SLC (whose fans will likely go crazy for the team) and a southern city like Nashville. Makes road trips easier. Nashville will build a fan base in a wide area that includes Louisville, Memphis, Little Rock, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Knoxville. SLC will have that whole corridor of cities between them and Boise.

Baseball is, indeed, a regional sport. It makes sense to fill in a couple more regions.

There has always been a shortage of pitching, 3B and CF. Even when I look at teams I like from before my time from the 60s and 70s. That’ll get worse for a couple years after expansion. But it’ll ease up. One thing that would help is fixing a problem baseball already has with developing pitchers who have 42 year old arms when they are 22. Maybe expansion will force that?

2pints
Trusted Member
1 day ago

Every time I think about the league adding more teams my mind quickly goes towards division realignment. So many possibilities.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  2pints

We should probably just abolish the AL/NL at this point and do:

North: Mariners, Blue Jays, Tigers, Twins, Brewers, Cubs, White Sox, Rockies
East: Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Pirates, Guardians, Nationals, Orioles
West: Padres, D-Bags, Angels, A’s, Giants, Royals, Utah, Dodgers
South: Rays, Rangers, Braves, Astros, Marlins, Nashville, Cardinals, Reds

Or something…. so ESPN can just cover the East and The Doyers. Play a balanced schedule. The North/East and South/West become play off brackets with the top eight teams from each bracket getting into the play offs. Institute home run dances and extra runs when a player does a flip move to tag a base. We get more MLB players to ink shoe deals for “clubhouse sneakers”, maybe up the amount of armed clubhouse gambling, domestic abuse and mix in a little easily swept aside rape if the player’s championish enough.

Very relatable. I see myself in the sport now. Streets ahead.

Phil
Trusted Member
1 day ago

Not a pretty game yesterday.
But, you know who was more worse than us yesterday?

Dodgers. Two of their relievers couldn’t find the strike zone – throwing so many balls that I thought I was watching a re-run of the Angels game.
Casparius was wild, walking 3 batters and giving up 3 ER. Didn’t even get 1 out before he got pulled.
Klein was even worse, walking 3 batters to load the bases. He had a come-backer, juggled it, and threw the ball down the right field line, allowing all 3 runners to score.

For this morning’s game:
Manaea has faced the Angels 14 times (13 of them while with Oakland), going 3-4, 4.11 ERA, 59Ks
For the season, he’s 0-1, 2.45 ERA. He just returned from lengthy stay on IL due to elbow and oblique injuries.

We have a bullpen game, and it looks like Brock Burke (4-1 record, 3.38 ERA) will start.

Not only is this a day game (Angels 9-20 in day games), but it starts 10am PST.

Let’s hope the bats are awake!

BannedInLA
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  Phil

One would think a Jansen reunion is beyond logical for the doyers…

Pineapple12
Legend
1 day ago
Reply to  BannedInLA

Makes too much sense

PedroCerrano
Super Member
1 day ago
Reply to  Phil

I watched the recap and seeing all of the bad defense, I thought Angels had the wrong uniforms on.

Pineapple12
Legend
1 day ago

Buyers?

Screenshot_20250723_052022_Chrome
Angels2020Champs
Legend
1 day ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

comment image

Fansince1971
Legend
1 day ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

No

Pineapple12
Legend
1 day ago
Reply to  Pineapple12

this is a joke btw for those who can’t tell lol

Last edited 1 day ago by Pineapple12
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