The Angels are 4 and 0 against the Dodgers this season, thanks to a big offensive night last night.
This ensures the Angels will win the Freeway Series and brings a huge smile to my face. And I’m sure he’s not alone.
The Angels are 4 and 0 against the Dodgers this series. I really hope to type 5 and 0 tomorrow. But for now, I’m loving 4 and 0.
Not all was glorious last night. Gustavo Campero suffered a horrific looking ankle injury and I’m speculating will be out for the year. It was a gnarly injury and respect to this Dodgers site for showing great class.
Campero has worked his butt off to get to this level and to see that dream take such a hit hurts. Hopefully he’s back in good shape in short order.
That injury was only made possible due to a horrible home plate umpire ejecting Jo Adell. The dude missed a ton of calls and is obviously quite sensitive when it comes to criticism.
That said, the night as a whole was incredible. Zach Neto hit two bombs and reached base 5 times. Mike Trout came up with a clutch single to knock in two runs and Yoan Moncada had 2 RBI singles.
Tomorrow, the Angels hope to push it to 5-0 and Pineapple12 gets an early Christmas present.
I linked Mederos in Weekend Links last week, partially due to Pineapple’s numerous comments. Here’s the blurb in case you missed it.
Alright all, let’s enjoy today and hope to keep it going tonight.
I sense another ambush
https://flic.kr/p/2pyf3mz
Mederos, last spring
Great motivatin and rewarfd to beat the Blew Crue. Another Dodger los/Padres win and they are tied for their division.
Hey Blew, how about a gift of a wild-card berth for the play-offs, courtesy of the original Los Angels team..
Robert Stephenson says he’s going out on a rehab assignment. Expected to pitch Thursday and Sunday in Sugar Land, TX.
https://x.com/EricaLWeston/status/1955403499350659399
Playoffs back on ?
Clearly. Meaningful.
Were they ever off?
Tyler Anderson out due to “back stiffness”, huh?
If Mederos pitches well, the back stiffness remains.
If Mederos pitches poorly, the stiffness will resolve just in time for the next start.
Let’s go, Mederos!!!
For today:
Sheehan has never faced the Angels.
For 2025, he’s 3-2, ERA of 3.00
Mederos starts for the Angels.
For 2025, he’s pitched just 4 innings, 0-0 record, ERA of 4.50
This year, Neto has hit homers against some of baseball’s best pitchers: Verlander, Skubal, Cease, Yamamoto
(granted, while Verlander is HOF-bound, he’s nowhere close to his peak, as he’s gotten a (-)WAR for 2024 and 2025)
The Angels have every Thursday in August off.
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1955383527673053203
Garcia, Zeferjahn, Kavadas all together. Lugo must be feeling left out.
So it’s mederos tonight. We’ll have a preview of 2026
Don’t know if this got mentioned already… MLB PIPELAY updated their Top 100 Prospects and team’s Top 30, here’s ours. We have five 50 grades or better now. Which is nice. Moore is #50, Bremner #96. There is a lot less Daniels/Kent type guys on here now, no more 35 grades in our Top 30…. so we’re not under the mat anymore I guess.
Best the top 30 has looked in years! No Mederos or Foster either
Given the recency of their success, it makes sense that Foster and Mederos weren’t included. Foster was barely hitting a lick until roughly four weeks ago, and Mederos had a rough, rough 2024, and had a .306 avg against as recently as June.
Baseball America snuck him on their revamped top 30 last week at #29, but he’s still 24 and not the most athletic guy, so I think evaluators are appropriately in “show me” mode until the success is sustained.
That makes sense, especially in Mederos’ case. I think that bodes well for the direction of the farm that guys like that are still sitting outside of our top 30. Of course, there wasn’t much room for the farm to get worse haha
In the Just Missed It dept:
Inland Empire completed their series with Fresno on Sunday. Alas, the Rockies decided to promote Ethan Holliday to Single-A Fresno today.
Those would have been some must-watch 66ers games. Fresno already has arguably this year’s best ACL prospect in Roldy Brito leading off.
But from a prospect POV, tonight’s Fresno-Stockton game is still good viewing. Stockton is the A’s affiliate, and they have both Devin Taylor and Gavin Turley in the lineup, along with a third guy from my boards, Bobby Boser (did I say that I Iiked the Athletics’ draft this year?).
Taylor was the BPA on the board when the Angels’ selected Chase Shores this year. Taylor is hitting .333/.481/.667 with a couple HRs and more walks than strikeouts in the early going in A-ball. The A’s got a steal there in the second round.
DSL Angels win again. 14th win in the streak.
But oof – 20 walks and 9 errors between the two teams.
Some love for Rio Foster and his summer hot streak:
https://twitter.com/TC_DustDevils/status/1955326546656497969
he is dancing in the sand.
Is this place at (his) command?
I’ve been to that part of Washington. It is very likely it’s under his command now.
Looking forward to Rio Foster & Chase Shores being on the same squad.
Because Foster & Shores sounds like a 70s soft rock band?
Has someone been called up to replace Campero?
Or is it Mederos?
Should be an interesting line up tonight.
I’m glad for Neto breaking the franchise record of leadoff HRs. But I was surprised that Downing was the previous record holder, not Trout. I would have thought 2012 Trout would have easily had 10 or more leadoff HRs.
Last night was sweet seeing Neto just continue to be amazing. Super best wishes to Gustavo, he has really worked to get to the big club. Death, pestilence and leeches in the undergarments to the Evil Blue Empire tonight!
This is the biggest night of the year. Made even more exactly the same meaningful because we stood pat at the deadline. In a single game we can watch our unheralded pitching prospect take on the mighty Doyer machine and the dead eyed Unicorn. We can beat the team that’s more Yankees than the Yankees. If the Padres win this will tie them in the NL West. Big game.
THEN we can hope against wishes that we beat the snot out of Ohtani Wed. Maybe push the Doyers out of first place all together. Fully charging my envious hate battery. It’s not making the play offs, but if we could play a role in the Billion Dollar Blue Crew not even winning their division it would add a lot of joy to the season. Especially if their traditional whipping boy the Padres finally win it.
The DR Angels’ winning streak (13 games?) is doubly impressive considering their best hitter hasn’t stepped on the field since August 1. Where is Davilillo these days anyway? Maybe got a ticket to Arizona? https://www.milb.com/player/gabriel-davalillo-829058?stats=gamelogs-r-hitting-mlb&year=2025
we are up 8-3 in the 5th right now.
Davalillo is probably hurt
Messy, messy game thus far.
17 walks collectively, and 8 errors, including six by the opposition.
Still rostered at DSL, unspecified injury.
Was the same with Joswa Lugo in the ACL, shut down for the stretch run, unspecified injury.
Shut down Manger, unspecified injury or illness. Deficiencies abound with this organization, communication about health is one, not normal.
I will say I did enjoy the game last night until they brought in Shaun of the living dead Anderson. Knew the dodgers would get back into the game and all the weird doyer fans would start screaming and acting like they were going to win until Jansen shut them down and they walked out of the stadium with their heads hung low.
I hope we don’t have to suffer through another anderson start, see ya.
Thanks for the shoutout, JJ! “Pineapple12 gets an early Christmas present…Pineapple’s numerous comments” LOL
Mederos Mania has arrived!
Perry’s 2022 draft could end up being his best. Neto, Joyce, Mederos, Dana, Southard, Natera. Elite SS, 2 SP, 3 RP potential.
And no second round pick, right? Pretty solid draft.
I think Joyce was a 2nd rounder?
3rd rounder
Neto was drafted in the first round and then next Angels’ pick was Joyce in the third round.
Thanks for keeping him on my radar for my weekly links. You and Twebur always give me content in the daily comments.
For a club that likes to spout about putting all their first round picks on the field 👀
Sean siting in TA:
Newcomb, a lefty reliever acquired in May after being DFA’d by Boston, posted a 2.12 ERA in his first 23 appearances with the Athletics. Some other club might give him a big-league deal this offseason. — McCullough
It would be nice to see Newcomb put it all together and become a good MLB starting pitcher.
Yes but at this point he likely needs a year overseas and some new voices to bring things around.
I find the storyline of 1st round picks being on the major league field is replicated by many teams across the league. But yay, go Angels.
Sho homers, Betts breaks out of his slump, Dodgers lose 7-4.
history doesn’t repeat itself but it rhymes.