Last week I typed this column fresh off the high of sweeping the Dodgers for a second time this season. Spirits were soaring but danger lurked. The Angels had beaten the A’s 7 straight this season and baseball has a way of breaking even.
A 2-1 series loss in Sacramento kind of felt deserved. That win, though, was about as exciting as it gets as the Angels scored 6 runs in the top of the 10th to secure the win. Jo Adell’s Sunday was one great big highlight. The kid launched a 3 run homer in the first, a ground rule double in the fourth, then the go ahead single in the 10th.
It was a great week for Adell. Including this Highlight of the Week blast from Tuesday Night.
On the week, Adell slashed .304/.360/.739 with 17 total bases. 3 HR, a double, and 6 RBI round out what could be an AL Player of the Week performance.
After dropping 2 out of 3 to the A’s, the Angels headed home and also lost 2 out of 3 to Cincinnati. Not for a lack of trying by Jo Adell. He followed that Highlight of the Week shot with a key blast in the bottom of the 8th to tie the score. And injured Kenley Jansen would uncharacteristically cough up the lead for a loss, but Adell’s feats still deserve mention.
Jansen is battling rib discomfort but hopes to avoid the IL. He did not pitch Wednesday and the team had yesterday off. It will be interesting to see if he’s used this weekend.
Jansen isn’t the only dinged up Angel. Shortstop Zach Neto was plunked on the wrist Wednesday night and left the game. X Rays are negative and Neto is assumed to be day to day.
There’s been quite a bit of talk about extending Neto, and count me as a fan. Zach Neto offers the Angels a potentially bright future. Jeff Fletcher points out some really good comps there.
If we’re looking for more reasons to dream of a brighter future, take a look here:
And it could be getting better:
A big thanks to Twebur for both of those links in the comments section this week. Twebur and Pineapple12 are pretty much co authors of Weekend Links right now and I appreciate it.
I just randomly found this when searching for links and have to share it. GA was the man. It is hard to believe this was 18 years ago. Those early 2000s Angels teams were just so great.
From around baseball:
Shohei Ohtani got roughed up by the Rockies. He got knocked around and wore a line drive to the thigh.
The Phillies took the Mariners to the woodshed. The sweep was one of the best series in Phillies history, if not the actual best.
I’m not going to try to type the name of the Red Sox newest player. Just call him Password and see if his prolific minor league stats translate to MLB.
That nickname reminds me of one of my all time favorites, Scrabble.
I love a good nickname. A couple of guys in my fraternity were great at coming up with the type of plaque you didn’t want to wear, but it fit you so perfectly it stuck. I still have college buddies in my phone by their nicknames.
And, finally, I was again a guest on the Baseball PhD podcast. Substitute 20ish minutes of my interview for the long reading portion. I start at 28 minutes in.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. The Chicago Cubs are in town and the season is winding down. I’m hoping to make it to Sunday’s game so if you will be there, hit me up. I’m not hard to find.
Now this is great marketing.
https://x.com/MLB/status/1958656733007814961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1958656733007814961%7Ctwgr%5E6fc6471a7289de8253264ea804f963c7bc570b98%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2Fathletic%2F6568640%2F2025%2F08%2F21%2Fyankees-george-costanza-bobblehead%2F
Oooh, those are going to go quick. Surprised it took them three decades to cash in on that guy.
I place the over/under for Stevenson at 2. The question is appearances or batters.
Over
over on batters, a wash on appearances. Is that what it’s called when it’s neither over or under?
I believe so. Over/under bets almost always have a .5 behind the number to avoid that scenario. That .5 is called the hook.
So in this case it would be over/under 2.5.
Any stub hub enthusiasts that can help me out here please! Got cheap tickets on stub hub because my son wants the O’’hoppe bobble head. Checked out and paid the clear bill for the 2 tickets then get 2 separate emails and bills for over $100 for parking and insurance I didn’t want or need. I’m sure my old man eyes missed some tiny boxes they prefilled but seriously WTF!!!
After you buy your tickets it will ask if you want to buy parking and ticket insurance.
You must be careful or this will happen.
Sometimes you can save on parking, though. The other night I bought good seats then was offered preferred parking for $15 so I took it. But declined the insurance.
Just slow down a bit and you’ll be fine.
DSL Angels fell to the Rangers today. All teams in their bracket are 1-1 after the first two games, and tomorrow’s contest against the Giants will determine if they move on in the playoffs.
Ummmm. More delicious dumpster food.
The Tigers may let Ryan Kreidler walk if they need his roster spot long term this winter. Had above 50 grade ratings for power, speed, arm and fielding as the Tigers #7 prospect in a stacked system…. in 2022. Plays primarily 3B and Center Field.
Unlock those rusty treasures! All you have to do is make him hit the ball often enougth to not hit .170. Like Moore. He’ll fit right in!
I thought we didn’t talk about Moore, because he’s not hitting even .200 yet.
Well, given that I’m using Moore’s poor output thus far as an excuse to pick up another guy who has tools but poor output this far it works great.
As apposed to “I can see how we’ll be better off with Moore at 2B instead of Rengifo cause I have a rage stiffy for Rengifo.” This statement is baseless bullshit. Sure, I hope it’s true, and it could be, but there is nothing that points to that happening right now.
I can open both these guys bref pages and see how they have similar skills, semi-similar prospect profiles, similar underperformance, and say “Hey, let’s double the trouble and see if we get double the fun….”
CMo’s been a professional baseball one year now – he is just getting started.
They’re both young enough. I’d give em a shot and see if anything comes of it.
Agreed. Considering he’ll take a 40 man roster spot, not a 26 man MLB spot, makes it all the more attractive.
He would replace a Chad Steven’s type guy but actually give us upside.
For today’s game:
Brown has never faced the Angels.
For the season, he’s 5-7, with ERA 5.91
Anderson has faced the Cubs 11 times (2-0 as an Angels pitcher), going 6-3, with ERA 3.69.
For the season, he’s 2-8, with ERA 4.77
Cubs have dominated Trout.
He’s played 12 games against Cubs, with 0.205 BA, 1 HR, 4 RBIs.
His best game was his first game (July 2013), going 3-4, with 2 doubles and 1 RBI
Since that game, he’s 4-33 (0.121 BA), with 1 HR, 3 RBI
I guess we meet Cy Brown today.
I’m going to the Cubs game Saturday to watch PCA’s Trout before roids impersonation and some meaningful late season baseball. First live MLB game since 2019 and all of baseball pissing me off with a strike after Covid. I hope we win cause I really enjoy the Brewers.
Damn, I’m jealous. You will be in attendance to watch Mederos throw a No-No.
Hope you get to see Neto
The Cubs are an excellent team – which means the Angels will sweep them.
They are well coached, big mismatch in that department
The Cubs’ fine young right hander, Cade Horton is supposed to pitch on Saturday against the Angels. But he left his August 18th start after 2.2 innings with a blister. There is no news about Saturday’s start but is something to watch. https://www.mlb.com/news/cade-horton-exits-start-vs-brewers
Cubs can just have a minor league pitcher, who’s never made an MLB debut, face the Angels on Saturday.
Good chance Cubs will win, as that pitcher will befuddle Angels hitters.
Jeff – between all the content you are creating and your interviews on podcasts, I think you are showing your real true love – baseball. Give up that silly real-estate stuff and do this baseball stuff full time! Who knows where it might take you.
Baseball’ll take him straight out of the real estate game indeed – including his own!
Speaking of Zachs, the Reds brought up their Ben Joyce, Zach Maxwell.
He is yeesh huge. 6’6″ and 280 Lbs. He’s got pretty unhittable stuff. He also has almost no idea where the ball is going. Catching an inning or two of him will be fun because you can actually see somewhat terrified MLB hitters. He may actually hit Mr Red.
Kinda like Ryne Duren, he was known for being very wild, wearing thick glasses, having maybe a 100 mph fastball (before the various radar guns) and intentionally pitching wildly during his warmup. He average 9.6 strikeouts and 6 walks per nine innings.
Mickey Mantle said he was the fastest pitcher that he fastest ever faced. Casey Stengel was quoted as saying “I would not admire hitting against Ryne Duren, because if he ever hit you in the head you might be in the past tense” and Ralph Houk said Hall of fame pitcher Bob Feller was the only other pitcher who threw as hard as Duren.
I hope the Zach Maxwell is a colorful character to go along with his pitching ability. By the way Ryne pitched for the Angels in 1961 and 1962 and I think I saw him pitch in 1961, but since I was only 5 I really don’t remember.
Yeah, that guy is just…HUGE. Strikes out about 14 per 9 innings but walks about 6. Going to be rough going w/o top control but hope he does well.Pulling for the Reds make the post season, sucks they lost that 2-1 game.
[Cue the Major League Ricky Vaughn montage]
Eli Willits had a nice debut in A ball last night, reaching base in four out of five tries.
3-4, BB, run, 2 RBIs, steal. Showed a little bit of everything in his tool kit.
Munroe had a nice hit last night, a bases loaded triple to deep center. His bat looked quick.
do you anticipate any other draft pitchers showing up besides Davis?
Sam Tookoian and Angelo Smith have both been active at Tri-City. Smith got roughed up in his last outing, but Tookoian has been quite effective in the early going – only one hit vs 7 Ks in his first 4 IP with the Dust Devils.
I can understand their reluctance to overwork Shores, who got a lot of work in the playoffs, though surprised not to get a peak at Snead, who had a manageable workload this year.
Still surprising to me why these draft pitching prospects are even put into action. Let the arms recover, avoid the mileage, especially the HS prospects. Folks wonder why there are so many arm injuries in todays game, this has to play into it.
None of the prep arms are in action beyond complex league scrimmages. And the college arms who are getting a look haven’t even pitched 30 innings this year. I see very little risk in it.
But that is just 30-innings in competitive environment, I’m sure there is much more arm usage in a non-competitive situations. Also, the gap on when they last pitched in college and then asked to pitch professionally will require the pitcher to ramp up the arm and once again. Impossible, no, can be done but not sure of the benefit.
These guys are pitching throughout the year – getting bullpen guys 10-20 innings late in the season really isn’t abuse. They’ve been ramping up for weeks in Arizona.
It’s another matter when coaches are pushing starters to 130+ pitches several times in college ball – I would never trot Kade Anderson out to pitch this season, for example.
But the three guys they’re giving work to now were not leverage arms on their teams, and really have low mileage on their arms overall. Tookoian, for instance, pitched all of three innings for Mississippi this year. Davis threw 21 innings over a four month stretch.
yes it always makes sense we will see some pitchers after we sign them – thus my question.
and others if they are high inning college guys definitely will be shut down.
we now have seen 7/21 from the draft now? (Munroe, Jackson, Alford, Rodriguez, three pitchers. or more?)
Gage Harrelson is the only collegiate bat who has not appeared yet. And none of the UDFAs have appeared – I thought we might see a little of Graeber, McCollum or Zaborowski. But they may just not have many PAs to go around if they want to get ABs to Rio, Raudi, Jackson and Alvarez at this point.
The guy who wrote Lord of the Rings?
It might be the Armenian knockoff, but hopefully he gets us a ring.
😆
Which we will then throw into a volcano.
Catcher to Tookoian’s pitches: “You Shall Not Pass!”
Btw, Rex, not sure if you watched the 66ers game, but that triple Munroe hit was an odd one – Visalia’s CF misjudged the ball, thought it was a HR and simply gave up on it as it bounced low off the wall. He jogged toward it, let it go off the wall, and just watched it dribble away in front of him until Munroe made third. A better play and it would have been a loud warning track out.
Not sure that Munroe’s found his stroke yet – lot of whiffs in his first appearances. In the 3B AB, Fell had missed with six straight pitches until that point, and then threw one straight down the middle that Munroe whiffed on. The 3-1 pitch that followed was well-struck, but the extra bases were more down to poor defense.
The guy that impressed me in last night’s game was Quintero. Caught nine shutout innings, threw an absolute laser to 2b to get Arizona’s first rounder, speedy Kayson Cunningham, trying to steal, and hit a long loud double to LF when the 66ers plated seven in the sixth.
He’s only 18.
Flores, Laverde, Quintero, Davalillo. Need at least one of these catchers to pan out
Davalillo was one of 7 hitters from the DSL highlighted today in BA and expect him to catch Perry’s HS pitchers next summer. Good thing Marlon is blocking him or he might skip the ACL.
I think he could use the full short season in the ACL, honestly. His batted ball data is extremely strong, and he’s built like a tank with power to match. But he still needs a lot of coaching behind the plate, and his pitch selection is a WIP.
yeah I saw that triple – it was odd. it was hard hit though.
He’s definitely not hit like Alford out of the gate. And all I can see him now is at 1B after you and TBW brought it up.
Nice kid and my favorite of the class. When I started to chat with the picks> Bremner was quiet, Shores I mentioned LSU, then all I could think of was Mike Miley and decided not to bring him up, so quickly acknowledging Snead, I knew Munroe=Louisville so asked if he heard from Reid or Adell, and also spoke of my recent trip to the Derby; the UL baseball stadium is less than a mile away from Churchill. Munroe is the one who told me about them scrimagging 3x/week in Tempe to start. We will see.
Shores still is the one though. I saw like Slawinski/Mitchell were highly rated preps in Texas this year. Shores was too a top prep in Texas in 2022 I saw today. While maybe a bit more common, 6’8″ pitchers are still huge.
According to you and I, Bremner and Shores are gonna run the league.
I really hope we are right lol
So many things working against Shores realizing his ceiling, but I defer to your optimism. 🙂
I’ll just note that the guy I would have picked over Snead, as covered in my 2025 draft wrap-up piece, Mason Neville, is making quite the show of it in his first assignment for the Reds:
.361/.425/.694 with 8 XBH in his first 11 games.
Insane that the club passed him over for a middle reliever with a 1.55 WHIP with control problems who doesn’t miss bats (7.6 K/9), but Perry loves his project arms.
The guy I would’ve picked over Munroe at #109, Quinn-Irons, is also doing rather well, with a .462 OBP and .795 OPS for Tampa.
That said, woe is mine, my late round “fun” pick Thibodeaux hasn’t lit the world on fire for the Padres. Granted, he was a 16th round pick, so a lotto ticket at best, with only 39 plate appearances in his career, but the contact has been pretty light thus far. Probably tiring out after a full season + draft league ball.
The Orioles and Samuel Basallo are finalizing an eight-year, $67 million contract extension, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Where is the Neto extension!!!
Basallo is a 20-year-old catcher with 4 MLB games under his belt. The Orioles must really be convinced about him.
Bad news. NSFW. Ask your doctor and he’ll explain where that Neto extension is.
Sounds Neato for your SO, though….
Speaking of things going into an out tunnel, clearly our owner is going to go the Jerry Jones rout and wait till 5 WAR players are getting 42M a year to extend Neto cause business. It’s unfinished.
This is the owner who didn’t sign Mike Trout long term until his six years of control were over.
Monty says he’s fine. You know how that goes.
I remember watching that GA 10 RBI game and being utterly gobsmacked. What a performance.
I remember it because it broke Vald’s record, one of a handful of games at the Big A I attended this century 6-2-04: nine RBI against Pedro and the Red Sox hitting two home runs and going 4-for-4 at the plate.
Classic GA. Note that 7 RBI were on home runs. He’s too lazy to fully run the bases. 😆
Sorry, should have been “too lazy to hit more than 4 pitches”.
An 8-RBI game tonight for Taylor would be nice.
So would Mike’s #400 and 3rd Place in the AL West.
Since we didn’t trade any of our expiring contracts, can we at least stop playing them as much so we can start building toward whatever future we’ve got. Kenley excepted, although he may be headed to the IL anyway.
Who’s on your list to see then? It seems Moore and Mederos are givens. Not sure I want to see more Fermin though his last two outings were good.
See, that’s the thing. We gotta ditch the “he gave me the sads for 20ABs or 2IPs so I no wanna see no more” thing. We have to allow some longer term floundering. We have to accept that a lot of that flopping will net us nothing but a failed prospect too. The team. It is not good. We can let it be worse so it gets better.
I’d like to see at least a couple weeks of true disgust. Kavedas in the OF. Paris in the line up. Moore always starts. Pereza plays a lot. Teodosio. And the pitchers…. so many gross relief innings from kids whose names we don’t know….
We are out of the race we were never in. Let’s do it baby.
I see your point, but since the roster only expands by 2 in September, doesn’t that mean the team would have to DFA a lot of expiring contracts to have enough slots to bring the kids up?
I say bounce a bunch of the kids on and off the 25 man. Pitchers can experience “fatigue” the last couple weeks too. And yes, if my cold shark mind was running things I’d just release impending FAs I don’t plan to resign or trade.
That actually brings up a question. Can MiLB players that are on the 40 man roster hang out in Anaheim and practice with the Angels? Can they practice every day and then get moved on/off the 25 man?
For some reason I feel like they can’t but I don’t actually know at all….
I don’t think if they’re not on the expanded 28-man roster that they can be in uniform or in the dugout/bullpen, but other than that I don’t know. Of course, being on the 40-man roster means they get paid for the final month so paying them shouldn’t be an issue.
Pereza should get ABs and Mederos and Fermin should get innings.
Keep playing Teodosio, too.
I’d try to get Paris some “remember what MLB pitching and the OF look like?” games as well.
He’s been injured and I don’t think he’s played in while, but I agree.
From what I can tell, Paris injured himself while trying to make a diving catch in Salt Lake on July 3, went on the injured list and hasn’t played since.
That is my understanding as well.
There more we bring up when their seasons end, the better.
Following an off day, quick off topic summary of the 3 yr old thoroughbred season. The year has been dominated by two horses: Sovereignty and Journalism, clearly the class of the crop.
Journalism was favored for the Derby, but Sovereignty won it, Journalism came in second.
Sovereignty decided not to go for the Triple Crown and skipped the Preakness. Journalism went off as the big favorite and in that. More on it later. And then in the Belmont, Sovereignty and Journalism again went 1-2, and right now Sovereignty is the best 3 yr old in the land, he runs in the Travers Stakes tomorrow at Saratoga which is the biggest race of the summer.
Journalism who had also won the Santa Anita Derby won the Haskell last month and is racing at Del Mar and the end of this month in the Pacific Classic. He is trained by Mike McCarthy who is a lot like us but grew up in Arcadia by Santa Anita so it was horses instead of baseball. Hugely impacted by the fires in Altadena too. The two horses will hopefully meet again in Del Mar at the Breeders Cup.
Back to the Preakness- After the Derby of course Journalism connections are crushed , being the favorite and coming in 2nd is wrenching. They enter the Preakness as huge favorites-
The only reason I wrote all that was to set race this https://youtu.be/Twsq2ydLIZk
I didn’t like the jockey of the horse who dangerously cut between the other horses nearly causing mayhem on the track. At the least, the win should’ve been taken away and he be given a massive suspension.
i was lucky enough to be in Saratoga just before the Belmont, and watched the horses on the training track. A great experience.
Whatever you can dream of as the perfect nostalgic and best ballpark to watch a game, Saratoga is as perfect as it gets in horse racing. I have been to Fenway once before too and I’d rather go back to Saratoga.
[reply fail to ML deleted]
Did you then fly up to Nova Scotia to see a total eclipse of the sun?
HORSES! One of the secret perks of SoCal is that Santa Anita and Del Mar are here. I don’t gamble, but I can say that just about anyone, even kids, will enjoy a trip to the race track on a random Saturday. It is really cool to look at the horses, pick the ones you like, even looking at the book for the race…. it’s a blast.
Santa Anita is where I gave up gambling. One day there was enough! ‘Cause I lost!
Might as well take a look at Taylor Ward who’s having a career year.
RISP 146 PA, .264/.349/.521, 18 BB, 40 SO
Men On 258 PA, .249/.345/.512, 34 BB, 72 SO
None On 281 PA, .224/.295/.467, 25 BB, 72 SO
Nicknames are great especially the ones guys give to each other. A lot of good nicknames have come from here. My two favorite from the past week are Captain Chaos and Tommy Ten Teams.
In looking through Mike Trout’s stats for the season, I noticed this interesting bit of data. He has had 105 PA with runners in scoring position, slashed .300/.486/.500 with 28 BB and 22 SO. Make it with men on, 189 PA, .275/.444/.486 with 42 BB and 45 SO. Does Mike strike out a lot? Yes, but I don’t think moving him down in the order will help the team’s chances. For fairness’ sake, with nobody on he is slashing .219/.317/.424 with 29 BB and 83 SO.
Trout’s OPS is ranked 36th right now. That’s nothing to shake a stick at. He’s just gotten to it in a weird way. But I am still far less worried about the guy with an 821 OPS than I am our pitching issues. I still have deep hidden hope that Mike can crack 850 next year if his knee hurts less. It’s not the .920 we got used to, but it’s far from being a hole in the line up.
Speaking of OPS… I can’t believe washed up dumpster reservation holder George Springer is sporting a 905…. there is hope for Trout.
Speaking of which. Do you think the 32 Marlins fans that exist are bitching about picking up dumpster piece Kyle Stowers?
I doubt it. The 60-67 Marlins don’t have any pretensions about making the post season, unlike the 61-66 Angels.
Mike’s OPS is trending up. I’m hoping.900 henceforth.
Jeff said it in his interview – this is his best season since 2022.
I think his OBP of .373 is around 15th in MLB. Pretty impressive considering the awful start.
Flagged for cherry-picking, Rex.
Can it really be 18 years since the GA 10 RBI game? Yikes.
And 23 years since we won our first and only World Series!
And 11 years since our last playoff appearance. I still haven’t forgiven the baseball gods for blessing Nori Aoki.
The closed eyes catch in right field.
That’s the one. Closed his eyes, stuck out his arm, and the ball dropped into his glove.
Does anyone still have a DVD player?
Asking for a friend.
Yes, but it’s one of those VHS/DVD dual players that I got from my parents.
VHS players are for Dallas Cowboy fans.
I’m a Rams fan, but okay.
you could have watched the Rams win the Super Bowl on your smartphone.
For the last Cowboys Super Bowl, you need a VHS player.
I don’t watch sports/movies/tv on my phone, not even after T-Mobile gave me free mlb.com this year. The small screen just doesn’t do it for me.
Yes. OTOH, if you have a Blu-Ray, it will play DVDs.
I have one in our guest/music room.