The Angels lost a tough one yesterday. Apparently, Mason Miller is pretty good at pitching. Supposedly we will be getting some pitchers back from the 15 day IL soon.
Zack Wheeler is supposedly coming back soon. I’ve never seen anybody really come back from thoracic outlet surgery. They sort of act like they are coming back and eventually fail.
The Yankees traded infielder Braden Shewmake to the Astros for Wilmy Sanchez. I kid you not.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Moncada over Peraza again. I get that Dirt Suzuki is trying to put lefties in the lineup but I still don’t like it.
When only 4 of your 9 starters are hitting, it hurts to remove one of them.
A certain someone doesn’t want to be Wally Pipp’d, or should I say Wally Urena’d …
Grayson Rodriguez is about to face hitters for the first time since spring training.
Competition is good. I hope Urena pushes all of these dudes: Rodriguez, Dana & Klassen.
Is our mythical SP depth surfacing?
Soriano, Kikuchi, Detmers, Silent C, Urena
AAA: Dana, Klassen, Aldegheri, Farris
GRod 🏥
Grayson will be given a spot so until then, Koch vs Walbert to see who becomes numero cinco?
Silent C is cemented in the rotation. I don’t think it’s even a question.
You have much more faith in Silent C than I do. I hope he does well, but there are still some concerning underlying metrics.
“Cemented” after four starts. No questions – that’s a very categorical stance.
He has an xERA of 5.08, the highest BB/9 rate of his career at any level, most of his statcast profile is a sea of blue, and his BABIP is a completely unsustainable .200 (Tarik Skubal’s is .286, as is the league average).
Everything screams coming regression.
I’m basing it off my perception of the Angels thinking. They gave him a longer leash than deserved last year, and I’m assuming he’ll stick in the rotation all year unless he pitches himself out of it again.
The walks are alarming forsure and we’ll see how hard the regression hits
My assumption is that they plan to give their primary offseason investments, Grayson and Manoah, long leashes when they return, and Koch and Urena are next up on the depth chart.
I don’t want to curse Jack K, but it’s a largely similar profile to 2024-5, except the post-ABS strikezone is tighter now, and he was already a groundball specialist who thrives on the black.
Let’s see what happens, but he basically is as good as his command and his infield defense. His BABIP was .325 last year – that’s in part due to bad defense (his ’24 BABIP was .282).
But regression is coming – no contact-oriented pitcher lives at .200 BABIP for long.
I did not know this. That makes me sad. I was excited about how he was doing so far.
Cautiously optimistic. With an emphasis on the optimistic.
And we didn’t even mention Bremner.
Bremner and Shores are a bit further away in A+. I am cautiously hopeful that the org is handling them with the care their development deserves.
There’s R Johnson too, but he needs to spend time in AA. I don’t understand why we keep trying to push him onto the big league club. Is it because Perry selected him with the Ohtani comp pick?
No idea TBH, but, I’ll venture a guess.
A dearth of young pitching options (until very recently) was a driving factory. I’d also assume that the coaches were sending positive signals up the chain that the kid was “ready”. Or at least ready enough to give it a go.
From the appearance of things Bremner is in no way, shape or form an A + pitcher…. I imagine he will be in AA shortly, and maybe even in AAA by the All Star break.
Frankly, I would not be surprised if we saw him with the big club in mid to late summer. This kid is ahead of his years emotionally and he already has Major League level kind of stuff. That fastball/changeup combo would certainly play at this level…
I think you may be right. Bremner may move very quickly. He’s dominated in his few appearances thus far. Another start or two and he’ll be in AA just to see how he handles higher level competition.
Just keep in mind: Bremner is pitching in a cold-weather league that’s kind to pitchers, and he hasn’t pitched more than five innings in any start yet. (He’s pitched just under 12 innings total.)
I think he’s where he should be, honestly – and despite the gaudy strikeout totals, it’s premature to say he’s no way a high-A pitcher. A wise org would give him 8-10 starts in the NW League before sending him out to Alabama. And AAA will do him no favors, given park factors.
It’d be a shame if they rushed this guy – he only pitched 77 innings last year. He’s never thrown 100 innings in any year. His tests now are length, repetition and durability across a full pro season.
Is he the new Stephenson?
I watched all of the White Sox/A’s series this weekend, and couldn’t help thinking about Munetaka Murakami’s 2 yr/$34M contract with Chicago – basically a Stephenson outlay.
161 OPS+, second in the MLB in HRs. Here’s his Statcast profile side-by-side with Schwarber’s…
You mean he’s better than Moncada?
And Schanuel, and whoever rotates through DH on a given night.
The Sox haven’t given him a look at 3B yet though. It’ll be interesting to see if they do eventually, should Vargas continue to flail there.
Wow, very similar at much less the cost. He crushed that one yesterday. I’ve been watching the box scores from the Jays and Chi-Sox to see how well the foreign 3rd base imports have been performing. Both had been under the Mendoza line but now performing a little better. Transition time needed before final say but I was good with Perry not investing in these guys, I think I still am. Murakami was supposed to strikeout a ton, something that we already corner the market on.
Murakami does strike out a ton. Definition of a TTO bat.
Murakami was an obvious buy at that price. Dude has that prodigious 🇯🇵 power.
OTOH, early returns on Okamoto and Imai are not looking great
Looks Urena had a good outing. Didn’t catch the game as I was busy. Side note : My wife loves the Star Wars jersey she got Friday night. It’s her new favorite shirt to wear around the house.
That’s what Arte was talking about. She’s a happy fan!
And I bet she doesn’t care if we win or not !
But we did win that promotion game, which doesn’t usually happen…
Actually she was happy that they won, but isn’t invested in the team like my son and I.
Those are the fans that Arte wants. 🙂
He can be really good as he develops a better breaking ball.
It only came in one large adult size, so a kid wearing it would look silly. Good picture on the back though; “The Mandalorian and GROW-GOO” as Rodger Lodge said in the tv add..
Din Grogu.
Yeah, it would have been nice to have a more kid size option.
I think they’re hideous, but, my wife and I somehow went home with 3 jerseys. She’s keeping one for herself and sending the other two to relatives overseas.
Walbert needs to harness his command. Until then, expect large mood swings. To date, he has shown at every stop that the catchers mitt is his kryptonite.
He only walked two guys in 6 IP yesterday, and BOTH of those came at the very end of his day when Suzuki kept pushing him (which incidentally cost us a chance to win that game) when he was clearly done. I don’t see the same control issues that you do…
Mood swings – good days and bad days. Obviously, you must be single.
He was up and down all year last year in the minors and averaged 4.7 BB per 9 innings.
If you look at his last 10 starts in the minors, these were his walk totals:
0, 4, 3, 0, 0, 4, 5, 2, 4, 2
He looked great yesterday for sure, but historically he is very volatile.
We’ll see how he does in his next start. Most of those starts were likely before Maddux got his hands on him…
Walbert Urena displayed a nasty sinker + changeup combo and generated whiffs with his FB, sweeper needs a good amount of refinement.
He looked significantly better in his 1st start than Klassen and Johnson did. I still believe Dana is the right choice to serve as the 5th starter, but won’t argue against seeing more Wally
Yes! More Wally please!
Those zone % marks are the ones to watch. With the Pandas last season he’d alternate starts where he’d be virtually unhittable over 7+ innings with starts where he’s walking 4-5 guys and there was traffic everywhere.
Much came down to batter approach – if the opposing team waits him out and forces him to command the secondaries, he can get into trouble.
He was durable and ended September strong last year, though, so maybe his time has come.
Walk totals in his last 7 MiLB starts are exactly as you said:
0, 4, 3, 0, 0, 4, 5
He was a follow prospect for me last season, so I watched a dozen or more of his Rocket City starts.
Am just preaching patience here, as he can be volatile/variable, and I know Angels fans can also be pretty short-fused if a prospect strings together a tough start or two.
Now that you mention it, the zone % sticks out like a sore thumb. 17% on 35 changeups is 😂. That pitch moves so much there’s no way he has any clue where it’s landing out of his hand.
We’ve discussed Walbert semi-regularly for a while now and I’d say he’s proven himself capable holding velo late into games and throughout a full season.
I have major doubts about his control too, but maybe it’s for the best letting him stay up and work with Maddux.
35 changeups, 6 in the zone. 🙂
I don’t think San Diego had much of a book on him yet. Just saying that, once teams do, they’ll be more selective in their approach.
Obviously things would look better had we not squandered a few very winnable games. That being said, sitting at 11-12 at this juncture and bearing in mind that our opening month was incredibly difficult on paper, we should consider ourselves relatively fortunate to be 0.5 out from 1st place.
However, the team must play at least .600 ball over the next few weeks as the schedule is far more favorable in theory. The old “hold serve against the better clubs & may hay against the lesser clubs” theory.
I really like what we’re seeing from the starting staff, particularly if Urena is able to lockdown the 5th spot. His ‘stuff’ is undeniable. It would be ironic is he was the guy to emerge in 2026 rather than Klassen or Dana.
Jeez I’ve seen so much buzz about Yates coming back like it is supposed to help bolster the bullpen. He had an ERA over 5 last year lol so he will fit right in.
When you’re drowning, every potential life raft is appealing.
Yeah, I hope they don’t throw him in the late inning mix !
The guy we really need back is Joyce !
Because he has such a long record of success? I’m not ready to anoint him yet.
Take a look at this write up on Yates.
Yes, he was bad last year. But in the previous year he had Mike Maddux as his pitching coach and was excellent. Beyond excellent. He’s a 2 pitch reliever and 1 of his pitches wasn’t working well last year.
If Maddux can get that pitch back on track, Perry will look like a genius. If not, he’ll be another Romano and Zeferjahn.
But there are logical reasons t have hope on Yates.
Thanks for sharing. This new writer over at SI is pretty sharp.
Try this link:
https://x.com/mlbtraderumors/status/2046043080977998185?s=46
Kirby Yates is likely closest to returning to action.
I wrote about that before they did. Joyce is fairly close too.
https://www.si.com/mlb/angels/onsi/the-angels-bullpen-will-add-a-closer-or-two-soon-01kpeqh7bea3
The Padres are a good baseball team.
They are also smart. Mike Trout was hotter than nuclear fission coming in from NYC and they simply pitched around him to the tune of 7 walks in the series. Trout only had 1 bloop hit – which he turned into a hustle double – and that was it.
Schanny needs to be dropped to the bottom 3rd of the order and if the performance doesn’t start to pick up soon, they should consider platooning him a bit more.
The catching position is apparently a black hole. Again.
That link re: BP help on the way is 404.
The Padres gameplan was to throw breaking pitches in the 80s, change ups, and keep the ball low against most hitters. It worked. The Halos plainly like fastballs better, but except by Miller.
On to the next series.
Great Scouting by the Padres.
Mostly true, but I would argue that Trout likes the breaking stuff even more than fastballs. But they didn’t pitch to him anyway, so it worked out for them…
And you can be sure the Blue Jays saw what happened in that series… the Padres pitched around Trout and the guys behind him couldn’t make them pay. That was not just Schanuel but also Adell and in the final game Soler who all failed to come up with the big hit in the clutch. You can be sure Toronto will not let Mike beat them…
He hit 5 HRs in the previous series, That’s what I would do.
Yep. Me too.
If this trend continues, I wonder if this will result in Trout swinging at more 1st pitch offerings, which tend to be meatballs anyway? This will certainly result in less walks, but, the upside is more extra base hits. I think he should, but, his entire career suggests that he won’t. And that’s a large sample size.
Yeah, old habits die hard. I really like Mike’s patience at the plate. You need to be careful about “jumping” at first pitches as it can take you out of your mechanics pretty quickly,
The Athletic “The Windup” newsletter talks a bit about Soriano.
“José Soriano, the Angels ace, has an outstanding sinker. Last year, when he threw it more than any other qualified pitcher in the majors, he had a good season. This year, he is throwing it 20 percent less — and having the best season of any pitcher in the sport.
Last season, when he was 10-11 with a 4.26 ERA, almost everything he threw was down. He used his sinker about 50 percent of the time, mixing it mainly with curves, splitters and the occasional slider. Hitters looked down and stayed down.
The four-seamer forces them to respect the high pitch, and now Soriano throws sinkers, four-seamers and curveballs in nearly equal ratios — all between 23 and 30 percent.”
Sometimes a different look and sequence is all it takes.
Thank you Mr. Maddux! May I have another?
Good post. You could tell a couple of years ago the guy had an electric arm watching from the CF camera. Even coming off of 2-TJs. Nice to hear that the organization actually helped, if that is indeed the case.
11-12
This team has shown promise offensively and the starting rotation is beginning to click. How many games have we lost because of Suzuki’s bullpen management mistakes? Sure feels like he’s directly costed us around 3-5 wins.
Anyways, we have golden
opportunity with our schedule.
Next 6 series:
vs TOR (8-13)
@ KC (7-15)
@ CHW (8-14)
vs NYM (7-15)
vs CHW (8-14)
@ TOR (8-13)
I see no reason why we shouldn’t go at least 12-6 in this stretch. Well, I guess it depends on how many games our Mensa manager wants to screw around with.
Hopium is High!
It didn’t take many games to see the manager has no idea what he’s doing. It’s so frustrating he threw away a great starting performance, and then the game yesterday with his idiotic pitching moves. And it was by no means the first time.
The schedule is improving but we will see on any record. I didn’t understand shy Suzuki had Urena start the seventh. After walking the first guy, I especially didn’t understand why Urena got a chance to walk the next one. The game was list there.
That said, Urena looked terrific and provides hope for the future.
I think it will take the starters pitching well and going deep into games. That’s possible. If the Halos get any kind of consistency from Koch and an emergence from a No. 5 that would be huge. Try to keep Suzuki and the bullpen out of the games.
The offense is a bit of a mystery to me. Angels lead the league in BBs and HPB so they are finding ways to get on base without the skill of hitting a baseball. Excellent but not so excellent, when they do put the ball in play, their team average is subpar. Angels are No. 2nd in home runs but No. 1 in strikeouts. They are a slow team, 3rd worst in GIDP and bottom 3rd in SBs. They won’t pressure the opposition like the early Scioscia led teams. But at least this season the Angels OBA is way up they are accepting walks
The glass half empty tells me the offense is a problem but one must give it until June, at a minimum.
Half of our line up (O’Hoppe, Schanuel, Moncada, and Lowe) is pretty bad with OPS+s or 77, 80, 89, and 69. 4 players have been very good so far ( (Peraza, Neto, Trout, and Soler) with OPS+s of 150, 130, 180, and 136. Adell is barely above average at 106. It’s likely that Schanuel and Moncada will improve to their norms and some or all of the good performers will regress to theirs. It is not likely that any of the poor performers will be replaced except for maybe Lowe So there really isn’t much hope for overall improvement in the line up, and as Turk and others have mentioned multiple times, there is no depth and we have no replacements. The only possible move would be to replace Lowe with Rada and put him in CF and move Trout to left. Other than that I don’t see any changes to the position players being made this year. There does not seem to be any organizational interest other than going with the current 40 man roster.
Copy all, agree. What we see is what we get. Rada perhaps as you say and a gradual offensive decline is the most probable and then the proverbial selloff at the deadline. I’m ok with that truthfully, I want a shot at Dax Whitney.
Toronto and the Mets are due to start playing up to their potential soon and we could be just the team to help them do so.
I could see the team going .500 through this stretch, though, by winning the KC and 2 Chicago series while losing the Mets and 2 Toronto series.
I think we can sweep Toronto if we win today’s Detmers/Cease matchup. Maybe they will look better when we visit them in May, but for now gotta advantage of their subpar play.
On paper, this is the easiest 18-game stretch we will have all year. A good team makes a statement here
Surprised you are saying that with how our offense looked the last two days.
I think we used up our biweekly allotment of runs in New York ! Plus, Cease is a tough customer…. I don’t think we will score enough to win tonight’s game…
Getting locked down by King and SD’s bullpen isn’t that damning.
Whole lineup is available, let’s see what happens
Like you always say Jeff (and I fully agree) ; “I hate playing a team that has been struggling for awhile cause they’re due to win.”
My dad engrained that in me when I was young.
I’d say half of these games are against teams that should be better than they’ve played. If we can knock the Jays and Mets while they’re down, that would be big.
