Good morning Angels fans! That felt good right? Anyway, have some links!
Angels News
The Angels have won 4 in a row! First time all year, and, well, last time since May 16th-23rd 2025 when the Angels won 8 in a row.
And despite that, the team is still only 21-34, which is horrendous. Still, it IS only 6 games out of first in the bad AL West.
And hey, look at that, by winning, the Angels are statistically NOT last place in all of baseball anymore. That is now the Rockies, who at a .357 winning percentage is SLiiiiiiiiiiiiiiightly worse than the Angels at .382.
Even if this is a façade, the farm is looking good. All levels are above .500 even when the MLB team is nowhere close.
Around Baseball
Cubs fans are in agony as they lose their 10th straight. They join the 2017 Dodgers as the only teams in AL/NL history with both a 10 game winning streak and 10 game losing streak in the same season. So, what cheating AL Team will beat thee Cubs in the World Series this year?
What batters have fallen off most this year? It is the no handshake guy in the PNW. Also these other guys.
Goldy has become the 9th hitter to K 2K times. Reggie Jackson is still the MLB champ at K-ing the most, despite being the only player in the top 10 to NOT play in the 21st century. He has held the record since 1982, when he overtook Willie Stargell mid season. Not only has he held the record the longest, but he is critical about how often players K these days.
James Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man may hate each other, but they are both Mets fans. Which makes them miserable together. Ah, Baseball..
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Was hoping Mancini would get the call-up to replace Nolan. Very root-on-able dude.
The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of infielder Nick Madrigal. He’ll take the active roster spot of first baseman Nolan Schanuel, who has been placed on the ten-day injured list with left ankle inflammation, retroactive to May 24th. To open a 40-man spot, outfielder Matthew Lugo has been designated for assignment.
I had hoped better for Lugo but he hasn’t hit at all this year.
At least in the minors Madrigal was not striking out a lot and had a decent BB rate.
Nightmare season for Nolan.
A few days away from the Summer of Jo. JOne, JOly, JOgust
2026 oWAR 0.2, dWAR -0.5, OPS+ 94
He might need more than a few days to get ready for “the summer of Jo” 😀
P12 is finding his old self again after the 4 wins. I was surprised to know that Jo had even fewer HRs at this same point last year when he hit 37. He’s on pace for about 24 right now with is a long way from 37. He had a giant month in either June or July last year.
I feel confident that bad decisions by Kurt and Perry will prevent us from succeeding even if we improve.
We will have a better grasp on the tank after the Rockies series.
For now, we prepare ourselves for a few months of Jo sending missiles out of the park
…says JOlly JOkingly
Funny thing about the wRC+ table is that we have a bunch of guys that low but they were already bad or not very good last year so they couldn’t fall as far.
How is Detroit this bad? It can’t just be Tarik going down. I mean, the guy’s a stud but he only plays every 5th day.
we are def sweeping them aren’t we lol?
Agreed. Without Skubal you’d still think they would be around .500.
The old caveat applies. “That’s why they play the games!”
I see your dancing box head and raise you a dancing box head…
This team will always be in last place in my heart.
Woo hoo! The Angels signed Alex Faedo. World series here we come. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/05/angels-sign-alex-faedo-to-minor-league-deal.html
Might as well. Somebody ought to give Faedo a shot to come back from TOS surgery (Zack Wheeler is better than ever after his), and the Angels are a prime candidate to do that. It isn’t like Faedo could make the Angels bullpen much worse (and now that I’ve jinxed it – it isn’t like it really matters this year if he does make it worse).
Could the AL West be won by a team with 70 wins?
It “feels” like it’s possible.
70 wins seems a stretch, but a sub .500 season looks to be a strong possibility. A cursory check shows that two teams with losing records have made it into the expanded playoffs, but both were during the 2020 season (Astros and Brewers, both with 29-31 records).
Perhaps if we had a competent organization all kinds of things could happen. Moore and Guzman could both be promoted and hit the crap out of the ball, Kikuchi could return for the 2nd half and we could have a lights out rotation, and we could fortify the bullpen and become an entirely different team. Not sure what the chances are of that and whether winning 4 games against Texas and Detroit means anything. I still think Seattle is a very good team and will likely win 85 games. If we are sellers at the deadline that will impact our record as well. And you just can’t count on Perry and Suzuki to make good decisions. It’s more likely we see more of Moncada and Lowe this year along with Alex Faedo. We can never underestimate the idiots in charge.
Totally agree with positive potential you commented about the team especially if we had the right leadership/front office. But have to consider the weak hitting problem though; our current lineup horrid strikeout rate and poor situational hitting. Any momentum from pitching or promoting the prospects will wash if the bats continue to be trash.
You are correct. we currently have 3 players hitting better than replacement level, Trout, Peraza, and Neto, not counting the recent arrival of Meckler. Even the addition of a couple of good hitters still only gives us half a line up.
The hopium is strong in this one. I like it.
I think Seattle will get their act together and run away with the division with probably 85 wins. Then Oakland will win 78 or so. Just a guess, of course.
We think alike 🙂