What a week! The Angels swept Texas at home then won 2 out of 3 in the Motor City. This winning thing is kind of fun.
Not to fill up the hopium pipes, but as of 4 PM Thursday afternoon our hapless Halos sit a mere 6 games out of the division lead. Which says a lot about the division as those same Halos are 22-35.
Vaughn Grissom had himself a game on Tuesday night, including a grand slam that secured the Angels win.
The Angels were winning but I took a big L when trying to delve into the fantasy baseball world. I told everyone to start Mike Trout this week because he is crushing it on the road. But he made me look good yesterday.
The old guy showed off some wheels as well.
And, hey, at least I got a lot of yesterday’s prediction correct.
Grayson Rodriguez has looked better each time out. Yesterday his slider was nasty.
One thing I genuinely love about CtPG is the instant feedback. I don’t get that On SI. No, people there have to take time to email me or track me on social media to tell me I suck. Not many, but it happens.
I expected more backlash when I stated keeping the team name Los Angeles makes far more sense than going back to Anaheim. I only received on email and it was worded so nicely that it came across like my aunt pointing out a mistake and being disappointed in me, not angry.
Can the team keep the momentum as they head to Tampa Bay? That will be tough.
Tampa Bay does not play in Tampa Bay, by the way. But nobody is freaking out about their name.
Before all this winning (and even now) the biggest aim of Angels fans is to get Arte Moreno to sell. Will the shirts off, chants, and protests get Arte’s attention?
From around baseball:
Owners and the union have exchanged proposals. Both have concepts of a salary floor which I’ve long stated is just as important as a cap.
The MLBPA took the opening salvo with more revenue sharing, a floor, and no cap.
The owners countered with a higher floor but a cap.
This is epic.
I’ll be doing some deep dives into both proposals but the optimist in me sees both sides working on a floor and better revenue sharing. The dealmaker in me likes to start with the things upon which we agree then build from there.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. I am buried at work right now. I’m actually going to be able to get out on my bike and burn off some calories and stress this weekend. I miss being in shape. Time with my family will be top priority.
Need a dedicated thread for the college regionals this weekend – so many big stories and upsets so far.
Don’t know about you but I’m ready to call TJ Ford “the next Ricky Henderson.”
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=Awr9.TFOAxtqMAIAzkqJzbkF;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=tj+ford+baseball&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Ai%2Cm%3Apivot&fr=yfp-t-m&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVbbfDi0Eb7U
He’s been a fun watch in the first month here. Feels like the kind of young kid Eddie Bane might draft – boom/bust type.
interesting stuff going on in the NCAA regionals. My main concern is Oregon State, currently tied 2-2 in the 7th. No Dax Whitney is going to make this impossible, in my opinion. UCLA also tied 2-2 vs St. Mary’s. That’d be some upset if St. Mary’s can win it.
Bruins are in ruins 😦
UCLA has been a frustrating watch, both yesterday and today. So much flail with RISP.
Love what I’ve seen from AJ Gracia in the Virginia games. That team doesn’t have the pitching to go to Omaha, but Gracia is such a steady machine at the plate.
I was starting to think that he was a little ‘unexciting’ – does everything pretty well, but nothing at a star level. But he’s just such a stable bat. Great first round target for both the A’s and Angels.
2 months in my biggest surprise is Trout doing as well as he is. Soriano showing, he is very good too. Disappointment has been Schanny and O’Hoppe. I thought that Schanny would go up a couple of notches with the bat.
Going for more bat speed was the wrong thing to do for him. His game is contact with occasional HR power. Move guys around and RBIs.
While I agree that the Home Run for Anaheim act is classic government overreach, I don’t know that I agree with the assessment that naming the team Los Angeles will magically produce more fans or media revenue.
People out here will root for the Angels because they are the closest team to them or because they don’t want to be a “bandwagon” Dodgers fan. I don’t think anyone in Riverside is saying “WAIT you’re telling me the Angels aren’t in Los Angeles? This changes everything!”
As far as media is concerned – the Angels will always be the little brother to the Dodgers regardless of whether they use Los Angeles or Anaheim in their name. They just aren’t as big of a brand. Compare this to a team like Green Bay which is a huge national brand and they claim a city that nobody has heard of otherwise. The city does not make the brand.
Also, the comparison with teams like the Pistons and the Cowboys aren’t apples to apples. Those teams are the ONLY teams in those cities and thus represent the metro area as a whole. In the case of the Angels, there is a team in Los Angeles, and the Angels are not that team. I think the only other example of a team doing this is the New York Islanders in the NHL, and you could argue that the NY is simply the state in which they are located. Not to mention their logo has a picture of Long Island and their name is the Islanders – they are pretty proudly stating where they are located.
Even sosh is anti angels:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY5wuc6k7V-/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Helping out oral open open a chevy dealership
Since we’re playing for nothing, I think it’s insane we’re starting a Journeyman at 3B instead of Grissom and Peraza. What in the world is wrong with our failing franchise.
This is how they make it easier to slip Moncada back into place. Also, somebody in authority hates Peraza.
Favorite baseball players Spring 2026:
1. Mike Trout
2. Langdon Hariston
3. Cole Carlon
Forks Up! First of two trips to Nebraska starts tonight.
Hariston should win Golden Spikes and Carlon will be a first round pick.
RIP to Bob Horner who was both.
Probably won’t happen today or ever, but here’s hoping to see Pazuzu, Trout, Neto in the top 3 slots. With the way Grissom is driving in runs this week, he can bat 4th.
I like that banned and have Soler and Adell hit 5-6. Why in the world is are you hitting your second best hitter (Peraza) 7th? And keep Shanuel out of the first 5 when he returns.
In other news Perry and Kurt received the world’s first brain transplants.
Checking the ACL box score every morning is turning into a dependable little cup of espresso. Like last year, intriguing/exciting players at the plate and on the rubber… including one of last year’s overslot arms, Xavier Mitchell, who’s put up near-impeccable numbers in two brief appearances: https://www.milb.com/player/xavier-mitchell-815718
I need to get to Diablo to see them before it gets hot! Not too bad right now.
Yeah, right now would be the right time. 88 today.
… and not the Nazi kind.
No surprise the MLBPA sent a silly proposal with a salary floor and no cap, and it included a cut in luxury tax. Total joke, Dodgers and Yanks love it. Owners proposal with $245 cap may be a fantasy, but man I would love to see our blue neighbor squirm around trying to figure out how to deal with having a $70 and $60 (Tucker!) mil player taking up majority of the payroll.
You always over shoot in an opening offer. That way you give yourself room to back off a stance and negotiate to something that is palatable.
What I find most interesting is the owners coming out with such a high floor. They must be thinking they will drop that number every time the union tries to get a higher luxury tax or hard cap number.
That’s a good strategy. Instead of exchanging offers, why don’t they both talk about what they want and what will actually work. You can’t just have just have both sides wanting more money without any consideration for the health of the business.
The purpose of the floor and the Cap is to level the [playing field so if the cap is too high it serves no purpose and the number of players affected by a high cap is minimal. To actually do this today you would need to make everyone be between $150M and $250M. I don’t think the players would ever accept a $250M cap. But in order to have a $300M cap, the floor would need to be $200M and I don’t believe all the clubs could afford to do that.
In the NBA and the NFL, everyone can afford to spend to the cap which I don’t believe is true for MLB unless the cap is pushed too low. So having a floor and a cap that are unrelated to each other is very doable, but having a floor and a cap that actually increase competitiveness is a non starter because what the players will accept is not compatible with what the current smaller markets can afford.
Revenue sharing will need to increase significantly. And the floor must have rules with teeth.
It’s a mess and will take a long time.
Trout with two doubles in one game was simply amazing, really. But the scoring a run and sliding like Superman was vintage also. 😍
Could’ve easily had 3. He roped one right to the rf
About the only thing I follow in 2026 is Baseball Reference Career WAR Leaders.
Mike should be in Top 45 soon enough catching G Perry and S Carlton.
Everything else this year in the Haloverse is irrelevant.
Soriano, Rodriguez, Detmers, Urena
Bachman, Silseth, Fermin, Zeferjahn
Mike Maddux is doing the Lord’s work. I’m not sure what the likelihood is that Joyce and Kikuchi return from injury, but if they can it takes this pitching staff to an even higher level.
Notice how many of them are now throwing change ups and having success. That is definitely Maddux.
I know Arte is too short sighted to do so but he really should sign Maddux to a long term contract. He’s just so scared he’ll pay out money next year when there is no baseball that he’ll let Maddux walk at the end of this year and lose him.
This did not age well…..
Great game yesterday, Angels. Rare event was seen too, KTTV 10pm news showed Angels highlights prior to the Dodgers last night. 😃
Dodgers had the day off lol
Exactly
Great point on Tampa Bay playing in St Pete. So I got to thinking. The Jets and Giants don’t play in New York. The Cowboys don’t play in Dallas. The Bills don’t play in Buffalo. Washington REDSKINS – play in Maryland. The Las Vegas Raiders play in Paradise. The 49ers play in Santa Clara. But Anaheim deserves special treatment. Got it.
Don’t forget the Inglewood Rams and Chargers and Clippers too. It really doesn’t matter what the Angels are called right now other than losing. Losing games, losing the faithful on radio and television, and losing attendance.
I had the Rams/Chargers – but left it out because it’s LA County
Well, Anaheim is filled with city council people who make a lot of noise while the other cities are smart enough to take the team and benefits that come with it.
“Anaheim is not LA” is the refrain heard over and over again. Definitely true. And definitely missing the point that teams represent media markets more than actual cities these days.
I think the real cause of the constant bashing is due to the name being changed relatively recently. If the team was LA Angels since inception, we’d basically be like those teams listed above, but going from Anaheim to LA in recent years has allowed for people to have an opinion on the name, instead of just accepting that that’s how its always been. Also, changing it to the LA Angels of Anaheim really didn’t help the situation since that’s just the stupidest name I can think of for a sports team.
Whatever the case, the most aesthetically pleasing name for this team is and always will be the “California Angels”.
^ This … CA Angels ^ . And remember, “Git offa my lawn”!
Words to live by my friend, words to live by.
We started out as Los Angeles Angels and we are now same, I always hated California Angels name as we never represented California or just Anaheim, we represented the whole of Southern California which is called Los Angeles, and whether a metro area or a media area that is what we are. Might as well tackle the other elephant in the room also. I love the color red as our main color over dark and boring Navy Blue. Get your red on as Victor would say. 📤 ❤ 😍 😃
They were California for 30 years, significantly longer that any of the other names even if you combined the original LAA with LAA of Anaheim, and the more recent LAA, It’s still longer by 5 or 6 years. They have been 3 different versions of the LAA or California for all but 7 years of just Anaheim.
I couldn’t disagree more.
How does the name LA Angels represent the people in OC? The region of Southern California extends beyond LA County.
The name “California” is far more representative of the people in OC and beyond.
BTW, I’m in LA native.
You’re just an angry Angeleno
I propose “That Southern California baseball team that plays south of Los Angeles and if I squint hard enough I can see San Diego who plays in a city with a city council that has a bee up their ass and can’t let the past go and do the job they were elected to do.”
The city should follow the acronym, P.W.D.K.S.A.S.S.T.S.A.S.T.D.K.S.A.
The history of the team has been well expressed here. Sounds like the city doesn’t know.
Except… MLB would never let them use that now. Too many teams, when they took that moniker, there were only 2 other teams in CA.