What a difference a week makes. Last Weekend Links the team looked cooked and I focused on the minor leagues so you guys and gals wouldn’t be even more depressed. This week, nothing but roses.
The team started winning last Friday and hasn’t stopped for a week straight. The offense is simply killing it right now.
I wasn’t a math major in college, but 54 runs over 7 games is an average of a lot per game. And, yes, they hung on for that 7th win.
Even Sam Blum is in a good mood.
Not only can the Angels get back to .500 tonight, they should/could end the weekend at .500 if they take 2 out of 3 from the struggling Miami Marlins. Oddly enough, the Angels have a notable advantage in the starting pitchers both tonight and tomorrow. If feel like Sandy Alcantara is too bad to have an ERA that starts with a 7 but he does so let’s hope we can keep it that way.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s enjoy the week that was.
How about a sweep of the vaunted LA Deferrals in Chavez Ravine? Yeah, that happened. And I loved it. While there were a ton of highlights to link from that series the sweep decider was a home run by Travis d’Arnaud that simply kicked the Dodgers squarely in the nads. They had just tied the game and felt like momentum was on their side, then Travis went yard and sealed the sweep.
Fresh off vanquishing the defending world champs, the team headed to my old stomping grounds in Sacramento. I spent many an evening at this ballpark and wish I could’ve joined my best friend and his dad at the game on Tuesday night. Time at the ballpark with loved ones is priceless. Alas, they sat up close and saw Yoan Moncada absolutely kill a ball.
What really stands out to me is how quickly Moncada can rotate his shoulders. If he was a fighter, that rotation would create tremendous power. Obviously the same holds for baseball.
I could probably post about a dozen highlights of the week this week. I think the best individual play was Logan O’Hoppe’s absolute moonshot on Wednesday night. Having been to this ballpark several times, I can honestly say I’ve never seen a ball hit anywhere near where this one went.
Not to diminish that bomb, but I think the Highlight of the Week has to go to Taylor Ward’s go ahead grand slam yesterday. Pulling the team from a 3 run deficit to a 1 run lead was crucial in winning the game and keeping the streak going.
You want to talk about a guy who is playing lights out, that is Taylor Ward. He’s a streaky hitter and he’s on one heck of a hot streak.
Really, this column could go on for ages about how much fun the last week has been. But, let’s move on a bit.
When will Mike Trout join the fun? He spoke to reporters on Tuesday and said he’s feeling good. Hopefully this time that is the case.
I’m going to disagree with the main site here. It lists George Klassen as the team’s most pleasant prospect surprise. I think we all expected Klassen to be legit. Walbert Urena’s last few weeks, however, have been far better than expected.
From around baseball:
Boston fans continue to prove they are the biggest assholes on the planet.
Wrigley Field is awesome and looks to be getting the 2027 MLB All Star Game.
LA Olympic heads are optimistic MLB players will be allowed to suit up for the 2028 Games.
Dodger Stadium will be the host for baseball games in the LA Games. No better way to introduce foreigners to the real Los Angeles than a Dodger Dog and insane traffic getting back to the hotel. But, yeah, I’m definitely going to catch some Olympic baseball…and boxing…and hopefully some track and field.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. This Monday we honor the men and women who paid the ultimate price so we can sit in safety and freedom and chat about a meaningless child’s game played by grown men. I wish we’d honor them more often by focusing on our commonalities rather than our differences and pushing the extreme voices that currently get all the air time back to the fringes where they belong. And I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Chris Taylor up, Kyren Paris sent down to learn how to hit breaking balls.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/05/angels-to-sign-chris-taylor-to-major-league-deal.html
The ACC semifinals should be great.
Florida State vs North Carolina
Georgia Tech vs Clemson.
Any combination in the final should also be great.
most of my college baseball this year was watching ASU – they finished with quite the thud, but still expecting a 3rd seed.
My gut tells me to so negative but I will not listen. Let’s ride this thing!
I’ll be at the game tonight and tomorrow night. Anyone else?
Tomorrow for me and the kids. We’ll be out in RF by your friend in guest relations playing video game for an inning or two.
I just saw a clip of Trout on the field, tossing the ball around. Has he been doing this before? Maybe he’ll actually be back someday
Lineup is sexxxyyyyy 💦💦💦
SS Neto
1B Schanuel
3B Moncada
LF Ward
RF Soler
DH O’Hoppe
C D’Arnaud
2B Rengifo
CF Lugo
P Kikuchi
Only against the A’s (and maybe the Rockies) can our pitchers issue 10 walks in a game and still get the W 😆
Wait a sec…, what’s this? Ward is crediting the Angel’s hitting coach with helping him get back on track? Haters might want to skip this one:
How one live BP session turned Ward’s season around
Hitting coaches are for hating only. No credit allowed. I think it’s a rule or something
As fans our only goal should be that the team plays well… by putting pressure on the coaches and the organization we let them know we won’t tolerate losing.
That is a GOOD thing.
Schanuel credited the hitting coaches as well.
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/05/22/angels-nolan-schanuel-looks-to-do-more-damage-with-new-approach/
It’s almost as if the internet fans wielding pitchforks and internal angst, blaming coaches at every opportunity, have no clue what actually goes on behind the scenes. Shocking—truly shocking!
But that is actually completely true. No one on the outside has any kind of insight into what is going on because it is almost never talked about by the players or coaches. The only evidence on the outside is observation and when you keep seeing continued bad patterns, it’s easy to assume things are not happening. If they helped fix Schanuel and Ward then don’t stop now, keep moving.
Not completely true Hobbs. We can also read interviews and sometimes hear what coaches say about their approach… so, sorry, not true.
And things can change too ! Sometimes coaches can make improvements — they can be doing poorly at their jobs and then try something else that works.. It is not like they are either good or bad and always that same thing.
And we had people here actually quoting Johnny Washington and talking about his philosophy, so that is not true they we have “no clue” about things Pineapple.
Now yes. But until now no one was saying anything.
Not true. Trojan shared content from an interview with Johnny Washington.
This was about two weeks ago when the Halo bats were still cold.
It’s a novel concept. The player asks for help from the guy who is paid to help players, and the player gets helped.
One of the fun parts of watching the current series at Salt Lake is that Christian Moore and Jac Caglianone are going head to head, as they’ve both been recently promoted to their respective AAA clubs, and the PCL and International leagues are testing some interleague games this year. They each had a HR yesterday.
Yet Moore also had a double, 2 singles 3 RBIs 3 Runs scored and 2 stolen bases.
There was definitely More Moore than Jac last night.
Was largely a bullpen game for Omaha, and apart from the one game sample, I’m sure Jac is looking over his shoulder and saying “try to catch up, brother” as he has 10 HRs on the season to Moore’s two. But fun to revive the SEC rivalry.
I’m disappointed the Royals didn’t even attempt exploring the possibility of Jac Ohtani, 2-way star. Oh well
They do have him playing RF now, so they’re not locked in to a 1B-only destiny for Caglianone.
I wanted to see him on the mound too ! 🫠
For me, it was the last at-bat that was the highlight of that series. 🤭
I don’t want to mess this team’s mojo right now, but Mike coming back will only be a good thing. He’s not Josh Hamilton at this point of his career – a mojo-killer. Mike will do well with Neto and Schanny getting on base in front of him, and a red-hot Ward and O’Hoppe behind him. Mike doesn’t need to swing for the fences, just needs those cheap singles and some gappers to keep the offense going and get that BA to a respectable level.
Well he cant be worse than Jorge Soler right now
We have a Silseth sighting. Hasn’t pitched since May 3rd, just now put him on the IL. The course taken from injury to IL is unexplained and I’m shocked. Doubt he’ll ever have any meaningful contribution, but had some hope. Maybe one of those Tommy Oblique Surgeries.
I didn’t think he would. He’s looked out of shape his whole tenure here, no control, and his stuff was avg imo.
When he first came up and was throwing 98 with biting breaking stuff, he looked pretty darn talented. Not sure what became of that guy. He hasn’t been the same in a while.
I didn’t remember seeing any of that. I remember being disappointed by
a mediocre breaking ball and a fast ball he had no control over.
Not sure if anyone here watched the Auburn – Texas A&M game, but Jace Laviolette broke his hand on a HBP – looks like a season-ending injury.
For a guy already sliding down boards due to inconsistency (.259 batting average), that injury comes at the worst possible time.
Yikes. I wonder how far this drops him. I think he was already looking outside the top 10.
Or, does somebody try to do something sneaky and sign him way under slot?
My guess is he’s selected in the 20s or 30s, especially by a team with multiple picks, willing to spend one on a long bet.
LaViolette with our 2nd rounder 🤝
I think there’s too much pedigree there to slip to #47, especially with several teams having multiple picks before then. But slipping into the compensation round isn’t unthinkable at this point.
Milwaukee at 20 and 32.
KC at 23 and 28.
Detroit 24 and 34.
I can see any of them taking him.
Lavio who?
Getting some attention
https://x.com/MLBNetwork/status/1925926311123390855
Just in time to get swept by the Marlins!
STOP IT
Lol never forget who this team really is. That’s how they get you!
The Los Angeles Netos of Anaheim are different
Our 0.0 at catcher must illustrate how bad O’Hoppe has been on defense. I’m sure the offensive value has been hurt by D’Arnaud as well.
Scored tickets to the Savanah Bananas at the stadium next Friday. Pumped to take my boy. He’s been obsessed with their highlights since I told him we were going. Anybody been to see them?
O, but now I’m going to try and get tickets for my son and I . He will get a kick out of it.
We’re taking our kids. Weird ticketing experience and seat set up. None of us or the friends we know going were able to get their seats together. The Savanah Bananas assign you seats after the fact and “try” to keep your group together. We have small ones and asked for them together and as a result got exiled to the outfield after originally being by 3rd base.
That is weird. I got lucky and was given 2 tickets from a friend. I just assumed we’d be sitting with him and his son but maybe we aren’t lol
Agreed, I myself am an extreme moderate.
The streak is alive, seven wins in a row now, and suddenly the Angels are just one game under .500. They’ve got a real shot to get back to even either today or by the end of the weekend, which is kind of amazing considering where they were just a couple weeks ago. And yeah, I’ll admit it feels a little weird rooting for break-even baseball, but this is where we are with this team. When things have been as rough as they’ve been, .500 actually feels like a step forward. Sad? Maybe. But also, kind of fun when they’re playing like this.
Do I trust the one good week or the 10 bad years? Hmmm.
Go Angels!!
I’m just enjoying this week. And I love that it is mostly powered by the young core. Hopefully we can retain that core and build around it so we have more weeks like this in the future.
It’s been long enough of a streak that if nothing else, it shows a glimpse of what they might be capable of…somethings there, might be a real growth spurt. The confidence gained can be a building block, right? All without Trout, a weak bullpen, tough schedule/road trip.
I know our MiLB ranking is still pretty weak, but it appears we have more lotto tickets/prospects working there way up. Kind of hard not say somewhere at sometime our player development hasn’t taken a positive turn for the better…
With that said, a great road trip, only to come out flat at home, and lose the series to the Marlins and have the Stanks crap on our lawn😂😂
2 of 3 is all we ask! Keep showing the rest of the league we don’t give a shit about our past! Keep up the high GRIT factor!
Free AM/PM/Wash
you know there’s going to be weirdos upset if we don’t sweep the marlins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vUCdfwlgw
I figure you’ve got to be a HUGE Beatles fan to link this song. Yes?
We are, by far, the clutchiest team in the league right now.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=3&season=2022&month=1000&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0%2Cts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sortcol=10&sortdir=default&startdate=2025-03-01&enddate=2025-11-01
Good thing that’s sustainable. 😂
I’d gladly take a series win against the fish and being .500 on Monday.
There’s a pretty tough week following that between NY and Cleveland (who usually has our number).
In a row wins stands at seven,
A week and a half between bliss and heaven,
Just around the corner will be eleven.
7.71 (specifically, 7.7142857142857…)
Which is funnier, though? “A lot per game” is funny. “7.7142857…” is also funny if you think of that runner on his way to third base. Will he get there safely? He’s so close, needing “7.75”.
Picky, picky, picky, jeez 🤓
In real life I’m a total math nerd and I use that line often in my mortgage discussions. It usually gets a chuckle and my point across.
I started college as a math major, and became a comp sci major through a clerical error. Really.
I started college as a slacker, and saw no reason to change.
Nobody is more excited about Olympics baseball in Chavez Latrine than Frank McCourt! $$$$$💰💰💰💰There just might be “Olympics Flex Pricing” happening.
100 bucks a car 📈 🚕 🚙 25 bucks a bike 🚲
Yep, Uber /Lyft dropped off fee, bike rack fee! 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
You forgot the “Walking through the lot fee” for those taking public transportation, or parking outside the lot!
First and only times I’ve used an e-scooter was at the LA HRD & ASG. One of the smarter decisions I’ve made getting in/out of that place. Kings v ducks stadium series, completely different story lol