The Angels released LaMonte Wade Jr. The Phillies released outfielder Oscar Mercado. The Astros released Omar Narvaez. The White Sox released Noah Syndergaard and Penn Murfee.
The Brewers just placed Jacob Misioroski on the 15 day injured list. Patrick Sandoval probably won’t recover from his internal brace procedure in time to pitch in 2025.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Was at the meetup Saturday. Had a great time at a truly sucky game. I do want to mention that with the fact that Pope Leo is a Chisox fan, there were a couple of people in orange priestly vestments and big white pope hats on the corner of State College and Orangewood blessing traffic. Between that and meeting LanaBanana I can now officially die happy.
So we just lost two out of three “meaningful” games to an awful CWS team. This team is in sub-purgatory and will continue to be there as long as these Two Stooges are running the store.
I agree with your main point re the Org but don’t quite understand getting so upset. This team isn’t a playoff team as built so why get too up or down with it? The wins are fine, the losses okay – it’s not worth the energy expenditure. Not sure why folks are still emotionally invested given the Organizational realities.
Mainly because I’m old and would like to see kind of progress toward getting better in my lifetime. But you’re right, in the bigger picture, none of this means anything.😀
Five gams better than last year at this point in the season.
Disagree on a couple of points here Fan. While I do concur that the team is not a playoff team right now, it is not for the reasons you stated. It is not primarily because of a lack of talent, but rather the piss poor leadership, both in the dugout and in the offices…
The most glaring lack of talent is in the SP, which indeed is a big weakness. But we are pretty decent with our 1-2 starting pitchers (not great, like Phillies mind you, but decent)… However when you get past Kikuchi and Soriano we definitely get exposed against good teams.
However, our bullpen (when healthy) would be pretty strong. I would take a corps of Kenley, Joyce, Stevenson, Zeferjahn, Burke, Bachman to be competitive against most teams. Not having Joyce in the month of May really hurt us..
As an offensive ballclub, at least in terms of SLG and driving the ball with authority, we stack up well against most other clubs…The problem is that we are not good at the little things… This comes down to coaching and preparation. Not consistently getting runners in from 3rd with less than two outs, not advancing runners when needed etc really hurts us. This shows up especially in those extra inning loses where you get the ghost runner at 2nd and then the Angels fail to get that guy to 3rd with only one out. Other teams do this, we don’t. This is an organizational failing for not emphasizing this stuff and teaching it.
I have said earlier in the year that the hitting coach should be fired, and I stand by that. The performance on Friday and Saturday night against a piss poor White Sox team would tend to reinforce that. I mean, only mustering a single hit on Saturday night against that starter was unforgivable.
The over reliance on the HR to generate runs is the fault of an inadequate hitting philosophy. And THIS falls on the hitting coach Johnny Washington. He clearly does not know what he is doing. For most of the season the stats have backed it up. It is interesting that it took Mike Trout coming back from the IL for this team to start improving in team OBP… He is the main reason we have improved from worst or second to worst in MLB (9th or 30th) to now 24th. But this improvement is due to Trouts greatness, not Washington figuring things out. Trout is who he is and Washington wasnt going to change him.
As for the manager position both Ron Washington (get well soon) and especially Montgomery have cost us numerable games with their moronic decision making… I can count games approaching double digits that the combo has cost us due to complete mismanagement of the bullpen in mid to late game situations… If win win at least 5 of the 10 or so games in question that puts us at 59-53 and smack dab in the middle of the Wild Card race.
So, despite the lack of depth in starting pitching this team could be highly competitive AND a playoff team with good coaching and above average managing. We have had neither in 2025.
Who is this Stevenson/Stephanson guy everybody keeps talking about as being in the bull pen?
As regards yesterday’s game I want to give props to Taylor Ward on a big performance:
2-4 with 4 RBI’S, including a clutch hit in the 7th that was desperately needed to push the comeback forward, and of course the game winning 3 run HR in the 9th.
This is the kind of game you need from your stud in the middle of the batting order. He now has 82 RBI’s on the season and is on pace for well over 100… Short of a bad injury he will get there… He is also likely to hit 32 + HRs.
For those who like to diss the stat of RBI you are wrong. Yes, hitting 3rd through 5th will give you chances, but you STILL have to come through in those situations, which is something Ward has done pretty consistently for us.
I for one am glad we didn’t trade him, and I repeatedly said to Fungo Ale and others that we would not do so.
But don’t discount opportunity when looking at RBIs either. Ward has driven in 56 of 331 men on base this season, or 16.9%. As a comparison, Pujols in 2016 drove in 88 of 525 for 16.8% of the time. By the way, Nick Kurtz has driven in 38 of 183 men on base which doesn’t sound impressive but is still a 20.8% clip which is elite.
Okay, so you are going to Cherry Pick the best Pujols year with us (or one of three best )?? What about Pujols in other years with the Angels ? And how much money was Albert making compared to Taylor?
Let’s look at all cleanup hitters if you want, but Cherry Picking situations where other guys were or are better does not impress me …
His name was brought up not too long ago about being a FA piece that the Angels should aquire. We still kinda need MOARE PITCHIN’. Does a guy like Sroman make it and latch on to a team like the Halos?
Stroman is toast. They already have better options in house.
Copying this over from yesterday’s postgame thread to start off the week with a little optimism:
TGA with an excellent debut for the 66ers last night, showing good continuity with his end of season ACL performance. The Angels capped him at three innings, as they did with Jordan and Soto last night, with 5 Ks and only a single, walk and WP across that stretch.
Meanwhile, Slate Alford had a nice breakout game in his second attempt, delivering the sort of offense you’d hope to see from a 22 yo SEC slugger vs low A ball pitching. 4 for 5 with two doubles and some loud contact.
Fun to see him and Kerrington Cross match up – both looking pretty dynamic and both targets on my draft boards in this year’s draft series.
In the early going, the new wave of Latin kids and recent draftees have been showing up this year’s crop at Inland Empire, which had looked pretty fringe-y to date.
Thanks for this Turks. Always thankful for your super informed and researched minor league reports. Since the old days at HH always have loved your posts.
Yes, nice update. I like Jordan’s delivery, drop low and push hard to the plate. It looked like Tom Seaver and seemed very polished. He also seemed to have a bulldog mentality.
