Morning Angels fans! Have some links!
Angels News
The Angels won yesterday due to an excellent performance by Detmers, 5 home runs, and a bullpen that didn’t blow it. It helps make that game on Monday feel less… disgusting.
At 9-9, the Angels are also at the exact same record as last year after 18 games. One of these years, the Angels will actually finish above .500…
Around Baseball
Jansen has now moved into 3rd all times in terms of saves. Only Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman have more now.
Speaking of 42, it is the other 42’s day today. Jackie Robinson. And as everyone will be wearing 42 in MLB today, we remember what kind of man it takes to still play ball well while being insulted, attacked, and hated by millions just because of the color of his skin. And remember, this was only 79 years ago. His widow is STILL alive. Yes, really. Don’t give into hate today. Rise above it.
Oh yeah, today is also Tax Day. So, hope you remembered to file.
Tatsuya Imai is still getting used to America. He says his arm issues is due to that, as all he has right now is Baseball.
Fan interactions can be sweet, like when a player celebrates with a fan. It can also be toxic, like when a fan tells a player to kill himself and so he flips them the bird. Ah, Sports…
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Detroit inked their SS Kevin McGonigle to 8 yrs, $150 mil. Would have been nice to extend Neto like that about two years ago
Beautiful for him too. He’ll only be 29 come free agency.
He’s gotten me to watch a couple Detroit games this year. Mostly because of Skubal actually , but seeing him hit is fun. Good for him
Today’s lineup
Odd lineup. I would’ve started Trout at DH today.
Still no sign of D’Arnaud.
Putting Frazier in the lineup over Teodosia is a defensible move.
Frazier is playing 2B. I don’t see the correlation to Teo.
Anyway, it’s all academic now. The D’Arnaud thing is really curious.
If Trout was the DH, that would put Teodosio in the lineup as CF wouldn’t it? By keeping Trout as the CF, then Moncada moves to DH, removing his glove but keeping the bat, while Perazza shifts over and Frazier plays 2B. Thus, Frazier replaces Teodosio in the lineup. At least, that’s what I meant.
Yeah, if I were him I’d be feeling a bit disgruntled. I know he’s a professional but come on !
Wonder if Travis did something Suzuki didn’t like or if this is just Kurt’s love fest with O’Hoppe? Soon if our manager doesn’t sit/rest Logan it is gonna be bordering on irresponsible. He’s gonna play him into the ground ala Tom Thibodeau of the NBA.
Moncada as a DH? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Would you prefer he remains at 3B?
Good point …
Angels held off on having Johnny Slawinski pitch for them until extended spring training. He finally got on the mound. FB sat 94-95 mph.
The Angels took him in the third round with a signing bonus of $2,497,500.
https://x.com/i/status/2043862069209104675
CJ Gray pitched for the Angels in extended spring training.
His fastball sat 95-96 and touched 97 mph. Gray, a two-sport athlete with Division I offers as a quarterback, chose baseball.
The Angels signed him for $1.25 million as a fifth-rounder in 2025.
https://x.com/i/status/2044201386032935318
Slawinski and Gray clearly targeted for the opening ACL roster. Still raw and learning to command secondaries, but good fastball traits with both. Jesus, who posted those X links, writes the Arizona backfields column at Baseball America, and added more color to those links in his feature today:
Johnny Slawinski, LHP, Angels
As much as the Angels are known to push their higher-end draft picks, they also have a history of going after high school pitchers with plenty of promise. Dylan Jordan and Trey Gregory-Alford were those pitchers last year in the complex. Now, Slawinski, who ranks seventh in the Angels’ system, is next in line, and his first start in extended spring training showed potential.
A long, athletic lefthander, Slawinski offers intriguing upside as a potential starter thanks to his blend of projection and feel. His fastball sat at 94-95 mph and received plenty of whiffs. His slider has taken a step forward, showing sharper bite and the ability to miss bats, while his curveball remains a softer, less consistent look. He also mixes in a fading changeup that continues to develop into a usable third pitch.
As he gains strength and refines his mechanics, Slawinski should find greater consistency and durability.
CJ Gray, RHP, Angels
Speaking of Angels prep pitchers, Gray is another intriguing arm at the complex who fits that mold. The Angels signed him overslot in 2025, awarding a $1.25 million bonus in the fifth round to lure him away from his NC State commitment.
In his outing against the Brewers on Tuesday, Gray tossed two innings, sitting 94–95 mph and touching 97 with his fastball while showing a solid feel for the strike zone. His offspeed pitches were inconsistent at times, and he wore his emotions on the mound when calls didn’t go his way.
Still, Gray remains a high-upside arm. His fastball projects as a potential plus pitch if command continues to improve, while his developing slider and changeup each flash promise. Ongoing work to refine his delivery should help him throw more consistent strikes and fully tap into his explosive, athletic arsenal.
Soler’s suspension lowered to 4 games, he’ll start serving today.
And Lopez didn’t miss a start. Seems fair
there’s no real way to have equity on pitchers vs position players suspensions
also the reason why pitchers and hitters have different IL’s
Give a SP 7-8 games to actually force a missed start or reduce the hitter’s number
that doesn’t really force him to miss a start though. he would just start on the 8th or 9th day, with a team off day that doesn’t really do anything
Suspensions are about games, and guys missing their game check. giving pitchers more days of suspension purely because they need to “miss a start” would never fly with the mlbpa
Does Lopez at least lose 5 days of pay?
At least Soler wasn’t scorching hot at the plate or anything.
I am having trouble believing it, but the Angels have a rotation that includes 3 home-growns! And there are actually some interesting prospect hurlers in the system. Be still, my heart.
Strong pitching typically = playoff contender
The Angel who is the most surprising to me is Soler. I thought he was garbage, but he is filling the Taylor Ward role nicely.
I was hopeful we would get some production out of him. I truly believe injuries were holding him back most of last season. He was coming off of back to back seasons with an OPS+ over 120.
He has been up and down throughout his career but at the very least, the power is real.
Call it crazy but what I’m seeing in the slight improvements from young players in the pitching, this team may have been somewhat of a contender if we signed a frontline starter and re-signed Jansen. The American League west sure looks wide open with teams struggling, and the best (Yanks, Rd Sox, Jays, O’s) are spinning wheels. Hope this doesn’t turn into that season where maybe Arte should have opened that crusty wallet.
He could still open it, if he had the appetite. Back of the rotation guys like Giolito and Martin Perez are looking for a home.
Perez signed back with the Braves
Ah – happened fast.
I’ll still say it is early and I’ll wait till the end of May to see if the improvements we have seen are sustained. I think the big story for this season so far is SilentC, not Soriano. A big diff from 6+ ERA to 3+. If he can sustain a bit over 4 we are in so many more games.
Silent C is his old handle, when he was a sh*t pitcher.
Now that he’s improved, I’m rolling with Special K.
Uhh, you do know that “Special K” is the long time street name for Ketamine, right ?
Yeah man, but its pretty sick that we could say he puts batters in a K hole.
Uhh, you do know that “Special K” is the long time product name for a breakfast cereal, right ?
I’m aware.
Still rolling with “Special K”.
Five no-hit innings for Shores last night in Tri-City. What a pick!
https://www.milb.com/gameday/hops-vs-dust-devils/2026/04/14/819178/final/box
We had a thread running in last night’s post game about it. Trying to summon Rex, since he was the most excited about that draft pick, and it was his ‘pick to click’.
Watching last night’s game, Shores barely resembled his collegiate self. Much more controlled delivery, commanding both the FB and breaker. Previously, his delivery was inconsistent at best, and he couldn’t locate his secondaries – he just leaned on his velo to blow it past college hitters in short bursts.
He’s looked more of a complete package in his first two starts.
I’m happy to hear that. Still trying to understand why we moved so far down on our first pick besides trying to save a few $$. Are we the only ones to do that? Everybody else seems to draft at actual slot value in the first.
I did a quick check of last year’s top 10 and picks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9 were all under slot.
https://www.mlb.com/news/2025-draft-signing-and-bonus-tracker
I’ve provided the same info to Marine multiple times. Hopefully at some point it’ll land.
Again, I’ll just repeat:
Marine, can you confirm that you’ve actually read this? You’ve asked this of me five times, and I’ve answered you five times, and you keep ignoring the feedback, and then repeating incorrect claims, like ‘all teams draft at slot value’.
I try to respect your time. But you have to at least reply that you’ve grokked my response, and respect mine as well.
Stephen A Smith wants Trout to ask for a trade….
https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/48483984
Bless his heart.
SAS is a bloviating idiot. His opinions aren’t worth wiping my ass with.
Truth. Biggest jackhole in sports media.
I’ll sometimes see an article on a political news site that’ll say something like “Stephen A Smith criticizes blah blah blah” and I’m like “who the f cares about this guy’s political opinions?” Seems like there’s machinations trying to turn him into a political figure, which, f that.
ESPN as a whole is mostly terrible. Their talent manager is tasteless. SAS is the worst of them though.
This. I stopped watching that network almost 20 years ago.
SAS used to have a show on ESPN with Max Kellerman, and rumor is that SAS had Max pushed out because Max would constantly make SAS look like the fool that he is during arguments. Max now has a podcast with Rich Paul called Game Over that I really enjoy.
He has done irreparable damage to sports discourse. Everything wrong with modern day culture can be found in the rise of Screamin A Smith.
Hot takes, no substance. Facts don’t matter, intellectually uncurious
Internet culture human incarnate
Stephen A. Smith.
The embodiment of the sycophant corporate shill.
If you’re curious on what they’ve been working on:
Batting
11th in OBP
2nd in HR
1st in Walks
6th in RBI
Pitching
6th in QS
5th in SO
7th in OBA
Our hitting coach doesn’t mess around
I knew he got jacked. I didn’t know he got that jacked. And so quickly. I wonder how?
Dr. Canseco’s vitamins
Do you think he’s still juicing or is it an old picture? Asking for a friend.
I’m guessing he doesn’t consume many IPA’s.
More for me!
The walks – and more importantly the patience – is a pleasant surprise. Getting starters to throw a shit ton of pitches gets to the bullpen faster and lets you feast on the less good arms.
It’s an old theory, the Halos are late to the game on it, but I will take it.
And it’s Jo Adell too. And Neto. And O’Hoppe. I mean, it’s not just Shanny and Trout. It’s up and down the lineup.
And I might love Peraza.
I was upset at O’Hoppe on that Atlanta game where he was asked to PH, bases loaded and the pitcher was Raisel. Raisel threw him the same exact 3 pitches and each and every time O’Hoppe tried to go for the GS. Didn’t even take a single-one, went down in 3 pitches.
It looks like after that, he’s tracking the ball better and being more patient. And also stopped going for the HR every time and he’s happy to settle for the cheap hit.
It’s still early, but the walks appear to be a system-wide change. In 2025, the top four affiliates (A,A+,AA,AAA) walked 10.7% of the time. This year it’s 13.8%.
Christian Moore is walking at an absurd rate of 34%. He’s not hitting much, so I’m guessing he’s working on pitch recognition stuff. His K rate is also down from 28.9 % in AAA last year to 21.3% this year.
This is probably just early season noise, but at least it’s in the right direction.
I say that we continue to allow Christian Moore “marinate” in AAA.
Also, is he getting more reps at 3B or is he primarily playing 2B?
58 innings at 3rd
47 innings at 2nd
Interesting….
Thanks
I agree; I don’t want to see him up too soon. I’d love to see Moore keep the K rate down, the walk rate up (although not necessarily to its current level) and then also start getting some hits and Home Runs.
The walks are good, but walking is literally all CMo is doing right now. He’s hitting .205 with a .359 Slugging %.
On years past, I expected the team to come out with an egg after a 11-10 loss the previous night. So for them to put up 7 after putting 10 runs the night before is indeed a welcome surprise.
Detmers was looking like an ace last night, pinpoint control and in command. Seemed to really be mixing up the timing of the hitters. Gave the Angels their first non Soriano or Silent C win for starting pitchers. Would be really nice to have those three as a solid trio this year.
If Kikuchi can at least throw closer to his career average going forward, that would be a pretty good 4 man rotation. If only they could figure out the fifth spot. I’m certainly not banking on Klassen or Johnson at this point and not sure what to expect from Rodriguez.
The only thing I expect from Rodriguez is what I expected before the start of the season : long stints on the IL, because trAdition. Always have to have at least 1 player being paid to relax on the IL Lazyboy recliner.
I thought that was what Rendon is for.
He has to train his replacement so there is a smooth transition.
😂
Don’t forget his understudies Stephenson and the Tennessee Fireballer.
At least in this case he isn’t being paid much.
And I expect Kikuchi is nothing more than an overpriced innings eater if he can get his arm slot back to where it was when Houston “fixed” him.
We should be so lucky. I think Yusei is toast.
Is he?
I believe his FB is still in the 94-95 range. His problem seems to be location? I don’t know.
If we can just get him to “average”, I’d be happy at this point. Say, 4.50 ERA with 6 inning starts.
Because he’s finally trusting his changeup.
The changeup was the most noticeable pitch. Detmers threw it 16 times, and the Yankees whiffed on six of their 12 swings. They accounted for four of his strikeouts. Detmers averaged 85 mph with the pitch, after throwing it around 80 mph previously this year.
“I’ve just started throwing it like a fastball, stop babying it,” Detmers said of the changeup. “The last couple starts I’ve kind of been babying it a little bit. Just trying to trust it. Once I got the first couple swings and misses early in the game, I was like, ‘OK, I can trust it a little bit,’ and started letting it go.”
Trout, watching from center field, said he noticed a difference.
“That changeup is the best I’ve seen from him,” Trout said.
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/04/14/angels-hit-3-quick-homers-and-reid-detmers-cruises-in-victory-over-yankees/
That does show you it’s such a mental thing with Detmers. Dudes trust their pitches and he’s always tinkering – which creates doubt. That’s different than adjusting your feel. When he’s on – he is lights out. I think he can be his own worst enemy. I think Maddox might have the chance to take him to the next level. His stuff, when on, plays.
There is not currently a 5th starter in the entire organization. Getting one would be a prudent move and might make a big difference. As soon as one starter goes down, we would need 2 starting pitchers. unfortunately, we have absolutely no starting pitching depth right now. For those of you that believe the organization is interested in winning, Acquiring a league average starting pitcher would be biggest thing we could do to improve our chances. That, and finding a league average replacement for Lowe. O’Hoppe and Schanuel have also been pretty bad but they’re not being replaced. Replacing O’Hoppe though should be a serious consideration after this year unless he becomes something other than what he has been for several years.
Amazing in that Minasian has expended so many picks on pitchers. Maybe it would e helped if he actually drafted a few more starters.