Had an interesting experience I figured I’d share. Last Saturday I requested credentials simply to watch Detmers pitch and hopefully get to interview Joyce before the game. When I got on the field for batting practice I noticed some photographers wearing KISS Football hats and some other guys I had not seen before.
While sitting in the press club eating dinner and thinking I had 45 minutes to kill, Rhett Bollinger said KISS was throwing out the first pitch and he was heading down there. That’s when it dawned on me that the video boards had KISS graphics up and I’d seen several KISS shirts on the concourses. Sure enough, I checked the promo schedule and it was KISS night complete with a fireworks show with their music.
Now, I’m not a big KISS fan but these guys are legends. So I headed to the field, met them, watched them throw out the first pitch and it was awesome. Once the first pitch is thrown they want everybody off the field quickly and I just kind of walked with the group and just happened to end up with Simmons crew for a while. Gene and Paul were really chill guys. The pay On SI might not be great, but the perks are.
Now enjoy some Jeff is heading to vacation links.
Looking for reasons to keep watching the Angels? Mike Trout, Wade Meckler, and Denzer Guzman are the top three on the position player front.
The over arching story is the rebuild. If George Klassen can pitch anywhere close to the way he did this week, the rebuild is gaining some serious momentum.
I really think the development of Grayson Rodriguez is key to establishing a solid rotation in the short term. His Stuff+ metrics are still well above average, so a quality pitcher should be lurking in there. Need to get that oh so elusive command.
Grayson is a guy who was fed tons of data in the Baltimore system. It is no secret integrating analytics is the real reason Mike Maddux was fired and it foreshadows a huge change in the Angels front office and development programs. Rodriguez is one of three young starters who stand to benefit the most from this new approach.
Speaking of stuff, Ben Joyce’s is unreal.
Now, back to the rebuild.
Hayden Alvarez is getting some love on FanGraphs but not yet being mentioned much by baseball scribes.
Jake Munroe is the best prospect nobody is talking about.
From around baseball:
Kyle Tucker is having a miserable run and Dodgers fans are letting him know it. So he cried in the dugout.
But at least he didn’t allegedly commit huge amounts of financial crimes to bankroll the team. Fortunately, financial crimes are legal now if you are rich enough.
The atmosphere for the Cubs vs. White Sox series was electric. I watched two of the games.
Happy trails to Trey Mancini. The Angels let him go so he could try to latch on with another team but it did not work. So he is retiring to spend more time with his baby girl and wife. Trey’s story is incredible and so is he. I’m going to end this column with my favorite interview of all time.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. I’m spending 4 days with my family before the boy goes back to school.
