2112

I haven't seen that. I usually just get my threads interrupted by a 20 post bickerfest c/o the real housewives of AW.com

We may not always agree on everything around here but i keep coming back as i value the interactions.
Take precautions, be safe, do what you gotta do to, but try to share some TP with others and if it comes to it always remember to double tap the zombies.

Fine! Just put some Tussin on it. 😉
 

TEMPE, Ariz. >> JC Ramírez had a bad feeling when he looked up at the scoreboard after returning from Tommy John surgery.
“I was never used to being in that situation, seeing on the scoreboard 93 on the best day,” Ramírez said. “It was 91-92. It was frustrating.”
Ramírez averaged 95.6 mph with his fastball in 2017, but it was down to 91.0 mph when he came back in 2019. He pitched in just five games and then the Angels designated him for assignment.
Ramírez took some time off after the season to get married and take a European honeymoon, and then he began physical therapy. He pitched in Mexico over the winter, and said he got his fastball back up to 96 mph.
“I think the key was rest,” he said. “I rested my arm. My muscles weren’t fully healed.”
The Angels saw enough in two workouts to sign him to a minor league deal earlier this week, and Ramírez was happy to return to a place he’d pitched for most of the past four seasons. Ramírez could get a shot at the bullpen or he could go onto the starter depth chart.
“At this point I am just hoping to throw the ball and show the team I’m healthy,” he said. “They can use me however. I’m pretty comfortable to do any role.”
ALSO
The Angels are scheduled start Tommy La Stella (2B), David Fletcher (3B), Brian Goodwin (RF), Taylor Ward (LF), Matt Thaiss (1B), Michael Hermosillo (CF), Luís Rengifo (SS), Jared Walsh (DH) and José Briceño (C) in their home Cactus League opener on Saturday, with Matt Ball starting on the mound. …
In the road game against the Chicago White Sox, the Angels will start Brandon Marsh (LF), Jo Adell (RF), Anthony Bemboom (C), José Rojas (1B), Jahmai Jones (2B), Arismendy Alcantara (SS), Brennon Lund (CF), Elliot Soto (3B) and Franklin Torres (DH). Jake Thompson will be the first pitcher. …
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Maddon said Tuesday he’s planning to have all of his regulars playing by Tuesday. …
Mike Trout and Justin Upton collaborated to help a fan do a gender reveal during Friday’s workout. Trout flipped a ball to Upton, who hit it, revealing a puff of pink powder.
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Good Luck JC we need all the arms we can get

Jesus H.
Awesome to hear that our $25 million first basemen's ceiling is "somewhat productive".

you guys are looking at this all wrong.
if guys like julian leon (69 GP), michael stefanic (108), and erick salcedo (114) are playing that many major league games, it's going to be a very, very long and unhappy season in anaheim.
 
p.s. who in thunder are these guys??

I only wear dark colors now. Used to wear white boxers and it looked like a Jackson Pollock painting.
(Stole that from Family Guy)

Thank you for pointing out my skidmarkyness.  Although I have gotten better since I got older.
 
 
😉
 

I wanna see Trout just go fuckin bonkers and drop like 40 f bombs in a long-winded rant against Houston. 

I believe in the Easter Bunny.  Something about her bushy tail.  😉

TEMPE, Ariz. — Jaime Barría’s 2018 season seems like so long ago.
The Angels, who have spent all winter trying to upgrade their starting pitching, just two seasons ago had a 21-year-old post a 3.41 ERA over 26 starts.
Barría is now trying to turn back the clock, after a winter spent shedding the pounds he gained since his big-league debut and trying to return to the pitch repertoire that made him successful.
“I feel I have a fresh mind,” Barría said through an interpreter Saturday morning. “There are new people around here and they are giving me a chance. If I stay healthy and maintain my work ethic, I do believe I can stay up here in the majors.”
Following the aforementioned breakthrough rookie season, Barría seemed destined to be a part of the rotation going into 2019. In fact, Barría said he’d been told that he would start the fifth game of the season. He’d made living arrangements in Southern California.
Then, just days before opening day, the Angels swung a deal with the San Francisco Giants for Chris Stratton, who was out of options. The Angels believed there was more in the tank for Stratton – who had the high spin rate they gravitate toward – and they wanted to give him a shot. To create a spot for Stratton, the Angels sent down Barría. As it turns out, it was a crushing move.
“It was very frustrating for me, thinking I had earned a spot,” he said. “I think the frustration carried over during the regular season.”
When Barría did get the chance to pitch in the majors, he was doing so under an organizational philosophy to reduce the usage of his two-seam fastball.
In 2018, Barría threw his two-seamer 23.3% of the time and his four-seamer 26.3%. Last year, the Angels cut his two-seamers down to 5.5%, essentially replacing those pitches with extra sliders. Barría’s slider is his best pitch.
Now the Angels have a new manager, in Joe Maddon, and a new pitching coach, in Mickey Callaway. Barría said they told him he can throw the two-seamer again.
Maddon, however, said it’s not as simple as throwing one type of fastball or the other. Often, two-seamers are better for arm-side hitters – right-handed batters against right-handed pitchers – and four-seamers for the opposite-side hitters.
“If he throws less two-seamers to this side and more to this side, we really believe that’s going to make you better, so we’ve undergone that exercise with him,” Maddon said.
Maddon added that many pitchers prefer two-seamers because of the sink and movement, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a better pitch.
“I think because it’s straight sometimes pitchers underestimate the four-seam fastball,” Maddon said. “It looks straight, but they don’t understand that the hitter has a hard time catching up with that.”
Besides the type of pitches he was throwing, Barría had also gained some weight, so he committed himself to getting in better shape over the winter. Barría focused on eating healthier, and he ran on the beach near his home in Panama at 5:30 in the morning each day.
He has lost 14 pounds since last year.
The result, he hopes, will be a bounceback season.
“I was trying to get myself back to the Barría of 2017 and 2018,” he said. “That’s when I felt my best.”
BUTTREY HURT
Ty Buttrey will be slowed for a couple weeks with a slight strain of his left intercostal muscle, but he is still expected to be ready for Opening Day, according to Maddon.
Buttrey said he felt something while reaching across his body when he was playing catch Thursday, and it was still bothering him Friday. The Angels sent him for an MRI, which showed the mild strain.
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ALSO
Left-hander Luiz Gohara, who was once a top pitching prospect with the Atlanta Braves, is in camp with the Angels rehabbing a shoulder injury. Gohara said he has played catch four times and feels good. Gohara is months away from being able to pitch in games, though. “I know he’s got a big arm,” Maddon said. …
Shohei Ohtani finally got his driver’s license over the winter. He said through his interpreter that he’s “enjoying” driving and he’s “pretty good.” He still hasn’t driven alone on the freeway.
View the full article

Undertaker is a great moniker for a closer, I like it!!

Undertaker is a great moniker for a closer, I like it!!

I am impressed. I actually deliberately added the word “pitching” before “staff” in order to avoid commentary. And I thought even that might be overkill. But you proved me wrong. Well done. 

The world according to Jim:
• Nearly a week ago, L.A. rejoiced. The Dodgers, who swing for the fences plenty on the field but have been  overly risk-averse otherwise, turned bold and (apparently) came away with one of baseball’s elite players, Mookie Betts.
Finally, on Sunday, Dodger fans are closer to being able to celebrate but only after exhaling, having stewed for a week over whether this thing was going to get done or not.
• In the meantime, eight players on four different teams – and who knows how many additional prospects – were in a state of uncertainty, with a trade contingent on medical clearance hung up because the Boston Red Sox decided that the reliever they were getting, Brusdar Graterol, evidently wasn’t healthy enough to be the starter they needed.
A couple players may still be in limbo. Stay tuned.
• Our interpretation of the holdup, here at What They Say vs. What They Mean Headquarters: Red Sox fans’ intense reaction to this trade – both the departure of former American League MVP Betts and what was perceived as a paltry return for Betts and David Price’s contract – led Red Sox head decision-maker Chaim Bloom to back away and ask for more, using the medical reports as cover.
Boston fans intense? Who knew?
• So the restructured deal reportedly agreed to Sunday – and nothing is official, remember, until the teams announce it – has infield prospect Jeter Downs and catching prospect Connor Wong going to Boston along with Alex Verdugo.
The upshot of Downs’ inclusion would be that the return from last winter’s trade of Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig turned out to be a lot greater than expected.
• This was an unusually long delay, but it’s a sign of the times. The only deals announced immediately these days are deadline deals. Most often, executives or (more often) agents leak the information – always with that “pending a physical” caveat – and even when there isn’t hesitancy the process drags.
(I would throw in a one-liner about this trade process being as laborious as “The Irishman,” except for two things. I liked “The Irishman” – sat through it all – and the three-hour, 29 minute length of that movie already has been compared to a typical Yankees-Red Sox game, in the New York Times no less.)
• And I’m just speculating here, but I would not be surprised if a well-placed Red Sox front office person put the original proposal out as a trial balloon last week, and the fierceness of the reaction from New England and its expatriates was stunning enough for the Sox to determine they needed to ask for more.
• The week’s wait also has the Players Association fired up. This is one more log to throw on a labor relations fire that is already blazing.
• Another effect of this delay is to demonstrate the drawbacks of Rube Goldberg-type trades such as this, the three- and four-team extravaganzas of which Andrew Friedman seems especially fond. All it takes is for one piece to go awry and the whole thing is in danger of falling apart.
• And if you don’t know who Rube Goldberg is and don’t feel like consulting Google, the late cartoonist’s specialty was, according to the rubegoldberg.com website, “inventions, also known as Rube Goldberg Machines, (that) solved a simple task in the most overcomplicated, inefficient, and hilarious way possible.”
Yep, that’s Andrew.
• The Dodgers-Twins trade evidently will remain intact, so the Dodgers wind up keeping Graterol, a right-handed reliever who sends radar guns into triple digits, and they get Betts and Price, plus a prospect they previously traded in Luke Raley, without giving up Dustin May or Gavin Lux. Even among Friedman’s critics in the Dodger fan base, I think you’d have to assume a thumbs up.
• As MLB Network insider – and one-time Daily Breeze baseball writer – Jon Heyman noted, “Non-Boston docs seem to have no big issue with Graterol meds.” What does that tell you?

• On a related note, the Padres traded for Tampa Bay closer Emilio Pagán Saturday, and if you’re a Dodger fan you might have, in a momentary panic, interpreted that as A.J. Preller preparing to assemble another package to offer the Red Sox. Then again, Manuel Margot, who went to the Rays in this deal, was part of San Diego’s original offer. What was Preller going to do, offer the Sox Wil Myers’ bloated contract?
Either way, Pagán adds to another stacked Padres bullpen. But a Dodgers pen with Graterol and a healthy Blake Treinen added to Kenley Jansen, Pedro Baez, Joe Kelly and Adam Kolarek could be hard to screw up. (Your move, Dave Roberts.)
• As for the part of this multi-headed monster that didn’t work out? Ross Stripling posted a GIF of his own double fist pump on Twitter shortly after reports filtered out that the Dodgers-Angels deal, Stripling and Joc Pederson for Luis Rengifo and salary relief, was off.
A little while later, he deleted the tweet. The reason should be obvious: If you’ve been traded once you can be traded again, so no sense celebrating too soon.
• Since Angels owner Arte Moreno was said to be irate over the trade delay anyway, can we stipulate he’s not a Rube Goldberg fan?
• That said, even without this trade the Angels have sneakily made themselves a lot better this winter.
Hiring Joe Maddon was the start. Signing Anthony Rendon was the big piece. And while none of their pitching acquisitions were glamorous, their rotation is absolutely stronger by adding Dylan Bundy, Julio Teheran and, maybe, Matt Andriese to a starting pitching mix including Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning and (later if not sooner) Shohei Ohtani. Even without Pederson’s addition, the Angels begin the year in good shape in the outfield and will be in even better shape once Jo Adell arrives for good.
• You may remember that This Space predicted a Freeway World Series before the 2018 season began.
I’m not going out on that limb again, not yet. But it could be a fun October around here.
jalexander@scng.com
@Jim_Alexander on Twitter
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Red Sux screwed themselves.
That much is beautiful to see.

this trade feels like I'm trying to lose my virginity all over again.  

Its because they knew they were going to flip him for pederson in like 8 years.
Sometimes we dont give Dipo enough credit.

Here is the thing.  I don't think that Boston is utterly clueless.  I think they have a plan. 
My bigger question is why are they trading Betts?  They are getting roasted everywhere for trading him.  Even the Angels found a way no matter what to keep Trout.  So why is Boston trading Betts?  Money?  I don't buy it, they are a huge market team.  And the only thing that makes any kind of conspiracy sense is that Boston knows something everyone else doesn't.  And that something is happening in Houston.  The accusations are that Boston cheated their way to the 2018 WS.  Coincidentally, that is when Betts went from a .800 OPS hitter to a 1.000 OPS hitter.  His MLB career has been .812, .820, .897, .803 OPS then 1.078 and .915 OPS.  
So I guess we'll see in 2020 if he turns back into a .800 hitter, or continues to be a .900+ hitter.  It'll also be interesting to see if he signs a long term huge contract before the season starts.  Because if he signs that huge contract, and it turns out he is only a .800 OPS hitter, the Dogs are going to get hosed.  Which is also acceptable.

this really cracks me up. usually this board can't help but trip over it's own inside jokes, and now it's like listening to mechanical engineers talk.

@Chuckster70 You need to make the haha comment closer to the like.  Us old people have to mouse over several times to get it. I guess I don't mouse in a straight line.  😉 

@Chuckster70 You need to make the haha comment closer to the like.  Us old people have to mouse over several times to get it. I guess I don't mouse in a straight line.  😉