Jeff Fletcher

I would say it’s the same.

I was there for the exchange. (In fact, I was the one going back and forth with Rendon while everyone else watched.) It was the same as his normal routine. It just went on for a little longer because I sort of cornered him, as opposed to the normal scene when he just says something as he’s walking away.

Teams don’t get to do their own physicals on players before trades. The acquiring team would just get the original teams medical info.

Sometimes.

As I said, it is “my policy.”

Re: Rendon not talking My policy is anyone has a right to not talk to me. I will note in the story that the person wouldn’t talk, and that’s it. The manner in which he didn’t talk (whether he’s nice about or a jerk about it) is not relevant to the readers so I don’t make it public.

I don’t know anything about that. When he was working out in the OF in 2020, Maddon said how good he looked. At one point we asked him why he stopped playing OF in Japan and he said “maybe I wasn’t very good at it.” We never pursued it obviously because it never came up again.

They didnt say specifically but I think it’s obvious they don’t I think he’s better than any of the guys in the big league bullpen now. They can’t option him and he clearly wasn’t injured any more so he couldn’t stay on the IL.

Almost no MLB contracts are insured because it’s very expensive and only covers career ending type stuff.

I wouldn’t say the “odds aren’t great.” I would say they are worse than for the first TJ, but still pretty decent. I expect Ohtani to give it a shot, and if it doesn’t work, then he can move to the OF or 1B.

How do you know he's not?

I still expect them to activate trout today. If they don’t, maybe Trey cabbage comes back.

Understood. my point is that you shouldn’t be criticizing the umps. You should be criticizing MLB for not using the technology. Maybe that’s semantics. It’s just a pet peeve of mine whenever I hear people say things “umpires have gotten so bad”

Although I understand that some form of automated strike zone is coming, I just want to make sure you guys understand that umpires today are actually the best they’ve ever been. It seems like they are worse because before we didn’t have the technology to evaluate them at all. But go on YouTube and watch a game from the 20th century sometime.

Yeah, their offensive performance is definitely worth a closer look at some point between now and the end of the season.

I can’t answer that one.

I think they all really do like him and think he’s very good at what he does. He’s great at making your “stuff” better. But the guy he replaced had 40 years of real world “how to pitch” experience.

I didn’t read all this. The Angels’ first baseman got hurt. Their options in the minors were Cabbage, Walsh, Schanuel. It doesn’t seem so crazy when you look at it that way.

It should say “one chance to drive in the run without a hit.” He said he’d rather have 3 chances to get a hit than 1 chance at hit/SF/etc and then 1 chance at a hit. Also he mentioned that Fairbanks throws really hard so he figured Grichuk was probably going to hit it to the right side anyway, which at worst moves the runner and at best might be a hit. He also said he wasn’t really bunting when Velazquez was at first. He was just trying to get in the way for the steal. As for leaving Estévez in, he said he “just felt like he needed to leave him after getting the big strikeout.”

I assume if he shows anything in his time in the big leagues this year that he would be in some top 100s next year.

If he does half decent in the big leagues I assume that will vault him onto the top 100 lists going into 2024.

They don't update that in real time. That's what he started the season with. In any case, now Nolan Schanuel can win the ROY.

He already has 31 days, if my math is correct. (Don’t forget he came up last year.) So he just needs to be active for 14 more days to lose his rookie status for 2024.

No idea. But it’s a safe bet that’s what they would do.

I’m not gonna say which one, but there was an early game this year in which a reliever came out looking pretty bad and I have heard subsequently that it was largely because O’Hoppe didn’t know what he should have been calling. They talked to him and he did not make the same mistakes again. (This also sort of relates to the other thread about O’Hoppe sitting out so he can be eligible for ROY. I think every pitch he catches in 2023 will make him better in 2024.)