AngelsSurfer

He's 6'7". That's not a horrific weight for an athlete that tall. And muscle weighs more than fat; perhaps he's been lifting this off season...

Huh. That's totally different than in other businesses where you're sent on assignments to other states for short periods of time. Glad my line of work doesn't operate that way.

It mentioned a residence in Westlake Village...if he's actually living around Ventura County and isn't just making some real estate money, that's a heck of a commute to Anaheim.

I was under the impression that when one filed income tax for the year, it was based on state of legal residence. In a case like a baseball player, they'd be liable for taxes in either one or two states: the state where they keep a residence/live during the offseason and the state in which their team is located, where the checks are being cut. When the Angels are playing in Texas they're not being paid by the Texas team; they're still being paid by the Angels' front office. And they're not getting paid by the hour or day, so it would be a logistical nightmare for accounting to sit there figuring out what percentage of their salary should be taxed at each state's rate. And I'm basing that on friends who have been on concert/theatre tours that traveled around the country - who only pay taxes to their own home state - and my own experience in going on assignments out of state in my profession. If I get sent to Washington to work for a week, I don't pay income tax to Washington. I'm still working for a California company and still residing in California officially. My check is still cut by my employer here in California, they still withold taxes at California rates, and I'm filing California tax returns. If, however, they sent me to Washington for six months, I'd probably be considered a part time resident of both California and Washington and my income tax liability would be split between the two.

Pitch Variety: A Primer - Ernesto Frieri How to Win Friends and Influence People - Roger Clemens

Good luck to him - if they're going to offer him a better deal and give him more playing time, it's a great opportunity.

No kids, childfree, fairly young, and I leave games early sometimes. I try not to, because I do like to be there for the last out. However, in my case, transportation is an issue. I take the Angels Express, and that leaves at 11:30 at the latest, regardless if the game is over or not. And that's usually the last train of the night in both directions out of Anaheim (to LA or Oceanside) so there's no way to skip it and stay later. Also an issue is that connecting mass transit from either LA or Oceanside usually ends around midnight or 1am, so if you're getting there too late, you're stranded. If I were to drive, it's at least an hour from my home to Angels Stadium, assuming the 5 is moving. Games sometimes seem to let out about the time Disneyland is closing or the fireworks there are over, so the freeway can be a mess. I'd imagine that some fans live even further away. If someone's leaving a game at 11:30 and it's taking them, say, an hour and a half or two hours to get home, it might be a bit of a problem if they need to be up at 6 or 7 for work the next morning. If they HAVE brought a kid to the game, by 10 or 11 they might be getting completely overtired. So the only answer is to leave before the game is over. As to the pace of the games, it IS annoying and time consuming when certain batters feel the need to go for a walk and spend five minutes fussing between each pitch (I love Calhoun but he's so bad about this). If they were to finally enforce the rule about batters needing to keep one foot in the box, unless they're dodging a wild pitch, I think it would be a good thing. Letting pitchers and catchers do intentional walks without going through the whole four pitch rigmarole? Also a good thing. I don't know how I feel about the pitch clock, though. I think it might mess up some pitchers' ability to get signs from their catchers and decide on a pitch.

I would LOVE to see him back with the Angels in some capacity as a coach! I hope that works out. He really is a class act and a great guy. He seems to be a really positive presence for the team.

That's pretty much my feeling on it, too. The team's referred to just as the Angels, regardless. I grew up in NYC where the New York Nets, Jets and Giants all played across the river in New Jersey, so the geographic discrepancies in the name don't really bother me... And as for Los Angeles being different from OC, absolutely. However, there are a LOT of different parts of LA, with a lot of different cultures and ways of life. It's very diverse, and to say that it's all a cesspool is a little misguided, IMHO. I mean, Bel Air, Playa del Rey, Brentwood, Westwood and the Hollywood Hills are all technically and legally part of the city of Los Angeles. And if you look at LA County as a whole you've got Marina del Rey, Malibu, Culver City, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, El Segundo (which is known as Mayberry...), Beverly Hills, etc. etc. etc...there are a lot of places there that are absolutely wonderful. If we look at the OC there are huge differences in how people live, too - not everyone in OC lives well. There's probably a huge difference in the quality of life for someone living in the parts of Anaheim with gang activity vs. Languna Beach.

Seconding the recommendations for Ball Four and Seasons In Hell. I also really liked R.A. Dickey's memoir, Wherever I Wind Up. He's got an absolutely amazing story.

I agree with this 100% Bedrosian ended the season with a 6.52 ERA. I don't particularly have any trust in him as a solid reliever. Maybe in a year or two after some more AAA time, but not now.

That was definitely a major, major part of it. Without Frieri the bullpen was already infinitely better. Still, Grilli was a very good pitcher for the Angels. In the postseason in particular the guy was rock solid.

At this point I don't expect anything from him at all. Except, perhaps, for more snarky quotes in the press about how Anaheim isn't a baseball town and Angels fans are mean for booing him after how much he's poisoned himself.

I'm disappointed that they didn't choose to offer him a deal. I thought he was a wonderful asset to the pen and he did a great job as a reliever.

There are a lot of jobs that are underpaid. My family's Navy and yeah, they were worked hard for what they were paid. However...I still maintain that when the pay is untenably low and people go elsewhere, it means that the sport (or any job) misses out and loses quality players.I was actually reading about this in relation to both science teachers and pilots. A lot of really good people in the sciences won't even consider being high school teachers because they can get paid so much more by private companies. And another article was mentioning that there's a shortage of pilots because of the wages. The pay is so low that some pilots live in trailers near their home base airports. Prospective new pilots see this, and look at the exorbitant cost of flight school and getting the hours needed, and decide to do something else. So I think if you want quality you have to pay for it, at the end of the day. The more MiLB players defect to Japan/Korea/etc. in search of decent wages, the less MiLB players there are to infuse fresh blood into MLB teams.

ITA. And the thing is, if enough of those MiLB players do go elsewhere - if they go to play in Japan, Korea or South America or simply quit baseball and work in some other type of job- it has a deleterious effect on the sport, in the long run, because the talent will be drained from the farm system and MLB.

I am not sure what that has to do with what I said.

The article's spot on. We keep hearing about what Hamilton CAN do, but with the Angels, what we've seen him ACTUALLY do, overall, has been pretty abysmal. One can't keep judging a player on great production they showed several seasons back. At this point I expect absolutely nothing but more of the same ish from Hamilton; if he actually does do well this year it will be a pleasant surprise.

Okay, this thread title scared me. I was thinking Shoemaker.

That depends entirely on the team and the area. There are some minor league teams, like the Cyclones and the S.I. Yankees in NYC, that do very well.

It's apples and oranges. Of course Costco workers work their butts off, but they probably face far less disruption and have far more of a work-life balance than the MiLB players. Costco employees have days off. Their likenesses aren't used to sell products at the store without compensation to them. People aren't buying tickets to see them work. They're not training for hours every day (and yes, I know working there is very physical). They're not relocated to cities they don't know, that they aren't given any time to actually see. And unlike a retail employee who sells products- the players are the product that makes money for the owners. The fans buy tickets to see them play and sometimes buy merch and programs with their likenesses. I'm not knocking Costco or any other retail work; I've done it myself. I used Costco as an example, but my point remains that a MiLB player should have a living wage just like any other job. And it shouldn't be the case that when the season is over and they go to work at Costco, they're making substantially more money than they were in a very specialized field. And the salary I suggested is still actually less than Costco - someone working 40 hours there @ $20/hour is earning $800/week or $41,600/year. The salary I suggested for MiLB was $25,000 - $30,000. They should at least be getting five figures. Right now they're making less than some kids get with internship stipends.

This would truly be a Christmas present for Angels fans and for the team if it happens...

You always start out low at entry level, but when the base salary is unjustifiably low and the expectations are so high, it's ridiculous. There's no reason a MiLB player who basically completely gives up his life from April to September and is in a very physically demanding field should be making less than the guy at Costco. They should at least be giving these guys a living wage. Making sure they have an annual salary of say $25,000 or $30,000 instead of $7500 would be a step up and would really not be unreasonable IMHO. A comparison for me would be Big Bang Theory salaries vs. what a day player makes on a TV show or film. If you're working on a TV show and you only have a few lines, right now you get between $100 and $500 per day based on what type of production it is. You're not making anywhere what the principals who have put in their time are earning, but you're getting something fair.

This. I once had a conversation with a MiLB player for a fairly successful short-season (June - Septemeber) franchise. He made $1250 a month, he was being housed in a college dorm (and had to pay for that) and he had to do a lot of promotional work, the way the MLB players did. His likeness was on items sold and used in promotions at the stadium and he didn't get compensated for it. He didn't have any time to really even get out and see the city he was living in. I asked him what he did when the season was over and he shrugged and said "work at Costco." And at $20/hour, working at Costco for even 20 hours a week earned him MORE than he was making in the minor leagues. I guess for a lot of these guys, they're college-age so living in a dorm and being paid ANYTHING to play baseball is awesome for them. Still, the minor league parks make money too, and it's a shame that more of it doesn't seem to filter back to the players.

Yep. Just as with baseball players, I'm absolutely fine with actors getting as much as they can. They're making a lot of money for those studios; they deserve a return on it.