Inside Pitch

If I had a penny for every time I either mistyped or auto-correct changed something up for me on a tablet or phone..

Dude, Sano is performing exactly how he did when he was good. He's pretty much a three outcome guy.

rebuilding....ish.

I've already seen one person make the comparison, I'm sure others will follow suit. But Logan Britt's (17th round 2023), windup/delivery follow through looks almost identical to Gerrit Cole's. He was a two way guy in college that the Angels are having pitch exclusively. Dude is raw AF and was lit up last year but scouts outside the organization are saying he was turning heads stuff wise. May be an interesting guy to follow as he develops.

Sano's peripherals this year are very similar to where they were when he hit 34 bombs in Minn. Dude has been extremely unlucky but if he keeps doing what he has been he's going to have a much better year than anyone believed he would. His Baseball Savant data is nuts. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/miguel-sano-593934?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb

Flesh wounds...

I'm defending him. I love that that glorious surly SOB went out there one handed the way he did. Reminded me of how Bobby Grich would lose his shit every time he got into a brawl. They should have put his cast in the trophy case next to that boring WS trophy.

Tell me again how it's not fiction or a narrative when you start by saying he alone.. Some people are Neville Chamberlain, others are Winston Churchill. If you look closely Rendon was actually mouthing Churchill's "We will fight them on the beaches" speech as he bitch-slapped Winkler. "Never be a Chamberlain when you can be a Churchill", pretty sure Confucius or Jesus said that. I for one am glad Rendon didn't pass up getting his biggest hit of the season that day. I couldn't even remember Winker's name today but I won't ever forget how a one handed Anthony Rendon told him to go pound sand somewhere else.

I have no clue what was said. I went to a lot of games up there when I was at college, it was the early 90s but the fans there used to say shit that didn't really fly then much less now. If you check out that video taken by the Japanese guy the person in question seemed to be picking and choosing who to jaw at, they all had tans. Also cant help but notice that when confronted the guy denied having called him anything, but the second he was safely out of range "calm down"....

Them.. Stop pretending you don't who 'they' are.

Too far!

Unga bunga

Taylor while I respect this, some of us were raised by cavemen and were told to prepare for interactions with other cavemen. I was very young when my Dad made it clear to me never to say anything to another person without expecting them to come at me with everything they had. While I've never kicked the shit out of anyone for calling me any mean names, I also never popped off and acted surprised when someone didn't like what I had to say.

MLB and the Oakland PD investigated as an case of assault.. I'm sure the arrest is pending. Here's the view from the Japanese fan Ohtani's WTF is happening expression is the best thing about this IMO

Nah, he totally swiped at him.

He let him go and swiped in his general direction. Anyone that thinks he swung and missed is kidding themselves. Also, there was video taken by a Japanese fan that showed the same guy jawing at Rengifo and others ahead of Rendon. And there's a video of someone who saw the entire thing and said Rendon came back out and was looking for the fan -- I believe he used the word "gracious" in describing how Rendon treated all the remaining fans in that area.

By attitude problem I'm assuming you mean his surly relationship with the press and yeah, he's always been that way. He does himself no favors. But all I need to know about Blum is he tried to do the same BS he had done last year at ST, only this time there was video of him being a cowardly little shit who backed down and admitted Rendon had in fact answered his question when he tried to ask the same question in a different way. His tweet describing the back and forth made it seem much more curt, even adversarial, but the video made it clear the interaction had actually rather jovial and you could hear Blum laughing nervously. Likewise his attempt to twist Mike Trout's comments about asking for a trade tells me what his game is. In both cases the only thing that kept his spin from becoming THE narrative was video proof of what was actually said. Look, you like him and that's fine but don't pretend he's not above trying to pick at people or chasing clicks -- it's his job. He knew who Rendon was, he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere by asking him but he did it every day and then reported those interactions as if they had any impact on the situation. He made the interactions the story. For most people "No comment" would have been enough but Blum had a narrative to push and clicks to chase. And absolutely nobody in MLB or maybe anywhere gives a flying shit what Jonathan Papelbon thinks -- pretty sure even his parents can't stand him. What I do give a shit about is Rendon's at bats produced exit velocities of 87.4, 97,6, and 97.6. Hopefully he keeps that up.

It was annoying. Everyone knew he viewed baseball as a job, and everyone was aware of his struggles with injuries all the way back to his time at Rice. I can't say that it made me want to hurl the way the Matt Harvey or Cody Allen deals did because at least Rendon was good at the game still but the red flags were there. Yep... As much as I would have liked to see them add someone capable of playing SS and another SP, I'm glad they avoided losing draft picks to add a name.

So, Rendon went into the Mariners dugout? Don't talk about others creating narratives if you're going to create fiction to push yours. Look, you can disagree, but few outside of Anaheim were paying much attention to Rendon, it was all Ohtani this, Trout that. He became the subject of hate outside of Anaheim when Blum went on his crusade and then that interview hit. I agree that he's not done himself any favors but mostly I find the self righteous pap spouted by fans and media types about "loving the game" to be just that -- pap. The dude has been the same guy since coming into the league and nobody gave a shit until he got hurt and wasn't able to produce. There you go.. You're upset he's been hurt and unproductive, I am too. I'm more mad the Angels didn't see it coming. BTW -- his going after the dink in Seattle made me like him more, I was always pretty indifferent about him. The no hablo Ingles comment made me chuckle. I'm also pretty indifferent about the situation in Oakland with the fan. But I loved it when Chili Davis went after the racist scumbag in Milwaukee that felt his being a fan meant he could drop N-bombs on him, and if by chance that guy in Oakland called him a "lazy wetback" as I heard A's fans call opposing players during the "bash brothers" era then more power to Rendon. They can't all be Jackie and turn the other cheek. Oh yeah. I hope his legs aren't shot.

Yep. His last hit was on July 3rd 2023, he then went hitless in his first five games of 2024. But I was wrong it had only been 22 at bats at the time that tweet went out.

I still don't believe he's got his legs completely under him. He's pain free and he's not all upper body but I do believe that he's lacking his old strength. He was never huge or reliant on his power so it's still likely he gets more into game shape as the season progresses but he will either have to adjust for the loss of 5-10 feet on his FBs or see his offense flounder. The batting eye and and bat speed/control seems to still be there.

You included his Covid season in his fWAR total so, I wouldn't exclude it. But it's hard to say the injuries aren't a huge factor if in his first 207 games as an Angel he's managed 3.9 fWAR. Over 162 games that translated into a 3 fWAR player. He will never live up to the contract, he won't even if he manages to average 3 fWAR a year over the remainder of his career but you really can't downplay the impact injuries have had on his production. Most of the BS following him around right now is that interview and for most Angels fans -- the Sam Blum soap opera.

At the time that tweet went out it had been a grand total of 6 games, 24 at bats without a hit.

Rengifo, Drury, Schanuel.. Any of them over Hicks, please. Hicks has actually been pretty unlucky, his hard hit rate has been really good but, you have Moniak and Adell FFS.

14.3% barrel rate in a tiny sample size, would be a career high. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/anthony-rendon-543685?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb That barrel rate is going to come down hard but you'd hope the balls start falling in too.