disarcina

Hey - it's been a while since I've posted here. It was hard to watch the Angels most of 2024. We'll see how 2025 goes but I sort of expect more of the same. I do. like the Travis D'rnaud (spelling?) signing. $6 million a year for two years for a quality back up catcher who can also DH a bit is a pretty good deal IMO. I do expect O'Hoppe to continue his progression to being one of the better offensive and better defensive catchers in the league in 2025 if he can avoid injuries. The Hendricks signing provides some pen depth but it's not 'the piece' everyone has talked about on this site for years (dating back to the ESPN days - and that's a ways back). Just wanted to say 'hi' to everyone again -- it's been quite some time since I posted here. On another topic -- Google 'Steve Physioc' the former Angels (and Royals) play by play announcer who retired from broadcasting in 2022 now lives in Colorado. He has written several books. If you google his name there's a link to a You Tube interview (about 40 minutes long) where he looks back on his broadcasting career, talks about his time with the Angels and announcing with Rex Hudler (both in Anaheim and with the Royals in KC). It's pretty interesting and a walk down memory lane. I watched a lot of Physioc / Hudler broadcasts back in the day. Maybe Angels.win guy like Saltzer or someone can figure out how to post the link to that Physioc interview to a post here so it's easier for folks to access. Me- of course, I remain IT challenged as ever. Nice to be back with folks here.

apparently Bauer is talking to Atlanta ?

2006 doesn't seem that long ago -- GEEZ - how true. - TIME FLIES. And Howie Kendrick !! Always liked the way he played. An All Time Halo.

CHUCK and everyone involved with the creation, initiation , development, maintenance, expansion of ANGELSWiN.COM a huge CONGRATULATIONS . In addition to a great site -- that has become a 'community' over the years -- ANGELSWIN.COM has now achieved a level of longevity that few (sports) sites like this manage to achieve. As someone who has been here since the inception (but has done NONE of the heavy lifting of CHUCK those who do the. day in, day. out, year after year work to maintain and improve the site) my hearty congratulations and appreciation! And thank you for putting up with my IT deficient skills that result in many typos and mistakes over the years - that aspect of my posting comments has not changed much over 20 years --

Angels. will draw 25,000 to 30,000 a game, The franchise will turn a profit. Merchandise sales (minus Ohtani) will be down. The Angels will end up fighting Oakland/ Las Vegas for fourth place in the AL West . Halos win total for 2024 : 74 Trout will play 125 games.

I really felt he was Los Angeles Dodgers bound for at least a year now, if not longer. He should have been dealt at deadline time to a team that could have competed with the Dodgers to sign him long term. We would have gotten some top notch pitching prospects and the team that acquired him (Yankees, Seattle, SF ?) would have gotten not only a very valuable player for the stretch run -- but also two plus months to convince Ohtani to sign with them instead of Los Angeles. I said that then back before deadline - so no Monday morning quarterbacking here.

I know that - I just think he may be the best FA acquisition this off season overall. whoever gets him

another question about this -- did y'all see the Dodger website posting. -- and I mean the team site posting its own story not some random poster and not the. MLB.com site "plane to Toronto' guy -- the. Dodgers PR dept. put out a story Friday night that the Dodgers. were OUT and that Ohtani was entertaining an offer from Toronto. I saw that - folks forwarded it all over the place - and immediately thought it was a Dodger head fake - perhaps demanded by Ohtani's people to make up for Manager Roberts' comments earlier in the. week that Ohtani took exception to. -- remember - this is a weird FA negotiation - the player wants NO NEWS OUT, NO LEAKS - and Roberts' comments violated Ohtani's rule -- and Ohtani's way of enforcement is - if you leak news of any sort - I'm not signing with you. So - if it was FAKE NEWS generated by the. Dodgers PR office - should the commissioner's office. take action? Or is this the start of FAKE NEWS being generated by teams to impact FA market? Boras and. other agents. used this tactic - send out news that teams A, B and C are expressing interest in his client so that Boras can pressure team D.

this NEWS JUST IN. A bunch of us have been saying. here for about. a year now that Ohtani would be a Dodger in 2024. the only question was - how much. $700 million about $200 million more. than I expected I felt then and feel now that we should have traded Ohtani for pitching at the deadline played the Dodgers off the Yankees, maybe Giants -who-ever the Dodgers biggest competition was to signing Ohtani (I would have never guessed Toronto. They weren't even on the. radar until ten days ago). You. could have gotten any of. those teams to way over pay for an. Ohtani rental for the stretch run/ playoff (Dodgers could have used him but he wasn't pitching - even back then at deadline time) plus had a leg up to talking to him and signing long term. Oh. well, water under the bridge,. The real prize in FA. this off season has. yet to sign - Yamamoto the. Japanese. starting pitcher. -- may be a better. FA for 2024 then. Ohtani - limited to DH

Trout era in five words: Out of Contention, No Playoffs

Just hoping he can play a full season -- at least 150 games. If he does, he will hit about .285, 35 HRs - 105 RBI and I'd like to see him steal Moree bases (20 on the season would be nice) but that's probably not happening.

warming up a bit to Washington as manager. wish he were a tad bit young than 71 but oh well. the reaction around the league and with players seems positive.

CHUCK - that's a bit harsh coming from you - the always nice guy. I was stunned when I heard this -- and not in a good way. True, RW has 'rehabilitated ' himself during his coaching stints - most recently with Atlanta - a very good organization from top to bottom-- but a 71 year old. (didn't realize he was that old- you know the old adage - we all remain a certain age and assume everyone else does too - so we see he's 71 - GEEZ that's old - oh wait - it's only a few years older than me !) Have our AW folks do some digging (not the club PR take) and see who pushed this hire. There's a sense that the Halos GM (in theist year of his contract in 24) was methodically interviewing candidates (I don't recall RW being on that list but perhaps he was last week) said he was 'taking his time' and then WHAM -- RW announced as new manager ! Has the signs of perhaps Arte stepping in making this happen (around the. GM). - which does not bode well for a GM in the final year of his contract. I may warm up to this - we'll see. Initially completely under-whelmed -- in any event - I really don't. see the Angels doing much over the next three years. - we have three playoff type teams ahead of us in the AL West (Texas Champs not going away any time soon (they have a great manager); Houston (they have a new manager) and Seattle (they have our former GM). So - it's transition time. -- and will possibly ownership change time soon. Oh well, the Anaheim weather and ballpark will still draw 30,000. to 35,000. to game April - June/ July with that many 'seats sold' in August/ September even if not occupied. Ownership likely satisfied with that. It's certainly more than what some other franchises can say.

Much like MLB ratings nationally overall - Baseball and particularly MLB remains a local/ regional draw NOT a national one. This apparently now extends to the World Series (especially when you have teams like Texas and Arizona playing). The. World Series will always be televised nationally but MLB may be received less revenue for the demonstrated drop in viewership. The. average viewership rate for advertising will likely be lower next season. MLB may have to refund some advertising revenue this year for failing to meet certain viewership levels. The games may not be on major network channels - like FOX - but could be relegated to regional sports channels - those that still are financially afloat or other non-network type cable channels. (In other words, not FOX, ABC, NBC or CBS) perhaps MLB or maybe ESPN. What astounds me for the ALCS and NLCS (and perhaps soon for the World Series) is that you can't get them over the air on radio. "Back in the day" if you were out and about driving around, you could get your local over the air radio station (not necessarily the all sports station) that had the games on and listen as you went about your errand, whatever. Today - especially for the ALCS and NLCS -- not so - need the MLB.com satelite feed. Oh well. This. year's World Series TV ratings destined to be the lowest ever. Meanwhile, the NFL juggernaut continues on. At one time, the World Series and Super Bowl were somewhat on par. Those days have long since been behind us.

You're probably correct about this. I'm just still upset that good guy Torri Hunter was treated that way.