halodground

That picture makes Winslow look like somewhere you might want to spend some time. It doesn't really have much to offer. I'd put it on par with Barstow or Needles, just colder in the winter. If you do find yourself in Winslow, definitely check out the Turquoise Room in the La Posada hotel. Super cool vibe with excellent food. Lots of locally sourced ingredients and even some Navajo dishes.

I've probably mentioned this on here before, but the inspiration for the "Standin' on a corner" part of that song was a girl getting into a flatbed Ford on what is actually the corner of Switzer Canyon Dr. and Rt. 66 in Flagstaff, AZ. There used to be a Der Weinerschnitzel there, which is now the Dog Haus. Decent hot dogs, pretty good breakfast burritos. They always seem to get voted "Best in Flagstaff" for their breakfast burrito but its not anywhere close to the actual best breakfast burrito in Flagstaff. Anyway, Jackson Browne didn't like how Flagstaff sounded in it and I think the story goes that Don Henley suggested the Winslow line.

How does Hicks go up there swinging for the fences with a runner on first and nobody out? It drives me crazy. Get that runner into scoring position! I know they just focus on repeating the same swing every at bat, but holy hell I feel like shortening up your swing and making sure you don’t K or pop-up still has some value. ok, old man rant over.

Things to be pleased about - -Taylor Ward seems like he isn't affected by the face trauma -Mike Trout doesn't appear to be washed and can still destroy a baseball -Bullpen results are improving -Starting pitching looked better past 4 games -Ron Washington has a plan -Neto, O'Hoppe, Schanuel, are off to not terrible starts -Soriano looked electric Things to be concerned about- -Taylor Ward is super streaky -Mike Trout still hasn't made the adjustment to the high FB (his ability to make adjustments in game and over the course of a season is probably his most amazing talent) and is striking out a ton -Bullpen struggles to throw strikes, has a WHIP of 1.30, and the second worst K/BB ratio in MLB -Starters still struggle to get ahead of hitters, Sandoval remains an enigma, and Tyler Anderson has the best start of the year -Ron Washington's plan has to be a good plan AND be executed for 162 games -Neto and Schanuel are not off to great starts -Soriano looked electric for a grand total of 3 innings -The defense and fundamentals have looked meh -Anthony Rendon is 0-19. He's not worried though. TLDR - Sample size is everything. At least it's been a good start. I wish that was a better predictor of the next 156 games.

I think it was the prospect analyst in the thread about the Angels top young players that said something along the lines of Dana could become a “mid-rotation starter”. Seems like all of our pitchers are projected mid rotation, and that is if things work out. Obviously you need a steady influx of those guys too, but it feels problematic that the guys we have to be excited about aren’t projected for bigger things than mid-rotation. Why aren’t we seeing more pitchers in the system that if things break right have higher ceilings? Like the pitcher equivalent of Jo Adell. Everyone seems to recognize that Adell COULD be a special player with the raw tools he has, he just needs to put it together. But I haven't heard the same type of comments made about Angels pitching. Are there those type of talents lurking in the minors and I’m just not hearing about it or is this really an organizational issue?

Ohtani?

The Athletic recently had an article, "The Aces Project", ranking the top 50 active starting pitchers in MLB (no Angels), with Gerrit Cole being rated the highest. Scores were tabulated based on a 20 person panel of executives, scouts, and analysts rating the pitcher on durability and performance on a 1-5 scale. It's pretty clear that the definition of a "#1", TOR arm has evolved quite a lot over the past 10-15 years, but the article made me realize that the Angels haven't drafted and developed a guy who you could argue is a true ace since Weaver. It seems like even when we draft someone, they usually come with a tag like "could develop into a mid rotation starter with #2 upside". Two guys would get an asterisk - Ohtani and Garrett Richards. Ohtani certainly has TOR stuff and results, but his status as a unicorn, the injuries, and the need for the 6 man rotation would knock him down a tier for me, plus he was playing professionally in Japan so there wasn't much "development" to be done. Richards seemed like he was on the path to being the Angels next ace but the bad luck of the patellar tendon rupture seemed to cascade into endless injuries. Outside of those two, I can't think of a time since Weaver that we drafted anyone that was expected to become an ace, and we certainly haven't molded anyone into that type of pitcher either. The Angels do a decent job of producing mid rotation guys, but why no true aces? Is this a scouting and drafting issue? A player development issue? Just bad luck? It's been nearly 20 years since we drafted Weaver.

Rengifo is the best hitter on the Angels and has his most complete season. .285/.355/.485 with 20+ HR and 30+doubles. The ghost of Nibs is finally exorcised and the whole staff embraces the idea of throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters (except Estevez, who still makes every save stressful). The Angels play meaningful games in September but fall a few wins short of the post-season. The Angels are more fun than frustrating again.

That’s optimism I think. How often do guys with an injury history coming into the draft, who then have constant injury problems in the minors, end up having any kind of sustained success in the majors? I’m thinking the time Bachman spends healthy at the MLB level will be very minimal. I’m writing him off as a loss and anything he ends up producing will be a bonus.

I know there are lots of ethical quandaries related to the Steroid Era, but baseball was a ton of fun to watch in the late 90s thru the mid aughts. Bonds was a marvel to behold. The McGwire-Sosa home run chase was a blast to experience. Some incredible pitching performances in there too. Epic stats were common place. And in retrospect, some of the performances that weren’t typical of the era or obviously roid fueled, like peak Pedro Martinez, Erty’s 2000 season, or even the 2002 Halo’s season (I know there were plenty of roids used by that team, but it was considered a “throwback” style team at the time) are even more remarkable. It was a fun time to be a fan in general and an incredible time to be an Angel fan.

I’m ok with signing guys who throw hard but can’t locate with the idea that you can fix something to improve their command. The problem with the Angels is they seem to like to run them out there even when there is no evidence that they have improved their command. A plentitude of walks is the quickest way to a crappy bullpen.

I’ve had a couple really positive interactions with Trout and my kids in Tempe. He truly comes off as a humble, friendly, and kind human. I would still love for him to return to dominance for the next 5-6 years to solidify his legacy as one of the GOATs, selfish and shallow of me as that may be.

It really was laughable. Very profitable organization trying to squeeze every penny out of their patients and employees. Lame. Just let people have their cheap burrito!

The cafeteria in a hospital I worked at for a long time had really great breakfast burritos. When the old hispanic dude who had worked there for decades was on shift, people would come in from all over town for his BB. The first 6-7 years it was a flat $4 (this was in the 2010s) and you got a GIANT 2 hander. Two things wrecked it over the course of time. First the hospital started charging by the ounce for items from the grill, so it became a $12 burrito over night. Then once you worked there for a while and the old guy recognized you, he'd start making your burrito when he saw you in the line. So you got the exact same burrito whether you wanted sausage, cheese, and onion or not. Sometimes a guy feels like bacon, cheese, and jalapeno. I always felt too bad to do anything but take my burrito and enjoy it, variety be damned. He made kick ass huevos rancheros once a month too.