Angel Attack (Los Angelinos de Los Angeles (52-73) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (68-55))
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SCOREBOARD WATCHING
The Baltimore Orioles did what the good teams do: Beat up the soft teams.
Now going into a rough three-game stretch in Houston, the O’s took two of three from the confounding Chicago White Sox, whose manager, Tony La Russa, has taken the crown of America’s most-hated senile geriatric after Dark Brandon’s student debt relief.
The Hall of Fame baseball person committed his second act of gross medical negligence this week, first allowing Michael Kopech throw 18 pitches when anybody with a functioning retina could tell he was injured and very unfit to pitch, and letting Luis Robert play with a wrist injury, producing swings like this:
(For the record, Rob Friedman did not realize Robert was injured when he originally tweeted this.)
For his part, La Russa justified his decision by citing the centerfielder grounding into a double play and lofting a fly ball 50 feet short of a home run.
The vibes around this team are abysmal, to say nothing of their actual ability to play above-average baseball at a major league level. Both the division and a wild card spot are technically within race, but between them, the Twins, and the Guardians, the White Sox are the ones I would write off first at this point, despite being the only one of those three teams that is actually good on paper. Absolute nightmare season.
Speaking of the Twins, Minnesota has decided to do anything in their power to avoid a playoff spot, getting swept in three games by the Astros in Houston after Byron Buxton went to the IL once again. They’ll return to Minneapolis to lick their wounds and play the middling San Francisco Giants for three games.
The Seattle Mariners split two games with the Washington Nationals and won the first of four home games with the Cleveland Guardians. However, they made way more headlines by signing star rookie centrefielder Julio Rodríguez to a $210 million contract over 14 years.
Rodríguez has put together the fifth-most fWAR among MLB centrefielders
At the opposite end of the “paying good players” spectrum, the Rays actually did lock up a young star, albeit for a much shorter term. Starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, out for likely all of this season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery, was signed to a two-year deal that will pay him $5.35 million next season, and $25 million in 2024, the highest single-season figure of any Rays player. This season though, they’ll head to Boston to presumably continue the conga line of humiliation that the Red Sox are currently experiencing.
BEST BIRDS
Hitter: George Springer (5)
Honourable Mentions: Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk
Pitcher: Ross Stripling (5)
Honourable Mentions: Trevor Richards, José Berríos, Jordan Romano
Best Bird Standings:
Hitters:
Matt Chapman- 7
George Springer- 5
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.- 5
Santiago Espinal- 4
Teoscar Hernández- 4
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.- 3
Alejandro Kirk- 3
Bo Bichette- 3
Danny Jansen- 2
Whit Merrifield- 1
Cavan Biggio- 1
Zack Collins - 1
Pitchers:
Alek Manoah- 14
Kevin Gausman- 9
Ross Stripling- 5
José Berríos- 4
Yusei Kikuchi- 4
Anthony Bass- 2
David Phelps- 1
Jordan Romano- 1
SCHEDULE/PROBABLE PITCHERS
Friday, August 26 (7 p.m. EST/5 p.m. MST)
Reid Detmers (3.66 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 23.4 K%, 9.0 BB%)
Mitch White (3.63 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 19.1 K%, 7.7 BB%)
Saturday, August 27 (3 p.m. EST/1 p.m. MST)
Shohei Ohtani (2.83 ERA, 2.69 FIP, 33.9 K%, 6.5 BB%)
Alek Manoah (2.66 ERA, 3.49 FIP, 23.0 K%, 6.1 BB%)
Sunday, August 28 (1:30 p.m. EST/11:30 a.m. MST)
Tucker Davidson (6.23 ERA, 5.63 FIP, 11.3 K%, 15.5 BB%)
Ross Stripling (2.84 ERA, 2.80 FIP, 21.1 K%, 4.2 BB%
THE OPPOSITION
Pythagorean Record: 55-70
Season Series vs. Blue Jays: 0-4
Record since the last series vs. Blue Jays: 25-51
Last 10 games: 1-9
Prior to the season, a friend of mine predicted that the Angels would finish under the Rangers in the standings, more so an indictment of the Angels than a celebration of any ability on the part of the Rangers, to be sure. And apart from a good stretch to start the season, the Angels have lived up to the pinnacle of their whatever the opposite of potential is.
Another season with a healthy Shohei Ohtani and a (sometimes) healthy Mike Trout wasted. A breakout season from Taylor Ward wasted. Some good seasons from Reid Detmers and Patrick Sandoval wasted. The goodwill of Angels fans? Shot down the drain. Owner Arte Moreno’s patience with his own team’s inability to put anything constructive together due to roadblocks he imposed? Apparently run out.
Moreno announcing that he was exploring the possibility of selling the Angels came as both a shock and a relief to fans, Angels faithful or otherwise. Moreno’s tendency to hand out huge contacts to star position players that would backfire horrendously (Josh Hamilton, Justin Upton, Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon is trending that direction as well) at the expense of pitching is well known at this point. Arguably just as wretched however, besides the team’s horrendous record dealing with opioid abuse, is the complete failure, willful or otherwise, to build any meaningful infrastructure to develop players that can back up the generational talents of Trout and Ohtani.
This combination of factors has created a living dead end of a team: Some incredible ballplayers thereabouts, but with a poor supporting cast, without the funds to improve. Other than the Rockies (who are operating on their on reality and may not actually count) I don’t think it can be argued that the Angels are the worst team in baseball actively trying to win, though the new ownership, whoever it may be, may take drastic course correction measures if deemed necessary.
Anyways, watch Ohtani pitch on Saturday if you can. It may be the last chance to see him hit and pitch in Toronto before whichever hedge fund parasite buys the Angels can strip the team down and sell him to the JAys for spare parts.
Best (Healthy) Players in this Series:
Shohei Ohtani, Starting Pitcher/Designated Hitter, 2.83 ERA, 2.69 FIP, 33.9 K%, 6.5 BB%/.262/.354/.509, 139 wRC+
Mike Trout, Center Field, .272/.366/.597, 167 wRC+
Taylor Ward, Right Field, .261/.351/.447, 128 wRC+
Reid Detmers, Starting Pitchers, 3.66 ERA, 4.21 FIP, 23.4 K%, 9.0 BB%
Luis Rengifo, Utility Infield, .267/.301/.423, 104 wRC+