Nothing happened yesterday, which makes for yet another funky Friday morning. The Angels are in New York, where I always pray for Mike Trout to go 15 for 15 with 15 consecutive home runs and 35 amazing catches over the CF fence, just to make the New York media writhe and contort in agony over all the great things they wish they were writing about how great was Mike Trout the Yankee.
So it's good thing we have links to distract me:
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Angels Baseball
The Weekend Series:
Los Angeles Angels @ New York Yankees, Yankee Stadium, New York
Day | Game Time | Probable Pitchers | TV |
FRIDAY | 4:05 PM PDT | Jered Weaver (4-4, 4.08 ERA) versus Nathan Eovaldi 4-1, 4.40 ERA) | FSW, MLBN |
SATURDAY | 4:15 PM PDT | Garrett Richards (5-3, 3.26 ERA) versus Adam Warren (3-4 3.75 ERA) | FOX |
SUNDAY | 10:05 AM PDT | C.J. Wilson (3-4, 3.55 ERA) versus Michael Pineda (7-2, 3.33 ERA) | FSW |
Let do math! Yesterday I linked to a bit in the OCR that dealt with dwindling attendance at home games. Later yesterday Josh put up a thread dedicated to the topic, wherein lots of folks offered theories trying to explain why. I am not going to get into the whys all over again, but I am going to add another data point. Using figures for the positive/negative impact on ticket prices in 2015 that I found on NerdWallet.com, and looking at the schedule of games played in Anaheim to-date, I come up with the estimation that even if LAA attendance was holding steady, ticket revenues would still be down by 3.72%. Why is this worth knowing? Because if we know that attendance is DOWN 11.9% over those games (Comparing 2014 and 2015 attendance figures on BBR over the first 29 games), AND we know to expect the average ticket prices for those still attending to be down 3.72%, we should be expect overall ticket revenue to be down 15.1%. Now, knowing that, think again about the LAT article where Angels VP of marketing and ticket sales is quoted as saying that Arte is about even on revenues from ticket sales and concessions. If they are down about 15.1% on tickets sales, they must be UP about 15.1% on concession sales. Did beer prices go back up or something?............
Do you agree? Is Sean Newcomb on the verge of being fast-tracked beyond Hih A anytime soon? "But he’s on the fast track. He earned a call-up to the California League after laying waste to the low-A Midwest League, and if he handles this challenge as well as he did that one he’ll likely be in Double-A Arkansas by mid-summer."............
The Angels already have their first official selection to the 2015 All Star Game. AL Manager Ned Yost has selected Angels head athletic trainer Adam Nevala to join the coaching staff.............
I don't know if this is any actual "debate", but I do know that Mike Scioscia is giggling at us all. The trend we saw in this past home stand of walking Mike Trout to get to Albert Pujols is worth people thinking about, and Huston Street is one of them. "We talk about it all the time in the 'pen. Like, 'Would you want to walk Trouty to get to Albert?' 'I don't know.' I don't know. It's two of the best hitters in the game. I'm glad they're on my team." But then there is Sosh, who must be feeling like a strategic maestro for putting Trout and Pujols back-to-back and finally seeing something dramatically positive to point to. Like, he must be sitting there thinking "See? SEE!? I TOLD you keeping them back-to-back would work out one day!".............
The MLB Draft takes place on Monday, starting noon PDT. Jerry Dipoto has figured that he has enough pitching to start chasing offense. "We have built that [pitching] depth. Now we have to go back in, by choice, and start addressing other areas of need. So no longer are we going to go in and just take pitcher after pitcher after pitcher. We're still going to take pitchers, like we do every year, but there will be more of a premium placed on offensive players, in this Draft and as we move forward. Now we can be a little more balanced.". Balance, for me, would be Troy Glaus 2.0. Everybody else has one, so why can't we??........
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Elsewhere in Baseball
It's about damned time. The Astros are moving in their center field fence and eliminating Tal's Hill, the artificial risk to players - including our own Mike Trout. After spending way too much fixating on Mickey Mantle horror stories, I'd root for the Astros just because of that............
As far as I'm concerned, this is fabulous. M's manager Lloyd McClendon is doubling down on his commitment to Fernando Rodney, and is going to use him come hell or high water. It spell WIN on so many levels. It reinforces my thinking that McClendon is a knucklehead, which is an awesome thing for every Seattle manager to be. It promises to keep the Mariners struggling. Even better, it means their fans are suffering. It also means that Mark Trumbo can be super-successful and, after Rodney gives it all back, the Angels can also go home happy. And, finally, it means more possible chances for our Angels to wreak their revenge on the crooked asshat that Fraudney is. Love it...............
David Ortiz is sucking wind to start the year, which is not the first time. The question is whether the ancient BoSux is going to snap back out of it, or has he finally aged out and died as a ballplayer? This deep thought experiment suggests that it is more mechanics, than age being to blame............
Ouch. Buck Showalter got tossed for arguing balls and strikes. Not that unusual, and makes for great theater. The unusual, and fun, part was that Showalter went out to the plate and went about showing plate umpire, Brian Gorman where the strike zone was. By hand. Very creative. Oh, and this is why Showalter was pretty pissed off.
See? The Marlins suck. And even THEY can figure out how to put together way cool promotional events...............
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This Date In Baseball History: 1920 - The number of home runs jumps this season, and observers accuse the baseball, claiming that it is juiced to draw fan interest. A's owner Tom Shibe barks back that the real cause is due to the abolition of the spitball. Shibe, it should be noted, owned the company that was manufacturing the baseballs............1949 - Commissioner Happy Chandler backs down and lifts the ban, initiated back in 1946, on players who had jumped to the Mexican league for more money. Some of those players had threatened to sue MLB, and MLB didn't want to end up in a court of law where a sane and rational judge might actually call bullshit on the anti-trust exemption...........1974 - Reggie Jackson starts a clubhouse brawl with fellow teammate Billy North. In the brawl, catcher Ray Fosse (whose career was NOT mythically ended by Pete Rose) will get so injured that he will be lost for practically the remainder of the season, but not before everybody goes out a couple of hours later and beats the crap out of the Tigers..........1981 - Nolan Ryan becomes the all-time career walk leader, but by this time he was an Astro, so that's on them............1982 - Cal Ripken's record streak of 8,243 consecutive innings begins..........1985 - Dennis Martinez, then pitching for the Orioles, throws a 1-hitter, retiring the last 16 consecutive batters, as the O's defeat the Angels 4-0 in Baltimore. With that, he earns his 100th career victory. Six years and six weeks later, Martinez will pitch the 13th ever perfect game. He will do that as an Expo, against the Dodgers, in Dodger Stadium. Stirrups was in attendance with his two young sons that day, Rubixsqube and HaloVet, and spent a good deal of the 6th and 7th innings talking Dodger "fans" into sitting back down and not leaving altogether, since history was in the making. Not just a perfect game, this was the first time anyone had thrown a no-hitter against the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium itself, so these fans had never seen such a thing, and they were actually seeing a perfect game, to boot. Mike Scioscia went 0-3 in that game, and Alfredo Griffin went 0-2...........2008 - In Fenway, television catches watch as Manny Ramirez takes exception to the way Kevin Youkilis gets all upset over striking out and starts a brawl with him when Youkilis gets back to the dugout..........Not to be outdone, in the same game Coco Crisp takes exception to being hit by pitch, and rushed the mound to take on Ray's pitcher James Shields. 8 players will end up getting suspensions from the ensuing bench-clearing melee..........2013 - Kyle Seager of the Mariners hits the first extra-inning grand slam in MLB history in the bottom of the 14th inning. Gloriously, all this did was tie up the game. Seattle will still lose, 7-5.