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It feels good to own LA, even when it is just practice. Thanks for the win last night, guys.
While the Angels are in LA, I am up here in the Bay area. In a couple of days we will all switch places. Meanwhile, I can safely report that traffic up here sucks just as bad as it does down there. It took 90 minutes to drive from San Jose to Livermore last night, starting out at 6PM. That’s going to match my drive from Beverly Hills back to Irvine on Thursday afternoon. The distance is about the same. So I don’t want to hear any looking down of noses at SoCal from these people.
Dig some In-Absentia-Spring-Training-Links:
A Little Bit of Angels News
Mike Trout can play D, people. (#TroutTooDeep sent to the new LAA video board).........
Forget the fact that the RF wall has been lowered to only 8 feet. The BIG news is that the new RF wall is frikkin padded. We sit on our asses on those rock hard plastic seats and never realized it, but (from Trout): “It’s way different. You can run full speed into it. You run full speed into it last year and you were going to hurting. I’ll definitely try to get after a few more balls year.”..........
The MSM is already tired of the kind of Disney-esque messaging out of LAA. Having so many of them finally dedicating weeks on end with the Halos so that they can follow Ohtani, the official Ohtani reviews coming from the team is not a good look.............
The LA Times wrote this incredibly positive piece about Billy Eppler. You knew that already. That’s not the link here. The Link is to this page, which has in it a link to that LAT article. Because in that latter article is this sentence: “So the GM of the Anaheim Angels had a great offseason … by doing nothing?” The author of that line, Jason McIntyre, is a professional sportswriter............
Naming the Opening Day pitcher is some kind of big deal. Always has been. I don’t get it when a season lasts 162 damned games. But it’s a point of honor and means something to the players. So congratulations, Garrett Richards..........
The other thing that is a traditional point off honor is naming a closer. But that ain’t happening in Anaheim. Not yet. Now we can read all about how bad it is to have a closer committee. Because observers hate uncertainty...........
Maybe Kevin Maitan ain’t our #4 prospect, after all..........
Hahahahahaha...As obvious as was the CF Power Rankings, so are the rankings or DH..........
Everywhere In Baseball
The Marlins and The Marlin Man are at odds over trying to negotiate in advance on a 4-year deal for season tickets behind home plate. Seems to me like Marlin Man is a guy who is used to getting things his way, while the Marlins are still the Marlins.............
Uh, gee, ya’ think? The Tigers are tanking, and their fan base is tanking, too. It may have something to do with the predicted weather, but that’s not all of it. They will be back though. Just ask Houston..........
In today’s world, I suspect that an MLB franchise social media maven is an unsung hero. Except the person in Oakland. That person is well sung............
The Oakland A’s are making an offer to buy out the controlling rights to the stadium complex where they already are. This sounds pretty cool, except that it would be a massive transfer of existing wealth and development potential from taxpayers to the A’s..........
Because Montreal ‘deserves’ a baseball team??..........
SEC Baseball teams are going wireless...........
If you have enough time, go read this editorial by our SBN mothership editorial writing editorial guy, Marc Normandin. And while you read this, keep in mind that SBN pays Marc Normandin out of proceeds generated by advertising revenue generated by people like us who make far less than minimum wage for attracting those eyeballs to the ads. I am pointing this out not so that you weep for me. Don’t, because I am quite happy. I am pointing it out so that you get an idea of the magnitude of the hypocrisy going on with some of these opinions. Take, for example, these sentences: “If an independent league cannot afford to pay even minimum wage to its players, then they shouldn’t be in operation. They’re a failing business propped up solely by the exploitation of their workers, and if that’s the only way they can exist in the world, then they should cease to be.” In this context, Normandin is certainly exploiting our fearless leader..........
The same Federal spending bill that LOWERS MiLB player pay, ends up RAISING Independent League player pay, which will probably cause some such leagues to fold. So does this mean there is no such thing as “semi-pro” anymore?.........
Ballpark Food Porn:.....I could link you to these all day. But instead of dribbling them out day after day after day, let’s just do one gut dump of the easiest to round up, all for one ballpark food orgy.....The Best New MLB Ballpark Food for Opening Day 2018.....Ranking the 10 craziest ballpark foods for the 2018 MLB season.....2018 MLB Food Preview: Tasty Items Set for Ballpark Menus.....The Rangers, Reds and Braves unveiled new food that is mostly fried and completely delicious.....Minute Maid Park revealed some delicious new and enhanced ballpark food items for 2018.....Momocho Nachos named America’s best stadium food!.....The Best New MLB Ballpark Food For Opening Day 2018.....Comerica Park Reveals Its Next Wild Lineup of Ballpark Foods for Tigers Fans.....Hot Chicken Tacos and Pulled Pork Pierogies: Ballpark Food Is Getting a Serious Upgrade This Year.....Ranking the 10 craziest ballpark foods for the 2018 MLB season.....Chicken sandwich as big as a Frisbee is just one of the new gut-busters at Texas Rangers ballpark this year.....The Rangers’ new pickle dog will either make you drool or recoil in fear..........
Those of you who were around several years ago know that I had a soft spot in my gut for craft beer. And I always like to promote better beers and better selections as part of stadium fare. I keep it in check out of respect for Nick Adenhart. Putting players faces on beer cups as a collector thing that could only encourage sales and attract the attention of younger fans falls right there on the borderline with me. Your mileage may vary...........
Hot Stove
One ancient Halo is still surviving. After seeing John Lackey, Mike Napoli, Erick Aybar and Frankie Rodriguez hit the news with a pink slip notice (guys who now need to think about retirement counseling), Peter Bourjos lands a one-year deal with the Braves.............
Money keeps trying to move towards youth. We already linked to the deal that the Phillies swing with Scott Kingery. Yesterday, even as Chase C. Kimura and I were predicting this as a trend the Diamondbacks extended Ketel Marte..........Apparently, the Braves tried to pull a similar extension with Ronald Acuna as well, but Acuna said no. At a minimum, the complaining about manipulating Acuna’s service time are now invalid. If the story is true, the Braves were willing to pay huge for the years that Acuna will now be stuck within the arb process..........I want to add these figures that MLB franchises are offering the players to the numbers actually being totaled for FA’s this year. Because I think it will surprise many who think that MLB went uber cheap this year. They cut back, but if my math is right this was the 4th highest amount of money that MLB franchises committed to players this decade............
The Duffle Bag
Good on the White Sox. I wonder what, or if, other teams do of equal social quality? I’d be delighted to share.............Tebow Time! Hey, pay no attention to how Tebow blew chunks in ST. He’s gotten himself a promotion to AA!..........Dusty Baker has made it back to the Giants, toothpick and all...........Kate Upton will probably now get free meals in Houston for life............Albert Belle, making headlines once again...........Hey, it’s ST. The last days. Have some fun with it, guys..........This is why we need our old California Angels unis back. Because everybody dresses alike now..........Poor Vladdie, Jr. I’ll put an ice cream machine in the LAA clubhouse just for you. I’ll pay for it myself. I promise. All you gotta do is come play for us..........The season starts the day after tomorrow. These guys are still dribbling out their preseason previews. As of this writing, only 4 of the 6 divisions have been covered. At this pace, the AL West will get “previewed” in May..........Ken Rosenthal is back..........