LA Angels Thursday Links

Powering towards a 3 day weekend in honor of a true American icon, here are links from around the Angels and baseball universes.

The Angels have hired a new pitching coordinator, Dylan Axelrod. The guy was undefeated with an ERA+ over 150 as a rookie but it is his recent experience working for Peak Performance Project and Driveline that led to the hire. With the recent rash of injuries and under performance by the Angels pitching staff, some new direction seems like a good idea.

Taking a look at Peak Performace Project’s web site, it looks like exactly the type of thing a forward thinking sports organization would pursue.

There continue to be questions of how much the Angels pitching staff has improved. Fangraphs took a look at expected pitch outcomes and found one of our new guys was the unluckiest fastball pitcher in MLB last year and another has an outstanding sinker.

As fallout from the cheating scandals continue, more is being linked. Logan Morrison points to the Astros cheating as far back as 2014 and says several more teams did the same. Yankees and Dodgers fans might want to let those high horses rest a bit.

There was only one player mentioned in the Manfred shredding of Houston: Carlos Beltran. Now the current manager of the Mets his fate is uncertain. Rumors of his stepping down have been floated and the Wilpons are questioning his integrity. Considering they were pals with Bernie Madoff, that’s saying something.

The Josh Donaldson signing has wide reaching effects, as well. The Braves lost his production, the Nationals lost Anthony Rendon. The best is that Texas got neither third baseman.

But this also puts Cleveland into a tougher spot as they might have to really decide to cut payroll OR contend. When guys start getting asked about being traded in Spring Training, that can’t be fun. Even if those questions are asked in my favorite Spring Training park.

What’s also fun is a trip to Spring Training. And here’s some fun stuff to do before and after games.

I’m going to need to ask Vic Rojas about his baseball movie list. Love #1, but #2 is probably my least favorite baseball film. And where’s The Sandlot?

Been catching up on a few movies before baseball starts back up. I’m sure the Aaron Hernandez documentary will be popular. Not baseball, but too big to be ignored.

Hope you enjoyed the links. Please add more.