Angels links: Joe Maddon, Albert Pujols, ‘Pollo grande’

The hometown of Angels manager Joe Maddon has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and he enlisted Albert Pujols and a few former players for help.

Hazelton, Penn. reportedly had 1,000 test positive for coronavirus in a city that contains roughly 25,000, the majority of whom speak Spanish, per Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times.

A childhood friend and former mayor of Hazelton reached out to Maddon, per Torres, and the Angels manager got Pujols, Carlos Peña, and Tino Martinez to record segments for a public service announcement to encourage social distancing in the city.

You can watch the video here.

From Torres:

“This is one of those things when people ask you right now, you don’t take your time,” Maddon said. “You see when you’re able to reverse course with this virus, how impactful it can be, so you don’t wait.

“We needed to have folks understand this is no joke. … I don’t think it was really well defined in the beginning why. It’s not necessarily that you’re gonna die. It’s just the fact that somebody else may by being cavalier in how we go about our business.”

Links

Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic tells the story of the time a giant ostrich entered the Angels spring training clubhouse in Tempe, Ariz.

Dan Szymborski at FanGraphs took a stab at projecting the standings of a potential truncated 2020 season split into the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues. The Angels getting out of a division with the Astros helps a bit, as they have a 29.4-percent chance of making the playoffs in such a scenario using Szymborski’s ZiPS system.

MLB.com has shifted over to picking the best third baseman in Angels history. Rhett Bollinger offers his opinion on candidates Doug DeCinces, Chone Figgins, and Troy Glaus.

Let’s check in with former Angels pitcher Dan Haren to see how he’s doing: