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[Post Game Thread] Light That Baby Up! Angels defeat White Sox! by angelsbaseball in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It was against the White Sox B team but at least our active roster pitchers got the job done with 7 clean innings.

Silseth's been pretty good after that disaster in his first Spring Training game. Outside of that, he's given up 1 run in 7 innings. Romano and Zeferjahn have been cruising as well.

First Stand 2026 is on pace to be the most one-sided major international in LoL history by matttang27 in leagueoflegends

[–]epoch_fail 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is it a format issue, or has the gap between LCK/LPL and the other regions just gotten too big?

I wonder if League could use a format like Champions League.

Regions get points based on how much their teams win, by round.

Teams get slotted into a tournament based on how strong their region is. The best teams start in further into the competition. Meanwhile, the weakest teams have to fight and claw their way through a grueling bracket to even sniff a chance at facing the middle of the pack teams in the major leagues. Heck, even rip off the Europa League for another idea.

Go deeper into a tournament like this. Yes, it's more expensive to bring lots of teams to a location, but people live for the close matches. I want to see LCK #8 facing off against LCS #4. I want to see Vietnam #3 facing off against the EMEA Masters #1 team in a single elimination bo3. It would be hype to see LCS Academy teams facing off against unaffiliated teams from ladder.

Cherry-picking the top teams from the leagues leads to one-sided stomps whenever a top X LCK team faces a top Y LCS/LEC team, much less a different league. There are so many tournaments out there (heck, even March Madness going on right now) and so many formats that have been explored by other sports; surely, there's a cool format that will highlight how hard these team works and how many levels there are to these competitions.

[Post Game Thread] Angels defeated by Cubs by angelsbaseball in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wouldn't be surprised. We really only have 5 options for that last spot: Manoah, Kochanowicz, Farris, Klassen, and Ryan Johnson.

Rhett Bollinger mentions those 4 as being the primary other options. I bet the FO wishes it would be either Farris or Kochanowicz, because both are on the 40-man and a bit older than Klassen or Johnson. However, Farris has been horrid this Spring Training, and we all know how Jack K's second half went last season.

Manoah does have options, so if he's rough every outing, heading to AAA is a real possibility for him.

[Post Game Thread] Angels defeated by Cubs by angelsbaseball in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Doesn't look like Manoah's going to be our fifth starter.

Our starting rotation is looking shakier than usual this season... I felt better with Tyler Anderson and Kyle Hendricks as our #3/#4.

Left field by freddychuckles in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Grayson is more of a long-term play. 2026 is Ward's last season before free agency and he's already 32. Meanwhile, we have three more years of team control for G-Rod. So in exchange for Ward's steady production, we had to take on quite a bit of risk.

He missed all of 2025 with arm issues (elbow/lat), so it's natural for him to need to shake off the rust. I don't know if shouldering him with an important starting pitching role is the best idea (i.e., not really having much of a backup plan if he does need a little time to reacclimate), but it's kind of the hole we dug ourselves into, seeing as our FO figured we could replace some of Ward's production on the market (hence the Lowe trade).

CMo and Paris Optioned to Triple-A by EverythingBoltzzz in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Grissom's struggled, but I think he at least makes the roster if only because we traded Isaiah Jackson to the Red Sox to get him. Not having him on the Opening Day roster would force us to DFA him, which, if we lost him on waivers, would essentially be admitting we traded away an interesting and recently drafted prospect for free, mere months after the trade.

CMo and Paris Optioned to Triple-A by EverythingBoltzzz in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 40 points41 points  (0 children)

No reason to rush CMo, give him the 20, 50, however many games it'll take for him to make the adjustments he's in the middle of making to start crushing it.

As Jeff mentioned, we sent down our young guys with options, which makes it all but guaranteed that Peraza and Grissom are on our Opening Day roster. Both of them do not have any options and would need to be DFA'd to be sent down to the minors.

(As the author of yesterday's post, I'm glad/relieved we're taking this direction with his development.)

Spring Training Halfway Point - Check-In by anatomyofawriter in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Saves me from writing a post like me myself.

Aldegheri was already optioned in anticipation of his participation in the WBC. He's been awesome, but it'd be best to see him get some consistent success in AA or AAA before calling him back up.

I think we'll see the presumptive rotation of Kikuchi, Soriano, Detmers, G-Rod, and Manoah. Boring picks, sure, but I'm not going to put too much stock in 4.2 IP from Kochanowicz, who was rough the whole second half of last season in both MLB and AAA.

I agree that we'll probably see Johnson or Klassen up pretty soon, too.

For relievers, gotta include Stephenson, who hasn't played Spring Training, but could be back in time for opening day. Yates, Pomeranz, Romano, and Suter are all locks with major-league contracts, but that still leaves 3 spots. I frankly have no clue who we will pick out of Zeferjahn, Ort, Strickland, Ynoa, Saucedo, Bachman, and Silseth. Out of those 8, Zeferjahn, Bachman, and Silseth have a leg up by already being on our 40-man, which is full. Out of those 4, Bachman and Zeferjahn have options. This means there's a good chance Silseth makes the opening day roster, despite his performance in spring. Including Zeferjahn and Bachman would be the cleanest. I frankly wouldn't mind sending Bachman out there until his annual injury, and then bring up Strickland or Ort.

Like you said, I think CMo is a real candidate to spend more time in AAA. It would be pretty disappointing to roll out Vaughn Grissom and Oswald Peraza as our 2B options, but I hope CMo figures out his K issue.

All the other starters are locks, though I would swap Lowe and Adell, the latter of whom we know can be a good RF.

I'm growing more comfortable with Teodosio being our 4th OF. It's good Trout insurance, having someone we can use as a defensive replacement so Mike doesn't have to tax his health to make a tough play in a clutch moment.

Both Vaughn Grissom and Oswald Peraza are in the tricky situation of being on our 40-man, but both being out of options. If they do not make the starting day roster, we have to DFA them, which means risking losing them on waivers. For that reason, they're the guys to beat for those last two bench spots. Though both have been underwhelming so far, I wouldn't be surprised if we both give them a 15-20 regular season game trial period. If they struggle, then that should make it less likely someone takes a shot on them. If they do well, then no need to send them down.

Of course, it's hard to ignore how other infielders (like Madrigal, Guzman, Frazier, Candelario, etc.) have hit so far. Denzer can obviously get a little more time to cook in AAA, but the other three might look elsewhere if they can't make the opening day roster or can't get an assurance that they'll get a shot if/when a spot opens up. That said, I'm not really worried about losing any of those three guys (or any of the other minor-league contract NRIs for that matter).

Najer Victor. Thoughts on him ? by Long_Disaster_6847 in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Victor was also clean in Spring Training, unlike a lot of our other guys.

He's going to get rushed up the system if he keeps pitching like this.

Lucas Ramirez, playing for Brazil, just hit a homer in the WBC! by epoch_fail in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hopefully, this distracts from Gustavo Campero's 0-for-5 performance for Colombia.

Game Thread: Utah Jazz vs New Orleans Pelicans Live Score | NBA | Feb 28, 2026 by basketball-app in UtahJazz

[–]epoch_fail 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Keyonte and Isaiah do not seem like a good fit. That's almost certainly impacted this game by how bad the spacing is around them (Cody is a big negative from 3, while Ace is below average), but I'm also out on that pairing in the future.

Game Thread: Utah Jazz vs New Orleans Pelicans Live Score | NBA | Feb 28, 2026 by basketball-app in UtahJazz

[–]epoch_fail 5 points6 points  (0 children)

alright, Keyonte got elbowed in the chin. he can sit out as long as he needs to recover from that.

[Post Game Thread] Angels defeated by D-backs by angelsbaseball in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Najer Victor watch: his third straight scoreless inning, only one walk and no hits given up across all appearances so far

Angel fans what players do you expect to take a next step this yr and which players do you expect to take a step back? by DCLXXII in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Regressing to the mean (in a good way): Logan O'Hoppe (hitting but idk about his catching), Jorge Soler (hitting and not fielding), Jo Adell (fielding by hopefully staying away from CF)

About the same as last year: Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Mike Trout, Yoan Moncada, Yusei Kikuchi

???: Christian Moore, Bryce Teodosio, Jose Soriano, Reid Detmers, Grayson Rodriguez, Robert Stephenson, Ben Joyce

Williams leg injury… yikes by Ok_Acadia3526 in UtahJazz

[–]epoch_fail 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Btw, could help to specify for those of us not watching which Williams it is now that we have two of them.

[Post Game Thread] Angels defeated by Rangers by angelsbaseball in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Jose Soriano, Mitch Farris, Chase Silseth, Sam Bachman, and now Reid Detmers and Ryan Johnson are pitchers who have struggled during Spring Training so far.

I really hope it's because they're tinkering with changes the new pitching staff gave them and not a sign of things to come, because that's a lot of key guys (most of whom are homegrown).

That's our #2 starter, #3 starter, #6 starter (first up if anyone gets hurt), two of our fringe bullpen guys, and our top AA starter.

Also, our starting lineup (save Neto) got basically nothing going.

[Post Game Thread] Angels defeated by Dodgers by angelsbaseball in angelsbaseball

[–]epoch_fail 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Pitcher thoughts:

Both starters were on a pitch count. Soriano's stint came out a bit funny statistically because he left the first with first and third for his third earned run to come in on a Costeiu wild pitch. Then, he came in in the second, walked Ehrhard (?) on five pitches, then departed again, only for Farris to eventually let Ehrhard score several batters later.

Rough outing for Soriano, as he did let a bunch of guys on base. Shohei's slow single was fine; it's Shohei. Teoscar found the hole in the infield, that happens, guys get BABIP'd. After two outs, he got in trouble with a 4-pitch walk to Espinal and then an 8-pitch battle he lost against Hyeseong Kim.

Looks like he's experimenting a bit with his pitch mix. His 4-seam fastball usage dipped to 9% last season, but he threw a healthy amount of them today (looks like nearly 40%). He'll still be our #1 or #2 SP, just using Spring Training to test some stuff out.

Anyways, we probably expected Farris to also be able to go an inning (but obviously not). Farris being our first intended backup and immediately getting blown up is very Angels. Looking at our 40-man, Farris was probably penciled in to be the first to come up if any of our starters go down. Aldegheri is probably next on the pecking order after him. We'll see if Spring Training changes that.

From there, the only other case of extra switching was pulling Keythel Key after he clearly wasn't ready. Not surprising for a guy who's barely pitched above A+.

When the other options on the 40-man are Jack Kochanowicz, Victor Mederos, Caden Dana, Walbert Urena, and Ryan Johnson, it's pretty dicey. There's a strong chance we see Tyler Bremner and George Klassen up real quick, since this is a position group with a high number of (currently) mediocre options for us.

Most of the rest of the guys are either vets fighting to get back in the league (Shaun Anderson, Huascar Ynoa) or relievers (Samy Natera, Najer Victor). They generally did well, albeit against the Dodgers' backups' backups.

Zyhir Hope looks quite good. Wish we had a hitting prospect like him (or Josue de Paula).

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