disarcina

OPENING DAY -- 161 games to go and fans flee the park from an extra innings game????? I thought we played at Chavez Latrine a few days ago -- not today.

just got home to catch the 9th inning and now extra innings---- for those watching the entire game -- I assume the stands were not THAT empty at the start of the game. GEEZ - if Oakland can't fill the place on OPENING DAY -- then that franchise is really in trouble.

when I heard this about the sewer stench (game wasn't on tv last night in my area - blacked out on MLB channel - I just knew this board would be full of Chavez Latrine references......

do you think he will ever see the SHOW? and, yeah, trade him now while there might be SOME value......... again -- how much did we spend/ waste signing this guy? for the amount involved, is it a deal where it's a personal services contract and we'll see him taking tickets at the Big A when he's 34 years old ?

well, yeah, Colon could EAT innings and probably a lot of other stuff.

any reason given for doing this -- there seems to be a sort of a trend here. an area weekly paper recently shut down their 'comments' section on articles. they explained that the 'on line' comment/ chat section full of anonymous posters was just getting too toxic content wise to maintain.

Nolasco and perhaps Colon will be picked up at some point. for their ability to eat innings alone -- some starter will go down (perhaps SF Giants have already called them) and the team will need a rotation guy to eat some innings. notice I did not say WIN games -- Eat Innings.

always liked Peter Bourjos -- hope he catches on. he's played several places now - St. Louis, Philadelphia , Baltimore as well? Now Atlanta. issue with Bourjos is that he is sort of a one dimensional player (speed) -- as he gets older and he loses a step with his wheels -- he's pretty much done. always liked his attitude, the way he played the game, the way he covered the OF -- especially in CF..........even if he hit about .225

Kazmir got released? today's LA Times baseball season opener special section had Kazmir listed as a member of the rotation of some NL team - was it Atlanta? I was stunned he was listed in a rotation. Kazmir -- a true mystery or NOT -- since his early days as a Mets prospect phenom and then the blaze out of that phase of his career -- he seems to have a succession of doing just well enough to show the possibility of returning to at least half of the form that placed him atop the list of strikeouts in the AL for about three seasons with Tampa Bay -- to sign successive big contracts only to disappoint : Angels, A's, Dodgers, Braves, etc, any sure I am missing a team or two.......with the Angels he signed that big contract and then seemed to forget completely how to pitch -- and didn't seem to try or to want to learn to hit spots, new pitches etc. he ended up playing for some Independent baseball league team before extracting several more large MLB contracts leading to disappointment...........did have some decent win seasons for Oakland and I think the Dodgers. teams who see his agent come calling should turn the other way and run away fast.............

this is just plain wrong...........these players in minor league ball are already making peanuts. it's amazing these guys go from starvation wages to millions by making the 25 man roster. and then - the new trend in MLB seems to have a real stratified structure where the top stars have multi-million dollar contracts way over the top and others from the 3rd year middle infielder to the bench depth guy make at least the MLB minimum but in recent years seem to have a shorter and shorter shelf life (career) in MLB. so the MLB roster of players is filled with about 50-75 of the elite top players breaking the employers' bank and then the rest of the players who the F/O cobbles together with the money available to field a (hopefully) competitive team.

35th spot? rosters not that expanded until September -- 25th spot obviously.

Marte better with the glove and more versatile than Carter........that tips the balance to Marte's favor over Chris Carter's good Spring with impressive stats and solid ABs. Another factor in Marte''s favor? the glove work (or lack of same) of Pujols, Ohtani and even Valbuena........ Marte can play 1B, 3B, LF and even some other OF positions (probably RF -- not sure if he has the arm for that -- but then, he does play 3B as well - need an arm to play there). Another factor favoring Marte getting the 35th spot -- Chris Carter apparently understood and agreed when he signed/ got the invite -- that Halos might start the season at AAA. I still think Carter is more than a 5-A player at this stage of his career -- and could easily catch on with another MLB team as a 1B/ DH/ PH type -- why he chose the Halos laden down with contracts of Pujols and Valbuena and then the addition of Ohtani -- is not clear to me -- clearly we have more one-dimensional hitters than needed (strange to call Ohtani 'one-dimesnional' but if he's not going to play the field -- and he shouldn't except for pitching -- then he's one dimensional position player) -- Carter would make four of those on one roster..... Me ? Any roster I would put together if I were F/O guy would have NO one dimensional types........I want guys who can run fast and have a decent glove and am willing to sacrifice power to have multi-faceted players -- certainly would not put FOUR DH types on my roster.

he pitched Sundays in Japan. so the thought is he would continue that schedule here -- if he's pitching in the rotation every 6th/ 7th day. another reason for the Halos to pitch him on Sundays ? Boost attendance. Friday/ Saturday games usually sell out. No problem. Sunday games? Not so much. Sunday games with Ohtaini pitching ? Sold out as opposed to regular non-Ohtaini mound start game -- 13,000 (maybe) in rhe stands;

looks like Ohtani makes the opening day roster with Tropeano and Birdwell being told they're being shipped out. I expect a modified plan for Ohtani - he may see some early game action pinch running for Pujols, perhaps starting a 'bull pen' game where Ohtani is scheduled to pitch three innings or be on a strict pitch count.....and may be some relief appearances. perhaps he DH's once a week. I just don't see him starting out playing virtually every day and being the starting pitcher every Sunday like once envisioned.

Tropeano and Birdwell to the minors !! Wow !!! Angels have depth at starting pitching. those guys would make most MLB rotations.

Valbuena not great with the glove -- but he's a streaky hitter and can mash muitiple homers in subsequent games when he gets hot. when he's cold -- well, he's still mediocre (but acceptable) with the glove and then he's cold at the plate.

I expect to see Pujols and Ohtani sort of linked in the early going. Pujols starts at 1B, if he gets on anytime in the fifth inning or after -- and Ohtani is not set to start (pitching rotation) the next day -- Ohanti runs for Puljos and then Valbuena takes over at 1B the rest of the way. The Ohtani could start at AAA or AA debate/ issue (and push back his arbitration / F/A eligibility a year) -- Atlanta has a young prospect OF'er -- Ronald Acuna batting .432 in ST with 4 HRs and 4 SBs in 16 games played. He's probably going to start the season at AAA to delay his F/A status for a year.........let's see if we hear any howling from his agent/ MLBPA about his situation (few outside of Atlanta Braves fans even know who he is). Ohtani may be batting .234 this ST, I think it's more like below the Mendoza line.........a solid candidate to start the season at AA or AAA -- but he probably won't. Pitching -- he definitely IMO is a candidate to spend a month at (preferably AA - better coaching) Arkansas fine tuning his pitches. Oh well, am fairly certain I lose this debate.

Carter has had a good spring. Kind of surprised he chose the Angels ST invite --- am sure he had others with teams not as loaded up at the positions he wants to stick on the 25 man roster at: 1B/ DH and some OF. Angels really should have cut him loose earlier (not because of performance but because he deserves a shot at making some MLB team's opening day roster). I just don't see him doing here in Anaheim. UNLESS OHTANI starts the season at AA or AAA (and folks here say that is not going to happen -- but it probably should). Even with that, it's only a 30-45 day reprieve. Carter must have let the Angels FO know it's ok if he starts the season at SLC as a 5-A player -- I actually think he's still better than that at this point in his career and his solid ST sort of shows that. Miami? They seem to be fielding a team full of 5-A players this year..........

OUCH. There goes the Arkansas Travelers' season.......

I can see all the Japanese media at the Arkansas Travelers press box now.......

AAA? No. If he needs some technique work and fundamentals -- AA ball is the place to be.

and pitching like a hitter.........

Then there's the added bonus that it delays his F?A eligibility by a year. and with the Spring he's had while folks (like the MLBPA) can gripe about that -- keeping Ohtani off the big stage for the opening day/ month makes sense. as for the apparent other gripes "collusion" by the MLBPA about this year's slow F/A signings this off-season. aside from griping, have they really stepped back and taken a good look at the F/A class? as per typical -- some of the top players either go extended late last year and avoided F/A altogether or accepted early deals while others (not so top players except in their and perhaps more so in their agents' minds) passed up extension offers (Moustakas) to their regret. Look at some of the folks they were griping about : Moustaksas, Arrieta etc. Players who are big guys playing corner infield (or OF) who may have seen their best years - perhaps not- but in terms of replacement -- a solid rookie or less expensive (younger) MLB player can put up perhaps 10-15 maybe 25 less ribi's but then you do the math, signing a Moustakas as his orignial asking price makes those 10-15 HRs and 25 more RBI's REALLY expensive. Arrieta ? Any one pay attention to his pitching lines/ stats the past two years -- his best years may be behind him -- a loss in effectiveness the past two years. Why over-pay for that? Why pay for PAST performance UNLESS and then MAYBE (and more often these days NOT) he's a legacy player for your franchise and you want to give the player one last deal (economics of MLB mean fewer and fewer teams will be doing this - giving the big star a huge contract NOW for his declining swan song year -- most of those type deals (Pujols) were long term contracts that stink now but everyone knew at the outset that the final few seasons of that deal were not going to be value for value at the end of the contract.

might be time to re-ignite this thread. see today's LA TImes. Angels brass has to be seriously thinking about this -- giving it some thought unlike some of the 'no way' reaction this suggestion received ten days to two weeks ago. IMO, you leave Ohtani back in Tempe for extended ST and have him join the roster May 1 to May 15. Relive some of the pressure on him. Do a 'soft opening' announcing his joining the roster the same day he's added. No need for opening day usual hype plus all the Ohtani international watch going on -- it's over-whelming enough for Ohtani to make the transition as it is . Folks tend to forget that when Ichiro joined the Seattle Mariners, he already had Japanese League HOF stats. None of this is intended to be a negative comment/ take on Ohtani. More of a concern of a 23 year old kid with out-sized expectations of OTHER's potentially perceived as flopping on the big stage...........it's almost like setting him up for failure unless he just shines out of the box (the way a very accomplished Ichiro did back when). I think Ohtani deserves some protection from all that.......just sayin' I also understand the realities.........but then there's the real life reality and a young athlete with tons of talent and potential. Confidence plays a large role in success.

Angelsjunky raises a good point and a somewhat (at times) painful realization one. The day when you are older than most if not every MLB player. Face it, folks on this board are life-long baseball fans -- as kids, most of us played little league, collected baseball cards, moved up to Babe Ruth/ American Legion type baseball, high school ball, perhaps JC or college ball --and now 'out in the real world' as kids we idolized MLB players, got their autographs - they were larger than life to us. Now we're settled into our own lives and the players on the MLB fields are the age of of kids (or younger) and we're way past their age. they announce the birth dates of some of the players and we've got socks in the sock drawer older than them I mean a guy in the bigs, born in 1998 ?? C'mon. 1998 was not only just yesterday but is 20 or so years AFTER our own high school graduation. So as Angelsjunky points out -- the day of realization comes quick --