disarcina

well, they've got the 30 day DL that then gets extended 45 days.... he's gotta make it to Sept. 1.

I don't see this deal as any sort of precursor -- in fact - in the off chance we might have made a run at Cespedes -- I don't see anything close to that happening now. remember, this is Stoneman back at the helm -- small steps. DiPoto might have made a splash going for a guy like Cespedes and trying to extend him - but not Stoneman and not now. Stoneman in addition to being the Stoneman we all know (cautious) is also an interim short-timer which makes him even more cautious with any long term acquisition. the shelf-life of any of Stoney's player additions is likely to be through September (hopefully, October), 2015. I can see us picking up some stretch run pitching help, perhaps a starter and/or pen guy bumping someone to long relief (or as insurance for Weaver who pitches this week in a Class A rehab assignment ).

Victorino is a good rental for us. Joyce will be placed on 45 day DL (instead of getting DFA'd) and Victorino will be an upgrade. Joyce will be off the DL about Sept. 1 just in time for the rosters to expand to 40 and, that's why he avoid getting DFA'd I don't see Victorino being anything more than a rental but then, what did we give up? Rutledge, a guy who was supposed to be our staring 2B this year and never made the roster out of ST -- got out played by Giavoetlla in ST and then ran into the Rule 5 thing with Featherston........I don't think Rutledge has been called up for even one game with the Halos this year. Hopefully he can at least stick on the BoSox roster and perhaps play some 3B when the Penguin goes down (or can't play the field well -- which is often). I like this deal -- not a blockbuster, obviously, but helps us -- good old Stoney.

yeah, it's not Sept. 1 yet, I guess...... interesting that Texas had Wandy Rodriguez coming on to mop up for Texas in the 8th -- Wandy R. was a pretty decent starter for Houston in the past and actually had some good starts for Texas this year -- now he's the long relief mop up guy.......WOW!!

LOU -- thanks for correcting my dumb mistakes here -- you better stop now unless you want to be doing that full time !!! LOL!!

yeah -- my bad -- was watching the game with the sound off doing other things (it was 12-4 or something at that point) when they showed the replay -- I thought it was later in the game. and, actually, I know he had the two HRs and could try for three - but was sort of surprised he came up that last time up with the score 11 to 4 or whatever it was.......

didn't see this until late -- my e-mail/ internet has been down the past few days -- couldn't have made it but pleased to see the nice set up in a Suite -- thanks CLAUDE!! and thanks CHUCK - Angelswin.com - another great event.........glad folks will be down there enjoying the stretch run games........by August 8th we should have an additional bat in the line up -- not sure who it would be -- the guy I'd like to see (but no chance) is Cespedes.......sign him and then extend him. still think the A's made a huge mistake trading him for renting Lester..........

why was Trout still in the game at that point????????

St. Louis fans are great baseball fans. Albert had it right but sort of wish that he would have said St. Louis fans are amongst the best in baseball, not THE BEST. But, it's hard to complain when he's right. Cardinals fans felt (rightfully) that Pujols should have remained a Cardinal for life and hit the milestone numbers (No. 500 and upcoming No. 600) in a Cardinals uniform. St. Louis adores its players and loved Albert -- they were seriously disappointed when Albert left for the Angels..........however, the Cardinals pretty much made their decision about Albert when they signed Holliday to that huge contract the year before Albert's contract was up.........there was no way, the notoriously (somewhat) cheap St. Louis front office was going to be able to give Holliday all that money AND extend Albert and then have some payroll space left for starting pitching. I agree with the prior post that the second St. Louis 'we'll UP our offer to match the Angels (which it didn't)" was a face saving move by the front office -- more to placate the fans and keep them off the front office tails and designed to do what it did -- get the fans upset with Albert and not the front office. Ironically, the signing paid off for both teams -- the Cardinals went on to get Wacha and another very good pick with the draft picks they got from the Angels -- and they were able to sign and keep other players and really didn't miss a beat with Albert gone. Albert got off to a slow start with the Halos (but folks seem to forget that Pujols still put up decent numbers despite the slow start -- the numbers were OK but came in the second half that year after the Halos were pretty much out of it) -- but his signing, to this date, marked an important acquisition/ free agent signing by Arte Moreno's ownership team. Of course, Albert now with Trout hitting before him sees all sorts of good pitches and is back to putting up his St. Louis day type numbers.......Trout at 30 and Pujols at 29 HRs each are on track to hit 40 to 45 HRs this year........the old M and M boys have nothing on them..........(Mantle and Maris for the youngsters in the crowd).

that being said, getting a rental bat (not quite the player of Cespedes caliber but not as expensive either) that's available on the trade market at deadline time (Victorino? Jay Bruce?) probably makes more sense and wouldn't necessarily (or shouldn't) cost us top prospects.

I don't think you can get Price and Cespedes together. of those two right now - I'd trade some pretty good prospects to land Cespedes and try to extend his contract. I have always liked Cespedes and have not quite understood why Billy Beane made such a non-Billy Beane type deadline deal to trade him away from the A's for Lester. The A's , I guess, figured they'd ultimately lose Cespedes and could not afford to re-sign him -- but the A's that year were playing great ball and just did a total collapse after Cespedes left the line up. At the time I felt that perhaps Cespedes was about to get named in one of MLB's investigations or something because that trade made no sense to me otherwise. Now, a few years later, Cespedes has performed where ever he's been -- and how about an outfield of Cespedes, Trout and Calhoun ??? I'd be willing to give up some prospects to make that happen -- but a contract extension for Cespedes would have to be pretty much in place before I'd seal the deal.

well, the only thing I would complain about Terry Smith being on the TV broadcast is that it means Roger Lodge is doing play by play on the radio site -- now that has to be a nightmare!!! Glad I missed that. As for Terry Smith, I think he's fine on the radio and enjoyed him doing the TV broadcast in Victor Rojas' absence. Look, we had Phyz and Hud on the TV broadcast for years -- now I didn't mind them and would have been OK with keeping them around -- but have to admit -- Victor Rojas has been an upgrade. Oh course, Phyz and Hud are now in KC and things seem to be going pretty well for that franchise. Lot of mentions here of Bob Starr -- yeah, he was good (did LA Rams broadcasts as well, of course, Starr also did some Boston Red Sox pbp way back) -- I liked it when the vet pbp guy Starr was teamed with the up and comer Mario Impemba -- that didn't last long due to Starr's untimely death -- but was a good combo while it lasted. Al Conin?? He was pretty weak (and I liked most announcers).......Conin, apparently, is out of the broadcast biz and still around living in S. Cal -- saw a letter to the editor (I think it was LA Times sports pages) that he wrote a few years back commenting on something..............might have been ten years ago when I saw that -- time flies. Enberg going strong in San Diego........perhaps the fact his home is in La Jolla sealed the deal (and Enberg joined the broadcast team there before Jerry Coleman left the broadcast team, although Coleman's work load was cut way down after he turned 80).......but the Halos really missed a beat when they didn't even try to lure him back -- at least for home games. Saw Enberg in Spring Training (we had seats at Peoria Ballpark near the press box) when he walked past to get to the booth -- he looks good -- has to be 75 or so now.

and Vladdy is wearing a Halos cap!!!

Halos on a roll and then - the All Star Break --- bad time for a break -- Halos were rolling in a way where you can't wait for the next game. Halos just three weeks ago were a team idling at just above and right at .500 -- they go a on a run, and in the weak AL West find themselves in first place (by a half game, but we'll take it) -- and most importantly TWO games up on Houston in the all important LOSS column (Houston has played three games more than we have and the Astros have TWO more losses than we do). First place. Nice ring to it. Now Stoneman needs to out a get us an OF bat at deadline time to make the stretch run........ First half positives --- the rotation -- the starting pitching (Santiago for one) have exceeded expectations.

Marlin Perkins -- Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom -- would have been all over the National Geographic and Animal Planet cable channels today --- in fact, thinking of that, does any cable channel run any of those old Wild Kingdom shows ? They were just classic. Marlin : "and here's JIM FOWLER almost getting eaten by a Bengal Tiger, Watch out JIM !"

Angel Oracle said it as well as it can be said: Featherston isn't McDonald. Last season I went from wondering why the guy even got an ST invite to being very impressed with John McDonald last year. His first half of the season defensively (and for the first two months of the season he actually contributed a bit offensively as well -- I also remember him being called upon to advance a runner in the late innings and laid down a perfect bunt nearly every single time) -- he was a great glove out there at 3B, 2B and even some SS -- he tailed off at the plate the second half of the season to get to the point by July/ August that he was pretty much an automatic out at the plate. But McDonald was a huge reason as a utility MIF as to why the Halos in 2014 DID NOT replicate their 2012/13 terrible season starts (April-May records) which got the team so deep in the hole, they could not dig out and get back into the race. Featherston isn't doing anything close to that -- although he did have that game winning hit the last home stand (which was Featherston's first home game hit of the season at nearly the Game 81 mark!) .....I'll say it again, keeping Featherston as a Rule V guy was a mistake but might as well keep him now that it's almost mid-July. Perhaps we can hope he turns it around the way Kolten Wong has done in St. Louis....... as to the question what sort of utility MIF do you want: an offensive oriented player or a defensive whiz.........I side on the defensive side first, priority on the glove combined with some speed so the player can PR in the late innings as well as play defense -- and, like McDonald did last year -- I want a guy that get up at the plate and lay down that sacrifice on the first pitch to move the runner(s) over.

top five in framing pitches for the team's staff 1. YADIER 2. YADIER 3. YADIER 4, YADIER 5. BUSTER

but now it's July and almost mid-July (time flies) and you're about a month and a half from expand the rosters time -- and you've kept the guy on the roster this long so.............

ELEVEN -- 'and for that (Rule V) we keep him on the 25 man roster all year/" EXACTLY -- been saying that since Opening Day. back in the day when players stayed with one team for seven to ten years, it might make sense to keep a guy (even one like Featherston) on the roster because 'he's a Rule V guy' and 'we don't want to lose him' but today - with player shelf life with one team three to four years and even less for utility or back up MIF's like Featherston -- why in the world would you essentially give up a roster spot ALL SEASON for a guy who may get 75 ABs and play in about 50 games, if that? and PLUS -- really isn' t the heir apparent starter for 2016 at either SS or 2B. ELEVEN - I'm with you on this one.........

either the tension is relieved or last weekend's fireworks at the clubhouse 'scouting issues' meeting featuring DiPoto had the side effect of firing up the team........... perhaps a combination of both --- either way, we'll take it. sweep on the road couldn't have happened at a better time.

if that was announced today that Pujols is starting in place of the injured Miguel Cabrera -- that's a great call by MLB and I assume by Ned Yost. the game is in Cincy but there's a lot of KC players (fewer than we thought just a week ago -- and it's a good thing for MLB because if six or seven KC players made it -- it would have made even more of a mockery of the ASG -- as it is, at least TWO of the KC players voted in really deserve to be there -- Perez at C and Cain OF and then Gordon OF (probably shouldn't be a starter but plausible) and then there's the SS - Escobar -- no way-- as for Pujols -- where's he from??? KC !!

sounds like Hatcher may have Rico Brogna's job pretty soon..........

I guess my position is the minority view here -- I like Arte, Scoiscia and Coors Light........... (now some smart aleck poster will say -- 'of course, that combo goes together')

this type of purge is just classic stuff -- whether it comes from the Kremlin, the Administration in DC or any employment situation with internal politics. the DiPoto guys are being moved either down the organization chart or off it........ the person in charge -- whoever it is -- apparently it's Scioscia here -- needs everyone on the same page. DiPoto and Scioscia never were. It's that simple. I think all the forecasting of doom here (and in the media -- Plaschke's column the other day blasting the Halos and Arte in particular was a bit over the top IMO). In the midst of all this stuff, being over-looked is the relative success of the Halos starting rotation this year which was supposed to be questionable and reason why they wouldn't be able to contend.......even with Weaver out, folks like Santiago have really exceeded expectations and now if Heaney can repeat his prior start, the rotation looks pretty good heading into the second half when a recovered Weaver is expected back........the relative success of the Halos' rotation makes it even worse that we are still chasing the Astros at the ASG break. this next week in MLB will be interesting -- may be a week that decides pretty much who are buyers and who are sellers at deadline time.

criticism of Scioscia -- I like Scioscia -- but my ongoing criticism of him is that he tends to be a formula manager -- doing the same thing with the same guys day in and day out -- especially the pitching. Smith comes in for the 8th, Street for the 9th -- this guy for the 6th maybe 7th........... But that type of formula managing (In what used to be known as chick-speak for those who remember and miss chick hearn, lakers announcer ) is 'no think' managerial style. and it is prevalent throughout MLB today -- so if you're going to blast Scioscia for it, blast about 28 other managers (there might be one not managing this year -- not sure though, Tony LaRussa is long gone-- although a front office guy for the D-Backs)........ I think you should mix it up and keep the other side guessing at all times......why can't Street come in for a two inning save or Smith for that matter.......why can't one of the other Angel pen guys come in for the save in selected match ups -- I think some of this was part of the DiPoto-Scioscia style difference issues.......