The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim made a move Saturday that was much more interesting than it was significant. They put reliever Kevin Jepsen on the disabled list and called up a Double-A pitcher to replace him.
That’s not weird in and of itself, but you start to scratch your head when you consider that, going into Saturday night’s game, Michael Roth had thrown 27 professional innings, only five of which came above rookie ball. It gets a little weirder: Roth has only marginal control and breaking stuff, and his fastball is best described as “pedestrian,” not because it’s mediocre but because it travels from his hand to home plate at a brisk walking pace.
The last time I saw Roth pitch before his major league debut, he was appearing in relief in a WBC qualifier for Great Britain, getting the piss beaten out of him by Canada's B-team in front of a few hundred fans in Germany. There are pitching prospects you rush from college to the majors, but Michael Roth is not one of them.
I’m extremely interested in this move for two reasons: (1) It makes no sense from a baseball perspective, and (2) Michael Roth is my favorite baseball player of all time.
By Chris Ryan at
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On this week's edition of the Triangle Podcast, Mays and I talked with Zach Lowe about the Cavs (woof), the Nuggets (yes), and the Grizzlies (yes!). Kirk Goldsberry stopped by in-studio to talk about Carmelo Anthony's incredible season (you can read more about that here) and spatial analytics. Mays and I chatted a bit about the Final Four, and which tournament players we thought could be decent in the NBA. Finally, Jonah Keri called in to talk about the young MLB season, focusing on the Marlins, the Angels, the Nats-Reds series, and the sad fall of Roy Halladay.
There's a shared problem out west as the Giants and Angels meet in this week's interleague series, and it has to do with juggernauts and shadows. Both teams are heading into the All-Star break with wild-card aspirations, and both are facing a miserable climb to take down the entrenched rivals at the top of their divisions — the Rangers and Dodgers.
On Monday night, Matt Cain pinballed through five innings in his first start since the perfect game last Wednesday, and the Giants managed a 5-3 win. The next two nights, with Wilson-Zito and Weaver-Vogelsong duels, promise to be just as interesting. But does either team have the tools to pull off a West Coast coup and unseat the ruling powers? Let's run the numbers.
Here’s your Friday baseball news long toss covering stories on and off the field.
According to ESPN's Jayson Stark, baseball officials are twisting themselves into knots over the long, languid, Darwinian regular season possibly ending with a three-team demolition derby in the American League wild card race. If the Rays, Red Sox and Angels wind up honors-even at the end of the season, we could see an unprecedented three-team playoff. The Angels lost on Thursday, so this scenario seems unlikely. But the possible match-ups and rules governing said match-ups are so fantastically complex and convoluted, you almost want to see it happen, just for the schadenfreude.
Here’s your Wednesday baseball news long toss covering stories on and off the field.
The Brewers have perhaps lost a little of the SWAT Team swagger, have lost five of their last seven games. And while Tony La Russa will make sure the Cardinals won't make up ground in the National League Central standings, the last thing the Milwaukee really need is any clubhouse chemistry problems. Enter recently acquired Francisco Rodriguez, humming a My Chemical Romance classic and trying to get used to being the set-up man, rather than the closer. He told CBS Sports, "I'm not fine. They told me I'd have the opportunity to close some games, and we've had 20-some save opportunities since then and I haven't even had one."
Here’s your Wednesday baseball news long toss covering stories on and off the field.
Is the 2012 season shaping up to be Torii Hunter's version of The Black Album? The Angel in the outfield (self high-five) is quasi-threatening to hang up his cleats after his contract expires. In lieu of a contract extension offer from Anaheim, the 36-year-old veteran doesn't sound like he wants to play anywhere else. At the very least, the one place you won't see Hunter is on the East Coast. "I really don't like the Beasts of the East," he said. "I really don't want to be the Evil Empire, because I didn't like them for so long."
Here’s your Thursday baseball news long toss to get you warmed up for the weekend.
It’s been a season to forget for the Chicago Cubs. Well, it’s been a season to take out in the yard, bury in the ground, and solemnly read Ecclesiastes 3:1 over, all while an absent-minded Starlin Castro stares off into the yard next door. But for whatever problems the Cubs have had on the field, they appear to still be an attractive destination for some of the biggest names and brightest minds in front-office management. Ever since firing Jim Hendry, marquee names such as Brian Cashman, Pat Gillick, Theo Epstein, and Andrew Friedman have been mentioned as possible replacements. And now there's speculation that Bay Area walks fetishist Billy Beane might be in the mix, as well. Reports suggest that Beane’s future in Oakland is directly tied to whether the A’s get a new park in San Jose.
