mike-trout Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Who’s more exciting: Shohei Ohtani or Elly De La Cruz?
This is not an argument about who’s the better player: Shohei Ohtani, or Elly De La Cruz. Ohtani is probably the best two-way player in baseball history, and De La Cruz has 55 games to his name. The discussion is about excitement, about who’s highlight you’re watching first, about throwing a complet...
Whether it’s stupidity or insanity, the Los Angeles Angels aren’t trading Shohei Ohtani
The Los Angeles Angels are as much in Los Angeles as they are in the running to re-sign Shohei Ohtani when he hits free agency this winter, and he will hit free agency, because he’s not getting traded. As much as I love throwing a bucket of ice water on the midseason hot stove, I say this for more t...
The Orioles need to trade for Shohei Ohtani, and Christian Pulisic in Milan
Sure, it’s completely ridiculous. But being a baseball fan is about being ridiculous and, before owners crushed our spirits, discussing trades used to be the most fun part. Are the Angels going to admit that thanks to Mike Trout’s injury on top of all their others that it’s probably over for them? N...
Well, that’ll about do it for the Angels
There was always a Hail Mary aspect to this Anaheim Angels season. It’s been as close to a foregone conclusion that Shohei Ohtani is tail lights after this season, thanks to the Angels’ lack of success, perceived incompetence, and the $700 million that the team up I-5 is almost certainly readying fo...
The Angels need to do everyone a favor and free Shohei Ohtani
I’m probably the last person to discover that Shohei Ohtani is a Skrull. How else can anyone explain the Angels’ shapeshifting MVP? He’s simultaneously leading the league in smashing balls into orbit and the next he’s striking out batters at a more prolific pace than all but three pitchers while kee...
8 Cy Young winners taking the mound on MLB Opening Day
It’s the most wonderful day of the year for baseball fans. Well, it’s one of them I guess — Opening Day! After the World Baseball Classic, the real fun begins, right Keith Olbermann? All 30 teams will have 161 games to go in the regular season after Thursday, with eight former Cy Young winners throw...
The fans Rob Manfred is trying to service are prudes
This year’s MLB Opening Day feels different than recent iterations because the media doesn’t have (most of) its usual talking points to complain about. The rule changes are going to shorten the games, discontinue the dialog about shifts, and provide baserunners with throw pillows to slide into. Yay!...
Connor McDavid isn’t going to get a better chance
Every generationally great player, or every player that can safely say they’re one of the five best of all time, eventually bores the public with their greatness. Or at least fails to spike the EKG when news of their latest heroics crosses the wires. Connor McDavid is there. ...
The Angels will make the playoffs...or at least let’s figure out a way they can
As badass as the moment was of seeing Shohei Ohtani face Mike Trout with the World Baseball Classic on the line last night, you could forgive Los Angeles Angels fans if they were rubbing their temples a bit during it. The cry whenever either or both of those names come up in conversation has been, “...
You can’t script baseball, but sometimes it can seem like it
What they tell you about baseball a lot, is that because everyone gets a turn, you can’t guarantee that your best player will get to the plate with the game on the line. Sometimes it’s your second baseman with no concept of the strike zone who wets himself at the sight of any fastball over 96 MPH. S...
Meaningless baseball continues to thrill millions
I think maybe what I might take most out of the World Baseball Classic is its insistence on portraying the entire scope of the best moments, what makes baseball the most artful game. ...
Baseball is getting increasingly liberal with the term ‘perfect game’
There was a perfect game in the World Baseball Classic on Monday. The Puerto Rico pitching staff, led by a perfect 5.2 innings from journeyman José De León, didn’t surrender a baserunner to Israel. Normally, that’d be pretty amazing, even by modern-day pitching standards. But — and I definitely fore...
Team USA loses exhibition to 3-9 San Francisco Giants
Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Nolan Arenado, Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Schwarber. With a roster like that, you’d expect Team USA Baseball to dominate every game they play. They’re totally going to destroy Great Britain this Saturday in their first game of the World Baseball Classi...
Artie Moreno holds onto Angels, keeps Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in MLB purgatory
There are few people on this Earth who can stare down a couple of billion dollars, and well over 10 times what Artie Moreno paid for the Angels originally, and say to themselves, “You know what? I’m good actually.” That is a level of comfort and confidence only the smallest group will know. ...
No, the San Francisco Giants’ offense isn’t suddenly elite with Carlos Correa
After missing out on Arson Judge, it was only a matter of time before the San Francisco Giants used their massive spending budget on one of the few elite hitters left on the open market. For weeks, the Giants-Carlos Correa speculation had been swirling with some people considering San Fran the front...
An 1800s outfielder is baseball’s most searched athlete… in Delaware
I spend a lot of time on Baseball-Reference. Apart from it being my job to do research and correctly relay player statistics to you, the readers, I enjoy looking back at old names from the late-90s and 2000s to see if they were as good as I remember them in my head. Casey Blake? Better than I rememb...
Trea Turner to the Phillies is fine... for now at least
Two-time All-Star Trea Turner will be a Philadelphia Phillie for the next 11 years. He will be 30 in 2023, meaning the deal will end when Turner turns 40. This long-term contract with Turner near the end of his prime has some people worried. The two biggest concerns I’ve seen given to this situation...
Bryan Reynolds requests a trade — what is he worth?
Remember a few years ago when a power-hitting shortstop was all the rage? They were a dime a dozen, and securing a shortstop that could be a serious threat in your lineup was an enormous deal. Nowadays, every team has one of those. The Boston Red Sox had two in Xander Bogaerts and Trevor Story last ...
Can Yanks keep Judge with historic deal?
The New York Yankees have offered star slugger Aaron Judge an eight-year deal, worth roughly $300 million, according to ESPN insider Jeff Passan....