Astros senior vice president of broadcasting and alumni relations Jamie Hildreth passed away Friday at the age of 72, reports Alyson Footer of MLB.com. Hildreth joined the Astros in 1987 and became their longest-tenured employee. “Jamie was a vital part of the Astros’ organization for over three decades,” owner Jim Crane said in a statement. “His knowledge of the industry and great ability to connect with people were invaluable. He has left an indelible mark on those of us that were fortunate to work with him. We send our deepest condolences to his many friends and family members.”
MLBTR sends our condolences to Hildreth’s family, friends and organization.
Here’s more from the American League:
- Thanks in part to injuries, the Angels’ rotation finished last season 20th in the majors in ERA and 28th in fWAR. The Halos responded by making several depth-oriented additions during the offseason, including Yusmeiro Petit, Bud Norris and John Lamb, and expect to have far more success in 2017 as a result. “We’re confident we have the depth that is going to give us a championship-caliber rotation,” manager Mike Scioscia said Tuesday (via Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times). “Exactly what the names are gonna be or what order remains to be seen, but we’re excited with the depth that we have. We’re excited with our defensive team, which should be an excellent team, and the positive effect that’ll have on all of our pitching, especially on our starters. We’re confident.” While Scioscia is clearly optimistic about the Angels’ pitching depth, rival talent evaluators are largely skeptical of the group, according to Moura.
- In the same piece, Moura relays that infielder/outfielder Dustin Ackley still hasn’t received medical clearance to throw since the then-Yankee underwent shoulder surgery last June. Of course, that will make it all the more difficult for the early February minor league signing to earn a spot on the Angels’ Opening Day roster.
- With a strong spring, first baseman James Loney “could rise to prominence in the Rangers’ camp,” writes T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. Fellow minor league signing Josh Hamilton is also competing for a roster spot, and his knee issues might aid Loney in his quest to crack the 25-man, suggests Sullivan, who points out that they could use a lefty-swinging first baseman to complement the right-handed Mike Napoli. It’s worth noting that Hamilton has never played first, whereas Loney has lined up there almost exclusively since debuting in 2006. Although Loney batted a meek .265/.307/.397 in 366 plate appearances last year, Rangers manager Jeff Bannister told Sullivan that the lifetime .284/.336/.410 hitter “has proven over time that he’s a pretty tough out.”
- While Blue Jays outfielder Dalton Pompey’s stock has dropped since he peaked as Baseball America’s 30th-best prospect after the 2014 season, the club remains bullish on the 24-year-old. “We think he’s part of the future, left field or whatever, in this organization,” manager John Gibbons informed Paul Hagen of MLB.com. Continued Gibbons: “We think he’s going to have a great career, but he just needs to go out there and play and don’t worry about anything else. Because he’s got a ton of talent. He’s really got everything he needs to be really, really good.” Only two of Pompey’s 384 plate appearances last season came in the majors, and with Kevin Pillar, Jose Bautista, Ezequiel Carrera, Melvin Upton Jr. and Steve Pearce around as outfield options, he seems likely to head to the Triple-A level to begin 2017.
- Twins right-hander Ryan Vogelsong was worried the line drive he took off the head last May would not only end his career, but perhaps cost him his vision, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Fortunately, the ex-Pirate returned to the mound with his vision intact last year, and he’s now vying for a role with Minnesota after signing a minor league pact in January. On coming back for 2017, the soon-to-be 40-year-old Vogelsong said: “I love to compete. I think talking to guys who are done, it’s hard to replace that. I love being around the guys. I just love the game. I don’t play this game to make tons of money. The money is nice, but I play it because I love it. That’s what drives me. I still feel like I have good seasons left.”
Scioscia “We’re confident we have the depth that is going to give us a championship-caliber rotation.” Really!? A championship rotation? The Angels don’t even have an Ace, a #1 starter, that shutdown guy….. They have maybe one #2 at best, and a bunch of #5’s. When your a championship rotation, the team your going against fears you, does not wanna face you. Nobody! Not one person on this staff brings that fear factor.
They don’t have a great rotation but Richards at his best can be an ace and Skaggs and Shoemaker are both above average starters.
Shane I agree with you for once but you don’t know jack about the sport so stop commenting and acting like your opinion trumps all
So True!
You expect their Manager to say “Our rotation sucks and we will never contend.”
He’s supposed to say that! Lol
“Exactly what the names are gonna be or…”
It’s one of those nameless championship caliber rotations.
Richards and shoemaker can both be number 1’s
That bullpen is maybe the worst in MLB too.
Washburn, Sele, Ortiz, Appier, Lackey.
Hardly Smoltz/Maddox/Glavine, or Halliday/Lee/Hamels, but that was good enough to win a championship in 2002.
There is a reason why the season is 162 games, and not 16 Sundays.
I hate this guy… go away haloshane.
Shane, Ryan and his buddy “Chi town” share a brain. They are unable to talk objectively.
Let’s hope that Mike Trout carries the team. He is awesome
And all three of them (Richards, Skaggs, and Shoemaker) have injury concerns. I think the angels will be decent this year and continue to improve for the next couple years but will still be a few years away from being true world series contenders. Hope trout stays there for at least another contract, if not his whole career so he can be there when theyre really good.
agreed and well put
I think the Angels entire season hinges on the defense. With plus defenders everywhere, the pitching doesnt have to be great, but even still they arent even close to being in the same conversation as the Astros, Rangers and Mariners. Their bullpen is an abject disaster too. If no injuries happen they might sniff 82-85 wins, but that’s so not happening I see .500 at best.
It’s refreshing to see another Angel fan/baseball fan tell it how it is. These homer Angel fans are so thin skinned and if you don’t put sugar on top of your post, they get all bent. Unfortunately it is what it is Angel fan. Getting upset at a realist, is not gonna change the Halos season.
lol I’m not even an Angels fan, I’m a non-biased 3rd party. I’m “Just Another Fan”.
Every time I hear someone say that the Pirates need to sign a veteran starter I think, “did you miss all of Vogelsong’s outings last year?”
He was awful and he, evidently, spent most of the year talking about how great it is to play for the Giants.
Quite the mentor for the young pitching staff.
Loney was a decent stand in for the Mets last year but I would have rather to see Flores all year at first than loney. Loney was barely league average, if that, and I wasn’t impressed with his glove at all. Him being counted on as a solid roster spot is scary for them. Just saying. Maybe the Texas homer friendly weather will help.
I have been wanting the Mets to grab Pompey for a couple years, especially this off season with all the Bruce talk. I think he can end up being the real deal and a late bloomer. Only time will tell!
I wouldn’t mind the Tigers taking a shot at Pompey. Of course, the only thing they know for sure is that he’s better than Gose, so I guess they don’t know much.
He’s the same as Gose, tons of speed and no bat. He’s a future 4th OF’er
I wouldn’t go that far, his bat has at least some promise. Gose had serious issues with strikeouts from the very beginning, which is hard to fix or be productive around. Pompey’s main issue is that his power has been lacking in Buffalo the last two years, but he’s shown an ability to hit for moderate power in the past, so it’s not a pipe dream to think he could again in the future.
Almost certain Mr. Scioscia does not know what depth actually means. Some facts:
1. Weaver, Santiago, Chacin, Tropeano, Linceum & Heaney started 93 games for the Angels last year and will not be on the 2017 team. They were replaced by Nolasco, Petit, Chavez, Norris and Lamb. This is not depth. They did not replenish, if anything they have even less depth than last year. Depth is having 10+ guys who started 15+ games the season before, or a ton of blue chip ready-now prospects with a strong 6-7 SPs who started 20+ the season before.
2. Richards, Shoemaker and Skaggs are all injury-prone.
3. Even if healthy, Richards-Nolasco-Shoemaker-Skaggs-Chavez/Petit/Norris are in no way, shape or form a championship-quality roatation. It screams middle of the road at best. Now if he wanted to put the onus on how good a defensive team they are, then that angle makes sense. Saying “Our lack of depth will hopefully get cancelled out by the great defense” is a true statement the Angels should be making.
Very well put Just Another Fan. “Facts are Facts”!
Except when facts aren’t facts. Unsurprisingly, you seem lost on the distinction.
Skaggs took the mound every 5th day in 2014 before he went out with TJ surgery.
Shoemaker took the mound every 5th day for three seasons until he was hit in the f’ing head by a line drive, an injury as freakish as it is horrific.
Saying that either of these two is “injury-prone” is to torture the language in a manner that would make Torquemada jealous.
It isn’t necessary to be pumped with excitement over the prospective Angels rotation, but honesty and accuracy with the facts should be expected. As stated previously, the 2002 Angels entered the season without an ace, and were 75-87 the year before. Lackey made the team as bullpen depth and was promoted to the rotation when Schoeneweis wore out his welcome. Percival was a bona fide closer, but Shields wasn’t part of the late inning solution when the season started, and Frankie didn’t join the team until the rosters expanded in September. The point is that many of the flaws seen in March work themselves out as the season plays on. Just as the 2002 Angels in March of that year were nobody’s pick to make the postseason, much less win the Series, this team likewise has opportunities we haven’t yet seen.
Being negative is easy. Making the effort to be thoughtful and knowledgeable is work.
Ok you picked one out of 3 points to argue, and I agree, you are right about Shoemaker, he wasn’t injury prone, I was off on that one. However with TJ, it means a pitcher is scarred for life (literally) – mostly due to not having good mechanics and blowing out their arms, so I call that under the umbrella of being “injury prone” as they were never pitching the right way in the first place, so if you have TJ, you get that tag, and I will never change my mind on that.
You still didn’t provide any other arguments against my other points, so yeah, I post mostly facts in these threads, like high 90%. I was wrong about Shoemaker, but that’s it. The 2002 Angels were lightening in a bottle, you can make that straw man argument for literally every overperforming team. Bottom line is the Angels need to add two frontline SP’s and like 5 bullpen pieces to be viewed as legit contenders. They can do that by trading Trout, but refuse to do that, so they are doomed to non-contention.
Jordan Zimmermann
Adam Wainwright
AJ Burnett
Tim Hudson
Joe Nathan
John Lackey
Jose Fernandez
Jacob deGrom
All of these pitchers had TJS and returned to successful careers.
John Smoltz went on to HoF.
The idea that a player who undergoes TJS is somehow more prone to injury has no basis in fact.
The reference to 2002 Angels clearly slipped by you: That team evolved into the Series winner as the season played out, but on paper weren’t expected to crack .500 when the season began. That is why baseball is a great game, because it is a marathon instead of a sprint, and many shortcomings work themselves out, as players emerge and trades are made.
BTW, thinking trading Trout is a viable option doesn’t paint you as knowledgeable about the business of the game. No team in MLB has sufficient talent depth that it could make such a deal without crippling its own farm system, negating the value in acquiring Trout. The return the White Sox received for Sale isn’t close to what Trout would garner, and a team like the Braves and deep reserves of young talent would upend all that hard work in a single transaction.
Trading Trout is not a strategy anyone who pays attention to the game would pursue.
1)It’s not just Petit Chavez Norris and Lamb. It’s Pounders and Wright and Meyer and Campos and Smith and Alvarez and Banuelos and the guys you list.. That’s plenty of depth. Not every team will have Red Sox level of rotation depth. Almost no one can have 6-7 bonafide MLB starters and expect to not trade one of them. Skaggs you can make a case for but he still had one injury and too many setbacks which aren’t considered injuries.
2) I wouldn’t call Shoemaker or Richards injury prone. Shoe had a rocket launched at his skull and was put on the DL. That’s the only time in his MLB career he’s been on the DL. Richards is just unlucky. He tore his tendon in his leg in 2014 then his UCL in ’16. Both aren’t correlated to call it injury prone. Injury prone would be Hamilton, someone who needs to fix something every six months and normally the same thing they just fixed.
3)Richards is the closest thing to a breakout ace there is. 2014 was stellar and he’s capable of posting those same numbers. He was on his way in 2016. Skaggs has upside to spare. He’s shown the upside in his 10 starts. He’ll be an excellent second starter. Shoemaker had a “bad” year in 2015 but still only had a 4.46 ERA. That’s respectable for a three starter. Nolasco was great after the trade to LAA. He was lights out in his final six starts. You don’t expect a 3.20 ERA out of the fourth spot, You expect a 4.15 ERA. Which is what Ricky can do.
You expect too much out of a rotation. Not every team has three Cy Young winners, two 20-game winners and the next Sandy Koufax.