The Angels find themselves between a rock and a hard place as October’s end approaches. Following the World Series will mark the beginning of the offseason. The club, heading into yet another critical offseason, hasn’t marcated a captain to steer its presently rudderless ship.
Angels News
According to Bob Nightengale (so take it for what it’s worth), Dave Dombrowski will “absolutely not” become the Angels’ GM. Instead, he’ll look to bring a baseball franchise to Nashville. Seems pretty wishy washy to me since Dombrowski has been pegged league-wide as the consensus favorite to win the Angels’ gig for months.
In other big news, Tony La Russa had his interview for the White Sox managerial vacancy. Hope it was absolutely delightful!
Didi Gregorius has caught the Angels’ eye. He’s passed the requisites: a wily veteran on the other side of 30 perhaps willing to take a one-year deal. In the shortened season, Gregorius sported a 116 wRC+ with good glovework at shortstop and modest power. Still, it’s unclear whether he’ll have draft pick compensation attached to him if he rejects a potential qualifying offer from the Phillies.
Across Baseball
Game 3 will be tonight! Tune your televisions for another great playoff game without the Angels.
The Nationals re-sign utilityman Josh Harrison to a $1mm deal with some incentives. Seems good!
Will Venable might be a hot commodity as a potential manager. The Cub’s third base coach interviewed for the Tigers’ vacancy recently.
Put me down as extremely skeptical we’re looking at an expensive SS when the GM candidates we heard were all Player Development guys who will need to produce talent, not sign it.
Arte’s checkbook is gonna dry up post-COVID. Whatever money he has is being dumped into the parking lot project and his own bank accounts.
Credit is inexpensive these days – he’s a fool if he’s paying cash for the new development.
Just checking in. Sorry for the long absence. Last August 30, I somehow collapsed and hit my head pretty hard on the concrete of a Smart & Final parking lot. It took me about a month to regain awareness. But no harm, no foul. My marbles are all still there, but some are not yet back in the right place.
Oh, no. :0. Glad to hear that you are doing better, though….
Holy crap, dude….
Hope your recovery is going well.
That sounds extremely horrible. Stay well
Woah, take care of your health. Glad you are feeling better.
Whoa. That’s heavy. Thanks for sharing. I’ll add you to my prayers.
Eek. Glad it’s working out. Whew!
Wow. Glad you’re back and doing better.
Yes, good news to see you again, let’s hope more posts mean you’re bouncing back.
Do you folks really think Stroman is the answer, really? Might as well trade for Boyd, he’s just as bad/good. Trade Adell and Marsh and Upton with cash and release Albert. Bring in Pitchers and Simba, sign Bauer and put Fletch back where he belongs at second and give the pitchers defense. I know it’s a tough concept but believe me the sooner you start this mini rebuild the better off we are. Albert only has one more season so releasing him gives someone the chance to pick him up for 600 thousand and we move forward. Trade off Ward and Thaiss and Renny and the others holding us down. Bauer and Realmuto and Simba may put us over cap for one year, but this is a tough hole the team is in. Spend money on Player Development and Scouting and within just a very short time we could be knocking down 4 million fans a season even without a new home.
I don’t think there’s anyone who will be “the answer,” at least not a single player. The real difference will be in the relatively unheralded players who will round out the roster but won’t cost a fortune individually. If we can find, say, 5-10 good role players (or, our existing players somehow become more reliable), that will be the game changer. Most additions are needed in the bullpen, but a good, cheap power bat off the bench, a versatile middle infielder, and a good part time catcher would be nice. The irony is that we already have such players, in form of Walsh, Fletcher (well, Fletcher is quite a bit more than this role now, I guess) and, if 2019 was a fluke, Stassi. But if you need them to start, that defeats the purpose of having such players as mix-and-match players on the bench. If we can field a good, deep roster of solid role players, then spending a fortune on Stroman or someone like him would make sense. But that’s where a FO that can actually do the job unimpeded can really help.
Unfortunately that sounds a lot like Moneyball……problem is we don’t have Billy Beane as our GM.
The TB D-Rays aren’t a very good team on the field position by position ( sans Randy Arozarena in LF, other than him the Dodgers are way better everywhere else. ) Maybe if we had TB’s pitching we could make it all work. We’re probably in a 2014 situation all over again ( go all out for one lousy WC trip to the post season in a decade and then get flattened ). 😣 😥
I’m all onboard the Stroman train. Consistent results, class guy.
Trade Adell or Marsh plus some parts for a guy like Manning or Plesac,
Is he really a classy guy? I remember hearing that he was a negative clubhouse presence but I may be mistaken.
We’re not getting Bauer. Stroman is the type of pitcher this franchise craves.
Good grief Charlie Brown, Didi really. He can’t field worth a crap and he may have more power than Simba but his batting line still sucks. He can’t get on base worth a darn. Are Dumb and Dumber running things. Time out Scribs, let’s get a GM first, he knows more than anyone running things now no matter who he is.
Well, almost anyone. Eppler says “Hi”.
I would rather spend $15 million a year for 3 years of Simba than for Didi. That being said I’d rather spend $15 million on Stroman than either of them.
GM first, then let him do their job.
Agree about Simba. And he wants to be here. I suspect Arte was/is behind not wanting to pay him. This feels like an Arte decision, especially with Eppler already gone.
Didi’s bat is in decline while Simba’s D is still solid. Stroman is not really what we need though — he wouldn’t hurt, but he’s not what we need. We need a true ace.
Agreed, I like Simba and Didi but Stroman would certainly help us.
Right. There’s no realistic candidate for serious improvement at SS over Simba (unless we really go all out on gamble on Lindor, but that runs afoul of “realistic.”). Gregorius offers neither savings nor an improvement. Much better to extend QO to Simba (which he hopefully accepts). Diverting the savings to other areas of need would be better while signing a cheap (and hopefully slick fielding) IF or two plus a couple of bullpen arms for the AMT of money involved would be best, IMHO.
I would offer Simba 3 years at 6 mil per and see what his agent comes back with. of course I am not privy to his medicals on his ankle. As someone who, in my youthful late 20s, apparently broke his right ankle without going to a doctor because I thought it was just a really bad twisted ankle, the ankle can get wonky sometimes and I twist it again and it blows up like an extra large orange. Hurts for a month or so before it gets back to just wonky.
I would offer Simba 3/30, and hope that tides us over until some of our IF prospects pan out. I am not convinced that Regifo/Barretto/Jam Jones can hold down 2B well enough – that should be Fletcher’s position. An IF of Rendon, Simba, Fletch and Pujols/Walsh plus an OF of Upton, Trout, and Ward (until Adell/Marsh come up) will work for now. Other than maybe a C to support (if not supplant) Stassi/Bemboom, I wouldn’t otherwise spend on any position players.
We need pitching, pitching and pitching. If Rengifo or one of the others helps us trade for a decent cost-controlled pitcher, and we can spend for a top of the line starter (Bauer!), then we are in good shape.
Pass on Didi
there’s always something to gripe about. Like this CBS Sports headline: “Angels reportedly showing interest in ex-Yankees SS”.
Now what do the skanks have to do with this? Why focus on the skanks? When CJ Cron signed with Detroit did CBS Sports say “Tigers sign ex-Angels slugger”? The report on Gregorius (written by Mike Axisa) isn’t as bad. It’s just the headline writer.
See my whole thing is this, do we trust rengifo with starting at second so fletcher can move to ss? Have Jones and Soto developed enough yet? Sure we should look at ss or 2nd, but as long as we get a pitcher or two first then let’s look at ss, at least it’s not DJ who’ll demand Rendon money because he can hit in Colorado and NY.
Instead of going after an expensive ss can’t they just leave Fletch at ss and re-sign Noodles?
They could do a lot, but we should wait out the market if they are planning on going the FA route
Agreed. Fletch’s versatility really helps us in the middle infield scenario. We can shop 2B (Profar, Hernandez, LaStella, ect.) SS (Inglesias, Galvis, ect.) or utilities capable of either (Kike, Profar, water-cooler masher Sean Rodriguez, ect.) I think going cheap on a super U is the way for us but the ability to wait out 3 markets is a major benefit
I like La Stella but think there are better defensive options on the market.
Franklin Barreto can’t hit a lick, so I doubt if he is the answer.
Completely agree, the others don’t seem totally ready either though, as much as I’d like to see Jones play in the majors.
Neither could Stassi
I look at DiDi rumors as just that, every year there are players that are rumored to the Angels solely for the purpose of building up their market when the Angels actually have no need or use for them
We are now up to 54 days without a COVID-19 positive among the players.
Do we know who is handling the negotiations with players and their agents? Has Arte taken on that role? Or is it his henchmen Kuhl or Carpino.
And bigger than that….DD Gregorious? Really? WHY? Seems like such a cliche player to consider for this team.
This FO is a joke. I am finally at the point of throwing in the towel on my season tickets after over 30 seasons of owning them. This is not because the Angels suck on the field, I have willingly forked over money to the team with worse players and with worse baseball being played. No, this frustration comes directly as a result of Arte and his goons and the sheer lack of any apparent recognition of the need for legitimate baseball operations to give this team a chance to win. Despite all the failure while having the greatest player, possibly ever, Arte stays the course – apparently not even considering the clear example of a model franchise just up the 5 freeway. When you keep doing the same thing year after year with the same poor results, don’t you take a step back and question as an Organization?
Without a complete overhaul of the FO, I am done with my season tickets. Ill attend 5-8 games a year, buying tickets off Stubhub or something like that. But I cannot keep watching this train wreck year after year while making such a financial investment in the team. We need a President of Baseball Operations and baseball people running the show. Arte, Kuhl, Carpino and the rest of the marketing team need to stay away from baseball decisions.
Finally, why would Dombrowski come here unless he is being offered President of Baseball Operations and given the leeway to build a team below him? Unless that type of Organizational change is coming, I simply do not see attracting anyone except a mid-tier young guy (aka 2012 Dipoto and 2016 Eppler) who can be controlled by Arte.
I hope you write them an email explaining why you’re not renewing.
That’s a great idea Mia. I will. I’m sure my 4 seats won’t mean much to them but it will make me feel better.
Maybe it won’t mean much, but your money is your power. It’s all Arte wants from the fans, maybe you’ll be a rain drop in an ocean of fans that cancel. At some point we just gotta stop throwing our money at him.
Completely agree. It’s our only voice.
Well said Mia.
I’d slow play the middle infielder market. The big names on the board like Didi, DJ, Semien, and Lindor will all take a lot of capital to acquire. However they don’t provide a ton more value than the second tier guys like Cesar Hernandez, Simba, even Schoop if he can repeat last year.
Get pitching and catching handled first. See who is without a chair in January/February and sign him.
We need a GM first. I get worried what Arte and gang would try in lieu of having “responsible” baseball ppl around (such as our GMs have been in terms of power relationship to them)
PS. Signing Gregorius is exactly the kind of silliness I worry that Arte and gang would pull off….
He’s had TJ surgery. If his arm flies off it will be like Zack Cozart v2.0
A freaking SS?
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You know how when you read or say a word too many times it loses all meaning? Yeah…
Patch a staff together, sign a “big name”, let the new GM convince us it’s all changed, and be an alcoholic by the end of April. Draft “toolsy” guys, don’t make developing pitching anything to worry about…hope i’m wrong this time.
Who even needs a GM or front office before Thanksgiving? Blahhhh.
/rant
I’d like to nominate Senator Blutarsky for GM
Ditto.
You just maybe onto something. Or is it you just maybe on something? I always get the two mixed up, anyway I think I agree with you, only adding the caveat of “starting” pitching. The team needs 4 to 5 starters that can get you past the 7th inning 90% of their starts, not 83 pitches in and just taking the mound in the 4th inning. This has been the glaring weakness of this team.
Tl/dr, something aboot pitching?
That Josh Harrison deal shows that someone with a reasonable bat who can play second base can be had on a budget. I don’t want to spend big on a shortstop just so he can stand there and watch the home runs leave the park due to sucky pitching.