Bleacher Report thinks that the Angels are the third most likely team to land Masahiro Tanaka. They also make the “bold prediction” that the Angels will revamp their rotation. MLB Pipeline considers Kevin Maitan to be the Angels’ most intriguing Rule 5 prospect. Here is a sort of round table discussion of the Angels pitching options this off season. Simba is considered an interesting Black Friday deal. This article also has the Angels getting Corey Kluber and Marcus Semien.
Other Random Links
Trevor Williams has elected free agency rather than accept an assignment to AAA. He would be an inexpensive rotation piece, but he sure gives up a lot of home runs. Carlos Correa is being floated in trade talks. I don’t want him, personally. Right handed pitcher Cy Sneed has gone to the Yakult Swallows. Tommy Pham sued that strip club in whose parking lot he got stabbed. Finally, guess who was one of the ten worst free-agent signings since 2000. (Hint: It’s not Albert Pujols.)
So many web sites report conflicting info. One thing for sure, Arte Moreno (AM) and Perry Minasian (PM) are open for business. Happy to read some reports the Angels are interested in a catcher along with arms. Let’s go AM/PM!
I love that Boston has 3 of the 10 worst contracts. Although maybe what that means is you’ve gotta be willing to make mistakes to win some championships.
Also belonging on the list of “worsts”, except for the lesser dollar-value of the contract, would have been Chone Figgins with Seattle. He was about $40M over 4 years, was cut after the third year, and caused trouble in the clubhouse besides. He was expected to be the secret sauce which advanced the Mariners to a next level, and would hurt the Angels in subtracting him from our roster. Instead, negative WAR in years 2 and 3 in Seattle. The Mariners cut him loose before Year 4.
Joe Blanton 2yrs 15M
Only pitched 1 yr so 15M for 1yr of Joe’s Greatness on the mound
There was a brewpub in Seattle that had a promo of a pint costing Figgins batting average. I remember feeling bad for Figgy that deal went so bad.
The inclusion of Carl Crawford is almost as meaningful to Angels fans as Hamilton.
Back in 2010, every “expert” knew for a fact that Crawford was signing with the Angels.
Until he didn’t.
The fact he didn’t led to the trade for Vernon Wells. It cost the team Napoli.
However, Crawford was a three-alarm dumpster fire from Opening Day in Boston, which led to the fire-sale trade with the Dodgers which cost the Red Sox Adrian Gonzalez. I don’t recall the Angels having an Adrian Gonzalez who could have been packaged to make Crawford go away.
Wells, on the other hand, infuriated by his presence for two seasons, and by Napoli’s absence longer still. But when he was traded to the Yankees, he did fetch Kramer Sneed in return, who has Packy Naughton-level classic MLB naming.
We will never know how things would have turned out if the sliding door had shown Crawford into Anaheim instead of Boston, but it may have been worse that Wells.
I have to see how it comes together, but I am kind of into the draft league that MLB announced, especially if post-draft there are some undrafted guys who get a shot at being discovered. That could be a fun little side league.
So far, unfortunately, all those teams are currently back east. It sounds like a great way for scouts to find a concentration of draft eligible guys.
They had that here with the Hawaii Winter League, until they pulled out all of the financial support, and decided to send players with contracts to Arizona.
There was also a Cape Cod league which may be cancelled out because of this. Greed controls all of the moves MLB makes.
For a second there I thought Yakult Swallows was the name of Tommy Pham’s strip club. 😉
No it’s the sponsor of the free drink samples at Spring Training
I thought the strip club was called Live Cultures.
Cool science video featuring Halo Single A affiliate Rocket City Trash Pandas- the guy that does Smarter Every Day wanted to see if you could make a baseball go supersonic (767 mph!). Definitely worth your time to see distilled essence of geekiness in action!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqidD7kVnxY
Very cool.
And catching. After being linked to the shell of Yadier Molina last week, the Angels are now linked to James McCann.
This would be a solid pickup. There are more pitchers available than catchers, so it is OK to fill this need first as long as Perry doesn’t blow the pitching budget.
Some decent catchers on the possible non tender list, too. I have a feeling that’s where he’s looking.
A few days ago in another post I noted the estimated costs of McCann and Molina were similar, and McCann preferable if they’re really going to spend ~10m on a catcher.
Definitely. Yadi is clearly in a serious decline and McCann is not. I could even see over spending a bit on catcher while seeking to find some value in the huge number of available relief arms.
I won’t tell you who the Angel is, but really how the heck Albert missed the list is amazing really. But no doubt about it, the Red Sox finish in front of us as the team to be burned in free agent signings in this century.
Since it’s not Albert, it must be Cokehead.
Yeah. We paid the guy many millions to go to Texas and not even play. At least it’s not a Bobby Bonilla situation.
Hamilton was WORSY
I do not know the source of the top 10 worst free agent signings of all time but two of ours stand out if not Albert. Hamilton and Mathews Jr. Also there is Wilson in the mix. So I will go with Hamilton.
I will never understand why people always put CJ Wilson in the “worst signing” category.
Was he good signing? No. But he was slightly overpaid for the return value he gave.
That makes him a “meh” signing..
Exactly. CJ doesn’t belong in the same discussion as Hamilton, Pujols, Matthews or even the one year busts like Harvey.
He was good for a while, hurt for quite a while, but lived up to far more of his contract than the others.
Not enough if the contract. He dogged it so bad, they forced him to travel with the team while on the DL.
He quit playing baseball when he was still under contract. Made excuse after excuse as why he shouldn’t pitch. Pitched like trash most of the time. All to save his arm, and to invest in his life after baseball. CJ fleeced Arte big time.
Correa is good, no very good but he is also a cheater so end of story. Besides the Asstros are not going to help us out no what we give them .
no matter what we give them. More coffee and my glasses please.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi