We can now see the hot stove warming up a little bit. Mike Minor is off the table. He is going to the Royals. The Royals also picked up outfielder Michael Taylor. Reliever Jacob Barnes signed a deal with the Mets for $700,000 plus incentives. The NC Dinos will post Sung-Bum Na. This guy’s got a great name but I don’t think we need another Designated Hitter right now. The Cubs will tender a contract to Kris Bryant. The Marlins acquired reliever Adam Cimber and designated right handed pitcher Jose Ureña in order to make room. Left handed reliever Robbie Erlin agreed to a one year contract with the Nippon Ham Fighters.
Speculation
The Angels are said to be one of the top logical spots for Carlos Correa in a trade. Francisco Mejia, of the Padres, is a potential trade candidate catcher. As noted in comments yesterday, the Angels are among the teams showing interest in James McCann. The Angels are also among the teams showing interest in veteran pitcher Dan Straily. As expected, the Rangers are shopping Lance Lynn. The Padres released right handed groundball specialist Luis Perdomo. He’s not the answer, though, as he will miss the 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Meanwhile, down in the Dominican Winter League, 43 year old Fernando Rodney is on the comeback trail. Maybe he should go to Australia like Manny Ramirez. Bartolo Colon also wants another year in the big leagues. Toronto is interested in Kolten Wong.
Non-Hot Stove Warming Links
Happy belated birthday to Vin Scully and happy belated birthday to Bo Jackson. The wood bat league for draft eligible prospects opened up with five teams and possibly a sixth. They are all on the east coast. This is one of the changes that minor league organizations might make in the face of minor league contraction. Meanwhile, out west, the Pioneer League is becoming an independent league that is a partner league of MLB. This is another of the possible strategies of change for the victims of minor league contraction. Felicity Huffman will return to acting in a comedy project in which she plays the unlikely owner of a AAA baseball team. It is based on Susan Savage the real life owner of the Sacramento River Cats.
Eddie Rosario? I like Rosario and I assume that he’s gonna come in at less than 8M a year since he’s hit waivers and no one wanted to trade for him. Sure, we just signed Schebler and I like him. But nothing wrong with having 4 OF options in case Upton is totally scrap.
Interesting. Defensive metrics don’t like him in right but he’s a proven MLB bat
The more options available the more likely we are to land one.
Another day of not being shocked Arte & Co not signing anyone to help Trout get to the playoffs.
There are gonna be a whole bunch of days where Arte & Co don’t do anything to help Trout get to the play offs. Maybe even entire weeks where we don’t sign anyone or make a trade. Are you gonna be OK? I mean, yeah, two teams have signed established players and we haven’t yet. That can be devastating. But I think a lot of teams have been waiting to see who gets dropped tomorrow before they start trading or committing larger sums.
I keep watching the non-tender list/MLBTR hoping Minasian brings in Casali and has catcher locked up for a couple of years cheaply. Stassi/Casali isn’t a bad combo and it is cheap.
Casali won’t embarrass himself at the plate, that is for sure. Can play 1B too. Victor Cartini is another one. But the Cubs may move in from Contreras leaving the job to Cartini.
Re : Carlos Correa
Just say NO!
Agree with this. But one thing I like about him, he is cocky and I think our team is too laid back. Need some hard nosed guys like Weaver, Lackey and Percival. But no, don’t want him and is non-repentive behavior.
Our team definitely lacks fire. Trout, Rendon, Fletcher are all laid back guys. They are competitive, no doubt, but rarely do they exhibit emotion (at least outwardly).
There are guys with fire, and there are guys who cheat. I am ok with the former.
There was a point no one signed Bonds. I think that should be the fate of Correa and company.
Agreed. I’m cool on not signing Correa, although I did really enjoy watching him play before I knew he was cheating. Still would like a little more fire on the team, though.
All the more reason to go strong after Bauer.
Let Rengifo play 2B. If it meant having Bauer I’d take it!
Exactly Jeff, Upton too, they compete like hell but not outwardly. I miss guys like Percival, Lackey, Weaver and Torey Hunter. They were not afraid to stick it to the opposition. I .just think a player or two who exhibits some attitude adds a dynamic to the team.
Going back to the early 2000’s, never forget Troy Percival one game when a brawl broke out, racing in from the center field pen with his bullpen mates running 20-yards behind him. Troy wanted some knock some heads. This was not the only time for him. Or, Jared Weaver glaring down the Tigers during one match-up with Verlander pitching, the year Jared and Kate Verlander we’re vying for the Cy Young. Intense! Jared also wanted a piece of Kyle Seager up in Seattle one game. Not that this wins games but helps the team bond and creates and us vs them mentality.
I think this is where someone is supposed to emphatically declare that fighting and stuff is like super bad and there is no place in the game for it and stuff. So… yeah, that. People can get hurt and kids have eyes and stuff and if we never see another fight again anywhere we will definitely all figure out how to be hyper competitive but also completely unaggressive with none of that toxic masculinity that has kept humankind in the stone age all these millennia. Stay safe bro.
On the other hand I’d love to have a couple shit kickers on the team.
Are you implying you can’t be hypercompetitive but also completely unaggressive? If everyone in the game were like Trout, Rendon and Fletcher, I’m pretty sure we would have hyper competitive baseball without fights.
People might have different opinions on the entertainment value and morality of fights, but they are absolutely not necessary.
I think some folks just want someone who can project a bit of menace and antagonism. Usually this means that, while you don’t have to get into fights (how many fights did Weaver actually have?) you have to be willing to get into a fight if it comes to it, and more importantly, it has to be clear to everyone that you’re up for a square go. So no, actual fighting isn’t necessary. But being willing to fight, and making that clear, and even pushing a little in that direction sometimes, that’s very useful when two groups of big strong men both want the same thing really bad.
It’s like a door man at a bar. 95% of the fights you ever get in are with people who are off their nut with booze or something. Usually no fights happen, but it’s because it’s very clear that the doorman/security guy, even if he’s calm, is also totally willing to handle you physically. It’s the open willingness to have some conflict that gets the job done because most sane people realize it’s just not smart to push your luck cause it could get ugly. So the doorman has things run the way he wants, but hardly any actual fights happen.
It’s the age old argument we have here all the time. If you don’t stand up for yourself as a person or a team how do you actually stop yourself from being pushed around? Does calling a parent, teacher, Joe Torre or someone you trust keep you from being a loser in the end? What if a couple pitchers with some balls did a little head hunting against the Astros in 2017 and then explained why, would we still have this candy assed reality where Houston has a WS banner but we all get to whine about how we found out they cheated afterwards? Is it OK that Han shot first? Is Neville Chamberlin a misunderstood hero? Opinions vary.
Agreed. The one thing that irked me most of all about Sosh was his refusal to retaliate when our guys got hit. Torii and Vladdy would seemingly always wear one against Boston. Beckett straight up threw at Abreu’s head after Bobby called time out once.
Sosh didn’t play soft but he managed soft. Not saying a bean ball would’ve overcome the massive amount of PED’s the sux took, but getting their guys as uncomfortable in the batters box as our guys would’ve evened the playing field some.
And I doubt they even pitch the Angels that way if they know there’s a price to pay. The threat, like the doorman, plays a huge role.
TOTALLY agree here Jeff, both with your analysis and the examples you used.
I would add that the asshole Beckett also threw at Vladdy and broke his hand, which resulted in us losing our best player for several weeks.
Sosh’s response : zilch !!!
This was one of my biggest criticism of Scioscia. The Beckett example with Vlad is the EXACT reason you DO retaliate when your batters get hit.
“Protection” is a real thing and it is important for a pitching staff to do it.
I recognize the need to protect guys like Trout and Vlad, who otherwise get pitched high and tight by pitchers who are scared of them, and to send a message of no tolerance when someone throws at Abreu’s head.
However, I don’t like it when a pitcher throws at a guy who hits a HR (like Percival did), even if the guy showboats.
I would agree that you don’t throw at guys for simply hitting a HR. I have never liked that.
In fact, this has happened to Trout MANY times, including a lot last year by Texas and Seattle. A couple of times Mike got revenge himself by stealing 2B.
If I don’t like it being the victim I certainly could not support doing to opposing hitters.
As regards Trout I was disappointed that Joe did not take steps to protect him. I was a little surprised because Joe DID protect his hitters when he managed the Rays.
It was as if by returning to Anaheim he had to revert to some Scioscia inspired “Angel Way.” And I don’t like it one bit.
I hope he changes his ways in 2021. At least if we got Bauer he would protect our hitters regardless of what the so-called “Angel Way” is.
Noe getting no love in this thread.
I’ll say it. “Nice Guy” Jake Marisnick had it coming.
Very comfy saying no to Correa, who wasn’t really missed by Astros when Bregman moved over to SS.
Spent many a summer evening at Rivercats games. I highly recommend it if you are in the Sacramento area. Hopefully the series is based in Sacramento. Nice town that could use some decent exposure.
Bye Trevor May. Maybe I’ll do ‘If I Was Sandy Alderson”, more fun with Steve Cohen money.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/12/mets-sign-trevor-may.html
Still a ton of relievers on the market. Good for May for striking early but I’m not crying over this one.
Exactly right, and Sandy won’t sign everyone. They seem to be pushing hard on McCann too.
I wonder if it would be best for Minasian and Co. to spend some time getting to know our farm before trading anyone, i.e. just go FA this offseason and see if a mid-season trade would work better if the team is competitive.
I think Perry should strike for a catcher soon, McCann or Yaider. This will help our rotation. Then focus on some of the mid-tier FA arms; Paxton, Walker and even lower tiers: DeScalfani, Richards.
I really focused on catcher in my Minasian piece, probably too much. I’d like McCann but Yadier is in steep decline and it is only going to get worse.
I’m hoping the Reds non-tender Casili or trade him today. Plenty of time share type catchers available for little resources too. Either get McCann or go lower tier and save money for pitching/middle infield.
I’m down with Casili and McCann, I like it. Yadier is likely to stay in St. Louis but still feels he has 2-years left in the tank.
Yadi and Pujols are probably the only two players in the MLB who feel the other has two more years in the tank. Good years. If just being alive in tight pants counts then yes, they have two years.
Molina is a bad hombre. I’ll leave it at that. Stassi….ugh.
Looking at the list of free agents, the Angels could fill about every need other than high end pitcher (I’m not completely sold on Bauer and realize Arte’s budget has limits).
I wouldn’t be surprised if Minasian is hesitant to trade from a farm he does not yet really know. And if the Angels went into the season with both Adell and Marsh as chips for an in season acquisition, that might not be a horrible thing.
Mets got some serious buying power. No wonder why Arte voted against Cohen.
The guy from the NC Dinos needs to play for the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers
Well, a couple of those wood bat league teams are in Appalachia and a couple more are in Ohio so it’s not literally east coast.
Maybe he meant eastern time zone or east of the Mississippi
Yeah. It was me. Everything east of the “Crossroads of America” is back east to me. I’m not sure why I wrote “east coast.”
The West Virginie Kissing Cousins.