What a whirlwind the Winter Meetings turned out to be, huh? Five days of virtual meetings that resulted in virtually no activity. Of course it is kind of hard for teams to move forward when they don’t even know how to construct their rosters in 2021.
One of the more notable moves of the Winter Meetings was the Angels acquiring Raisel Iglesias from the Reds. Yesterday we learned Leo Rivas will be the player to be named later headed to Cincy. We also learned Cincy will be sending $900,000 the Angels way, which likely covers another bullpen arm in this market.
Expect activity on all levels to step up as Dave “Win Now” Dombrowski steps to the helm of the Fightin’ Phils. These guys should start packing bags.
He’ll be leaving a group including Justin Timberlake and Hootie, err Darius Rucker, who are pushing to get an MLB team in Nashville. The team, if it comes to fruition, will be named in honor of a Negro League team.
Raise your hand if you saw James McCann as the name we’d be discussing and pursing this offseason. Apparently the Mets are on the five yard line with him but our Angels are fighting hard for his services.
What puzzles me is why the dogfight for McCann when this guy is available for a fraction of the price. One thing that doesn’t puzzle me is that JT Realmuto’s market seemed to be the Mets or the Mets and this could be a great way of NY getting him to cave.
As usual, the Meetings wrapped up with the Rule V draft. The Angels lost a prospect who is likely two plus years away and added a potential bullpen piece for 2021. Swapped one Jose for another.
Minasian is impressed with Jose Rivera’s combination of velocity and control and stated the kid is playing for a job in Spring Training. Hard not to be impressed by 102 MPH fastball. Good luck Jose
Our friend Victor Rojas dropped a pretty inspiring post and is getting some love for his clothing line.
If the GM’s are doing baseball stuff on their phones, so can we. I love looking at ballparks old and new and igballparks is a personal favorite. I also love minor league baseball and laughing, and Minor League Grinders is all about both.
And to note I’m going to take over the weekend links for the foreseeable future. About time I start pulling my weight around here.
So Trevor Bauer rates the top 5 fan bases that have been recruiting him on social media and we were number one.…. for what that’s worth. He gives examples of what each team’s fans are trying to get his attention, etc.
Indians changing their name, I assume the marketing types are going to bombard us with headlines for the next year. For the love of God, just change it and get it over with, and please none of this generic name stupidity.
Idk. Cleveland Baseball Team has a certain ring to it.
Please don’t, might as well be the Cleveland Walking Jokes. Either change it now or next year, no generic interim.
I could also accept the Cleveland, This is For You’s
Why does it even need to be changed?
I am an strong advocate for Native Americans and respect their traditions, but please.
“Indians” is not exactly a slur. The Braves are not changing their name and they shouldn’t.
The culture of the politically correct has officially gone too far.
There, I’ve said it.
Spiders, go retro
Yeah. I like this idea. Or the Cleveland River Fires.
Cuyahoga!
Spiders or Blues (the first name of the team).
Was going to suggest this.
If they really want to heal the community they should change the name to the Cleveland Modells
Frigg’n ridiculous, I cannot agree more. Why don’t we just change all team names to simple numbers, like how the Japanese name their typhoons. “No. 14” and “No 17”…etc. Los Angeles “17s” will be playing Texas “31s on the next home stand. Or name everyone after zoo animals. Better?
I don’t know. The Los Angeles Tasmanian Devils? It lacks a certain Je Ne Sais Quois, but I don’t know what it is.
My first teaching job was on the Apache Rez east of Phoenix. The high school was the San Carlos Braves. Always sounded honorable to me.
MLB pipeline Has Jo Adell straight up for Snell, I think I would do it
If the goal is to reach the playoffs this upcoming season or next, I think you have to accept that deal.
Prospects are such a crapshoot. You gotta do it.
Especially when a prospects first 132 Major League plate appearances most resemble Brandon Wood. I’d do that deal in a second.
So much yes. Sorry to say but we have no place for Jo, and not sure what development will be like in the upcoming season
I don’t know that we have ‘no place for Jo’, but the pitching need is great, and if we can keep Marsh and Adams, then Jo for Snell is a great deal for us (and Snell locked up at 13M for 3 more years is cheap for his caliber).
In a hot second. We are desperate for pitching. Yes, Adell is going to be pretty dammed good, but this is too good to pass up.
Absolutely, I would. Consider:
I don’t want to trade Adell, but he would by far fetch the most value of our prospects. We might as well trade from our organizational strength (OF) to ameliorate our greatest organizational weakness (SP).
I’d trade Adell for Snell straight-up. Sign a second SP on the market, one that would only require a 1 to 2 year deal (Quintana, Odorizzi, maybe even Chris Archer, etc). Sign a LHH OF (Pederson?). Sign a backup catcher (Suzuki? Castro?). Find a few low-cost relievers. Enjoy success.
Rotation: Snell, Bundy, Heaney, Quintana, Canning, Ohtani*
Lineup: 2B Fletcher, RF Pederson, CF Trout, 3B Rendon, 1B Walsh, LF Upton, DH Ohtani, C Stassi, SS Iglesias
Yeah, that makes sense. Hard to argue with those moves, too.
LaRussa plea bargains his way out of dui
Hamilton was 8 years ago today.
https://reddit.com/r/angelsbaseball/comments/kcb82r/8_years_ago_today/
Turn that knife. Rub that salt on the wounds.
The Rangers send their regards.
Thanks Mia, now I feel like kicking a puppy
Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic theorizes we might do a salary dump trade for Justin Upton and a prospect like Cozart and the Giants last year. Might pick up Kurt Suzuki, too. Not sure if this opens up enough room to score Blake Snell or Bauer.
Rosenthal is not a hack as I recall, curious how this theory arose. If that unlikely scenario played out, somehow, Senator Blutarski would be an unwitting semi-prophet.
Nothing indicates Rosenthal believes such a trade is likely or in the works. As you can tell by the title, the article is just an exercise in discussing a creative theoretical possibility: “Rosenthal: Big names, big trade possibilities for MLB’s creative thinkers.”
Big Thinkers = Bluto
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, (especially when we need subscribers to read our articles).
It certainly not an article that would make me renew an Athletic subscription but it wasn’t bad or deceiving in any way.
It simply proposed the idea that (instead of trading prospects for pitching) the Angels could use prospects in a package to dump Upton’s salary and sign free agent pitching. It’s better than the ideas of duping DD by getting him to trade us Phillies’ prospects in exchange for him, while ignoring the NTC.
My comments refer more to the extent that writers have to go (implausible hypotheticals) to create content in a slow-moving offseason. Not accusing anyone of deceit, I like Shakespearian quotes.
Blutarski’s DD comment/proposal was in jest as pointed out to gitcho.
But the reason Blutarski thought a post about trading Upton to DD would be funny is because the idea of trading Upton for prospects has been proposed so many times before.
Who would take Upton, though? We’d likely have to add some very significant prospect capital, depending on how much we want someone to take on in return.
Yeah, that’s an issue. Anybody know if any MLB GMs score below room temperature on IQ tests?
There are usually teams willing to take on short-term salary in exchange for long-term prospects.
Shouldn’t we talk to JUp about his NTC beforehand?
Casali, Flowers and Suzuki work for me. I think McCann was a smoke screen to drive up the Met’s price tag and weaken their offering to Bauer. However, I don’t think that will work with money-bags Cohen.
Unlikely, if the LA Times reporter is to be believed.
Well, looks like PTP is still building that pile of FO guys with scouting and team building backgrounds, he hired Gene Watson away from the Royals. He helped build the Braves, Padres and Marlins. All these guys Perry is getting give off a whiff of the Angels possibly trying to get a bigger foothold in Latin America, which I am all for.
Turk’s Teeth pointed out the Royals have gone really college pitcher heavy in their drafts in recent years.
The Latin American thing would be great too.
Sounds like McCann is no longer available Mets
Narrows our focus, good. I’m relieved we did not commit.to McCann.
Yadi or Bust!
Good. Just go get Caseli or Suzuki and spend the rest on arms. I don’t really even want to spend on another OF if we can avoid it, just go with Ward/Schebler and sign a AAAA defensive replacement type.
Chris Rose has been let go by MLB-TV. I am surprised that he is not going to be aroud any longer as he he and Matt V. have been my favorites along with Harold for over 10 years now. Wish MLB would reconsider this decision.
Oh man. Back when I had cable I loved that show.
Damn. That really sucks. Looks like it was budget tightening due to COVID and not any scandals. Intentional Talk was always good background noise.
Rose should land on his feet somewhere, and I believe he’s still with NFL Network.
I know some of us think that Pujols is older than he says.. . Just like the KKKovid narrative is fraudulent. The PCR is a meaningless, masks have no basis in health, politricks and lies comtrol the MSM narrative, and we suffer. lockdowns have proven nothing but destructive. . . the same as Pujols salary on our chances of making the playoffs. We need pitching! We need truth! We need real health, not from a bottle, not steroids nor banging trashcans, but solid pitchers with true control and a 95mph fastball on the black, Seen?
lol wtaf
CIAHOAD
I think you forgot a D. That would be, CIA HODAD.
Wishing a happy Hanukkah to all of our CTPG Jewish friends and their families.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P30ckBf1wk
Todah Rabah. And a Chag Sameach to you as well.
May miracles visit us all this season.
Also, I should probably know this by now, but how the hell does one post images directly into comments like in the before time? Attaching and different link attempts don’t seem to work for me.
Some people have explained. Try the search icon in the upper right. If that gets you nowhere, then maybe try to get the most generic internet link you can and put it in the {} “source code” thing or the </> “code block” thing. I posted a picture a few weeks ago so I know it can be done. I was kind of drunk at the time so I don’t remember exactly how I did it. Sorry!
Drinking and posting is the only way to go. Please don’t confuse me my desires with Tony, “make me another” LaRussa.
Was waiting yesterday and hoping that today we will get a write up on the Rule 5 Draft? And on the Minors end of it
I can do a brief rundown on the major league portion of it but am not remotely qualified to handle the minors end.
If you have The Athletic there’s a great breakdown of the Angels moves here. And the links above.
I’m not happy about losing Jose Soriano when the Angels have 6 open spaces on the 40 man roster but very few pitching prospects. Soriano was on the upswing and looked like a possible mid rotation piece until his injury and subsequent TJ surgery. He’s at least 2 years away from contributing, but still should have been protected.
In Jose Rivera we snag a prospect rated as highly as 6th in Houston’s system. The kid throws gas and has some decent secondary offerings. He’s not stretched out enough to be a full time starter but can go multiple innings. He’s definitely a better prospect than the one we lost.
Yeah on the minors side we gained a SS and a C. The Catcher interests me since we are low on catching prospects. Also we lost Garrett Williams hiw we got in return from the Giants for Cozart and our No. 1 pick
So seems like we won if we had traded Jose for Jose.
It is pretty crazy how low we are on pitching and catching prospects. The two positions critical to every single moment of the game.
Williams was in our system for about 5 minutes, it seems.
I’m fine changing our Jose for the new Jose. I just don’t think there was any good reason to lose our Jose.
I cannot agree more. Why didn’t we unprotect Jones or Baretto. I liked the upside of Soriano too.
Jones & Baretto are both on the 40 man so are not subject to the Rule 5. For PTP To remove them from the 40 man they would have had to clear waivers where any team could claim them. Ironically we are currently only carrying 35 players on the 40 man roster so we could have added both Joses without a problem. However, if PTP is planning big moves to fill those 5 spots , he will have to eventually jettison a Baretto or other stellar Angel phenom player like Matt Thaiss, Dillon Peters, Jose Quilada, Kyle Keller or (insert favorite Angel AAAA player here)
How far away is Rivera?
Pico Rivera is ~ 20.6 miles to Angel Stadium of Anaheim on the I5.
Well. Since we have to keep him on the 25 man or give him back, I guess he’s already here. (Or 26 man or 28 man or whatever the rule is next year). They are counting on evaluating him at spring training. Will there even be a spring training, though?
about 10 years back when we had Juan.
Geraldo lives in Ohio, so roughly 1500-2000 miles away
Cameron Maybin has been helping out those in need in Flint, Michigan. It’s refreshing when players do things to help baseball look good. It helps make up for the infuriating things Manfred does.
Victor is an absolute treasure and we Angels fans are damn lucky to have him.
I’ll admit to being very sad when Phys and Hud went to KC. I was young and didn’t know what made a great broadcast yet.
Took me a few years to come around to Victor, but he’s become one of the best in the league, maybe the best i’ve heard call a game other than Vinny. I was selfishly happy when he didn’t get the GM job.
Phys and Hudler were fun for a while. I also didn’t know what to expect out of that Rojas guy.
He’s great, both on and off the air. We’re still going to do a dinner with Vic, by the way.
I wasn’t sure about Victor when he first arrived either. Now I cannot imagine anyone else in the booth..
During his early tenure I always tried to cut Victor a lot of slack since he came to the Angels due to awful circumstances (Rory Markas’ passing). Rory was well-liked by the fans, and Victor was sorta thrust into the situation. But as you wrote, I can’t imagine anyone else behind the microphone.
IMO…Rory Markus (RIP) and Terry White. Best combo since Enberg and Drysdale. My one knock on Rojas is that he becomes critical of certain Angel players when not doing the job, that should of the color guy.s job. I used to like to hear different voices. Teams used to switch up the TV and radio play by play announcers during the game, 3-innings and switch.
Who here is old enough to share about how Victor compares to other broadcasters before Phys and Hud? I have very vague memories of Joe Torre and Bob Star.
Torre was the TV color guy for awhile. I thought he was quite good.
I was not crazy about Starr though.
Starr was a nice guy with a great voice but I thought he was too formulaic. I think he even had a bout with Legionnaires disease that took him out of commission for awhile and I don’t think he was ever the same after that.
Torre was surprisingly good at TV play by play and I thought did really well when paired with Reggie. I was surprised how well read Torre was and seemed to embrace analytics in its early years .
IMHO, Victor & Gubi are better than their Predecessors Phys & Hud or Phys & Sparky. As much as I loved Hud the “stick” got a little old. Angel TV duos. Ken Wilson & Ken Brett would rank last in this group
Relative to radio, Dick Enberg & Don Drysdale would be number one in my book. (I’m too young to remember Buddy Blattner) They had great chemistry and made a alot losing seasons much more bearable to listen to even when the game was out of reach. I would think Rory Markus would be second. I had no idea he would be so good but he had the same infectious upbeat voice and delivery as Enberg. Rory is sorely missed
Victor is much better than Phys. Bob Starr was serviceable and did a decent job. Dick Enberg will always be number one to me, especially when he was teamed with Drysdale. But Victor is a very (very) close number two when it comes to the best broadcasters in Angels history.
Does anyone else smell something brewing today? Just a gut feeling – but I’m expecting our top of the rotation guy is about to go down.
in the same sort of way that I’m expecting a package to arrive today…something we ordered off the internet. I don’t know what it is but it feels like something’s coming today. I hope both show up. A package and an ace.
Only thing brewing around these parts is that Mexican food I ate last night. On a good note, the family isn’t pestering me in the home office, so I got that going for me.
Yep, just knocked off fresh batch of Fungo Ale, 7.8%.
I’m trying to ping Bauer now to ask him what the frigg’n hold up is.
I’d wait until 3AM to ping him. You know he’ll be up
Photo captions, go:
So I should announce my early retirement from that part of the stadium?
Perry needs to get on the horn with DD and make the pitch detailing how Upton can help the Phils….. Getting out from under that contract would be Yuge.
He ought to talk to Upton about the NTC before calling DD. No sense in wasting anyone’s time.
Stupid Arte.
You’re the one suggesting that DD will trade for Upton for some reason, but Arte is the stupid one in this equation?
Stupid would have been Arte hiring DD. Just think, if that had happened, The Angels would be in the middle of negotiating an extension with J-Up right now.
I got the sense that we didn’t hire DD because Arte is stupid and a control freak. I don’t know why we wanted DD, but apparently him signing on as PoBO in Philly is further proof our owner is the worsiest evah.
Oh. Turns out DD was cool with taking a job because Manfred told Nashville that expansion was years off a couple day ago. Though, someway somehow, this also probably ties into Arte being stupid.
And cheap, don’t forget the tight pockets.
But mostly it’s his money.
Agree, DD leaves a train wreck when he departs with a depleted farm. He extended Sale with a bum shoulder and maxed Nathan Evoaldi. Those moves alienated leadership. His first move was brilliant, 7-years of David Price. Yeah, way to go Dumbo! Red Sox were very good when he got there so not like DD turned anything around.
True, did trade 8-10 prospects for Kimbrel, Pomeranz and Sale. Does that really mean he is good? They were overpays to get the deal done but nothing that great has come of the players he traded away.
Red Sox still have great scouting and coaching development……so it was worth it for them to go all balls out in 2018.
We do not however have the same caliber of baseball people that Boston has, and Boston like it or not will bounce back after a bad 2020. We still have the worst farm system in baseball……and our 2010’s track record says so.
Last I heard our farm is ranked 21 post Adell…. and Bahstun is ranked 25….. neither of which is 30, which would be worst. And is it really the worst if you can scrabble together trades for Raisal Iglesias and Jose Iglesias out of it and the 1st pick in the rule 5 draft is out of it? I’m not saying it’s good, but for what it is we are getting mileage out of it…. plus Ward/Walsh last year.
Watching Perry’s performance so far, I see no cause for regret or alarm. If Arte goes over Perry’s head to hire Schwarber or Puig, that is when I will say “Stupid Arte.”
There is enough capital left over for us to trade for a starter and also hire a mid-tier free agent starter. Things could still come together nicely.
Yadier Molina is the litmus test for me. If the shell of Yadi is brought in that will tell me Arte is being Arte chasing names and “proven winners.”
So far so good for Minasian and he’s positioned great for next off season too.
Yeah, and we all know that isn’t going to happen thank fsm!
That is a good litmus test. I don’t see Upton or Rendon as stupid. We so easily forget the Navapile and Pujols being Trouts only line up protection and the decade of no good 3B we just went through and I don’t think anyone in 2017 was predicting all of Upton’s health issues. But another Hamilton move, like signing Yadit to a 10M a year deal…. that would be true stupid Arte.
Classic Arte
Totally agree. After all the COVID shutdowns and bizarre politics, the Angels signing Yadi just might be the last straw for me.
sar·casm
/ˈsärˌkazəm/
noun
noun: sarcasm; plural noun: sarcasms
the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
“his voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide his resentment”
OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I fell in.
Looks to be a good marriage between DD and the Phillies. The Tweet’s went off the charts about this hiring. so I ask you Guys this “Is a minor league system or a Ring more Important?”.
In reality those are not the only two options, but playing along with the premise: the ring represents winning, so that’s the choice.
It’s about Damn time Jeff!
He lost all that weight, not much to pull around now.
Go get’um JJ.
What did think of the Tyson Vs Jones Jr fi-ha-ha-ght?
I’ll admit to gaining a Covid 5 pounds or so. Mortgage business is insanely busy.
The exhibition was what I expected and Snoop kept me laughing.
Thank you, Jeff.
You’ve been pulling far more than your weight.