Good morning Angels fans. Hope you are alright. The finish line of 2020 is in sight. So have some links.
Angels News
It is Jim Fregosi time here at CtPG. Have any stories about him? Submit a fanshot and it may get posted!
The Angels have kept Jaun Graterol on a minor league deal. Very wise as the catching depth would have sucked otherwise.
Former Angel Hansel Robles picked up by the Twins. Well hope that doesn’t bite us later.
Former Angel JC Ramirez picked up by Taiwan. Well at least they can have fans there. But it is a long way to fall.
Around Baseball
The Cubs higher ups are trying to calm the fire of them trading away their good players by saying they are looking to move Contreras. Wait did I say calm I meant pour oil on the fire.
Meanwhile Rays GM admits his team is weaker without Snell but still plan to win a WS. I mean they are the Rays, somehow they always end up winning trades.
Looks like Trevor Bauer wants 6 years 200 million. Hey what happened to 1 year deals only for the career?
Dodgers Phillies and Rays make a 3 team deal. Bullpen help for Philly, pitching prospect for LAD, and Rays get an infielder and PTBNL.
Justin Smoak is moving to Japan with over 6 million in the bank. That’s more than many much better players will get here. Something is n messed up.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
See you next year!
Really bummed we didn’t get Snell, seems like the perfect type of guy to light a fire under the team. Bauer’s a psycho, hoping he stays far away.
Perry’s going to have to build a desirable farm for trades without the team tanking or sucking like SD did. Tough task but you can see the type of people he’s hiring.
You really have to give Tampa an enormous amount of respect to compete successfully against the goliaths with only a slingshot and a rock.
Bauer wanting $36m+ a year doesn’t mean he’ll get it but it likely means he won’t be coming to Anaheim. I’m sure Perry has something good planned. Can’t wait!
Another trade with the Reds for Sonny Gray?
It’s a bitch of a position to be in. You either pay Bauer 36+M a year (if, that is, he’s not just using you to drive up the price for the Doyers or Mets) or you play the guessing game. Who will actually be good? Kluber? Tanaka? Walker? NO! The correct answer is 2021’s Lance Lynn/Dallas Keuchel will be JA Happ and Rich Hill! We are all expecting a trade to be made like we’re ordering a geencard bride from Thailand, but what if the Reds or Pirates or Tigers or Cubs don’t want to trade with us? That can actually happen.
Then we’re stuck either hoping for the best while making due or we get all upset about stuff the FO can’t control and fling poo and get all red in the face while we make up reasons this is happening “to us”.
For the sake of all our inner 8 year olds I hope the Reds are just super excited about our prospects. Gray would be great, somehow landing Castillo and Gray would make me giggle like an Asian school girl…. hell, I’ll take Gray and Wade Miley at this point.
I have no expectations, but we could end up with Sonny Boy Williamson and Miley Cyrus.
What we actually have now is a proven closer and are one more good reliever away from a pretty decent pen.
Yeah, I’m actually ok with missing on Bauer. His schtick is tiring and is getting to me. Bauer would help make our team a destination for future FAs but at what cost. We can be sure he won’t sign in our division so that is good.
Also, I don’t think the Halo’s will just walk away with second tier FAs like Tanaka, or a Walker or Happ and consider this off-season done. Tanaka will take less to stay which is just fine with me. Even if we have to overpay, something will get done to land a proven arm (or two). To be honest, I look at the Snell deal and I think the Padres paid more than I would be comfortable with. Hard decisions need to be made without there lack of prospect depth as many of you have pointed out.
I. can see one trade and a FA signing ( Happ/Walker/maybe Paxton/ or others. One year of a Happ is not the worst case but still need some Top of the rotation arm that will help attract future FAs. I know Perry gets it. Trades are easier said than done. I assume he is working his ass off this holiday season with his staff, wanting to bring home solid talent. Just as bad as we all do.
I keep hearing the “attract future FAs” reason for signing an FA. Is that a thing? This isn’t the NBA. We extended Trout and signed Rendon…. who is that attracting? Those were huge moves, positive moves. Which FAs have we heard say they are signing with Team X because they signed some other FA? I mean, I know guys want to land in LA or NY because of the higher chance of winning a ring, but have many players signed with teams because they signed other FAs before them? And with Bauer specifically, are there really a bunch of guys who can’t wait to see where he signs so they can do the same and hang with him? I’m not saying there isn’t, I’m just saying that if there is I have been ignorant of it.
Every time I see a story about Fregosi I wince. As a young Angel fan we wanted to get an autograph from our heroes, including the star SS. On more than one occasion we followed him as he went out from the stadium to his car parked along the first base side and climbed in. Every time he snarled and told us to leave him alone.
Later, as an adult, I would see him at high school basketball games watching his kid play. I never approached him, but was aware that he was there. He still.came across as an arrogant SOB.
Now when you want to celebrate Bobby Knoop week, I will be in favor, but Fregosi left this fan with a bad taste in his mouth. It makes me appreciate guys like Trouty even more. Trout saw my grandson’s sign in the stands then waited until he was sure he made eye contact- then pointed to him and gave him a thumbs up type gesture- both of us are fans of his forever!
Imagine how easy it was to be an asshole back then, such a small chance your entire interaction is being recorded, and no chance they drag you on Twitter.
That sucks. I think far too many kids have a bad player interaction story. Mine was Andre Dawson
Mine was Ken Griffey Jr.
I never had a particularly bad interaction with a player, of any sport, but let me tell you about Brian Wilson….
Go right ahead…
If the Cubs are serious about this playing broke business, I wonder if they’d trade Hendricks along with Contreras. He’s basically equal to if not a bit better than Gray and on virtually the same contract. If we got that deal done, I think we could move on from Bauer and take any one of the remaining free agent starters to fill out our rotation.
Bundy, Hendricks, Ohtani, Canning, Heaney, [Richards, Sugano, Walker, etc] is a solid rotation with Barria, Suarez, Sandoval, and Detmers as depth and long relief options. Combined with a Premium-Plus(TM) catcher in Contreras and a full season of Walsh (hopefully) at 1B we should be strong contenders for the division.
I’d definitely take Hendricks. Thing is the NL Central is such a mess a Hendricks/Davies led rotation probably still had them competing.
I think to get those two we might have to give up someone like Canning in the package, so is a young cost controlled pitcher plus prospects worth Contreras and Hendricks? I think the answer is yes, but I think we need to have a reasonable offer to acquire them both.
Exactly. I’m not nearly as high on trading for Contreras as I am on simply signing Casali. I know I keep beating that drum, but they aren’t that different.
FWIW the simulator considers Canning and Marsh a fair trade for Hendricks and Contreras. And I think that is pretty fair.
Or perhaps just do Marsh for Hendricks, establish some pitching depth, and sign Casali for pretty much the same salary as Contreras. Which I’d prefer.
I have a good trade for tomorrow’s links, btw.
I think Detmers will stashed in the minors, where he should be allowed to develop. Eppler fast tracking Sandoval, Rengifo, Canning and Adell into the majors has been to save face. I think Perry will focus A LOT on developing the players and make sure they are ready to play, not hope the fix a flawed roster. The better plan is to just load that minors and increase the quality of play and build a better reputation. Bringing them up not only hurts their development but also plummets their value and therefore the reputation of the farm system.
Our old buddy Ervin Santana signed a minor league deal with the Royals. This interests me personally because where I live our high A club just got affiliated with KC. I wouldn’t mind checking out old Erv if he comes to town at some point.
Phoque it, let’s pitch
I did a double-take when the article listed his age at 38. Where has all the time gone….
Exactly. I remember listening to Santana’s debut on the radio while driving a tractor. A lifetime ago.
Did he play Black Magic Woman? God I love that song.
Oye Como Va, amigo.
“Qu’est-ce que c’est” ?