Good morning Angels fans! Spring Training is fast approaching. We are almost there! Have some links in the meantime!
Angels News
The Angels made a trade! For a pitcher! Welcome Aaron Slegers! Yes, as a reliever with only 20 games pitched at the MLB level, it is hard to know how good he really is. But, he is pre ARB and is freaking tall.
Perry also went for some MiLB depth, signing a minor league deal with spring training invite for Phil Gosselin. He is an infielder who was decent with the Phillies in his limited playing time the last two years.
Despite what Facebook has said, the Angels are NOT looking at bringing POS Roberto Osuna to the team. Once again, stop trusting Facebook, people.
PECOTA projections are out! They have the Angels finishing 2d in the AL West The A’s, Rangers, and Mariners have gotten worse while the Angels slightly improved maybe? Projecting 86 wins!
A player released by the Angels last year is trying to get signed, so his brother made him a highlight reel. The audio is enhanced, just a bit.
MLB Network has posted their Top players by position. Angels got 2 on the field, the only team with more than one.
Around Baseball
Well looks like MLB has finalized the COVID Guidelines for this year. They are much stricter with contact tracing and fines for violations. Spring Training starts in less than 5 days, and a new protocol is to isolate yourself 5 days before Spring Training…
MLB is deadening the ball. By how much, no one knows. But is that proof that they juiced it? Manfred needs to stop this and just use the Japanese ball. It is safer too.
In game video is available in the clubhouses this year again. But this time, catchers signs will be blurred. So maybe that will stop the cheating?
MLB is also updating their harassments and discrimination policies. Took them long enough, now lets see them actually enforce them.
Prepare for Spring Training shenanigans as a team can end an inning before 3 outs in the first few games. They have to throw 20 pitches first, but that is barely anything.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Wow. A Native New Yorker/Yankees fan thinks Trout should demand a trade to a contenduh. Let me guess, in his moist slumber the Yankees trade Stanton to some schmuck team if he doesn’t get it together this year and Trout is traded to the glorious pinstripes for Jacoby Ellsbury and tickets to a Broadway show? Or just Stanton strait up?
I swear to God, if anyone has something good leave it to a Yankee fan to lose sleep over not having it. We aren’t nearly as hopeless as the current Rockies, Trout’s not the trade demand type just yet, and I doubt Arte trades him if he was unless he could get the entire Rays system and their development and scouting department in return.
These “should Mike Trout be traded” articles are always such wanker trash. Written solely from the point of view of guys who are used to getting every player they want from the Royals, A’s, Marlins etc every couple of years. If Trout were all that frustrated he wouldn’t have signed a recent extension. F*** this guy up the nose. If he’s so worried about frustrated all time greats maybe he should start pulling for Pujols to land in the Bronx.
The entire article was not solely about Trout, there were four players in it.
I don’t take it for granted that Trout will always quietly accept the inability to build a winner.
There were 4 players in it, and the article started by saying it was claiming the players should request a trade, only that the author would understand if they did. The article finished by suggesting the MLB request Trout be traded for the good of the game.
That was clearly a trade Trout article with a few other names tossed in as a failed attempt to disguise it as something else.
“I’m not saying you should cheat on your boyfriend and sleep with me, I’m just saying that he doesn’t appreciate you and I’d understand if you slept with me….”
Thats alot of Bold
I guess a cut n’ paste error. The bold was not intentional.
If the MLB is going to interfere in roster decisions, rather than requesting the trade of Trout from the Angels, maybe they should request the trade of good pitchers to the Angels or give Arte some free money to sign free agent pitchers.
Helping the Angels become a playoff team works just as well as moving Trout to an existing playoff team.
Odorizzi’s market appears to be cratering. Really odd the Cobb trade HAD to be made last week.
Not saying Odorizzi is our future ace but I’d greatly prefer having the option.
Agree, obviously, but devil’s advocate is maybe Cobb could have been moved elsewhere now that we know it’s a tiny salary with deferments.
Im guessing $$$ is why Odorizzi was not a priority.
They must really like Cobb over Anderson and Porcello, both available for tiny salaries.
Just feel like we took ourselves out of the running for good pitchers so we could secure Cobb.
I think Maddon clearly has some say this offseason with Fowler, Quintana and Cobb all being guys he’s managed.
Who knows, maybe it works out. Maybe PTP and Maddon agree that clubhouse culture matters and the Angels’ has been toxic or just ineffective in the Trout era.
The years requested on the contract demands as well. Perry is a one and done guy.
But then he has to do it all over again for 2022. I think he just wants a clean slate for next year minus the Pujols contract.
If we somehow do well in 2021 everyone will need a raise or we lose them.
I predict our next Free agent pitcher signing will be Cole Hamels not Jake Odorizzi.
We might have to outbid the Mets for Odor-izzi
If 48 WAR is the replacement level baseline then I see 40WAR added from our roster. That includes 4 from Shohei (2×2) 4 from Fletcher , Heaney and Bundy giving 3 each and Iglesias giving us 2. Trout (10) playing like a superstar and Rendon( 6)playing at his peak. This also accounts for some +/- from everyone else who have to be more positive than negative. This is where Perry has tried to raise the floors.
The only way this works is that they have to have a quick hook. They can’t give Upton 2 months to figure it out. Or Cobb 10 starts of train wreck. They let Tehran, Upton and Shohei and others really torpedo the club.
Angels led the league in blown saves last year: hello Iglesias
Teheran was absolutely brutal last year: hello Quintana
Upton has always been streaky. I’m hoping the hot streak to end last year shows he isn’t toast.
Adell was horrid last year too.
I can’t see Ohtani being as bad as he was last year.
Baseball America’s farm rankings: Mariners #2 (two years ago they were #30), Angels #22, Rangers #24, Astros #26, and the A’s #29.
Since we are obviously in the “scraping up lottery tickets” phase of spring, may I suggest we scoop up Matt Shoemaker on the cheap? Great guy, great story and at least as much demonstrated ability to get people out as most of our current pitching staff. If healthy, he could be a very pleasant surprise methinks.
Just to have Danielle back
I love people around here regarding Shoey and Grich. If we’d signed anyone with their injury track record this off season who wasn’t a “friend” the moaning would wake Kronos and we’d be shattering Trout’s window and needing to light Arte on fire while refusing to buy the season tickets we already don’t buy.
Yeah, I was fine missing out on Richards. On a cheap, incentive laden deal great. But 100 innings is his ceiling and we needed a lot more than 100.
But didn’t we sign pitchers with injury histories?
Yeah but doesn’t 85% of today’s pitching stock have some sort of injury history? Though if injuries were championships Grich and Shoey would be Ruth/Gherig.
I dont know if anybody saw but the athletic (Keith Law) posted the updated farm rankings. From that we are once again in the bottom third of the list at #23 (again).
Also to note the Dodgers are no longer in the upper echelon in the rankings (#10) and the Jerry DiPoto fan club took a body blow with Seattle’s farm at #13.
Saw it. I believe our ranking includes Adell as a prospect. He has a nice analysis: we have a ton of tools but no real ballplayers.
Trying to convert raw athletes into ball players is a tough job for coaching and development to pull off.
The Dodgers dropped to 10 because they’ve graduated Buehler, Gonsolin, May, Lux, and Uruias in recent years. I’d love to have that level of talent on the field and still be rated #10.
My boss says he has a bunch of tools working for him. I agreed.
Solid links.
Perry building out the floor. It’s starting to look like Ward and Thaiss are headed back to AAA, definitely Thaiss.
OF: Trout, Upton, Fowler, battle between Ligares and Ward. Ligares can play CF, which gives him an edge.
IF: Rendon, Iglesias, Fletcher, Walsh, Gramps, with Barreto, Rengifo, Ward, and Thaiss battling for one job.
C: Stassi, Suzuki
DH: Ohtani
13 pitchers.
With PTP’s emphasis on defense and the liabilities of Upton and Fowler at the corners . I would think that Ligares has the advantage for the fourth outfielder spot.But I wouldn’t count out the Schebler for that spot either. He also can play all 3 OF spots and is a lefthanded bat off of the bench.
Relative to the infield utility spot I think the battle will comedown to Rengifo and Gosselin. Rengifo’s switchhitting abilities ( albeit he sucks even more from the right side) as well as his versatility in being able to play shortstop may give him the edge. selecting Gosselin for the bench spot would probably require Fletcher to move to short to spell Iglesias. Gosselin is much better against LHP than his splits against RHP which might hurt him.
We may have up to 3 NRI’s making the 26 man opening day roster. This spell doom for 3 (or even more current40 man roster placeholders such as Keller, Bard or Quesadilla. I would think Thaiss and even Suerez are on the DFA hot seat as well.
I’ll need to look into who has options and who does not. I know Barreto does not.
Teams will also carry a 5 man taxi squad on road trips this year like they did last year. The loser of the Ligares/Schebler battle likely joins that squad as well as the loser of the utility job battle. Having players like Gosselin or Schebler who can cover multiple positions on that squad will be nice.
You could probably DFA Barreto tomorrow and nobody would notice. maybe with his rehabbed shoulder the Angels can dump him on the 60 day DL and open up a 40 man spot later in the spring?
The Angels need versatility now more than ever with Pujols the Hutt sucking up a roster spot. Maybe he has some options left?
Pujols is clearly an issue.
Teams try to sneak players through waivers the last few days of Spring Training. The sheer volume of players available combined with the need to create roster spots leads to a lot of guys passing through.
Between Barreto’s recent struggles and injury he seems like a good candidate for just such a move. And if we lose him, well it is Barreto.
If his shoulder seems to work, we might be able to trade him for a half-assed dumpster pitcher with no options and then try to run that guy through waivers. A lot will depend on what guys do in spring training.
ooh. Good call.
Lots of stuff happens in Spring.
Any chance we can remove some of the pins from articles that are getting a bit long in the tooth? Thank you.
That MLB Network team had me briefly fantasize about a USA Olympic Team. Wouldn’t that be cool? I know, World Baseball Classic, etc, but of course none of the best players are interested in those small potatoes. The Olympics would be something else, I’d have to imagine. Has there been much or any chatter about Olympic Baseball?
There are chatters that there will be no olympic baseball at all.
And old wicked politicians who are supposed to initiate the olympics are actually fueling the chatters lol
As much as Manfred is bitched here, I would still feel much better with him heading the olympic committee than any of those old fools hanging around.
Replaced by break dancing. I guess it would be easier to find a space for break dancing than parkour.
PECOTA has loved the Angels before only to look like fools. Call me skeptical on many of their 2021 projections.
I have a harder time believing Houston’s projection than ours honestly. We will score many runs, just a question of pitching. I think it takes about 90 wins to claim the AL West this year.
Also, we actually have three of the top players at their position if you count Ohtani as DH.
We will score runs.
We will win some games.
The Tao of TAME
The Genius of Stating the Obvious!
We will Bat and We will Pitch!
A wise sage once walked among us. His name was TAME.
Ehhhhh…. I think Abreu on the ChiSox may be a bit better than Shohei. Nelson Cruz too.
Abreu is still primarily 1B, no? Cruz I see the argument for but I think Ohtani outperforms him going forward. Definitely outruns him at least.
Does Manfred really hate Baseball? In SR an inning can end after 20 pitches and only 2 outs. OK we are resuming the 162 gm schedule but keeping 7 inning Doubleheaders and in extras a runner on second, Say It Ain’t So Joe. I truly distrust Rob Manfred, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Learn how to market the game and it’s players Robbie.
No Manfred does not hate the game of baseball, he just hates fans….and likely GrandpaBaseball specifically.
Senator I truly wish I had the ability to claim I could claim to attract Rob Manfred’s attention just to inform him of what the fans think of him, but alas I do not have that attention. The honest answer to fixing MLB is promotion of the game and it’s grand traditions and it’s Star Players. Sponsors of the NFL use players to promote the players, why not MLB?
Want to speed up the game, do not allow hitters to step out of the box but once per at bat. That will speed up the pitcher and the batter can adjust.
I once attended a Spring Training game in which Albert Pujols was allowed to hit but not run for himself. I’ve been to multiple ties. I’m OK with ST games not being played to normal standards.
But, the real season? We have 100+ years of games being 9 innings and bases being empty to start every inning. I’ll be understanding for one more year, I realize the pandemic will likely impact the schedule, but this crap better not stick.
Agree Jeff, the runner on second rule is the worst baseball rule of my lifetime, and I’m 41.