If the investigation of Mickey Callaway is not concluded by Wednesday the Angels will implement a back up plan. I’m guessing the bullpen coach gets moved to the dugout. Rhett Bollinger says there is still room under the Competitive Balance Tax threshold for the Angels to add another pitcher. There is no telling whether they will actually do so, of course.
News From Around Baseball
It was Dr. Anthony Fauci who met with Major League Baseball and the Players Association this month to give recommendations about safety protocols. He says there was obviously tension between the two sides related to salary considerations. Said he, “I couldn’t get involved in that.” Therefore he did not wade into the controversy about whether the season should start on time. SABR recommended seven Negro Leagues be reclassified to MLB status. If this happens, Willie Mays will once again have more home runs than Albert Pujols because of the 17 he hit while with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948-50. Will Albert get enough playing time to hit another 15 or 16 homers? Only time will tell. Bernie Sanders is upset about the contraction of minor league baseball and he says he intends to do something about it. I’m not sure what he can do.
In news that everybody already knew, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held without fans in attendance. It will be televised. David Robertson and Aaron Sanchez threw for scouts from a few teams over the weekend. I can find no word on whether the Angels had anyone in attendance. The Toronto Blue Jays straight up released Shun Yamaguchi after he cleared waivers. He was bad in 2020 and nobody is willing to pay his $3.175 Million salary for 2021. Toronto gets to pay it. It looks like it’s the Mets who are snake bitten this year. One of their pitchers needs elbow surgery and spring training hasn’t even started yet.
Last Minute Signings
Sure enough, the Dodgers have re-signed Justin Turner. The deal is for two years with a third year option. Turner gets a signing bonus of $8 Million and then $34 Million over the two years. Matt Harvey got a minor league deal with the Orioles. Mark Melancon signed a deal with the Padres. James Paxton gets $8.5 Million from the Mariners. There are reachable incentives that could bring the total to $10 Million. Jake Arrieta goes back to the Cubs for one year at $6 Million. The White Sox signed another 14 guys to minor league deals with invitations to major league spring training.
Any word on a new play by play person? Whoever it is I hope they develop the kind of chemistry in the booth as they’ve had the last many years. Or it could turn out like Intentional Talk.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/02/twins-to-sign-matt-shoemaker.html
And Shoemaker and his beard is trying to correct his career with The Twins. Stay healthy Shoey.
About Seth Lugo, the Mets pitcher who needs surgery, the article says they found a bone spur in his shoulder so therefore he needs elbow surgery. Does that make sense to anybody?
The NBC Sports article (that Yahoo picked up the story from (they provide a link)) says elbow instead of shoulder.
Someone copied too quickly, methinks (or Yahoo didn’t get the updated/corrected AP article). .
CJ Cron to Rockies on Minors Deal
Going to be fun watching him hit in Colorado! I just might watch more Rockies games this year.
CJ Cron steps up to the plate, here comes the pitch, and . . . that is CJ Gone!!!
And that will reduce the visiting team’s lead to 5
Q: Why is pitching so expensive?
A: Because it’s worth it.
Add in rimshot here.
Nah, The Angels can just flip one of their Best Available Athletes for front line pitching. Right? … Right? ……
So true. In general, for each positional player, a team needs 1 starter and 1 backup. Thus, drafting a future starter at a fielding position replaces the next-best prospect at that position.
Since teams need 5 starters, however, drafting a potential starter replaces the 5th best starting prospect. Draft a bullpen pitcher and you replace the 6th+ best reliever prospect. Draft a potential starter who gets converted to the bullpen, and you still replace the 6th+ best reliever prospect.
Pitching has so much more value because unless you already have a lot of good pitching prospects, the net gain of the best available pitcher will exceed the net gain of the best available position player. Unless, of course, the position player is a future 10 WAR player like Mike Trout.
Still a lot of otherwise highly considered players dancing around looking for one of the remaining chairs. I hope that plays into our favor – with either additions to the bullpen, or picking up another starter (pushing someone to long-relief).
I understand the 1-year preference though – the market is extremely uncertain with a continued pandemic (and its uncertainty on the baseball seen – not to diminish the other more important factors) and the upcoming CBA discussions. Arte’s conservative approach to the budget (at least never exceeding the cap, or his set mark – not that we operate as a midsize club) likely means he is a bit risk-averse here – and I don’t blame him for that.
Sure, Pujols money coming off is an opportunity, and so is ‘clearing house’ in a sense. We can decide cleanly (for the first time in ages) if the current make up of the team is working – we aren’t pot committed to a lot of players, we can mix up the use of available funds, etc. Also, we have a number of prospects which could help us figure this out (Adell; Marsh, Ohtani, Sandoval, Barria …) which, if they perform well, could lead to more flexibility later (would love to have a whole season of Heaney, Bundy, to evaluate the pitching rotation too).
In any case, I think the moves have been an improvement over those we have had to make in the past. Bundy potentially working out from last year’s crop, and adding another promising starting in Quintana helps immensely. It is nice not to have to pencil in Pena or Barria as 4-5 and Peters as an actual starter.
The “problem” in Bollinger’s article would be a great one to have if we sign someone like Walker or Odorizzi. When/if they outperform Cobb and Barria in ST, you move those two to the bullpen and problem solved. You’d then have two long relief options in the pen so problem sort of solved there too.
Yeah I was kinda surprised he didn’t connect the dots there
Kinda crazy that we have almost an entire rotation and back of the bullpen not under contract for next season.
We all talk about Pujols coming off the books as this big opportunity but it is kind of negated by having something like 8 urgent holes to fill on the pitching staff. Signing Odorizzi would be wise just to at least have one less slot to fill next season.
Yeah, at this point it seems like a wise gamble to sign Odorizzi for 2-3 years or Walker for one plus an option and try to extend Bundy.
I’m in the Walker camp. Younger. Possibly cheaper. And possibly a higher ceiling.
Rhett is right on top of it, but everyone already knew this, that we had room to sign another pitcher. The white Sox are going to be a bit crowded during ST.
You get a choice of Arrietta for 6mil or Paxton for 8.5mil. Pitching is expensive no doubt.
Turner got the best of the Dodgers and now the Dodgers are over the cap by more than a little as Turner puts them over 230mil. Wow,