Fanpost: So We Signed Thor, an IIWPM at 180M

By Gitchogritchoffmypayroll

So we spent 21 million clams on Syndergaard. Could be really good, could be bad. We all hope this is just the start of a larger than expected spending season from the Angels. What if it’s not? Is all hope lost? Well, I wanted to see. What possible nuggets of gold can still shine in our pan this winter? We still need a SS, a back up catcher, at least another solid starter, and some bulls in the Arm Barn. We’d also like to make the play offs.

We started with 45 million. I’ve released Gosselin and Guera (+2.7M) so our starting total is 47.7M. Then we signed the God Of Thunder at 21M.

That leaves 26.7M to spend. So what now?

First, make a trade:

Angels get: Mike Minor (SP), Josh Staumont (RP), Cam Gallagher (C), Angel Zerpa (RP) and Joel Payamps (RP)

Royals get: Jo Adell, Jaime Barria, Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo and David Calabrese.

Added payroll: 10.85M leaves 15.85M

Second, make a trade:

Angels get: Amir Garrett (LHRP) and Luis Cessa (RHRP)

Reds get: Jose Marte, Livan Soto, Brennan Lund and William Holmes

Added payroll: 3.5M leaves 12.35M

Now, sign some baseball players:

Sign Josh Harrison (UT) 3M (2 years/7M backloaded)

Sign Leury Garcia (UT) 3M

Sign Tyler Anderson (LHSP) 6M (2yrs/14M backloaded)

Added payroll: 9M leaves 3.35M

Now, I know, I know. “Where is Stroman? Gausman? Castillo, Gray, Bassitt or also the other Gray? Where is our championish shortstop? My needle is not moving.”

All I ask is that you remember that good teams are built on solid players around stars. We have stars. We need solid… and better pitching.

I too wanted Castillo. We don’t have the juice to trade for him. Well, how about Sonny Gray? Well, here’s the thing. I looked at what other orgs on the trade calculator could throw at Gray in a trade, we’d need to take on a contract like Moose or at least Akiyama in order to compete. That would mean no bullpen help, we couldn’t even afford to take on Cessa/Garrett at that point.

But the Royals want out of Minor’s contract. They want a cheap innings eater. They want a fast, powerful outfielder. Here’s the kicker, look at Minor’s numbers. Now look, really look, at Sonny Gray’s. Now realize, in the trade sims I had to give up Adell and Barria either way, but for Gray I had to give more, didn’t get any extra relief help, and had to pay about 10M more in payroll. In this scenario I add Staumont. If you don’t know him, look at him. So hot. So cost controlled. So ready to be a leverage arm and let Sam Bauchman become a starter in the minors.

These savings allow us to sign Alex Cobb. Or, if he costs too much, Tyler Anderson. Tyler is that girl you never notice in school, then see her at the lake in July with her glasses off and her hair down. She’s still not Becky Girven, but she’s way prettier than you realized. A fine back end pitcher. Don’t believe me? Can’t get Jon Gray’s long legs out of your mind even if they want 18M a year? Look at his career stats compared to ol’ Ty Ty.

If you are a geek like me and actually look at the scouting report on Zerpa, and check out the mixed level numbers on Payamps, they should get a shot in the pen and be an upgrade. Zerpa may even start someday. The Royals just have so many arms ahead of him. Garrett is a solid lefty reliever who had a meh year last year. Cessa is a solid reliever who can handle leverage innings that Staumont and Warren don’t. The Reds cut Wade Miley to save 1M dollars. They are already thinking of cutting Garret. I’ll give em some prospects for Garrett if they’ll give is Cessa too. And as an added bonus for all you fans who love seeing baseball players get into fights and act tough instead of doing it yourself, Amir Garrett isn’t willing to just fight a batter, he tried to fight the Pirates. All of them. How’s that treating your needle?

So we wanted to address pitching. This group of 8 pitchers, including Syndergaard, has a lifetime WHIP of 1.21 and a K/BB of 3.01. Final fun fact, in this plan, all these pitchers accept Thor will be here next year if we want them, many of them pre-arb. The point is to replace crap innings with better innings. This does that, albeit with some risk. Someone may get hurt or just suck. Though, on the happy end, only Minor is over 30 on this list (33).

The rest….

Josh Harrison. Josh Harrison is just plain cool. You want grit? How about a guy that plays everywhere? Is it OK if the grit can hit or is part of the fun of grit acting like the guy who has it doesn’t suck? Harrison is a leader with a winning heritage. Harrison is a solid 2B. Here in lies the big risk. Fletcher moves to short. His arm, it’s a risk. We’d have to see how it goes. Velazquez is a solid defensive sub/off day starter at both spots. Mayfield’s still at SLC.

Cam Gallagher. Say hello to your #2 catcher who is not Bemsuzbooki and smile. Get a whiff of that sweet 77 OPS+ and rtot/yr that isn’t in the negative.

Leury Garcia. He can hit OK from both sides of the plate. He plays like 7 positions… just none of them that well… well, RF and 3B OK. But he’s multi purpose depth. Chris Taylor has an OPS+ 28 points higher and sucks at many of the positions he plays. He will also cost four times as much. Note: If some guy like Rosario or Canha falls down into the 6-7M range for some reason I’d snap them up instead.

Oh. And we have 3.35M to spare.

StartersBenchRotationBullpen
1B WalshGallagherOhtaniStaumont
2B HarrisonVelasquezSandovalCessa
3B RendonGarciaSyndergaardWarren
SS FletcherMinorGarrett (L)
RF TroutAndersonMayer
CF MarshSuarezZerpa (L)
LF UptonJunk/NaughtonPayamps
C StassiCanning/DetmersWantz
DH Ohtani
23 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Fansince1971
Legend
2 years ago

I like it a lot – very clever and deep thinking. You worked well within your hypothetical budget constraints. I also think the trades are within reason. I believe the reality is one of Marsh or Adell has to go to obtain pitching via trade.

The only thing I will say is that Minor’s numbers are not really similar to Gray’s in my opinion. I’d much rather have Gray and am not a huge fan of Minor. But as you point out that comes at a cost. And Gray has pitched most recently in the NL which makes his numbers better.

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
2 years ago

who do you see as the closer?

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
2 years ago

Staumont would be a good “get”. I don’t think that’s a real English word but…eh.

I like Adell and would cry for a few minutes if we traded him but that’s quite a deal.

Twebur
Legend
2 years ago

Really don’t want to part with Adell. Gut tells me he is an elite talent and it will be proven sooner than later. Another big jump in development in 2022..

Going to request Gitchogritch swap Jordon for Adell in this trade, even knowing we will need to add another player or higher level prospect.

Interesting and well done…Perry should be reading CTPG daily for the IIWPM..his job might be easier.

Guest
Newbie
2 years ago

Using your best reliever for the high leverage inning(s), wherever those may be, was a strategy the brilliant Bill Rigney used when he managed the early Angels. He called that guy his “stopper,” and his stopper was usually Art Fowler.

h27kim
Trusted Member
2 years ago

This is an excellent scenario: not a lot of flash (since we did get the thunder and lightning…bad pun?) but adds a lot of very solid players who provide depth all around. Something tells me that, with the commitment to Thor, the D-cell ship may have sailed, and I’d rather have several solid players like this.

Guest
Newbie
2 years ago
Reply to  h27kim

Why would Minasian choose 130-ish innings of Syndergaard in 2022 instead of three years of Raisel Iglesias?

h27kim
Trusted Member
2 years ago
Reply to 

It doesn’t matter:. Syndergard has been signed and the rules are that there is only so much room in the budget, and getting several inexpensive pieces with upside makes more sense than Syndergard, Iglesias, and a few random dudes making league minimum. Now, things will be different if PTP really has 60-70 million to work with, but i probably wont believe it even if I see it

h27kim
Trusted Member
2 years ago

I pray to God that that is the case.

Guest
Newbie
2 years ago

I like this scenario a lot. This would give Minasian plenty of time to find an upgrade at SS and one more impact arm or two to create a beast of a team for 2023. Like you, I am a Harrison fan. Another unheralded veteran I would love to acquire is Starling Marte. Maybe use that leftover 3.35 MM, backload a short, multi-year deal, and eat the rest of J-Up’s contract? Offer him an assistant hitting coach job to smooth over hurt feelings?

Marte
Trout
Ohtani
Walsh
Rendon

Oh my!

red floyd
Legend
2 years ago

I thought Arte cared about the lux tax cap, not the actual payroll…. And backloading doesn’t do crap for lux tax.

Jeff Joiner
Editor
Legend
2 years ago

Really nice bullpen. With the way the game is played nowadays, getting 6 innings from a starter is a plus. At best you need two guys to get to your closer.

Biggiswrth
Trusted Member
2 years ago

So mutch depth to this. Great job! Now imagine your plan, but with arte giving you the ok to get the pretty girl!!

Charles Sutton
Editor
Super Member
2 years ago

I regretted I couldn’t figure out a good trade for Cessa last year.