Noah Syndergaard is feuding with New York sports talk radio host Mike Francesca, who he likens to a gas bag.
The Angels signed reliever Aaron Loup to a two year deal worth $17 Million. There is also a club option for 2024.
The Yankees traded Tyler Wade to the Angels for cash or a player to be named later. In a corresponding move, Kean Wong was designated for assignment.
The Angels added Elvis Peguero to their 40 man roster on Friday. They outrighted Chad Wallach to AAA Salt Lake and they released Junior Guerra.
Ex-Angels News
The Giants are in discussion with Alex Cobb.
José Quintana has a deal with the Pirates for one year at $2 Million.
Other Baseball News
All 30 teams voted unanimously to provide housing to the majority of minor league players.
The Athletics have placed a bid on a property in Las Vegas that could be used for a new ballpark.
Anthony DeSclafani re-signed with the Giants.
Former Major League reliever Doug Jones passed away at the age of 64.
Job Postings
Player development positions with the Texas Rangers.
Sports Science Intern with the San Diego Padres.
Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Systems positions.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Sounds like we were in on Matz but he went to the Cardinals for 4/44. Ol’ Cheap N Evil fails again! If only he were an owner who cares about winning and stuff.
He also totally failed to sign Wander Franco today.
It does look like a lot of pitching is moving, and quickly. I would have liked Matz at that price, but we can’t win ’em all. I hope we get another starter and reliever (I hope we can afford both).
(Just an extra thought – pitching is moving, but the ‘top’ pieces (Max, Stroman) haven’t necessarily started falling, and it will be interesting when they do, and if it is before the lockout).
I really get the feeeling, and see the point, that FOs aren’t exactly excited about the top FA arms this year and what they will get paid. I just don’t think Max and Stroman are worth what they are worth at all. I’ll still take em if we get em, it’s not my money, but I wouldn’t want to be the GM that signs em.
I just want pitching. But if it turned out I could have Raisel and Matz, or Jon Gray, or Trevor Anderson for the same money as Stroman next year…. Stroman’s just Chicken, not lobster, and Max is very high mileage Lobster.
To be fair, I haven’t seen Stroman priced in the ‘Max tier’ (making 35M+), but I agree on their relative values, and who I would be happy with (another good starter, like Gray, Matz, Means and Raisel or a closer-type bullpen piece).
Thinking it was maybe the four years that was the gap more so than the yearly figure. Just me completely reading into moves made so far but it seems we know the market rates to get who we want while I can’t say I’ve always felt that way in prior years.
https://www.mlb.com/angels/video/mark-gubicza-on-ohtani-angels?t=mlb-network
Gubby Tuesday video!
Is that you, Darron?
Oh no. Arte totally failed to sign Graveman because he hates pitchers. Let the weeping and gnashing of teeth begin.
Did Jeff Joiner botch the Graveman negotiations! I thought we had confirmed that he was the man behind the Perry mask!
For Gitch – stupid, cheap Arte.
Apparently Perry didn’t read that entire paragraph. I had Graveman pegged at 2/14 in line with FG. 3/24 is basically the same thing.
Hopefully he reads the Farmer trade and the Quantrill trade.
Ol’ Cheap n Evil will always foil the good plans.
I should have finished my ‘if I were’ piece earlier bc my Graveman idea I’d now moot.
was it last year? or the year before? The White Sox made a quick splash and kept signing guys, some of whom were terrific, others not so much. But their activity convinced me they were serious about putting a good team together. Which they did, rising to the top of the AL Central. At the same time we were, apparently, focused on one or two guys who got away and then we had to settle for the Qs of the world.
So I’m pleased that Perry has already gotten Thor and Loup and I expect he’ll get more and shortly, too. Meanwhile the White Sox are continuing their own strategy and I think we’ll see more guys signing there, this week.
Puts our playoff chances in the grave, man.
The beauty of a pun is in the “Oy!” of the beholder.
White Sox To Sign Kendall GravemanBy Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | November 23, 2021 at 2:50pm CDT
2:50pm: The two sides are in agreement on a deal, Heyman tweets.
2:15pm: The White Sox are closing in on a three-year deal with free-agent righty Kendall Graveman, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The Sports One client will be guaranteed around $24MM on the contract, per the report.
Graveman spent the first few seasons of his career as a competent but unexciting back-of-the-rotation starter. A quality strike-thrower who induced plenty of ground-balls, Graveman ate a fair amount of innings during his 2015-18 run with the A’s. But he consistently ran one of the game’s lower strikeout rates, capping his overall upside.
That began to change in September 2020, when the Mariners bumped Graveman into short relief stints. The Alabama native took to his new role with aplomb, adding almost three miles per hour to his average fastball and performing quite well down the stretch. That was only a month’s worth of action, but it was enough to convince the M’s to bring Graveman back and install him in a full-time relief role in 2021.
Them’s a lot of closer types in Chitown….
They are weirdly fixated on bullpens, which I have been told is terrible.
So, about 20 million left to get a closer, fill out the bullpen, add frontline pitching to the rotation, and acquire a major league shortstop. I’m not a math major, but that doesn’t add up.
I see a small chance Arte will increase the budget this year. He could see an opportunity to sign players early while other teams hold back because of a potential lockout. If the lockout happens, Arte doesn’t have to pay the players he signed, if the lockup doesn’t happen then Arte will have a headstart on the competition in building up a team.
One should really hope there’s (a lot more than that). Given Thor’s and Loup’s career histories, even if they perform as well as expected/hope for, they are not going to fill the holes. At least one more solid starter is necessary (2 would be nice, but that’d be pushing it) and a closer and, possibly, a reliable righty setup man (again, pushing it a bit) would help. Between these two, 20 million would barely cut it if at all (if you are not gambling wildly). If Perry has spent this much on essentially complementary pieces (without complements…yet), one should HOPE that that’s a sign that he has the budget to get additional matching pieces.
The math does not add up. The Angels have way too many holes to fill. That’s why I keep saying that 2023 is the year the Angels will get back to the playoffs, not 2022. The 2023 target gives Minasian more time to add pieces to the roster and gives more time for all of the young pitchers in the upper levels of the farm system to develop so that by 2023 a few of them could be ready to play in the MLB and help push the Angels into the playoffs.
I’m largely with your timeline (as you know) but with one caveat. I think the Angels could make a push this year as some young bullpen arms get their chance.
Pina and Crow were sent to the AFL as an audition and both did pretty well. I still think the college closers drafted in 21 are likely to get shots this year. At least one or two of them.
We likely have a much different bullpen in August than we do in April. Hopefully we aren’t too far out of it by then.
In the ideal scenario, I figure we’d add Stroman (15-18 mil AAV), bring back D-Cell (16-18 mil AAV), add a solid RH setup guy (5-8 mil AAV), plus a SS and a good part time catcher. We’d need at least 40 mil on the low end, and possibly as much as 50-60 mil, if we go big on SS on top of everything else. No one expects Arte to go that far, right?
A trade is going to be needed. I still like trying to pry Rojas from Miami for SS or Farmer from Cincy. We could try to add a pitcher in that mix as well. We don’t have a ton of trade chips but we do have enough to fill two holes at once in either deal.
Yep, I suspect we will be trading for a SS. I’d love it the angels could take advantage of a salary dump from a team like the reds and get either Suarez, Farmer, or Moose.
hard pass on Moose. He’d play a bad second base and force Fletcher to short.
I like Fletch at 2nd. There are options out there for SS.
What if that Moose comes with Sonny Gray and two pen arms?
Time for Perry to sign Stroman, and get a Mets style pitching staff but with better defense and run support from the Angels line up (please be healthy this year Rendon and Trout).
With the amount of money that the big clubs generate and the dependence they have on minor league players (future of the franchise) you would think they would treat the minor leagues the same way the NFL treats their players with nutrition and workout plans tailored to each player to maximize their potential. Of course, maybe the do, but these articles about the minor league players and their plight over the last two years indicate they do not. They need to be looked upon as an asset for the future.
“All you’ve done is talk shit and spread toxic crap for a career. Congrats again sweetie, you’re doing great.”
I like Thor more and more each day….
Anti freee speeech again I guess…..
Yes Noah Syndergard made just two starts last season and we’re giving him a lucrative deal. This is America though, and good for him and his family. Is there any other physically broken guy out there we can sign and hope we stole a bargain from the Walmart Bargain Bin?
BTW no posted image yet from me today!!
lol @ anti free speech
Here’s a cookie for not posting any pictures today.
Thor is 100% right about Francesca. Dude just pulls statements out of his ass with no factual backing or research then gets mad if he’s challenged.
You know, just like ever other sports talk guy.
It’s getting so I really can’t watch sports discussion because of the prevalence of gasbags. Cowherd, Bayless, and Smith all make me want to throw heavy objects at the screen. Really miss Patrick and Olbermann together.
That feeling you have is how I feel about all social media and news as well. I find it all unwatchable and unlistenable.
With everyone yelling at each other, it’s just a battle for attention and clicks. I have no interest in listening or watching.
Pretty much the same. At least domestically. I do watch BBC World News fairly often. I’m weird, I like facts to be part of my news and the American outlets either stopped providing them (CNN) or never pretended to provide them (Faux, MSNBC).
BBC has its own issues. I used to spend a lot of time looking at a lot of diff news sources the world over, knowing that none of them is telling the whole truth and you have to piece together the best sense of what the world is really like. But it got to be too much work and I just got tired if doing it.
It at least has what I consider to be a typical news show. 60 minutes of actual subjects without endless hours of debate.
To be clear, that’s the only thing on the network that I watch. So it might well be a lot of mindless talk otherwise.
I think what really helps me is that I already know everything and also have pretty much 100% pure and accurate thoughts so I don’t ever have to watch or listen to anyone. I’ve found I’m just as empowered as I would be if I paid attention to 50 news sources and I’m 100% less stressed out. It also helps if you don’t care what anyone else thinks.
100% restful sleep and low blood pressure to boot…. I should become a health guru, teach people the shoulder shrug. Eat veggies, shrug shoulders, tune out, Christopher Walken, Wilson Pickett, happy brain.
Personally, I only watch news when its a clip from several years ago. Then if that news turned out to be true or false or just plain dumb, I can shove it in everyones faces now telling them I knew back then the news was true/fake/dumb. Its great, I go to news blogs and post those old clips telling people how dumb they were, then they get all riled up and angry because I’m clearly using hindsight to act like I’m smart and I know things. Keep an eye out for me in the CNN, FN & MSNBC comments sections, I go by 2002Hell
HaHa. Great reply.
That’s what I was gonna do with stock tips from 2006. Makes me feel all girthy in the pants.
Good one! 😂 “I think what really helps me is that I already know everything and also have pretty much 100% pure and accurate thoughts so I don’t ever have to watch or listen to anyone.” 😂
PBS Newshour, and reading Reuters and The AP is just about all you need.
BBC WN is pretty good, too.
I read AP for sure. And with Bloomberg having desks around the world is pretty cool to get a more global perspective.
haven’t watched television news in almost 2 years, quite refreshing.
Olbermann – is a clown show. I do like Patrick. If you really want to listen to a good sports talk show, who likes baseball, has baseball guests/writers, WFAN John Kentera, 97.3FM (12-3 PM) based out of SD County. You do need to listen about local prep sports from San Diego area, he’s passionate about SD high school sports. Very pure.
We all knew Olbermann is a clown. Just ask Rev, “The worst person in sports”.
RIP Doug Jones. There are a lot of nice/good comments in the article about him. Scary he was so young, at least I’m my opinion being from his generation.
I’d rather have Raisel than Cobb
Same. Cobb was good but the blisters seem like they’ll be a consistent thing.
I’d rather have Stroman than Cobb or Raisel.
Me too.
I’d like all three.
My preferences, in order
Stroman
Gray
Sign two of Graveman, McHugh, Knebel
Raisel
While I agree that I’d prefer Raisel to Cobb, I’m guessing that Raisel will cost the same as two Cobbs. I’m not sure I want Raisel at the price he’ll fetch.
Yo Perry, time to sign Cobb is now so get to it.