Good morning Angels fans, how are you this morning? Feeling better? Have some links then!
Angels News
With the lockout looming, the Angels got Raisel Iglesias to sign a 4 year deal! Sure the team has been in on players that went elsewhere but Perry got his guy finally.
Speaking of being in on players, Chris Taylor. May be someone to keep an eye on as we wait this lockout out.
Oh yeah, arbitration time is here too. Angels have a few. They did not keep Goose but they did keep the rest.
Shohei won the best DH award. I mean of course he did.
Around Baseball
MLB is in more trouble as, apparently, they used 2 different baseballs in the 2021 season. Manfred continues to be a hack. Now conspiracy theories are abound. Here is a breakdown.
Arb tender deadline is here. Most are kept but, the Tigers don’t keep Matthew Boyd. GET HIM PERRY! Oh he is out with an injury? STILL GET HIM PERRY! Reds also ditch pitcher Brandon Bailey. DO IT!
Graveman signs with White Sox. At least it wasn’t the AL West for once.
Marlins and Rays make a trade, Wendle to Miami. Oh and they keep Alcantara for 5 more years. And trade for Stallings from the Pirates, bust fishy. Oh and trade a catcher to San Diego.
Gomes goes to the Cubs. Catchers are in short supply.
The Union and MLB met to try and avoid the lockout. It went nowhere. Although both want more playoffs. Players though, want only 4 divisions?
Anything I missed? Post for upvotes.
I can still see our rotation falling apart, we have NO ONE who is going to be the horse and eat innings, they just don’t value that in the rotation.
Are we going to act like Lorenzen starting is going to work out? I just don’t understand the logic, seems like a cop out by the front office in my opinion, why not just bring back Cobb? Its starting to bother me the more I think about it.
So, is the Rally Monkey locked in the stadium? Or is he locked out of the stadium, doomed to walk the streets of Anaheim until a deal is reached?
I don’t think he’s union so he can keep showing . Cheap Arte will probably lock him out anyways in order to save a few bananas.
He shows up when the team needs him most, he should be union haha.
I hear he has set up text accommodations in the ditch behind the Stadium.
He just stays in his off season home at the Santa Ana Zoo.
I saw him working the produce area at Vons
Damn Cubs! Not only did they take Stroman away from us but they also signed Michael Hermosillo
That doesn’t hurt as much as Roberto Baldoquin signing with the Cardinals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKcAYMb5uk4
Winter is
ComingHere.Disappointing day. However I will say, I’m happy with who we got, kind of wish we signed Lorenzen for Bullpen. However, I hope after lockout we can either trade for someone or sign Greinke (hopefully we can convince him), Rodon, or maybe Tyler Anderson or Pineda. Just someone who will eat innings. Back up catcher would be nice, I’m okay with giving the Yankee duo a try for SS.
Tim Mead is out of the Skaggs’ lawsuit in both states now. https://www.sbsun.com/2021/12/01/tyler-skaggs-family-asks-court-to-compel-angels-to-produce-documents-in-suit/amp/
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1466235185863659524?s=20
Good job Perry. He picked up an extra $5 million on the 2022 Arte Angel budget by backloading Raisels other 3 years.
Now go out find us some more quality pitchers and a shortstop ( and backup catcher of course)
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1466238300948099074?s=20
Alright. Here’s my list of pitchers I think Perry should accidently bump into while getting coffee during the lockout…
Starters
Tyler Anderson, Zach Davies, Zack Greinke, Kwang Hyun Kim, Michael Pineda,
Kim was in a few of my Perry article drafts. Prior to the C-Rod news I was thinking double barrel long relievers.
We still need innings and he gave the Cards 106.2 of them last year. He doesn’t miss bats so we’d better get a great glove at SS.
Unpopular opinion I’m happy we didn’t sign Stroman, dude seems like a headcase.
Agree…..The near $25 million a year can be better utilized. That is if we even plan on spending another penny this off season.
Mets, Angels and Padres are among many teams to have shown interest in star free agent Kris Bryant, whose marketing is now percolating, Mariners, Phillies, Rockies, Astros among others who have checked in.
I’m sorry????
From Jon Heyman, this man just works for Boras don’t he
Here comes Arte getting his turn on for a position player he can market. If he’s adamant on signing a position player I would prefer he signs a SS like Correa or Story. But Heyman is Boras’ puppet so who knows how reliable this is.
If you trade Marsh or Adell for a SP I could see it.
I’d rather have Marsh, an extra year of control and Jo is likely to leave after free agency, although he has a higher ceiling
I’d love to keep both as well, and I doubt our interest is that serious.
I think that’s what they are exploring. Trade Walsh and someone else for Castillo. Then pick up Freeman? Perhaps Bryant if it’s Marsh. I’m betting either Walsh, Marsh or Adell goes.
Umm and where would he play ?
He is a terrible outfielder.
Boras: “Tell them the Mets, Angels, and ….uh…Padres are interested”
The Angels just need to build a kick ass bullpen like they had in 2002. Iglesias & Loup is a good start. Remember the 2002 starting staff wasn’t that great. So who knows what wil happen next season. If Trout and Rendon are healthy it is going to make a big difference. Cannot win without those two in the lineup for most games.
I’m starting to lean this way now… why is there such a focus on having great starting pitching when starters aren’t asked to do as much as they used to? I mean, a guy goes 6 innings and everyone acts like he’s a hero. Even though there is still 1/3 of the game left to go. Only 20 starters last year even got to 180 innings. Could we be seeing the trend where you get 3-4 guys up to 90-100 innings out of your bullpen? Maybe Iglesias can stay between 70-80 innings as your closer…
What about picking up Kikuchi? He’ll come cheap and he will eat innings
Honestly, I think Suarez or Barria can do just as well. Also, because we’re a bunch of poons, we’ve written off Griffin Canning as a starter and totally forgotten stuff like this… stuff that no one’s ever written about Kooch and hopefully our new pitch doctors are working with as we speak.
This is why we need to concentrate on improving the BP..I like the possibilities and upside of our young starters…. Less trust and confidence in the Herget, Mayers, Quijada, Wantz’s and Warren’s of the world…. not to mention the much esteemed Sammy Selman.
Whatever cash is laying around go grab 1 or 2 more arms for the Bull Pen before the season starts.
Sammy….he gone.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1466237689854717953?s=20
Hopefully Lorenzen is a bullpen piece. He was a good one in Cincy.
That pushes Warren and Mayers down and makes for a solid looking bullpen.
Time to trade for a starting pitcher when the lockout ends.
they can’t trade after tomorrow right?
Not after MLB locks the players out
Tonight. After tonight at 9 pm PST, no signings, etc.
so we can all check out until they have an agreement basically?
Well no. We’ll have 2002Heavens four part IIWPM to read. He’s gonna tell us how to fix everything from the medical staff to the pitching staff to the defense and our MiLB development guys. Plus he’s going to tell us who to draft the next 2 years. With charts. Also, with complete sentences.
Touche
Its 2002. Don’t You mean Douche?
No name calling
I think at 9:00 PT tonight they can no longer trade or sign anyone until the lockout is over.
Options still: Greinke, Rodon, Kershaw. Looks like Lorenzen really will be starting
God, I know it won’t happen, but I would love to root for Kershaw.
Root for him to get back from the IL/DL?
There is also the injury aspect, sure. We already have worries about Syndergaard being able to last all year, we probably don’t need another.
Exactly !
Even with the 2 way swinger Lorenzen we will Still need one more established starter with a 6 man rotation
Well we have….
Ohtani
Syndergaard
Sandoval
Lorenzen
Suarez
Barria/Detmer/Canning
I’m pretty sure they’ll pull an arm in for slot 6 but I’m feelin Fungo’s build the bullpen vibe. Get an 8-10M starter for slot six and spend another 10 on the pen.
Also, if healthy, I don’t think we’ve had a top 3 starters that strong in a long time.
And yeah, guy who just read this and is about to comment. “If healthy”. Hurr Dee Durr eeehtahbagahdix.
Lackey, CJ Wilson, and maybe McCaskill.
He has made 5 starts in 6 years, that is a roll of the dice for Lorenzen. He better start stretching out now to be ready for spring training.
Here, I’ve followed the guy since he was drafted.
He was a starter in college, a first round pick. Spent a partial post draft year in the minors as on “opener” and reliever across 4 levels (Rk-AA). Second season he was all stretched out as a starter as a starter in AA. Next season he got a look in ST and then went to AAA for a few games then they brought him up in put him in the in the rotation where he made 20+ starts.
The same thing happened in 2016, but he came back up a very good reliever in a pen with hardly any arms in it. Word out of the FO was that they were still gonna make him a starter. They actually stretched him out before ST in both 2017 and 18, but the pen still largely sucked and he became an 80+ innings a year reliever. He made 3 starts in 2018 They stretched him out again in 2020 and he made a couple starts. His arm started to hurt. He was shut down. He came back in mid-2021, the plan was still to try him as a starter but they didn’t have time to stretch him out. He got in around 30 innings of meh rusty pen work.
As soon as he was a FA he said he wanted to go someplace and finally get a shot at starting. He signed with the Angels.
It’s not like he’s been a two pitch 40 inning a year reliever his whole career. I mean, he still throws six pitches with a FB, cutter, Change and slider all getting pretty big chunks of the mix. My guess is that Axelrod knows where he’s at and whether he can build endurance up by Feb (March? April?) and OKed the idea so we signed him…. as a starter. It’s still a dice roll, but less so than just a guy who’s made 5 starts in 6 years or still needs to learn a third pitch.
I know he has more than 2 pitches, but he still has never did e a full season as an mlb starter. And there is the trAdition of The Angels medical/training staff and pitcher injuries. This is why I feel it is a gamble, a roll of the dice.
I’d take Greinke
Is Zack Greinke on the clock yet?
https://twitter.com/str0/status/1466193605878501376?s=21
Sometimes there’s nothing you can do…
too bad. Oh well. Rodon?
Wouldn’t mind Rodon.
Better than Godzilla?
Matsui couldn’t pitch anyways. Couldn’t hit either, by the time we got him.
Boras is going to make sure Rodon gets paid now that Stroman is off the table.
Seems likely.
Usually, when a guy has signed with another team, I totally get it. Family in Florida or 40M a year or souless douche wants the Doyers or combination of both wants the Yankees. The Blue Jays and Giants and Astros are good teams. Makes sense. But a three year deal with the Cubs? Stroman wants to see how a rebuild works for 18.5M a year? Thing is he HAD to have been getting offers that matched that from other teams, if not the Angels themselves. Weird.
Also, obviously ol”CheapNEvil botched this. The evidence is so clear.
It definitely is a weird place to go for him, I agree.
I say take the money we’d have paid him and sign Blake Parker, Kwan Hyun Kim, Tyler Anderson and Freddy Galvis. Then trade Suarez, Barria and Adell to the Reds for Sonny Gray, Jesse Solomon and Kolosvary (back up catcher) and be done with it.
But what do I know?