This just in! The Angels need starting pitching. They really do.
Here is a FAQ about the Collective Bargaining process. The minor league business goes on as usual.
Trevor Megill signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Abraham Almonte signed a minor league deal with the Braves. Jon Duplantier signed a minor league deal with the San Francisco Giants.
MLB has removed all the player profile images from its official site. The Players themselves are having some fun with it.
Nick Martinez has a four year deal in place with the Padres but nobody can sign the paperwork until the lockout is over.
Freddy Galvis may end up going to the Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks.
Tomoyuki Sugano will stay with the Yomiuri Giants.
And now for the umpire calisthenics.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
What about trading Walsh in a Castillo package and signing Freddy. (I personally don’t think we’re going to have Ohtani money without a hometown deal.) If we aren’t there at the deadline, trade Ohtani. Do this, pick up a defensive specialist SS and I think we’re ready to go. If we are there at the deadline – we top grade at SS and other positions of need.
If the Angels want to go pure defense at SS I actually think they can get away with signing a guy like Erik Gonzalez and then heading to camp with him, Rengifo, Velasquez and Mayfield all in the pile. If we want a little more offense I think Hanser Alberto’s actually a dark horse candidate, as is Charlie Culberson, to be OK defensively and provide a .650 OPS.
Or sign Josh Harrison and move Fletcher to short with Velasquez on hand for defensive help…. mostly because I just have a weird attraction to Harrison and he seems to have The Kenny Lofton Effect where teams he’s on play up well. I don’t think you can get a middle infield with more grit than Fletcher/Harrison.
Then spend on MOAR PITCHING.
MOAR PITCHING!!! All I see is the Pitt Penguins Baby Gif when I read this.
I like all your SS suggestions, as well as adding more PITCHING!!
Perry’s grade thus far is a C. The bullpen is better, starting pitching is still an unknown as Thor and “the guy from Cincy” are question marks.
The top free agent starters are off the boards now, so Perry will need to trade one of Adell or Marsh and one of Detmers or Canning to get a frontline starter. No GM is going to cut him a deal since there’s no hiding the Angels weaknesses, and the price paid will likely cause wailing and gnashing of teeth in the blogosphere.
Yeah I think Perry getting Raisel from Cincy last year in a pure money-saving move by the Reds was a move several other teams kicked themselves for having missed the opportunity on. Don’t think that happens again this year with everyone knowing Cincy wants to cut more costs and has 2-3 SP that could be gettable via trade.
Hats off to Perry for getting Iglesias, he deserves more credit than I’ve seen thrown his way for that acquisition, which cost nothing except paying his salary.
I think a C is a bit harsh. Thor is a risk, but HUGE potential to be an Ace. Getting Raisel back makes him at least a B, he kept the backend of the bullpen secure. He also didn’t have enough time to finish up all the things that the roster needs. I’m sure some of his trades were predicated on FA’s coming off the board. I’d give him a B for now, with the change to swing eitehr way, A if he gets another front line starter, or C if he forgets about SS and stays in house to fix it, or overpays for another bat.
I agree, there is a much higher change Syndergaard can be a 4.0+ WAR pitcher coming back from surgery than there was, e.g. that Harvey or Quintana could be after multiple seasons of pitching below that level.
I’m in for a “C” too. Thor on an innings limit, Loup is good (not great) but pen quality remains below the competition, going the 4th year on Iglesias I think was a reach. Outside of the Phillies, I don’t think anyone else was eager to fork up compensation pick and Perry should not be graded “high” on this. Am I glad he is back, yeah but he only keeps the quality at the same level as last year, does not increase the potential and depth more. Lorenzen as a starter? Not a bad flyer. Summary…we’re about where we were last year (behind Seattle and Houston) and maybe a 2nd place finish if Thor excels.
I agree with the Senator Fungo and would add that Lorenzen as a starter at almost $7 million is a headscratcher when we could’ve gotten Cobb back for $10.
You mean for $20 million
$10 million per year. Was just trying to compare that on a yearly basis, it’s close.
The Cobbster Wasn’t going to sign with us for one year. so its about as close as nuclear warfare.
Not all of the top arms are off the board. Still have Rodon and Kershaw, plus plenty of trade targets
And Eephus Greinke too.
He said top targets
Beggars can’t be choosers.
Always makes me pause when the home team did not even issue a QO. AKA White Sox with respect to Rodon.
I personally think Perry is done obtaining starting pitchers. His OCR article pretty much shows his giddiness on how he improved the team and that he is DONE outside of a position player OF or SS.
I thought that Fletch’s writeup of D Cell’s signing presser demonstrated more of PTP’s obfuscation of future roster moves than it did his giddiness of his currently constructed roster.
My sense of “reading between the lines” from comments made of most all of the Angel beat writers is the Angels are still not dome and may in fact increase payroll for the first time in a long time.
We will see.
I think it makes sense to increase the payroll to about $200M, and actually think that is what will happen (assuming the players they target want to come here)
I hope you’re right. He seemed to give one of those, “we never stop looking for ways to improve the roster.” Not a, “f-yea, we are looking for a starter or bullpen help.”
I’m still in the dark, every time anyone brings this up, not just you, as to which GMs are you guys talking about that make those “f yeah…” statements? They always make vague “of course we’re targeting… we always want more pitching…. we are always looking to improve…. gray is my favorite color…” statements as apposed to the GM Rick Flair “Hell yeah we’re gonna get two more starters, some pen arms, a shortstop, a case of Wild Turkey and some cheerleaders with big ol’ tits! WOOOO!” comments you all seem to need to hear.
Who are these GMs? And why would they head into contract or trade negotiations with their nose wide open like you seem to think they should? If they do what you want it just adds more pressure on them to do something and pay more to get it done.
As is the case with most teams, PTP is probably in a spot where he’s making a case for various FAs and trade targets payroll wise to Arte. If he get’s the OK and the other parties involved work with him he’ll probably bring on more guys. That, or he’s been told he has another 12M or 20M or what ever and he can do what ever he wants. This close to a new payroll high mark it’s probably closer to the later.
I actually think/hope he’s gonna do what I know we both want. Despite what CtPG Brain seems to think, you can’t make a plan that includes everyone failing and then having a fall back in place. Thus I am pretty sure that Thor won’t be on a sharp innings limit for the year and the plan is for him to be fairly good.
That gives us a top 3 in the rotation of Ohtani, Thor and Sandoval. If those guys all pitch as expected that’s a top three that’s better than we’ve had in ten years.
I think PTP will add an inexpensive SS. I also think he intends to try to bolster the lower half of the Rotation with Lorenzen and another pick up. This is, of course, if he can’t trade for another starter. But if he signs a guy like Anderson or Pineda, and a pen arm like Blake Parker, it relegates arms like Detmers/Junk etc to depth/spot starts and makes guys like Marte depth pen arms.
That’s a much stronger position than we were in most of last season and it only gets better if we luck out and trade for a guy like Sonny Gray. PTP’s in a spot where no matter which way he pivots things get better, which I’m guessing is the plan. Standing pat will only happen if none of his options pan out on the other end.
NEED MOAR PITCHING!!
NEED REALLY GOOD PITCHING
(why are we yelling?)
AGREED BUT I’M NOT YELLING!!!!
LOUD NOISES
Looking at Vlad here, I’m reminded of the fantastic 2003/04 off-season that Bill Stoneman put together for the Angels, signing four terrific players: Kelvim Escobar, Bartolo Colon, Jose Guillen, and Vladimir Guerrero.
I remember nearly peeing my pants when I heard the news that no one was expecting — that the Angels had signed Vlad, a superstar still in his prime.
I went to spring training soon after to get my first good look at Vladimir (I had never watched an Expo game), and I was a bit puzzled with what I saw. He walked with a noticeable limp, like one leg was longer than the other. But that didn’t affect his play, as he and Guillen hit home runs that spring like the opposing pitchers were 12 year old little leaguers.
Stoneman had an interesting playing career — he had 45 career complete games as a starting pitcher, and the first CG of his career was a no-hitter for the Expos against the Phillies on April 17, 1969. This was during the Expo’s first year of existence, and it was the 9th game the Expos had ever played.
Then for the last CG game of his career, Stoneman threw another no-hitter, this one against the Mets in October of 1972.
Stoneman swung for the fences, and blasted it out that Winter. Too bad he never was able to find another hitter to place behind Vlad. Uhaul gave us a glimpse, but the constant WE CAN’T TRADE THE FUTURE MVP’S Mathis, DMac, Howie, and Wood, continued the Angel tradition of having mind blowing talent of the best player in baseball (Vlad), and failing to put the pieces together. Sorry, “we fly flags” to me means championship banners, not playoff participation “pennants”.
Still remains the only year Arte paid a competitive balance tax. Big Daddy fell to us late in that offseason (Mid January) since the Doyers were in turmoil and no-one else would pull the trigger on the deal Vlady’s agents wanted. This was back when Arte still had a pair.
I met Guillen that offseason at fanfest. He wasn’t a big guy but I found him engaging and high energy . He really wanted to show me his cannon tattoo that he got on his right bicep to commemorate his prodigious throwing arm. The dude was definitely wrapped a little tight. Probably juicing back then so no wonder why he ended up going after Sosh in the dugout. I still can’t believe that Stoneman was able to flip that head case to the Expos/National for Juan Gone & Mighty Mouse tits. What a steal.
Sadly, Arte still had balls…. and beer goggles… thus Pujols/CJ/Hambone. I think that big FA class was what set Arte on the path of “Who needs a farm? I will just buy guys to fill the MLB roster….” then the string of 18M per WAR players started drinking his milkshake.
That and the pitching market changed so that only cheeseburgers like Stroman and day before the date veal like Max wind up on the FA menu.
Cokehead was the year after Grandpa and Nibbles.