As we know, farm rankings are typically not kind to the Angels. This one, from Bleacher Report, has the Angels at number 26. At least that’s ahead of the Astros and Athletics.
The Angels get a “C” for their 2008 draft. That’s better than a lot of the other years.
Sure enough, Shohei Ohtani is the cover athlete for MLB The Show 22. Noah Syndergaard, for his part, whiles away the hours immersed in the cutting edge of modern American culture.
Scott Boras once again stuck his oar into the labor negotiations. According to him, the players want “fairness in the success of the game.” What success? What game?
Happy belated birthday to Nolan Ryan. Here is some condensed footage of his first no-hitter. Here is the Robin Ventura headlock. Good times. Happy birthday also to the great Jackie Robinson.
Doug Glanville wrote this lengthy article for ESPN about what it was like to play it straight in the PED era.
What does everybody think about a possible trade for Didi Gregorius? Would he be Jose Iglesias V2.0?
Is anybody interested in a scholarship to the MLB 2022 SABR Virtual Analytics Conference?
Former Cubs player and manager Gene Clines died at the age of 75.
Puerto Rico lost again at the Caribbean Series. This time they lost to the Dominican Republic.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
No progress today. Delayed Spring Training likely. Who will blink first – the millionaires, the billionaires…..or the fans?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33194573/spring-training-likely-delayed-cba-yield-no-progress-mlb-mlbpa-sources-say%3fplatform=amp
No on
GigiDidi. I’d rather see Upton play SS than Didi.As for the farm ranking – can’t argue with it since Marsh and Adell graduated. It sucks to suck.
The only memory I have of Gene Clines is from when he was the hitting coach of the SFG and he exclaimed “Oh My God!” when Bonds hit a home run off of Washburn in Game One of the World Series.
That was him? Ok, I remember him.
Our farm system has one top thirty player Detmers and one top 60 player Bachman according to Keith Law and if you group tiers by increments of 30 as Eric suggests we have one of each. I will take that and not worry about our ranking, especially if they contribute, as well as recent graduates Marsh and Adell.
and those rankings, throughout the years, are filled with “top prospects” who went nowhere. A more accurate assessment will come when the minor league seasons start. Speaking of which, since the dispute is between MLB and the MLBPA, are the minors affected? Will their season start whether or not there’s an agreement?
Even if these rankings usually dont pan out, I’d still like more swings at the pinata of top 100 guys.
Happy Year of the Tiger all.
As if I needed a reason to play Eye of the Tiger.
https://youtu.be/208SiwbYrsc
Now I want to know. What was the topic of Glanville’s senior thesis?
I’d definitely take Didi. He’s a real SS and he’s gregorius.
I’d rather have him than Simmons or Igeslias.
Hoping for Story though. Maybe I’m in minority but I’d rather see us get a real playoff caliber SS than another pitcher at this point.
Looking at Didi’s stats, it looks a lot like 2020 (in the shortened season) was the outlier, and his 2019 and 2021 campaigns show him slowing down with both the bat and the glove. I doubt he ‘returns to form’ if one hopes that is his 2017 and 2018 seasons – and he certainly isn’t worth 15M at this rate.
Iglesias was better even before we cut him last year, and Simba at least retains defensive value. There are better SS to be had, for less, than trying to recycle an ex-Yankee, including both Tyler Wade and (second half of 2021) Luis Rengifo.
I have responded to this before. DeJong’s trend lines look horrible – his stats have gotten worse every year since he debuted, and at 27 he should be hitting his peak, not coming off the worst offensive season of his career. I see no upside anymore.
I actually think DeJong’s a good risk to take. Even if he’s stuck hitting .200 with 15HR his defense is good and we have the bats to cover for him (or, those bats are all hurt again, in which case blowing a ton of money on Story instead of pitching would still be moot.) If he does hit, even a 100 OPS+, well, bonus.
It’s all goose gobble though cause the Cardinals have mostly indicated that they feel the same way and haven’t made any signals they’d trade him. So it’s a semi-good idea that Arte will “fail” to do because the Cardinals will likely fail to trade him to us. Oh the cheapness. Oh the evil.
I don’t mind giving Wade a chance if we sign more good pitching, but if Rengifo is a starter it’s as if we raised the flag of surrender before the season has even started.
I’m willing to bet Rengifo is not the starter and I’d 100% agree on the look of surrender.
Maybe so, but I am encouraged by his splits – he did far better after being called up in September. Hard to count on – but he is still young and could have (finally) taken a step forward. I wouldn’t mind a nice ST competition between Rengifo, Wade, Velasquez, (perhaps also including Villar). I don’t know about Rojas and Mayfield – do they stick around?
He did. He played like a man who didn’t want to go home down the stretch.
And considering his divorce and legal problems, I can’t blame him ha ha.
Yes our diminutive fugitive’s September call up resulted in a stellar level batting average or .250 with an on base percentage that almost hit .300 (.299) . While crushing 4 extra base hits (all HR’s in 88 AB’s for a SLG pct. of .386) I guess you can classify this as a resurgence compared to his earlier season work of .151/.189/.233 . but I’d rather get the same offensive output out of someone like Andrelton Simmons while playing much much better defense.
I’d actually kind of like it if they brought in a guy like Simmons AND had the 3 young men battle for the nice locker.
Better make it 4 guys. Don’t forget about Brendon Davis. He was added to the 40 man roster after playing his last 20 games at AAA at the shortstop position. I’m not sure what his defense is like but He responded by hitting .363/.457/.750 in 94 PA’s. Even if you adjust for league and park factors that’s pretty intriguing.
Rojas/Mayfield and the sainted Plumber may stick but don’t play short. I understand why the Angels haven’t ditched Rengifo. He’s talented, he’s young, and he’s not in anyone’s way right now. He sucked, then he was good, all in a completely lost season. Just dumping him cause of bitch noises from some fans doesn’t help anything. Having him fight it out in ST with the other two guys may at least produce a strong depth piece out of them. Or hell, maybe he’ll be good. If not, as Vera/Paris/Jackson move up Rengifo will fall off the 40 man and go be an all star for the Brewers.
Or we could go plan B, where I screw up my face real tight, stamp my feet, and demand they get rid of him because he doesn’t make me (or, um, my team) feel like a champion and I don’t want to see him. He’s sooooo 2019.
Hard pass on Didi. His production has been bad for several years and at age 32 he’s not going to improve.
I’d take Iglesias at 20% of the price over Didi.
I’m actually more and more on board with signing Villar and just having an infield rather than a set infield.
Fletcher, Wade, Villar to fill the keystone spots with both Fletcher and Villar capable of spelling Rendon. Maddon can play match ups, keep guys fresh.
I like Villar for his hitting and flexibility. He’s not an awesome fielder, but if we move him around based on who’s starting, I think he will be a valuable addition at a fair price.
Same. And I’d like another dependable bat as we have no idea how Marsh and Adell will do next year.
And this depth chart looks nice:
3B – Rendon, Fletcher, Wade
SS – Fletcher, Villar, Wade
2B – Villar, Fletcher, Wade
Really I’d imagine Fletcher and Rendon play pretty much every day barring injury. But Rendon could get some DH time to stay fresh vs. lefties, injuries happen, etc.
I’d still rather snag a real SS like Farmer from Cincy, but Villar will only cost money and not a ton of it. Plus he’s a switch hitter with no real split issues.
I haven’t heard any rumblings of trading Farmer at all from Reds land. He’s cheap, solid and versatile…. exactly what the “well, we tried” new look Reds are looking for. Honestly I think our best chance would be to sign Villar (if he’ll come here) and hope his defense is OK at SS.
My secret, possibly stupid idea is to sign Josh Harrison, have him play 2B, move Fletch to SS, and have Velasquez back them both up. And sign moooaaarrr pitching.
Of course, having a five day Spring Training will bugger this to hell.
Villar is probably a better hitting Iglesias, but probably the same defensively.