The boys are back in town and I’m looking forward to a game at the Big A with my family. Yes, the team is out of it but a few hours at the ballpark with my son is always a good thing. I just wonder who will start the home stand as an Angel but not end it as one.
MLB’s trade deadline is Tuesday at 3 PM Pacific. That gives Perry just a few days to try to unload some current talent in hopes of adding future talent.
At this stage, trying to keep our links section up to date is a fool’s errand. The best site to follow all the action and rumblings is mlbtraderumors.com.
Some outlets are taking the simple buyer/seller approach. EastSPiN will give out immediate grades on every trade.
And the biggest name being floated around is Juan Soto. Here’s what you need to know.
The Yanks got the trade wheelings and dealings going, shipping out three pitching prospects for Andrew Benintendi. One of the prospects, Beck Way, is a guy I suggested we target.
Yes, I’ve posted a lot of scenarios from the trade simulator at times. Naturally, comments tend to veer towards the player rankings themselves and the usefulness of the tool. The Benintendi trade shows again that while the site isn’t flawless, it is usually pretty close to real life.
Far and away the biggest news in Angel land this week was the status of Mike Trout’s back. He’s downplaying the doomsday reports and saying he’ll be back.
The Athletic did a nice piece on Reid Detmers turning around his season with one tape session in AAA.
So if our relievers are learning they’re tipping pitches from Trout and our starters are getting better help in Salt Lake, what exactly is our MLB coaching staff doing?
Before we go, I’ll leave you with one more trade to ponder:
Here we give San Diego some needed luxury tax relief by taking on Hosmer for three years and Snell for this year and next. The Padres also add immediate MLB help and two cost controlled players for their competitive window.
The Angels add Snell to their six man rotation next year at a cost of $8 million less than we paid Thor this year for likely better production. Hosmer and Walsh are close enough by WAR to not see a huge drop off. But we snag our shortstop here. In short, first base, shortstop, and a key rotation piece for right at $27 million in salary. This is paid for with Thor and Bradley coming off the books.
Enjoy your weekend. Keep one eye on the games and one on the trade tracker.
for your amusement and entertainment. I know some of you enjoy my absurd looks at the numbers so here you go.
It seems the last wild card spot will take 87 wins to get. The Angels would have to finish 45-18. Hey. That doesn’t sound totally impossible for a good team, does it?
I suspect it’s more likely we finish 18-45 though.
Giants just lost Joc to the DL.
We should trade them Adell!
I think we could get a good prospect in return… maybe Wil Wilson?
Sam Blum in the Athletic has a piece about trading Ohtani doesn’t make any sense if there isn’t a coherent plan for rebuilding.
Keeping Ohtani doesn’t make sense if there isn’t a coherent plan.
Nothing makes sense if there isn’t a coherent plan!
I think we have our new GM! When can you start?
Sure. It makes more sense to do nothing and have him leave after 2023, then explain that you didn’t trade him for parts because you didn’t have a coherent plan for rebuilding that Sam Blum could see with his Lylin Eyes.
But we’ll get a Comp Round Draft pick
Exactly. Even for Arte’s wallet, going with mega bucks for 2023 might be better than burning everything down.
You don’t even need to burn it down. This is the weird thing. We will have Trout and Rendon next year and plenty of salary to work with especially if Ohtani is not here.
Maybe Walsh or Ward gets dealt too if the offers are enticing? Otherwise keep them here and you literally have a lineup of Fletcher, Trout, Rendon, Ward, Walsh, Stassi, Marsh with some money to upgrade either SS or 2B and the OF with a veteran.
Healthier years from the big guys and we are probably better than this 2022 mess even without Ohtani pitching.
We were looking forward to the lineup with Rendon, Trout, Fletcher, and Walsh this time last year. And see where that got us.
Not looking forward to it, just saying its the meat of a team that was crushing the ball for 6 weeks earlier this year. No reason to think it couldn’t be a watchable, not-dogshit team in 2023 if a new manager comes in and straightens the locker room out.
I like Sam but isn’t the act of trading Ohtani kind of Step 1 of a coherent plan for rebuilding?
Exactly. And the prospects Ohtani nets should be MLB ready or near it. At least one should fill a hole next year, meaning you don’t have to spread that money quite as thinly.
I’d really want to get out from Iggy’s contract.
Arte should be embarrassed if Ohtani is traded. There really isn’t a price value for what Ohtani is worth because he is an international star. Just a shame that the team is in situation.
Imagine, going down in history as the owner and GM who traded Babe Ruth v.2.0. But it is not on them, Ohtaini wants out and he is in control of his own destiny.
Arte Frazee?
It is 1000% on them. He wants out because of the club’s failures.
Ohtani is doing them a favor by being publicly non-commital about re-signing here. The media pressure may save them from themselves thinking they can keep him when he’s mentally moved on.
You get it, exaclty right. Which is why his name made news yesterday and suddently, the Halos are “listening.”
https://twitter.com/TC_DustDevils/status/1553119185227550720?s=20&t=RUM-hYRB8xlPc58xw6Zr7A
And Thicc Boi goes to AA. Kinda different
Thicc raked tonight. Made it on base all five plate appearances. His double was high off the wall and a bomb in many parks.
12.8 career WAR vs 3.6 for Walsh. This year it ain’t close .281 26 HR’s 84!!! RBI’s for the Polar Bear vs .240 13HR’s 41 RBI’s…….GOOD GAWD!!!
💩 💩 😫 😫
Just curious, are you actually an Angels fan? It’s ok if you aren’t, but I’ve been here for about a month now, and you by far and away post the weirdest shit here on this site.
But can’t you see? Our round 400th pick isn’t as good as arguably the best 1st baseman in baseball? Who was a 1st rounder?
Lol
Should definitely be traded……….a sell while high situation and is most likely having a career year and sucks defensively no matter where he plays. AND LETS FACE IT, I’M RIGHT AND THE REST OF CTPG IS ALWAYS WRONG ANYWAY
💪 💪 💪 💪 👈
Sure. Trade him too.
Ummmm, YOU ARE WRONG.
I expect that I should be mostly wrong about baseball: what’s a fan if he’s actually right? If we were mostly right, we wouldn’t be wasting time watching sports.
If the Padres don’t get Soto and want to go for it, how about Abrams, Hassel and Merrill for Ohtani?
How about…no
Recd 10 times if I could.
Hassel has a good stick, good one
And Abrams could be great too. Merrill is another first-rounder that is tearing it up at Lake Elsinore. I don’t know if the Padres would do it – but I think we’d be foolish not to with what it’s going to take to keep Ohtani. 3 first-rounders who are all still looking promising.
Arte wants their souls too
I’d do it. It would be expanded to move money around but I’ve liked the Padres as a match. Cardinals, Blue Jays and Mets as well.
I am, in general, a contrarian and it has served me pretty well in life. When the majority are saying to do one thing (like buy a particular stock) my inclination is it is time to sell. Similarly when the public sentiment is overly negative, I generally start looking for opportunities.
It is for this reason that I am leaning towards trading Ohtani while his value is high. I realize it is counter to the prevailing thought process but any number of things could happen next year – extended injury not to mention a regression at the plate or on the mound. Because he does both, any degree of lesser performance on offense or pitching will significantly lower his value.
There is a big risk keeping Ohtani with so many variables. My contrarian inclination is to trade him while his value is maximized.
What are you talking about? Everyone and their brother on this site (and the MSM) are saying to trade Ohtani. The contrarian position is to say “don’t trade Ohtani !”
Man: Is this the right room for an argument?
Other Man:(John Cleese) I’ve told you once.
Man: No you haven’t!
Other Man: Yes I have.
Splunge!
I thought this was getting hit on the head lessons?
There is an irony in this, but you are right.
The consensus is to trade Ohtani now when his value is high.
The problem is the Angels organization couldn’t build around the two best players in the league to even field a decent team.
How much better can they do with a bunch of prospects?
No. What everyone on this site has said is…
“Arte. Boo f***in hoo!
Ohtani DEFINITELY wants out!
Why won’t Arte go away but leave us 1B$ in reparations?
Trout and Ohtani both definitely want to get out of here.
It makes absolutely NO SENSE to trade Ohtani. Who is definitely leaving.
Huge Contracts always blow up, look at Trout now.
We can’t develop prospects we trade for.
Don’t sign Ohtani to a huge contract, but don’t trade for prospects! But also sign Ohtani….. who is sure to leave.
Arte. Boo f***ing hoo!
Dear God. Make me a bird so ah can fly far far away…”
The catch is that the uncertainty goes both ways. Even if the trade nets us a haul, it will be a combination of raw prospects and interesting but flawed, even if young to youngish major leaguers. They may be worth the risk if the team is skilled at turning around interesting but flawed players or developing raw prospects. One central problem that everyone agrees on is that the Angels have not been any good at either of these for some time. So the danger that, whatever happens, we’ll lose out in a few years is high. Indeed, the only certainty is that Ohtani is the biggest thing in baseball, possibly ever, and he’ll stay there for at least few years. So we are talking about trading a combination of short term gold with long term uncertainty (probably at very high monetary cost) for a lot of uncertainty at all times, and that does not seem quite right.
Of course, the added danger is that, if Ohtani’ values winning highly as a short to medium goal and Arte cannot commit to turning the team around FAST (and none of us realistically thinks he can), then Arte’s money, regardless of how much, is no good to him. This is the only reason that I could see that really justified trading him now.
Yes, but what your logic suggests is to roll the dice and try and keep Ohtani and build around him and Trout – despite the risk that Ohtani leave at the end of 2023.
This is what makes sense to me.
Build around your strengths come what may.
Yes. I’d been waffling on this daily for a while, but going big may be the only worthwhile thing to do…even for Arte’s wallet.
But Ohtani is 1000% sure to leave in 2023. I’ve heard it over and over again on a website full of baseball genius that I follow. Those guys are never wrong. So why not trade him for what ever we can get?
Especially if it’s for 3 or 4 of the Mets or Padres or Dodgers or Red Sux or Cardinals top prospects. Plus some other guys.
If Arte goes into 2003 Arte mode, Ohtani ain’t going anywhere.
And we will be front and center to experience his historic IL stints over the next decade.
He’ll stay there at least a few years?
Challenge accepted
I’ll say he’ll be staying as all star caliber two way player at least until the end of 2025. I will bet a nice dinner at a restaurant of your choice, if both of us are still around, any time after the end of 2025 season, if you are willing to go along
I do love dinner.
Usually I get the references, but you lost me on this one…
A stupid old legend is that the Big A is built on an old Guardian burial ground.
Just go back and look at equal (is there such thing ) or lesser quality All star for prospect trades the last 5 to 10 years. The team getting the prospects rarely wins.
Yeah, in fact I think I posted something similar a few times.
“They may be worth the risk if the team is skilled at turning around interesting but flawed players or developing raw prospects. One central problem that everyone agrees on is that the Angels have not been any good at either of these for some time. “
When were we ever good at this?
Examples please.
Actually, it would be kind of cool if they traded Ohtani… and who ever else they can… and then took a pile of money and raided the Astros, Rays, Cardinals, Braves, Brewers etc development depts. Just up everyone’s salary by 25% and move em on out to Arizona/Cali
Lets do both. We can be the Doyers then.
2002. How we resurrected Kevin Appier’s dead arm, I have no idea. (Besides making quality relievers out of Donnelly and Weber).
I’m of the same mind. I won’t cry if we get to keep Ohtani…. if you’re gonna risk financial ruin why not do it with someone you really like?
BUT. Anytime you have knobs like Rich Eisen and Dan Patrick, guys who can only name 3 players on the Angels, saying “YOU DON’T EVER….” about something I gotta ask “Do I? Never?”
I’ve resigned to the fact that barring some miracle next season, Ohtani is done as an Angel, whether that’s this trade deadline or upcoming offseason or when he walks as an FA.
But my stance is, if Ohtani, being the most valuable player on the team right now, and probably in all of baseball, is considered being traded, the team might as well do a fire sale and trade everyone, including Trout. Dump him for mostly salary relief and maybe whatever prospects a team can throw in the deal. No more of this “we’re-rebuilding-but-not-really” dance they do each year, and give false hope that they will be competitive each time they start the season. At least, if the team is rolling out the likes of Adell, Marsh, Sandy, etc,, there’s not a lot of expectations they will go far in the season, and in the event they do, then it will be a pleasant surprise.
Trading others will be costly, in terms of both money and prospects. Most teams cannot take on big contracts. Those that can’t won’t pay much price for them. The only way they’ll be dealt is as salary dump at best and, in some/many cases, we’d have to pay in money or prospects to have others take them on.
Then screw it time to crank up the party boat even if we go down with the ship.
https://fansided.com/2022/07/29/mlb-5-trade-packages-shohei-ohtani/amp/
All prospects and no proven players.
Forget it.
Gore on the IL. If he were traded to the Angels he’d be done.
He might already be done, lol.
But yeah, prospects come to the Angels and their careers die.
Jack, that’s what I’m thinking. He might already be done.
But isn’t it engraved on the Big A to “give us your lame and broken players”
Give us your interesting but flawed players, then we’ll break them and make them lame for good
All these trades, if they are not helping Trout in 2023, the answer is NO.
Trading Ohtani right now would be crazy – you want to have Trout spend the next few years hoping on prospects???
Yes. Via the “Rendon Measure” of responsibility Trout has pretty much shit the bed for years now. So now he may get to sit through a rebuild.
Which of the five teams is the best at evaluating and developing talent? That should be the first gate to a trade.
The Mets just dont have anything at the big league level. I like the Cards as partners, Gorman, Carlson and 3 prospects.
Dodgers are good trade partners too. Ohtani and Rengifo for May, Lux, Pages, Busch, Maddux Bruns. Done. Miller will have a TJ before too long. Make LA payup.
Arte just wanted to own a baseball team to look good for his bros. He never said he intended to manage and put a winning product on the field. WE are the suckers plain and simple. Look inward.
So why did it happen the first 6 years of his ownership?
you mean why did the team do well? It makes sense that what was there was already good and that the disintegration was gradual.
Accpet for, you know, all the guys that arrived after Arte but before Albert…
Yes. Look inward amigo.
I would not do that Walsh trade above. Snell is a shell. A shell of his former self. Walsh and Ward are our future. Don’t trade either one, especially for players on the downsides of their careers. Abrams is still essentially a prospect and you all know how I feel about prospects.
Watch the Dodgers get Soto and just completely and totally make MLB a joke.
The rest of 2022 and the next couple of years will be ridiculous.
It will be like when Durant went to the Warriors. It made the next couple of seasons completely boring and uninteresting. Everybody knew who would win it all. That is exactly what will happen if Soto goes to the Dodgers.
Until Kawhi and the Raptors came along . There always going teams like the Raptors or 2019 Nats or 69 Mets or even the 2002 Angels there’s always going to be some unheralded Team out of nowhere to beat the Goliaths. That’s why we’re fans in the first place .
Well, people forgot that the main reason the Raptors won was that Golden State got injured Both Durant and Klay went down, otherwise it would have been yet another title for the spoiled Warriors fans.
So…. just like the Angels 2022 ALCS appearance?
Huh? I’m only a fan if, come day 1 of training camp, my teams look like they have already won a championship on paper. If I can’t list out exactly how we will win no matter what happens I get mad. And that makes me sad.
And there’s always the 2016 Cavaliers…
Even better… watch the Dodgers get both Soto and Ohtani.
Good trade for the Dads in my opinion. If that frees them up for another trade then I say go for it! F the Dodger’s dynasty!
Trade everyone. Get rid of all our big contracts, any player with trade value too. Then hire a POBO. I want to watch us root for a POBO, a room full of computers, Ty Detmers and Brandon Marsh for a couple years. Then NEVER sign another player to a large contract again unless they are 25 years old. Even if he’s our player. Never trade for a player and then extend them past 32 years old either. Never. It’s just not worth the hassle. Not even to “get that ace”.
Give CoachDad and Jr GM what they want. The team will probably be better AND I can watch them shit themselves constantly over Arte’s unwillingness to invest in high end free agents. Win win for me.
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1553093906937524224?s=20&t=_h15NGLh_YXuZg_PgFYI4g
I can’t wait to see what he does there! Any word on Neto?
Neto to high A- Tri City
thanks!
They need a boost too. They’re the worst team ( by record) in our system hopefully his presence is contagious
The Pandas need a boost. This could be fun.
Get him running laps around the bases.
#HaloWeightLossProgram
Ohtani situation is fascinating. Convincing Arte to relinquish his chosen one (bigger than Trout, Pujols, , Vlad combined) blows the Soto talk out of the water, imho.
Arte needs to match the payroll of the other three LA/NY teams. If he knocks on the cap a little closer, we have a SS.
And he needs to invest millions in development .
I like Artie and I like that he spends but right now he needs to spend more. He was willing to sign Cole. He needs to keep Ohtani and get more top talent. That’s my fix.
Our plan for SS in 2022 was complete crap.
In November we get Dansby at SS and make Ohtani richer than the winning lottery ticket tonight.
Sign Bassit.
Sign Judge.
Sign Turner.
Go crazy Arte
You know well he won’t do that.
Crazy Arte signed Pujols
Crazy Arte signed Hamilton
Crazy Arte signed Wilson
Crazy Arte signed Hunter
Crazy Arte welcomed Wells
Crazy Arte spends $$$
He just needs to keep spending but this time on the right guys
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again expecting the same result. How more overpaid free agents have to come here and falter before we come to realize that it’s not working? Or are we just going to hit on 20 on blackjack all the time?
I was a fan of the GMJ and CJ Wilson signing and now see that may have been a bad idea. But fans (not just the Angels fans) will see all of these overpaid free agents signing with their team doing nothing and then double down saying “it was still worth it”. It’s just red meat thrown to the fans during the offseason.
Yeah. The insanity cliché again. rad.
My last one for the week. I’ll be back with another one next week.
I’ll be honest. Without using the benefit of hindsight, I still believe the Pujols and Wilson signings were good, it just didn’t work out. No one expected Pujols to nosedive the way he did. I expected the last 4 years of his contract to be an albatross, but I didn’t expect the front end of it to be such as well.
As for Wilson, I thought it was a good signing either. It provided a legitimate #2 after Weaver.
Torii was a good signing, wasn’t he? If anything, his signing made the team moved on from GMJ – THAT was the bad signing.
Hamilton? The less said about him, the better.
Hunter signing was good…no problems there. Wilson signing looked good on paper..:don’t fault management there tbh. The others…eh
The Hunter signing was very good, so was signing Vlad and even a dark horse signing (Darren Oliver).
Signing them all is rather obviously impossible:. Even if we go for broke and add 60 mil to payroll, and, if by some miracle, manage to keep Shohei onboard, that will be barely enough to pay on good (not great) SP and a good shortstop, plus, maybe a few bench/bullpen pieces, unless we absorb players with big salaries and little production like Hosmer, in which case things will get more complicated. The problem with approach, even at that kind of money, we still lack depth, unless we get very lucky with the farmhands soon, in which I have little or confidence b/c your “luck” with player development depends heavily on how much you invest in it over long to medium term.
Can I have some of what you are smoking?
i wander around the Sonoran desert and it’s hot af here.
And in my wandering I see Arte owns a lot of land in this desert.
I say he sells the land in this hot af desert and signs ball players
Cajones? Outspend the dodgers, that’s cajones
Why does he own a bunch of land in the Sonoran Desert?
He isn’t, stop thinking he will.
Man that’s sexy Rexy
since the report that the Angels have “listened” to offers for Ohtani comes from Heyman I am inclined to think it’s not happening.
Olney and Passan have also reported it…..
if it happens then Olney and Passan (I heard him on the radio last night) will have been right and Heyman will have been right by accident.
Also, nice “ballgame” call when we went down 1-0. Sadly, it was.
I took that as semi-jokingly (only semi ) but also somewhat serious.
But it turned out to be right. I waited until it was 2-0 then called it with certainty.
yes, and there was no disagreement
BFD
Oooooh, it’s happening. Look at the big picture. Player said he wants to win, player chose a lousy organization, player signed as a FA so not as compelled to resign, player sees Trout is crippled again, player sees Rendon done, player get’s no run support and GM is clueless on building a team. He gone!
Leading off (Mets), on-deck (Dodgers), in the hole (Cardinals) and Padres are in the dugout. Astros and Yankees are lurking.
I would think, as others have pointed out, that he’d prefer the Mets because of the Eppler connection.
I also think the Mets have the owner who might push to overpay a little bit to make it happen this week.
Give us Starling Marte, Edwin Diaz and Francisco Alvarez then you’ve got a deal.
His preference doesn’t matter. Technically, we could trade him to the Twins or Guardians.
I like that trade. Use our large average payroll to flex and improve while not actually expanding it by much. We lose Walsh, a bummer, but he will likely cost near Hoz money as he moves through arb.
It will hurt now, but I think I will like not having to hunt for a SS and SP in this winters IIWPTP.
Let’s do your trade and I’ll do you one better. We’re out of the play off hunt. We have money. Let’s bail the Padres out of their financial woes so Preller can make some moves and hopefully take it to the Doyers….
I can’t do this trade on the sim because of player limits, but here….
Angels get:
Danilson Lamet SP
Wil Meyers MLB OF
Matt Batten MLB Util
Eguy Rosario AAA Util/IF
Brett Sullivan AAA C
Matt Waldron AAA SP/Knuckleball
Padres get:
Mike Mayers RHRP
and about 8M in salary relief this year.
Lamet’s “lock him up young” bomb of a contract is over this year but he’s under team control for 2 more years. We know he can toss almost Cy Young level innings. He’s been a total wreck since getting hurt. Why not take a flyer on fixing him on the cheap?
Meyers can get paid to bro out with the injured Mike Trout for two months.
We get a depth catcher. A depth catcher with experience catching the AAA starter prospect who throws a knuckleball who looks like he can hit a little.
We also get two pretty good AAA/MLB multi-position IF/OF prospects.
We basically buy some upper level depth by taking on another teams last two months of payments on players they don’t want. Then we see if we can rebuild Lamet as a bonus.
Huzzah.
Wait, did you just trade Mayers for 6 players?
Yes. And around 8M in debt.
Meyers will never play for us. We really get one arm prospect near the bottom of the 30, two solid IF prospects, and an unranked catching prospect…. plus 2 years of control over Lamet if we want that.
And the trade sim still actually had THEM ahead of us on this trade by more than 3 points.