Good morning Angels fans, have some links.
Angels News
Catcher prospect of the year is an Angel. Yeah, actual news is very low right now I am scraping the barrel so much that I am eating wood.
MLB Trade Rumors has their Angels offseason outlook out. Honestly, how can you even do one when the owner is still unknown?
Mike Trout has another jersey in Cooperstown. Yay…
Former Anaheim mayor is not playing nice with the investigation into his corruption. Maybe he should have thought of that before underselling Angel Stadium by so much.
Around Baseball
Skip Schumaker is now the new manager of the Marlins. I think Mattingly might go to NYY, but he would have to get rid of those sideburns.
Judge is going to be sought after, so much that Betts may move to 2B to fit him in. Honestly, he seems like the guy who would be hurt so often that it would drain any team, but maybe that is just my PTSD kicking in.
2022 scorebug review. I really can’t wait until Bally goes under I hate them so much.
Here is the schedule for the World Series. So, more waiting until then.
Sidenote, should we only have 1 gamethread for the World Series? The comment count has been rather small anyway.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
“Sidenote, should we only have 1 gamethread for the World Series? The comment count has been rather small anyway.”
Seems no gamethread is the answer! 😀
So, I want to make sure I’m reading this correctly…..
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/los-angeles-angels/payroll/2023/
Is it correct that as it stands with existing contracts and expected raises, the team already has a projected payroll of $156+ million for 2023 and a tax basis of $170+ million?
If true, are we using projected payroll or luxury tax basis for future IIWP exercises? And Gitcho, under your game would we have to cut payroll by $56 million and still try to field a competitive team? Or does competitive not matter in your exercise?
Well, I hadn’t thought it through that much…. maybe after the WS when we’re all bored I’ll do a fanpost and see if people want to do it and what the rules should be.
Personally, I would like it to be as challenging as possible. So get our tax basis down to 90M for example. But I also don’t know if the math needed for people to try that would take all the fun out of it. Besides, if we managed to simulate getting the payroll down to 90M I think Imaginownerz would also be happy with the much lower tax number as well.
The challenge I am looking for is more to see the build philosophy people would come up with. Who would they go get with their trades, with what ever salary space they can create, etc and why? Where will they try to take us? Pitching prospect heavy? An entire team of utility players like the Rays?
As a freebee we could all agree that “Tear Down Perry” is allowed to also invest in hiring away staff from the baseball ops offices of 2 teams maybe (not specific names, just “I am taking my FO investment funds and hiring guys from the Reds and Cardinals because I like red teams”), but they have to explain why and how they see those hires helping.
Dunno… we can try and get this together though, sure.
I think IIWPTP should just be the 185-195M payroll we will likely still have this year. It’s what the team generally has, there are tons of payroll dollars that will be hard to dump even if Arte wants to for the sale. Other than maybe trading Ohtani I’d bet the payroll stays about the same this next year.
Nothing really matters, anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Til the team from Arte is free
Sidhu is a snake who is stalling for time. But what I wonder is if the FBI and DOJ have thoroughly investigated the Angels communications.
In short, what if the emails and texts Sidhu is hiding contain quid pro quo arrangement with Arte and/or his minions who run the team? Or do we think the FBI and DOJ have already subpoena’d the Angels records?
Forget about Kay/Skaggs, just a bunch of druggies, the stadium deal reeks of shadiness.
It’s not like I’m hungry for more stink, and most of the Arte bitching is pretty overblown to me, but i honestly thought that, when all this came out, Arte had bribed a bunch of people. I looked all over and saw no mention of the most evil man ever to breath non-German air and couldn’t believe it. I still don’t understand how you get a corruption case like this where one whole side of the deal is clean or pretty clean.
It’s weird.
The corruption does not have to involve the Angels. It could involve other quid-pro-quo outside the stadium deal. The press approach to this was equivalent to shark in bloody water. Sidhu had no chance under the circumstances. It does not mean he did anything wrong and it certainly does not implicate the Angels. I have seen no evidence at all to support the Angels involvement. Only speculation from the media seeking to break a big story.
Jeff – this is interesting. I have to think that if there is quid-pro-quo evidence, it would not be on his cellphone. Only a true idiot would text something like “we can get you $1 million for your campaign if you support the stadium deal.” I don’t think anyone involved is that idiotic.
Now, there could be any number of private texts – maybe with his family or even a mistress – that he wants to protect. He would have a right of privacy to protect that information as it is completely irrelevant to any investigation.
Maybe they will agree to some reasonable parameters so they can search for relevant info while protecting the confidentiality/privacy of all other information.
Has Sidhu even been arrested or charged with a crime yet ? Other than some potential state tax evasion charges that involve the housing of his helicopter I dont believe the FBI or any other agency has charged him with a crime.
It sounds like the FBI needs his personal emails and texts to try to find the commission of a crime not to prove one.
I do not believe that he has been charged with a crime, and up to today I have seen no evidence of a crime. What I have seen is a media circus. Our society has become increasingly willing to tear people and institutions down based on allegations and media hype. Until I see some real evidence that this guy did something wrong, as far as I’m concerned, it’s another ploy to sell newspapers and get clicks.
And the city Council was so afraid to get bad press that it jumped the gun and canceled the stadium deal without any real evidence of wrongdoing.
Yikes, I’m reading through this and the offseason is sounding like trading away our best player, signing Drury for infield, and signing 1 pitcher to a 1 year deal. I feel like I am back in the 80s with this team.
Except of course I couldn’t be reading this site in the 80s. I would have been sitting with my dad listening to the AM radio in my car and hearing Jim Healy make fun of the Angels.
I just watched the Locked on Angels YouTube of what one of those guys will do with a slightly under 200M budget… Signed Trevor Anderson, which I have liked for years, Signed Montero for the pen, signed Nimmo (to hit lead off) which would be OK…
But the Drury and Abreu so that Brandon can kinda suck at many positions and Abreu can platoon with Walsh and do nothing else useful… meh. Also signed Michael Wacha to be Griffin Canning. They used Sportrack numbers to figure out what they are getting paid, and so I guess we can pull that off. None of this would be horrible, but a lot of meh on those bones.
Abreu. Jesus people. You all complain about paying for past performance and signing plodding old men on the downslope…. and then you want Abreu.
I was just surprised. It was like the guy hadn’t even looked up Drury Vs Rengifo online and was talking all this stupid shit about how he can play SS and 1B…. maybe he can, but he’s really not been able to so far. Rengifo had .2 less WAR in 40 fewer ABs and basically plays the same positions as Drury with better defense and more time at short.
It took me 2 minutes to look that up while I was on the phone at work. I am not a professional.
Spotrac is a great resource for contract information. We’ve used that every year when calculating payroll and setting the parameters for our off season pieces.
In fact, I used it this morning to do just that.
So what do we thin parameters will be for our Perry series. Like I mentioned before, I believed that $195M was an ok number to base the series on.
Just my 2 cents but I think that is too high in a sale of the team situation
It seems to be that “If I were Perry” segments are not going to be at all easy, nor really as plausible this year. Things are really a mess with the sale pending. I don’t have any expectations right now, because it can go any which way from here.
My dream is that somehow we get some resolution on the sale process sooner than later, but I acknowledge this may be impossible.
It’s not a bad idea then to have a poll and come to a conclusion on where we should go. Gitch, I’m thinking about taking you up on the get payroll under $100M route if you want to give it a go.
It would be fun…..
I snorted like a bull dog when you used the word plausible.
My bet is that the payroll number stays at or very close to what it was this year.
All the “but newownerz” stuff probably won’t matter much unless there’s a surprise up a sleeve. The offseason will be just about done at the earliest point we can expect a sale and we will likely be well into next season in reality. This next roster will be a PTP roster and if there are big cuts to be made it is actually just as likely newownerz will do it than Arte.
Yes, I struggled with how to word my post, and I couldn’t figure out what words to use in my first sentence. But my point is I still feel that things are so up in the air that I find it difficult to predict what Perry’s marching orders will be come December. Sure, maybe you are right… the same as last year. But there is a very good chance that maybe not.
I think that in previous years, we had “a pretty good idea” and we were generally right, so the “what would I do” articles were actually things Perry could have done. Now I think it is possible that Perry could be told by Arte:
It’s not gonna be C. New owner won’t tell old owner to blow the doors off cause he’s pretty sure the team will be sold soon.
But I really want C. Please?
This makes sense to me too. The valuation of the team is based on the current avg. payroll and we should be staying close to that this year. No more, but also no less.
If they don’t have a payroll of at least $195 million and they don’t give it a real go this year to make the playoffs and see what happens, it’s a disaster. That means they are three years away — and likely need to backfill many spots and only make the playoffs again without Ohtani and when Trout is basically their third or fourth best player. Not good.
TrAdition!!
Wait. Is 2023…… a MUST WIN SEASON?! Do we JUST HAVE TO increase payroll or else horrors beyond comprehension!?!
We should probably just burn the team down to the water line… accept Rendon. Keep him for the fun he brings me.
How about 3 cents?
I’ll make it a nickel! Inflation!
Jose Abreu 2022
.304 BA
.378 OBP
40 2B
15 HR
75 RBI
62 BB
110 SO
Professional hitter.We could use one of those. Moreover, I think he can be had on a 1-2 deal with minimal risk.
Assuming that Walsh is “the guy” is folly. Particularly when Rendon might be washed & we have a super massive blackhole known as our left fielder.
Sure, if we can get him for 1 year 6M or something. We don’t NEED him. We can do fine with Walsh and a guy like Aguilar. He’d make sense if we trade Ohtani.
Your reasons for not assuming Walsh is the guy (and at the same time assuming Abreu’s not on the slide) are exactly why we shouldn’t spend on Abreu. It’s actually also stupid to assume Walsh is washed at this point too. Get him a platoon partner, sure, but there’s no reason to think he will have forgotten to hit post surgery.
Drury as a starting 2B and platooning at first solves two problems at a decent price. Rengifo can move around and take over at 3rd when Rendon goes back to the DL. Solves a lot of problems for cheap Arturo. Adds depth everywhere.
I worry about Drury. He had a great first half with the Reds but look at his stats after the trade to the Padres (OPS of .724). https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/drurybr01.shtml
He could helpful at a good price but I don’t buy his first half in Cincinnati, look at his entire career and you see a player with an OPS+ of 93 and he will be 30 next year.
I worry about Drury because, even with last season, he’s a guy with a 93 career OPS+ who has racked up 2.9 WAR in seven years. I also worry that so many people with PTSD want to pay him.
He is pure bench, he doesn’t hit as well as Rengifo, is defensively worse than Rengifo, and can’t play SS same as Rengifo…. and yet, since he’s not currently ours, he’s supposed to be an upgrade?
Drury desire is pure CtPG guy shit JuJu made flesh.
I’m tired of players who had one good half or one good year being brought over also. Can we get consistent players?
There’s the perception of depth and then there’s actual depth.
Actual depth would be a player that pushes Rengifo to the utility role and keeps Soto in the minors.
That likely only happens with an Ohtani trade or a huge SS signing. Not sure either happens with the franchise for sale.
I hate your logicalness. Stupid ass logic.
F*** you spock. I demand a champion. Anything else is a failed season. My self steam is so hot.
Wait, since when is 2B a problem? Maybe SS, but not 2B (we have Fletch and Rengifo who can start there).
The only way this works is putting Fletch/Rengifo on SS – which is where they are less convincing.
The idea that the Angels would sign Judge and add another $35-$40 million contract is hilariously absurd. It becomes even more absurd when one considers the team is for sale and becomes less marketable with four $30+ million contracts. It ain’t NEVAH gonna happen.
Look for the team to sign a couple 1 year deals in the $5 mil to $7 mil range this off-season. No big splashes.
So bad it makes my eyes hurt to read it.
Wait. Are you saying the process we have been collectively DEEEEMAAANNDINGAH! for years isn’t actually all that fun?
Not fair. Angry. Who I blame?
I remember being surprised, a little excited but mostly thinking, “Really? Do we even need a first baseman?” when they signed Pujols. Now I’d be angry… unless Judge had 40 WAR during the contract.
You weren’t the only one with that thought about Pujols. He was ‘justified’ by the TV contract, right? (right!?!)
There’s been a lot of comments about how the Angels should proceed with FA’s. Do you think the FA market changes much with the new rules. I’d love to see more .300 hitters and speed in the game personally.
Reading “MLBTR Offseason Outlook: Los Angeles Angels “I think, it’s not that we didn’t know injuries were a big part of the great regression of 2022, but how much of that was bad luck, or because there was no farm system development behind the stars, or otherwise? If there is health this year are the Angels a top team? I also kind of hope that O’Hoppe (nicknames please) gets his time in the minors to develop.
Why did a Trout Jersey go to the HoF? Because he is the GOAT 1.0? Did any other players who hit 40HR’s send a jersey in?
Betts is so awesome, but I agree on Judge… Regression… Age… too Pujol like for me.
Halo Hangout has an article
“Should the LA Angels sign Aaron Judge?”…. NO!!!!
I didn’t link to it because its HaloHangout and I don’t like their articles.
Hah!!! Speaking of useless articles… Harper gets World Series moment while Trout’s wait continues – USA Today
So “cup half empty and I just like it when the Yankees hurt… Half of MLB has reached World Series more recently than Yankees
That’s my contribution for today… thanks for letting me be part of the community.
The comparison I looked at, as far as being extra stuffed prepared for being a championish team with huge injury time losses, was to look at the Dodgers if they had similar problems.
So lose Freddy Freeman for 55 games. Lose Mookie Betts for a few months. Give Max Muncy TOS so he sucks even more than he did. Cut Will Smiths production in half for some friggin reason and lose Gavin Lux for 100 games and have him too hurt to matter for the 60 he does play.
So the Dodgers, who I think we all agree are deep AF, would have featured Trea Turner, Chris Taylor, Justin Turner, Austin Barnes, Cody Bellinger, Trayce Thompson (who was actually good last year), Hanser Alberto and a little Joey Gallo in our situation.
So, yeah. That’s better than what we have/had, but it’s not like Mr Demandachamp would have been happy with Freidman last year either in this situation.
Basically, if a fan thinks a team should be prepared via roster or prospects to deal with the catastrophic time lost to injury the Angels have had the last two years and still be more than the Arizona Diamondbacks were last year they’re just not very bright. We may have sucked more because we had less depth than the Doyers, but we still would have sucked with the injuries we had.
Being better at dumpster diving, among (many) other things helps. I mean dumpster diving (if you can fix flawed players, or, at least, employ them where they excel) is exactly how you get value at minimal cost. We are unhappy with dumpster diving because our recent success rate is pretty bad.
Thing is, again, look at Duh Doyers. Their dumpster dives may have been better, but it was just a louder fart in the wind. It wouldn’t have saved them if injuries were as bad there as here.
The Dodgers would’ve sucked with all of them out, but we sucked the minute one guy when down.
Ward down in May and we’re playing Tyler Wade in center field.
Rengifo down, and Jack Mayfield is the new third baseman.
And it took zero injuries for Squid to be our starting shortstop.
Didn’t Squid start because Fletch was hurt?
It’s ridiculous that the WS is now being played so late in the year. Did we really need to wait so long between series? The weather, particularly in Philadelphia, will probably not be fit for good baseball. Go Phillies, to the extent I care.
I’d prefer less days off also so we see more starting pitchers. Often teams get through with just three of their SPs.
You mean you don’t want to see a repeat of 2009 when MLB gave the Yankees every other day off so they could pitch C C Sabathia all the time?
NO! THE WORLD IS ALWAYS TRYING TO STOP THE YANKEES CAUSE EVERYONE IS JEALOUS AND THEIR FANS ARE AUTOTOUGH CAUSE NUE YAWK!
Those rest days were just so the rest of the world could catch their breath between bouts of desperately wishing they were from New York.
two possible answers to that issue:
The week off between series was unnecessary. WS could start one off-day after end of last LCS.
Both series ended really early. The schedule was arranged for 7-game series. They don’t magically move it closer when someone sweeps a series
In the unlikely event the sale goes through shortly, who are the best candidates to take over the FO, particularly given that an Ohtani deal will at least be considered by the new team.
I think that depends on the new owners. For example with the Doyers, Guggenheim already had Stan Kasten (And Magic) part of their team .
Would a guy like Joe Lacob already have a deal in place with Billy Beane to join their group if his group is part of the winning bid?
I think that, if we want to keep Ohtani, we need to hire exactly what everyone complains about, a VPofGMnPOBO who listens to the marketing department and signs the biggest unflushable turd in the bowl.
If we hire some smarty pants world builder like Freidman or Mozeliak he will likely avoid the contract Ohtani is going to want.
Sure, if I’m desperate and needy I can pinch my face together really hard and come up with some “thread the needle” fantasy where we unload Rendon somehow, hit on every prospect that comes out of the farm for a few years and Ohtani is the healthiest man ever to breath and his 10 year 500 million dollar contract works out. A new owner may ask a perfectly good POGMRosterbate to do that and he will likely fail and we will bitch about it.
But actually smart POBOGMLGBTQNSFWXYZ who is being left alone will likely avoid the contract that Ohtani will be offered by someone out there in the position the Angels are in right now.
If I were Arte I’d get close to a deal with a buyer, find out if they want to deal with Ohtani and act accordingly rather than assume the new owner wants half a billion in roster liability. If new owner says no, trade him. If new owner doesn’t start to take shape by late December then trade Ohtani before teams make all their major moves. Let someone else pay that 30M, build up the farm more.
If Ohtani wants me to pay him 30M so he can wait and see who the new owner is and then decide if he wants to leave us holding a big bag of nothing…. nope. Good GMXofCYAforBAFTA doesn’t do that.
I agree with these points, somehow. It scares me a little that I do….
The Yankees or Dodgers, which ever does not sign Judge, but especially the Dodgers, have very little big payroll obligations after the next couple years. I could totally see the Doyers signing Ohtani as Turner leaves, the other Turner leaves, Will Smith is replaced by cheaper prospects, Kershaw leaves and a bunch of guys like Price come off the books this year.
Los Doyers look realistic as far as payroll space and having players we’d want in return.
…. but of course the Dodgers is the one team that many of us (and Arte too!) dread to see Ohtani playing for.
Imagine the years of crap we’ll have to put up with.
Like when Ohtani pitches his first perfect game vs the Angels and hits the game winning HR. L A Times front page “Nice trade, Angels!”
(Unless that L A Times dude ends up buying the team, then maybe he’d nix that title)
David Stearns is in his last year in Milwaukee. Hasn’t signed an extension. That wouldn’t be in time for this off season, but I’d take him in a heartbeat if the Angels sale goes through in 2023.
Si si si. I’d like that.
I agree. Exactly the kind of guy I would like.
annnnnd, he just stepped down
Go Not-Astros!
i remember that ball game played 20 yrs ago today.
i recall we had a rally in the late innings and ended up winning the game.
Noisss.
20 years ago tonight I bought 8 bottles of champagne at The Catch and we turned the bar into a locker room celebration after the game.
Those pregames are going to be so bad. A table full of east coast A-holes sitting around talking up the Astros.
seriously. instead of watching the fraudster pre-show on FOX, i tune into MLB Network pre-games.
Say what you will about Matty V, but i’ll take him any day over that pair of 500hr juicer frauds.
Good Morning to all. Are we sold yet? A bargain at only 2.5 Billion Bucks.
If we pool our resources, I think we can make a strong offer.
i just came by to see if we signed Aaron Judge and Trea Turner yet.
New owner? just bring some money $$$
Why not DeGromm too? DO IT NEWOWNERZ!
Damn….. What are you feeding that thing?
Boring World Series starting in two more days. I am rooting for the Phillies and against the American League. Very strange to be rooting for a NL team, but we hate the Asstros, cheating team.
we dont know it will be boring.
Phillies are not boring.
The Astros however can make this boring. But even if Stros win the first 2 n Houston, Game 3 will hold excitement.
And whenever our boy Brandon Marsh steps into the box in a WS game, it won’t be boring.
Yah, I think this series could be good. Massive volatile power in Philly Vs cold hard execution + Alvarez in Houston. There’s not gonna be a lot of totally safe innings in these games.
I am excited to find out how they will manage to talk about Jeter and Ortiz six times a game in this series.
“Bryce Harper, he reminds me a lot of the captain, Derek Jeter. They play different positions, but they are forging the same career path, although this is Bryce’s 2nd team alredy. His clutchness reminds me of Jeter.”
“Yordan Alvarez – doesn’t he just remind you of Big Papi? I think he’s Big Papi Jr. I mean, look at that swing. Very similar to Big Papi and how he harnesses that power.”
“Big Papi was brown and left handed….”
LOL! “Jeter and Ortiz”!!!!
I do buy the getting Dusty a ring finally. He isn’t a bad guy, just coaches a team I loathe. Philly needs this more than the Astros do, but then we might start getting the is Harper better than Trout talk again… because he would have a ring a Trout doesn’t.
Either way I’m kinda done with the season. Can’t wait for offseason maddness and GM talk.
I met Dusty as a kid when he was still playing for the Doyers at the old preseason Angel/ Dodger baseball writers banquet . He was one of the nicest human beings and ego less athletes I have ever met .
So he maybe is very deserving, but we’re talking about the cheating Trashstros man
I have to find something to ease the pain if they do win. I’ll just focus on Dusty if that happens. (And I think it’s going to)
Very strange to be rooting for a NL team,
BUT WE HATE THE ASSTROS CHEATING TEAM. Meanwhile the Giants just hired Pete Putilla from them.
General George H Thomas. THE ROCK OF CHICKAMAUGA. Never lost a battle in the Civil War. Took possibly to toughest armillary emplacement in the US (Lookout Mountain) and opened the South Eastern theater for the Union Army and Sherman’s March.
Not under contract to any team and was not signed by the Angels. CmOn Arte! Emojis.
they’re both NL teams to me at my age