Good morning Angels fans! It is Thanksgiving tomorrow in the USA, so only one more Links for this week.
Angels News
Perry really deserves this break coming up as he made his third move of the offseason. Welcome Hunter Renfroe! Yes, we got ourselves a new outfielder on a one year deal.
All the trade cost was Junk, Elvis, and Seminaris. None have been any good for the Angels. This was a salary dump, huh?
Nonetheless, this shows that the Angels are not ready to send Adell out there at the starting OF. He isn’t worth much anymore so I doubt a trade will happen, but he needs to prove himself to get many ABs on the MLB team.
With 3 moves before Thanksgiving, this has blown up our “If I were Perry” pieces. You can still read them of course, and judge how we are doing against the Platypus, but, well, we should be happy he is moving so fast.
Around Baseball
AL comeback player of the year is Justin Verlander. It was obvious.
NL comeback player of the year is Albert Pujols. At least he is finally retired so I don’t have to hear about him for 5 years.
Who we won’t stop hearing about, however, is Judge. Apparently the Dodgers offered him a ton and he is visiting SF now. Bleh.
I’d much rather discuss the 2023 HOF Ballot more like MLB Now does or Hot Stove. Maybe no one gets in this time again?
As Perry has been dealing, one thing to keep in mind is that any good FA SS are in short supply for the foreseeable future. If Arte won’t give mega bucks to anyone as he is selling the team, Angels fans will have to settle for who is in the system most likely.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Guys. Much like last year with Mad Max, this year we are likely not signing a 200M contract with a shortstop. If this is gonna pucker you up all year you only have yourselves to blame.
Now…. feel free to start with the “I didn’t mean one of the big 4…. I meant some unnamed mystery investment.” stuff.
Here’s a reasonable iiwpm from Mike Azusa, who I don’t often like.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/the-angels-have-been-mlbs-busiest-team-so-far-this-offseason-but-here-are-four-more-things-they-need-to-do/?fbclid=IwAR3E71GKATHDqseV7wcQtSYqljyTs_3QW0o-yyNiuuu07mzm7E6cn34peak
Odd to me Perry thanks mgmt for allowing him to acquire those guys. Feels like he is baking in an excuse for his past performance.
Anderson should be the Angels No. 4 starter, not 2. I have him after Sandoval and Detmers.
These are very sensible moves, and I’m onboard with all of them, in principle. As much as I’d like to see another “big” move, almost anything that will happen will be short term “win now-ish” moves without long term commitments or rolling dice on interesting, flawed, and fairly cheap players–which likely means the big 4 shortstops are out of the picture. So, trading for someone like Mateo, swapping Adell for another interesting but flawed player, and signing a risky but interesting veteran SP and RP on one year deals seem like exactly what should happen.
don’t spend money on more pitching and half-ass it at SS
Roll with the pitching we have for now and invest in SS
Nah
If Perry were actually playing by the rules of iiwpm, how would he be doing budget wise?
4-5 M left
Rules? Where Perry is going, he don’t needs rules!
Well, I am curious exactly where he is going.
1) How big a budget does he have, really? How much more could he plausibly spend? If we had made exactly these moves under iiwpm rules, we’d be basically out of moves after these.
2) One has to think he has to have a decent amount of money to spend in reserve. While Urshella, Renfroe, and Anderson make the roster deeper and more flexible, the team thus constructed is not exactly a winner yet, but it’s not exactly built for long term either (as Renfroe and Urshella, and, well, Shohei, are near term assets. So these are “win now” type moves…but with a team that’s not really a winner yet.
3) If PTP is going for a winner sooner than later, you would figure that there’d be at least one more major acquisition coming, and possibly, a few more lesser moves. These suggest that the actual upper limit for the budget may easily be at least 10 mil north of the expected. I just have trouble believing that these are it.
The fact that he’s taking on depth at the contract costs he’s getting does suggest he has some extra money. At least to me. But you’re right, it’s probably 10M…. not 30.
It makes sense that Arte would expand the budget to have a better team, thus increasing the value. Spend $10 million more in order to make $100 million. It’s like selling a house. Spend $6,000 on a new furnace and make it back many times on the sale.
Rules? We don’t got no rules! We don’t need no stinkin’ rules!
Another quality move? Or is Thaiss soon to be leaving? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/angels-re-sign-chad-wallach-to-minor-league-deal.html
No we were lacking depth at AAA. Now he and Thaiss have us full on the depth chart.
Thaiss is out of options so unless they send O’Hoppe to AAA or want to carry 3 catchers , Thaiss is gone.
Thaiss will need a big spring to stay with the ballclub. I could see him as a DFA canidate very soon. I could also see him accepting the assignment as he would be next up when/if Stassi get’s hurt.
But he will need to beat out O’Hoppe for the back up spot. Good luck with that!
Does it make sense to have O’Hoppe as a backup? And for that matter, backup to whom? I don’t see Stassi, given last year, as the automatic starter.
I think you are going to see a big split between the two this year. Playing match ups or setting up better battery mates for pitchers who work better with Stassi or O’Hoppe. You could see each getting 3 starts a week.
I think they will probably see what O’Hoppe does in ST. Will he be up this year? Sure. Will he start day one? Will Stassi be as suddenly good as he was suddenly bad last year? No one knows. Wallach. He exists and can catch balls. That’s nice. Thaiss… what will the man do to avoid playing in Mexico?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Hdlu3Slaw
Oh yeah. I can’t remember if this was ever linked here, but if you’re bored and it won’t bruise your wishing sack too much this article is interesting.
https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/breaking-down-shohei-ohtanis-trade-value/
It explains the trade valuation of Ohtani that seems to hurt so many of your feels.
In fact, if you’re one of those people for whom all the actual data and research that the trade sim puts into valuing players and prospects is just too challenging to your own genius or dreams, they actually have long explanations as to how they get their valuations for both prospects and MLB players on their About section.
It’s actually interesting and they dumb down their explanations to the point that a simple bear like me can get it.
Do you want us to publish your article as is or do you want to make any changes because of Renfroe?
gitch finished too!! I can’t wait to compare. I just submitted mine and “Spoiler” I used all of the current moves.
Eh…. just publish as is…. it’s all “alternate universe” now anyway.
Submitted mine too
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/mariners-open-to-adding-another-outfielder.html
Its Your serve again Jer Jer. What’s Dipoto going to do when we pick up a shortstop, 6th starter and back end bullpen help? This is getting crazy. it reminds me of the Ohtani turf wars of 2017-2018
Here’s a fun looky loo for those of us that feel like applying ourselves.
So. Hurr durr outfield hurr durr shortstop.
One of the factors that effects this is our prospect depth at these positions.
We already hurr durr Jo Adell and hurr durr dee durr Moniak. Beacuse, as we’ve seen this past season, if a player doesn’t assplode with championishness within his first 350 AB he’s a bust.
But who, at SS and OF, do you think the Angels could be favoring within their own system when it comes to prospects they may not want to block the next two seasons? This is, of course, all speculation to some extent, but how would you rank the guys we have on the farm at these spots? And I wouldn’t worry too much about “hot ass prospect” rankings. Remember, Jo Adell was top 50 at one point and Ed Quero was a name none of us knew this time last year. We can’t buy solutions at every position and the kids are gonna get a shot at some point. So who do we have? Will that effect our current roster decisions do you think?
HURRRRR DURRRR Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak have both concluded at least 3 yrs both. If BB or FZ up in the Bay Area can’t fix these guys then they need to get Babble and learn Japanese.
BYE!!!!! 💪 💪 👈
Captured just for you a few mins ago after a visit to the team store.
huurrrrr durrrrr
You are a man who did not know that Brian Goodwin hasn’t played for us in two years, much less understand the difference between being alive for three years and getting 3 years of playing time. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.
I’d be shocked if a SS is in the cards
A one year deals seemed to be the priority in Ken Rosenthal’s piece in The Athletic he speculates on the Shortstops the Angels maybe targeting . Here’s his speculative list:
Its well written and actually acknowledges that the Angels are becoming relevant again. If you have access its worth the read. https://theathletic.com/3926143/2022/11/23/angels-trade-renfroe-analysis/
Anderson would be a coup acquisition
The Trade Sim has him values at the low low price of net surplus field trade value of 39.1.
Not sure we could give up that kind of trade capital.
If…and it’s a major league “if”….Perry plans to offer Ohtani a stupid level of money beginning in 2024, the one-year deals make a lot of sense.
Perry may not be with the Org in 2024 depending what new ownership/management thinks of him.
But if Ohtani is extended it wont be Perry (or Arte’s) call
I’d go with Rosario.
I’m really liking these moves that Perry has made so far. No big splashes ( no one expects those anyway unless those homer fans), but these are the types of moves that incrementally helps the team, w/o breaking the bank, AND not giving up too much as well.
He has addressed significant areas – a lot of people may think we should be set on the OF, but with the parade of crap OFs that the team used last year when Ward and Trout went down, having Renfroe is a huge upgrade. This certainly puts the notice on Adell. I wonder if they have given up on him already.
I think both Gio and Hunter are steals, and if the Angels make the WC, all the more win for Perry.
John Henry, I know you are hoping to not have to hear about Albert Pujols again, but there is still that pesky 10 year “personal services” issue that will provide plenty of content filler for a writer/reporter.
This just killed the “If I were Perry” I was working on. Good move. But we still have huge needs to catch the Astros and Mariners.
It doesn’t kill it. You can still write about what YOU would have done.
Not if I think the Angels FO reads this site and then acts on what they see here.
Which is something apparently a large portion of the grown ass adults on here quietly believe.
They do read this site. Kind of like for a guide of what not to do.
So you’re saying they look for tooty-too’s posts.
That would be a guide to what we should’ve done last year on one year contracts.
It’s nice to see the Angels make positive moves to bring in real talent with MLB resumes. These adds were needed — and they fill holes that clearly existed. Another bullpen arm would be great.
Lineup?
Fletcher
Trout
Ohtani
Rendon
Ward
Renfroe
Walsh
Urshela
Stassi
Or does Rengifo get a start and lead off? Is Walsh a platoon?
It’s just a matter of weeks before Rendon(e) goes down and Rengifo joins the starting line-up.
I assume also if a lefty is on the mound Walsh sits and Rengifo plays at 2B.
i heart Rengifo, Velasquez, Urshela, Neto but they are all the depth and bench pieces we’ve been missing. Fletch is the starting 2B.
Add a play-off caliber SS to this line-up and i’d be set.
So who are our backup centerfielders? Right now it would have to be Blake or the Froe if Moniak is sent down
I checked the farm and we pretty much tried all of our options last year to no avail.
It would be great to pick up a defense first left handed utility outfielder centerfielder that can actually get on base but I think those are few and far between .
Bellinger? (75% kidding)