The Angels are still in the market for an upgrade at shortstop. They signed Carlos Estevez to address their desire for a back end reliever.
The Mets are the lucky winners in the Justin Verlander sweepstakes. The Dodgers re-signed Clayton Kershaw. Rick Porcello is officially retired. The Blue Jays have made an offer to Andrew Heaney.
Shin-Soo Choo re-signed with the SSG Landers of the KBO. The Phillies have an 11 year deal with Trea Turner for $300 Million and a full no-trade clause. Teams looking to sign Aaron Judge are going to have to commit for at least nine years.
The Yankees extended Brian Cashman for four more years.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Cubs sign Taillon 4/68 because Arte is cheap and Perry is stupid.
Best deal for a starter to come out of the meetings.
Best Deal for whom?
That’s what Heaney was looking for. What happened to the 3 ye deals he so called had only to sign for 2 with Texas.
Pitched decent for the Yankees who must have obviously felt regression was coming by letting him go
🤓 😜 💪
New Angels 3rd base coach demonstrating how to handle the obnoxious opposition pitchers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYTQE8wUuvw
Yes Newport Beach is a tough guy factory….LOL.
The whole team went to Mutt Lynch’s after a 2-1 win and 7th straight losing season to celebrate.
And did you see the article saying that the Dodgers really want Ohtani next year? They may even be holding back spending some in order to get ready.
Maybe we can trade him to the Dodgers at the summer deadline for Andy Pages and Joc … oh wait
Idk who’s still awake, but this Reddit thread about MLB using 2, maybe 3 different balls in 2022, and there were special third balls that only showed up in Yankee games and other big event games.
Casting serious doubt on Judge’s 62 HRs.
Shohei may have been robbed blind by MLB.
Of particular note:
“While Wills’ research found “dead” balls at parks around the country, the “Goldilocks” balls — with a more batter-friendly weight profile — only turned up at Yankees games and marquee events like the postseason or games using balls with commemorative stamps.”
https://reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/zek8ua/major_league_baseball_used_two_balls_again_this/
Whaaa? Nooooooo. The MLB going out of their way to milk the Yankee bull? Nevah.
It sucks when your favorite sport becomes professional wrestling.
Great article. Another for Friday.
Normally I’d say a gram difference is perfectly normal. But a consistent one gram difference makes my go hmmmm.
I appreciated Charley Finleys yellow neon baseball.
11th pick, not bad.
4/72 for Walker (who I like) makes the 3/39 deal for Anderson look really nice.
Kenny Rosenthal would be in agreement with you. His recent article discusses this issue https://theathletic.com/3973286/2022/12/05/mlb-free-agent-spending-forces/
Good piece. I’ll link it Friday.
Thanks.
Man, Perry hasn’t done anything today!
Hitting refresh so many times to no avail.
He wasted time getting interviewed on MLB tonight . But not one of the interviewers asked him if the Angels are done and who they’re still targeting. Weird
Well, I think the Phanatic is serious about not coming in 2nd place again next season…
Maybe 1st place in total team IL days?
What does a team get for worst defense?
A trip to the World Series?
Draft time!
We dropped one pick to 11th. Twins jumped us into the 5th spot
TrAdition
sales price just dropped from $3.330B to $3.329B
did the Pirates “win”?
i mean, their lotto ticket (based on last year) just went from $8.8M from $7.6M
$1.2M more for the same player?
Do they always pay slot?
i dont know the specifics about slot, i just looked up last year for fun.
Twins paying $2M more now for their 1st round.
Angels saving about $200k by slipping
But that’s 200k less to try and sign our lower picks
They don’t have to pay slot . It depends upon the player and signability. Alot teams will make redraft deals below slot so they can layover slot in later rounds. This is what the Angels have done effectively over the last 2 drafts to acquire talent with later selections.
So picking earlier would allow the team to spend more late . This is why you want to be at the top of draft board. Not just to acquire the best talent
Did someone say that Elon Musk’s special Tesla SUV with the broken side window was seen today in the Big A parking lot? Potential buyer?
😆
That would be shocking. ⚡
Would that allows us to buy verified fan accounts at CtPG so that we can freely complain?
My prediction that will totally not happen: Halos win the draft lottery tonight and secure the #1 overall pick. Every non-halos baseball fan will cry foul saying the league manipulated it so the Halos would get it to jack up the cost of the franchise. Us at CtPG don’t care and laugh all the way to the #1 pick next Summer, who we eventually use to take an athletic 17 year old from Pensacola that flames out before his 22nd birthday. For the next 20 years 2002 posts a picture of every other player from the draft until we all lose our minds and become Rays fans.
You heard it here first, folks!
the joker
Judge Mills Lane passed way.
“Let’s get it on!”
RIP
Bummer…big boxing fan. He was THE guy for a long time.
Goldilocks?
https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/1600255515916832768?s=20&t=czc2wxNbTmd-n5GqBUTvaQ
Apparently, Jon Heyman was a little premature.
That’s what SHE said!
But only the first time.
This dude just lost his last shred of credibility. Lmao.
That would be so true if he ever had any to lose.
I was feeling charitable
Oh goody. Look who we get to face next year. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/12/rangers-nearing-deal-with-andrew-heaney.html
He’ll be hurt, facing us from the dugout with a lame sweatshirt on.
Only After he one hits us , then he’ll go on the Injured List.
TrAdition
Rangers are building a very boom or bust rotation there.
deGrom and Heaney are both very talented and very injury prone.
Even when Heaney isn’t hurt, he either throws a shutout or gives up 6 home runs in 2 innings
Isn’t he the guy who’d give up dingerz?
I always remember Heaney as the pitcher who’d have 14 Ks in a game, but then the Angels would lose because he gave up 4 HRs
Hate those 4-0 loses
That link I put in the main article says he gives up more than 1.7 per nine innings.
https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1600210930754760705?s=20&t=KbNsMg3s1LW4b6-h7BYFww
Payroll is already higher than normal. I wonder if these two facts are related.
Angels hoping to be sold by Opening Day, per Manfred.
Whaaahhh…. then they must have someone that they’ve been fairly engaged with. Cool.
My thoughts exactly.
Kool, maayybee
You will be very sad if the new owner is Rachael Phelps.
Per the quote matthiasstephan gave, it’s *multiple* parties.
I’m hoping for a lot of things. Hopefully this news is backed by something concrete.
I think the increase in budget is a hint the team has a buyer lined up.
…..and a buyer that likes the product, wants to improve it and willing to spend on it…..maybe Sam Bankman-Fried?
He drives a normal person car when he knows cameras will see him do it and gives money to warm gooey causes so I’m sure he’ll make a great owner…. and if he isn’t no one will be able to talk about it.
It would be, by far, the best situation for us, if their is a chosen buyer early who Arte has communication with and works with before the sale so we don’t get stuck with anything weird in transition.
Fingers crossed, bud.
Mia, you are absolutely correct. The new acquisitions are not with Arte’s money. It’s the projected new owner.
I’m not so sure that is the case. All of the deals Perry has been making this offseason are short term with more than half being for only one year.
So these are definitely still Arte’s call on the established payroll budget.
Since the sale transaction still involves multiple suitors , I really doubt the team would saddle a new owner with another $200 million obligation that they would have no say over. And you’re not going to the final round of prospective buyers and take a poll to see if they like Aaron Judge over Carlos Correa.
And as I stated last night, Going over the CBT threshold this year could have a profound impact on what a new owner wants to do next year especially when it comes to trying to re sign no.17 the hitter and his twin brother no. 17 the pitcher.
Yep. I think any NewOwnerz and their magic POBOEIEIO are unlikely to be concerned with being saddled with a 2 year pen arm at less than 8M that throws 100MPH and three years of at least league average starting pitching at a relative discount. These are moves the new FO would have also likely made even if NewOwnerz were not particularly unicorn and wanted costs under some control.
Not the same as DeGromm or Correa.
Yes and no I would say Cowboy. I believe the presence of new owners makes the budget increase much more palatable to Arte etc. But also the deals are structured so if disaster strikes and there is a problem closing the deal, Arte and any other prospective ownership candidates aren’t saddled with a 9 year Judge deal that may not age well.
Cuz God knows we already have enough of those.
Well, it’s just a guess. We’ll see.
I’m so full of hope my pants fit tight.
If the hope lasts more than 4 hours, please see a doctor.
lol 😂
Hah!!!!
When I first got acquainted with my wife’s good ol’boy uncle, we were watching football. That commercial came on, and he said “If I get an erection lasting four hours, I’m alerting the media,” That was when I realized we would get along fine.
Preferably a psychiatrist.
http://images2.memedroid.com/images/UPLOADED41/52dc958fae0c3.jpeg
Looks like we’re finally on the “build a team around the stars” plan as opposed to the old “sign a star and bring in a bunch of scrubs” plan.
Players who could provide depth at multiple spots and won’t cost much:
Wil Myers. Immediately becomes a platoon partner at first with Walsh, gives us insurance in case Walsh is toast, and can play a decent left field if/when an outfielder goes down.
Trey Mancini. Like Wil Meyers but more expensive and far worse on the grass.
Joey Gallo. Hat tip to Cowboy 26, can back up first, third, and the grass. Eliminating the shift could also help his offense.
The more I consider Myers, the more I like him as a fit here. That’s immediate, MLB quality depth at multiple positions for probably $8 million.
Idk if I would survive watching Gallo take 400 ABs in our uniform.
You’re young, with a strong liver and healthy kidneys. It’ll be close, but you’ll be OK.
I’ll be 30 in about 18 months. Not so young anymore lol.
And hey, my liver won’t be in great shape if I have to watch him nightly. Haha.
You’re still younger than The Kiiiid though.
One day you’ll look back at 30 as “pretty young.”
On that day, you will be pretty old.
Don’t ask how I know.
Hell, I thought I was a fully formed mature adult at 18, now I look back and realize I didn’t know shit about shit.
Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say.
Or in your case soon to be 30/30
When I was in my 30’s I still had knees.
Be nice to them, you will miss them.
Years of catching softball and an ACL repair haven’t been kind to them already.
I do miss them. Lol.
Those of us who catch (baseball or softball) are a rare breed. There’s a reason that catcher’s gear is called “the tools of ignorance”.
All those squats sure paid off tho!
30? When did you stop being a darned kid?
Miss UCSB turns 30 in January.
Oh, fairly recently. Haha.
Yep. Myers is kind of a bitching victim. Back when Padre fan was all sour and puss hearted Myers got “paid” and then wasn’t a massive hero…. he also failed to show grit and urgency and tantrums. So Myers was the worst playa evah. And the myth became the man.
But look at him. He is EXACLTY what winning teams have on the roster. A guy with an OPS+ that is generally above average who can play 1B, DH and survive 20 games in the OF if you need it because of an injury. He has plenty of power, so pinch hittings in his tool belt. He’ll platoon very well against LHP but doesn’t fall off the earth against RHP.
His greatest crime was getting paid 22M a year for 3 years. Although his single “horrible” season was 2019 when he made 5.5M. Since then, if they had had to just suck it up and roll him out there for 150 he would have been a 2-4 WAR player even with his defensive liabilities and earned most of his contract. To top it off, in limited innings, he is actually a solid 1B. But, because gritpump, Padres fan piss bitched so much that the Friars hate signed Eric Hosmer to a Boras contract to be not actually any better than Myers over the life of their time together in SD. Because Hosmer has beard. And yelled “YAH! WE GOT THIS!” a lot while cameras were on him during a post season. Gritty. Championish.
This is a real life example what happens when GMs think like a dumbass fan.
But signing Myers up for a few million a year would be fine…. especially if we may be losing Ohtani soon.
Exactly.
Good teams have lots of guys who can play the game well and a few guys who can play the game great.
If I’m an Angels fan and I walk into the Big A and see Myers in left, fine. He’s playing first because a lefty is on the mound, great.
A team brings in a lefty to go after an Ohtani/Rendon/Walsh inning, we bring in Myers to pinch hit.
What a guy like Myers is, really, is insurance. He’s a level of protection from seeing Matt Duffy at first or a waiver claim in left.
He’s the guy you have to pay $5 million or so because you skimped on the farm and didn’t develop a single above average bat.
But just imagine what kind of a determined hitter he would be if his mom had given him two l’s
I actually like Gallo quite a bit. He is defensively versatile (and has been a pretty good OF) and has huge power upside even if he might fan half the time, and he’ll be fairly cheap, compared to, say, Bellinger who I think is a somewhat similar gamble
And we need left handed power bats since right now its only Shohei and Walsh who can muscle it up from the left side.
Gallo needs to rebuild his value. If the Angels can convince him that he will get enough at bats I think this could be a bargain.
Also I know Soggy Joe got lambasted for the amount of rest days he gave star players last year and I really think there is some value to this since our big boys aren’t getting any younger so having Gatto ( along with Gio) would not be too much of a step down like it seemed like last year every time Trout or Rendon (When he was actually active) took a rest
Sooooo…. where is Gallo getting 450-500 ABs on our squad?
you dont need 450-500 ABs to rebuild your value.
If the sales pitch is “do this and you’ll get a contract next year” I don’t see 200 ABs drawing a guy in. That’s like 50 games….
We need more strikeout ability in our line ups you know. We need to put that league leading number far away and ahead of all the other teams so we can lead in a category somewhere.
Good ideas Jeff. But I think the Urshela deal and the Renfroe acquisition are going to prevent Myers or Mancini. The club will view them as redundant. Gallo is a wildcard. But as another lefty, they will likely stick with Walsh before going there. I see pitching as being the bigger area for more talent.
We need someone to spell Trout in Center. Right now thats Taylor Ward. Do you really want to see that ? or the Maniak?
I’m laughing a little at how badly CtPG mans is trying to wish a reality where Adell and Maniac just get slid out to Utah all year, never to be seen again, as their last option year lapses and New Unicorowners buys us new stuff next year into existence.
Those two guys are likely our #4 OF and depth in CF unless we get a 1B that can play some LF too… which they may just make Urshela and Renfroe do.
I think Adell is still considered to be in the prospect stage that needs to get in at bats and shouldn’t just “rot on the bench” so I will be shocked if he gets a portion of Opening day Anaheim pine especially considering his defensive short comings.I would be inclined to put the Maniak in that same category since he only has 153 MLB at bats, However we could really use a left handed hitting 4th outfielder that can at least play marginal defense in centerfield.
I keep going back to Raimel Tapia.
Granted, I’d rather have Meyers and have to watch 5-10 games of Ward in center, but if we’re going straight outfield depth….
Tapia is a burner, plays a good centerfield, is that left handed bat you want, and had a bat only 10% worse than league average last year.
He was non tendered by Toronto and would come cheap. He’s also only 28.
T-R-O-U-T-space-I-N-space-C-E-N-T-E-R
Redundant is another word for depth. Which is why the Angels never have any.
In Arte land, “why get a fourth outfielder when we already have three?” is usually followed by seeing somebody like Tyler Wade playing centerfield on an ESPN game.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers get an injury and plug in a redundant guy.
As noted by others above, fourth OF is Adell or Moniak. Dodgers haven’t had guys like Myers or Mancini coming off bench as backups to the backups. They had Pujols. They get other limited guys. Those people actually play well for them which is the difference. Nothing more really.
Agreed on Myers, I think he’s a perfect fit. At minimum, he would be a platoon-mate for Walsh and a backup for Renfroe and Ward. If Walsh isn’t healthy/effective, then Myers is the everyday 1B. It would mean a position player roster with something along the lines of
C-Stassi
C-O’Hoppe/Thaiss
1B-Walsh
2b/ss-Fletcher
Ss-Squid
3B/ss/1B?-Urshela
Utility-Rengifo
3B-Rendon
1B/of-Myers
Cf-Trout
Of-Ward
Of-Renfroe
DH-Ohtani
Of-Moniak
I’d be comfortable with that.
I really hope Myers signs elsewhere, just failed to come up big watching many Padres games this year. Pretty stiff in the field at 1st. Prefer a left handed OF with some defensive range.
Padres offered Trey Turner more money than the Phillies. I bet Judge goes to SD.
This is interesting… If true it makes me wonder how the Padres Front Office feels about Tatis Jr. I do know that they have played him in the outfield a little, but let’s face it, he is not an outfielder…
The whole things a half billion dollar mystery. Tatis Jr is a “generational talent at SS” who sucks at playing shortstop. So he will probably be an OF. At 332M. Then they were gonna give Trea Turner 341M…. to be a meh SS who becomes an outfielder. Meanwhile, because SPLASH, they will ignore a 4.1 WAR arb 1 player in Cronenworth who is at least survivable at SS and a 5.1 WAR truly good SS in Ha Seong Kim at 7.5M a year.
So…. they are gonna spend 700 million dollars on semi-versatile outfielders because sportstalker has gushed about them and there was a cool slide one time? Or they are gonna ignore two guys who are probably better over all players for the roster so one of the stars can play SS…. and pay out the nose to do it?
It just didn’t make sense.
Whatever the reason is, if SD wants to sign a SS, that would mean either Cronenworth or HS Kim is likely to be available in a trade. That would be a good move even if the cost is fairly steep
Cronenworth moves to first in this scenario. Elite defense and good bats all around the diamond.
Not just a little bit more money…by allegedly $41M more
This is probably in line with those stories and reports that Trea had a much stronger preference to go back to the east coast.
Likley to off-set the CA taxes as opposed to PA.
I have been to South New Jersey many times. It’s nice. I like Philly, I like the old school diners, the trees and pine barrens and beaches. It’s nice. I have also seen the women in South New Jersey. They look like women. That’s nice too.
I do not understand what is up with the mighty drawing power of non-Camden South Jersey and the Cleopatra-like power of the women who are raised there. Do you guys realize there is actually just as much evidence of players specifically choosing to go there than there is of players desperately wanting to come to Southern California? And their women, what is up with them? They just can’t be happy away from the bad traffic and crap winters of the Garden State? Trey Turner turned down over 341M to NOT play in “The best city in the USA” so he could go play where his wife is from and freeze his balls off…. but cheese steaks…. and…. stuff.
But in all seriousness, I think it’s about time to stick a fork in the “Everybody wants to live in California” myth cause it’s dead and covered in poop and trash. Even people with “the money to make it work” don’t seem that excited about making it work. I mean, of course, Turner and Wheeler and who ever aren’t gonna be living in Point Breeze or whatnot, but still, even the suburbs of Philly compared to most of SD County? These players would rather have that than live in the Golden Stain and make more money? That’s rough.
Mr. and Mrs. Turner are knuckleheads.
Mr. and Mrs. Trout are not.
But even Trout…. remember the relief? The INCREDIBLE drawing power of South New Jersey was escaped and all it took was being a franchises first true icon and the largest contract ever to that point, as well as having already lived here for a few years.
How much you wanna bet when that kid gets older he’s in school back east and not here?
South New Jersey? Who knew it was so wonderful? I always thought it just looked like a great place to dump a body.
😂
Or a nice romantic walk along Love canal.