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LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: New Balance Who This?

February 1, 2023

Good morning Angels fans. Have some links.

Angels News

Shohei Ohtani has a new sponsor, New Balance! Those are now the best shoes, OHTANI HAS SPOKEN!

Former Angel Dexter Fowler has now retired. Played for like 5 minutes here…

Keith Law thinks better of the Angels’ farm than others, with 3 prospects in the Top 100! Neto is 59, O’Hoppe is 61, and Quero is 93.

The Athletic graded every MLB team’s offseason. Angels get a B+.

Around Baseball

Baseball farm rankings are somewhat a view of the future. Thus, the Angels have a dark one ahead of them. Yeesh.

Jazz Chisholm is the cover athlete for MLB the Show 23! Right, that means we are getting closer to the season starting. As long as it is available for PC I am fine.

With Detroit’s new dimensions, here are every ball that would have been a home run since 2019. The issue though, is that players will now be trying more, just as players who play in Angel Stadium recently…

Nats keep Wily Peralta employed by signing him to a MiLB deal. He was decent the last two years so this is a bit of a surprise.

Ty Buttrey betrayed everyone and signed with the Astros. He was last with the Angels in AAA.

Youtube TV and MLB Network got into a spat so, no more MLB network for Youtube Tv users. Ugh.

2 sport athlete Mookie Betts is playing in the Bowling US Open. He is actually pretty good at it too.

Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.

43 Comments

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Legend

Fansince1971

1 month ago

`To me the only thing of interest is the farm and players being developed and moving to the Majors. Watching a rookie come up and contribute is so fantastic. It is far FAR. more interesting than paying some FA too much money in the hope that they contribute.

There are five things I’m excited for in ‘23. One is to see the young pitchers contribute – particularly Detmers and Sandoval as well as the AA bullpen dudes. Two is O’Hoppe. Three is to see whether Ohtani can continue his run of excellent/historic seasons. Four is to see if Trout can stay healthy and compete for an MVP. And five is to see if Rengifo can continue to develop.

All of these guys are basically home grown coming up through the Angels system.

I’m not focused on wins/losses or playoffs. That can only lead to frustration and disappointment in the AL West.

Legend

Cowboy26

1 month ago

Reply to Fansince1971

Really? Even Better than watching Vladdy hit a ball off his shoe tops into the left field bullpen? I’m not sure I would always agree with that statement

Last edited 1 month ago by Cowboy26

Legend

Fansince1971

1 month ago

Reply to Cowboy26

Yeah, Vlad was a special signing. The exception that proves the rule. I remember the day it happened and I could not wait to watch him hit. But many of the free agents out there are ultimately expensive disappointments. Vlad was the exception, as was Torii and Abreu.

Ultimately, I love homegrown players. And that is why the farm system means so much to me personally.

Legend

Cowboy26

1 month ago

Reply to Fansince1971

Those were all signed during Arte’s ownership which is why I think there are 2 distinct eras of Art’s regime I would also have to put Reggie (1982 was crazy exciting too) & Shohei (international FA) would also make that list. Of course I recall 1977, during the advent of Free Agency, when the Cowboy signed Rudi, Grich & Baylor, was such an exciting time in baseball. I also was very excited with the signing of Lyman Bostock ( who seemed to be own his prime) so it was so tragic that we never saw his prime years.

I’m sure Arte thought Albert and Hambone would have been those exceptions as well, which is the core problem of the later Arte reign of terror when he also dumped in his investment in our farm system.

Super Member

ihearhowie3.0

1 month ago

Whoa Kylie McDaniel has Quero at #43 on his top 100!

O’Hoppe #62
Neto #84

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/35490487/top-100-mlb-prospects-list-2023-kiley-mcdaniel

Editor

Legend

Jeff Joiner

2 months ago

Big day so I’m jumping in late.

I agree with the B+. We did a lot of raising the floor but nothing to really take the top off the off season. It was what we needed in many ways, but like a typical Arte team about one move short of really making a push.

Farm systems are in place to deliver assets to an MLB team. In our case we’re likely looking at a full bullpen and most of a rotation’s worth of pitching that is cost controlled for the next few years.

Not ideal, but if you have an owner who spends, and Arte spends, that can be enough savings to let him splurge elsewhere.

Trusted Member

2GA2Join

1 month ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

I know lots of us go around in circles discussing the benefits of spending big, not spending big, a new owner like Cohen that will break the bank, etc etc…

From my viewpoint, I agree with the B+ grade, and I think it would have been an A+ (and a much better shot at postseason) if we also would have signed Trea Turner and Rodon.

I know that falls into the “crazy GM signing too many big contracts” category, but hey, either play big or go home (in September).

Super Member

ihearhowie3.0

1 month ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Arte can splurge and miss all he wants if he’s prioritizing the farm and entire player development system as well.

You can outlive a bad Josh Hamilton contract if you have someone making the minimum to replace him. The problem is when you can’t produce someone better than the failed veteran.

Super Member

steelgolf

1 month ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

I see what Perry is doing and it is what should have been done starting back in 2014.

Legend

Cowboy26

1 month ago

Reply to steelgolf

I think You mean 2010 . We’ve been cursed ever since the 2009 super draft .

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Friedman trying to control More of Dave Roberts’ poor in-game management decisions? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/02/dodgers-move-danny-lehmann-to-bench-coach.html

Super Member

Twebur

1 month ago

Reply to Cowboy26

I thought the Doyers bought Dave a fancy new laptop for Christmas?

Robot lawyers…Robo Umps…Robo POBO….Robo bench coach for the Doyers.

Trusted Member

Angelz4ever

2 months ago

Ben Joyce not in top 100, yet I am sure we’ll see him by mid-season.

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

2 months ago

Reply to Angelz4ever

I don’t think relief arms make the top 100 hardly ever. They are mostly seen as “guys who failed to be starters” and thus can’t be top 100. This, of course, completely ignore that guys like Joyce and Murphy are drafted specifically to be pen arms. It also ignore the fact that if a string of guys like Joyce/Torres/Ingram/Murphy should luck out and all become high leverage relievers you are looking at about 40M dollars of payroll value from these non-prospects not to mention shortening every game to five or six innings and making it possible for a team to win with a less dominant (and expensive) rotation.

But hey, who needs that when you can rank a 17 year old shortstop who strikes out 37% of the time ahead of these guys?

Trusted Member

Angelz4ever

2 months ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Indeed, good take.

Editor

Legend

Jeff Joiner

2 months ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Like you, I have gripes. And this is one of them.

The MLB game has very much become a bullpen game and good relievers get paid big coin now. Yet the folks making the prospects lists never rank relievers.

They’ll rank a guy in A ball with a big fastball and no command because his floor is a reliever. But they won’t rank a legit, already performing in AA or higher reliever because he actually is a reliever.

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

1 month ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Yeah. It’s weird. I totally understand that relief is volatile and lots of random guys have good bullpen seasons year in and out. But if there is a guy who is obviously, from A ball up, a bullpen arm, I don’t see why they can’t evaluate him accordingly.

Especially if you have a guy who they are using for leverage throughout the system. We know what a high leverage arm is worth to a team. We can see that said 21 year old has thrown X number of high pressure innings, clean innings with a one run lead, etc. If said prospect has three strait years of strangling offensive hopes at three levels he’s at least as projectable as a useful prospect as the 20 year old outfielder whose power tool is only limited by his hit tool.

It’s not like there will ever be 20 guys who should be top 100 closer prospects. But if scouts feel as sure of Ben Joyce’s ability to lock down an inning in the MLB as they are Marcelo Meyer sticking at short why not rank the guy since he’s got a good shot at being a “name” in the bigs?

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

2 months ago

“Baseball farm rankings are somewhat a view of the future.”

Before I say this I’d better, again, put out an idiot disclaimer:
The author of this comment is and always has been an advocate of building the farm.

How big is the SOMEWHAT in that sentence? Behold… a list of top farm systems from 2004 to 2014. This is an averaging of all the BA/Pipeline/Fangraphs/PD/Keith Law stuff…

2004 – Brewers
2005 – Angels
2006 – Diamondbacks
2007 – Rays
2008 – Rays
2009 – Rangers
2010 – Rays
2011 – Royals
2012 – Padres
2013 – Cardinals
2014 – Twins

And how did these teams do within the six years after being ranked #1? Why six years? It’s a general amount of time the team has before it has to start worrying about paying the first prospects promoted from this top ranked farm.

2004 – Brewers: Finished 3/4/2/2/3/3. Made a 1 round playoff appearance in 08, their only season with 90 wins.
.
2005 – Angels: Finished 2/1/1/1/3/2. Won 100 games once, 90 games twice (another 2 seasons with 89). Made the playoffs three times, played 4 total series.

2006 – Diamondbacks: Finished 1/2/5/5/1/3. One 90 win season. Made 2 playoff appearances with 3 series played.

2007 – Rays: Finished 1/3/1/2/3/2/4
2008 – Rays: For the Rays I did 08-14. Five 90 win seasons. 4 post seasons. & post season series. One WS loss in 08.

2009 – Rangers: Finished 1/1/2/2/5/1. Four 90 win seasons. Four playoff appearances. Eight post season series.

2010 – Rays: Finished 2/3/2/4/4/5. Three 90 win seasons. Two playoff appearances. 3 post season series.

2011 – Royals: Finished 3/3/2/1/3/3. Made two playoffs. Played seven post season series. Lost the 2014 WS, won the 2015 WS.

2012 – Padres: Finished 3/3/4/5/4/5. Nothing. Best was a 77 win season.

2013 – Cardinals: Finished 1/1/2/3/3/1. One 100 win season. Two 90 win seasons. Three playoff appearances. 5 playoff series.

2014 – Twins: Finished 2/5/2/2/1/1. 3 playoff appearances. 3 series.

I don’t care about “Oh but this.” or Yah but that”. Those are the top farms, and those are what those teams did in the years after. Everything else is a factor other than having a good farm.

So. What can we take or guess at from this list of ranks/outcomes? Other than, “HURR DURR WANA GOO FARM CAUSE GOO AN ARTER YAR MAR SUPERSTAR!”

The first thing I noticed was that a surprisingly high number of the #1 farms were for teams that were already good…. ie not drafting 1st all the time or avoiding FAs that cost picks.

What else can we take from this stuff maybe?

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

What did your analysis find for teams whose farm systems consistently rank in the 20’s? Lots of Multiple 90 win seasons ?

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

2 months ago

Reply to Cowboy26

Well, let’s see…

Looks like in 2016 the Marlins were the worst. Poop.
2015 the Tigers were the worst. Poop.
2013 and 14 we were the worst. Poop.
2012 The White Sox were the worst. Eh.
2011 the Brewers took the poop cake. Zazz.
2010 was a weird mix of the Astros, White Sox, Cardinals and Padres
2009 was the Astros

The last few champions (with old enough farm results)? Say 4 years before they won?

Dodgers – 1.
Nationals – 13
Red Sox – 3
Astros – 6
Cubs – 18
Royals – 1
Giants – 11
Red Sox – 9
Giants – 24
Cardinals – 25

HERE is a pretty cool article on single season farm systems and the total value they generate across the MLB from fangraphs. Kinda gives an idea of the general landscape of farm value.

Trusted Member

2002heaven

2 months ago

Perry will not turn things around.
Why you ask? Because he was hired to do exactly what he was hired to do, and not Jeff Luhnow, Dave Dombrowski, or Theo Epstein.
Even the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t been this bad.
I think Carole will have us challenging the Pirates for record ineptitude from now on. ” After a run of regular-season success in the early 1990s, the Pirates struggled mightily over the following decades with 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 to 2012—the longest such streak in American professional sports history.” Just 13 more to go. Thanks Wikipedia!!!

Super Member

GrandpaBaseball

2 months ago

Reply to 2002heaven

Yep, you might just be on to something here, so maybe you’d like to just move on to another team, say the Mariners…..NOW GET along little doggie.

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

2 months ago

Reply to 2002heaven

I think my favorite sandwich maybe a Rueben. Though I also really dig a hot turkey and cheese with the spicy sauce and the roasted chili on it…. mmmm good. Also, where do frogs sleep?

Legend

Fansince1971

1 month ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Reuben with pimento cheese!

Legend

Eric_in_Portland

2 months ago

Reply to 2002heaven

“Guest” is a big fan of yours

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Reply to Eric_in_Portland

*Only fan.

Super Member

Twebur

2 months ago

Reply to Cowboy26

And probably an OnlyFans subscriber….

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Gee we’re the Anels now?

Author

Super Member

John Henry Weitzel

2 months ago

Reply to Cowboy26

Ugh, that’s what I get for adding links on mobile. Fixed.

Legend

Fansince1971

2 months ago

Reply to Cowboy26

That was pretty anel of you to notice!

Super Member

GrandpaBaseball

2 months ago

I for years followed farm system reports, but it’s not as much fun currently, since we traded Marsh and Adell turned out to be belly-up. I do believe PTP will eventually turn things around if Arte allows him to do so.

Super Member

GrandpaBaseball

2 months ago

I don’t fault Butters, he is marginal talent that is a head case and Houston is successful in teaching pitching.

Super Member

ihearhowie3.0

2 months ago

If there’s a sliver of hope in that Dark Future ahead of the Angels per the weighted farm rankings its that the Astros, Mariners and A’s have a similar amount or lack of Top 100 guys at the moment (obvious caveat that the Mariners have recently promoted a handful).

And there may be some unheralded guys in the system that end up sticking like Calhoun did.

Trusted Member

Angelz4ever

2 months ago

Reply to ihearhowie3.0

Ben Joyce ignored by the experts?

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Reply to Angelz4ever

Relief pitchers typically get no love.

Trusted Member

2002heaven

2 months ago

A serviceable OF and a journeyman SP coming off a career year with a team that nearly won 40 more games than we did in 2022……amazing insight!!!
Now how about hiring the UCLA and Vanderbilt coaching staffs which gotta 3 times superior to our own deplorable scouting and development. Hurray, we got some east coast love even if it’s totally absurd!

Super Member

GrandpaBaseball

2 months ago

Reply to 2002heaven

Drugs and heavy medication result in crazy. 🙃

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Reply to GrandpaBaseball

What about bad Genes? I think they can also be a factor.

Super Member

GrandpaBaseball

2 months ago

Reply to Cowboy26

Tight Levi’s can have that effect I’ve heard 😀

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Reply to GrandpaBaseball

Is this a Good Gene or a bad Gene?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVe_-s7Nyo

Trusted Member

Angelz4ever

2 months ago

Reply to Cowboy26

I would have appreciated Gene Mauch the dancing machine.

Legend

Cowboy26

2 months ago

Reply to Angelz4ever

So You’re saying Gene Mauch would be considered a bad Gene?

Legend

gitchogritchoffmypettis

2 months ago

Reply to 2002heaven

As long as we’re playing “any though goes”… I love the smell of fresh popped popcorn… not the microwave stuff… the real stuff. Beagles. Beagles are my favorite dogs, but there are a lot of lovable pooches out there. Do herpes blisters have a taste?