Good morning Angels fans, how are you today? Have some links then.
Angels News
Our Platypus in Chief has an uphill battle to make the franchise better not just at the MLB level, but the whole org. He wants the team to be a place people want to play and work for. And to his credit, is improving the lives of some of the people beneath him.
Well, at least Ohtani is already working out, throwing pitches that none of us could even have a ghost of a chance of hitting.
And while he was great the last 2 seasons, some say that Ohtani will be even better this year.
Around Baseball
The WBC has a specific ruleset, mostly about eligibility of players. Seriously, there are like 3 sections about pitchers alone.
Speaking of, while the hype here is the US is alright, Group A is where the real hype is.
And while Eric Sogard will play for the Czech Republic, Correa won’t play at all. Not for an injury this time, his second child is due when the games start.
Montreal may be still missing their baseball team, but the hot dog people are still there.
Getting MLB The Show this year? Well, it will finally have the Negro Leagues in the game!
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
The Recluse Speaks!
https://nypost.com/2023/02/08/angels-owner-arte-moreno-hopes-to-keep-shohei-ohtani/
Does this sound like an owner about ready to sign his megastar to a mega contract?
If only it were more transparent. I wish he would give us a time and date for when he will make his next offer. And exactly how much it will be. I also think we deserve a transcript of every call the FO makes to Shohei’s agent. This is all exactly what every owner and GM says. If we had real baseball people involved they’d share every intimate detail of how they feel and how they plan to outwit their adversaries with us as they go.
He hasn’t spoken to press in like 3 seasons(according to Sam Blum), c’mon now.
Sam Blum’s kind of a piss ant.
Just think back…. so you haven’t read anything that started with “Angels owner Arte Moreno said…..” in three years?
Huh. I’ve never seen an issue with his reporting, but ok.
I genuinely can’t remember the last time Arte sat for a press conference or an interview like he did with Heyman.
Would have appreciated answers about 5 other things before an Ohtani question. Arte doesn’t control that one as much as Shohei but he does control other things fans care about.
How many players have we signed in the international draft so far this year? I think it was 18 the first day; haven’t heard anything since. Are any of them any good? Or is it way too early to have any idea? Do we have any money left?
Not sure how many in total. The notable ones all sign on the first day and those are usually the only ones announced. If we do have money, it isn’t much. Which is fine because all the high dollar merchandise is gone.
Way too early to tell if we have any super studs. Predicting 16 year olds is tough.
What is good is that we are signing full classes and some of the kids are rated pretty highly by the people who rank 16 year olds.
I CAM PRODICT 16 YEAR OLDS!
If Coach Dad can’t identify young talent……Arte should hire Leonardo DiCaprio as a scout..he has an eye for young talent.
Leo is turning into Dr Jerry Buss in training.
Great! Sign up as a scout for us asap!
Of course, you won’t be paid much for it, but it’s the Angels way!
Thanks.
Would have been nice if our highest pick was better than ranked 50. Just on average, we should have had two of the top 50, and the highest should be around 14. But yeah, who knows about 16 year olds.
With our international signing pool limit, we actually went for quantity over quality this year.
I don’t understand your math on this at all. Are you just ignoring draft position and intl bonus pool size?
I thought international signings were basically a free for all. Sure, the Angels lost 500k for signing Syndergaard, but they didn’t look that great on the top 50 signings.
For instance, the dodgers signed both the 3rd and 23rd ranked prospects, amongst others. Virtually every team signed at least one higher ranked prospect than the Angels.
Since it’s largely a crap shoot anyway, hopefully a few of the 18 we signed will pan out. That’s what scouting is for.
I’ll just say this
If Ohtani does sign an extension soon we are gonna have to start worshipping Rex as some kind of deity.
Baseball gods reincarnate.
Stinky Cheese? Is this a Virus Alert? Weird Al warned me about this …
Okay Perry, I want something shiny! Get’r done!!
Ohtani will sign within the week before P&C report, yes i am sure of it
Are you just messing with us Rex?
Seems confident. Has my attention.
Rumor has it he had pictures and “knows things” about the of “Chinese Spy Ballon” days before it hit the news.
I’m just not sure I see the logic. He can get $500MM from at least 4 teams probably. He wants to win. It doesn’t seem probable that he will sign here early.
The one way I think he signs with us is if we get into the playoffs and have a really good season, and it looks like the team is starting to win. But unfortunately, the point at which that becomes apparent is at the end of the season, which means it is far too late for us and too big a gamble.
If he isn’t willing to sign an extension before the end of spring training, trade him.
It simply depends on what Ohtani’s priorities are and what the Angels offer.
The Angels provide teammates and a market he is familiar with and proximity to an airport with a direct flight to Japan. Also, an extension contract eliminates the risk he’ll have to take a short-term lower salary if he gets injured.
Even if winning is Ohtani’s #1 priority, how often have we expressed unbridled optimism for the Angels’ chances on this site? Whose to say Ohtani won’t do the same? If Othani thinks Trout and Rendon will be healthy, Ward will continue to produce, Walsh will bounce back, and that the minors have some quality arms ready to join the bullpen, well, then he might think the Angels have just as good a chance in the next few years as any team he might seriously consider joining.
Combine that with the fact Ohtani is probably beyond wealthy from endorsements, and he might very well sacrifice 50 million potential dollars on the free market and take an extension.
Perhaps you are right, we’ll see.
I was going to add, that if everything was more even (i.e. Ohtani thinks the likelihood of making the playoffs with the various teams was roughly the same), then I think he would sign here. Somewhat because of the things you listed above. He may really like his teammates, and living here. He is close to Japan. Etc.
Then again, it could all be word games. Perhaps Ohtani really likes playing/living in OC, and he says things out loud about “wanting to win” because he is like us, and he is hoping to “pressure” Arte into doing better and putting together a better team. Except Ohtani has way more clout than we do.
I am gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Ohtani said he wants to win because he wants to win. Thus I am still waiting for the first beave pioneering soul to come out and roundly declare that there are many things they want to do more than win.
Wasn’t it Serial Killer (Greinke) who was up front and didn’t use the “Winning” BS, but said flat out it was all about the Benjamins? I kind of respected him for that.
Yeah. You’re right. And I like him too.
One thing I’ve learned in mortgages and real estate is the term “value” has about as many meanings as there are people.
I’m sure those are all factors and that there are more.
Hopefully Ohtani spends the year watching his young rotation mates excel and realizes they are all just starting their primes. Hopefully he sees some of the Trash Pandas come up and form a shutdown bullpen. That Trout has a fully healthy season and Walsh is back to raking.
That looks like a lot of potential to win on the horizon.
But who’s to say he won’t? His representation would be doing him a disservice to not test the market if not only to see what is out there – unless, of course he has directed them to “Re-sign me with the Angels at a BIG discount because zOMGTROUTANDTHEBEACHANDMONKEYS!”
I think he’ll test the market too, it makes sense. BUT there certainly is a case to be made that there are indeed FAs that just decide they like a place and what to be there for one reason or another. They may not take a huge discount to do it, but Ohtani’s not taking one either way and everyone knows it.
But the idea that he’d prefer to sign here if the money is all mostly the same isn’t totally ridiculous. What’s ridiculous is any FO thinking it’s a good idea to pay him that much money.
You said what I was thinking better than I could. I suppose I just don’t get the “proximity to an airport with direct flights to Japan” reasoning. If that is such a big factor, then the Dodgers, Mariners, Giants, Padres, Astros, Rangers, Braves, Cubs/White Sox and Yankees/Mets all offer direct flights to Tokyo and beyond from their respective cities.
I love the idea that Ohtani is worried about getting on Expedia and finding a 1st class ticket on JAL. Like that’s a factor.
Would it help you understand why he’d sign here if I got pissed off at you for even hinting that him signing here doesn’t make the most sense?
In my post above, I did not say anything about whether I personally believe we should sign him or not.
Just about what I think the likelihood is of Ohtani signing here, in reply to Rex.
So yes. Because you failed to state that he will sign here and it’s the best possible plan ever then you probably need someone to yell at you and help you.
If Ohtani is better this year, he could bring a great haul of young talent at the trading deadline!
I bet that the Angels hold on until the end and just having hope that he re-ups.
Honestly, if it isn’t done at the beginning if ST or very early in the season, he won’t be signing.
yes thats why its done within the week.
He goes back to Japan soon, and its best if we just wrap him up now.
Aaron Rodgers says that he’s going on an “darkness retreat”. 4 days, complete darkness, just himself, in a little house.
Dark days ahead for the Angels, home of the eternal “darkness retreat”. Its the epitome of being an Angels fan…before and after Shohei wore the uniform. Only Shohei’s mom knows how dark things will become.
in 2012, Bert left St. Louis for a 10 yr darkness retreat
I think they’re gonna resign him if they can.
Like I said yesterday. They can sign him to 10/500 and have an OK team around Trout/Ohtani/Rendon through when Rendon gets off the books if they up payroll to 242M. We’re at what? 212 now? Can’t remember….
Anyway, that payroll will get us….. basically the team we have now plus older Ohtani…. and we’ll need an almost entirely pre-arb bullpen for a few years…. and a mostly pre-arb rotation as the guys who are arb now get paid or leave.
But, as luck would have it, PTP has drafted a lot of pitching lately AND golly gee there are gonna be pitchers available in this years draft too! And the next one! And the next one !
Still, until our farm produces more 3-4 WAR players that are cheap we will still likely see a bunch of bitching about how cheap Arte and his top 4 payroll won’t go buy us some free agent champiham and make us a certainty sandwich. Especially on the pitching side. Unless PTP can lure away a bunch of Indians and Braves pitching guru types.
Point being, there is thread, and there is a needle, and though I doubt it will work, I think the Angels intend to try to thread the needle. Sure, the team may never actually be all that good, and it could be a total disaster by say 2027, but on the flip side Bade Root will be fun.
I do have a secret fantasy. Arte looked into selling the team. Saw the huge amount of money he can make confirmed. Wants to win. Decides “Let’s win the whole fkn thing!”. Over the next say 2-3 years goes all Mike Ilich, but without death knocking on his door, knowing he’ll make the money back when he sells, tells Cohen and the Mets to hold his beer, 400M payroll baby!
I’ve been thinking the same thing. These recent developments feels like a total Mike Ilitch play. (Without the annoying pizza commercials) But hopefully with better results and no BBB.
You are such a CONTRARIAN 😂. I know you secretly want to see Ohtani traded a big haul of prospects and young players in return.
Trading him is the smart thing to do and was especially smart last year. But being stuck with him will be fun in the short term. You know, like art school girls.
10/500 would only be a $20 million boost to both payroll and luxury tax calculations as Ohtani is currently making $30 million.
That $20 million would be more than offset by two Trash Pandas replacing Tepera ($7m), Loup ($7.5m), and Neto or Soto replacing Urshela ($9m).
That would still leave Perry the task of replacing Renfroe and adding depth, but by the end of 2023 we should have Quero and a couple of others moving up the ranks.
I don’t know about $400M, but I like your hallucinations. Let’s compete with the big boys — sign Ohtani and get our payroll up into the top 5 teams! World Series or bust!
Ummmm, we are in the top 5.
Top 7 according to Fangraphs…not that it matters.
With this season bringing on all the changes, there is one I just don’t know about. The new schedule that has every MLB team playing against everyone else. I have always been an American league fan; I appreciated the fact that the two leagues were different. MLB wants to follow what the NFL has done instead of doing something different. I was at first into playing a few teams out of league at the start of inter league play twenty-five years or so ago, especially the Dodgers as I love beating them. But I saw this coming 35 years ago when elimination of the two league presidents and offices took place.
I am “Old School” and realize that being an accusation. Come on GPB get with it, times change. OK I get it, I believe the good ol’ days were in the ’60’s you think, and maybe there might be a bit of truth to that. But I also did not care for paying Seattle 18 times a season. Adding games to the other two divisions, East and Central would have worked though, right? I guess if you are from Cincinnati or Miami or NYC you will enjoy playing the teams from those cities and the others exciting. But me, I like the two different leagues and playing against a few every year was fun too.
So, we’ll see how it works out for the next two years, as we play on the road against half the National League teams this season and next season have those teams visit the Big A.
I don’t understand how the new schedule is anything like the NFL schedule. I guess cause the AFC/NFC play each other? But “the teams all play each other at some point over the years” is a pretty broad complaint. There’s a universal DH now so it was bound to happen. The better version of baseball won out, so yes, the leagues became more similar.
I for one am glad to see the schedule flatten out. I was tired of watching three or four good NL Central teams bludgeon each other into a wild card game while an NL West team slaughters their division with three sad sacks in it. Or the old AL east when the Yankees and Roid Sox blasted the rest of their division for years and years while we had to deal with the A’s and Rangers and sometimes Mariners. I’d like to see the Yankees deal with the Astros as often as we do. I want to play the Royals as often as the Indiguards do.
I must be getting old, then. I liked division opponents playing each other often. Built good rivalries and made the division championship won head to head.
I like the schedule from a marketing standpoint. Hard to grow Ohtani and Trout when a kid in Cincy might only get to see them once every six years. And I’ll enjoy seeing NL players at the Big A.
I think From 1977 to the 3 division realignment & Interleague play in the 90’s I believe the schedule was balanced with 2 home & away series with each AL team. But I do believe the schedule was unbalanced from 1969 to 1976 when there were a two division format in each league but prior to that the play was balanced since there were no divisions only 2 8 to 10 team leagues.
I used to love that the AL and NL never met so that when the WS came you really had no idea who was the better team. My favorite as a young Reds and Dodgers (when in the WS) fan was when the Dodgers and then the Reds demolished the A’s Bash Brothers in 1988 and 1990.
Since that is long gone, the autistic side of me likes the sense of more regional divisions, less travel for the players and the ability to see my team more easily in that region. I think it would be good for MLB in general. I’d hate to see the NL and AL disappear, but I think it’s just names now and doesn’t really change anything for the worse. I had a hard time seeing the Brewers and Astros switching leagues but I’m over it. Time to get all modern.
I’ve often wondered how much the time zones limit viewership. I get the East Coast parties late but your average 40 year old dad with a job in the morning can’t be watching too many Yanks at Seattle games that start at 10 PM.
It is easier for us on the West, but even then we miss most of the 4 PM games when they go east.
More regional games = more prime time games.
That settles it. Make the Eastern divisions of both leagues a separate league that I never have to hear about again and spare all those poor people from late night Yankee games.
Between interleague and universal DH, the leagues are already gone in all but name.
I say, add expansion teams to Portland and Nashville, ditch the leagues, and divide the teams into 8 regional-based divisions. 16 teams make the playoffs.
Regional/Division round: 5-games series between the top 2 teams in each division. The top team starts 1-0 to keep the fight for first interesting (so it’s actually a 4-game series).
Take the 8 division champions and seed them in a bracket-style playoffs (top record plays worst record, etc…). Quarters are a 5-game series, Semi-finals and World Series are 7-games. With this system, there is a chance the 2 best teams in baseball will meet in the WS even if they are from the same league.
… I admit, there is a part of me that fights against my own idea because I don’t like the idea of losing the AL/NL.
And which one of these 8 regional super divisions do we want to be swallowed up by the ocean or the blast crater from Giant Meteor?
Really great links for this time of year.
Except for the hot dog links. My wife and I went to an Expo game in 1993 at Exhibition Stadium. It was a surreal experience since we left our hotel room by going through the underground mall onto the subway and then walked directly into the stadium never seeing daylight. The stadium had a concrete roof with a plastic orange section at the apex of the roof look that made the roof look like an upside down bath tub with an orange rubber stopper in the bottom.The game sounded like we were trapped in an aquarium.
We did order one of those hot dogs which were barely boiled and lathered in Mayonnaise. Since I’m a grill guy who loves to order a hot dog at what ever MLB ballpark I’ve visited ( Now at 35) But this was an unforgettable experience as it was probably the worst ballpark hot dog I have ever had.
35 different NLB venues is indeed impressive. I’m not close to that, but I have seen Fenway in the sixties and again in the 2000’s, Wrigley both day and night. The House that Ruth built and 3 different homes of the Giants and Angels. I’ve seen 2 homes for the Dodgers, Padres, Marlins and Braves and Pirates and Cardinals. My favorites are Dodger Stadium through the nineties and Fenway was impressive in the contrast of ’66 and ’67 when the attendance difference was 30,000 fans. Hated Candlestick and the Big A when the Rams shared the Angels home.
My bucket list used to include Minute Maid in Houston, but no longer. Would like to see Coors Field though. Hope to be around and able to enjoy wherever the Angels call home next, it could be in the Big A upgraded or a brand-new stadium somewhere in SoCal.
Attended Fenway the first time in 1966, it was awful. Concourse smelled of urine and the employees were gruff and rude, and I did not understand what they were saying. We saw 6 or so games the last 2 and a half months of the season there. Then the magic took place in ’67. New manager (Dick Williams) and a everyone was young (Smith, Tony C, Scott, Petrocelli, Foy) and instead of games with 3 or 4 thousand, overnight it seemed the crowds in ’67 were 30K+ every game and the team was electric because of Yaz and Lonborg. Wonderful memories of the Red Sox and then came the ’80’s and the dislike started to build, you understand, I’m sure. 3 teams I love to beat are the Dodgers, Red Sox and the Yankees. The M’s and A’s are fun too.
O Canada, home of the barely boiled “Saucisses fumess” lathered in Mayo.
I’m sure it’s a Justin Trudeau favorite…only he adds a lot of ketchup like a douche bag.
O Canada! Our home and native land!
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.
Our True North, strong and free!
Trudeau strikes me as a guy who isn’t a big baseball fan…. but will learn the names of three Blue Jays players and blather about them if they make the WS.
Why would you say that? Everyone knows that Cubans absolutely love baseball.
Trudeau: A Love Stories.
Wearing his little Che Guevara T-shirt and little cap….eating a little boiled weiner with ketchup, surrounded by the MLB retired Blue Jays sons.
That sounds horrible.
Dogs need to be grilled. Always.
A hot dog lathered in mayonnaise? 🤮 Reminds me of my father in law, who slathers mayonnaise on broccoli.
I did that as a kid.
As a kid.
Good morning folks, it’s going to be a great day, so enjoy. 😎
I think Perry is the answer to the question, How to improve the Angels organization.
Short of getting a new owner, yes.
Perry obviously has Arte’s attention as Arte is doing some very un-Arte things like increasing coach pay, increasing the scouting department, and staying out of free agency.
Just offhand, how many of us have been secretly wishing for this team to become smarter? Good move by the Platypus.
Stating the obvious is a start, been a bottom dwelling organization for a long time, no where to go but up. I’ll take a “smarter” evil Arte if he isn’t selling.
Or not so secretly, ha ha.
We’ve long wished for Arte to hire a good GM, cut the checks, and stay out of his way.
I really thought Dipoto was the beginning of this. Jerry had that look, swagger, the right buzzwords. I really thought we were moving to the future at that time.
But here we are a decade later and it is looking like Perry is finally it.
After the realization that you are the most hated guy in SoCal, why not give Perry what he needs. You just might add value to the team’s asking price after all the lawsuits are done. We’ll see if Arte stays out of the day-to-day decisions or nixes any trades.
I seriously think the Rendon signing was Arte’s rock bottom. Team needs a 3B. Team needs a gamer. Team needs a leader. Team needs offense. Team needs a winner.
Garrit Cole won’t sign.
OK. Anthony Rendon ticks a ton of boxes and, revisionist history aside, has a normal injury history and isn’t over 30. Sounds like a good spend….
And…. plop. Generally, the decision was not a bad one, but it crashed and burned.
I think Arte finally just looked around at which teams seem to not have this problem, saw the Braves guy, that guy could clearly explain how the Braves work, and Arte said “OK. Go and do that please.”
As long as those things PTP sold him on are happening, the steps in the process, not just “we are gonna be winners who win”, Arte seems OK with not trying to punch the blinking red and green buttons.
The best part is I still don’t think Rendon’s toast. So we may actually get good/healthy Rendon at some point AND get non-intrusive Arte letting the Braves guy build the Braves at the same time. If we’re lucky.
The Vernon Wells trade was rock bottom since its also about the time that Arte Decided that investing in the minors and player development was a waste of timed money.
Vernone. Led the universe in infield pop flies.
We forget it was Vernon + shipping out Napoli and then Hamilton to try and make up for Vernon being a bust.
A brutal string of related moves.
I don’t think you understand what rock bottom is for the person who has hit rock bottom. The Wells trade is the rock up your bottom maybe, but Arte went on to more and more glorious moves well after it.
Yes indeed. Cokehead says hello.
Actually I understand when rock bottom was reached. Unfortunately Arte did not until probably some time this year.
Yeah. Round about. His behavior changed, which usually means something happened in the person’s head.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if Perry was actually doing the things he talks about? Filling roster holes by drafting positions of need, fixing deficiencies in international scouting, solving the compensation and reimbursement issues with our minors teams, improving the organizational culture so people want to be here rather than a place of derision. Hmmm…