Good morning Angels fans. It is now November. Hope you had a great Halloween, now have some links.
Angels News
Angels singed pitcher Victor Garcia from Mexico. This could be the guy!
Former Angel manager Phil Nevin and 2002 WS winner Benji Gil are in talks to maybe be candidates to be the next Padres Manager. Wait, WHY? Like I get you have to do your due diligence bit, really?
Around Baseball
Welp, the Rangers take a 3-1 lead in the World Series. But then again, 3-1 leads are cursed maybe as they get blown way more often than they should.
What could sway things is that Mad Max and Garcia are out for the rest of the series. Still would need to win 3 in a row though.
Not that the Rangers had to worry since Andrew Heaney pitched well. Yes, Andrew Heaney won a World Series game and gave up only 1 run.
In non WS news, a fan is suing the Braves for an injury. I am not a lawyer, but I am sure someone in the comments will understand who will win.
Hey want to guess how much money MLB free agents will make? You can guess now on Fangraphs. And keep in mind we will be having our own “If I were Perry” sometime in November so keep a look out for that.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
As bad as we all know Arte is, at least he hasn’t saddled the organization with this issue: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/padres-took-out-a-50mm-loan-in-september-to-cover-payroll.html
Yikes! Looks like some high priced players will be on the move.
I just hope that Samuel L. Jackson isn’t/wasn’t/won’t be on the the plane with the DBacks to and from Texas.
You know how he is about sneks on a plane…
The Angels “singed” Victor Garcia?
🔥
Ooh – burn!
Only you prevent dumpster (dive) fire signings.
The Mets are interviewing a guy named Mendoza for their manager.
I feel like he has been managing here for the past 10 seasons!
ba-dum-tss
Now that one crossed the line.
nice
Josh Hamilton: Did someone say line?
How many more days until Spring Training?
https://x.com/CatchUpFeed/status/1719598414428528947?s=20
Exactly 106 days until pitchers and catchers report!!
The off season should be interesting. They had a losing record with the AL MVP who, at least for now, is no longer with them. To consider winning, they would need to re-sign or replace Shohei and add 2 starting pitchers and a middle of the order bat. I just don’t see that happening. And Perry has already said they are counting on having a healthy Rendon, which I don’t see happening either. Even when he was healthy, he wasn’t as productive as Rengifo. Perhaps Artie will be inspired by Texas 😀 . I am not optimistic. Perhaps the IIWPMs will inspire me.
I share your reality. I think a complete reworking of the Org is not going to happen and it will be more of the same with some depth signings by Perry.
I’m sure they have a with Ohtani/without Ohtani plan. The “braintrust” likely believes in their chances to sign him. When that probably fails, there will be a pivot of some type. Hopefully it won’t be an Arte special- ie some overpriced free agent for 7 years type deal.
The Angels only have certain options. Arte I’m sure has said he isn’t going over the luxury tax level. You can do the math on what is available in money.
They need to hope Rendon can play and be somewhat reliable. They have a SS and 2B. They have the rookie at 1B. The OF has to hope Trout, Ward, Moniak, and Adell are enough. Rengifo and Fletch can maybe hang around. O’Hoppe and someone else (Stassi?) at C. They can rotate the DH. If Ohtani comes back, he is the DH.
Pitching is the issue. The makings of a bullpen exists with the hard throwers late. The midtier guys must be improved. This is where instead of Loup and Tepera, they need guys that are pitch well. They must add another decent starter. Nothing extreme but someone ok. Snell would be nice but expensive. He only goes five innings also. Nola will be an overpriced wildcard. They might just load up in the pen.
If you are adding two supposed middle of the order hitters, where are you playing them? And who is reliable and affordable enough to get?
I don’t want to be too negative, and I know it is just a game too, but I’m thinking things are going to be pretty rough for Angels baseball for a few years. Like bottom 5 teams rough. Like 70 wins rough.
Like you said, we took a below-average team and subtracted the best player in all of baseball from it. Do the math.
And this looks like one of the weakest Free Agent classes in recent history. So even if Arte went Cohen-nuts and signed whoever I asked him to sign, that wouldn’t be enough. We are seriously better off doing a full-on rebuild for the future. Trade Drury for the best offer available. Estevez too. We don’t need good players who are signed just for 2024 right now.
Maybe Perry can pull of more of those Syndergaard stunts (but hopefully cheaper than $20MM) where we sign a decent Free Agent with every intention of flipping him at the trade deadline.
I wouldn’t put Damian Lillard at the level of Shohei but his leaving Portland is a good approximation of what will happen to the Angels. Without Lillard the Blazers are 1-3 and will likely win 20-25 games this year.
Should Shohei leave we’ll be something a little worse than 70 wins, I think, and if for some god knows what reason Trout gets traded we’ll be Oakland bad.
I wouldn’t be too sure of that.
The year before Shohei, 2017, the Angels finished 80-82. with a starting rotation of Ricky Nolasco, JC Ramirez, Parker Bridwell, Tyler Skaggs and a broken down Matt Shoemaker .
Mediocrity is a lot easier than you think.
I checked it out. Except for Trout, that was a really bad team. I don’t know how they won 80 games.
And Trout only played 2/3 of the season in 2017.
Sosh? Sosh!
According to the team’s Pythagorean Winning percentage, The Angels should have finished 81-81 that year so the Sosh factor was not really a factor.
I hope Garcia is in tune. Or at least that he doesn’t get burned too badly.
My guess, in another cost-saving measure, Arte will start to have our newly signed prospect use DocuSign.
Save money on the Smedium knock off shersey, no more paid human on-site to administer the paperwork.
Sign it on your iPad, take a selfie…..done, money saved.
My spreadsheet for IIWPM is up and ready. Going to be a fun offseason.
Good morning all you Halloweenies. As my son and I were watching the game, in between handing out candy, he kept referring to Heaney as “Angels legend Andrew Heaney” while we got to watch “good Heaney” pitch a gem. My son is biased since he has 2 baseballs signed by him and Andrew put an Angels Fun Run medal around my son. Congratulations on a solid pitching performance Andrew. Hot stove time is right around the corner. Teeth gnashing, hand wringing, and possibly short lived jubilation are in our future.
Missed WS for great reason as we went with my kids taking their kids tricking and treating.
Living in the mountains can be challenging, especially with the nighttime cold, but it does not faze the kids whatsoever. Came across a house with a 18-foot-high animatronics monster and other smaller monsters, he heated up the outdoor with patio heaters and gave candy away in the open garage with even more creepy stuff. There was a skeleton rocking in a rocker drinking beer watching the game. The man and wife had Angels stuff all over the garage ad they said they were serious fans too. They too want Arte gone and trade Trout even for some decent kids as it’s time for rebuild.
Hope you all enjoyed Halloween and the game. Here is to the DBKs winning tonight.