Good morning Angels fans. Have some links.
Angels News
So, the draft lottery means that, despite finishing with the 6th worst record (of lottery eligible teams) the Angels will pick 8th. Why? Because somehow, they got jumped by the state of Ohio as Cleveland and Cincinnati got the first 2 picks from 9th and 14th place respectively. The number 1 better not be a Lebron James or I swear this was rigged.
Perry did sign someone. A bullpen arm from SD, Luis Garcia to 1/4.25M deal. Yay?
Oh, and Mike Trout is staying. Stop asking, Philly.
Around Baseball
NYY and Boston traded. Yep. Alex Verdugo, the guy from the Mookie Betts deal with the Dodgers is now a Yankee. Gonna have to shave…
Marco Gonzales is now a Pirate. Yeah, for basically nothing. How the mighty have fallen.
White Sox sign the KBO MVP. Would have rather have him…
Lots of sports gambling recently. MLB is trying to set some rules.
Ohtani still hasn’t signed and no one knows where he will sign. Not even Dave Roberts, who blabbered for 20 minutes and got scolded by the Dodgers ownership maybe. Oh and since no one knows anything, sportswriters are getting a lot of heat from teams since they say stuff like saying the Cubs are out and then get into a fight in Nashville.
In short, Bob Nightengale has been hilarious to watch since he is wrong all the time and still has a job. And maybe is helping the Angels.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
If it were the Angels they would have kept Soto until he became untradeable.
No, if it were the Angels they would have traded Soto but not even gotten a proven MLB entity like King back, it would have been only prospects.
Jeimer Candelario off the board…Reds. A once mentioned guy that Perry had the red hots for.
I thought he would be a good fit in OC, but at the same time, it would have been a likely overpay to nab him.
Oh well, Eduardo off the board.
Soto too, for anyone who actually wanted us to try to acquire him.
Interesting that there are reports that we’ve engaged in discussions regarding Bieber, Glasnow and Burnes.
It would seem that the currency we do have is money, and the currency we don’t have is prospects.
I’d much rather see us sign free agent pitchers right now. Unless we can pull of a clever trade like some people have put in their IIWPM…
Agreed.
I’m OK with the tear it down & play the kids plan, but IFFFF we planning to “compete” which translates to, “we’re going to spend money”, it’s a no brainer to spend it on pitching.
I have some level optimism on our young starters, but come on, assuming that we are “set” with this group is delusional.
Then again, if Perry manages to trade for Burnes and sign Yamamato, I won’t be complaining…
I don’t know that we have the ammo to swing a Burns trade, but if we’re going to spend big, “F*ck it holmes”, bring me Yamamoto.
Unless we’re dealing O’Hoppe, Neto and Schanuel – there’s no way we have the package to structure a deal of that magnitude
If that’s the price of admission, the answer is NO.
You could add Burnes and Bieber to this team and the Angels still are sub-.500. Just focus on 2nd or 3rd tier starters; Paxton, Flaherty, Lauer…types.
This makes no sense. Last July, We traded away 2 of our most vaunted prospects for 2 months of a broken down middle of the road starter.
And now with a depleted farm system we are somehow magically going to compel The Guardindians, The Rays and the brew crew to take our crap in return for their no. 1 pitchers on a potential walk year?
Right.
You’re sounding like me!! 😂
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/872d8a58-fed1-4e72-b682-9b5a91381b96
Angels are not getting those guys. Perry just walking around the winter meetings stretching his pant legs. Be interested next year though.
The reports are bullshit. Always are, always have been. It’s about creating the illusion that the Angels are doing everything possible to improve, but will seemingly always fall short for reasons beyond their control.
So Evil Arte is controlling the press now?
Never said that. Anyone can leak “information” to the press. It’s on the press to do their due diligence before reporting.
The press cannot spell due diligence let alone practice it.
Another currency we may not have is desirability.
Sportskeeda online story tagline:
Astros fans unimpressed with team’s Dylan Coleman acquisition from Royals – “Always shopping in the bargain bin”
LOL, not just Halo fans getting tired of it.
Signing Cimber, Calhoun and MacGyver were the 3 moves required to convince both Ohtani and Yamamoto to sign here.
You’ll see.
The cup half full version is lots of money left to sign Ohtani.
Adam Cinder RP signed-he’s a side-arm slinger or a 3:00 thrower like we used to say. Helps change hitters hitting and tracking planes.
Pair him up with Herget.
Our Bullpen at the end of last Year was:
Estevez
Soriano
Joyce
Caceres
Rosenberg
Ingram
Herget
Wantz
You have to admit that Kolarek, Garcia and Cimber would be upgrade over at least have of those names. Of course it may an upgrade just getting us back to replacement level.
Yea. Well said.
All joking aside, I am actually for real OK with signing up a pile of veteran arms that are somewhat disposable. If we’re gonna have Joyce, Torres, Murphy, Ingram, Yovan, Bachman and God knows who else getting innings as young men in that pen some veteran grit will be good. Cheap grit’s even better.
Our Grit has gotten cheaper without being any more grittier.
Back to 2021 when Sleepy Joe Maddon and Perry often spoke about having bullpen arms with “different looks.” How did that work out?
I guess it’s a matter of just how “different” we are looking at.
IDK. It seems like all of the Angel pitchers look the same when they turn around to see the ball go over the fence.
Someone should tell Perry that he got sat at the little kids table at the Winter Meetings. He thinks he is getting lots of moves done.
Adam Cimber? This year he got shelled, was good in 21 and 22 though.
Anaheim is a dumping ground for failed major leaguers. We’ll try to convince ourselves that Perry is picking up good relievers. We’ll find out that Loup and Tep were better
Welcome to “Dumpster Diving with Arte and Friends”. The game show where Arte and his friends find the underperforming pitchers and you decide which one of the reclamation projects will fail the fastest. If you win, it’s lifetime season tickets to the SLC Bees for you and a guest (transportation is not included).
Please give a big Halo welcome to your host, Roger Lodge!
My money is on Aaron Loup
It’s also where good major leaguers come to fall apart via the power of shit fan ju ju. We’re the best worst place. Fans in places like Cleveland have the excuse of being in Cleveland. But our Donkey Powers are something special…. Knicks fan level special.
Fan juju has nothing to do with it. Having a poor farm, needing to fill the bullpen, having little cash because of the big splashes, leads us to getting cheap labor which means castoffs
Toxic OC Privilege?
Extremely small sample size in ’23 and I think he battled an arm impingement injury.
I’m not a fan of soft-tossing relievers, but I’m a huge believer in positive regression for historically good relievers coming off a down year.
1 year, $1.65 million? Good deal.
He missed the last three months of the season with a shoulder impingement. He was no -tendered by the Jays.
Not only was he ineffective, he’s got shoulder issue too.
If he doesn’t bounce back, cut him. The financial commitment is nowhere near Loup or Tepera, so I’d think its fair to assume his leash won’t be as long.
So the silver lining is we can get rid of him without losing a lot of money
I’m just kind of meh on this move. Not expensive, was good in 21 and 22, so roll the dice. If he is not injured, he may be fine.
Shiver me Cimbers…another Angel Transfer Portal scrub.
YES! Adam Cimber! Keep the parade of barely perceptible moves coming Perry! Let this be our biggest move all winter.
“Boo hoo scrubs oh no! We need a rebuild but not…. SCRUBS!” weeps real baseball man. I say we got Bo Porter, now lets become his era of Astros!
We also signed MacGruber too!
Oops, no MacGyver.
Wait, no, actually Obi Wan.
That would actually be awesome if we did sign Obi Wan… he’d be better than Ohtani. Well, at least the Ewan version, I’m not sure about Alec.
Maybe he has a good cutter.
Spare us the Cutter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ItNtCMgqc
So we got Willie Mays Cole Calhoun going for us, which is nice.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/angels-sign-willie-calhoun-to-minor-league-deal.html
We just signed Calhoun!
See, Perry did something…
YES! This is the type of move I’m looking for. One we won’t even remember in 2026.
A move we won’t remember in 2026 is better than a move we will remember for bad reasons.
What’s fascinating is looking at our rosters from past years and barely recognizing players. And I mean within the last 5 seasons
exactly. give the people what they want. CtPG Guy can’t bemoan this signing for all that long no matter what.
Baseball writers….
They’re just rolling 20-sided die and adding in their experience proficiency.
I predict Ohtani will sign a contract within the next 2-3 months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk0ldSF3FX8
They played at my gradnite at Disney.
Great band. Great documentary
https://youtu.be/EOUsIYESOpM?si=jUCDCg1O6K4cfrC8
By Friday, and it will be with the fighting cats out of the bag.
Dennis Santana just signed with Yankees. Angel fans might as well just write this season off.
Indeed
Chicken or Egg? I was just talking with my brother who suggested that if the Angels were truly close to signing Ohtani that another big FA pitcher signing would be likely. I’m not convinced that those guys will want to sign with the Angels until after Ohtani is securely in-house and even then the Angels prospects are dubious.
Does your brother know Arte? Cuz that aint the way he rolls.
This just in…Angels sign Albert Pujols to a 10 year/$500mm contract that will carry him to his age
5356 season.Does it include a 10 year $20 million Personal Services Contract to age 6
366 ?No he’s planning a Rolling Stones type reunion tour with the Cardinals for his late 60s.
Not buying it
Eduardo apparently making a decision between 2 teams by tomorrow.
I know a number of people thought he would be one of the right guys for us to sign. I’m getting concerned that we will sit around waiting for Ohtani and miss out on guys like this, and get caught without a chair when the music stops at Spring Training.
For me, the intrigue with Eduardo’s two teams is not at the same level as Shohei’s two teams
Yes, indeed, that is probably how everyone feels too.
Except probably Eduardo and his agent.
Based upon the reported price tags, I would rather have Eduardo than Shohei
Im just sayin’
We aren’t one of the two teams.
Unless he didn’t want to go to the Dodgers cause family back east…. but Anaheim is closer….
If we’re back on the ground ball plan….
Sign Tim Anderson, plan on Drury at third, with Rengifo as the utility guy? 3rd has been Drury’s worst defensive position (although he didn’t look good at first last year, either).
Anderson is coming off his worst season offensively AND defensively. Plus he got KOd by JRam.
Keep him far away
Perry’s plans has rolled snake eyes every year with the MLB roster. I don’t think he focuses on a plan to the level you do. Regardless of the pitcher type, you need fielders, competent fielders.
Washington will use his Jedi level defense training skills to morph Drury into three Gold Gloves ala Eric Chavez.
If they were able to do that with Drury, he would be a great affordable multi year solution at 3B. That would be huge. Now you have me drinking the cool aid. 🙂
https://youtu.be/2mSd5t2n3ck?si=PUa_cPTVikAXtyc8
The Angels change plans each year like a high school kid trying to finally find his way to being cool.
This year we’ve hired infield defensive guru Ron Washington and signed two relievers who get a lot of ground balls.
Obviously this year’s plan is to get grounders and turn them into outs. So which starting pitchers have high ground ball rates.
Praying Perry has finally come to the (correct) conclusion that we need a bullpen with high-velo relievers. Enough of the Tepera, Wantz, Herget, Leone, Weiss types.
Estevez – Joyce – Soriano – Garcia will bring the heat. More work needs to be done on the pen.
Claudio, Hoyt and El Sluggo Sleggers says hi.
Yep. Throwing hard but not missing bats is no bueno. I’d take Chad Bradford over most of these hard throwers because he knew how to pitch.
Quesadilla might be back too….
Hasn’t that been our plan for a while? It was with Simba patrolling SS, the reason we went with Iglesias there too, if memory serves.
Sandoval, Canning, Detmers and Ohtani (plus Lorenzen, Heaney – for nostalgic purposes) are all in the top 100 for ground ball outs.
They’re great at surrendering HOMERS, too.
We’ve had lots of plans over the years. Arte went all sluggers with Pujols and Hambone for a bit, then we had the fly ball pitchers of the Dipoto 4, a dash of this plan, and some flat out praying guys like Harvey would rebound.
WWAD = what will Arte do……..this time.
Buy a big name just starting on the downside of his career that is about to become injury prone then spend money practically nowhere else. (On the field)
Hire people that will only do what I tell them. No baseball experience necessary. (Off the field)
I read in the Athletic yesterday a comment by a GM (I think) that those big spending teams that don’t make the playoffs have owners that meddle too much.
Curious direction since as starting pitchers are adept at surrendering gopher balls.
For next year, whatever but post-season success depends on swing and miss arms. This is more of the same.
Juan Soto is about to be a Yankee. Judge and Soto is nasty sheeeesh.
“Source: The Padres’ return in the Juan Soto trade is expected to include King, Thorpe, and *at least* two additional players.”
https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/1732449370983862340?t=J9aZ9_FDDqjdQl5PFwoTIQ&s=19
I’m glad SD got King and Thorpe in the deal. The MFY’s now need to sign Soto or suffer the same fate as the Angels
Man. I sure am glad we didn’t trade Ohtani at the deadline in 2022. Instead Arte acted like the idiots who kept calling last season “must win” and traded a bunch of our prospects rather than keep em and gain a pile.
Sure, having nine or ten solid prospects would have been great, but it was also totally cool spending a whole year bitching about wasting Ohtani while squeezing our thighs together worrying about what he was thinking every time the wind changed direction. Awesome GOATness poop pile.
Tear it down PTP. Trade what we can. Lose many games. Get a top 5 pick. Build the farm. Hopefully some of the fanassholes who root for this team die off while we march in the desert. Then win before Trout retires.
As “Mr. X” stated in the movie ‘Layercake’, have a plan and stick to it.
The question is, do we have a plan?
The last 10 years serves as the source to answer that question
Soto has that asshole quality the Yankees love. He should fit in well there.
I know that he won a championship with the Nationals but after watching him I”m not convinced he is THAT guy who will carry your team through struggles. Perhaps he won’t need to be in NYC with Judge but there’s something about him that I just don’t care for. Long way to say asshole quality I guess.
Hoping that Arte doesn’t parachute in at the 11th hour with a bag full of money and players but that’s not likely as the Angels lack real prospects.
Soto loves Soto. He definitely will not sign an extension and test FA waters. One year rental but still surprised that a couple more contenders did not get involved. Dodgers were probably on the forbidden list but seemed the Yankees were the lone players all along.
Looking like a nice return for SD. Some nice pitching depth to go along with salary relief.
The problem for SD is they are shedding salaries of productive players. Snell put up 6 WAR for $16.6 million and Soto another 5.5 WAR for $23 million. That’s 11.5 WAR for what we pay Rendon, essentially.
I consider this smoke. Not even close to real
I forgot is Judge still a good player?