The stockings are hung by the chimney with care in hopes that new players soon will be there.
So far the free agent market has been slow so there are still plenty of goodies including the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner.
The Yamomoto market is decided, however, as he inked a $325 million, 12 year deal with the evil overlords up the 5.
Yes, Yamamoto was the big fish and I really wanted to land him, but Snell and Jordan Montgomery are great fallback options. And Shota Imanaga is intriguing.
I’m trying to put a positive spin on this but it sucks. Ohtani set up his contract so win now deals like this could be made. Arte didn’t even try to get to the final table. One thing I’m definitely not getting for Christmas is an Angels ticket plan. Stubhub will work just fine until Moreno sells the team or somehow acts like a big market owner.
Looking for bullpen help, well there’s Josh Hader and plenty of others, but it appears the Padres have signed the top import.
One thing that really stands out is the silence around the starters on the Island of Misfit Toys. Not a peep about Mr. Bauer or his Dodgers counterpart Julio Urias. The latter is understandable as he might face criminal charges in Los Angeles but the former’s supposed vindication on social media is ringing quite hollow with MLB execs.
Here’s the thing. MLB clubs have private investigators and they know what has already come out and things that haven’t. You definitely don’t want to be the club holding the bag when those previously undisclosed bits come out.
Will Santa bring us Angels fans anything? Angels GM Perry Minasian discussed the moves he’s already made and gave out no clues.
Is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? The MLB Competition Committee is trying to find out by tinkering with the rules just a little bit more. Wider first base running lanes and slightly quicker pitch clocks are on tap for 2024. And while I loved the look and pace of the game in 2023, I tend to agree with the players here and say let’s chill for now.
Most games never hit the mound visit limit and most pitchers started their delivery with 7 seconds left on the clock so those won’t have a big impact. What will pop up every now and then is the wider running lane to first, particularly on bunts like this play.
Both the most activity and most unusual activity this off season has come from the Atlanta Braves. What are they up to, exactly?
Enjoy your holiday weekend with your family. Please link what I missed. Be safe
HO! HO! HO! TO ALL!!!
I woke up and Arte still owned the team.
I guess there is no Santa 🧑🎄
Oh well. Have a nice Christmas CTPGers!
Merry Christmas everyone!
A very Merry Christmas everyone at CtPG from beautiful Costa Rica. I ran into some smug ass Dodger fan from the Valley at the pool bar yesterday. He was of course popping off about Their Ohtani and free agent dominance until I reminded him the Doyers are choke artists ( he even admitted 2020 didnt count) that really haven’t won shit 35 years ,and just like the Yankees in the 80’s they are going to buy up all the players and still lose in the end until they get some real leaders on that team.
next level cope lmfao
Dodgers are choke artists because past is prologue
Merry Christmas, loved spending time in Costa Rica. Had Zi not gotten married, I would probably be living there.
Lots of places to hide a body in the jungle. Just sayin’
Twas the ‘night before Christmas
And all through the ‘Org
Not a free agent was signing
Not even Odor
A Porsche??!!!
There Is No Substitute…except a Miura!!
Merry Christmas everyone. Enjoy time with family & friends, eat-drink and be merry. And don’t forget to watch “Love Actually”, haha
Can we watch Die Hard instead?
The Shining is my personal fav.
Right but Die Hard is a Christmas movie
You’re goddamn right it is.
What’s Christmas without a little RedRum?
Already did. It totally put me in the holiday spirt
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/8ab3cc3c-2229-48e7-8689-8eb95242df34
Merry Christmas, CtPG!
Hope you all get to spend the next few days with loved ones.
This wet SoCal weather has definitely helped set the mood.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!
Merry Christmas, everyone!!!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Since nobody in the national media knows anything about us, I take the trade rumors of Matt Thaiss interesting. With the pickups of Mejia and now bringing back Wallach, it suggests Thaiss being included in a deal. My dream scenario is a trade for Cease, and signing Montgomery. Then next year if you have a competitive team you sign Corbin Burnes. If we can id like to save Detmers and Silseth , and be willing to part with Canning and Sandoval and even Suarez. Obviously get rid of Ward, Rengifo, Thaiss and if you must there’s Adrian Plascencia, David Calabreses, Werner Blakely and even Jordyn Adams as sleeper tradeable prospects.
Dude , you’re severly mainlining the Hopium if you think that Adrian Plascencia (sic), David Calabreses (sic), Werner Blakely and even Jordyn Adams are remotely ML prospects at this point in time.
Placencia hit .170 in AA last year with 24 strikeouts in 15 games last year . he then topped that off with amassing a whopping .515 OPS in the AFL last fall
Calabrese hit .194 in AA last year with 164 strikeouts in 122 games last year.
Blakely hit .214 at high A last year with 137 strikeouts in 92 games last year
Jordyns Adams made his major league debut last year and his limited 17 game audition he hit an anemic .128/.125/.128. (and I didnt even know you could generate a sub .300 OPS )
While I am intrigued with many of your proposed acquisitions and trades there is no reason to assume that any of the above “prospects ” will be ready to grace Anaheim with their awesomeness anytime soon. Dont get my wrong, with exception of Adams, These prospects are still young enough that they could turn into something, but not without at least a couple years of Minor league seasoning .
Doesn’t he list them as prospects that could be traded – packaged with others (Ward, Thaiss …) to land someone better.
Aren’t prospects all about potential, so if someone sees something in them, who knows?
Anaheim or any other major league ball park near you. These players have virtually no value right now. So We’re better off keeping them in the system instead of attaching them in any deal or counting on them on any depth chart.
I don’t want to trade anyone necessarily, just trying to understand the idea of ‘prospects’ not having value – when all they are valued for is potential.
Potential is subjective.
I am happy keeping Thaiss, all of our pitchers, and all of our prospects and only improving through FA this year as we both rebuild and hope for lightning to strike (with, in all hopefulness, a healthy roster).
They’re just add ons that were drafted High if have some kind of rank in our farm system. It could be that they’d see undeveloped talent by our shitty system but that could be a lottery ticket into a serviceable AAAAer. The headliners would be Sandoval, Ward, Rengifo, Canning , throw in a Suarez / Thaiss and attach a young guy.
…and you get a prospect in return. You don’t trade Ward or Sandoval along with scraps and get better players in return.
Forget what the trade simulator says – you don’t create “quality” by increasing the “quantity” of middling players.
Lastly, the Angels are the 27th or 28th ranked farm system in most national baseball publications. Our 10th ranked prospect is graded lower than the 20th ranked prospect in the top 2 farm system.
To get talent back in a trade Neto or O’Hoppe would need to be included. If we do that, we’re just plugging one hole by creating another.
I’d argue that perhaps my trade proposal is too much. Sandoval for all of his issues is an above league average pitcher even with awful coaching and poor defense. Sandoval + potentially healthy Ward + Rengifo give you 3 major league ready players and around 5 WAR for years of control. Cease dropped a whopping ERA+ of 97 last season. Both of them have an average ERA+ in their careers of 113
I think there’s something to the idea Thaiss is being dealt somewhere…but I’d manage expectations on it being for Dylan Cease.
I think you are more likely to see our spare parts swapped out for young pitchers you’ve never heard of who may not end up being good. Kind of like getting back the players we dealt away last year for Escobar/Cron etc.
This is why I’ve come around to the path of taking on few bloated contracts for aging veterans in exchange for picking up decent prospects.
To be positive, there are a lot of recent MLB players still available in free agency. A couple of the minor league deals the Angels have made could provide some useful depth. And looking for decent contracts in the market instead of just overspending and blowing the bankroll makes sense. Various starters, relievers, OFs, utility guys and others are available. Let’s wait to see what the final Spring Training roster looks like.
Thought of something. Too far into future, but when Ohtani makes HOF will we retire 17 ? Hope not, cause it’s shared with a true Angel hero, Darrin Erstad. Played his tail off for us and WS hero. Hopefully we won’t follow Chavez Ravine who will retire it because his HOF plaque will have their hat on. I talked to Arte, and he said anyone who paid $$ for an authentic Ohtani jersey can just stop by the main store and they will put an Erstad name plate over it, free of charge.!!
It definitely will be for ohtani, just for the marketing value alone.
Who?
Wallach is back
Minor league deal. Definitely moves the needle 🙄
Awesome – I’ll sleep better tonight knowing Perry used all of his skill and acumen to get that done.
I honestly don’t get it. The Angels are (insert terrible thing here) for spending on big ticket FA’s and they’re (insert terrible thing here) for not spending money on big ticket FA’s ?.?.?.?.?.?.
Well we haven’t signed a big ticket FA this offseason – so I’m not sure what terrible thing is being inserted because of it.
My smartass comment was simply that of all the holes this team has, securing a backup catcher is low on the priority list.
Also terrible, after eighteen whole months, Cy winners are not yet flowing from the system via 2021 draft. Oh, and the minor league system can’t produce anyway, because the coaching, et al. is the worsy evah. But we need to trade for MOAR PROSPEKTS as they are a must-need for same terrible system.
Welcome to Crashing the Pearly Gates.
One fun option for tickets in 2024 for those of you that are interested is GameTime. It’s an App that is great for last minute tickets. $100 face value are sometimes $5 in the hours before the game.
As an example- right now there are $29 Chargers tickets on that App
Dan Patrick has had a fun bit these last few weeks… who is it worse to be, chargers or angels fan?
Answer is ‘both’
The differences are imperceptible.
= $300 with the surcharges.
Wait . I thought we were boycotting the Angels this year. I’m so confused.
Notice I wrote “for those of you that are interested”. Doesn’t mean I’m going to do it. A good way to get tickets without giving monies directly to Arte.
Blah Blah Blah
Arte not getting paid on the resale ticket. But no concessions folks. LOL
TickPick has fees included when you search. Every other 3rd party vendor (StubHub, gametime, etc) add fees once logged in/at check out. All are basically similarly priced but always cool to hear who is doing what.
Monster Jam is at the a big A a few weekends in January & February and I’ll use one of the those sites. Im sure others go for HS football, Greg Laurie, a graduation or maybe something else ‘making memories’ worthy!
Get the pitchforks ready because here’s a flaming hot take:
Lets bring back Lucas Giolito. 2 years, 50 million with a club option for 2nd year.
🤢🤢🤮
Give him a one year 10M, prove you are still worth it contract, with a club option for an additional year.
Who else is buying after the end of last season?
The only contract he should get would include lots of performance related clauses
$50M for that POS? I’d rather we find a way to get Wells and HGH on the roster for 2024.
Hope we make a free agent splash soon. Some of our fans want to recycle the team, but do you really want Ohtani’s decision to immediately make us quitters? Don’t give the the critical MLB community and Dodgers that satisfaction. If anything, we get players to support Mike Trout. Yes he’s disappointed with injuries, but how many years was he the best player in the game. Dedicated to sign long term, Arte owes it to him not to give up yet.
I don’t look at it like becoming quitters. Instead, the team should be looking to pivot to build something sustainable. Just let the youngsters get another season under their belt; Neto, O’Hoppe, Schauny Singles, Adell, and Detmers. Sign short term FAs to fill out the roster and be ready to flip Drury, Estevez, Canning and Moniak to fortify the main core. Trout is calling the shots but if he wants to leave, let him go, quickly.
A good GM can shape this years roster to surpass total wins from the last two seasons without the need to sign any big name FAs and I don’t think Friedman really cares to whip ass on the 4th place Angels.
A great insight. Guess a lot of my hopes are based on Angel pride. Scared to admit not just us, but most of league could be bowing down to the hated Dodgers the next decade. Knowing we are not going anywhere, I want to embrace Trout, true face of franchise. Until Valady G we never had a HOF player. We have one right now, who may even be one the the few greats to play exclusively for one team. I hope that happens. 👍
He’s a tradable piece thanks to a alleged terrible GM who works in rain & mold now.
Plus Patrick Sandoval who’s supposedly a 20 game winner in the making and Sam Bachman……GET BUSY PERRY, I DO UNDERSTAND YOU’RE NOT AS GOOD AS A FORMER ANGEL’S EMPLOYEE WHO WORKS IN THE UPPER LEFT CORNER NOW OR YOUR FORMER BOSS ALEX IN ATLANTA. MAKE IT HAPPEN AND DON’T BE TIMID!!! 💪 💪 💪
I’m in Arizona visiting family, and I just discovered I’m walking distance from the Peoria Sports Complex.
It’s 54% ok
“Signing Snell would be a departure from the norm for either club. The Angels’ three-year commitment to Tyler Anderson last offseason was the organization’s first multi-year deal for a free agent starting pitcher since signing Joe Blanton to a two-year contract a decade prior. Owner Arte Moreno has been comfortable with long-term deals for position players — oftentimes mega-deals that haven’t worked out favorably (Albert Pujols, Anthony Rendon, Josh Hamilton) — but has generally been wary of similar commitments to pitchers.“
😂😂😂😂
Arte be like – why should I pay that much for someone who plays every 5 days?!
The 2024 Angels will need to get some fight in them…..
https://x.com/Super70sSports/status/1326344686399856641?s=20
Gritty
https://x.com/Super70sSports/status/1561799609734909954?s=20