The Angels are in the “Next Tier Down” in this article concerning best fits for a Cody Bellinger trade. Who knows? Perry Minasian says he is planning to be aggressive at the winter meetings. Both Anthony Rendon and Mike Trout got a lot of anti-love in this article about the ten worst contracts going into 2025. Kevin Pillar is hoping to play ball in 2025. He said while he was with the Angels he found himself simply playing for the love of the game. It wasn’t a feeling he had felt for a while and he liked it.
The White Sox will be retaining most of that coaching staff who weren’t giving Pillar many reasons to love the game. Martin Maldonado, released by the White Sox last July, is also hoping to catch on with another team.
Matthew Boyd signed with the Cubs. He’ll get $14.5 Million salary plus a $500,000 bonus for each of the next two years. The Dodgers threw $72 Million at Tommy Edman. This article lists out a trade candidate for each team. Would you trade for Reid Detmers? The Trade Simulator rates him higher than Aldegheri but lower than Caden Dana. He’s somewhere in the comparables neighborhood with Ian Happ or Cardinals second baseman Thomas Saggese.
The Rangers signed Kyle Higashioka to a two year deal.
What could go wrong with a rule allowing a team to send up its best hitter for one at bat per game regardless of his position in the batting order? What if a guy hits a double in his regular at bat and then the manager wants to send him up again to drive himself in? Do they get to send out a pinch runner? Does that mean the batter needs to sit on the bench for the rest of the game? Inquiring minds want to know.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Dodgers deferred payments to 7 players top $1b
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/42760649/dodgers-deferred-payments-top-1-billion-7-players
Great. As long as you are an owner that is confident you’ll have an extra billion dollars laying around over future years. Accept for the Cubs this pretty much fks all the Central division teams and the bottom two teams in all the other divisions.
But hey. Who doesn’t want to see the Lakers play Chelsea in everything?
BTW, my viewpoint on the Golden Bat crap is this:
Every single batter you allow on base, one day or the other, advances the order and subsequently goes towards turning the order over. That is also an integral part of the game and one that both sides of the diamond have to manage.
Last add, that runner at second in extra innings abomination rule was actually started in slow-pitch softball (The second extra inning places the runner on 3B). That makes that rule even worse to me.
Now I see several “Corbin Burnes linked to/predicted to sign with the Angels” crappola stories on the interwebs.
(Heavy sigh)
I’d totally do it if we can get him on a sensible two or three year deal. It will let our prospect arms simmer in AA for years where they will become very good. Plus, Rendon’s coming off the books.
If Arte doesn’t do this, even though it’s both impossible and stupid, I will be bitter about it. I won’t admit that’s what I’m butt hurt about cause I don’t want to look dumb, but trust me, my ass will be chapped.
got the urge to put on circle jerks Golden Shower of Hits
How I imagine the “Golden at Bat” working in a game: 9th inning, 2 men on base, down by one, one out. Manager comes out of the dugout onto the field waving a giant “Golden Ticket” like Veruca Salt, then proclaims his big bat masher gets the next at bat with his special, golden, MLB approved, corked bat, and he proceeds to send one into the upper decks. And Manfraud pats himself on the back, telling his marketing team “See, there is excitement in moar dingerz “.
Maybe they can have a water balloon fight to see if they can change pitchers also.
That would be fun.
Maybe the pitcher can bounce the ball to the Golden Bat hitter?
While I understand the goal of the Golden Hitter it undermines the basic premise of baseball as the ultimate team game.
In key moments of the game your worst hitter is just as likely to be up at the plate as your best hitter. So you better build a strong lineup top to bottom.
Yes the NBA has stars taking the key shots and the NFL has stars leading late game drives, but changing the fundamental core of the game to chase that is a leap to far.
Also completely undermines what we understand to be basic baseball pitching strategy. Just as an example, close and late you walk that key hitter to pitch to the next guy. Then what – the key hitter comes up to bat again? Like back to back? How? And also how stupid!
It’s also a total puss rule. “Awwww….. does it look like Doykee fan may get a case of the sads today? Is in game wagering down? Would it help if we got Aaron Judge up to the plate for you? Would that make you smile boobie? OK.”
If I wanted to root for a sport for spoiled children I’d just watch tennis.
The NBA does not have designated shooter rules that allow Steph Curry to take free throws for someone else whenever he wants and thus disrupt the team aspect of the game. The Golden Hitter rule makes little sense.
True. Teams can adjust their defenses to limit his ability to get the key shot.
And I thought that the ghost runner in extra innings was a dumb idea…
I still like the runner on second. So if I’m OK with that rule change and I still think the Golden Ticket thing sucks, that’s probably saying something.
Yeah. Other than “I no like!” there really are no similarities between these rules. I’m OK with ghost runner because I’m secure enough in my manhood to admit that most 15 inning games tied at 2 are unwatchable boring marathons that I don’t usually finish. Followed by a game where an outfielder has to pitch. Who could possibly want to skip that?
The Golden Boy rule is unnecessary because of the ghost runner. It’s just a bunch of “create super star moments for ESPN” crap.
Jeff, I agree. The ghost runner is fine — although I think in playoff games they should consider not having it. Regular season is fine.
Good news. They have never allowed G Runner in the post season
The kind of game situations where this would be used probably makes it strategically stupid to walk the guy or just plunk him. The rule might as well limit pitch selection to big old fat eephus pitches and everybody but the pitcher and catcher have to go to the outfield.
It’s sacrilege and unpracticable… and I can’t imagine Manfried actually thinks it will happen. Maybe he’s just saying it to ignite indignation (which is how people primarily use media these days) and make people talk about why they love baseball.
Rendon’s contract might be the most useless I’ve ever seen, though I’m open to arguments. I wouldn’t put Trout’s deal in that category, it’s more about bad luck and a contract aging poorly. From what I read last night, his injuries have been unlucky, but when he’s on the field, he’s still Mike Trout. A 135 wRC+ shows he’s far from done, and he still has time to add to his career. Compare that to guys like Rendon, Pujols, and Hamilton—players we knew were finished when those deals were signed. At the very least, we got to see the HoF part of his career with the Angels, unlike Pujols.
Golden Batter? Dumb. I’ve been okay with most of the rule changes, but I don’t want to see Ohtani batting twice in an inning or batting out of turn. It’s a slippery slope. What’s next? A golden pitcher? A golden fielder? No thanks.
As for Bellinger, I’m not interested. I know the idea of signing veterans to help the kids grow has its merits, but I just don’t think he’s worth the risk. His contract would likely be too much for what he brings, and I’d rather the team go in a different direction.
Rendone contract is objectively the worst one in franchise history, and it’s up there in all of sports.
Injuries or not, I don’t care, the contract has been an unmitigated disaster. 2 more years left, thankfully
I doubt he makes it through this year.
Still two years of paying him.
It’s pretty girthy bummer. So is Trouts at this point.
effn Trouts contract is deadly, any warm feelings on how well he performed before he came a dad has escaped me. He stopped going all out for baseballs in the OF 3-4 years ago.
I have a very hard time processing what’s happened to Trouty.
Trout has equity with the franchise and fans. That’s the difference. From this point forward it will almost certainly be a horrible contract. If he signed it as a free agent the sports world would laugh at us.
But he gave us a decade of greatness so he has good will. And, as you stated, when he does play he plays well enough for us to remember how great he was and hope he can be great again.
Rendon has no equity. He’s never once produced for this team. He actually is what people said Pujols was.
Actually Jeff, take a look at 2020, when Covid Ju Ju was keeping Angels fan Ju Ju at bay, and he was on pace for a 6+ WAR season on a team helmed by Joe Maddon who was just the mad genius this team needed in order to champion out.
It was only after he’d actually been exposed to Angels fans regularly that his body snapped in half like an old GI Joe.
Equity exactly describes what the difference is. If we’d had Rendon for his glory years I’m sure we’d see him a little differently. If we didn’t have Trout for his HoF years we’d see that differently.
Trout’s injuries = Heroic suffering + opening baseball cards with kids.
Rendon’s injuries = Fake surgeries + faking being crippled really well.
Plus, unhappy Rendon is an asshole that his whole team seems to like while Trout half cries and says he’s frustrated then goes and plays with his kids, which is adorable, unless it’s Rendon. Fk that guy and his kid loving poison bullshit. But Trout’s body is a little less ruined so in the off chance he does play he’s still good while Rendon’s injuries have pretty much made his lower body useless. Those more impactful injuries clearly indicate Rendon is a cancer.
I think I’ve got this figured out. Though I honestly don’t see how either contract is more than just a giant weight. It’s just Trout’s is bigger and longer…. and a couple times he took a break from doing exactly what Rendon has been doing to tell us how frustrated he is…. hurray.
Maybe the real issue is that Rendon is NOT Garrit Cole and was signed by cheap Arte, while Trout is just not Garrit Cole and was extended by Arte for far longer. I think I get it now.
What? “Too Blessed to be Stressed” Vernone Wells doesn’t get an honorable mention for horrible contract?
Didn’t he come over in a trade with just two years left?
Yes. For Napoli (and his mom)
Yes, but the Angels took on the entirety of his contract that was considered immovable. But Carlton showed the rest of MLB that it could be moved, and they got 2 MKB players in Napoli and Juan Rivera and his frosted tips hair. Largest over pay ever for 2+ years of weak, infield pop flys.
But we were too blessed to be stressed about it
Nope, Strasburg’s is by far the worst ever. He will NEVER pitch again at all PERIOD and has been like that for the last couple of years, yet he has to show up to ST in some capacity because the Nationals are douche bags.
At last (VERY least) Rendone can put on a uniform and amble onto the field occasionally during small pieces of the season, when he is not pulling fans in the stands into a fight going back to the clubhouse.
Manfred in 2025: “there’s a lot of excitement about the idea of Major League Baseball becoming scripted. Our fans will love the crazy things that will unfold for them.”
Manfred in 2026: “We believe the merger between TKO Group Holdings and MLB will unlock untapped value for shareholders and fans. The integration of storylines that span UFC, WWE and MLB has the potential to generate billions in marketing, streaming and merchandizing.”
And Randy Poffo didn’t live long enough to see it.
Well played!
Impatiently waiting for the Winter Meetings + Draft Lottery
I would support a trade for Bellinger as a replacement for Ward. That would knock 10M off his cost and allow us to trade Ward for prospects. Bellinger is owed 26.7 for 3 years, you could also have the Sox pay for a small portion of that as well because they would be just trying to unload salary. He could slide over to center when Trout gets injured or play 1B if Schanuel doesn’t pan out, and we need LH hitters.
Problem is that Bellinger seems like a punk who only puts the weed away and plays well when the contract’s on the line. Other than a couple seasons he’s basically Ward or worse and makes a lot of money. Minus his MVP season blip he’s a 2.3 WAR player on average. Even including his miraculous 4+ WAR season when money was on the line he is a 1.6 WAR player the last 5 years.
We all bag on Arte for “splashy name love”…. and then keep coyly rubbing up against the idea of Belly…. which is the absolute statistical representation of a NAME with pedestrian stats.
Also. Belly is not a kid, and will cost money.
Are we wanting to actually rebuild or not here Halo fans? Cause if you can find me the teams that have half assed it buying veteran players to keep sad old men entertained WHILE developing half a roster of cheap talent please let me know….
Also. Isn’t this why I was supposed to hate SOTH back in the day? Playing “veteran” instead of giving kids innings on the field to develop?
“ Are we wanting to actually rebuild or not here Halo fans? Cause if you can find me the teams that have half assed it buying veteran players to keep sad old men entertained WHILE developing half a roster of cheap talent please let me know….”
Great way to put it. Gotta go all-in to rebuild. I’m definitely in. I would rather suck while rebuilding than suck putting up the pretense of ‘competing’.
I agree, they just don’t seem to have the stomach for it.
I won’t enjoy sucking, but I also know that our choices are to REALLY suck for a short period or kinda suck for a very long time. Just about any move we make to alleviate some suck will likely just mean we suck longer, especially because we have to both pay and play Trout and likely have to do the same with Rendon to start the season.
I almost look at it by position. Each spot on the roster will likely take 2 or 3 prospects playing 50-100 games each for us to cycle through failures till we find “a solution”. It looks like Trout, Neto and O’Hoppe are decided. Otherwise every inning we play a veteran at a position is an inning that a kid is not establishing/failing on our roster.
That’s gonna be a lot of crap innings, but we should just get them over with. Putting Jimmy TwoWar in to start 140 games isn’t gonna help us all that much.
I completely agree with everything you say and we should not block any available young players. They just don’t seem committed to going all in on the rebuild. If they were, they would trade Ward, Anderson, and Rengifo, for prospects ASAP. I think sometimes I’m just trying to please both us and them.
Whether or not Ward is traded before the season starts is likely a big indicator on how dedicated Perry is to rebuilding.
Rengifo likely needs to increase his value after injury and Anderson’s value now and at the trade deadline is likely pretty similar.
But this is a weak ass class of free agent outfielders and Ward has two years of control. Now is the time.
Tradeler Ward!
Still dont agree this is a binary decision. If it was the Angels would have never won a World Series .
I get this but the current team is so mired in the mediocrity mud, I thin it needs to go big one way or the other. As Arte does not want to spend huge $$ (understandably) I think the move should be a complete rebuild.
We do, but they don’t really. You have good points especially regarding his attitude and behavior.
The Golden Batter rule is one of the strangest and most unprofessional I have seen. I cannot believe it is even being considered and taken seriously.
Let’s hope the Angels make smart moves at the Winter meetings. With gossip about getting a lefty power hitter, let’s hope that isn’t Rizzo or Soto.
I agree bud, baseball needs to not be the clown show that the NFL and NBA have become.
Well..um…rest easy Angelstan, we’re not getting Soto or Rizzo.
enter Niko Kavadas
Enter Sandman.
They should just be honest and call it the “Ohtani tastes like Vanilla and Japanese cash when he finishes” rule.
I’m starting to like baseball less and less.
Manfred needs to go to entertain this buffoonery. He’s turning the game into Barnum and Bailey. What a clown. I’m all for sponsorship money – but how ridiculous did those helmets look in the playoffs. Pete Rose is not in the HOF for the integrity of the game. The integrity of what game? It’s a carnival.
Who stole the SoCal snow season and what have they done with it? Gonna hit 60 degrees today at 7200 feet, I am hoping for a White Christmas and seeing the skiing return.
Arte was filmed in the bowels of the Big A extolling his minions to destroy winter weather patterns….
I love the live action videos of people that remake those.
I have always loved this song.
There are many reasons that players seem to prefer the East Coast when signing as free agents, but weather can’t be one or can it be? All things considered, would you rather be in Philidelphia as W.C. Fields teased. Why do you think players seem to like playing in the Eastern Time Zone?
Money
Winning Teams
Travel Time
these maybe some reasons.
Don’t forget being on more ESPN highlight reels.
The definition of 4-letter East Coast bias!!
Good AM to all. All right get the tar and feathers ready, STOP WITH THE NEW RULES ALREADY! You know what the problem is, it’s the occasional fan that really does not know the game and thinks HRs and Run Scoring makes the game interesting. They hate seeing pitching duels, great defensive plays, bunting a runner over and don’t really understand a great running play of first to third, etc. Take a que from the greatest, Vince Scully, and have your teams radio voice teach the game to the fans while building up the drama of the game instead of ratchet jawing with the “Color” guy and the best albums of Rock and Roll from the 1980’s.
Have you really improved the game with “Ghost” runners in the tenth inning? Making the bases bigger or leaving a pitcher in for a min. of three hitters? The pitch clock helped the game I’ll admit. Robo Umpires? I still don’t understand why professional Blues don’t get graded and sent down if they are incompetent. Unlike NFL and NBA that are not the same games of 40 years ago, the game of MLB, nay, BASEBALL has stayed the same for 125 years, stop with trying to make it a redo.
In the “Dead Ball era, stealing bases evolved, then a new baseball was introduced and slowly the stolen base was almost gone from the game, then Maury Wills showed up and the game evolved on its own. Bigger gloves were not a rule change, but that was one big reason defense changed. New types of infield dirt (Clay or DG) along with new turf were not rule changes but both helped the game Just enforce the rules, get rid of stubborn umpires who do not want to improve or can’t do the job correctly and Robo Umps would be not promoted as an answer to cur the game of bad calls.
Want more offense? Move the mound back 18 inches and see what happens.
The Manfred rule changes are just bad. Changing the game for the sake of the casual fan isn’t the best. The ghost runner and pick off rule please as well as the auto IBB. Just take away all the strategy and uniqueness or quirks that happened once every blue moon that made the game great or for great trivia. The golden batter has to be the dumbest rule of them all. No need to make it the xfl or banana ball.
If a fan wants to learn and love baseball they will. If not, who cares. Analytics are killing the game for what made it great. Watch the interviews with Maddox/Johnson and or Griffey and Buhner. Talk about students of the game that rely on being smart and working hard Velocity is great but not at 100% of the time. Pitchers are now just throwers.
Hitters focusing solely on launch angles and freely swinging at everything for a HR is bad baseball, but now becoming a norm for ok.
No need to move the mound back, just lower it again. Give them the tacky ball that was used in the WBC that the pitchers liked.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to be able to see Tony Gwynn or Greg Maddux try to pitch these days. I think they were two of the smartest players to ever play the game, but I wonder how they would be different if they played today.
It’s always amazing to hear them talk the game. They were on a whole different level than everyone else.
There’s an awesome bit where Pete Rose was talking hitting with Arod and Frank Thomas. That was the most quiet I’ve seen Arod ever. They both just listened about hitting, adjustments, approach and what the best to do when your in a slump. Great MLB clip.
I remember a similar interview with Gwynn and Ted Williams, in which Gwyn politely deferred to WIlliams. It was a beautiful baseball moment.
I think I like all of the rule changes they’ve made so far, although I haven’t seen many extra inning games because of the blackout rules. I would like to see robo umpires at least tried just because I like seeing the calls done right. I’d love to see more small ball come about and I welcome trying out things to lead us away from analytics which have taken away parts of the game I used to love, like stolen bases and just putting the ball in play.
Small ball isn’t cool anymore even though that was what we were all taught growing up. I get that it’s hard to bunt vs 98+, but there are less productive outs and run manufacturing than before. Angels thrived on small ball and timely big hitting during there good years. It definitely needs to come back. Stolen bases are back given the bigger bases and silly pick off rule. Pitch clock is what it is and it’s fine. But the 3 batter rule takes away strategy and the extra inning rule does fix a solution that the majority of fans weren’t complaining about. Give me a 17 inning nail biter where the teams are exhausted and a pitcher hits a game winning home run.
I’m not a fan for robo umps or an auto K zone, but more or less for holding umps accountable for poor calling. Do keep the human element of the game going and limit some of the tick tack reviews. The majority get it right and those that are bad should be sent down.
The playoffs this year were a mix of good baseball and really bad umpiring especially the world series having some of the lowest ranking umps in the game. The calls across the whole playoffs were very hit or miss and not consistent.
The anti-shift rule was supposed to bring back a little of that strategic hitting stuff, but it didn’t seem to do much good for the Angels in retrospect. Wash does seem to love the suicide squeeze, though.
I love small ball. I think it has come back some, but it will never come all the way back.
MLB will experiment with robo calls in Spring Training. It will be like the system used in AAA last year. I really liked that system. It allows for a few challenges from each team but doesn’t really slow down the game.