Something very big happened this week involving our calendars. Yes, the baseball equinox was passed. We are now further away from the last out of the World Series than we are to the first Spring Training game.
Yes, that one calendar flipped over but so did the baseball calendar.
The Angels report to camp on February 13th. That’s 41 days from now. Less than six weeks. Their first Spring Training game is February 22nd, an even 50 days away.
Check out the full Cactus League schedule here.
Beyond that, February 14th brings about another significant day of celebration. Yes, Opening Day for college baseball. With the Angels holding the 2nd and 45th overall selections in the 2025 draft, we’ll be covering more college ball than in year past. Take a look at the preseason Top 50 prospects in the college game.
In each of the last two links I’ve highlighted a player at the top of that board. A guy I think the Angels might take so we might as well get familiar with him. This week, look at FSU lefty Jaime Arnold.
Yes, that is an immaculate inning in the post season against a very tough club. Don’t think that looks overpowering, check out this angle:
We have a full season to go until draft day but the mathematical certainty of selecting either the highest rated bat or arm in the entire draft has me excited.
As far as the big league club, absolutely no real news this week.
Boras mouthpiece Jon Heyman is trying to create a market for Boras client Pete Alonso, but obvious schilling is obvious schilling.
Considering all the movement on the first base market last week, what is the current market for Alonso? I’m starting to think the Giants might swoop up and get him late like they did Chapman and Snell.
The same may or may not be true of the Anthony Santander rumors, but those seem far fetched to me as well. Apparently Toronto has thrown a 4 year $82 million offer on the table for Santander.
While there was no action on the Angels front this week, there are still moves to be made. Here’s a prediction and free agent piece from the main site.
In that piece Rhett picks the obvious choice in Moore as his prospect to watch. However, I’m looking at George Klassen and here’s why:
That stuff+ column is something to dream on. Every pitch this kid throws is a bit above average and that slider is really nice. Dominating A ball and dominating The Show are two different things but if a guy has 3 good pitches, he can generally get through the starts when 1 of them isn’t working well.
Each year I also have a guy or two I follow closely in Spring Training for one reason or another. This year, that guy is Chase Silseth. He lost most of last year to injury but has shown flashes of both brilliance and struggle. Like many I think long relief is his future, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he impresses us as a starter.
From around the league:
Jesus Luzardo is a Phillie, which is only making a really good rotation even better. The Phillies really need(ed) a right handed hitting left fielder (we have one of those). However, they signed Max Kepler, a left handed hitting right fielder. Going with talent over fit is an interesting scenario and FG’s article on this is very much worth a read.
This is the right time for Baltimore to be aggressive. Why aren’t they?
As the season approaches, here are the top 25 storylines to follow around baseball.
Happy New Year and link what I missed below. We don’t do much on this New Year, but when Lunar New Year rolls around it is a party. As far as 2025 goes the boy is signed up for Farm Ball, it looks like I’ll be a head coach or co-head coach of a team (poor kids) and I’ve booked a Spring Training trip for just me and Dad. So life is good and baseball is making it better.
I am having trouble understanding why Arte (at his age and without his kids being interested in taking over team ownership) would possibly want to continue on owning the Angels. He has to know that the team cannot really “compete” no matter how many times he says it due to the lack of farm and the budget he has set. He is embroiled in a difficult lawsuit with the family of one of his former pitchers. His attendance has dropped despite the use of 714-Tickets to create an impression of significant sales. His television revenue is in doubt and likely has declined significantly. The City of Anaheim shows him little love and the development deal fell through. His experience with free agency in the last decade or so has been terrible. It just seems like a joyless situation particularly since he is flush with money and could become even more flush with a sale. Why would he want to stay on under these circumstances?
The only thing that I could think of is the step-up in basis that would occur if he owns the Angels all the way to his death. At that point, the gain in the value of the franchise would “step-up” to the current value of the franchise and the sale could avoid taxation. So he would conceivably avoid approximately $1B in taxes. This could provide enough of a motivation for a guy like Arte to tread water until he dies and the family then sells the team.
So Arte’s entire business plan is based upon a false demand & seat filling engineered by 714-tickets? 😂 😂
With MLB sanctioned deals in place for resale electronic ticket companies Stub Hub & Seat Geek, What percentage of resales do you think Ron Holt and his band of telephone warriors control over the course of a homestand? 5% ? maybe 10%?
BTW when was the last time an American professional sports franchise owned by an individual(s) was not ultimately sole through a stepped up basis?
The point was not the ticket sales which you focused on. That was just a side comment on which we can easily disagree as to the significance.
The point was the step up in basis as the reason Arte will ,probably keep ownership until his death. Sounds like you agree with that but I’m sure you will find other nits to pick as you appear to enjoy it so.
Well my point was (and still is) that a concern over holding onto the team and forcing posthumous sale just because you are worried about tax ramifications is probably inconsequential in Arte’s decision process. The reason being just look what others have done with the same exposure.More recently I can think of the Angelos family with the ownership of the Orioles. IIRC They sold a minority share of the team while Peter was still alive with an option to purchase the remainder after his death but then allowing the new minority Owner to take operational control in the meantime .
Isn’t this similar to what the Autrys did with Disney? I’m sure there are other examples as well ( the Dallas Mavericks with Mark Cuban and the Adelsons comes to mind as well)
No I’m more aligned with our Good Senator on this one as he eloquently theorizes here and below:
I think he enjoys MLB ownership and he has fun “moving the chess pieces”. It’s a rich guy toy, nothing more.
So my advice is: it does no good struggling with what seems like Arte’s constant stream of illogical decisions. His ego will continue to drive him despite our constant gnashing of teeth thats accomplished nothing
“I’ll take Pride before the Fall for $200, Alex.”
I do think that is a big part of it. I wonder if he will sell if Angels ever get to playoffs.
Owning the team provides lots of tax benefits.
The answer is that he is obviously making money.
YEP!!
IMHO, the “why does Arte want to own the Angels” tends to be way overthought. I think he enjoys MLB ownership and he has fun “moving the chess pieces”. It’s a rich guy toy, nothing more.
If he had family interested in being involved in ownership, he’d probably step back from the day to day. Since there’s no family interest ownership, the team will end up in a trust when Arte is unable to continue and would be sold when he passes.
As for the tax implications with that approach, he and his family have generational wealth. They will have generational wealth if Arte sells tomorrow, they will still have generational wealth if the team sell after he’s gone. He’s “too blessed to stress” about what happens when he passes.
Since the Dodgers signed Kim, I wonder where Lux fits in their plans? I wouldn’t mind a 2B who can field his position and hit his own weight or better. It would probably cost too much to trade for him as the Dodgers definitely aren’t going to take Suarez for him.
The Dodgers are unlikely to do anything that even potentially improves the Angels. Since they are both technically known as Los Angeles teams, I imagine the Dodgers want to completely dominate the region.
I honestly think it’s more Arte doesn’t want to trade with a rival, but point taken.
The Dodgers are rivals in name only.
Do we need an extra 2B ?
Do we even have a non extra one at this point?
Do we have a set 2B or do you mean Moore?
yes we also need a regular second baseman as well.
Is Lux really any good? I’m not too sure. He is pretty much an auto out against lefties.
Against lefties, he’s not so much but he’s better than Kingery and Newman against right-hand pitching and the team could use more of that.
Per si.com YIKES!! Big Splash sounds like Albert, Hambone, Vernon, CJ type stuff.
“In other Angels news, owner Arte Moreno is reportedly still looking to make a big splash in free agency. The Angels have already had a busy offseason, but they don’t appear to be done with about six weeks to go until spring training.
The Angels have been linked to two of the top remaining free agents on the market in Pete Alonso and Anthony Santander. However, it’s unknown how high the Angels are willing to go to secure another big bat for the lineup.”
Best draft position in a generation and Arte’s determined to piss all over the moment, ain’t he?
That leopard ain’t changing his spots.
The No. 2 overall pick cannot be traded/forfeited. The Halos would lose their second-round pick, no? My thought: signing a Bregman or Alonso or Santander would be worth the forfeited pick, because it would allow Perry to trade Ward (for prospects/young talent) and would most likely improve the offensive bottom line. Yes, losing a pick sucks. No, it’s not likely that pick will change the direction of the franchise, whether we keep it or not.
High 2nd round picks have value. Lots of good players available at that point. It’s way better to keep that pick than to let it go for another FA 3rd baseman on the wrong side of 30.
Also – imagine the spend on 3B alone with Rendon and Bregman on the books. That would be like $65-$70 million per season invested in one position on the diamond.
As for your point on Ward – why can’t Perry trade him even if the team does not sign Bregman. I don’t see the correlation.
High second round picks, sure but the Angels are picking 46th due to compensation picks ahead of them. That would be mid-round in other years.
Lots of good players available in the first 50 picks. This Org does not need to lose top 50 picks for no real reason.
It’s a deep prep class. There are going to be some winners in the second round.
Hell, Pete Alonso, who Arte might burn the second round pick for, was a second rounder himself, picked #64.
The Angels have had good franchise success in the second round: Washburn, Lackey, Corbin, Chatwood, Marsh.
When you’re 2-3 years from contention, it makes little sense to burn a top 50 pick and a lot of years and salary on one defensively limited slugger to live out his decline years on a sub-.500 club. It just sustains the cycle the team has been living through for a decade.
The combination of a good slot, a deep class, and the team’s current situation of not likely being competitive for at least another 3 years pretty much dictates that this year we need to be disciplined and try to knock it out of the park in the draft. If we wanted to add players next year, It probably wouldn’t hurt us as much.
No one is saying the 46th pick doesn’t have value. But folks around here are acting like we’d be squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity if we lost it. Or that it would mess up the “rebuild,” whatever that is.
It’s the 46th pick. Could get us a stud, but probably not. Meanwhile, the value signing one of those FAs is far less uncertain. Probably 2-3 WAR next season.
Agree that Arte probably won’t entertain signing Bregman because of the optics among other things. But Rendon is sunk cost. Bottom line he would improve the team. I’d be impressed if Arte bit down on the pill and actually did it.
Doesn’t make sense to trade Ward without surplus outfield talent, i.e. his replacement, in place first. Admittedly, signing Bregman wouldn’t do that, unless Rendon agreed to platoon in left or something. But as people around here have noted, Nolan in LF is a possibility if Alonso comes aboard. Santander makes the most sense. Sign him, then turn Ward into a prospect or two… which would be a entirely better outcome than keeping a second-round pick. Better team, better farm system.
“Meanwhile, the value signing one of those FAs is far less uncertain. Probably 2-3 WAR next season.”
With all due respect, I think this is the short-termism that the fanbase uses to justify every long-term anchor contract, and defer investment in the farm.
Hell, I even like Santander and Alonso. But neither will be acquired on one year contracts. They’ll be here for many years, and their unmovable contracts will be Arte’s future excuse to penny pinch in the off-season, and keep the club old and mediocre.
You don’t get younger and have sustainable success if you don’t try. This team won only 63 games last year. They’re not 2-3 WAR away from contention. They’re a farm rebuild and Rendon contact flush away from contention.
As to Santander, what’s the point of paying him $20 million a year and then trading Ward? Talentwise it’s about a stymie and Ward might be the better player.
What big time player are the Halos getting for Ward the provides value and makes up for losing the high second round pick?
Santander had 44 jacks last year and is a couple years younger than Ward. I wouldn’t call that a wash. He’s a clear upgrade. Not sure what Ward would command in the trade market… but if it involves a Top 10 prospect or high-upside-but-unproven major leaguer (like, say, Jose Soriano) that’s clearly better than a second-round draft pick.
Not that I love Santander or anything. Just making the point that he could improve the team without taking anything away from the farm.
Yes, it’s only the Angels second rounder and international money at risk, but this year’s second rounder is a top 50 pick in a solid class filled with positional players, particularly prepsters, with a lot of upside. And given how the team likes to move money around to steal upside in the later rounds, they have no basis to reduce their generous draft pool this year.
In short, the Angels can nab either the best college pitcher or bat in the first round, and grab a very strong prep kid in round two, without reducing their international pool (where they’ve been seeing some success of late).
Unless Perry can trade for a supplemental rounder, losing a top 50 pick for an aging slugger is a stupid thing to do.
This sounds like typical Sports Illustrated- about a week behind and nothing really substantial to back it up other than speculation. The Alonso link is probably the Heyman post of a few days ago.
Exactly Kind of how our Politico News cycle works through Echo chamber perpetuation and regurgitation
If Arte decides to be stupid….
Bregman? Third base is an abyss at all levels of the organization. But then he’s admitting his Rendon disaster.
Alonso? Move Nolan to left and Ward to right?
Santander a look so needs to play left. Does so pretty poorly, though.
Not only is our draft position too good to ruin, the remaining big splashes aren’t great fits.
The only reason for any of these signings would be the “compete” narrative and attempting to put butts in seats. But I doubt either move would achieve either “goal”. So would be a total waste of money with little to no benefit.
Out of the 3, Bregman is objectively the best player and best fit for us.
With that said, please no
Actually a power hitterwho can dominate rap at the Big A would be best for us.
Ohtani?
Nah hes a pitcher.
No, an awkward base runner….
Team Arte is not complying with discovery protocols in the Skaggs case per the court.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6036537/2025/01/04/angels-moreno-owner-skaggs-subpoena/?source=user_shared_article
Arrest Arte! But then again, when has the ultra-wealthy ever faced consequences lol
He’s just following the playbook of Roy Cohn.
So Billionaire Arte is not listening to his lawyers in the Skaggs family money grab case?
Tell me why I should care again ?
He’s not listening to court orders, which is a different animal.
There’s a note in there that Trout will be deposed on Jan 15th.
What are the other notes in there, for us non paying folks?
Arte gonna Arte, druggies gonna druggie. Case closed?
Essentially Arte and the Angels have been tasked with turning over phone records and emails but have not.
Arte and the club say no such records exist but nobody can verify that claim. The Skaggs family insists they do and keeps asking for them.
Team Arte asked for the trial to be delayed until after the season but they claim was denied.
Trout will finally be deposed January 15th.
The entire post makes Arte and the Angels look bad.
This is a civil matter. It’s an ongoing discovery dispute between the two parties. Thats why a referee was hired who is making the decisions on discovery and not the trial judge. I’m sure they will ultimately reach a resolution but Arte and the Angels cant produce discovery off of their phones that isn’t there. Do you honestly think he would get messages showing any culpability for ignoring a working environment encouraging the illegal use of pharmaceuticals or the abuse of illegal drugs?
In one of my few conversations I had with the man he made it quite clear his strong position against drug use and that was just weed. (No I didnt offer him any this was back when the team suspended Hudler for getting popped at the airport )
Although if you think about it I kind of wish Arte was found to be the mastermind behind a secret clubhouse drug ring with Bubba Harkins pushing the junk in the pails of Sunflower seeds and Double bubble. Then finally MLB would be forced to have him sell the team once and for all.
Trout’s in the best shape of his career, let’s hope he’s not injured during the deposition
Nice Senator!
😲
Looking at the list of sluggers Pete Alonso is most like up to age 30, I see names like McGwire, Chris Davis, Cecil Fielder and Ryan Howard. Signing him does not fill me with joy, though I imagine the AC bill will go down with every whiff.
he’s called the Polar Bear 🐻❄️ but I don’t think it’s for that reason.
Why didn’t we celebrate Jose Suarez’s birthday yesterday?
Ran out of money to buy cake candles. 🙄
CtPG is going to DFA him to get Alonso.
With a 210 pound cake?
Good Saturday morning to all. Having a “Plan” to rebuild and then following that up by picking up “Journeymen” over 30 years of age sure doesn’t look like a serious “Rebuild” to my eyes. A serious screw up with the decisions from the top will haunt for many years to come, getting nuttin’ for Shohei. Rhat leads me to just this, there would seem that we will not crack .500 this season. Even if everyone has the preverbal “Career Year” we may not make it. Adding to the payroll with Soler helped? He’s a half tool DH. Robinson as backup catcher? And have a sign made that is stuck in every office that proclaims Under age 24 only.
Adding college players is Ok when you are a winning ball club, as college kids can fit in quicker, adding prep kids takes longer most of the time to arrive at destination Big A, unless your name is Trout or Harper or Mantle, which this coming up draft won’t happen because this could be Perry’s Waterloo and he is not going to want to roll the dice on a prep in the 1st rd and who could blame him. In short it seems disconcerting to me in the way this rebuild is being handled. But money back into scouting and development rather than in FA’s over 30 that are not going to lead us to the WS.
It’s kind of funny.
Heading into the off season I wrote and felt we really needed to stay the course in the rebuild, keep all draft picks and avoid big contracts.
And now that it’s happening I feel a bit deflated. Like we’re really not adding much and the AA/AAA rotations and college ball will more tantalizing.
It’s like when you swear you’re gonna eat salads for two weeks…. and then it comes time to eat salads for two week. Losing some weight is lame. I could have pizza just a couple times and I’d still be on a diet right? Also maybe one burger and some pie….
No matter how hard you try, you’re still gonna end up in the In N out drive thru at 10pm.
Rebuild (but we can add Alonso too)
Ha Ha, keep pushing Rex, Although I think Bregman for the right price would be better for us since, other than Fontenelle, we don’t have anyone within 5 years of 3B.
“I’d be fine with that if it was just ona three year deal. After all, Rendon will be off the books soon.”
or…just leave room for next year when Baby Daddy Vladdy hits the streets, Arte gonna payback Big daddy Vladamir for wearing the Angel cap at his HOF induction by signing his kid.
Agree…makes complete sense.
They’ve finally accepted you can’t spend your way out purgatory.
But turning the Hell out of pages sure hasn’t worked either.
It used to work for Sosh back in the day.
You mean back when we were an above .500 team.
The last time we had a real manager.
Gene is rolling over in his grave.
And probably grumbling “I made all of those mistakes too”.
Why? He gave us endless years of crap, in spite of being a beloved cowboy owner, and recipient of mean O’Malley gunk. He gets a pass? What about the 2nd Mrs. Autry who was on the record in favor of contracting the Angels?
Jackie Autry Who also championed building a farm system that put more players in the Major Leagues the late eighties than any other franchise and built the core of our World Championship team?
Hell yeah I’ll give the old Security Pacific bank teller a free pass.
Thank You 26!!
Totally get it Jeff. Particularly since you have a 7 year old whom I am sure you would love to watch a winning Angels team with. I remember bringing my oldest daughter to games in the mid-1990s with a young Tim Salmon (her favorite player) and how special that was. And of course we were there together in 2002 and those memories are the best.
So I understand how the rational evaluative part of your brain may be thinking one thing and the emotional part of your brain is reconsidering. As Spring approaches it probably will feel more difficult.
He’s 7 so I’d love a good run with him as a kid. The next two years probably are t all that important but if the team can be good when he’s 10-15 that would be incredible.
Staying the course is boring. Signing FAs is fun and provides instant gratification.
Something along the lines of short-term pain for long-term gain, right?
I’m actually incredibly impressed with how we’ve been operating since we lost 🐐Tani.
If we have a really good draft this year, and if Moore, Klassen, Dana, and Lugo show signs of promise, and if Shanuel and Adell become something they haven’t been yet, and Detmers becomes consistent, and we trade Ward, Anderson, and Rengifo for shiny new prospects, then the future might look brighter. But a lot has to go right. The problem is that in the weight loss scenario, if you do certain things, it’s highly likely you will achieve some level of success. But with baseball, there is no guarantee you will be any better off then when you were eating cheeseburgers.
Also, presently, we don’t appear committed to either path. If we had already traded Ward, Anderson, and Rengifo, you might feel different. As of now, there isn’t any reason to believe we are going to be better in the short term or the long term.
Well put – agree.
It’s consistent with the last decade. Which is why the team has been mired in basically the middle (this last year was lower middle) of baseball.
I continue to believe the team either needs to (1) truly commit to a rebuild (which means replacing the ‘compete’ nonsense) or (2) vastly increase the budget and convince top free agents to come to Anaheim. The former path seems the most reasonable and realistic path with the current owner.
Me too.
And I’ll continue to ask you and guys like Hobbs, other than the weird AF Kikuchi signing, what moves have we made to compete and not rebuild? All the other moves are pretty much place holder Pizza!Pizza! style glop that won’t hold up a rebuild really and may even help if we end up trading a guy like Soler.
I know you’re not one of those wine mom Angel fans that needs the “closure” of having the FO declare a rebuild…. like old HH/CtPG twats that NEEEDED Arte to come out and publicly declare that he’s an idiot and list off his mistakes. Something their asshole dad was never ever never willing to do.
If July rolls around and we still have Ward, Anderson, Rengifo and anyone else with value AND we’ve signed Alonso then I’ll be like “dang it. we are screwing the pooch….”
Definitely not twirling my thumbs waiting around for Arte to make that announcement! 😂 He will be saying the goal is to “compete” until his last breath.
While I generally agree with your analysis of the players that have been added (placeholders) it still feels like one of those typical Angel offseasons that we have seen over the last decade. And yes the signing of Kikuchi was definitely weird AF and must be related to trying to regain appeal to the Japanese fanbase that left with Ohtani.
Which makes me think “are they really committed to a rebuild or is this more of the same?”
As you point out, we will know more as the season progresses and specifically how they handle Ward and Rengifo.
I agree with you. They have not made significant competitive moves, but If you ask the same question regarding rebuilding, you get the same answer. They have done almost nothing that would support rebuilding other than trading expiring contracts and losing. As you imply, it depends on what happens between now and July. Even then, Rengifo and Anderson are just expiring contracts. My whole point is they have done nothing significant in either direction. They’re just treading water which is more of the same. I would believe you if you told me they are just pretending to compete until Rendon goes off the books, because that’s what it looks like with all the short term contracts.
As I have said before, they did take a year off last year to see what they had which unfortunately didn’t pan out all that well. But no, they seem to be back to what they were doing.
Yep. Keep stacking lottery tickets.
Right now if feel like there are enough arms to net us 2-3 decent to good rotation pieces and likely the same number of bullpen arms.
I like Neto and O’Hoppe a lot. Still have some hope for Adell and Detmers.
I know some guys u think will pan out won’t. I also know there’s probably a guy or two off our radars who will exceed expectations and surprise us.
Thing is we need 10 more good prospects to likely get another 2-3 good players and a backup or two.
That’s pretty much where I’m at regarding our current players. I feel pretty good with what we are doing regarding the pitching prospects but I feel we are very barren when it comes to bats.
We all want Detmers to be good. Sadly, he’s given the fans little evidence of the consistency necessary to be a quality starter. Even when it looked like he fixed things last year in the minors, it didn’t stay. I think it’s time to put hope on the backburner. Maybe he will figure it out. But Dana and others provide more hope for me at least.
Adell is similar but also different. He fixed his defense after many years. He looked better at the plate than had slippage. It’s still a wildcard but I can see more hope. Not a sure thing by any means of course and this year could be the maker or breaker.
Well, if he was giving the fans evidence of consistently being a quality starter he would beeeee…aaaaaa….. quality starter. And our thoughts on the issue would be a pointless waste of time.
Detmers shows a TON of potential. It’s why he is a viable trade target. There are games he doesn’t just look like a #4 pitcher, he looks dominant. Any real flashes of dominance are rare for a pitcher. That’s why everyone would like to hope to develop him.
BA posted this for Angels to-do in 2025. It aligns with what a lot of you are saying and yeah it’s boring 😴 🥱
Keep Fixing The Depth Issue
It would be great if the Angels could add a few stars to go with Mike Trout and the young core of Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe, but the team’s moves to bring in supporting players like Travis d’Arnaud, Kevin Newman and Scott Kingery are vital for fixing the team’s bigger problem: tissue-paper thin depth. When injuries arrive—and they will—the Angels must have better answers than the revolving door of cast-off callups they turned to last year. Los Angeles can offer fringe big leaguers looking for Triple-A spots clearer paths to big league time than most teams, so the next two months are a wise time to keep shopping for low-cost depth.
BUT IF I DON”T WANT TO WATCH THAT then it’s a horrible way to build a team. We can have a 280M payroll and still build.
BA is smart!
Well unfortunately this switch hitting free agent infielder slipped through our hands too.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/yankees-andrew-velazquez-agree-to-minor-league-deal.html
Hell yeah, that .196 could be among our team leaders.
Funny thing is he is listed as “Ex-Angel” but he was an Ex-Yankee before his Halo career freefall….
Next month, gentlemen. 😏
Is it too early to say next year, Mia?
Oh, have you not already turned the page on 2025?
Pre-page turner?
I predict the Angels will win Spring Training again!
You know it bro!!
Maybe we could plunk former employee #17 and then congratulate him on his upcoming new edition to the fam.
Gentlemen!?
GENTLEMEN!?
No need for name calling Mia.
YEAH! Who you calling gentle? Who you calling a man?
Sincerest apologies, fucker.
😂😂😭
That’s our Mia!!!! Just for that one, you may stay on my lawn for the next week, should you so desire!
My rent just went up, so I may take you up on that.
LOL, that was gitch that piled on….
“When you’re here at
Olive GardenCrashing the Pearly gates you’re like family!”You talking about a period?
If so, I appreciate the warning.
Punctuation is important.
Glass half-full take on losing out on Kim?
We know Perry still has some room left in the budget to improve the squad.
Glass half-empty take? Welcome to Anaheim, Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman!
Sucks, I would have enjoyed the infusion of some speed and defense. However, I recognize, that skillset is not Perry’s M.O.
Perry offered him the most money thoo
I stand corrected
“The report that the Angels offered Hyesong Kim more than the Dodgers is not accurate, per source. Not sure what the offer was, but it was less than the Dodgers”
https://x.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1875331038043631646?t=fzcioNftPGRDFGEymZ-aNA&s=19
So Kim’s Agent used Arte to get more Money out of the Doyers?
Must be the newest international game.
Arte would never allow anyone to use him so…..
😲
The only thing I hate more than when our FO signs an over priced free agent is when they don’t pay more than they are comfortable with for a free agent and then someone else pays him more. It makes me feel small and un-Travolta.
Perfect fit for the Dodgers because they don’t need offense, they can use SS and 2B defense.
And they can move Betts back to RF.
True, really where Betts belongs, with that cannon arm. Shit…I was hoping for this guy.
He actually would have made sense for us. He could play SS until Neto Returns and then 2B when he does. In the future he could stay at 2B if Moore has to move to left.
I’d rather have Polanco. Unfortunately Polanco would rather not be here
Remember back when Charlie Morton was an FA and he said he didn’t want to sign with a team on the west coast and then he signed with the Rays?
Remember when Vlad Jr was a INTL Free Agent and he’d said he was gonna sign for the highest amount of money he could get and then he went and signed for a bonus that only the Jays had the money to give him?
How about when Garrit Cole stated he’d always wanted to be a Yankee and then signed with the Yankees?
Don’t let a guy saying that he’s basically not gonna sign here stop you from demanding that our team sign him and then getting pissed off when it doesn’t happen.
Ignorant and angry is, after all, one of the character traits that really draws players into wanting to play for a team.
Awesome A great motto to live by I might add.
“Arte’s Angels. Ignorant and angry since May 15, 2003”
It does have a certain “Je ne sais quoi” quality…..
Then cross your fingers that Nelson Rada can learn how to hit the breaking stuff then your dream will be answered.
ETA 2026?
It seems very strange to me that Artie will apparently not defer contract money. If it’s allowed by MLB and the Union, why would he not do that? It would allow him to increase payroll gradually while still competing for top talent. Just weird that he does not seem willing to do it. Maybe he’s concerned it negatively affects the sale value of the franchise because it makes long-term financial commitments.?
Maybe it’s harder to finance real estate purchases with deferred money on the books? Harder to move the team to San Antonio? Harder to sell the team?
Possibly. It just seems odd to me particularly with the team 35 miles to the north creating a dynasty by doing it.
The northern team has a tv deal running to 2038. Would be an interesting exercise to see which other teams have signed deferred contracts and if so how long.
Might also be interesting to see if Angels sign or renew anyone beyond 2028 (not including already existing contracts).
Lots of other teams are doing it, it’s not like the Dodgers invented it. And the groundwork was laid when the Angels ran afoul of MLB with “personal services” BS for Grandpa. It’s a smart business move, because the team funds an annuity to pay out at a certain point time with 55ish% of today dollars, (and per the basic agreement, any excess earned over what is obligated, the team keeps) which then has NO impact at all on payroll or the bottom line when the player starts to collect.
It would be ridiculous to think ANY team is obligating themselves to hundreds of millions of dollars to pay in the future, out of then-current revenue, long after the player is gone. But it does make for hopeful disaster scenarios in the mind of some butthurt fans.
Yes, the Dodgers did not invent deferred contracts. See Bonilla.
I think Arte is a) stubborn and b) risk averse.
This was educational for me. Dodgers deferred contracts, explained: How do LA’s nearly $1 billion future payments work with MLB rules? | Sporting News
Which comes first: winning or signing long term local Television and Streaming deals?
It might just be me, but I think if the Angels start winning division and league championships, they too can create demand for humans to watch them on TV….until then, Arte’s only hope to grow media revenues over the long haul is for Manfred to centralize the deal-making, and potentially sell all 30 teams’ regular-season broadcasts as one streaming package.
💯
The teams that are good and occupy decent size media markets get the deals. So if viewership of Angels games is at a low point then media deals are going to be tough to obtain.
Yes – a reasonable solution is for MLB to sell streaming rights for all teams as a package and split the revenue. Want to broadcast the Dodgers? Well then you also have to broadcast the Marlins. Then split the revenue between the teams. This would be a positive step towards bringing narrowing the gap between large market and small market teams.
Problem is (1) those rights would have to be multiple billions per year or else the Dodgers and Yankees would end up losing money in the deal compared to their current deals and (2) the big market teams who control MLB would never vote for/allow it.
🍆
This is gonna become my official response to anything involving thoughts that revolve around “Yeahhh, but the Dodgers….”
It’s like comparing a normal person and Hafpor Bjornsson. “Bjornsson doesn’t seem to have any trouble pushing that car up a hill…”
No guys. Turns out we aren’t gonna do what the Doyers do a lot of the time. Brilliant observation.
IIRC Arte got into a beef with the Colangelo over deferred contracts when he was a minority owner with the D backs and they won the 2001 World Series . The amount of deferred player salaries was so staggering ( approx $250 million) that it made Bobby Bonilla Day look like sofa cushion money. Arte’s point (which he was probably right about ) was with that much deferred salary obligations it would have a severe negative effect on the value of the franchise when it was sold.
So maybe this means that Arte doesn’t want to do the trendy deferred money scenario because an upcoming team sale is more imminent than anyone believes?
Non hyphenated Kim to the Dodgers.
3 year deal probably paid out over 20 years or so.
lol this aint fair at all…
I’m shocked. I guess it’s true that MLB players really enjoy playing on teams that are built to sustain championship level results year-after-year.
I’d sign with LAD over LAA. Really, any sensible person would
If you’re gonna pay all that California tax – it’s better (1) to be on a winner and (2) to defer it in the hope you can avoid it as much as possible.
LOOOL
Whew. Glad that is finally over . Now we can sign Bregman
Arte impulsive revenge signing on line 1 … 🫠😨😭
Question now is, will it be Bregman, Alonso or Santander? Maybe all 3!
Remember when the Dodgers sucked and the Angels were good?
Okay, they were good back then as well 🙂
Spicolli and some tasty waves.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1875002765841158481
Wow. That is crazy.
Or Bodhi and Johnny Utah
This was always my favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iP4bAuD4NM
I don’t think Busey ever came out of character since filming this.
Epic 90s fare. Still a great watch and I normally didn’t like summer blockbuster/action type stuff.
Okay, who pushed Trout off the boat and into the water?
Those Mavericks waves are just built different. Crazy enough to surf with the Great White Sharks at HMB, crazy enough to ride those deep backed monsters I guess.
Whatever happened to Quad Fin Rider, anyways?
Here’s how last season’s production by age broke down:
Age PA BA OBP SLG
25- 2397 .233 .309 .394
26-30 2300 .239 .307 .377
31-35 1278 .203 .277 .310
For this coming year, I’d rather let the younger players prove or disprove themselves and avoid signing any FA batters over the age of 30.
That’s horrible across the board. Worse than I even thought and we have added very little.
And we’ll be starting the year without Neto and no idea how he’ll come back at least for this year.
Only the White Sox were worse in the league, with the Rays about the same as the Angels. Hitting needs to be improved, but I don’t think the team should be signing the expensive free agents left.
It’s going to be another long year but just by the law of averages we should win more than last year, but not many.
Sign Polanco and hope he bounces back. Maybe Moncada.
There are some decent bullpen arms, too.
Unfortunately according to reports Polanco no likey Anaheim.
Schanuel was drafted as an outfielder and is not slow. Adding Alonso bat and moving Schanuel as corner outfielder and DH is interesting to me. Could give Alonso some breaks at first. But let’s be real about this rumor…
Eh? Drafted as an OF? “Flash is not slow”? Whah? Source? Fella played 58 and 55 games at FAU as a 1B his last two years. When we drafted him we said he’d be at 1B didn’t we?
I meant to say – he was an outfielder in High School – my mistake. He would be slower than most outfielders, but he’s capable of playing some innings is what I was getting to. This was more about Heyman being a Boras shill and this rumor being highly unlikely.
According to Baseball Reference, Schanuel played 8 games as an outfielder during his college career vs 168 at 1B. He did play some more in the outfield during summer leagues, but I don’t think that means he was drafted as an outfielder. Schanuel’s sprint speed places him in the lower quarter of major leaguers but managed to take the extra base about 40% of the time which is close to league average. He isn’t lumbering, but I would say he is slow compared to the average though he’s not Dave Kingman slow.
I would agree – he would not be a plus defensive outfielder. I would call him a formidable starter at first where we have years of control. I would spend my money elsewhere than Alonso, but it’s an interesting move that I could see them considering. While I think there’s better places to spend the money right now, the only way they consider it is if they see any other spots or would get a nice package moving him. They would know enough about him as an athlete to know if he could play some left field. It seems like an unlikely pairing and more Boras trickery.
Watching the Arnold bullpen video. I kept yelling ball…. ball…. ball…. I don’t see the hype there
On the projected Angels record, I know there is still time to improve the roster. However, can someone sell me on the bullpen right now? Or the starting pitching? I don’t really see it as to either. Last year they had Escobar and Garcia in the pen in addition to Joyce. What am I missing?
Best wishes all.
Joyce
Stephenson
Zeferjahn
Quijada
Burke
Suarez
I’ve posted this several times already — From June 15th, our bullpen ranked 3rd overall with a 3.15 ERA
If Reid Detmers remembers how to pitch, Soriano – Kikuchi – Anderson – Detmers is a formidable top 4.
True, but the bullpen also faded the last month with an ERA of 3.62 and WHIP of 1.440 during September/October.
Forsure, that’s true too. Fwiw, I don’t see our current bullpen as a finished product, and relievers are easily the most volatile pieces of a baseball roster.
Being able to point to a 3.5 month sample size where our ‘pen produced at a high level gives me optimism Wash+Barry can do it again in 2025. Still need to add another arm or 2 tho
Neither of those numbers are incredibly high for a bullpen over one month
No, but they were considerably higher than for the previous two months when the bullpen was phenomenal. The WHIP was too high the final month, but I would be thrilled with an ERA of 3.62 over the entire season. The team also traded away 2 of the relievers partly responsible for that success and I’m not sure they’ve replaced them.
Yes what you said at the end was my point. Thanks for the support.
Great! And we still ended up
Losing 99 games!
Proud of you
And I’m proud of you. Looking for a pony in a pile of shit!
I can name that tune in one note. https://www.tiktok.com/@foxtv/video/7314414811931004206
Th fix had to be in!!
Add in youngsters like Bachman and maybe even Klassen getting bullpen experience and it is less predictable.
Perry usually signs a reliever or two really late in the off season. Former Brave Minter is an obvious target.
I’m not sure we can count on Stephenson in the early part of the season. Hopefully Quijada has a good restful off season. That 7.11 ERA for last September is kind of ugly.
Oregon outscored Ohio State 21-7 starting with a minute or so left in the 1st half. You know what I mean. Arbitrary data points can lead to funny conclusions.
Stephenson??? How healthy is he and how can he be counted on? You’re kidding with Suarez, right? What’s a Zeferjahn?
Quijada is something I suppose.
No one can count on Detmers right now. As to ifs, if Canning was ever good and lived up to his draft slot, he’s still be in Anaheim. Bobby Miller can say the same as to potential in LA.
A believe a Zeferjahn is a small Armenian lake boat made from the wood of the acacia tree. It is used to ferry scarves, sandals, melons and donkey meat across small bodies of water.
Ryan Zeferjahn came over from Boston in the Luis Garcia trade and pitched very well in a small number of innings for the club. I’m looking forward to finding out if it was a fluke or if he is the type of fire balling reliever we want.
Nice. I’d prefer to see if it is a fluke in August when the team is out of the hunt, not in April, which appears to be where this is headed.
It may be unfounded, but I have a lot of belief in Joyce – Stephenson – Zeferjahn (assuming good health). 3 demons coming out the ‘pen firing 97-103 mph heat.
Suarez is currently positioned as the #1 long reliever option. Wish I was kidding.
On the pitching side, Detmers and Zeferjahn are my top 2025 breakout candidates
Garcia is an arsonist. The team will add a win just not having him in the bullpen.
Garcia pitched well for them most of last season. I agree during his prior time with Angels. Looks like he got better with age.
So lets re-sign him Maybe we can trade him back to Boston again at the trade deadline for 4 more mediocre to midlevel prospects.
Works for me if it can be done properly
It’s here, 2025, 🎉 it’s a new year for all of us with lots of Angels fun. We have the fun of guessing who the team acquires in July, in March setting the O/U in total wins for the boys in red, keeping fingers crossed that Trouty plays 145 games or sits at his pool in Newport Beach nursing injuries, and waiting for Artie to sell.
Last year we set 73 wins as the O/U for teams wins and those like me choose the winner in that endeavor, so to be far about this I will say the 2025 O/U should be the team’s second worst finish ever with really very little starting pitching and about the same on defense, with some hope with improving hitting though, so I think that this season the number is a very optimistic 76 (86L) wins with Trout making a comeback but with very little help around him except for Neto.
PLAYOFF’S-PLAYOFF’S-YOU WANTA TALK PLAYOFF’S! 😄 Again to all-HAPPY NEW YEAR!