Good morning Angels fans. The fires still rage on, please keep safe and help out if you can. Have some links.
Angels News
Kikuchi is going to stream at 12:30 AM on Saturday on Youtube. It will likely be in Japanese, as it is a 5:30 PM Japan time start. Yes, our SP streaming is the best Angels news I can find, but, I mean, he got super drunk at Darvish’s house so, he can be entertaining?
Oh, and the Angels jerseys seem to be not cheap this year. Allegedly, according to someone to went to the team store. Just reversing what the idiots did.
Around Baseball
Who are the best SP right now? According to MLB Network, it is these 10.
Because of the Roki Sasaki limbo now down to 3 teams, some other International FA are signing elsewhere. Like the Mets, and the Twins. And some are now looking elsewhere, which means the Angels have a chance?
Scott Boras is still shopping around cheater mc cheat cheat Bregman and no one wants him. The latest scam seems to be trying to woo the Cubs with a 3 year 2 opt outs contract.
Portland is again trying to get an MLB team. I would welcome it, especially if it means no more Texas teams in the AL West.
Shotaro Morri is skipping playing in the NPB and heading straight to America to sign with the A’s. He is a 2 way prospect and why the A’s?
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
This is really cool:
https://x.com/LAAngelsPR/status/1879634537652912417
18 prospects signed. Here’s the list:
https://x.com/LAAngelsPR/status/1879633598091042866
Catchers, short stops, outfield, pitchers. Good mix. Maybe we’ll see one of these guys in a few years. I have heard off hand comments from low level FO guys I know that the Angels are pretty entrenched in Venezuela and it looks it here. Fine with me.
You sure do love your chubby Venezuelans.
That better not be a shot and my man, Sicario Suarez
Your man is the shape of Winnie the pooh
Winnie was pretty successful, equipped with a low WHIP
Low WHIP Pooh
Thanks for posting
So out of 18 signees, the highest rated guy we signed was #14 in BA’s rankings?
I wouldn’t sweat the BA international rankings too much. These kids are more variable than domestic draftees, and younger across the board. Except for a handful of top guys each year, outcomes are rarely tied to rankings. A #7 guy isn’t necessarily any better than a #14 guy at this stage.
The Angels have had some recent success spreading their bonus pool around, and have done just as well with six figure guys as seven figure bonus babies.
Thanks
But we got the top ranked catcher in ALL the land and you know how we love our catchers.
Sooooo…. we’re “boo hoo, too many catchers” now?
My take away thus far is that we have no latin american presence
And a center fielder:
https://x.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1879587910451954074
Really, you guys should just follow TBW for days like today.
Yet another arm:
https://x.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1879595269089816668
Another arm:
https://x.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1879612277315477837
I live in Oregon and was in the Portland area for more than twenty years. The People’s Republic Of Portland will never commit to funding a stadium and no ownership group is likely to fund their own build given that it’s a marginal market.
The Blazers do very well with 41 home games. They’ve got pretty decent parking space, too. A baseball park would need access and parking and I think it could work as far as attendance goes but…if a funding measure were on the ballot it would go down because even I would vote against it. I don’t see the current group having the drive (and money) to impress voters.
The NBA seems pretty Portland. It is downtown, gets folks out of the rain, and leans in the social/political direction of Portland.
The sport has national revenue sharing so the Blazers are on an even playing field for the most part.
Baseball is the opposite. There’s nothing more establishment than baseball and Portland would be at a big competitive disadvantage. I just don’t see it working.
Don’t hear me wrong as I would love spend some summer days at the park. There has never been any group that appeared to have the momentum to actually make it happen for Portland. If a Phil Knight type mogul stepped in it could change that dynamic overnight but it would need to be a mostly self funded, passion/ego driven effort.
Nashville has always seemed to have a better baseball fan base and growth trajectory to me.
agree about Knight, although he’s getting on now in age. I know he’d like to own the Blazers but they’re already in existence. Knight would be in his 90s before Portland had a team, either expansion or relocated, since there’s nowhere for an MLB team to play now. So yeah, a Phil Knight type. Most Phil Knight types don’t live in Oregon, though.
I don’t see Russell Wilson or Ciara having the necessary oomph to get it done.
Portland could be like Sacramento and be an NBA/AAA baseball town. That works great in Sactown.
Then you could spend those beautiful summer evenings watching baseball for a fraction of the MLB price. And it is an easy travel stop between Sac and Tacoma.
If Nashville gets an MLB team their AAA team will need to go somewhere…
I thought the Diamond Project group had just reached agreement to buy 30+ acres on the south waterfront at Zidell Yards to build a stadium. What’s the progress on that?
it’s not done yet. This is the 4th location that’s been touted. At least the 4th that I recall. Here’s what’s on their website.
“The game-changing deal includes the purchase a 33-acre former shipyard on the Willamette River south of downtown Portland owned by ZRZ Real Estate, a Zidell family business. The project will now enter a 120-day due diligence period with a 42-month period to purchase.”
42 months is 3 1/2 years, so they must feel they have until later 2028 to finalize the purchase and then what? How long would it take after that to get the funding? To build a park? It feels very shaky to me
Of the several proposed park locations, that feels like the most promising to me. My mother lived just south of there for some years, and that seems plausible, if they could secure funding for it.
They just need to encourage $ome people.
What I’m waiting for is one of the Roki finalists to trade a prospect or two for international bonus money. That will tell us where he’s going.
Also, I’m more interested in trading $500k of bonus allotment for a kid already in A ball or higher than paying half a million to a 16 year old, particularly if we are helping the Padres or Blue Jays get a leg up on the Dodgers.
yes memories of 2017 Ohtani sweepstakes Billy vs the JeDi.
The other thing to look for is if the Blue Jays Doyers or padres announce any international signees with more than $10K bonuses.
So far they are among the few teams that have not announced any significant signees this morning.
according to reports we only have about $800K left so. not sure if they will have $500K to spare.
https://x.com/BeyondTheHalo/status/1879588312614375864
I’d keep that $800k and poach a top target of whoever gets Roki. Or perhaps trade the whole wad to a team desperate to get Roki and take a decent, old enough to shave prospect that has been developed a bit.
Amen
Giants have traded 2 players for pool money. They added at least 500k.
They look like they are setting themselves up to swooping in and picking up prospects the team Roki signs with leave behind.
Seeing that 3 dodger commits have signed elsewhere has me thinking that it would be great if Roki signed with another team and left dodgers high and dry.
Right on WCC
Amen amen
Hope nobody is silly enough to buy a jersey at the team store, obviously a rip-off (Arte$$). Cheaper to purchase online, specially EBay. Everywhere else they are priced the same for an authentic player jersey about $389 w/ name/number. Pretty much all real licensed sports wear is monopolized by Fanatics. Angels shop.com, MLB shop, NHL/NFL shops, Lids in the mall, all powered by Fanatics. I have been MLB/NHL jersey collector for years. Would gladly help out with any questions about authentic vs replica, counterfeits, brands, name/number customization costs.
And here’s a pitcher:
https://x.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1879581885145501749
He does have a low effort delivery…. not a bad thing…
I love that build in a pitcher. Or on a fighter or tennis player. Getting that whip like action is great. Once he gets a stronger core to get more torque through his shoulders velo will improve.
Speaking of Latin – if MLB really wants to say how much they are into steroids – have each player tested in the International before these signing days. Have them spot tested as prospects. The juice is like candy down there.
True dat. It’s almost an auto caveat that you sign some kid and then cross your fingers and watch as he transitions over the the US leagues and either weens off the juice or gets caught. He may still look like a young Ken Griffey Jr at age 20…. or he’ll have shrunk into Ken McGillicudy. It’s almost impossible to scout out busts down there, you just look for “raw power” or “bat to ball” or “fastball” and then hope for the best.
It is such a shady system from top to bottom. Yes, buscones feed kids as young as 12 juice because they can make money off them.
Not a coincidence that most of the suspect MLB guys winter in Latin America.
Players from the DR account for about half of all positive tests but only about 11% of MLB rosters.
I get it, for them it is baseball or poverty so they’ll do what they can. But even once they make it here guys like Papi, Manny, and so many others just juice to the gills.
The old expression that you can’t walk off the island, you have to hit your way off applies.
Interesting stat
It’s available at any snack bar at any little league ballpark.
Does anyone know where we rank in MLB for our International Department? It has to be near the bottom. Very near. Shohei doesn’t count. I’m really thinking on the Latin side.
Arte burned it to the ground after the skimming scandals a decade and a half ago, and then underfunded it for several years after the Baldoquin mistake – disappointing, as even the teams with terrific Latin presence make embarrassing errors with teenage prospects. The bust rate is really high.
There aren’t exactly systematic rankings for international scouting programs, but the Angels used to have little Latin American presence, but have been gradually building it up again, especially in Venezuela.
I would no longer say it’s the worst – in fact, their DSL club made it to the championship game last year, with talent in evidence on both the mound and the field. They could still stand to improve their presence in the DR, and they don’t have the infra on the islands that, say, Houston and Texas do (among AL West teams), but they’re getting closer to middle of the pack in the past two or three years.
Even before the Baldoquin fiasco , it seems like Arte and Company soured on the international market. I had thought that JeDi’s big splash with Baldo was supposed to bring us back into the market after years of neglect. Considering the success the Angels had with Aybar , Callaspo, Segura & Morales (I believe Jean & Kendrys were signed during Arte’s reign of terror) I never understood why Cheap Arte chose to ignore it for so long.
Referenced that in the first sentence of my comment – prior to Baldoquin it was the bonus skimming scandals exposed around 2008 that drove Arte to make a hard exit. Despite sketchy evidence of systemic fraud – at least not more egregious than other teams – Moreno fired Clay Daniel, his Latin American scouting director in 2009, for not policing his scouts sufficiently, and fired several regional scouts with him:
https://www.si.com/mlb/2009/06/05/angels-daniel
Daniel was arguably the most successful intl scouting director in franchise history, overseeing the acquisition of Santana, Morales, K-Rod, Aybar. Buscones have always taken a cut of signing bonuses as a ‘finders fee’ – rightly or wrongly – but there can be little argument that Daniel brought the Angels value well above his or his scouts’ salaries.
2009 was really the turning point in Angels player acquisition and development history under Arte. He fire Daniel and many of his best scouts, largely exited Latin America, and Reagins fired Eddie Bane the following year, after he executed the best draft in MLB history in ’09. The new CBA made signing free agents more punitive than ever before, and Arte signed many, decimating the farm under Dipoto, who often didn’t have a first or second round selection. The farm has never really recovered since then, at least not to the top five levels it was at through most of the oughts.
And a shortstop from the DR
https://x.com/taylorblakeward/status/1879564594043318362?s=46&t=e2madw4iRuMhY-mGsL6oCA
Is the idea to replace their two best players down the road when they get too expensive? C, SS. How about some pitching?
The goal is simply to bring in the best talent they can find. At best these 16 year olds are 5 years from the majors.
So much can happen. Body types change, positions change, etc.
Just sign studs and let it play out.
Sasaki? After Roki, the next pitcher is ranked No. 39 in the MLB International Prospect Ranking list. And as a kid, the top player is usually a SS.
This is all a crapshoot. Angels have not fared well over the last decade on this day. Nothing to show for it.
C, SS, CF… that’s what they sign. 80% of them then move off to be 1B, LF, 2B etc. They’re 16 so a lot’s gonna change in four years.
As you can see with guys like Maitan, their bodies can transform, for better and worse, in two years flat.
Happy international signing day.
Angels signed there top priority
https://x.com/taylorblakeward/status/1879569401743278428?s=46&t=e2madw4iRuMhY-mGsL6oCA
Good thing they signed a catcher. They haven’t brought anyone in at that spot in years. Oh wait. . .
Not a lot of fast in that twitch.
Good morning Halo Honks!!
LOL…..
Halo Honk Forever!!
Never! I Hate Roger Lodge.
Was the AJ Block signing reported here? Can’t remember if it was.
https://x.com/CHarris731/status/1877894061836628281
Good catch WCC, and no, it was no reported, even on MLB Trade Rumors. I just saw a minor story pop up as I was on the interwebs.
I hate this move. No commitman to championshipish. Arte is so cheap. Perry is so stupid. How can they count on this guy!?!?
Remember back when half this site used to treat every signing of a fringe invite for ST like and existential threat all winter because they were afraid it signaled that Arte wasn’t gonna sign (“good player I want”) because he so cheap an sew evil? No commitmonk to being a weiner? Like we were afraid Arte thought he could pass off signing Luke Swiggins from the Arkansas Pit Drainage Lions as signing a closer?
It’s kinda nice to know that we likely won’t be making two splashes and a plop every winter for a little while, even if it is kinda pathetic watching so many fans play like they want that…. but then start looking at all the veggies they’ll have to eat instead of a chocolate polar bear and scoot towards needing to sign (“good player”) again.
Let’s finish the tear down this year. Trade WardJifoSen for prospects. Trade Soler if he’s good. Trade any other short timers if they are good. Trade Kikuchi if he is good. Trade pen arms. Trade the Halo Girls. Trade the Rally Monkey (jeebs isn’t that gimmick a mummy at this point?). Make Anaheim wasteland again!
It already is but we still haven’t had our 100 loss season yet so their’s more down to go.
Yes trade or replace the Halo girls. Not trying to be mean, but last year what happened? Out of shape, unattractive with heavy makeup. Even female friends and family I attend games with say they got bad. As if Arte fired the regulars and recruited cheap help from a trailer park to save money? At least get Alex Curry to come back to off set this.
It is crazy to realize the Angels are actually following a plan. I think they are trying to remain somewhat competitive while rebuilding so it is a bit unconventional in the modern game, but I appreciate that.
They’ve kept all their draft picks for 2 years in a row, haven’t signed a guy for longer than 3 years since Rendon, and really concentrated on bringing in AA/AAA pitchers in trades.
I’m actually working on a piece on this right now.
they’ve been following plans all along, unfortunately those plan seemed to be focused on getting 1 or 2 players to playoffs and not building a team that could compete without those players.
IMO, Arte finally hired someone with a plan for the Angels instead of plan for Pujols/Trout/Ohtani and is letting him run it.
It is scary to think that the team’s actually following a plan. At first I kept thinking Arte would just step in and make moves, which kind of happened in the effort to “get the unicorm to the Wild Card”. That sucked. But otherwise the guys they signed to keep the wonderboy company were not too long or costly. The “all pitcher draft” was a move that hasn’t really paid off, but it was a move I had even jokingly asked for, and at least we have a GM who is allowed to try that stuff and has the balls to do it.PTPs gonna have his bad signings and draft selections, all GMs do, but over all he seems to be steering the ship in a general direction I am in favor of.
I just can’t believe Arte’s let it go on so long without stepping in to cut scouting so he can bless us all with Max Scherzer.
The timing of rendone coming off the books fits in nicely with their rebuild