There is not really any Angels news since J.D. Davis got his minor league deal.
Ryan Pressly will waive his no trade clause and go to the Chicago Cubs. The Yokohama DeNA BayStars will sign Trevor Bauer.
An audio of Ippei Mizuhara impersonating Shohei Ohtani came out late last week.
Albert Pujols is managing down in the Dominican Winter League. An opponent hit a home run and Albert wants the bat inspected. The inspection happens today.
Steve Cohen and Scott Boras are not seeing eye to eye in the Pete Alonso negotiations.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Schanuel was not a good first rd draft choice as of right now, but he may still make it in the majors yet. Abreu is really a HoF’er, and so is FRod, but at last-I don’t get to vote like the writer that must not like a player with ten straight years of 200 hits per season. The MLBHOF is becoming a home for the very good as the current way of induction. All writers are not MLB fans it would seem. Beltan is a cheater along with Bregman and the human gnome. But the writers will forgive him as they have others, and the HoF is really the loser with the other cheats of the game.
He’s “okay” until he reaches arbitration. Having low power at the corners means someone else has to overperform.
We don’t have that “someone” on the team today.
K-Rod is a reliever who has a domestic violence charge, so he probably won’t get in.
Yep. We could have had Paul Skenes…. oh wait, no we couldn’t. Wyatt Langford! Nope. But we could have had Kyle Teel. He’s a sexy prospect with an .848 OPS mostly at AA or below. Or monster prospect Matt Shaw with his .906 OPS in MiLB. Chase Davis, Enrique Bradfield. All of those guys are better than sad old Nolan and his shitty .992 OPS in the minors before he got in 700 ABs of .710 OPS at the MLB level. Sure, that .992 OPS would probably have dropped some if he’d had more ABs in the minors, but our FO decided to hide him in the majors where he wouldn’t have to face those challenging AA pitching prospects.
We had the 11th pick. THE !!TH PICK! How could we have squandered it on a guy who just comes up to the majors and holds his own in his first pro season instead of a guy who hasn’t even done that yet and wasn’t drafted by an FO of a team owned by Arte? So stupid.
I think as fans we often think that 1st round picks are more likely to be sure things than they are. I don’t know if Schanuel will ever be great, but he held his own in the majors as a 22 year old and that’s something. I encourage everyone to check out the draft pages at baseball reference. Here are a few factoids:
of the 153 players taken in the 1st round since 2021, Schanuel ranks 10th in career WAR (Neto is first, but only slightly ahead of Skenes who will likely pass him). Of the 60 players in the history of the draft taken with the 11th overall pick, Schanuel ranks 28th in career WAR. That means that after 1 full season, he has accomplished more than half of his predecessors did in their entire careers for the prior 58 years.
Yeah, first round MLB and first round NFL are different universes.
Remember Mark Appel? First overall pick out of Stanford a decade or so ago. Guaranteed future ace. Took 7 years to crack the bigs then threw 10 innings.
The Angels really screwed up many first round picks taking athletes over ball players then skimping on development. But even the “good” drafting teams miss on first rounders.
Teams miss on the first rounders all the time. The really good drafting teams do very well in rounds 2-6. That is one of the major reasons I don’t want Alonso. That 2nd round pick actually means something.
Yes what it means is the Angels have less than a 10% probability that they will select a player with that 47th pick that after 3 to 4 years in the minors will have an MLB career that will produce more than 5 total WAR. And they have about a 70% probability that that player will produce no positive WAR whatsoever.
Moniak says hold my beer….
Jamie Arnold struck out five and generated nine whiffs in three innings to begin his preseason…….looks like he can pitch
https://x.com/brettpn/status/1882917450272137622
If this is really happening, I wouldn’t be stricken if the Halos made a play… without decimating the farm. What would it take? Shanny + Moore/Dana + ???
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/could-padres-pull-off-blockbuster-113518487.html
But not as a rental… would need to have a deal in place.
My hope is Jr. hits the open market after the season and we sign him without having to clear out our finally not horrendously awful farm.
That would be preferable.
If Vladdy can make a stop at Jenny Craig first.
That worked so well for Prince Fielder
Prince and his dad Cecil Fielder certainly have the father-son weight record easily covered.
A stop? You mean a 3 year contract with an opt out after 2 with Jenny Craig?
But But But we would lose a 2nd round draft pick and considering how awful this team will be this year it will probably be slotted even higher than 47th.
Oh the horror
I don’t want Prince Fielder Jr at all. Can’t wait to watch what Vlad Jr becomes once he gets a couple years older and all the incentive to work on his fielding instead of eating KFC has been removed…. all for the low low price of 45M a year.
Nostalgia in sports hits like crack in the 80s.
Gimme Trouty and Vladdy
All the good food spots in the OC would doom Vladdy Jr.
Vlad Jr has been very useful to the future of the organization because Perry has been telling Arte “Hey it’s better to get Vlad Jr than Alonso” and Arte is taking the bait and putting his pen and checkbook back in his pocket.
I don’t think we sign Alonso because Arte would instead spend his crazy money on Vlad Jr.
And by then, the take over of Canada will be complete. Arte will convert Vlad Jr.’s Tim Horton gift cards into Starbuck gift cards, and free food at Del Taco for the life of his contract.
People. I know Vlad Guerrero was a good player on our team. I know there are some foolish fellows that think that, in spite of him listing a bunch of criteria for his Intl signing that our team did not meet, we just inches away from signing the Vladdy Jr who was desperate to be an Angel and they just can’t let go of that fantasy. I know Vlad Jr is currently pretty good.
But He’s also kind of a head case. He has always chased the most money possible. He is fat, always has been, and isn’t likely to slim down with age. He isn’t good at defense, and yall always complain about defense, amiright? We already have a fat DH of the future. Why, on a website that seems almost dedicated to bitching bad/huge free agent signings, are we getting all juiced up to sign Vlad Jr to a huge deal?
Because zOMG his dad wears an Angel cap in the HOF!!!!
So maybe you should root for an Alonso signing to block Vladdy Jr. ha ha.
From a dual player/marketing angle I can get the signing. But, yes, if he’s been watching his weight until he gets a huge contract then the signing team will be screwed once he gets seriously paid.
I’m the scuzz that’s a little annoyed we didn’t sign Jon Burdi
Unless you think there’s another FA out there in ’26-’27 (or beyond I guess) that we WON’T get if we sign Alonso, what’s the argument for not bringing him aboard? The Angels are not a universalist Christian sect. Their suffering and your suffering will not hasten a World Series Second Coming. There is no salvation is losing. They’re improving their player development, and putting a competitive team on the field in the interim does not impede that effort or their future prospects. Sometimes the universe wipes out your village with a tsunami… or an Anthony Rendon. Stop sacrificing virgins. The universe doesn’t care.
If we didn’t have Nolan Schanuel, I’d be more open.
Would spending time in AAA to learn a new position as well as getting regular reps with the bat be detrimental to Schanuel’s development?
Considering he put up 1.4 WAR in 147 games in his 1st full season as a 22 year old, yes it would be detrimental.
That was, apparently, an unsurvivable abomination of a season he had last year and getting him off the field and lost in SLC for two years is key to the team’s WS chances this year.
No, Schanuel had a fine rookie season, but should he be moved to another position it might make more sense to learn how to field it at SLC rather than at Anaheim.
Well, yeah… you would need to trade him or Ward to make it work. (And presumably get young talent back in the bargain… win/win strictly from talent perspective… the only loser would be Arte’s pocketbook and why should any of us give a shit?)
Alonso wiping away the 46th overall pick in the draft, the allotment money that goes with that pick, and another $1 million in international bonus money does impede the effort to add and develop young talent.
If there was no QO attached and it was just spending Arte’s money, I wouldn’t care.
Getting Alonso at $100M/4 isn’t the worst thing that could happen, but I think the team could use that money better. Say offer that to sign Flaherty and then pick up a Grichuk level outfielder to replace Ward when he’s traded.
Let’s go! Continue to sign NO ONE! You can do it you beautiful platypus you! Yes. Trade Ward to the Phillies. Trade Anderson and Rengifo too. I want to be top of the list on every mid-Feb list of bullshit scroll bait “teams with questions” journical on the internet. We can do it boys!
Sure, we may pick up another pen arm or something. Maybe a run fast no bat CF type, though that’s basically Moniak. But lets make this roster as close to a bowl of oatmeal microwaved with water and nothing else as we can get it. Just a pile of Suarez and Soler. Guys we can replace or trade without caring after the minor league season is a couple months old. It would be dope if we could trade Soler, a couple pen arms we pick up in Jan and one of our many meh infielders for some more teens range prospects this July. This dream is achievable guys. Let’s unburden from the past and yes we can the shit out of this. Our journey begins now!
Excellent use of the term “Journical”, Gitcho! Well done!
I am shocked, SHOCKED! Well, not that shocked.
Boras negotiations strategy is so obvious. Angels are likely playing the stooge again.
Best move of the offseason would be NOT signing Alonso.
Reportedly, Ward is expected to be traded any moment now. Of course, this is probably the 21st time this was expected, but, it is the Phillies mentioned as his destination this time. IMHO, had we signed Santander, Ward would’ve been trade fodder fo’ sho’.
Ward only gets traded if Arte does his Arte thing and signs the Polar Bear
Truedat, some stories state that Schanuel can/will play LF in that scenario.
Schanuel in left field ? 😫 That is a really bad idea.
is it ? Have you ever seen Ward play there?
More feasible than what I’ve been reading online with people thinking we try Schanuel at 2nd 😂😂😂.
Seriously tho — avoid Polar Pete and let Nolan grow as our franchise 1st baseman.
Yeah, he looks too slow for any of position.
Brian Downing wasn’t speedy either, but I think he wound up playing more LF than Catcher for the team. If Schanuel’s bat develops, the team can handle needing a late inning defensive replacement.
Downing Set an AL Record for consecutive games without an error. Probably still stands:
Downing made a remarkable catch in that game we should have won in the 1986 ALCS. We were down by a run in that last inning and the Sux had runners on. If Downing hadn’t caught the ball we’d have been down by 3. Even though we didn’t win the game he gave us a chance.
It might be too soon to mention that game. 🙂
Yeah, but Downing could take hard contact better than most NFL QBs….. 😉
LOL, I wouldn’t play him there, it has been mentioned by “Baseball experts.”
“Who?”
“Top… Men…”
As Nolan gets crated up and stashed away in the minors, never to be seen again.
Well, in that case let’s send Schanny down and turn him into a back up catcher .
Everyone loves left handed hitting catchers
If Ward gets traded to the Phillies, what’s a realistic return.? Justin Crawford is a highly rated CF with speed, no power and good though not outstanding defense, but he might be too highly rated for Ward.
The proposer had meh return in his opinion, other than some MIF prospect.
Yeah. We aren’t getting Crawford for Ward.
FWIW, the sim has Ward’s value at 20.1 and Crawford’s at 14.7.
16 Days!!