It is going to be a slow week for baseball articles that are not a bunch of “Rah Rah!” stuff about the Dodgers and Yankees. We will do our best.
This is another article about Angels prospects by Rhett Bollinger. I think we heard about Moore and Klassen last week but the part about Matthew Lugo might be new stuff.
Here are the top 40 free agents that the Angels probably cannot afford this off season.
Cubs infielder Nico Hoerner had flexor tendon surgery.
Jon Jay will join the coaching staff of the St. Louis Cardinals while Al LeBoeuf will become the lead hitting coach for the Brewers. The Blue Jays hired David Popkins as their hitting coach.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
I think Fernando Valenzuela’s passing is Angels news. Here’s a good news story about his time with the Angels (I think originally LA Times): https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/aug/08/angels-gave-fernando-a-2nd-chance/
Fernando Valenzuela passed away at age 63.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/fernando-valenzuela-passes-away.html
Three Halo prospect in Solar Sox lineup tonight.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/solar-sox-vs-saguaros/2024/10/22/787558/preview
Why will I pull for the Dodgers?
Yankee fan: “27 World Championships . Jeter.”
Yeah but, they are fun to hate, George started the Big Spending, their fans are obnoxious, and they charge a ton for tix and the new stadium sucks. That’s all I have.
You’ve been?
The OF next year is likely Ward, Trout, and Adell, Assuming Ward is not traded, and he’s better, cheaper, and younger than most of the OFs on the market sans Soto. If Trout DHs, Adams can play CF. Lugo or Mickey can play left if Ward is traded.
In the IF, Moore likely plays 2B and Rengifo plays 3B if he’s not traded. If he’s traded, maybe Fontenelle plays 3B. Next year should be a repeat of last year with possibly improved pitching, a healthy Trout?, and the addition of Adams, Moore, Fontenelle, Lugo, and possibly others. Signing FAs potentially blocks younger players from playing.
After next year I would do a hard evaluation of what we have and what we need.
The hope is next year there are more breakouts than just Neto, Soriano, Joyce, and Kochanowicz.
Early win total prediction for 2025…….we have a 7 in the front. 75-87.
That’s better than a 6.
The other thing is that hanging on to Anderson, Ward, and Rengifo just delays the rebuild. Let’s get some younger players in return and keep adding depth.
Anderson & Ward I agree on-Neeeefo, I don’t, you need to keep him long term if he continues to hold to his 2024 pre-injury form.
Problem is Rengifo is a UFA in 2026 and he has to want to stay here so unless you extend him now I think he walks so you have to think about trading him. He also the most trade value imo. I think we overstate Anderson’s trade worth and I think Ward is decent enough for his cost and an over 30 corner outfielder also isnt bringing the best return.
💯 % 🔛
Just my hunch, but I think Adams, Lugo, Kavadas, Klassen, Fontenelle, Moore, Bachman, Aldegari and Dana are all guys they plan to take looks at next year pretty early on. Long looks in Spring too. Some pen arms too….
I thing the off season is the time to trade Ward, but Arte wants to compete and likely won’t let that happen.
For service clock purposes, letting Rengifo start the year at second and give Moore some development time in AA/AAA makes a ton of sense. I think Rengifo should be one of the first pieces traded next year.
I’ll have a few pieces coming up on potential value buys to fill in some holes in free agency. The type of guys who won’t cost a ton, could be useful, and could become trade chips or maybe help the team surprise some folks.
“Arte wants to compete”
Translation
“Arte wants you to think he wants to compete.”
😄
Answer to how many years did the Rams play in Anaheim, 15, 1980 thru 1994 when the evil Madame Ram sold out for the $$$$$ and they moved to ST. Louis.
georgia.wav – Willie Nelson singing: “Georgia…” Hillary Clinton’ed her husband?
Ruined the stadium and made me have to watch terrible football as well. Jerry Rice and the 49ers seemed to love playing there though from how much they took apart the Rams on the field.
https://theonion.com/hades-inferno-stadium-once-again-ranked-toughest-arena-to-play-in/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGE6XBleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfGcNotALF8WX5J4FlVEtV1aIT-QnociHOtm6lmDtmJ1oTd-pRvuX1zYYg_aem_hMwEOgT3xHFex_TPSyQp9A
Yeah, that ridiculous press box was an abomination. One of the things I really loved was waiting for first pitch in the early part of the season. You could see the snow on the San Gabriels glow pink at sundown. Then they moved the Big A and ruined the view.
Drumheller mentioned yesterday that Arte wasted Trout’s incredible career, and honestly, I don’t have much to add to that. Gitch also brought up the lesser-of-two-evils debate for this World Series, and I get it. Still, at the heart of it all, I just love baseball.
I’m usually a pretty black-and-white, analytical kind of guy who searches for the truth. When I tried to find a reason to root for the Dodgers over the MFY, I thought about Ohtani and how much I enjoyed watching a true unicorn in action. I even went to an Angel game just to see him pitch before he left. Then there’s Betts and Freeman, who both seem like good guys I wouldn’t mind having over for dinner. Plus, the Dodgers are from SoCal, and the Yankees? Well, they’re from the wrong coast.
While I love the analytical side of the game, there’s something magical about how my heart finds a team, just like it did with the 2001 Angels. For this series, my heart’s with the Dodgers, but only for this series. Because, honestly, it’s as right to hate the Yankees as it is to hate Hitler, murderers, and pineapple on pizza.
By the way, Kochanowics… I’m still stuck on which C is silent. I’d guess the last one, but if I’m going to root for him, I’d rather not embarrass myself, like the time I flew to Austria instead of Australia. Big thanks to Joiner for that great analysis. I can’t wait to read more. Is anyone else tired of hearing we’ve got yet another “solid middle-to-back-end starter”?
Agree with all posted but for the 🍍 remark, CB and pineapple is killer 😄
You’re welcome.
Considering the sheer volume of horrid pitchers we’ve seen lately, building a pipeline of at least serviceable guys is actually a big improvement. I’m tired of seeing waiver claims and overpaid has beens taking the hill.
The Rams have always been known as the Los Angeles Rams while playing in the Southland. I always favored the Angels being the Anaheim Angels, but some still favor the California Angels. I think if I owned the Clippers, I would have moved them to Anaheim just to get a new identity and fan base.
I could see moving the Clippers to OC. It would differentiate them a bit more from the Lakers and provide for a little more rivalry. Or better yet, trade Lebron to them and move the Lakers to the OC?
Good heavens, Lakers to the OC, no way, why punish the OC? 😆
I said that they need to trade LeBron First. Lol
Not after Balmer paid 2B for his own arena in Inglewood.
Agree on favoring California Angels for old time sake. Also agree Clippers should have moved. Thats always been my beef with them that they had no unique geographical identity to them and are trying to co-exist with one of the two marquee NBA franchises. Even leaving Crypto they are playing next door to the arena where the Lakers had so many great moments.
Buffalo-San Diego-Los Angeles, they’re still paying Bekins off. 😃
Rams played home games at what we now refer to as the Big A, for how many seasons did the Rams play in Anaheim? 14 – 15 – 16 -17 years?
The Doyers last won a WS back in 1988. Who was the President of the US back then?
George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or Taft?
Davey Crockett you fool, 😂
Watched the NFL at the Big A as a Yute….. Was able to see, Eric Dickerson, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Lawrence Taylor, and many more. Not to mention all the great MLB’ers/HOF’ers over 45 years going to the Big A. Grew up going to the Forum watching the great 1980’s Lakers teams and the Shaq and Kobe dynasty, and watching Wayne Gretzky skate as a LA King at the Forum….. spent 1000’s of hours listening on TV and Radio to Chic Hearn, Bob Miller, and Vince Scully…..great Memories. How F’ing lucking were those of us living in SoCal during that time.
Getting old, romanticizing about the distant past. Now get off my lawn.
i saw no other events at Angel stadium since 1968 than Angels baseball, the highs and lows.
George Burns.
Just curious, for all who discount 2020 as not a real season, does 1981 fall into that same category since the average number of games played per team was 107? I’d really like to know where you place the cutoff between real and masquerade.
Almost twice the games played, fans in the stands, several other reasons…. You would need to do a forensic analysis to find the taint on that WS, IMO. But now that you mention it, I have no problem in putting a checkmark next to that one too, just so we’re consistent.
True or False, for 6 years the Clippers played games at the Honda Center?
True. At the time, they considered moving there.
1994 thru 1999 the Clippers played at the Honda Center, good job my friend.
The Clippers played about 6-10 home games per year during that time at the Pond (the stadium that became the Honda Center). They still played most of their home games at the Sports Arena.
It is promising to see positive opinions on the Angels minor leagues starting to show up, and while we know we are still low on the totem pole in the rankings of the best minor league systems, we can see some sun at the end of the tunnel. It takes a while in terms of time, but collecting “Yuts” is the best way to get back to the top. Next June’s draft will be exciting, and I can’t wait to see what happens. 😃
I’m really excited about having Christian Moore winning the 2B job next spring. I know people are disappointed with the pick when it happened, but honestly, if his ceiling is HK47, that’s a huge win for the Angels. The 2B has been a carousel since HK departed, and the ghost of Brandon Drury and some occassional good games from Rengifo is not the long-term solution. Besides, Rengifo might be more useful at 3B anyway.
I haven’t really thought about the 2nd base position never solidifying in so long, but I think you’re right. Then again, we could say that about nearly every position aside from center field and DH over most of the last ten years. Another sign of how Arte has ignored the farm system in pursuit of nice billboards.
I guess David Fletcher was supposed to be the answer but he never panned out.
But before then, it was Espinoza, Giovotella, Featherston, etc. Truly horrible
I’ll be more excited if the front office realizes our contention window is years away and has Moore play a month or so of AA or AAA ball.
Absolutely zero reason to burn a year of control in what will be another year of losing.
Yup. I’d honestly rather risk a slow start and our chances at winning the division and play some total tomato can like Stephanic at 2B for six weeks than rush Moore.
Nothing much going on lately baseball-wise, or at least anything that I want to follow, so I followed the WNBA finals since I started watching this season, being curious about CC.
At the end of Game 5, the Liberty owner hoisted the trophy and said this:
Good owners really make a huge difference in the team’s fortune. 4 years ago, the Liberty were a junk franchise playing in a YMCA gym and winning only 2 games in their season (while losing 20). Now they’re at the top of the world, and has the infrastructure to be able to continue doing so.
Ballmer has gone all out for the Clips; they have a nice new arena now too and I’m guessing they will be the next team from LA to host the Larry O Brien trophy.
I like Ballmer’s enthusiasm and aggressiveness, but his attachment to Kawhi Leonard and his contract really calls question his deeper decision making.
Plus he has a huge obstacle to overcome, they are the Clippers. Clippers gonna Clipper is in the sports vernacular for a reason. It’s the truth. It’s a fact.
And I won’t disagree with the Clippers will probably be the next LA team to hoist and NBA trophy, but I’m not putting money on it being anytime soon… And the primary reason is because the Lakers organization is so poorly run.
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo Doyers!
Hey, if the Tsais are ready to resurrect another moribund franchise way west of NY and tap into the arguably 2nd biggest market, I’m all for it.
the league lost 40 million dollars this year and are near a lockout.
Also helps to have the #1 pick and get a multi champion and MVP to join your team
The MVPs that joined in 2023 were the result of the owners investing in the team, and showing to the players, “hey, we’re investing in this team, look at the improvements we’ve made and therefore this is why it’s a good team to join.” The good players they added didn’t just join in a vaccuum.
The year they had the #1 pick (2020), she only played for 10 quarters in the entire season, succumbed to a season-ending injury, and the team eventually went 2-20.
sorry, but turning around a team that’s in a league that has roughly 100 players vs. turning around a team that has roughly 1000 players isn’t really a comparison.
I guess I don’t see how what the Tsais did can’t be applied on a larger-scale, considering they also own the Brooklyn Nets. And considering all the endless complains on here seem eerily familiar.
And when you show that as owners, you care about the team by investing in it, wouldn’t that attract good players to want to play for the team? I’m still awestruck by what Turks said that we haven’t signed a significant top-tier FA pitcher since who knows how long. And how the Angels went from being able to sign Torri, Pujols, Wilson, etc., to being the laughingstock of the league that can’t even get JD Martinez.
But I guess we can stop complaining about our predicament, since there is no difference in having Arte vs. someone else.
It’s almost as if having the same owner of a team of the superior league helps with all of those things….. Kind of like owning the Nets and letting the WNBA team use the same facilities and resources.
What an absolute shocker.
It’s not like he’s shelling out tons of $$ on salaries to bring people over. Using the WNBA as an example for the MLB just makes 0 sense.
Shhhhhhhhhhh, don’t talk about the $40 million in losses. The NBA picks up the tab, it’s all good.
I like the Bollinger article and expect Moore to be the 2nd baseman of the future. An infield including Neto and Moore could be fun.
This draft may be the most important in a decade-plus for the Halos. Top picks guaranteed in all rounds after the first and potentially the toppest pick in the first round. Perry has to hit on this draft – any potential for short term success depends on it.
I doubt Arte will spend much but a top starting pitcher FA would go a long way.
Top FA’s way better then last year. I guess save the 100’s of comments/suggestions of who we could/may get until the season is officially over.
Never too early to start getting your IIWPM article up and running. I’m serious if anyone is up for splitting a package on baseball trade values. I think it would be cool if we had a CtPG account for all.
Solar Sox play today at 6:30 PST.
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/solar-sox-vs-saguaros/2024/10/22/787558/preview
Saguaros? Must be a team of pricks!
Nice article on the prospects. Thanks.