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Skaggs Trial is now in the hands of the jury. After years of this stuff, this should settle it all finally. Skaggs family vs Arte Moreno, Jury will now decide things, uh, ask Charles, he is the lawyer here.
Oh yeah, and the Angels signed 2 bullpen guys to 1 year deals. Drew Pomeranz and Jordan Romero will be in the bullpen as we all wait for what else will happen.
Around Baseball
How valuable are sports teams? Yes. As for MLB, they are mostly grouped together, besides the MFY and Dodgers of course, and Cubs and Red Sox up there as well.
Twins are partly for sale. Only PARTLY. Family still wants to keep them. Twins fans in shambles.
SP Adrian Houser is off the board. To the Giants on 2/22M.
Ha-Seong Kim is now a Brave. 1/20M. No, the OTHER one.
Reliver Chris Martin remains with Texas on a 1 year deal. Dude is 39 and yet still in it.
What do managers REALLY think? Well, ESPN has a survey and they go off. Brewers manager seems most fun.
The MLB executive who made MLB Replay a thing as well as push forth the pitch clock has left. From 2008-2025 he was a part of the league office, and now, he is gone. No comment at this time.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
From Sammy at TA last night – sounds like Arte’s Angels will lose this thing.
At the very end of the day Wednesday, the jury asked a written question of the Court. “Do we as the jury get to decide the punitive damages amount? There is no field for it?”
OTOH, he also says the jury isn’t close to a verdict and it’ll likely go into next week. And if a verdict isn’t reached, a mistrial, which sounds like an Angel win, though it can go back to court again too.
idk why people keep using “win” and “lose.”
It’s a civil case. There’s not really winning and losing. The Angels are fully prepared to pay something. Does that constitute “losing”?
Its a loss if a settlement was on the table at some point and damages + lawyer fees exceed that by a lot.
Angels have multiple insurance policies that will be paying up. Their ability to get insurance or how high the premiums will be are really the only things in question after all this.
Insurance can’t cover punitive damages, so any punitives are out-of-Arte’s pocket.
Insurance companies can pay punitive damages (malice, fraud, etc) although none of those apply here.
So IF there are punitive damages (jury finds Tyler’s iPad was damaged… by his own accord imo since the pill didn’t come crushed, right) the yes the Angels will pay that out.
it’s hard to settle when the family was asking $750 million
The Lawyers always seem to Win.
The Verdict Form would have a simple question- Yes or no, did Defendant act with malice, fraud, or oppresion?
If yes, there would be a phase 2 of the trial for Plaintiff to put on evidence about how much money Defendant has before the Jury gets to pick a number.
This thing could go on for a while.
That’s really cool to know.
My money would be on oppression. (Despicable conduct in conscious disregard of Tyler’s rights)
I feel oppressed. Who can I sue?
Did not know that was the legal definition of oppression. Learning new things every minute here.
The angle is that Tyler’s ipad was damaged due to chopping up and snorting pills with Kay then being seized and examined by the feds. I can’t see any real malice or fraud there.
I can see that being considered despicable conduct. Are they saying Tyler had the right to expect oxy when he ordered oxy? Or that Tyler had a right to keep his property and have it function?
This whole thing could open a can of worms that will go beyond MLB. A friend of mine, his son, played for a prominent SEC school. He was pressured into taking Adderall. He declined and was outcast in a bullying way. He was the only pitcher not on it. He didn’t know about the position players – but knew a lot of them were on it too. The coach wanted him to go see “the Doctor” who is totally in the tank. I’ve heard stories of MLB teams actually getting guys off of it that come from college, so that’s a good thing. But these schools can hide behind HIPAA – as I don’t think they have to disclose.
Who chopped up the pill and made the iPad damaged? Tyler? So he damaged his own property after employment hours not doing work related things. I can see why they ran out of jurors on this thing. I can’t see why punitive damages would be awarded here. We know Kay provided the pill. Had Tyler taken it orally, he’d have much much greater chance on being alive.
I might be wrong, but I don’t think the ipad was damaged by Tyler doing drugs off it, but rather since it was part of the investigation into his death the police took it and have kept it. So the Skaggs family is using the loss of it as “property damages” so they can get punitive damages from the jury since those can only be awarded in conjunction with damaged property.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/angels-sign-angel-perdomo-huascar-ynoa.html#comments
More “stuff” to throw on the wall and see what sticks
And that’s just the stuff being reported on MLBTR.
Recent transaction log, MiLB free agents:
Gonzalez is probably the most interesting – 24, starter, respectable command and K rates. Probably a AAA placement.
I don’t see the point in Dunham. I can see how Walton might “break out” in his 30s and be a bench piece if the gods smile. But yeah, Gonzalez…. I like that WHIP plenty. Could maybe fill a back end spot with some meh innings that don’t piss us all off.
Perry must have watched the movie Major League recently with his collection of cast offs and old guys. Next move will be to sign a closer from the California Penal League.
Well then I guess there’s only one thing left to do. Win the whole f’n thing.
I always thought skaggs had a substance abuse issue. Whether it be alcohol or prescription drugs, in my 30 years of watching baseball I’ve never seen a pitcher sweat so much on cool nights, early in games, etc.
Per MLB TradeRumors: The Guardians parted ways with Jhonkensy Noel yesterday, designating the outfielder for assignment
Is this Taylor Ward 2.0 and look to replace the power with a cheap alternative here?
there’s enough “taking a shot” guys on the roster already.
Well,now there is more!
That’s the best part. There is ALWAYS more!
link doesnt work. Guessing it’s Perdomo and Ynao.
There’s a difference between those guys and a guy like Noel.
Perdomo an Ynao don’t require a roster spot. Sign everyone to a minor league deal, idc
Noel would require a roster spot. We have enough “taking a shot” guys taking roster spots already.
The internet is partially jacked up for the second day in a row.
Noel makes sense for a ST invite. If he shows up looking ripped and crushes baseballs, lucky us. But he can be cut. Dude has power.
Correct link: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/angels-sign-angel-perdomo-huascar-ynoa.html
Our roster should be ALL guys getting a shot. Our farm should be full of prospects we picked up in trades when we got rid of everything another team would take. Mike Trout should be marooned on an island with a bunch of confused looking 24 year olds and a couple bemused 32 year olds…. and his 35M a year. Rebirth, not retool.
We are adding a ton of “fringe” guys with high upside. Something has to work for once right?
I do wonder if Maddux will be able to “fix” any of this pitching.
It’s like refining a mountain of tailings to get an once of gold. So probably not, and if so, it’ll be one guy, maybe two. But there’s value in trying since we are not reloaded enough to play meaningful late season games.
I agree. If we find one piece of the puzzle for the future then this is worth it.
I still feel like the floor has been increased again, but to reach the ceiling on this team we will need 40 ft scaffolding.
My dad literally owns a wooden grove ladder from the 1920s with rusty ass metal parts. It looks like wood from a shipwreck and it’s wobbly as hell.
People talking about this roster reaching any kind of ceiling reminds me of when I see him get that thing out totally intending to climb up it.
We gotta just accept we suck, that we will continue to suck, that we need to slowly climb higher, and that will involve stacking up lots of things that won’t work. Get a little higher, then a little more. But it’s gonna involve a lot of innings and at bats going to filler and flyers that don’t work out.
I don’t think “real halo fan” has that in him. He’s basically a Yankee fan but far less cool. And sense the Angels never have been nor will be the Yankees, more miserable.
Draft some position players.
Develop some kids.
Have a higher OBP.
Have a lower WHIP.
That’s all I want this year. Even if we still finish last.
Amen
Oddly this is what “real halo fan” should want. That is if he/she has a grip on reality.
Option 1: rinse and repeat with patchwork veterans and lose 90ish games.
Option 2: let some young guys see if they can hack it and lose 90ish games. Some will, some won’t, but the ones who do can stick around and help out in the future so you can stop losing 90ish games.
However, most fans just want to win and take the family to a couple games a year that are fun.
It’s 7:48 am…….. Do you know where your Thursday Links are?
Giants cut loose Joey Weimer and I’d snag him if I was Perry. Kid put up 0.4 WAR in only 27 games last year. His bat is sub par but still leaps better than Teodosio, who we could stash in AAA for depth.
Weimer would be the 4th outfielder, not a starter. But when you have roster space and the kid costs minimum wage why not take the minor improvement?
It a bad idea.
Tyler Wade v2.0
Wiemer was once a top prospect. I think he’s worth a flyer. We’ve got no depth at a fielding type OF right now.
We are rebranding into becoming The Los Angeles Flyers
Isn’t there already an OC Flyers?
Odd comparison. He’s not like Wade in any fashion
Yeah, my mistake. I was thinking of Joey Wendle.
As far as the “improve our bench/make SLC great again plan he’d be a good pick up. I liked him as a prospect, he just hasn’t sussed out in the MLB. But he’s the type of flyer I’d take. He’ll at least be a depth piece, and if he suddenly puts it all together he’ll be pretty good.
Anyone opined on this yet? MLB mocks toolsy Texas OF Sawyer Strosnider (say that fast three times) to us at No. 12 in the 2026 draft. https://www.mlb.com/angels/news/first-full-2026-mlb-mock-draft?t=mlb-draft-coverage
I’d take him. There are plenty of position players I’d be into at 12.
His walk up music;
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=auLBLk4ibAk&list=RDauLBLk4ibAk&start_radio=1&pp=ygUPdG9tIHNhd3llciBydXNooAcB
I linked this on Friday and not a single comment.
A polished college player at a position of need is a good bet for the Angels and Sawyer looks solid from what little I know.
I saw the mlb dot com thing the other day. One thing we’ve learned is that Perry has a very unique way of looking at draft targets. Even if Strosnider is available when we pick Perry’s attention will be elsewhere
I think he looks like a better prospect than the pitcher Minasian picked at 2 this year. Hopefully we will have someone new making next year’s pick.
I think we’re all in the mood for a bat…
When I looked at Moch12s, I saw a couple of college OFs and he was one of them.
We talk a lot about predictions and over/unders around here. So how about another one:
Over/Under on amount jury will award including punitive damages. I’ll set it at $50m.
If you think there will be a defense verdict you obviously vote “under”.
It’s California. Arte has never made it a secret which way he leans politically. I’m expecting a message to be delivered by the jury.
Over – in the 9 digits.
But this is the OC. That’s solid red.
It all hinges on whether or not the Skaggs side can get punitive damages and I think that part of their case is a huge reach.
So I’m going under but not by a ton.
This is a great question, by the way.
Thanks. I’m taking the over. I’m guessing a verdict on n the $150m range.
This is the land of billion dollar pain and suffering awards…. juries love to stick it to the man and hate to think. As in do they really think THE MAN isn’t passing that cost on?
way under
I’m with you, 2
Skaggs’s family thinks Tyler would have been able to cash in on a fat contract deal given his pitching prowess. But what is now apparent, Tyler, before his Angel days, was more into getting high than his profession. Nothing more than a 4-5 starter, at best. As much as a dislike Angel ownership, I’m hopeful Rusty Hardin shoots a blank.
I think the under. There is too much on the plaintif side to cause the % of blame on the Angels to make the payment that big. So my guess is the Angels are 25% at fault and they settle on $25 million.
I haven’t watched the trial in detail. The verdict should come down to how good a job the Angels’ attorneys did. Skaggs was a pitcher who apparently was known for being a partier, had prior injury problems, basically washed out with the DBacks, came back to Anaheim, pitched decently here, and then the sad ending happened. As a framework, it is utterly unknown if Skaggs would have been effective as a pitcher even a year or two afterward. The injuries, any substance abuse, etc. militate against it. Not to mention any potential MLB suspensions due to his conduct.
As to punitive damages, there would need to be a heightened finding by clear and convincing evidence of willful, malicious type conduct. Juries can do anything, but it’s hard to see that standard being met. Also, Skaggs’ conduct factors in as to the percentage of fault. He should likely bear a fair percentage of fault.
The under makes more sense logically for any verdict. Of course, juries aren’t always logical and by sitting in the courtroom you could get a better sense of everything. We can only guess.
Agree. This is just fun guessing
I could see this going one of two ways. One would be a 50/50 split and go home for the holidays. You can haggle blame and what if’s forever. People want to go home, do the right thing, but go home will eventually rule.
The other way would be something like 80/20. To me the most damaging testimony was the Angel VP who said that MLB was contacted about Kay. If there was ever a “yeah we knew and didn’t follow through on what we knew” moment, that was it for me.
What is Perry cooking?
Perry Minasian on adding players with some risk: “We won 73 games, right? So we need upside and to be able to add what we’ve added so far, spending limited dollars, we have a lot of holes, and we need to fill those holes. And we still have opportunity to do a lot of things.”
https://x.com/i/status/2001349593259450491
I wonder if he’s still counting the 15 wins associated with Washington………
That darn quadruple bypass kept the Wash 15 WAR from hitting 💔
So the team would have lost 114 games in 2024 without Washington? 😂
Just Pineapple Poppycock…..😎
Jeez, I cannot win around here lol. Senator obviously trolled me so I played along.
Fwiw, I believe we would’ve won at least a few more games if Wash coached all 162. Montgomery was a downgrade.
I’m just having a bit of fun jousting with our resident optimist……
I mean you can say it and believe. I completely disagree. But we will never know.
We also have the wins that we were supposed to get by firing Soth, then Ausmus, plus adding Maddon that have been stockpiled so we can cash them in for an extra 20 or so wins when we are a 75 win team who wants a play off spot.
Those a real right? Halo’s Heaven was all about those wins….
Fuzzy math. Just give me better players. Problem solved. I’m a genius.
more Angel math:
73 games + “what we’ve added so far”
so far, it’s the same lineup minus Ward, Giffy, Moncada
Plus, they really think Trout will play an entire season in the field ! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Which is why “The Breeze maker” Soler is still on the roster.
Trout injured himself last season stepping on 1st base. Who cares if he DHs or plays the field at this point? I’ll always love Trout, but it’s over
I like Trout too. But now I like him as a DH. He can maybe make 20 starts in the field due to another players injury, but that should be it. Soler should never see the field.
THIS is why his new strategy is to avoid running to first. Walk? Sure. Trot? Fine. RUN? nope.
So, he will be doing the “Albert” to first?
Soler isn’t going anywhere we just have to pray his back is healed and he’s his normal self.
But assuming that best case scenario, that still leaves 3 guys who should only play RF and Trout should only be out there occasionally. One of Trout or Soler should DH.
This is just horrible roster construction on Perry’s part.
Which is why I unloaded one dimensional Soler in my IIWPM piece. Eat the money.
And why I keep saying to trade Adell. At this point the Trout/Soler grave has been dug and Adell is 2 years from free agency. 1 if there’s a lockout.
But you did inspire me. The A’s want to unload Severino who pitched pretty well outside of Sacramento. Him and Soler have a similar grades on the sim.
I would do it. Essentially adds $4 million to this year’s payroll to solidify the rotation while adding $17 million next year if there is one.
Why in the world would the A’s want Soler?
Nobody really wants Soler but this would save them $21 million and rid them of a disgruntled player.
They’d probably laugh at us, but it was a fun little academic exercise.
At least Severino would be useful to this team.
That would be remarkable, but won’t happen. In addition to the value problem, between Kurtz, Rooker, and Butler, there’s nowhere to play Soler for them. It would create the same roster problem we have.
i assume that Adell will probably move to LF, but it could be Soler/Trout.
my problem with trading Adell is that he’s the only player we really have who should be a starting corner OF on a major league team. (Trout should be a DH at this point).
The most likely arrangement is Trout in LF, Rada in CF, and Adell in RF with Soler as the DH.
We’ve seen Adell in LF and it was brutal. So Trout will get to run around more and get hurt again.
Perry is delusional.
Perry is doing his jobtional. I’m still waiting for guys like you to point me in the direction of all the times POBOHERO came out and said “This team’s gonna fking blow. We have nine second baseman and six slow left fielders with no pitching and no money.”
POBOHERO? You’ve got me confused with someone else. All I’ve advocated for is competence in our baseball operations. After 5 years of Perry in the GM role, the results could not be considered anything other than a failure.
As for the statement on X – so Perry’s only choice is to make absurd statements that reflect him being out of touch with his roster?
Yes. Stupid statements like that are indeed his and every other FOs only option whether they are realistic or not. It’s part of his job. Unless you have been seeing other FO guys coming out and speaking the truth no matter what. I sure haven’t.
GM/POBO/VPOPP what ever title a guy has, if he works for a bad owner or org, he’s basically a bullet catcher for ownership. I know you’re not stupid. You know this. So why mince around with all the “oh. my. gawd. Perry is like, sooooo delusional!” bullshit?
Even if he were the genius that he isn’t he’d still have to make these stupid statements about a roster he knows isn’t very good.
Assuming this is an accurate recent quote it worries me that Perry doesn’t know how many we won in 2025.
The bullpen signings make sense because Loup and Tepera apparently aren’t available.
😆
The Mets clearly have a bigger fetish for former Yankees than Arte:
Luke Weaver heading across town, joining Juan Soto and Devin Williams.
Another overpay for a reliever
Those jurors have been on that trial for months and the holidays start next week. I’d think there would be a desire to get this thing wrapped up this week and get on with their lives.
Will be interesting to see what they decide. Obviously none of us know everything they know but I think we all have some idea how we’d lean.
$2.5 billion judgement for the plaintiffs, making Arte give the franchise to the Skaggs family. What could go wrong???
Unlike Arte, Skaggs mom has run a winning program and won a championship.
You might be onto something here, ha ha.
Lots of judges take off that week between Christmas and New Years Day.
Phillies sign Brad Keller to 2 years, $22 million. The relief market is mad expensive. I have no issues with Pomeranz or Romano at their price points.
2025 Pomeranz or three seasons 2022-2024 when he did not pitch in MLB due to injury?
He and Stephenson make a helluva tag team!
They can mentor Joyce.
after three years of watching what the NBA does with the NBA Cup (an in-season ‘tournament’), though I am old and completely embrace and hold fast the traditions of baseball, I’d be completely fine with MLB doing something similar at the end of May.
Seed the teams according to geography like West Coast teams play each other random series in late April/May that not only count in the standings, but also as tournament play. Regional winners (four) play for the MLB Cup, a tournament championship Memorial Day weekend in St. Louis.
Yes, I’d be OK with this – add some juice to the early season.
This year’s NBA Cup was fantastic! +1 on adding something similar to the MLB season. 162 can really drag — would be cool to add something new before the ASG
👎
How is signing two old guys that aren’t good for $6 million a better idea than bringing back Kenley or making other moves? I don’t get it.
Remember, the plot isn’t to win, it’s just to stay competitive enough to sell tickets while spending the least amount of money.
Then they need to fire the script writers because their last 12 pictures have been abysmal failures.
Neither Kenley Jansen for a year at twice the cost nor Drew Pomeranz is going to make this team competitive. And honestly, looking at last year’s stats, do you think there is much of a difference between these two players:
178 ERA+, 3.36 FIP, 1.067 WHIP, 3.80 SO/BB
165 ERA+, 3.98 FIP, 0.949 WHIP, 3.00 SO/BB
By the way, those numbers are Kenley Jansen’s best numbers since 202. It’s unlikely he’ll be as good this year as he was last year. Not to mention Jansen is the oldest of the 3 guys…
FYI – Jansen is the bottom line, better WHIP but overall worse than one-year younger Pomeranz last year.
There’s also very little pressure from fan-idiot and Gubi to pitch Drew Pomeranz. They can be flexible working in young arms at various spots if any young arms decide not to suck.
When Kenley pitched, you basically knew they were going to win and he came in during all types of hard situations including pitching multiple days in a row. Pomerantz is a spot lefty who might stink. It’s apples and oranges. It’s like losing a guy better than Rengifo and saying we brought in Kingery and Wade who were both wash outs here before. You had a clear MLB guy who could do the job and cashed him in for two question marks.
To help put this in perspective: The Angels have drafted 55 pitchers from the 2020 draft through the 2024 draft. And they are relegated to signing these two guys. Yeeeeesh.
Simply Angel math:
two 8-7 guys are always better than one 16-14 guy.
Concur.
I’m now firmly in the “burn it all down & start over” camp but, if you’re going to spend money, I’d prefer to have one proven player (Kikuchi) versus an assortment of hot garbage.
Off topic, but I’m seriously in mourning over Terence Crawford’s retirement.
He’s quite possibly my all time favorite. Saw him live 3 times including his destruction of Spence.
Need to find a new favorite guy now. Monster Inoue is probably that guy. Seen him live a couple of times and met his brother.
Crawford’s just the coolest dude too… and he’s going out on a huge win instead of milking it till it’s sad.
Yeah. Until last weekend there was a shot for him to fight for all 4 belts at middleweight at the end of the year. Then a unified champ tested positive for roids and the belts will get scattered around.
Selfishly I was hoping to be at his final fight to see him go out undisputed in one more weight class.
But he’s calling it a day at the right time.