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Enjoy some of the finest content on the internet from our talented writers at AngelsWin.com on our Blog here. From the Greatest Moments in Angels Baseball, our feature stories throughout the season & offseason, to our annual primer series by Robert Cunningham and to all of our player/prospect interviews, prospect hotlists and our annual top-30 prospects list. 

Entries in this blog

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Right Field

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Right Field

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer There are only two words you need to remember for 2020 in Right Field: Jo Adell. Certainly Brian Goodwin will factor into the playing time, perhaps even more than we anticipate, but the light will be shining on the Angels top prospect as he is nearly a lock to be called up early in the season, perhaps even cracking the Opening Day roster. As Jeff Fletcher recently noted, the Halos may not even be concerned about his service ti
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2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series: Seth Lugo

2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series: Seth Lugo

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer This series will attempt to identify other potential front-line starters that the Angels can possibly trade for and we will continue the series looking at the New York Mets, SP/RP Seth Lugo. Facts Contract Status - Seth has entered his first year of arbitration control, in 2020, and settled with the Mets for a yearly salary of $2M for next season. After that he will have the additional, standard two years of arbitration control fo
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Left Field

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Left Field

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer In 2020, Justin Upton will be entering his 14th professional season in Major League Baseball at the tender age of 32 years young. He is one of those guys, like Brett Anderson, that you feel like they have played forever and should be old men but they still have kick and life left in them as they progress through the seasons. Certainly, last year is one of those seasons that Justin would prefer to forget. In 2019, Upton ended a 10-y
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Bullpen

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Bullpen

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer NOTE: This article contains a detailed summary of each prospective bullpen candidate under the "Spoiler" bar. Some of you may just want to jump to the conclusion so the player contents are hidden from view. If you want to read that section, simply click on the bar and dive deeper into each of our reliever candidates, there are some interesting tidbits. In 2019, the Angels continued to develop a core group of relief options that produced
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: First Base

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: First Base

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer So if they call third base the "hot corner", should they call first base the "cold corner"? These are some of the random thoughts that pass through my head as the Primer Series progresses. However, the author suspects that Eppler would actually like to make sure that first base heats up in 2020 rather than reenact the cold spell that turned out to be a 27th placed ranking, in total WAR for the year, among all 30 Major League Baseball te
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Shortstop

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Shortstop

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer Excellence. This is the word that best describes Andrelton Simmons approach to baseball. It is best exhibited in his defensive glove-work which Simba is renowned for across MLB and, very likely, long after his career has come to an end. Although Simmons struggled a bit at the plate this year, he once again led all of baseball in defense based on FanGraphs 'Def' stat on a games played (Def/G) rate basis, in 2019, as seen below:
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Third Base

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Third Base

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer So as the author began to contemplate the intricacies of the 2019-2020 off-season, third base, on the surface, was a concern but not a priority as there appear to be multiple full-time and platoon scenarios on tap. However, upon further examination of the available options now, and in the near future, there is reason to think that Eppler should be placing greater emphasis on a more permanent, strategic solution at the hot corner this of
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Second Base

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Second Base

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer Once again the Primer Series discussion turns to Eppler's core belief in up-the-middle-defense, of which the keystone is a major component part. When you think about Eppler's statement prior to the 2019 season, regarding young players with upside stepping up, you have to believe that second base is a position that could potentially be filled internally for the 2020 season, not only for real production purposes but also to relieve potent
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Catcher

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Catcher

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer Out of all of the positions of need the Angels might punt on this off-season, catcher seems the most likely out of the group. This is not because the Angels would not like to place the best catcher they can find in the position but rather more a resource allocation issue, due to the higher payroll priority need in the rotation. Realistically, catchers are, at most, in a 70%/30% split, typically leaning more toward 60%/40%, nominall
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Rotation

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Rotation

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer For the Angels starting rotation, 2019 was not a kind year. Unfortunately, the Halos starters were last out of all 30 MLB teams in total Wins Above Replacement (WAR) with a measly 3.3 WAR. Other peripheral indicators support the poor performance. For reference, the Nationals led all of baseball with a total 21.4 WAR. So what do the Angels do to fix this situation? For reference, the table below shows a leader board of qualifie
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2020 AngelsWin.com Primer Series: Eppler's Strategy

2020 AngelsWin.com Primer Series: Eppler's Strategy

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer To classify this off-season as the most important one in Eppler's career, to-date, is not an understatement. Moreno has not yet publicly extended Billy's contract, which means 2020 is the last year under his current deal and he could be looking for a new position in the coming months if the off-season does not go as planned and/or the Angels get off to a terrible start in the upcoming season. On top of that Arte has expressed a cle
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2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Finances

2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Finances

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer As the Angels enter the 2019-2020 off-season, Billy Eppler is faced with the daunting task of taking Moreno's proposed increase in team payroll and creating a contending club out of the available resource pool. Currently, the Angels 40-man roster stands at 40 players as of November 28th, 2019. In order to begin the discussion about available finances, the author has examined the Angels 40-man roster and assuming the Angels retain the cu
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2020 AngelsWin.com Primer Series: Introduction

2020 AngelsWin.com Primer Series: Introduction

By Robert Cunningham, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer So I almost didn't write the series this year. A lot of things happened, one of which the company I worked for, Vector-Launch, unfortunately shut down in mid-August due to the loss of our primary financial backer, Sequoia. This was a real loss to me because that was the best damn job I ever had and likely will ever have the remainder of my career. It is rare that you find a position where you enjoy the work so much that you don't e
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Angelswin.com's Top 30 Angels Prospects for 2020

Angelswin.com's Top 30 Angels Prospects for 2020

Welcome to this year’s version of the AngelsWin Top 30 Prospects. As with last year, it is a group effort: the following is a composite list of several AngelsWin.com members and writers, with eight participants this year. The method is simple: the list is an average of eight lists. The benefit of taking such an approach is that not only do we tend to even each other’s biases out a bit, but we also get a range of approaches: from relying mostly on stats, reading other scouting reports, and eye-wi
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Mike Trout ties A.L. record with three MVP Awards

Mike Trout ties A.L. record with three MVP Awards

MIKE TROUT NAMED 2019 AMERICAN LEAGUE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER ANAHEIM – Angels outfielder Mike Trout today was named the 2019 American League Most Valuable Player in an announcement made by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). It marks the third career MVP award for Trout, who previously won the award in 2014 (unanimously) and 2016. Trout becomes the 11th player to win at least three BBWAA MVP awards and is the sixth to win three times in the American League, joining Yogi
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The 21 Best Position Players in the Game

The 21 Best Position Players in the Game

By Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Mike Trout By Jonathan Northrop, AngelsWin.com Columnist Watching Anthony Rendon in the World Series got me thinking about how he ranks among baseball’s superstars, and who the very best players in baseball are. Clearly the best is obvious, but what about everyone else? How would they rank? And how to rank them? What started as a fun little time-wasting personal project quickly spiralled out of hand and consumed some hours of the last few days,
Angelsjunky

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Top-50 Greatest Moments in Angels Baseball

Top-50 Greatest Moments in Angels Baseball

AngelsWin.com's Top-50 Greatest Moments in Angels Baseball When the word went out that AngelsWin.com was compiling a list of the 50 greatest moments in Angels history, my first thought, sadly enough, was to the tumultuous moments in our team’s history: I thought of how the Angels have always been second-class citizens living in the shadow of Chavez Ravine; or how we have spent most of our history grasping at greatness, yet coming up empty. I did not immediately think about the World S
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2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series: Tyler Mahle

2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series: Tyler Mahle

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer This series will attempt to identify other potential front-line starters that the Angels can possibly trade for and we will continue the series looking at the Cincinnati Reds, SP Tyler Mahle. Facts Contract Status - 2020 will be the last season of pre-arbitration control for Tyler. After that he has the three standard years of arbitration control, for a total of four years of team control before hitting free agency. Repertoire
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2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series: Carlos Martinez

2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series: Carlos Martinez

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer This series will attempt to identify other potential front-line starters that the Angels can possibly trade for this off-season and we will start with the St. Louis Cardinals SP/RP, Carlos Martinez. Facts Contract Status - Signed thru 2021 on a 5-year, $50.5M ($10.1M AAV, 2017-2021) deal with two additional team option years for 2022 and 2023, for $17M and $18M, respectively, with $500,000 buyout's for each year. Controllable from
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2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series

2019-2020 Off-Season Starting Pitcher Trade Series

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer Ever since the Angels missed out on Cole, Strasburg, and Wheeler (not to mention Keuchel, Ryu, and Bumgarner), some Angels fans have been in panic mode, worried about what feels, to them, like a half-season of accomplishment (Rendon, Bundy, and Teheran), since we have not acquired a front-line starter yet. In the 2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Rotation, I advocated for a Cole signing as I felt it was the best application of resources
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Who will be the big spenders this winter?

Who will be the big spenders this winter?

By Jason Sinner, AngelsWin.com Columnist (aka @Dochalo) Here's who unlikely will spend on players outside of some 1 and maybe 2-yr deals. We won't really go into much detail here for the following teams. BAL, DET, KC, TB, TOR, ARZ, MIA, COL, PIT, SF.   Here's who might spend some money but likely on deals in the 1-3yr range.  Not on any big names.   BOS - likely to shed some payroll.  can't see them being big FA players OAK - don't have much money but might surprise with
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AngelsWin.com Pick 3 Contest: Enter now to win!

AngelsWin.com Pick 3 Contest: Enter now to win!

Pick three moves, whether it's a FA signing, a player acquired via a trade or a manager or coach hired to win a pretty cool prize!  Example:  1. Angels hire Dino Ebel to become their third base coach 2. Angels sign Gerrit Cole 3. Angels sign Mike Moustakas If there's a tie, we'll come up with a tiebreaker contest to determine the winner.  If you're reading this from our Blog, enter your three picks here:    Prize: An awesome Mike Trout by the numbers pict
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Chuckster70

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AngelsWin.com: New Again (Breaking free of the Twitter & Facebook cesspool)

AngelsWin.com: New Again (Breaking free of the Twitter & Facebook cesspool)

By Geoff Stoddart, AngelsWin.com Director of Social Media (better known as: @Spirit) In February of 2004, Chuck Richter, launched the AngelsWin.com site and community forum as a place for Angels fans from around the country and around the world to come and discuss not only the team they loved, but also a wide array of topics that interested them.  As the community grew, the forum became the go to place for Angels fans on the internet to call their home discuss their team. In the years
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Mike Trout Wins 2019 Baseball Digest Player of the Year Award

Mike Trout Wins 2019 Baseball Digest Player of the Year Award

The 28-year-old and two-time A.L. MVP, completed his 2019 season batting .291 with 27 doubles, two triples, 45 home runs, 104 RBI, 11 stolen bases, 110 walks and 110 runs scored. Below is a list of some of his accomplishments in his ninth big league season. Mike Trout finished in the top two among American League leaders in 2019—with 45 home runs (2nd), 100 walks (2nd), a .438 OBP (1st), .645 slugging percentage (1st), 1.083 OPS (1st) and 8.3 bWAR 8.3 (1st)—despite having his season end on
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AngelsWin.com

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Jeremiah Jackson tops our Los Angeles Angels Prospect Hotlist (8/5-8/19 2019)

Jeremiah Jackson tops our Los Angeles Angels Prospect Hotlist (8/5-8/19 2019)

(Photo by Rick Dykhuizen) By Tres Hefter, AngelsWin.com Columnist 1) Jeremiah Jackson – SS/2B, Rookie Orem:  Typically, Jackson’s 9 G/41 PA would not be enough to qualify him (in my own arbitrary criteria) to rank, but the 19-year old infielder’s record-breaking campaign could not be ignored. Jackson slashed .333/.390/1.056/1.446 over the last two weeks, swatting seven home runs (including a 3-HR performance on 8/15) over his last nine games, with three doubles and a triple as
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