Best Free Agent Signings in Franchise History

[LightTheHalo]

Which free agents signed by the Angels delivered the most bang for their buck, came closest to being worth the money, and/or became a fixture of the team's history?

 

Vlad and Bobby Grich come immediately to mind. And Torii Hunter was solid all five years he was here.

 

Who else?

[yk9001]

Was this supposed to be in the World's Shortest Books thread?

[greginpsca]

Don Baylor, Mark Langston

[greginpsca]

David Eckstein. Was a minor league FA after being released from the Red Sawks.

Edited February 10, 2015 by greginpsca

[tdawg87]

Didn't they re-sign GA as a free agent once?

[Punk]

Albert Pujols

[ELEVEN]

Speez

[greginpsca]

Albert Pujols

very debatable

[Docwaukee]

orlando cabrera and the first Abreu contract were nice deals.  

[wopphil]

Vlad. Three years prior to his 5/70, Manny Ramirez (a comparable player) commanded 8/160. Vlad was a beast for the entire five guaranteed year term (He fell off in his sixth year, which was a team option year).

Torii Hunter. He had a career 104 OPS+ for the Twins before the Angels gave him what seemed like an absurd deal. He then out up a 122 OPS+ for the Angels across five seasons, while averaging 600 plate appearances per year.

Kelvin Escobar. He gave the Angels a 121 ERA+ across more than 450 innings in his first three seasons with the team, for somewhere around $18,000,000. Great contract.

[Angel Oracle]

Top 5:

 

Vlad

Grich

Baylor

Chili Davis

Langston

 

Langston vs Hunter for the 5th spot was tough.   Pitching was hard to come by for the Halos, and thus I gave Langston the nod for his importance. 

 

Eckstein for the value should be close to the top, but not based on overall contributions.

Escobar and Abreu each only had 2-3 solid seasons.

Jackson of course had a great 1982, and then just mediocre to decent stats after that.

Speizio's heroics in game 6 can never be denied, and he had decent to solid stats for 3 seasons, but not enough for top 5.  

Edited February 11, 2015 by Angel Oracle

[Angel Oracle]

Rod Carew?

Carew was acquired via trade before the 1979 season, Ken Landreaux being one of the 4 players going back to Minnesota.

Dan Ford was also acquired by the Halos via trade from the Twins before that same season.

[WallyWorld]

Vlad is the one that sticks out the most as having been exactly what we hoped we were getting from day 1.

[Angel Oracle]

The off-seasons before 1977 (Baylor and Grich, along with Rudi) and 2004 (Vlad and Escobar along with Colon and Guillen) were clearly the best for signing FAs for the Halos. 

[Second Base]

In my own memory

 

1. Vlad

2. Torii

 

I guess Orlando Cabrera and David Eckstein were solid too.  Abreu was good for a year.  Escobar for 2 I think. 

[stevestevens]

Maurice Samuel Vaughn

[Stradling]

Maurice Samuel Vaughn

He was not likable, so people exaggerate how bad he was with us.

[WallyWorld]

He was not likable, so people exaggerate how bad he was with us.

 

i blame the pinstripes and wings.

[JAHV76]

How crappy was Colon?

[disarcina]

VLAD Number one  - not too much debate about this.

 

BAYLOR a close second -- wasn't a Halo very long but what an impact during his time here.

 

GRICH -- turned out really well.

 

HUNTER -- solid each year for the Halos

 

ORLANDO CABRERA -- wasn't here long but won a Gold Glove and played well for us.

 

Honorable mention -- Bartolo Colon -- he did win a Cy Young Award during his time here. I think we only have two -- Dean Chance and Colon (No Nolan Ryan?? That's hard to believe).

[Stradling]

Rickey Henderson followed closely by Jose Canseco followed closely by Fernando Valenzuela

[tdawg87]

i blame the pinstripes and wings.

 

for him they were chicken wings

[nando714]

Jeff Weaver

8.5m for 3-10 6.29era

[KevinJ14]

[Vegas Halo Fan]

 

What a free agent class that was!