Micah Johnson DFA'd by Dodgers

[ettin]

Wouldn't be surprised if the Angels make a claim.

EDIT: Although I must say I'm not totally enamored with him to be honest, he doesn't fit the high defensive profile Eppler wants.

[jgimondo]

Then why  claim him!

[DMVol]

Like a lot of the pitchers Eppler has picked up, he could help with upper level depth...we just don't have any position players in the upper minors, other than Cowart, who might help....

[2112]

Ok just looking at his minor league stats, he looks fairly decent.  Walks about 10% of the time, steals 20 or so bags a year, and a decent ops based more on doubles and triples than home runs.  Am I missing something? Is his glove cement?

It does look like he can only play 2nd, although the Dodgers experimented with him last year. 

[Second Base]

That surprises me,  it must be nice to have so much depth that you DFA a player who is likely a Top 10 prospect in our system.

[ettin]

4 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

That surprises me,  it must be nice to have so much depth that you DFA a player who is likely a Top 10 prospect in our system.

It is a bit surprising since he was picked up from the Braves like only a year or so ago. They must have really been unhappy with his development or as you said perhaps they just have so much talent on their 40-man that they had to ax someone.

[Second Base]

16 minutes ago, ettin said:

It is a bit surprising since he was picked up from the Braves like only a year or so ago. They must have really been unhappy with his development or as you said perhaps they just have so much talent on their 40-man that they had to ax someone.

Word from a friend who used go wrote for the Dodgers on MLB.com says the Dodgers didn't like his attitude in AAA this year. Apparently he disagreed with their ordering of their depth chart.

[Second Base]

I'd trade for him and make him the heir apparent at 2B. I see very little reason he can't succeed at the major league level. 

[ELEVEN]

I like a player that wants to play a lot more than one content to draw a check on the bench. Nothing wrong there.

[Docwaukee]

dude had 84 steals in 2013

then 22 with 13 CS in 2014

started 2015 as the CWS starting 2bman then got demoted for poor defense and base running mistakes.  

traded to the dogs prior to last season.  

rocked an .843 ops when he got sent down in 2015 then a .677 ops in AAA last year.  Also played some CF last year for the first time in his career

Now he get released because he was unhappy with his org rank?

Sounds like a knucklehead.  Probably has some talent but who knows when it's gonna show up.  

Seems like the type of guy that needs something like this release to motivate him.  Could end up a nice major leaguer, but hard to know if he's worth the headaches he brings.  

[John Smith]

MLB Trade Rumors ‏@mlbtraderumors

Braves Acquire Micah Johnson From Dodgers http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/01/dodgers-trade-micah-johnson-braves.html …

 

 

[totdprods]

Welp, sooner or later Eppler will have to get someone to play in SLC. Seems a little weird to be so thin there and not see a few more transactions involving players like Micah.

[Docwaukee]

7 hours ago, totdprods said:

Welp, sooner or later Eppler will have to get someone to play in SLC. Seems a little weird to be so thin there and not see a few more transactions involving players like Micah.

it cuz I think he's still browsing the major league free agents.  but yeah.  super thin position player wise.  

[totdprods]

5 hours ago, Dochalo said:

it cuz I think he's still browsing the major league free agents.  but yeah.  super thin position player wise.  

For sure - I mentioned elsewhere another reason things are moving slow now is because the FAs that remain probably don't do a lot to distinguish themselves from the rest, so it takes a little extra legwork to determine which are really worth watching, and I agree that focus should be on the MLB team still with so much remaining, but he should be able to work on AAA concurrently at this point. LaMarre, Fontana, and Cowart aren't much to rely on.

Another option is, instead of trying to add to AAA, add to the MLB club and build SLC backwards by demoting Perez, Marte, Morin, Guerra, Meyer if you can fill their roles with cheap vets for at least the first couple months.

 

[DMVol]

12 hours ago, totdprods said:

Welp, sooner or later Eppler will have to get someone to play in SLC. Seems a little weird to be so thin there and not see a few more transactions involving players like Micah.

If he isn't picked up by somebody else, you could worse than signing Petit to a minor league deal.....would rather have him than Pennington but I am afraid we are stuck with Pennington as a back up IN'er....Petit at SLC would be a good fit...

[totdprods]

25 minutes ago, DMVol said:

If he isn't picked up by somebody else, you could worse than signing Petit to a minor league deal.....would rather have him than Pennington but I am afraid we are stuck with Pennington as a back up IN'er....Petit at SLC would be a good fit...

Did we re-sign Gregorio to a minor league deal? Can't remember.

[halomatt]

Arte Moreno asleep at the helm!! SO SAD!

[Docwaukee]

3 hours ago, totdprods said:

For sure - I mentioned elsewhere another reason things are moving slow now is because the FAs that remain probably don't do a lot to distinguish themselves from the rest, so it takes a little extra legwork to determine which are really worth watching, and I agree that focus should be on the MLB team still with so much remaining, but he should be able to work on AAA concurrently at this point. LaMarre, Fontana, and Cowart aren't much to rely on.

Another option is, instead of trying to add to AAA, add to the MLB club and build SLC backwards by demoting Perez, Marte, Morin, Guerra, Meyer if you can fill their roles with cheap vets for at least the first couple months.

 

I actually think they are waiting out one, maybe two guys and I think it's Wieters.  It actually could be Valbuena.  But the other thing I think they are doing is that they know the 40 - man rosters of every team.  They know which free agents are left and which are likely to go where.  I am sure some of their targets are 40-man bubble guys on other teams. So they are waiting out the market to see who gets DFA's when the rest of these free agents start to get added to team's rosters.  I am also guessing on this, but there is probably a waiver order and we haven't done anything that would allow us to lose position on that for two weeks.  There is probably another cycle of roster movement coming for all of mlb that Eppler is waiting for.  

He's waiting for something.  I am just not sure what.  

[Second Base]

14 hours ago, Dochalo said:

it cuz I think he's still browsing the major league free agents.  but yeah.  super thin position player wise.  

The pitching depth at SLC is going to be pretty full as is. On the positions player side of things, I rather like the flexibility having an incomplete roster gives the Angels. Sherman Johnson, Bo Way, Chad Hinshaw, Andrew Daniel and even David Fletcher could benefit from having a thin roster because it offers more opportunity for promotion and greater positional value.

[Docwaukee]

28 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

The pitching depth at SLC is going to be pretty full as is. On the positions player side of things, I rather like the flexibility having an incomplete roster gives the Angels. Sherman Johnson, Bo Way, Chad Hinshaw, Andrew Daniel and even David Fletcher could benefit from having a thin roster because it offers more opportunity for promotion and greater positional value.

Pitching depth is good.  Or at least reasonable. 

Would love to see a couple of those guys surprise us and turn into more than expected.  But my expectations are pretty low.  As bad as our system is, we actually lost 3 of our 4 best hitters at AA from last year in Cal Towey (rule 5), Eric Aguilera (released) and Forrest Allday (25yo previous minor league FA.  actually not sure if he's returning).  

I like Tony Sanchez at C.  Francisco Arcia as well

Choi is gone.  We've got nothing to back up 1b unless Marte is part of that conversation, but I think he makes the major league club.  So this is a spot where I'd like to see them pick up a project.  

2b - Johnson, Navarro

3b - Cowart

SS- Fontana, Navarro, Williams

OF - LaMarre, Shane Robinson, Ramon Flores, Luis Tejada

 It's unfathomably awful right now.  Honestly, they could replace all but 3 position players (Cowart, Johnson and Sanchez), and no one would notice.  

They are going to have to make some tough decisions on the pitching side of things

 Granted, I am sure there will be some injuries, but if our major league rotation is richards, shoe, nolasco, skaggs, and chavez with a pen of street, bedrock, bailey, ramirez, alvarez, guerra, and yates.  

You got

SP - Meyer, Pounders, Smith, Campos, Lamb, Wright, Scribner, Banuelos, Blackford, Jones, Kipper,

RP - Parker, Morin, Mahle, Middleton, Miller, Ege, O'grady, Deloach, Valdez, De Los Santos, Gagnon.  

 

 

[totdprods]

Is there a resource for looking up which players are out of options? So far, J.C. Ramirez is the only Angel I know of. Morin and Alvarez seem like they'd be close. 

I'm sure we're going to see that pitching depth take some sort of hit during or after ST - I wonder if perhaps Eppler is setting himself up to be able to sell SP by the deadline, either as means to adding to the MLB club, or selling a major league arm or two for some position players to reload for '18, with AAA arms coming up. 

I'd really like to see them add at least one more solid AAA outfielder and infielder. I could see a FA bat or two bumping Marte to SLC. Not really what I'd like to do, but if Luis Valbuena's price is low enough, I think I'd take that chance. 

 

[ettin]

43 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Is there a resource for looking up which players are out of options? So far, J.C. Ramirez is the only Angel I know of. Morin and Alvarez seem like they'd be close. 

I'm sure we're going to see that pitching depth take some sort of hit during or after ST - I wonder if perhaps Eppler is setting himself up to be able to sell SP by the deadline, either as means to adding to the MLB club, or selling a major league arm or two for some position players to reload for '18, with AAA arms coming up. 

I'd really like to see them add at least one more solid AAA outfielder and infielder. I could see a FA bat or two bumping Marte to SLC. Not really what I'd like to do, but if Luis Valbuena's price is low enough, I think I'd take that chance. 

 

I've looked for an out of options resource before and could not find anything. @Jeff Fletcher Do you happen to know of a source for this? Hard to find.

The other two relievers that might be out of options are Kirby Yates and Blake Parker but I am unsure of their status. I really have high hopes for both particularly Parker.

[Jeff Fletcher]

57 minutes ago, ettin said:

I've looked for an out of options resource before and could not find anything. @Jeff Fletcher Do you happen to know of a source for this? Hard to find.

The other two relievers that might be out of options are Kirby Yates and Blake Parker but I am unsure of their status. I really have high hopes for both particularly Parker.

Baseball prospectus had options listed at one point but I don't think they kept updating it. I always have to ask someone.

you can guesstimate by looking at when a player first signed and seeing what years he was in the majors, but it's not foolproof.

[John Smith]

http://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-los-angeles-angels/

Scroll down. options column in middle. Not sure of validity.

[ettin]

1 hour ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Baseball prospectus had options listed at one point but I don't think they kept updating it. I always have to ask someone.

you can guesstimate by looking at when a player first signed and seeing what years he was in the majors, but it's not foolproof.

Thanks Jeff, I was doing the guesstimating thing before and I hate doing it but there wasn't much choice.

12 minutes ago, John Smith said:

http://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-los-angeles-angels/

Scroll down. options column in middle. Not sure of validity.

They look right so thanks for pointing it out John I'll bookmark it. The relievers look right (in terms of options).