Going WAY out on the Limb

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

On 12/2/2018 at 1:23 AM, beatlesrule said:

If he greatly values his family, he would retire right now and spend as much time with them as possible.

Great point, since he is actually 110 years old.... Every day is not promised~

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

As we've discussed previously numerous times...... 

 

I don't believe he stays long enough to allow his career Batting AVG to drop below .300..... Right now we are sitting at .302 career wise! I think he pads his stats this year and tries to get passed Willie Mays for #5 for Home Runs, Cap Anson for #4 in RBI's, Babe Ruth for #4 or Willie Mays for #5 on Extra Base hits.... Does the tour this year in the NL Central Ballparks and retires at the All Star break next year if not at the end of the 2019 season.

[HaloNArizona]

Albert will not retire this year...after this year...I could see it...especially if Ausmus channels his inner Dave Roberts, and benches Albert.  Let Ohtani fulltime DH and bring a better 1B/OF option to handle first...maybe AP gets 80-90 games at 1B/DH....maybe a few PH opportunities...

Also, I think La Stella who has played 2B/3B is going to be starting at one of those two positions.  I can Cozart at the other, with Luis or Fletch as Util guy.  Still need someone to handle 1B...

[WeatherWonk]

25 minutes ago, Stradling said:

While I agree his contract sucks at this point, the team can compete with that contract.   Lots of big market teams have bad contracts and compete.   This coming year they will probably still be $30 million under the tax.   Also it certainly isn’t Albert’s fault the team ignored the farm for years. 

The farm is immaterial to this discussion, IMO, BUT I dont think the farm is going to save us during the duration of Albert's contract, anyway. We are too mediocre a team to garner the kind of picks that teams like KC, the Cubs, the Astros had in the last ten years. That's how you get picks that make a difference. Picks down in the order just dont have that high a percentage of becoming Bryants or Correas or Alex Gordons, etc. And those clubs still had to go out and get the type of free agents that we cant afford with Albert's contract.

I think it's gonna take more than 30 mil to be TRULY playoff competitive for an AL playoff spot. Yes, there are teams that were competitive with an Albertross like contract. But they weren't necessarily limited by an arbitrary salary cap restraint that has apparently been imposed. There is a correlation between dollars spent and making the playoffs. See Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, Giants, Cardinals, Nationals over the last 10 years. Really, the Mariners and the Angels are the glaring exceptions to this. They spend with so little playoff results.

Our chances appear to have improved in 2019, simply because Seattle has come back to us and OAK has to completely rebuild their pitching staff. As do we.

It's still early, but we still have to get better than the Yankees and/or Tampa Bay. Both teams have lots of good young players.

 

 

 

 

 

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

1 hour ago, HaloNArizona said:

Also, I think La Stella who has played 2B/3B is going to be starting at one of those two positions.  I can Cozart at the other, with Luis or Fletch as Util guy.  Still need someone to handle 1B...

That would be a waste of production at either spot when you already have  similar player in Fletcher on the roster difference is La Stella is lefthanded hitter. for less $$$. I just don't think he's very good and other than a bench player he is meh.

[Stradling]

54 minutes ago, WeatherWonk said:

The farm is immaterial to this discussion, IMO, BUT I dont think the farm is going to save us during the duration of Albert's contract, anyway. We are too mediocre a team to garner the kind of picks that teams like KC, the Cubs, the Astros had in the last ten years. That's how you get picks that make a difference. Picks down in the order just dont have that high a percentage of becoming Bryants or Correas or Alex Gordons, etc. And those clubs still had to go out and get the type of free agents that we cant afford with Albert's contract.

I think it's gonna take more than 30 mil to be TRULY playoff competitive for an AL playoff spot. Yes, there are teams that were competitive with an Albertross like contract. But they weren't necessarily limited by an arbitrary salary cap restraint that has apparently been imposed. There is a correlation between dollars spent and making the playoffs. See Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cubs, Giants, Cardinals, Nationals over the last 10 years. Really, the Mariners and the Angels are the glaring exceptions to this. They spend with so little playoff results.

Our chances appear to have improved in 2019, simply because Seattle has come back to us and OAK has to completely rebuild their pitching staff. As do we.

It's still early, but we still have to get better than the Yankees and/or Tampa Bay. Both teams have lots of good young players.

 

 

 

 

 

If the Angels had a farm it would not be immaterial to this conversation at all.  Last year we paid close to $35 million for Kinsler, Cozart and Valbuena and of course $6 million for Jim Johnson, all guys that if we had a farm giving us league average guys, we would have much more money to spend on real improvements.  When we paid Albert we paid for a guy leaving his prime that is/was an inner circle hall of famer.  When we paid all those other guys we paid for mediocrity in the moment.  When you have no farm you have to pay free agent prices for average players.  We are mediocre because of the farm, not because of Albert’s contract.  Let’s say we had $25 million more to spend, does that really move the needle?  No because we would be paying free agent prices.