So now that we're pretty much done.....

[Docwaukee]

let's get some bold predictions going

Angels win 90 games and grab the 2nd wild card.  beat boston in the WC game.  beat the CLE in the ALDS.  lose to the yanks in the ALCS.

Harvey, Skaggs, Trout and Ohtani are all-stars.  

Skaggs finishes top 5 in CY voting.  Trout wins MVP. 

Rengifo takes over 2b in may and finishes top 5 in ROY.  

Calhoun, Bour, Cahill and Lucroy all have good years.  Cozart gets replaced by Rengifo and goes down with a phatom injury.  

Allen is good but the pen is really good overall.  

We add madbum and will smith at the deadline with Marsh as the centerpiece.  

[jsnpritchett]

A bunch of guys get hurt, Ohtani doesn't make his season debut until late May, the bullpen is weak across the board, but Pujols turns it around, hits 35 HR and leads the team to the World Series.

[Lou]

we lead the division at the ASB 

[Vlad27Trout27]

I would say not a bad off-season, Yes we didn't get that one big name but we were able to fill 6 other spots on 1 year deals! plus on the bright side our farm system has improved and we may see some talent from below coming up! The thing that i am most looking forward is, what Doug White brings to the rotation, we have a lot of potential in it.

[WeatherWonk]

Just 'cause we are done, doesnt mean the rest of the division is. Actually, neither is the rest of the league. So much of how a team will do is based on how good their opposition is. The Mariners appear to be significantly worse. The Rangers dont appear to be significantly better. The Astros may be slightly worse. Jury still out on the A's.

Too early to make a bold prediction, when the teams we play nineteen times may not be done. 

 

[AngelsFaninGA]

84-78

[Fish Oil]

Cozart and Tropeano rebound and have outstanding seasons. The team stays competitive throughout the season, grabbing the 2nd wildcard spot.

[fan_since79]

Two or three starters are out for varying lengths of time with arm/shoulder/elbow injuries.

Bullpen is better with Cody Allen.

Albert finishes with 14 HR and 42 RBI in limited action, Bour is OK but nothing special.

Ohtani is an All-Star and hits 35-40 HR.

Trout has his usual great year.

Simmons and Upton have slightly off years at the plate. It's bound to happen at some point.

86 wins and just missing the 2nd wild card by a couple games. Too many parts that still need upgrading.

[Torridd]

In order for this team to make the playoffs, we need good numbers from the 1st base contingent, Ohtani to get 300 at bats, 55 wins from the starters,  relatively good bullpen stability (health, obviously and , say, no more than 15 blown saves), and 2 of 3 good years from the starting third basemen, left fielders, and second basemen. Of course this means that everyone else not mentioned has to put up "regular" numbers.

[CanadianHalo]

1 hour ago, AngelsFaninGA said:

84-78

Was going to post the same thing. We’ll miss the playoffs again. 

Skaggs out performed himself the first half of last year and won’t duplicate that. We were fortunate enough to get off to a hot start last year and that carried us for a little bit. 

Hopefully this season is the final nail in Billy’s coffin. Getting tired of these wasted opportunities while we have Trout.

[floplag]

I dont know about bold but i think the starting pitching will be good, but not great.  The bullpen will be much better.  But, in the end we win 85/86 and miss the post by about 3 or 4 games due to lack of offense.

Pujols will announce possibly in spring training pending how his body responds that this is this last season.

We will be sellers at the deadline turning the one year deals into prospects and the kids will be called up to take their place at the ML level,  unless we are leading the division or the clear wildcard favorite.

We will see Adell late this year for at least a cup of coffee if he continues to progress at the pace he has been, especially if Calhoun falters again.

Eppler will be signed to an extension, Trout will not, at least not till next off season.

Right now im pessimistic, no question.   The team did enough to give us the illusion of hope to maybe compete for the second wildcard, but that was in my opinion far below what it could have or should have done.   We might get lucky and pull off a playoff spot, its not out of the question, but well need other teams to falter for it to happen.   How TB and Min go will determine our fate in my view. 
 

[Angel Oracle]

Halos surprise and win 88 games, and with the A'th, Dipotos, and Rays regressing, take the 2nd WC spot.  

Allen regains missing 1-2mph and throws the knuckle curve a little more often, thanks Doug White, and has a sub 2.50 ERA/sub 1.10 WHIP/40+ saves.

Buttrey becomes a stand out set-up man, 2.50 ERA and 1.10 WHIP.

Robles becomes a second solid set up man, sub 3.00 ERA and sub 1.20 WHIP.

Cole becomes a jack of all trades, 3.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP.

Anderson is still somewhat wild, but improves his WHIP to sub 1.30.

[Docwaukee]

24 minutes ago, floplag said:

I dont know about bold but i think the starting pitching will be good, but not great.  The bullpen will be much better.  But, in the end we win 85/86 and miss the post by about 3 or 4 games due to lack of offense.

Pujols will announce possibly in spring training pending how his body responds that this is this last season.

We will be sellers at the deadline turning the one year deals into prospects and the kids will be called up to take their place at the ML level,  unless we are leading the division or the clear wildcard favorite.

We will see Adell late this year for at least a cup of coffee if he continues to progress at the pace he has been, especially if Calhoun falters again.

Eppler will be signed to an extension, Trout will not, at least not till next off season.

Right now im pessimistic, no question.   The team did enough to give us the illusion of hope to maybe compete for the second wildcard, but that was in my opinion far below what it could have or should have done.   We might get lucky and pull off a playoff spot, its not out of the question, but well need other teams to falter for it to happen.   How TB and Min go will determine our fate in my view. 
 

I think 85/86 wins if pretty optimistic actually.  

I can understand that some are disappointed but it was gonna be tough to fill all of our gaps regardless of our budget in my opinion.  I was not a big fan of this free agent pool personally and the guys that I did like either preferred other destinations or got paid more that I'd want the halos to spend.  

I was gonna go with that Pujols prediction but I think he's gonna wait one more year.  

[IEAngelsfan]

We win 89 games and take the 2nd WC spot.

Pujols announces that this is his last year and will retire at the end of the season.

[floplag]

1 minute ago, Dochalo said:

I think 85/86 wins if pretty optimistic actually.  

I can understand that some are disappointed but it was gonna be tough to fill all of our gaps regardless of our budget in my opinion.  I was not a big fan of this free agent pool personally and the guys that I did like either preferred other destinations or got paid more that I'd want the halos to spend.  

I was gonna go with that Pujols prediction but I think he's gonna wait one more year.  

Im convinced he will step down, i simply dont think his body can handle it anymore.  Like any great athlete he thinks he can and wants to, but i suspect when he finds himself feeling his age halfway thru spring training he might finally realize its time.

The only thing i question here is how you could not like this FA class, it was deep with all level of players and had every possible need you could want almost regardless of franchise. 
Well except maybe for a true bonafide ace, i really didnt see anything in that regard, a lot of really good pitchers but noone i would go ham over. 
Offensively though, i thought it had everything we could have possibly wanted and various price ranges.
If we believe the team has limitations and simply cant do anymore perhaps the timing wasnt great.

[Docwaukee]

2 minutes ago, floplag said:

Im convinced he will step down, i simply dont think his body can handle it anymore.  Like any great athlete he thinks he can and wants to, but i suspect when he finds himself feeling his age halfway thru spring training he might finally realize its time.

The only thing i question here is how you could not like this FA class, it was deep with all level of players and had every possible need you could want almost regardless of franchise. 
Well except maybe for a true bonafide ace, i really didnt see anything in that regard, a lot of really good pitchers but noone i would go ham over. 
Offensively though, i thought it had everything we could have possibly wanted and various price ranges.
If we believe the team has limitations and simply cant do anymore perhaps the timing wasnt great.

the true ace thing for me.  Outside of Corbin, who I liked for a year less than he got, I wasn't overly impressed with the rest of the FA crop of pitchers.  

I would have preferred Ramos over Lucroy but since we signed him I'm more optimistic about that than when it first happened.  And I would have preferred Robertson over Allen.  But neither of those were going to happen.  

I actually like our lineup and think we will finish in the 5-7 range for total WAR in baseball.  I think one of Fletcher, Ward or someone else like Rengifo or maybe someone we're not even considering will have a nice year and add the additional depth that the lineup needs.  

[floplag]

3 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

the true ace thing for me.  Outside of Corbin, who I liked for a year less than he got, I wasn't overly impressed with the rest of the FA crop of pitchers.  

I would have preferred Ramos over Lucroy but since we signed him I'm more optimistic about that than when it first happened.  And I would have preferred Robertson over Allen.  But neither of those were going to happen.  

I actually like our lineup and think we will finish in the 5-7 range for total WAR in baseball.  I think one of Fletcher, Ward or someone else like Rengifo or maybe someone we're not even considering will have a nice year and add the additional depth that the lineup needs.  

Dont take me wrong, i dont think well be terrible, well be in the mix, well take steps forward in terms of the youth. 
They did some good things... they went the right direction in terms of SP that should put up more innings, they even did some of the things i actually didnt think they would, like a legit anchor in the pen, but they really went cheap offensively and thats going to be our downfall in my view. 
If they were just able to plug in a couple better options there we would have been in a very strong spot and had a chance at more than just a one game.
But i guess thats moot now, all we can do is hope for the best. 

[Glen]

We'll finish April two games below .500.

[Erstad Grit]

I see us neck and neck with rays for the 2nd wild card.  They play an extra game to see who gets it and that team loses to Red Sox a day later.  

[totdprods]

Everyone stays mostly healthy, everyone plays no worse than their recent career averages, luck smiles on the Angels, and they win 96 games, taking the division over an injury-ravaged Astros team. They don’t make it past the ALDS, Trout re-signs and the Angels go into the offseason with a deep farm, solid base to work with, and ample payroll flexibility.

Edited January 22, 2019 by totdprods

[Angelsfan1984]

Bold prediction,

Ohtani hits 30 homeruns

Harvey wins 15 games

Cody Allen has 40 saves

Angels win the division

[hangin n wangin]

Albert Pujols will be in the best shape of his life, suck again, and point out his RBI's mang.

[ten ocho recon scout]

40 minutes ago, Glen said:

We'll finish April two games below .500.

We win 4 out of the first 6. 

3 separate threads about how sosh teams started slow, and we should have canned sosh years ago.

[Stradling]

Just now, ten ocho recon scout said:

We win 4 out of the first 6. 

3 separate threads about how sosh teams started slow, and we should have canned sosh years ago.

I’ll take the over. 

[angelsnationtalk]

12 hours ago, Dochalo said:

let's get some bold predictions going

Angels win 90 games and grab the 2nd wild card.  beat boston in the WC game.  beat the CLE in the ALDS.  lose to the yanks in the ALCS.

Harvey, Skaggs, Trout and Ohtani are all-stars.  

Skaggs finishes top 5 in CY voting.  Trout wins MVP. 

Rengifo takes over 2b in may and finishes top 5 in ROY.  

Calhoun, Bour, Cahill and Lucroy all have good years.  Cozart gets replaced by Rengifo and goes down with a phatom injury.  

Allen is good but the pen is really good overall.  

We add madbum and will smith at the deadline with Marsh as the centerpiece.  

Love it. Even though it’s a best case scenario. Adding Madbum and Smith sounds enticing as well. Perhaps things could change and we get a bat from somewhere else as well. 

If we don’t make the playoffs then players like Calhoun, Cozart, Lucroy, Cahill, Harvey can become trade bait for Eppler’s dream of a chance at a “top 5 system”....

I’d also add Suarez and Canning making spot starts then full time come post all-star break or September at worst case. Canning starts off being inconsistent, then finds his groove towards end of season. Adell also dominates AAA earning a September callup that pushes Calhoun to get traded if the Angels don’t make the playoffs.