Three Big Questions for 2020

[totdprods]

2 minutes ago, Second Base said:

To me, putting all our eggs in the Gerrit Cole basket is a bit unwise. I think the Angels need to hedge their bet. 

If it were me, I would use our prospect depth to acquire Stroman. Likely Marsh, Deveaux and a low level pitcher like Hector Yan. Then I'd trade Calhoun and La Stella to cut payroll and restore the prospect capital we spent on Stroman.

I like, though I’d probably hold onto La Stella as some insurance, unless Ward/Thaiss really come on strong this season. 

[kevinb]

2 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

The Angels don't have a single actual or potential #1-2 caliber starter in the majors or high minors. Canning's upside is around a #3, Suarez a #3-4, Barria, Sandoval, and Madero  #4-5s. Heaney's a #3-4, Pena's a #4-5. The highest upside guys are all A ball or lower: Jose Soriano, Chris Rodriguez, Stiward Aquino, Hector Yan, maybe Jack Kochanowicz. Rodriguez is probably the only one with true top-end potential and he's got a recurring back issue; Soriano probably peaks out more in the Canning/Suarez mold. Aquino missed all of last year and is struggling badly so far this year. Way too soon to say on Koch.

The point being, the current and future rotation is comprised of #3-5 pitchers. It is very difficult to win championships without at least one #1-2, preferrably two. 

Gerrit Cole is still relatively young, 29 next year, and has the third highest fWAR over the last two years, 9.6, behind only Scherzer and deGrom, and just ahead of Verlander, Sale, and Corbin. If you're going to invest big in a starter it doesn't get much better. Plus he's a SoCal native and would probably love to play for the Angels. He's about a year younger than Corbin, of similar caliber pitcher or maybe slightly better, so you have to figure the starting point is Corbin's 6/$140M. I think the best case scenario is 6/$150M, but it might cost more: figure 6-7 years, $24-30M per year.

Is it worth it? Well, the Angels paid $30M for Cahill, Harvey, and Allen this year, for -1.3 WAR so far. Why not pay Gerrit Cole $25-30M to produce ~5 WAR? 

I think it is high time that the Angels invest in a top-end starter. Cole isn't Max Scherzer, but no one is. He's putting together his second Cy Young caliber season in a row, so is pretty damn good.

Too much money for a pitcher who everyone will be going after. Our ace is Ohtani he will lead the staff next year. 

[angelsnationtalk]

1 hour ago, Second Base said:

To me, putting all our eggs in the Gerrit Cole basket is a bit unwise. I think the Angels need to hedge their bet. 

If it were me, I would use our prospect depth to acquire Stroman. Likely Marsh, Deveaux and a low level pitcher like Hector Yan. Then I'd trade Calhoun and La Stella to cut payroll and restore the prospect capital we spent on Stroman.

I see where you’re going with this, but it makes my teeth hurt thinking about dealing away Marsh. 1 or 2 players in the names of Rojas, Ward, Walsh, Jones, LaStella and Barria should be used in a package deal for someone. But I really don’t want to see Marsh dealt. He, Adell and Canning should be off the block. 

I’d only put Marsh on there if and only if we were making a World Series run... which we’re nowhere near it... therefore it’s not a good idea to give away top talent right now. Only give it away where we have a surplus and that’s with the infield.  

[angelsnationtalk]

Also, I think Eppler in the preseason stated he wanted to become a top 5 or top 10 farm system. For that, there’s no way he’s trading top prospect talent. That would lead me to believe Calhoun and LaStella would be tradable pieces (assuming Adell makes a push and Thaiss/Rengifo hold their own ground). 

We’d also only see Barria and maybe 1 of Walsh/Rojas and possibly a lower tier prospect be used as a package deal with LaStella for something big(ish). 

Eppler isn’t going to touch his top guys... at least not yet. 

[Tank]

5 hours ago, Dochalo said:

If they commit to going after him, I think the Angels and Arte will be one of the highest bidders.  They've shown a willingness to do so for others in the past albeit never for a pitcher of this caliber.  

Aaron Sele said you can go pound sand.