Sports Illustrated's top 50 free agents: has us signing Strasburg and Castro

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, John Taylor said:

I'll stick with Fletcher, Simba, La Stella, and sign Cole and Wheeler. 

 

Remember when Sports Illustrated was one of the better Sports magazines around? Yeah neither do I....

Once online porn killed the swimsuit issue, and cellphones killed the sneaker phone, what was the point of that little rag?

[Second Base]

1 hour ago, Troll Daddy said:

I wouldn’t be so quick to write off Albert Pujols. He did drive in 93 runs last season. Please don’t  bore me with reasons why ... bottom line he produced. As the team sits right now ... don’t expect him to lose much playing time. Especially now that Ohtani’s plate appearances will be cut dramatically. La Stella will have be the same player before his injury.

Eppler will need to find a replacement for Pujols if they want him out of the middle of the order and limited AB’s. 

I won't bore you then. Just go look at his HR's, OBP, BA etc... And then compare him to other starting 1B and DH's. You'll see that he does indeed suck at this point. If the Angels are in contention, like legit contention past May or June, you'll see his AB's dwindle. Either in favor of a youngster that's ready to step up, or to a free agent there likely to bring in, like Todd Frazier.

[failos]

Pls God, be true. Imagine a rotation of Cole, Strasbourg, and Ohtani. This should be the Angels’ goal no matter what

[Troll Daddy]

37 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I won't bore you then. Just go look at his HR's, OBP, BA etc... And then compare him to other starting 1B and DH's. You'll see that he does indeed suck at this point. If the Angels are in contention, like legit contention past May or June, you'll see his AB's dwindle. Either in favor of a youngster that's ready to step up, or to a free agent there likely to bring in, like Todd Frazier.

I asked you not to bore me ... I know the stats. My point is the FO needs to find a better option not named Frazier or rely on a youngster. 
 

got it

[Warfarin]

14 minutes ago, maddong said:

Pls God, be true. Imagine a rotation of Cole, Strasbourg, and Ohtani. This should be the Angels’ goal no matter what

I highly, highly doubt we'd sign both, but man, this place would go nuts if we did.  That's an elite top 3 that can matchup against any other in baseball, for sure.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

6 hours ago, Stradling said:

We need infield help?

I had the same question. I believe that our infield is in pretty decent shape. Catcher, maybe, another outfielder wouldn't hurt, but I'm not overly worried about the infield.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

3 hours ago, John Taylor said:

I'll stick with Fletcher, Simba, La Stella, and sign Cole and Wheeler. 

 

Remember when Sports Illustrated was one of the better Sports magazines around? Yeah neither do I....

Even when I was interested in SI, it was mainly for their photography. I don't remember the writing ever being very good, and I read my first issue in the 1960s.

[Tank]

4 hours ago, mpcincal said:

It's been awhile since I've fully looked at the magazine, but I think SI is past the point of it being a source for current news, so to speak. I think they're on the path of Athlon or Street and Smith where they'll just put out season previews and narrowly themed issues. I think the NBA preview issue is indicative of that.

I haven't read it in a while but just got a subscription as a thank you for a school fundraiser. we'll see what the next couple of issues look like, but I'm not very optimistic.

[Tank]

1 hour ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

Even when I was interested in SI, it was mainly for their photography. I don't remember the writing ever being very good, and I read my first issue in the 1960s.

their photography was their calling card. best sports photographers they could find, and they always delivered high quality photos.

I didn't read many of their articles as a kid, either, but I started reading some of them in my 20s and 30s and found them to be pretty good. they had some high quality writers over the years like frank deford, and I think they were, in some circles, as well known for their writing as they were for their photos.

[m0nkey]

Yes!!

[Justin]

15 minutes ago, Tank said:

I haven't read it in a while but just got a subscription as a thank you for a school fundraiser. we'll see what the next couple of issues look like, but I'm not very optimistic.

I bought the issue three years ago with Vin Scully on the cover, my first time holding an issue in at least a decade. I was shocked at how few pages it contained. It was less than half the size I remembered it being when I was in high school (and would read every issue cover to cover the day it arrived in the mail). 

[Angel Oracle]

7 hours ago, stormngt said:

Why do we sign s 2b?

Never mind that, why does the article refer to the Halos as Anaheim?

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

I didn't read many of their articles as a kid, either, but I started reading some of them in my 20s and 30s and found them to be pretty good. they had some high quality writers over the years like frank deford, and I think they were, in some circles, as well known for their writing as they were for their photos.

George Plimpton, Sidd Finch story in 85.....   It was the baseball version of War of the Worlds....

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, Troll Daddy said:

I asked you not to bore me ... I know the stats. My point is the FO needs to find a better option not named Frazier or rely on a youngster. 
 

got it

I really wouldn't mind seeing Thaiss or Walsh work as platoon mates with Pujols, but as lefties, they'd be seeing the strong side of the platoon, and that's going to require them to hit quite a bit more than they've done so far at the major league level.

That's ultimately what I envision for Thaiss, being a majority bat at 1B and logging time at 3B as well. I'm just not sure he's ready for that yet or if he would be better off spending an additional year in AAA. But if Thaiss makes the adjustments and hits up to his abilities, then, yeah.... Absolutely.

[Pancake Bear]

1B La Stella

2B Rengifo 

3B Fletcher

1B solved. 

[Pancake Bear]

3 hours ago, Second Base said:

I won't bore you then. Just go look at his HR's, OBP, BA etc... And then compare him to other starting 1B and DH's. You'll see that he does indeed suck at this point. If the Angels are in contention, like legit contention past May or June, you'll see his AB's dwindle. Either in favor of a youngster that's ready to step up, or to a free agent there likely to bring in, like Todd Frazier.

I hope so. Too early to know how Maddon will handle Pujols.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

1 hour ago, SoPas Angel said:

I bought the issue three years ago with Vin Scully on the cover, my first time holding an issue in at least a decade. I was shocked at how few pages it contained. It was less than half the size I remembered it being when I was in high school (and would read every issue cover to cover the day it arrived in the mail). 

I have the issue that came out when the Angels won the World Series, and a couple of other issues over the years from significant events. The last subscription that I had was a freebie, so I couldn't complain. It allowed me to send a commemorative issue to a buddy who is a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan when they finally won the Super Bowl.

[Justin]

3 minutes ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

I have the issue that came out when the Angels won the World Series, and a couple of other issues over the years from significant events. The last subscription that I had was a freebie, so I couldn't complain. It allowed me to send a commemorative issue to a buddy who is a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan when they finally won the Super Bowl.

That just reminded me of something - I was on vacation in Portland in the summer of '08 when Lackey took that no-hitter into the 9th at Fenway. Around the 6th inning, after calling a few bars to see if they had the MLB package, I just went ahead and bought an MLBTV subscription so I could watch the game on my laptop. I received a free subscription to SI with that, but I don't remember ever receiving any of the issues. (I was in grad school at the time and lived in four places in less than two years.) 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I hadn't subscribed to SI in probably 35 years or more. I just wasn't interested - and this was long before the internet and 24-hour sports stations came along. Even though it was a weekly publication, a lot of the articles seemed to be there just to fill space. The issue from the 2002 World Series was bought from a newsstand.

[Vlad27Trout27]

I think we'll have a good chance to sign Cole, would not be surprised if we are the front runners. That being said this baseball and it can get weird. I would not mind going after Stras

Cole will probably take roughly, 7 yrs 224

or you could go Stras 5yrs 125 mil 

[Glen]

22 hours ago, Stradling said:

We need infield help?

Don't they know Cozart is coming back?

[ukyah]

2 hours ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

I think we'll have a good chance to sign Cole, would not be surprised if we are the front runners. That being said this baseball and it can get weird. I would not mind going after Stras

Cole will probably take roughly, 7 yrs 224

or you could go Stras 5yrs 125 mil 

those strasburg numbers are not going to get it done. he's sitting on four years 100 million right now, even if he only wanted one more year at 25 million, do you think DC wouldn't give it to him? i don't think he's leaving DC anyway. i think he opts out and DC adds years to his contract, effectively speaking.

[Tank]

10 hours ago, Glen said:

Don't they know Cozart is coming back?

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

[angelsnationtalk]

The last thing we need is infield help.

[totdprods]

23 minutes ago, angelsnationtalk said:

The last thing we need is infield help.

Unless we trade infielders. I have a feeling Rengifo is going to get a lot of inquiries. 

The article does raise an interesting point about Castro - he was red-hot his second half, .302/.334/.558/.892 with 38 XBH in only 74 games, playing 3B, 2B, and the rare SS appearance.He had 57 on the year, 46 last year, 51 in his last full year before that, a .280 BA over the last four seasons...for comparison, Fletcher hit 40 XBH in 154 games, Simmons 26 XBH in 103 games, La Stella had 24 in 80 games, Rengifo had 28 in 108 games...

Cozart would have to be dumped somewhere, because if he is somehow here, he better be the UT IF and better be able to do something productive, but if the Angels did cut him or dump his salary somewhere, and Castro was lumped into the conversation as a vet UT IF on a Cliff Pennington-esque 1/$4m or something, I wouldn't be too upset.

He's traditionally hit lefties really well too, .778 OPS in his career, .881 in '19, and we had issues there last year. Could balance out with La Stella/Thaiss.