THE Official 2019-2020 Hot Stove Thread

[tdawg87]

1 minute ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Didn't both those teams have way more stacked offenses than the Angels do? 

The Angels have Ohtani returning to the mound. Adell is a question mark as a rookie. Simmons/Upton need to bounce back. Pujols is Pujols. I'm sorry but I see a ton of question marks other than Trout offensively. Way too many to get a 75 OPS+ starting catcher.

I see about 5 question marks in our rotation. I think that's a bit more important right now.

[GrittyVeterans]

1 minute ago, tdawg87 said:

I see about 5 question marks in our rotation. I think that's a bit more important right now.

Yeah, of course. I've never said otherwise. They should be able to swing a trade for a decent starting catcher that isn't making too much money. 

[Stradling]

Maldonado was a catcher on a team that went to game 7 of the World Series 6 weeks ago. 

[GrittyVeterans]

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

Maldonado was a catcher on a team that went to game 7 of the World Series 6 weeks ago. 

Yes, Strad, we know. The Astros also had Altuve/Bregman/Brantley/Springer/Correa/Gurriel/the camera to mask his offense. Perhaps one of the best offensive teams the game has seen. The Angels do not have that luxury. This is the point that I've made 3 straight offseasons

[Stradling]

2 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Yes, Strad, we know. The Astros also had Altuve/Bregman/Brantley/Springer/Correa/Gurriel/the camera to mask his offense. Perhaps one of the best offensive teams the game has seen. The Angels do not have that luxury. This is the point that I've made 3 straight offseasons

So no, we don’t need a better catcher we need a better offense.  We probably aren’t getting a measurable improvement offensively from catcher, so get the catcher that helps pitching prevent runs.  That’s Maldonado.  We need to put up runs but we need arms much more than offense or even catcher. 

[Pancake Bear]

7 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Yes, Strad, we know. The Astros also had Altuve/Bregman/Brantley/Springer/Correa/Gurriel/the camera to mask his offense. Perhaps one of the best offensive teams the game has seen. The Angels do not have that luxury. This is the point that I've made 3 straight offseasons

You forgot the cameraman. 

[totdprods]

32 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Didn't both those teams have way more stacked offenses than the Angels do? 

The Angels have Ohtani returning to the mound. Adell is a question mark as a rookie. Simmons/Upton need to bounce back. Pujols is Pujols. I'm sorry but I see a ton of question marks other than Trout offensively. Way too many to get a 75 OPS+ starting catcher.

The average OPS+ of the top two catchers (by PA/GP) from every team is...85. 
The Angels - Lucroy and Smith - combined for an OPS+ of 86.
Seattle's OPS+ between Narvaez and Murphy was the one of the best combos - 125 OPS+ between the two of them - and they lost 94 games. 
Tampa Bay? 64. World Series champs? 90. The Dodgers? 74.

Of the 60 catchers (top two by games played for every team) only 14 cracked the 100 OPS+ mark. 
FA Robinson Chirinos was one of them at 105 - Maldonado even pulled a 101 OPS+ with Houston in limited play.
Jason Castro was one of them at 101. Austin Romine was just below at 97. 

The FA catchers currently available are just fine. We need to address pitching way before worrying about a catcher posting a 100 OPS+.

Edited December 6, 2019 by totdprods

[ettin]

35 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Angels have to do better than Maldonado/Lucroy types as the starting catcher if they want to compete for a WS.

What is an appropriate choice from your perspective?

[Vlad27Trout27]

The astros also had the Trash Can

[Docwaukee]

13 minutes ago, totdprods said:

The average OPS+ of the top two catchers (by PA/GP) from every team is...85. 
The Angels - Lucroy and Smith - combined for an OPS+ of 86.
Seattle's OPS+ between Narvaez and Murphy was the one of the best combos - 125 OPS+ between the two of them - and they lost 94 games. 
Tampa Bay? 64. World Series champs? 90. The Dodgers? 74.

Of the 60 catchers (top two by games played for every team) only 14 cracked the 100 OPS+ mark. 
FA Robinson Chirinos was one of them at 105 - Maldonado even pulled a 101 OPS+ with Houston in limited play.
Jason Castro was one of them at 101. Austin Romine was just below at 97. 

The FA catchers currently available are just fine. We need to address pitching way before worrying about a catcher posting a 100 OPS+.

  

[GrittyVeterans]

42 minutes ago, Stradling said:

So no, we don’t need a better catcher we need a better offense.  We probably aren’t getting a measurable improvement offensively from catcher, so get the catcher that helps pitching prevent runs.  That’s Maldonado.  We need to put up runs but we need arms much more than offense or even catcher. 

Yet you have zero plans or desire to improve the offense

[Stradling]

5 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Yet you have zero plans or desire to improve the offense

Of course I do.  Paying for a catcher to do it is silly. Especially when his biggest contribution is defense. 

[GrittyVeterans]

Just now, Stradling said:

Of course I do.  Paying for a catcher to do it is silly. Especially when his biggest contribution is defense. 

It would have been silly to sign Grandal last offseason or this one?

 

You and Eppler like to sit back and wait and then throw their hands up and say "the prices were unreasonable". The good GMs  like to go pursue talent and upgrades when it's available

[JustATroutFan]

Felix is still out there. If he goes to the Astros, I'll be concern for every offense that will get to face him. He'll go 20-3 with a 2.20 ERA and 0.85 WHIP while striking out 300 batters in 230 innings pitched. 

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

It would have been silly to sign Grandal last offseason or this one?

 

You and Eppler like to sit back and wait and then throw their hands up and say "the prices were unreasonable". The good GMs  like to go pursue talent and upgrades when it's available

Last year Yes because of draft pick compensation and this year at that cost with the needs at pitching yes. 
Good GMs?  Ok.  

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

16 hours ago, Dochalo said:

lol.  he's gonna catch a heap of shit for that one.  

slap dick prospect?  whoops.  

BWHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH.........He's Horse Shit! ..... just kidding~ 

Brutally honest feedback... What do you think? We gave up a couple slap dick prospects for Dylan Bundy.

That's players talk among themselves and people here think we didn't.

[tdawg87]

I would have liked Grandal and wouldn't have had an issue with the contract he got. But maybe that wasn't in the budget. 

[T.G.]

 

[ukyah]

15 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

So do we! They made good moves. Eppler needs to do the same. I'm losing patience seeing all this talent getting moved in trades and FA's getting signed and just like last offseason we just get a token blurb about being interested. 

If he doesn't sign one of Cole or Strasburg and make another key move for pitching and a hitting catcher... he can just walk away like Dipoto.

Good riddance if he doesn't improve this team by a lot this offseason. Way too much talent available via FA and trades not to.

I have spoken.

spmebody's been watching, "the mandalorian."

[Chuck]

Just now, ukyah said:

spmebody's been watching, "the mandalorian."

[T.G.]

8 minutes ago, ukyah said:

spmebody's been watching, "the mandalorian."

I can't believe anyone would watch something about a dude that's half man, half de Lorean

[ukyah]

13 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

 

[tdawg87]

26 minutes ago, True Grich said:

I can't believe anyone would watch something about a dude that's half man, half de Lorean

[T.G.]

2 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

[Jay]

8 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

  

Ha, I just watched that episode.