Angels DFA Justin Upton, reinstate Ty Buttrey

[HaloBronco]

1 hour ago, Angels 1961 said:

Not as risky as you might think. Putting best players on the field and as you said future is here at start of season. On paper built a very strong bullpen added a top of rotation starter. Most important to me did not trade future away in trading Adell, Marsh, Ward or Detmers. Healthy Trout and Rendon this team will be fun to watch.

Great point, agree this team has a lot of potential and yes either way should be fun to follow.

[Wisconsin27]

Love this move.  Adell and Marsh have nothing left to prove; let's play them!

So glad it happened now, while the roster is being constructed, as opposed to mid-July.  

I love it.

[Angel Dog and Beer]

1 hour ago, cals said:

I’d love to have Bauer, though.  You could punch him in right between the 1 spot and 2 hole in the rotation.

[Mark68]

12 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Is that why his nickname is "The Hobbit"  ????

I'm guessing "Dildo Baggins" was taken?

[Angelsjunky]

5 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

How did you total up the War for those players? I used bWAR and only checked out Pujols and he came up as 12.9 bWAR during his Angels stint. fWAR has him at 5.4? Either way, it's clear that Moreno signs the wrong people and hires the wrong people that are supposed to know what they are doing.

I actually miscalculated slightly: According to Fangraphs, he's at 5.3 WAR.

There are lots of discrepancies between FG and BR as far as WAR is concerned. Check out Ryan Doumit in 2008: 3.3 for BR, -3.4 for FG. That's a huge difference of 6.7 WAR. Meaning, BR sees him as an above average regular while FG as having one of the worst seasons in history. FG is pretty extreme with modern catchings statistics, though.

But yeah, Moreno has a terrible track record with big free agent signings.

[eligrba]

7 hours ago, Mark68 said:

I'm guessing "Dildo Baggins" was taken?

[fan_since79]

19 hours ago, PattyD22 said:

I know some won’t agree with me, but I’m OK with this move.  Upton has never done anything for me.  Hit and (mostly) miss offensively, below average defensive player, and oft injured.

The future is now for the Angels.  It’s time to see what the youngsters can do.  I like the new, shorter swing of Adell.  I hope he can carry that thru the year.

The combo of Marsh and Ward will have some growing pains but nothing more than what Upton would have given us.

Just hoping for a healthy season for all of them  which is asking a lot for Angel players.

It's always about that with this team.

The difference between fourth place and a wild card spot, or better.

[Angel Oracle]

21 hours ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

I guess they figured out he couldn't play first base...

 

I don't really like this move, unless they have some other plan in the works. Upton probably wasn't going to contribute a lot this year, but when he's healthy I think he can still hit. Given the roster it's now pretty much sink or swim for Adell, Marsh and Ward, and there isn't really anything else beyond them depth wise.

He really is limited to DH and PH.   And with Ohtani regularly DHing, it was likely the best move.  

Sucks though that he has the no trade clause.   I was hoping that the strong ST hitting might have attracted a team needing a DH, even if having to eat say $23m of the $28m.

[Angel Oracle]

8 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

I actually miscalculated slightly: According to Fangraphs, he's at 5.3 WAR.

There are lots of discrepancies between FG and BR as far as WAR is concerned. Check out Ryan Doumit in 2008: 3.3 for BR, -3.4 for FG. That's a huge difference of 6.7 WAR. Meaning, BR sees him as an above average regular while FG as having one of the worst seasons in history. FG is pretty extreme with modern catchings statistics, though.

But yeah, Moreno has a terrible track record with big free agent signings.

Hunter was the most recent solid one, FOURTEEN years ago.

[eligrba]

13 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

He really is limited to DH and PH.   And with Ohtani regularly DHing, it was likely the best move.  

Sucks though that he has the no trade clause.   I was hoping that the strong ST hitting might have attracted a team needing a DH, even if having to eat say $23m of the $28m.

I thought I read something that Upton did not want to be traded because of the medical resources available for their daughter in SoCal.

[Angel Oracle]

Just now, eligrba said:

I thought I read something that Upton did not want to be traded because of the medical resources available for their daughter in SoCal.

That is true.   Wonder though if SD needs a DH.   It’s close to where his daughter is.

[Lou]

5 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

That is true.   Wonder though if SD needs a DH.   It’s close to where his daughter is.

They traded for Luke Voit

[Taylor]

This is a great article about Upton's family. Makes me have even more respect for him.

https://mlbbro.com/2021/05/29/justin-upton-is-proudly-and-publicly-leading-the-fight-against-emanuel-syndrome/

Seems like his daughter was diagnosed more than a year after he signed his contract with the Angels, so it wasn't the reason for the no-trade clause.

[failos]

2 minutes ago, Taylor said:

This is a great article about Upton's family. Makes me have even more respect for him.

https://mlbbro.com/2021/05/29/justin-upton-is-proudly-and-publicly-leading-the-fight-against-emanuel-syndrome/

Seems like his daughter was diagnosed more than a year after he signed his contract with the Angels, so it wasn't the reason for the no-trade clause.

Yep. It’s the reason I don’t ever make fun of the guy. He’s a quality dude with a lot on his plate, and he’s well respected in the clubhouse. Good Christian, too.

[tdawg87]

Yeah but "Melvin" lmao

[Docwaukee]

a friend sat with him and his wife at the dinner after a golf tournament and said they were both about as nice and down to earth as you could get.  Just a really good family.  

[mmc]

 

[Taylor]

2 minutes ago, OhtaniRule said:

Yep. It’s the reason I don’t ever make fun of the guy. He’s a quality dude with a lot on his plate, and he’s well respected in the clubhouse. Good Christian, too.

Yeah, it's why I try to avoid ever attacking a player personally, beyond their performance on the field.

[tdawg87]

Just now, Taylor said:

Yeah, it's why I try to avoid ever attacking a player personally, beyond their performance on the field.

Except Heaney.

He's a pussy.

[eligrba]

17 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Except Heaney.

He's a pussy.

No wonder the Dogers are doing everything they can to keep Bauer away. The temptation for Bauer to punch Heaney would be too much for the Dodgers to control. 

[Taylor]

19 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Except Heaney.

He's a pussy.

I legitimately felt guilty after Skaggs died because I had contributed to the "pulled vagina" etc. jokes when he got injured.

[Stradling]

59 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Yeah but "Melvin" lmao

Every single person who called him Melvin was a piece of shit long before they called him Melvin. 

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, Angel Oracle said:

Hunter was the most recent solid one, FOURTEEN years ago.

Yep. Even the Weaver contract--which we all thought was a steal at the time--ended up being bad, because Weaver turned into Gumby.

I actually did a study of big Angels contracts from the last couple decades (going back to Mo Vaughn) and tried to figure how much money above or below a player's ' "expected WAR" (based upon their contract) they earned. I took $8M/Win in 2020 as a base, and then adjusted backwards at -0.1 Win per 2 years for the first year of the contract (so $7.2M/Win for 2012). Here are the results:

+45M Guerrero (2004-07)

+38M Trout (2019-30) - so far

+20M Hunter (2008-12)

-8M Colon (2004-07)

-10M Vaughn (1999-2004)

-11M Rendon (2020-26) - so far

-24M Wilson (2012-16)

-30M Weaver (2012-16)

-52M Mathews (2007-11)

-71M Wells (2011-14)

-74M Upton (2018-22)

-90M Hamilton (2013-17)

-194M Pujols (2012-20)

Now you could fiddle with the formula, but the basic results will be the same. As you can see, only Trout (so far), Vlad, and Torii produced positive value over the break-even point; everyone else negative value, and a handful of guys huge losses - with Pujols being off the charts.

All told, that's -460M below expected WAR performance (or thereabouts). What a disaster.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Angelsjunky

[tdawg87]

45 minutes ago, eligrba said:

No wonder the Dogers are doing everything they can to keep Bauer away. The temptation for Bauer to punch Heaney would be too much for the Dodgers to control. 

[Angels 1961]

I thought being healthy and batting 5th in this lineup Upton would get 100 rbis. Good Luck where ever you end up Justin hope you have big year.