Did we improve?

[HaloBronco]

10 hours ago, Lou said:

For 2022? Of course not. But that's not what the goal is when your season is over at the trade deadline. 

This is exactly how we should be looking at it.

completely agree. 

[Warfarin]

We'll see.  We made 3 trades:

1. Syndergaard trade - no downside to this.  We weren't going anywhere this year, so we essentially picked up a 4th OF and another flyer prospect.  No risk in this move.

2. Iglesias trade - a bummer, but for a team with a lot of holes, allocating 16mil to a closer probably doesn't make a lot of sense.  This was a "do-over" for Minasian in that he was basically allowed to undo his signing of Iglesias, while picking up a cost-controlled backend SP / long reliever.  Davidson isn't really exciting, but he should serve some role on the MLB staff.  I think this is a depressing move, because it signals how far away we are, but I think the move made sense.

3. Marsh trade - obviously the most controversial.  I think Marsh will be a good MLB player, but I think a good amount of his value is derived from his CF defense, which we couldn't really utilize with Trout likely occupying the position for at least the next few years.  So in that sense, it does make sense to me that we flipped him for a very solid catching prospect, which this organization sorely needed.  Again, I don't view this as giving up on Marsh, but rather, on flipping one of our best trade assets to fill a huge organizational weakness.  O'Hoppe is likely about a year away, and should hopefully prove to be a solid MLB catcher.  Quero has a lot of promise, but he is far, far away.  

Overall, I think Minasian did well during this trade deadline at least.  The key for him, as it is for most FOs, is how well his player development team does. 

[Duren, Duren]

It will be important to ride out this and next season showing growth and positivity. Likely not contending next year, but at least somewhere around .500 or more if things go right. The mental side has collectively been on a steep downward trajectory. It needs to be stabilized the last two months going into next year. 

Forgotten in the flurry of player moves is the question about a new manager and his choice of coaches. That factors into the equation about next year. The choices are very different for teams expected to win and those rebuilding. 

If Trout and Rendon start next year fully healthy they, plus Ohtani are a legitimate power trio. The concept is the big buzz in San Diego now. Obviously the Padres, Yankees, Dodgers with their own power trios have tons more surrounding talent and quality depth. But the three Angels potentially are still elite and proven. So they won't necessarily be a bad team if those three have good seasons. 

Those three healthy improve the team next year. Thor is replaceable from within or by a mid tier acquisition. Marsh was never a valuable contributor. Losing  Iglesias does create a vacuum. Regardless of his erratic season he still has a proven history and still quality skills. We'll see if anyone emerges from the current group in the next two months. A veteran as a stop gap addition should be available over the off-season as well and allow the system to produce some candidates.  

It's important that the money saved needs to be reinvested wisely. And one way or another, factor into making the team attractive to Ohtani going forward. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

Has anyone thought about the fact that Minasians baseball nickname would be Minnie... and that he went out and got a guy named Mickey...

Disney is obviously still running the show.

[BTH]

Did we improve for 2022? No, but I don't think they got that much worse.

Marsh has a .598 OPS since May. Adell can exceed that performance offensively. Moniak can probably come somewhat close defensively.

Iglesias and Chavez have performed pretty similarly this season and Iglesias wasn't as nails in the 9th this season as he was last season. I think rolling with Quijada/Tepera/Loup/Herget in the 9th will be fine and it allows you to better match-up against the opposition in the latter innings.

The biggest drop-off in 2022 is losing Syndergaard, as Davidson/Toussaint aren't gonna match his production. But I'd rather see the young SP's pitch over Syndergaard to finish out this lost season anyway.

 

Did we improve for beyond 2022? Yes, I think so. It's hard to find quality catchers but it's easier to find quality outfielders. Marsh was gonna be a question mark in 2023, and now they have the open spot to get a proven and reliable OF in free agency. And they got $16M AAV in salary relief.

[AngelsLakersFan]

11 hours ago, PattyD22 said:

I think it depends on what you mean by improve?  Did we improve for this year?  Obviously not as others have pointed out.

Did we improve for next year and beyond?  I don’t know, we will find out.

But where the Angels DID improve is in their bargaining leverage by saving nearly 60 million this year and next year we will be in a position to go after Ohtani and some of the pieces needed to rebuild.  So I’m that regard, we improved our bargaining position for next year and beyond.

Trading away two productive players so that you might be able to keep a guy already on the team is the opposite of improve.

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

People believe that this team will actually improve no matter what move we would make?

[Tank]

8 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Has anyone thought about the fact that Minasians baseball nickname would be Minnie... and that he went out and got a guy named Mickey...

Disney is obviously still running the show.

[Lou]

I feel much better today than I did yesterday, so yes.

[ThisismineScios]

A few things I think people are ignoring. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and that relates to both Marsh and Iglesias. 

Marsh: “OMG we gave up on Marsh already!” No—first of all O’Hoppe is close to as valuable as Marsh for us. He can easily be our backup next year, taking over when he’s ready. Backup C is a big need. Also, there’s a logjam in our outfield and it makes zero sense to keep either Marsh or Adell in that capacity when other teams are willing to give us something. Plain and simple, they chose Adell. We have probably 8-10 4th OF options available. If Adell doesn’t seize the job this year, he’s barely 23. Sign an OF to a 1-year deal and continue to let Adell work until he proves he’s ready. Looking at it on paper is different than looking at the depth chart or high minors and seeing we have plenty of guys who can replicate what Marsh was doing. We have our backup C and likely C of the future all at once. 

Iglesias: This is a move you make when you are a good team wanting to be better—pay big for a closer. Recognizing you arent there and need to reallocate those resources elsewhere is an admission that the team is better served building depth than paying for a closer. It’s an admission you got it wrong, but it’s fixing your mistake and getting a possible helpful piece out of it. And really? People are upset we don’t have a close this year? Really? Come on. 

Finally, the one of biggest things this team is missing, to me, is something they had 3 months ago: Ward, Walsh, and Stassi hitting. If those guys are even hitting league average the last 150 at bats, we are probably 5 games under .500. They tanked. Fixing them is just as important as signing guys next year. Maybe they’re not fixable, but they make a huge difference. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 minutes ago, ThisismineScios said:

Finally, the one of biggest things this team is missing, to me, is something they had 3 months ago: Ward, Walsh, and Stassi hitting. If those guys are even hitting league average the last 150 at bats, we are probably 5 games under .500. They tanked. Fixing them is just as important as signing guys next year. Maybe they’re not fixable, but they make a huge difference. 

Agree with your whole post. But this is spot on.

This entire season, team and org would be in an entirely different position if we simply got average production from this lineup. Not all star. Simply average.

Guys have bad years. Our whole lineup is having one... which is weird as hell.

If Rendon and Trout were healthy, and Adell/Marsh were capable of providing something behind them, and Walsh was simply a respectable MLB starter, we would at minimum be a wild card team.

 

[T.G.]

11 hours ago, T.G. said:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I sure did. In fact, I'm getting better every day.

 

26 minutes ago, Lou said:

I feel much better today than I did yesterday, so yes.

That makes two of us 

[Puget Sound Angel]

This is what we had to sit out a lockout for?

[TroutField]

4 minutes ago, Puget Sound Angel said:

This is what we had to sit out a lockout for?

And we all say we missed Angels baseball. 
 

Maybe one of these years everything will go ridiculously right since every other year everything goes ridiculously wrong. 
 

and it’ll be ‘02 all over again. 

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

I feel much better today than I did yesterday, so yes.

about what though?  

[Lou]

31 minutes ago, Docwaukee said:

about what though?  

My move 

[Docwaukee]

25 minutes ago, Lou said:

My move 

Where'd you move?  

[Lou]

52 minutes ago, Docwaukee said:

Where'd you move?  

Haven't moved yet. It's in the works.

[arch stanton]

4 hours ago, Docwaukee said:

Where'd you move?  

Tuscaloosa 

[Lou]

19 minutes ago, arch stanton said:

Tuscaloosa 

Never. But it's a great place to be on certain Saturday afternoons.

 

Roll Tide