Angels sign Brandon Drury (2 years, $17 million), DFA Oliver Ortega

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

12 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

And I’m going to be curious to see how much a team puts a short-term, playoff-race value on Ohtani if he still doesn’t pitch on 4 days rest at that point.

Ohtani said he was open to a 5 man rotation, but Nevin decided against it.

[Angels 1961]

3 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

What about Rengifo's numbers?

Do not forget Ward is your emergency catcher which adds value.

[Pancake Bear]

25 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Did you start yours with "Dear F#%&face!"??? 

I like to set the tone early.

Waiting on their reply.

...

...Maybe? 

[Make Angels Great Again]

40 minutes ago, CanadianHalo said:

Don’t need to. After they miss out on the playoffs again this season new ownership will want to get their own people in management roles

 

I thought Canadians were supposed to be pleasant.

[Taylor]

Just now, Make Angels Great Again said:

 

I thought Canadians were supposed to be pleasant.

The only unpleasant Canadians post on AW.

[Hubs]

Drury, Renfroe and Urshela aren't big names, but all have recently been great hitters. Add that to some other guys already on the team...this could be a very very good hitting team.

We talk about these being league average guys, or middle of the lineup, but here's the Angels 2023 roster with their best recent full season OPS. (2019-2022, no 2020's.)

1 Taylor Ward, LF .833 OPS 2022

2 Mike Trout, CF .999 OPS 2022

3 Shohei Ohtani, DH .965 OPS 2021

4 Anthony Rendon, 3B  1.010 OPS 2019

5 Jared Walsh 1B, .850 OPS 2021 / Gio Urshela, INF .889 OPS 2019

6 Brandon Drury, 2B .813 OPS 2022

7 Hunter Renfroe, RF .816 OPS 2022

8 Max Stassi C, .752 OPS / Logan O'Hoppe, C .961 OPS 2022 (Minors, AA)

9 David Fletcher SS .734 OPS 2019 / Luis Rengifo SS, .724 OPS 2022

 

Ward also could be said to have better stats in several months last year, so perhaps he could get better. 

 

[EdmontonAngelsFan]

19 minutes ago, Taylor said:

The only unpleasant Canadians post on AW.

Ouch! 

[ukyah]

12 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Well if you’re going to trade Ohtani at the deadline regardless of the team’s record at that point, then you should just trade him now. 
 

I think the decision at the deadline will be entirely based on their playoff chances at that point. 

 

11 hours ago, Pancake Bear said:

Trading Ohtani would be incredibly stupid. 

 

i feel like this is only be looked at through a narrow pinhole perspective. the appropriate times to trade ohtani are/were as such: last trade deadline or this currently ending offseason for maximum return on ohtani package. that hasn't happened because the angels want to contend and want to keep him. fair enough and totally understandable business move.

or they trade him this coming trade deadline. if they are not contending and they don't trade him i think almost everybody would agree that is incredibly poor management because now you are giving up a significant return for ohtani, i don't care if it's one top prospect, which i think it would be more because we see that for far lesser players. you can not just give up the player for no return. you're not contending, and you can still sign him in the offseason just like every other team.

here's the hang up. if you're contending and he hasn't signed an extension, you still have to trade him from a management perspective. you're giving up too much value. it's a mistake. the angels have done a piss poor job of maximizing their talent on the field, but they've done an equally inept job of getting ANY value out of expiring contracts. perry has been better than his predecessors. he did excellent with marsh, but completely blew the r. iglesias expiring contract.

the best course of action which isn't entirely in their control anymore is to get new ownership in here and first order of business is giving him exactly what he wants rendering the rest moot.

my last point, and we all know this, don't listen to the fans unless you want to be one.

 

[Hubs]

26 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

What about Rengifo's numbers?

Rengifo has had one year...here are his splits. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=rengilu01&year=2022&t=b

His BABIP was high in the months he hit well, he had a .290 BA and a .327 BABIP in May, with a .788 OPS.

June was his worst month, hitting just .200 with a .221 BABIP and a .589 OPS. This is among the worst hitter stats in the entire majors for full time players.

July he was hot again .333 with a .395 BABIP and a .825 OPS. 

August and September were down months, but not awful, just closer to league average. .254 and .252 BA with a .255 BABIP both months. He had a .720 and .707 OPS slumping at the end of his year. He doesn't walk, and he sold out for power in the final two months, hitting 6 HR in each month, but his SO went up and so his walks went down. 4 walks the final two months, and 37 strikeouts.

A very streaky hitter in his first season.

 

This is opposed to Ward who hit exceptionally well the first two months, was injured, slumped for almost two and half more and then got healthy again and hit like he did in the first two months over the seasons final month.

 

Rengifo's strength from last season is against LHP...in 76 games he faced a lefty in 172 PA and hit .315 with a .339 OBP and a .909 OPS. He struck out just 18 times and walked 5 against lefties while hitting 11 HR and 7 2b.

Against righties, he hit .238 with a .271 OBP in 339 PA over 119 games. He hit 15 2b and 6 HR, but struck out 61 times to just 11 walks. 

 

Fletcher hits better against lefties as well, but it's not as drastic of a difference. He hits .742 against lefties and .657 OPS against righties. Last year he wasn't good against either.

 

[Angels 1961]

1 minute ago, Hubs said:

Rengifo has had one year...here are his splits. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=rengilu01&year=2022&t=b

His BABIP was high in the months he hit well, he had a .290 BA and a .327 BABIP in May, with a .788 OPS.

June was his worst month, hitting just .200 with a .221 BABIP and a .589 OPS. This is among the worst hitter stats in the entire majors for full time players.

July he was hot again .333 with a .395 BABIP and a .825 OPS. 

August and September were down months, but not awful, just closer to league average. .254 and .252 BA with a .255 BABIP both months. He had a .720 and .707 OPS slumping at the end of his year. He doesn't walk, and he sold out for power in the final two months, hitting 6 HR in each month, but his SO went up and so his walks went down. 4 walks the final two months, and 37 strikeouts.

A very streaky hitter in his first season.

 

This is opposed to Ward who hit exceptionally well the first two months, was injured, slumped for almost two and half more and then got healthy again and hit like he did in the first two months over the seasons final month.

 

Rengifo's strength from last season is against LHP...in 76 games he faced a lefty in 172 PA and hit .315 with a .339 OBP and a .909 OPS. He struck out just 18 times and walked 5 against lefties while hitting 11 HR and 7 2b.

Against righties, he hit .238 with a .271 OBP in 339 PA over 119 games. He hit 15 2b and 6 HR, but struck out 61 times to just 11 walks. 

 

Fletcher hits better against lefties as well, but it's not as drastic of a difference. He hits .742 against lefties and .657 OPS against righties. Last year he wasn't good against either.

 

Why do so many teams call and ask about Rengifo?

[Angels 1961]

17 minutes ago, Hubs said:

Drury, Renfroe and Urshela aren't big names, but all have recently been great hitters. Add that to some other guys already on the team...this could be a very very good hitting team.

We talk about these being league average guys, or middle of the lineup, but here's the Angels 2023 roster with their best recent full season OPS. (2019-2022, no 2020's.)

1 Taylor Ward, LF .833 OPS 2022

2 Mike Trout, CF .999 OPS 2022

3 Shohei Ohtani, DH .965 OPS 2021

4 Anthony Rendon, 3B  1.010 OPS 2019

5 Jared Walsh 1B, .850 OPS 2021 / Gio Urshela, INF .889 OPS 2019

6 Brandon Drury, 2B .813 OPS 2022

7 Hunter Renfroe, RF .816 OPS 2022

8 Max Stassi C, .752 OPS / Logan O'Hoppe, C .961 OPS 2022 (Minors, AA)

9 David Fletcher SS .734 OPS 2019 / Luis Rengifo SS, .724 OPS 2022

 

Ward also could be said to have better stats in several months last year, so perhaps he could get better. 

 

Nice to see Rendon had a good season in 2019 same with Fletcher. What year was that for Stassi? 

[Jeff Fletcher]

1 hour ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

Ohtani said he was open to a 5 man rotation, but Nevin decided against it.

Actually, his agent said he was open to talking about it. 

[Jeff Fletcher]

By the way, I don’t think the Angels are trading Ward. I was only suggesting they have more room to think about it now than they did before. I think it’s more likely they trade Rengifo, but I doubt they’ll trade either one of them. 
 

No one makes trades anymore. Expanded playoffs. Too many teams using the same analytics. 

[Hubs]

1 minute ago, Angels 1961 said:

Why do so many teams call and ask about Rengifo?

He's shown some good underlying stats, and is young and cheap. They think he'll take a step forward as do so many Angelswin board members.

I'm not sure yet. 

 

[Angels 1961]

25 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Actually, his agent said he was open to talking about it. 

I wonder if that could be a factor if he becomes a free agent. Ohtani has done very well in 6-man rotation.

[Jeff Fletcher]

3 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

I wonder if that could be a factor if he becomes a free agent. Ohtani has done very well in 6-man rotation.

Obviously his agent wants the world to know that a 5-man rotation isn’t a deal breaker because that affects his market. But it’s absolutely going to be a big point of discussion if and when he starts talking to other teams. And that doesn’t happen in trade talks. 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, EdmontonAngelsFan said:

Ouch! 

I'm not saying all Canadians who post on AW are unpleasant. I'm saying all Canadians who are unpleasant post on AW.

[beatlesrule]

48 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

By the way, I don’t think the Angels are trading Ward. I was only suggesting they have more room to think about it now than they did before. I think it’s more likely they trade Rengifo, but I doubt they’ll trade either one of them. 
 

No one makes trades anymore. Expanded playoffs. Too many teams using the same analytics. 

The Pirates and Rockies made a trade 3 days ago. Padres made lots of trades during the year. Angels traded away players before the deadline. Trading might be down but it's still happening and isn't going away.

[Angels 1961]

26 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

The Pirates and Rockies made a trade 3 days ago. Padres made lots of trades during the year. Angels traded away players before the deadline. Trading might be down but it's still happening and isn't going away.

Angel trades were based on Brewers and Twins players in arbitration. Not wanting to spend on them.

[Don]

2 hours ago, Hubs said:

Drury, Renfroe and Urshela aren't big names, but all have recently been great hitters. Add that to some other guys already on the team...this could be a very very good hitting team.

We talk about these being league average guys, or middle of the lineup, but here's the Angels 2023 roster with their best recent full season OPS. (2019-2022, no 2020's.)

1 Taylor Ward, LF .833 OPS 2022

2 Mike Trout, CF .999 OPS 2022

3 Shohei Ohtani, DH .965 OPS 2021

4 Anthony Rendon, 3B  1.010 OPS 2019

5 Jared Walsh 1B, .850 OPS 2021 / Gio Urshela, INF .889 OPS 2019

6 Brandon Drury, 2B .813 OPS 2022

7 Hunter Renfroe, RF .816 OPS 2022

8 Max Stassi C, .752 OPS / Logan O'Hoppe, C .961 OPS 2022 (Minors, AA)

9 David Fletcher SS .734 OPS 2019 / Luis Rengifo SS, .724 OPS 2022

 

Ward also could be said to have better stats in several months last year, so perhaps he could get better. 

 

All part of the strategy to fill the bottom half of the lineup with guys that aren’t objectively terrible hitters. It’s a massive improvement really. In related news, I sincerely hope O’Hoppe is given every opportunity to become the regular starting catcher next year.

[Lazorko Saves]

3 hours ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

I wish only the top 5 of our lineup got to bat.

This is the kind of creative thinking we need in the dugout!

Mike Trout hitting third.

Then this guy, Gord Troutichuk, batting 8th.

 

[Jeff Fletcher]

1 hour ago, beatlesrule said:

The Pirates and Rockies made a trade 3 days ago. Padres made lots of trades during the year. Angels traded away players before the deadline. Trading might be down but it's still happening and isn't going away.

Let me rephrase it 

People are not making off-season trades in which the idea is to exchange talent and not just clear salary. 

[Inside Pitch]

5 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Exactly. I’m talking about real trades (not salary dumps).

Its the Arte farewell tour, Summer 2023! "It was always my money, bitches" ... Tickets available through Ticketmaster!!!!

[BTH]

@Jeff Fletcher

Is it confirmed that Matt Thaiss is out of options?

He spent more than 20 days in the minors in 2020, 2021, and 2022, which would typically mean he’s out of options, but I saw something that said that days on optional assignment weren’t counted in 2020 because of the shortened season.

If that were the case, then shouldn’t he have a fourth option year?

Edited December 22, 2022 by Trendon

[Warfarin]

4 minutes ago, Trendon said:

@Jeff Fletcher

Is it confirmed that Matt Thaiss is out of options?

He spent more than 20 days in the minors in, 2020, 2021, and 2022, which would typically mean he’s out of options, but I saw something that said that days on optional assignment weren’t counted in 2020 because of the shortened season.

If that were the case, then shouldn’t he have a fourth option year?

Interesting, nice catch.  I haven't seen anything though that indicates he has a 4th year - I think that would have been caught by now?

But that would make a big difference in his future here.  Hard to see him being kept as the second catcher.  Would imagine the FO would pivot towards a glove/defense first guy instead, until O'Hoppe is ready, and then we'll see an O'Hoppe/Stassi tandem.