Angels Free Agency Predictions

[Erstad Grit]

1 hour ago, mmc said:

I think it’s dumb for anyone to be advocating for adding any bad players to the team.  Whether it’s Moose, Anderson, or someone less discussed doesn’t really make a difference to me

Good players tend to not be bench guys

[Robrock30]

What about Seth Lugo who I am very familiar with and who excels at every pitching role SP, Middle Relief or Closer?

 

 

[Halodays]

Same thing different year. Too many other teams have the same needs as the Angels and will outbid them on any top free agent. They will have to settle for scraps again.

[Angels 1961]

Just now, Halodays said:

Same thing different year. Too many other teams have the same needs as the Angels and will outbid them on any top free agent. They will have to settle for scraps again.

Plus top players usually go to contenders.

[Halodays]

1 minute ago, Angels 1961 said:

Plus top players usually go to contenders.

Exactly 

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, Halodays said:

Same thing different year. Too many other teams have the same needs as the Angels and will outbid them on any top free agent. They will have to settle for scraps again.

Why do you think that?  

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, Angels 1961 said:

Plus top players usually go to contenders.

Gray went to a 71 win Cardinals team. 

[Halodays]

17 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Why do you think that?  

Because free agents are more likely to go to the Dodgers or Padres if So. Cal is their preferred destination. Also not having been a contender in a long while possibly has something to do with it.

[totdprods]

Non-Angel predictions:

Snell to Mariners, Bellinger to Giants, Yamamoto to Red Sox, Ohtani to Braves or Angels, Mariners acquire Soto in a really dumb trade (Rangers as a sleeper)

[Stradling]

12 minutes ago, Halodays said:

Because free agents are more likely to go to the Dodgers or Padres if So. Cal is their preferred destination. Also not having been a contender in a long while possibly has something to do with it.

The Padres are cutting payroll and the Dodgers aren’t signing everyone. How many premium free agents have the Dodgers signed the last five years? 2?

[Halodays]

11 minutes ago, Stradling said:

The Padres are cutting payroll and the Dodgers aren’t signing everyone. How many premium free agents have the Dodgers signed the last five years? 2?

I don’t know if the Padres are cutting costs or they’re not willing to meet Soto’s expected contract demands so by trading him, they save this year and give themselves room to make a splash this year and in the future. The Dodgers are the Dodgers. Always in on every top free agent if there is a need and have boat loads of money.

[Angels 1961]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Gray went to a 71 win Cardinals team. 

Did you just use St. Louis as a non contender? NO way I know your smarter than that. St Louis one of the best is not best run teams in all of baseball. With the best fan base in all of baseball. Let's look at non contender Cardinals. In last 15 years how many losing seasons have they had. How many times in playoffs? St. Louis had it's first down year in how many years. They did have down year in 2023 but have been very aggressive in FA market. Find a better example oh I have one Rendon signing with Angels.

[Stradling]

9 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

Did you just use St. Louis as a non contender? NO way I know your smarter than that. St Louis one of the best is not best run teams in all of baseball. With the best fan base in all of baseball. Let's look at non contender Cardinals. In last 15 years how many losing seasons have they had. How many times in playoffs? St. Louis had it's first down year in how many years. They did have down year in 2023 but have been very aggressive in FA market. Find a better example oh I have one Rendon signing with Angels.

Last year the Cardinals won 71 games 

[Angels 1961]

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

Last year the Cardinals won 71 games 

Cardinals will be contenders and players love playing for them. They will not be in on Ohtani, Yamamoto, Snell, Bellinger or any of high priced players. 

[Torridd]

For all those who are saying Tim Anderson, don't we have enough infielders? Do you think he's needed?

[mmc]

22 minutes ago, Torridd said:

For all those who are saying Tim Anderson, don't we have enough infielders? Do you think he's needed?

Don't want Tim but we could certainly add another infielder.  We have Rendon, Schanuel, Rengifo, Drury, and Neto as guys who are solid enough to deserve a place on the team but beyond them it gets dry pretty quickly.  The guys beyond them haven't really shown to be major league players (Fletcher, Stefanic, Paris, Soto, Cabbage)

[Pancake Bear]

"Top pitchers will only go to contenders or teams I'm arbitrarily going to assign to that category (not the Angels)."

Gotta do some serious contortions to make any sense out of that logic. 

[Pancake Bear]

1 hour ago, Torridd said:

For all those who are saying Tim Anderson, don't we have enough infielders? Do you think he's needed?

Last year, we had Rendon, Urshela, Drury, Fletcher, Rengifo, and Walsh. Walsh and Rendon barely played. Urshela had a season ending injury. Fletcher is cooked. We ended the year with something like (I don't completely remember since I wasn't playing close attention by season's end) Rengifo, Drury, Neto (sometimes), Schanuel, and either Squid or Fletch. 

In other words, we absolutely should not assume that Rendon, Neto, Drury, Rengifo, and Schanuel will be enough. It's not like we have loads of great options in the minors. This is why I laugh when people say adding an infielder means we're trading somebody. Uh, no, we need depth because Rendon and Neto had significant injury issues last year and Neto and Schanuel may not be able to hold down a major league job all year. And Rengifo may or may not be a great option for a full time spot. 

[totdprods]

1 hour ago, Torridd said:

For all those who are saying Tim Anderson, don't we have enough infielders? Do you think he's needed?

Currently our next best defensive SS if Neto goes down is probably Soto or the guy we just signed, LeBlanc. Sure, Rengifo, Paris and Fletcher can spot it in a pinch, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find another infielder that has some true SS in him. Definitely not convinced it has to be Anderson though. We don’t have a true back-up SS on the team as of now though, and that’s somewhat unconventional, so there’s a slight need there.

I don’t think we need another infielder, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt to add another, much like when we signed Drury last year. The fact that neither Rengifo or Drury played 3B much last year (the latter not even one inning) despite ample playing time there leads me to think there’s genuine interest in adding a capable 3B, or that there’s at least hesitation if having either play 3B with any regularity. 

Matt Thaiss being out of options throws a whole additional wrinkle. He could spot 1B/3B and give them enough back-up coverage there, but then you’re limiting his time, focus, energy and perhaps appearances behind the plate more. Fletcher is still here too. 

Bringing in a more proven infielder could simply be beneficial in that it could break up this logjam. Could still trade Rengifo or Drury too.

[FromJapan]

On 11/29/2023 at 12:06 PM, mmc said:

Don't want Tim but we could certainly add another infielder.  We have Rendon, Schanuel, Rengifo, Drury, and Neto as guys who are solid enough to deserve a place on the team but beyond them it gets dry pretty quickly.  The guys beyond them haven't really shown to be major league players (Fletcher, Stefanic, Paris, Soto, Cabbage)

NPB's Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Orix Buffaloes are interested in acquiring Cabbage. The Hawks and Buffaloes are the teams those Senga (Mets) and Yoshida (Red Sox) belonged to until 2022, respectively.

(References in Japanese) Sponichi Annex on October 19, 2023  SANKEI DIGITAL on November 27, 2023 

[Angels 1961]

On 11/28/2023 at 7:38 PM, Stradling said:

The Padres are cutting payroll and the Dodgers aren’t signing everyone. How many premium free agents have the Dodgers signed the last five years? 2?

Dodgers sign players like JD Martinez and Jason Heyward who have really nice years for them. 

[Stradling]

Ok it’s December 14th, who are you predicting we acquire?  

[Stradling]

I’ll go with Snell, Anderson and Hicks as my guesses. 

[Hubs]

4 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I’ll go with Snell, Anderson and Hicks as my guesses. 

I would agree except I think they’ll trade for an arm too. And then use the surplus starting pitching to add another bat

[Stradling]

I’ll say this, if they do nothing, that’s a clear indication Arte is 100% done. I think that’s what will happen this year regardless. I don’t think the team will announce it’s up for sale, we will just get a report saying Arte is in agreement with some other dude on the sale of the team.