So this is what worst-case scenario feels like

[Angelsjunky]

No, I'm not talking about Shohei wearing a Dodgers uniform. I've never lived in Orange County, so I don't own that particular brand of Angels fan jealous butthurt. I'm talking about where the Angels are now: They just lost the best player in baseball with nothing to show for it; and in fact, lost some of their best prospects in a vain attempt to make the playoffs and earn his love. They're like a dude who empties his bank account to buy an extravagant gift for his girlfriend, loses the girlfriend but she takes the gift with her (and starts dating his better looking, smarter, more successful nemesis).

Back in June or July, when talk about a hypothetical Shohei trade heated up, I speculated that there were three or four possible scenarios. I don't know how I phrased it as it was spread across weeks and in various discussions, but if I remember correctly (and with the benefit of hindsight), it was something like this:

Best: The stars align and Shohei and the Angels (with Trout and Rendon returning from injury) fight their way into the playoffs. Shohei signs long-term, and the Angels return to perennial contention with a youth movement building around Ohtani, Trout, and Rendon.

Not so bad A: Shohei is traded, the Angels farm is replenished, and the youth movement commences, led by old man Trout (and hopefully a healthier Rendon).

Not so bad B: The Angels don't trade Shohei but miss the playoffs, but Shohei stays and Perry builds around him.

Worst: The Angels don't trade Shohei, go all-in on the playoffs but miss out. Shohei leaves. 

So yeah, this is the worst-case scenario. The Angels shot for "best" and got "worst," and somehow managed to make worse even worser by trading away their best prospect and a handful of other prospects for what amounted to absolutely zilch: no playoffs, no Shohei, and an empty farm. Oh, and to add insult to injury, they couldn't even catch a bit of luck in the draft lottery.

In hindsight, it really looks like they should have gone for "Not so bad A". That's what I and others advocated for in July, even though I did understand Perry's reasoning behind going for it. But what happened happened, and it failed spectacularly.

To illustrate how bad "worst" is, consider that if they had gone for "Not so bad A," right now they would they still have Quero, Crow, Albright etc, but also a handful of other good prospects - even one or two top 50 guys. Now, well, there's no Shohei and the farm is as barren as it was back in the Dipoto era. 

I honestly have no idea what the Angels plan on doing. Presumably Arte wants to contend. They have about $70M to spend (ironic) and have picked up a couple no-name relievers. Maybe they go after Yamamoto and/or Snell. I fear a Bellinger "splash" which has high belly-flop potential (wouldn't that be almost deliciously ironic: Shohei in Dodgers blue and the Angels compensation is...Cody Bellinger). Or Arte could play it frugal - that wouldn't surprise me, either, at this point.

But it is hard to imagine a positive near or even mid-term future. I suppose the optimist in me says that the youth movement could be better than expected. Trout could finally be healthy and Rendon comes to spring with a chip on his shoulder (which Ron Washington seems to be trying to manufacture). Taylor Ward could have found God and be ready to mash. Silseth, Sandoval, Detmers, etc...it could all click. Who nows, maybe losing Shohei is what the team needs to actualize its potential. It could happen, folks! Meaning, this isn't the Rockies. It. could be the Orioles or Rangers...right? Right?!?!

[bloodbrother]

They need to take a step back and be realistic about where they stand as a franchise right now. Continuing the same approach they've had is what has led them down the same road of being a mid 70 win team year after year. They aren't ready to be serious contenders, so handing out more long-term contracts on guys 30+ years old just makes little sense right now. Stick with some lower level short-term deals at best, and use this season as an evaluation process and hopeful development process for all the young guys currently on the roster. See what the new coaching staff can get out of guys like Detmers, Canning, Silseth, Soriano, Joyce, Neto, O'Hoppe, Adell, Moniak, Schanuel

 

[AngelsMetsWS]

Nah, worst case scenario is we sign him for $700M and he blows out a shoulder or something in spring training and never plays another game.

 

[SoWhat]

“The Tampa Bay Rays were among the teams who were aggressively seeking Shohei Ohtani at the trade deadline, and were willing to offer three of their top 10 prospects, including top prospect Junior Caminero.”

If this is true...man 

[ScottT]

I don't live in OC either. Never have.

Dodgers fans are everywhere though and often annoying if not obnoxious.   

It's is worst case

[hangin n wangin]

Bad organization.

[Lhalo]

“Unfinished business.”

[Justin]

Remember when one of the greatest players of all time reached free agency and left his team to sign the biggest contract in baseball history? 

I'm talking about ARod in December 2000. 

The Mariners won 116 games the next season. 

Do I think the Angels are going to win 116 next season? 

Yes, obviously. 

Just kidding. 

But my point is: None of us know what is going to happen. 

I remember when the Angels finished the 2001 season losing 18 of their final 20 and I thought This team will never win a championship. 

And I remember 12 years and one day ago when the Angels signed Pujols and CJ Wilson on the same day and I thought This guarantees at least one World Series appearance in the next three years. 

None of us know what is going to happen. 

Except maybe Lou. 

I miss that guy on days like today. 

[HeavenlyHalos]

I've never lived in Orange County either but my Dad is from there. He is a Dodgers fan and taking a victory lap at the moment which pisses me off even more.

[angelsfan100]

1 hour ago, ScottT said:

I don't live in OC either. Never have.

Dodgers fans are everywhere though and often annoying if not obnoxious.   

It's is worst case

See them here in az all the time. And they lose their minds when they see me wearing my angels cap. It’s like they can’t fathom people are fans of teams that aren’t bandwagon magnets like theirs. Even my window repairman was a dodger fan and gave me crap for being an angels fan. If he wasn’t so nice about it I probably would’ve cancelled the order. 

[zenmaster]

Hopefully Arte realizes this isn’t a quick fix and actually sells the team this time. I can’t imagine him wanting to sit through a rebuild after having just lost the best player ever (possibly).  

[Lazorko Saves]

You missed one scenario:

The Worstest: Angels top the Dodgers offer and go $780 million over 11 years, keeping Ohtani.  Ohtani's skills at the plate rapidly and he basically becomes some kind of mix between Joey Gallo and Chris Davis offensively.  On the mound, Shohei returns in 2025, but the fastball is topping out at 89-90 and he's posting an ERA above 4.50.  He's become the 33 year old version of Jered Weaver.

[fan_since79]

10 hours ago, zenmaster said:

Hopefully Arte realizes this isn’t a quick fix and actually sells the team this time. I can’t imagine him wanting to sit through a rebuild after having just lost the best player ever (possibly).  

I don't think he minds as long as the bottom line on the accounting ledger is a positive number.

[Stradling]

Unless Arte is going to buy a network to air the Angels, this is probably the end for him. If he “only cares about the bottom line” (which I think is bullshit) then he’s about to lose $150 million in revenue after this season with Bally’s backing out. 

[Angels 1961]

January 5, 1920 this was feeling Red Sox fans had. Time now for halos fans stand up and rally around players Angels have. Mike Trout hope he is healthy and has big bounce back year. Everyone burying halos maybe players play with a chip on their shoulders. Perry get busy add to this team you have work to do. I have a feeling Angels going to surprise people in 2024.

[Ron Mexico]

11 hours ago, Lhalo said:

“Unfinished business.”

Fuck Arte 

[Angelsjunky]

3 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

January 5, 1920 this was feeling Red Sox fans had. Time now for halos fans stand up and rally around players Angels have. Mike Trout hope he is healthy and has big bounce back year. Everyone burying halos maybe players play with a chip on their shoulders. Perry get busy add to this team you have work to do. I have a feeling Angels going to surprise people in 2024.

So are you saying that the Angels will win their next World Series in 84 years?

[Chuck]

11 hours ago, Lhalo said:

“Unfinished business.”

This brings me back, @Lhalo

I remember when we had these t-shirts for sale in our old store. All based on our rivalry with the Red Sox. 

Unfinished Business

 

 

By Chuck Richter - AngelsWin.com Senior Editor

It was an exhausting, emotion-filled opening week for the Angels and their fans, from the high of an Opening Day shutout victory to the tragic low of Nick Adenhart’s shocking death. The emotions once expected from a weekend series against the Red Sox shifted dramatically, with Boston players and coaches respectfully participating in a tender on-field tribute to their fallen brother on Friday night.

But by Sunday, the rivalry seemed back in full swing, with mound nemesis Josh Beckett welcoming new Angel Bobby Abreu to the fray with a 95 mph calling card.

Though the 2009 season has certainly taken on an unexpected new tone, one that will likely see the Angels play with heavier hearts in honor of a young man who was taken far too soon, Sunday’s game reminded the players and fans that life, and baseball, does indeed go on. With 156 games remaining, the Angels must get back to business.

What exactly is this “unfinished business” of which we speak?

Well, there’s the promise of a 2008 campaign that saw the team make the long-clamored-for July 31 deadline trade, eclipse the century mark in victories for the first time in franchise history and head into the postseason with the best record in baseball — only to see it all go tumbling down faster than Torii Hunter, Howie Kendrick or Erick Aybar could (or should I say couldn’t?) call out “I got it!”

Yeah, the Angels missed a lot more than a pop fly and a bunt attempt last year, but that’s not really the whole story, is it?

How about owner Arte Moreno, who purchased the team a few months after the Angels won their first World Series Championship and has spent the ensuing 5 ½ seasons doing everything within his power to bring them another? He’s opened up his checkbook, he’s stepped in to help facilitate free agent negotiations, he’s improved the fan experience at Angel Stadium, gotten every game on television … even purchased his own radio station specifically to control all game broadcasts.

And how have his employees rewarded him come October? 2004, swept; 2005, beat New York, crumbled to Chicago; 2007, swept. And we’ve already covered 2008. Moreno is one savvy businessman and you know it has to irk him that his company’s annual report always seems to take a nosedive in the fourth quarter.

Gene Autry, God rest his soul, couldn’t hang around long enough to see the Angels reward his stewardship of the club. I suspect Moreno has a lot more years than patience at this point.

But that’s still not hitting this issue on the screws, to use baseball vernacular. This “unfinished business” goes back a lot further than 2003. We’re talking decades here, aren’t we? So far back, in fact, that a kid born on the very day this all started is actually now pitching in the Angels minor league system. (Look it up.)

It can all be summed up by listing four names: Dave Henderson, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew — the four horsemen of the Angels apocalypse if you will. Each of these players wielded a 30-some ounce piece of ash or maple like a scalpel, removing every shred of Angels fans’ hope with such precision not even a speech by Barack Obama could revive it. (When he wasn’t throwing out the first pitch before fateful October 2005 games in Chicago, of course. Look that up, too.)

Four players, four soul-crushing home runs … one team: the Boston Red Sox.

Henderson, of course, got this miserable party started on Oct. 12, 1986, pirouetting up the first base line as his series-altering home run off Donnie Moore denied the Angels — and their fans — their first trip to the World Series; an invitation they’d have to wait another 16 years to receive.

Most of the misery seemed to have been erased by 2004, thanks obviously to the events of October 2002; but then Jarrod Washburn was summoned to face “Big Papi” Ortiz. Out went the ball and in flooded back all the dread Angels fans thought they’d buried two years earlier.

The Red Sox, always eager to give, didn’t wait another 16 years to inflict more pain, however. Just three seasons later they were back to their old tricks, this time Ramirez taking Francisco Rodriguez over the boards in walk-off fashion. The defeat brought the postseason tally dating back to Oct. 12, 1986, to Red Sox 9, Angels 0.

And then last year, it was Drew’s turn to serve up some misery, his ALDS Game 2 home run in the ninth inning sending the Angels to their 11th consecutive playoff defeat at the hands of Boston.

Though they finally broke the streak by winning Game 3 at Fenway, the Angels would ultimately do themselves in this time in Game 4. Had Aybar finished the job and successfully bunted Manny Delcarmen’s pitch, this might be a much different column today. But he didn’t finish; his shortstop counterpart Jed Lowrie did — and that is why the Angels business today is most definitely unfinished.

With a whole season yet to play, there’s no knowing at this point if the Angels will get another chance to punch the clock against their nemesis from New England, but Angels fans collectively know that until their team sends the Red Sox home for the winter, business hours are a long way from over.

[Tank]

2 hours ago, Chuck said:

This brings me back, @Lhalo

I remember when we had these t-shirts for sale in our old store. All based on our rivalry with the Red Sox. 

Unfinished Business

 

 

By Chuck Richter - AngelsWin.com Senior Editor

It was an exhausting, emotion-filled opening week for the Angels and their fans, from the high of an Opening Day shutout victory to the tragic low of Nick Adenhart’s shocking death. The emotions once expected from a weekend series against the Red Sox shifted dramatically, with Boston players and coaches respectfully participating in a tender on-field tribute to their fallen brother on Friday night.

But by Sunday, the rivalry seemed back in full swing, with mound nemesis Josh Beckett welcoming new Angel Bobby Abreu to the fray with a 95 mph calling card.

Though the 2009 season has certainly taken on an unexpected new tone, one that will likely see the Angels play with heavier hearts in honor of a young man who was taken far too soon, Sunday’s game reminded the players and fans that life, and baseball, does indeed go on. With 156 games remaining, the Angels must get back to business.

What exactly is this “unfinished business” of which we speak?

Well, there’s the promise of a 2008 campaign that saw the team make the long-clamored-for July 31 deadline trade, eclipse the century mark in victories for the first time in franchise history and head into the postseason with the best record in baseball — only to see it all go tumbling down faster than Torii Hunter, Howie Kendrick or Erick Aybar could (or should I say couldn’t?) call out “I got it!”

Yeah, the Angels missed a lot more than a pop fly and a bunt attempt last year, but that’s not really the whole story, is it?

How about owner Arte Moreno, who purchased the team a few months after the Angels won their first World Series Championship and has spent the ensuing 5 ½ seasons doing everything within his power to bring them another? He’s opened up his checkbook, he’s stepped in to help facilitate free agent negotiations, he’s improved the fan experience at Angel Stadium, gotten every game on television … even purchased his own radio station specifically to control all game broadcasts.

And how have his employees rewarded him come October? 2004, swept; 2005, beat New York, crumbled to Chicago; 2007, swept. And we’ve already covered 2008. Moreno is one savvy businessman and you know it has to irk him that his company’s annual report always seems to take a nosedive in the fourth quarter.

Gene Autry, God rest his soul, couldn’t hang around long enough to see the Angels reward his stewardship of the club. I suspect Moreno has a lot more years than patience at this point.

But that’s still not hitting this issue on the screws, to use baseball vernacular. This “unfinished business” goes back a lot further than 2003. We’re talking decades here, aren’t we? So far back, in fact, that a kid born on the very day this all started is actually now pitching in the Angels minor league system. (Look it up.)

It can all be summed up by listing four names: Dave Henderson, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and J.D. Drew — the four horsemen of the Angels apocalypse if you will. Each of these players wielded a 30-some ounce piece of ash or maple like a scalpel, removing every shred of Angels fans’ hope with such precision not even a speech by Barack Obama could revive it. (When he wasn’t throwing out the first pitch before fateful October 2005 games in Chicago, of course. Look that up, too.)

Four players, four soul-crushing home runs … one team: the Boston Red Sox.

Henderson, of course, got this miserable party started on Oct. 12, 1986, pirouetting up the first base line as his series-altering home run off Donnie Moore denied the Angels — and their fans — their first trip to the World Series; an invitation they’d have to wait another 16 years to receive.

Most of the misery seemed to have been erased by 2004, thanks obviously to the events of October 2002; but then Jarrod Washburn was summoned to face “Big Papi” Ortiz. Out went the ball and in flooded back all the dread Angels fans thought they’d buried two years earlier.

The Red Sox, always eager to give, didn’t wait another 16 years to inflict more pain, however. Just three seasons later they were back to their old tricks, this time Ramirez taking Francisco Rodriguez over the boards in walk-off fashion. The defeat brought the postseason tally dating back to Oct. 12, 1986, to Red Sox 9, Angels 0.

And then last year, it was Drew’s turn to serve up some misery, his ALDS Game 2 home run in the ninth inning sending the Angels to their 11th consecutive playoff defeat at the hands of Boston.

Though they finally broke the streak by winning Game 3 at Fenway, the Angels would ultimately do themselves in this time in Game 4. Had Aybar finished the job and successfully bunted Manny Delcarmen’s pitch, this might be a much different column today. But he didn’t finish; his shortstop counterpart Jed Lowrie did — and that is why the Angels business today is most definitely unfinished.

With a whole season yet to play, there’s no knowing at this point if the Angels will get another chance to punch the clock against their nemesis from New England, but Angels fans collectively know that until their team sends the Red Sox home for the winter, business hours are a long way from over.

i still have the poster that @Brian Ilten printed. that was a fun day watching the game at throwbacks. 

[Hubs]

15 hours ago, Justin said:

Remember when one of the greatest players of all time reached free agency and left his team to sign the biggest contract in baseball history? 

I'm talking about ARod in December 2000. 

The Mariners won 116 games the next season. 

Do I think the Angels are going to win 116 next season? 

Yes, obviously. 

Just kidding. 

But my point is: None of us know what is going to happen. 

They brought in Ichiro… 

Maybe Jung Hoo Lee is that type of catalyst but Ichiro was already basically a HoF in Japan when he came over. 

[UndertheHalo]

Honestly I think Ohtani leaving is something like 95% @Angelsjunkyfault.  Sir.  You are a terrorist.  

Edited December 11, 2023 by UndertheHalo

[Jason]

This just further reenforces why the Angels have and always will live under the Dodgers' shadow. Its sad really.