GregAlso

If he is incapable of pulling his head out why do you think he would be capable of pulling projections out?

Last season, Angels were 7th in the AL (15th in the MLB) in runs scored with Trout, Simmons, Ohtani, Upton, and LaStella all missing big chunks of time.  Now, everyone is coming in healthy and the projected line-up is:
1 - Fletcher 2B/LF (.290 .350 OBP)
2 - Trout CF (40 HR 1.000+ OPS)
3 - Ohtani DH (30HR .900 OPS potential)
4 - Rendon 3B (30 HRs .950-1.000 OPS)
5 - Upton LF/DH (30 HRs .250 .800+ OPS)
6 - Pujols/LaStella 1B/DH/2B (Combine for 30 HR with average from .250-.300 .730-.800 OPS)
7 - Simmons SS (.280 .330 OBP 10 HRs)
8 - Goodwin/Adell RF (Goodwin capable of .260 .330 .790 OPS with 15+ HR, Adell is TBD)
9 - Castro C (.230 .330 .750 OPS 10+ HRs)
Bench: Rengifo (.230+ .330+ .700 OPS), 
Outside of the MOTO, this line-up is not "horrid" unless you are unfamiliar with its meaning.  The peaks are obviously high but the drop off after that is not as significant as we saw last season when you had a line-up featuring Taylor Ward, Matt Thaiss, Anthony Bemboom, Michael Hermosillo, Justin Bour and Jared Walsh 
 
 

There are people who think the Angels offense is only top ten (or worse)? Geez...
You guys have gotten so pessimistic you don’t even accept objective third party opinions about the team when they’re positive anymore. 
We are a top offense. Period. Not ‘the’, ‘a’ top offense. We’re in the top five. Injuries or breakout years by someone like Adell could change that but that’s roughly where we are. Anyone who says otherwise, I’ll just repeat @GregAlso‘s challenge: Prove it. Don’t just make idiotic assertions.

Arrogant much?

Based on anyone who can really project next year’s stats we have a top 5 offense. I triple dog dare you to pull up any of the publicly available projection systems, even ZiPs which is notoriously conservative, and find one where your prediction is even close. I mean where we are even 9th in the league in offense. Seriously try that. When you fail, because you will, Come back and apologize for your stupidity. Then strive to be a more realistic person, which I know is a lot to ask of you. 

Based on anyone who can really project next year’s stats we have a top 5 offense. I triple dog dare you to pull up any of the publicly available projection systems, even ZiPs which is notoriously conservative, and find one where your prediction is even close. I mean where we are even 9th in the league in offense. Seriously try that. When you fail, because you will, Come back and apologize for your stupidity. Then strive to be a more realistic person, which I know is a lot to ask of you. 

Won’t Bemboom be needed as backup to start the year? Stassi may miss time. 

By Robert Cunningham, Angelswin.com Senior Writer
Ever since the Angels missed out on Cole, Strasburg, and Wheeler (not to mention Keuchel, Ryu, and Bumgarner), some Angels fans have been in panic mode, worried about what feels, to them, like a half-season of accomplishment (Rendon, Bundy, and Teheran), since we have not acquired a front-line starter yet.
In the 2020 Angelswin.com Primer Series: Rotation, I advocated for a Cole signing as I felt it was the best application of resources in the free agent market to acquire a bonafide ace starter to be the tip of the spear in the Angels rotation.
Unfortunately, like many of the top pitchers available, Cole seemingly was always going to go to another team, in his case the Yankees. The same held true for Strasburg, Wheeler, and Bumgarner, who signed with the Nationals, Phillies, and Diamondbacks, respectively, specifically because they wanted to play and live in those cities. Really the Angels had no real chance to sign any of them without massively overspending. Letting them go and shifting momentary focus was the right thing to do for the health and competitiveness of the franchise.
As disappointing as it was, losing out on many of the top free agent starting pitchers, there were always just as many starters available in trade, albeit they may not be as elite as Gerrit or Stephen were. Improvement can come from many different sources and since we have missed out on the best targets, available in free agency, it is now time to turn to the trade market instead.
Over the next few weeks, until the Angels acquire at least one more starting pitcher, we, here at Angelswin.com, would like to present a series of articles on prospective rotation targets in the trade market. To be clear, once the Halos have brought in a front-line starter, this series will abruptly stop as there will be no further need to continue publishing the individual articles in all likelihood.
Here is a list of starting pitchers that we will discuss in this series, in no particular order:
Nathan Eovaldi Matt Boyd Tyler Mahle Carlos Martinez David Price Marcus Stroman Eduardo Rodriguez Chris Archer Jose Urena Domingo German Joe Musgrove Carlos Carrasco Seth Lugo Michael Fulmer Jon Gray Mike Clevinger Josh Hader  
Most of these pitchers throw in the mid-90's velocity range or they have strong pedigrees in terms of potential or actual performance. Some of them are currently throwing as relievers but were starters as recently as 2017-2018. All of them have interesting characteristics that can make them either front-line rotation candidates or at least give strong performances on a consistent basis, to help the Halos win ballgames. Some of them have a very steep price that the Angels are unlikely to pay, but could if they are willing to sacrifice good players and/or prospects. Additionally, some are much more likelier targets than others, based on injury risk and other value-added factors. Finally, this is not a complete list so the author will reserve the right to add a name or two if needed, if we even get that much further into the post-season without trading for another starter.
One more note, the final date to exchange arbitration numbers is approaching on January 10th. Teams and arbitration-eligible players must exchange salary figures for what they believe the player in question should be paid for the 2020 season. If a salary cannot be agreed upon prior to that date, it will go to an arbitration hearing sometime over the next month or so. Teams and players can continue to negotiate after salary figures are exchanged. A lot of teams and players come to an agreement prior to the January 10th deadline.
I bring this up because there will be a lot more clarity to the trade market soon, assuming a lot of players settle their arbitration salaries prior to the date above. Additionally the third base trade market is being held up by the Kris Bryant service time grievance and the SS trade market is being postponed by the Francisco Lindor decision resulting in many other trades being put on-hold until there is greater clarity with the elite players available in trade.
This means that the trade market should, hypothetically, kick into high gear within the next couple of weeks once some players have agreed to arbitration salaries, Chicago knows whether or not they have one or two years of control over Kris, and the Indians decide whether or not they are moving Francisco to start the 2020 season.
View the full article

great job, @ettin.
you are criminally underpaid

here's a question. which hamstrings a team more a FA contract or a depleted farm system?
this idea that FA's kill a team is bunk. albert pujols, of possibly the worst FA contract of all time, isn't what's killed this team. it's the worst ever farm system. that's what's kept pujols hitting in the middle of the order, much less a reduced role.

Most of the time a team’s improvement or decline is mostly the result of the improvement or decline of the players they already had, not the offseason additions/subtractions. 
 

No it doesn't.

Mike Clevinger is not Mike Trout. 
 
The list of players on whom you wouldn’t even listen is very very very very short. 

Some of these ideas are downright scary to me.
Your talking about 2 or 3 of our top 10 plus a major league 2B and a SP... thats just far too much.  If thats the cost, walk away.
The absolute most i would be willing to do is maybe Marsh/Rengifo and some fringe.  If thats not enough then go another direction.
This isnt an all in on '19 process peeps, stop acting like it is. 
 

Christmas has come and gone and the Angels didn't get the pitcher(s) on their Santa wish list. Being on the naughty list sucks.
If Gubi proves to be right, I won't make one single complaint about his broadcasting style for a whole season.
 

Some Trout pr0n for you in the morning.  http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=28341329

A reader forwarded this story to me and I ran it by Scott Boras and he said it’s not true. They never were told or led to believe in any way the Angels had any issue with having two Asian players. 

Bottom line for me. I'm disappointed in off season construct of the pitching staff SO FAR. But... I am willing to give Eppler the benefit of the doubt FOR NOW.
If this is the rotation they start the season with, I won't hold any great expectations.
If, as a result they fail to make the postseason, I may not be opposed to seeing Eppler not get an extension. 
I will withhold my final judgement until the season ends one way or another.
 
 

Gray.... Price.... 🤷🏻‍♂️

A friend of mine told me today. He has a couple of people in the front office he knows. Wasn’t sure how reliable they were. Guess they weren’t. 

Let’s cover all the bases.
If the Angels offered the most, then they are dumb and paid too much, and are wasting money that could be used for pitching.
If they didn’t offer the most, they were being cheap, got lucky he accepted, are not serious about winning.

As Angelswin.com melts down over the 2nd coming of C.J. Wilson.

But Chris Russo on the MLB Network said Shohei Ohtani will not be back until June 1st.

By a landslide, Ryu.
Keuchel is solid, but this team has enough innings covered at this point. Even if Canning, Heaney and Ohtani don't provide as many innings as you'd prefer, the Angels still have Sandoval, Barria, Suarez and Pena that can cover the necessary innings. 
You already know you're going to get 170+ innings and a 4.00 - 4.50 ERA from Teheran and Bundy. Keuchel would simply be another one of those guys.
If the Angels want to match up with the contenders, and if they want to have any sort of shot in the playoffs, they need someone at the top of the rotation with Ohtani. That's Ryu.