Dave Saltzer

It's a new year, time for our system to shine. Guys like Rada, Dana, Rios, Paris, and Kent to take big steps forward and guys like Adell, Joyce, Schanuel, and Bachman to grow into their skills. Please post all things related to the Angels Minor Leagues in here. And Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Years everyone.

Welcom aboard! If you want to grow your social media presence, why don't you write an article for the website with some of your unique thoughts? You can send an article to Chuck or me for editing and publishing.

You are in fact, correct. He's not even halfway through his current contract, that takes him through his age 38 season. I see plenty of room to add an "extention" for a player going into his age 39 season. It wouldn't have anything to do with adding a lot more money for adding 2 years, deferring 97% and actually lowering the AAV of the contract. As for Juan Soto, his agent will argue that he is "special" too because he is so much younger than Ohtani that even though his isn't a 2-way player, that his deal is worth $550 million, especially with Ohtani level deferrals. All players and teams are "special" at the high end of the market. What the Dodgers and Ohtani did with these deferrals is a gross manipulation of the system. O sire jp[e that in the next CBA that the other owners clamp down on this and even recoup what the Dodgers have deferred to Ohtani.

Tell that to Bryce Harper who already wants to renegotiate his contract and Juan Soto who turned down $440 million....

First, thank you for taking the time to think it through and coming back with a reasoned response. I appreciate that. Last year, Mickey Moniak put up a 2.2 WAR season (according to Baseball-Reference) for league minimum. Take Jo Adell's numbers...he posted 0.3 WAR in 58 ABs. That's almost a 2 WAR pace like Heyward if you stretch out the ABs to the same as Heyward and Moniak. Every year at the end of ST there are plenty of guys that a team can get out of the scrapheap that can and probably would put up 2-3 WAR (not guaranteed that they would, but have the potential, but the same is true for Heyward and Yelich) who can potentially put up 2-3 WAR for near league minimum. So. if you average out all the FAs like Heyward and all the non-tender candidates, etc. the cost for an OF who can put up those numbers on a year-by-year basis isn't really that high. I would certainly say that Yelich is the better bet over Heyward. But is it $19 million better? I think for around $11-12 million, we could get close to Yelich on a yearly basis. That's how I came up with my gross overpay on Yelich's contract. And, remember, Yelich is 31, which is when most OFers start to level out and then decrease by 34. We'd have ages 32-37, so, how do you project him aging? (I think he will hold up, which is why I'd do the deal). How much of an overpay do you think Yelich's contract is on a yearly or total basis? And, how do you justify it? I'm willing to take on ALL of Yelich's contract because it's only my money (and it's not my money!!!!), and we get a year of Burnes to work with him and Borass to work out an extension. Plus, it solves several of our holes for less than what we will most likely spend on Ohtani. Now, to be clear, I'd still go after Ohtani, and I believe Arte would go over the luxury tax to keep the unicorn because his international star power has the economic draw to jusity it. But, thre rest of my plan was to sign JD Martinez and improve the BP. All of what I'm saying can be done without breaking the luxury tax and would make us a better team. I don't want to argue Yelich's defense, as there are widely varying opinions on that. Let's just say it's average for LF or ignore it entirely, as he's not elite enough to justify him being a glove first defender.

I'm a definite maybe if my health allows.

The same world that saw him post really subpar numbers from 2020 to 2022 and has 5 more years guaranteed on his contract. On a year by year basis, you can find an OFer with comparable numbers for about $8 to 10 million. Who would you rather have (both are LH): Player A: .269/.340/.473 Player B: .278/..370/,447 One just signed for $9 million. The other is owed about $28 million (his contract is a bit backloaded and has a big buyout if I recall correctly). So yes, Yelich currently is overpaid about about $17-19 million. I'm looking at what I could pay on the open market now to get similar production. Burnes, on the other hand, is underpaid by about $10 million, so next year, it would be mostly okay to do the deal I suggested, and hope that we can sign Burnes to an extension.

You can't think that way. If you do, you will miss out on most trades. I could easily say that by bringing Burnes here, he falls in love with the place and signs an extension in February. It's a crapshoot that in my trade proposal would cost us Rengifo and Suarez--neither of whom will move the needle that much for us. Yes, other teams *could* trade more than we can. But, they might prefer Cease or Glasnow and wouldn't have to absorb a bad contract (yes, Yelich had a good year last year, but he's still overpaid by about $17-18 million). So, if they can trade for any of them, why do the deal where they have to take on payroll. And, how many of them have the space for Yelich to play? With regional broadcasting dollars in flux, many teams are being very hesitant, so I'm told, about spending this year. As much as Ohtani is holding up the market, money is also holding up the market because teams are being far more cautious (again, so I'm told by people in the biz). Finally, regarding Yelich, as the AW saying goes, it's not my money. Maybe Arte received bad health news (I hope not, as I hope no one does). So, he could be motivated. If I'm Minasian and could swing the deal I proposed, I would convince Arte to do it. We need more stable guys who take walks, and Yelich fits that bill. Adell and Moniak can switch off in RF, but both are freeswingers. So, limiting them to essentially 1 position, makes us a better club.

I really don't think it would cost all that much for Burnes if we took on all of Yelich's contract. Luckily, Angels fans are used to overpays, especially in the OF. I've run it through the trade simulators, and trading them Rengifo alone according to the evaluator is more than fair value back to them. They really are in some payroll crunch time, need to move an OFer, appear ready to be signing their top prospect (a CFer), and need middle infield help with offensive upside. Sounds to me like Rengifo and Suarez should be more than fair for a pitcher that they will lose in a year, major financial relief, and filling their MIF need makes us line up well for them. As you and I have discussed, this would be my offseason plan. Trade for Burnes and Yelich. Sign Ohtani if possible to DH and if not, signing JD Martinez. And build up our bullpen. Our team needs more players who draw walks throughout the lineup, so we can have more balanced production. We had way too many free swingers last year in our lineup. As for my offer to Ohtani, it would be as such: $45 miliion a year guaranteed per year for 10 years making him the highest paid player in the game, just as a hitter. Add in $1 million for every 10 innings, rounded up (so at 10.1 innings he gets $2 million). If he pitches 150 innings, he's at an insane amount of $60 million for that year. Bonuses for All Star Appearances, awards, etc. Opt outs for him after years 2, 4, and 6. The Angels get 1 opt out after year 5.

I have no idea what my health will be like then, but I am going to make every effort to go. I don't have many connections right now with Minor Leaguers because of trades and my inability to get out there as much as I used to. But, if we can get some players, Fletcher, and some others, that would be awesome.

I miss our old Fanfests. Those were great times.

Haven't said it all season, but thanks for posting all the transactions. It has made my life easier.

Are you sure that Schanuel and Joyce will qualify? Even if they stay below ABs, won't they surpass time on the ML roster?

Great interview and great get! I don 't know if people on here realize how hard it is to get Perry for an interview. I would love to sitdown with him in the offseason to discuss things, but I am very happy that you got this for the site. Additionally, I very much appreciated having both your commentary AND the full interview listed. That gave us both context and the overall response from Perry so we could see how you interpreted it and how he said. Again, VERY happy that you got this. And, good job!

Thanks @taylorblakeward for writing this. Good to know that we have some young talent to watch. We will need it with the amount of graduates and trades we've made!

Will you ever be willing and/or comfortable discussing some possible trades that may have been rumored, even amongst the press corps, about what an Ohtani trade would have brought back from certain teams, or teams in general (maybe say a team with an organization ranked in the 5-10 range offered its #1, 2, 15, 18, and 20th ranked players)?

Good post, and a few thoughts: 1) Yes, the time to trade him, if we were trading him, was last year at the deadline or in the offseason. Our haul would have been much better. Having said that, we would have gotten back more than Quero and Bush for Ohtani. 2) Almost all teams that would have traded for him would have done so to showcase their organization to Ohtani to sell him on their team. So, paying more for him than a generic rental would have cost more. 3) I don't think anyone was saying that we could have come acquired something close to him in a trade, even in 2 players. The question was whether or not we could improve the team overall and win more in the long run by trading him that an extra draft pick that we get next year (assuming we don't sign him, and assuming we don't draft the next Mike Trout with that pick). 4) Maybe Arte and Perry came to an understanding on the parameters of a future deal with Ohtani and decided to go for it with him as part of that deal. I believe that he is mostly happy here, and if we can show that we can win, will stay if the numbers are comparable. 5) Maybe Perry and Arte realized that what they would get back for Ohtani wasn't worth the chance of signing him (kind of the flip of what teams have to consider when trading for him). 6) When I went by the team store today at about 3:45 pm, there were 30+ people in there buying mostly Ohtani merchandise.\ Now, having said all that: 1) If we are going all in, we should go all in a bit more and continue to upgrade, without totally decimating the team (by say trading Joyce, Silseth, Bachman, etc.). 2) A discussion needs to be had at some point with him and his agent, if that winning is important to him, and we don't make the postseason this year, it isn't due to our lack of trying. It has much more to do with the team's health and that he and Trout have only been in the same lineup about 60% of the time, and even then, he wasn't a 2-way play and star for all those games. 3) Can we please end the whole "Angels are wasting Trout and Ohtani's careers' theme? If Ohtani stays, it's his life, as long as we continue to try and improve and win. Finally 1) I know that @Jeff Fletcher has disagreed with me in the past about the idea of presenting Ohtani with a sales pitch of committing to spending a certain amount every year independent of Ohtani's deal (it's not likely that a player's contract could have, or that MLB would agree to such a clause because of the potential long term impact on future deals, but then again, they might frown upon agreeing to give an ownership stake in the team as part of the deal for the same reason), one can have a handshake deal to do exactly that. The reason why we would give him multiple opt-outs would be how we ensure that we live up to our commitments. He can always opt out, if we don't spend as we promised. 2) Whatever team does sign Ohtani (and I sure hope it is us), needs to consider something. Let's assume that Ohtani gets about $55 million/year deal for about 8 to 10 years. Whatever team that signs him to that, is going to want to win and most likely will have a payroll without Ohtani around $200+ million/year already, and probably higher. That's one of the supposed reasons why the Dodgers lowered their payroll this year to reset their luxury tax hit. However, when one adds in Ohtani's future contract, that will push just about any team over the luxury tax, and many teams like the Mets, Padres, Dodgers, Yankees, etc. into a position where they are $40 million or more over the luxury tax. I believe it is at that point that a team starts to have its 1st round draft pick pushed back 10 spots in the 1st round (unless the team finishes in the bottom 6 teams in record, in which case it is its second round pick). Whatever team realistically signs Ohtani is going to hit that threshold, which will over the life of the contract, hinder that team's ability to draft as high quality players, especially in the first round. Granted, if the team goes deep into the postseason year in and year out, who cares, there's *that* much of a difference of picking 28th or 38th. Still, Ohtani's deal will most likely hamper the future overall organization for whatever team realistically signs him.

Yeah, I think he's outgrown SS, and will move to 3B. He was listed as a SS/3B in the Cape Cod League before signing with us. Interestingly, he also got a couple of games in the OF there. Here are a couple of good articles on Blake: https://capecodchronicle.com/en/5827/sports/10603/Blake-Brings-Big-Bat-Steady-Approach-To-Firebirds-Lineup-Cape-Cod-Baseball-League-Orleans-Firebirds.htm and https://www.trentonian.com/2023/07/11/former-hopewell-valley-and-hun-standout-andy-blake-ivy-player-of-the-year-at-columbia-signs-with-angels/ The Angels really seemed to want him with the way they pounced on him and raised their offer.

Assuming No Neto, O'Hoppe, Bachman, Joyce, Soriano, etc., I'd rank them like this: 1. Quero 2. Schanuel 3. Bush 4. Dana 5. Rada 6. Paris 7. Madden 8. Albright 9. Adams 10. Blakely

Some of us have already been hard at work on this, but a lot of discussion occurred to wait until after the trade deadline. I agree with these guys, but would also add Minacci. Then again, I believe that we will see about a third of our list either being open spots due to aging out in the Majors or trades. And, who knows if we get a bunch of new prospects back in trades.

How to pitch? Easy. Watch a few hours of the Angels blowpen and don't do what they do.

They do. Here is some of the publicly available info on Schanuel. From: https://www.mlb.com/news/nolan-schanuel-guide Schanuel played five games this season against either the Gators or another high-major, top-25 squad in the Miami Hurricanes. He went 12-for-21 with seven home runs. Random fun facts

You have a problem with fleecing instead of being fleeced?

Agreed. Maybe Ohtani, Ward, Rengifo, and Soriano for Lawlar, Jones, and Pfaadt. I just want AZ to make an offer like this so we can stick it to the Dodgers. We would have such a young nucleus to build around, that it would work out well for us.

Lawlar, Jones, and Pfaadt would get the job done, IMHO.