Toby Ziegler

I'd be much happier to see Morin and Mulder make the roster than Blanton and Jepsen. Borenstein is the guy I'm looking at the most though, I think he's our Kole Calhoun 2.0 and could help the DH/OF situation. If Borenstein proves he's legit and Cron can get his power stroke back, we'll have a pair of nice pieces to replace Raul after, or even during, 2014. Angels positional players by 2015 if all goes right: 
 
Trout CF (duh)
Pujols 1B/DH (I think Pujols will still be our first baseman but he'll start the steady transition to the DH role)
Cron 1B/DH (spells Albert at first for 40-50 games at first, DH's against lefties)
Kendrick and Aybar up the middle
Freese at the hot corner
Iannetta/Conger at backstop
Borenstein LF/DH (replaces Shuck)
Hamilton LF/DH (gotta keep the DH spot open for Albert and Hamilton, Cron and Borenstein help with that.)
Calhoun RF
Romine/Stamets the utility IF

A few of us have discussed how some guys get dismissed as prospects for one reason or another -- this article revisits some of those discussions.   It's very long, but IMO, a good read.
 
http://conorglassey.com/baseball-americas-blind-spots-2/
And Toby, if you're reading -- there IS a Zach reference.

Maybe "untouchable" was a weeee bit strong.
I'm just happy to have in this org a lefty power hitter with a compact swing who also has solid plate discipline.   
We don't see many of those.   

I'm just going to say that Howie is absolutely a good defensive 2nd baseman and the statistics back that up.
He easily passes the eye test for me as well... If that means anything.

Or, one could argue that since they don't back your argument, you are dismissing them.  No?
 
I may be making a fun argument, but at least it's my attempt to be silly.  Where you are actually being serious.

I have decided that Jeff Mathis is the best player in baseball................
 
ever.
 
 
 
All with my eyes.   
 
 
 
 
Everyone else is wrong.

Dude you can't just throw out any and all stats and use just "your eyes" to base your point on. I mean come on.

Well since this is all a matter of opinion that is kind of pointless. Especially since you have already decided that anyone else's evaluations are wrong.

Scotty, you are wildy off on this Howie is a below average second baseman stuff.  Its amazingly bad for somebody who considers themselves a person who is able to acess baseball skills.
 
Every metric and and every eye test, every stat out there says the same thing, Howie is good.  Not great, but good.  Grant Green might end up being a good hitter.  But his wooden reactions at second base tell me he will never be an equal to Howie.  Now Green could prove me wrong in the future because he has years ahead of him.  Howie has years behind him of proof of his skill level.
 
In other words scotty, you are flat out wrong.

Prior to not being a 2B he wasn't a SS.  Then he wasn't a CFer.   Then he wasn't a LFer.  Then he wasn't a 3B for like 15 games.
 
Grant Mamula is a DH.

Some scout really missed the boat on Cron. Wily Mo Pena is written all over him.Borenstein >>>>> Cron, in a lot of categories, AND like Cron he doesn't K a lot.
Cron should be the fringe top 10 org guy, and Borenstein should be the top 3 org guy with that short and powerful swing.

That's misleading, considering 7 of Cron's 16 walks from June-September were of the intentional variety. So that's 9 unintentional walks during the last 3+ months of the season, or an average of 3 unintentional walks per month. He had 5 unintentional walks (combined) in April and May. He took 16 unintentional walks all of last season.
 
I don't really see a legit improvement...just an illusion.
 
That said, hopefully he improves on that next year.

He had a grand total of 23 walks all season in AA, so forgive me for not putting much stock in the fact that he walked "more" in the last two months than in other months...

not totally but we are not trying to project how he will be.  We have eight years of results.  Even with mildly immature defensive metrics, a sample size that large tells us something. 
 
If it's your opinion that despite these results you still see him as a below average defender then there is not much we can say to that although I do think this assessment is somewhat veiled with your trying to make an arguement for trading Howie. 
 
Hey, we all have our opinions of course.  Green could end up a very capable replacement, but I don't thing you need to diminish howie's skills to try and sell us on it. 

So did you see how often Grant Green quit on anything hit to his right? or in the air?   Did you notice how he's been an abject failure defensively at every position he's played in the minors?
Grant Green is the guy putting up pretty numbers at the combine that goes out and gets knocked on his ass every snap.
 
Grant Green is MLB's Mike Mamula.

So it's just a matter of opinion then -- and your opinion is he's below average.  Fine.
 
All I know is that when EVERY defensive metric all says that a guy is an above average defender -- he likely is.  People can cling to the line that defensive metrics leave a lot to be desired but if you know their limitations you know what to look for. 
 
HK passed the eye test a long time ago.

Not going to argue that defensive metrics aren't flawed(although I think they're the best stat-based defensive tool we have at our disposal at the fan level), but even by what I've seen I would call Howie comfortably above average defensively. 
 
Maybe not great or anything, but certainly not bad or even below average.

I am trying to be as respectful as possible to you Scotty, but you trying to give us your scout's eye on how Kendrick plays defense and telling us he's not very good is you losing the forest for the trees.  Howie has eight years of results and tons of us seeing him on a regular basis.  Every metric you could possibly look at with ample data indicate he's slighlty above average.  Our eyes tell us the same thing.  He may have the deficiencies that you've indicated, but we have actual results of how he's made that work for him to be above average.  
 
Grant Green may end up getting better, but he's nowhere near producing the defensive results that Howie has.  That's a big concern for 2014 and 2015.  Especially because his bat isn't nearly as good as well.

He totally passes the eye-test for me.  I really can't believe you think he's below average.

Howie Kendrick is a great second baseman.
 
Fangraphs Def.:
 
2011: 16.0
2012: 6.3
2013: 3.9
 
UZR:
 
14.4
4.9
2.6

What? Is this a joke?

It's someone trying really hard to make Grant Green look better...   To the point of making shit up.   HK passes the eye test and the metrics all point to his being a better than average defender.

I'm gonna need to see a whole year of that before being convinced. 

Here's mine...
Sign one more bullpen arm, a southpaw, one of Mujica or Howell.
How about Eric Aybar and Zach Borenstein for Daniel Murphy and Rafael Montero. Murphy is our 2B and Yarbrough becomes our replacement for Murphy down the road. The Mets have Wilmer Flores for 2B and are said to be shopping Murphy.
Then trade Howie Kendrick and Mark Sappington for Chris Tillman. Brian Roberts or Alexi Casilla are not the answer and Roberts can't stay healthy. The O's have a pretty deep rotation as far as depth. The O's need to keep pace with everyone else in the AL East.
Sign Bartolo Colon for a 2-year deal with an option for year #3. This takes the A's best pitcher away from them and gives us a solid #3. Despite Colon's age, he's not slowing down anytime soon. He has the best two-seam fastball with life in the game and an incredible cutter.
Sign Rafael Furcal with Romine to back up. Furcal was out all of 2013 due to TJ surgery, but he knows how to work the count, still has some speed to steal as many bases as Aybar would, and bring a veteran with good defense up the middle to make up for the loss of Aybar's D. I'm pretty sure Furcal can be had for pretty cheap.
The bullpen and rotation are fixed, we improved our weakness at 3B and we've added a good young arm that could even get some work as a rookie in 2014 out of the bullpen down the road, or be that guy if an arm goes down.
How it would look.
CF Mike Trout
2B Daniel Murphy
1B Albert Pujols
LF Josh Hamilton
DH Mark Trumbo
RF Kole Calhoun
3B David Freese
C Hank Conger/Chris Iannetta
SS Rafael Furcal
SP Weaver
SP Wilson
SP Colon
SP Tillman
SP Richards
SP Montero (In AAA)
RP Frieri
RP De La Rosa
RP Smith
RP Mujica or Howell
RP Burnett
RP Kohn
RP Williams (long man)
Your turn, Angels fans

Nope, don't really have a problem with it, other than when the writer said he wasn't any good in Low-A in 2012.
 
 
Zach Borenstein â€“ The outfielder was named Cal League MVP last season and for good reason, he absolutely torched the league.  He’s a prospect I’m somewhat confused by.  First of all, he’s built like a tank and bats left-handed, how were scouts not impressed by him in college?  Why wasn’t he any good in A Ball and all of a sudden amazing in the Cal League?  Given that he was old for the league, I think this was just a case of Borenstein finding his comfort zone and taking advantage of the extreme hitting conditions the league presents batters with.  Regardless, he’s playing against the best prospects in the game in the AFL, so we’ll get a chance to really see what he’s made of.  And so far, he’s not doing very well at all, which isn’t terribly damaging to his bandwagon but at the same time it lends credence to those who believe his numbers were a Cal League mirage.
 
The writer poses a good question about why scouts weren't more impressed with him in college. There was that one scouting report I posted, which was overall very flattering. But I've always wondered about this as well, and I have my theories. At any rate, if he had gotten back to the Marlins sooner, he would have been taken in the 17th round. The Pirates would have taken him in the 9th round on the condition that he put the gear on.
 
He was actually pretty good last year in Low-A, so that part I take exception with. He had the 5th best OPS and the 6th best SLG in the Angels' farm system in 2012.
 
I've already gone over the adjustments Zach made this year in his thread. The Cal League's hitting environment played a part, but that certainly wasn't the main reason for his success.
 
As far as what he's doing right now in the AFL, he doesn't really play, so yeah... He's played 12 games in like 35 days. When you sit out for 2-4 days at a time, your timing is going to be off. And hitting is all about timing. Plus, I just think he's tired from his first full pro season. See Trout and Baez in the AFL. I know he's pissed off about his performance. I told him not to beat himself up over it. He hasn't really been put in a position to succeed. That didn't go over too well. He's still pissed off. And just looking at the numbers, his BABIP is crazy low, his strikeouts are acceptable, and he's walking at a very high rate. He's lined out hard a bunch of times right at guys. Pretty fair to say that he's suffering from some serious bad luck.
 
The offseason will do him good. Rest up, hit the gym, eat better, gain some weight back, take your mind off of baseball for awhile.