Don

Getting gnarly in KC today too. Lowest wind chill I’ve ever seen here.

2 hours ago, Hubs said:

Drury, Renfroe and Urshela aren't big names, but all have recently been great hitters. Add that to some other guys already on the team...this could be a very very good hitting team.

We talk about these being league average guys, or middle of the lineup, but here's the Angels 2023 roster with their best recent full season OPS. (2019-2022, no 2020's.)

1 Taylor Ward, LF .833 OPS 2022

2 Mike Trout, CF .999 OPS 2022

3 Shohei Ohtani, DH .965 OPS 2021

4 Anthony Rendon, 3B  1.010 OPS 2019

5 Jared Walsh 1B, .850 OPS 2021 / Gio Urshela, INF .889 OPS 2019

6 Brandon Drury, 2B .813 OPS 2022

7 Hunter Renfroe, RF .816 OPS 2022

8 Max Stassi C, .752 OPS / Logan O'Hoppe, C .961 OPS 2022 (Minors, AA)

9 David Fletcher SS .734 OPS 2019 / Luis Rengifo SS, .724 OPS 2022

 

Ward also could be said to have better stats in several months last year, so perhaps he could get better. 

 

All part of the strategy to fill the bottom half of the lineup with guys that aren’t objectively terrible hitters. It’s a massive improvement really. In related news, I sincerely hope O’Hoppe is given every opportunity to become the regular starting catcher next year.

24 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

I'm not in love with Renfroe's statistical profile: low BA and walks = really useless if slumping, and just a smidgeon of lost bat speed alway from collapse.

But...love this move for 2023. There's no sign of decline, he's a solid player, and they Angels gave away three fringe guys - none of them on the Angelswin top 30 (they're all 30-40ish).

It's not like he's an All-Star, but he'll almost certainly be quite a bit better than 2022 Marsh/Adell/Magneuris Sierra. Going from that and Andrew Velasquez to Renfroe and Urshela (probably?) in a matter of days improves the overall lineup quite a bit. The back half of our 2022 lineup was abysmal last year, so getting dudes in there who we can count on to not be objectively terrible is a huge improvement in and of itself.

I'd consider K-Rod and Billy Wagner to be pretty close to even in terms of their HOF resume. Wagner got 51% of the vote last year. 

Honestly, I think moves like this one (along with getting someone like Benintendi, or maybe Jose Abreu) are bigger than people realize. The bottom of our lineup last season was TERRIBLE. Just getting some average to above average guys in the bottom half of the lineup makes this offense dramatically better. 

19 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

They already declined it.

2 hours ago, Hubs said:

I'd imagine a guy like Jean Segura if they think Neto is ready to be the guy in 18 months or less. 

If they signed a guy like Swanson, it just means Neto will be at 2nd.

I agree with Oracle on Mancini, and re-signing Lorenzen, but I also feel they should forgo another OF for one more year and go get Senga.

And they Always need help in the pen.

 

Segura would be great if the Phillies don't pick up his option. $17M I think. 

23 hours ago, gotbeer said:

Netflix:  All Quiet on the Western Front  I faintly remember reading this in my school days.  So I'm not sure how true it was to the book.  But overall, this was a pretty good war movie.  Thought it was well done, and worth the watch.

I’m interested to see this too. Read the book in high school, but I’m sure I’ve forgotten most of the details by now.

I took a history class in college solely devoted to WWI, and that was one of the better history courses I ever had. The gnarness of that war was just off the charts. Dan Carlin did a whole podcast series about it, Blueprint for Armageddon, that did a really good job of capturing that aspect of it.

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

Good ol’ Sky Harbor. @Don did you eat at Barrio Cafe or Los Taquitos?

Strangely, you didn’t upgrade in weather, too much, as it shows 64 in PHX and 57 in KC.

Landed at 8:45PM and basically everything was closed. One restaurant in terminal C was open, which had a crazy wait for obvious reasons. Then a McDonald’s in A or B, which only had fish left at that point. Not a fantastic three and a half hour layover.

Here again. Feels like I never left. 

Was there for this one too. Section 203. A thoroughly awesome sports experience.

3 hours ago, m0nkey said:

Brad Fullmer, my all time favorite Angel hitter

That dude's whole physical being was made entirely of steroids. Loved him.

Ben Weber? Technically a waiver pickup in 2000 if we're splitting hairs here, but dude was a huge part of that World Series team.

C - Charlie O'Brien

1B - Eddie Murray

2B - Brandon Phillips

SS -  Zack Cozart

3B - Shea Hillenbrand/Edgardo Alfonzo

OF - Steve Finley, Raul Mondesi, Shane Victorino, Vernon Wells

19 hours ago, Brandon said:

Anyone here watch Everything Everywhere All at Once? I know nothing about it, but am hearing rumblings that it’s an all-timer and the piques my interest.

It was pretty awesome. Probably the most unique movie I’ve seen in awhile. Bad-ass action sequences, yet really deep and poignant throughout, while also being really really funny. 

Leaving tomorrow for Spain. Ended up settling on a Madrid>Granada>Malaga>Seville>Toledo>Madrid itinerary. Gives us two nights everywhere other than Malaga and Toledo. Also cuts down the rail travel times to 3-ish hours or less between every stop.

2 minutes ago, eaterfan said:

Kroenke is worth about $10 billion per Google. 

Also the fifth largest private landowner in the US.

Some fun names in here:

https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

I’m glad the immigrants are exactly as pretty as they’d like to be at least.

20 hours ago, Taylor said:

I could have bumped it from 1987.

 

 

 

People were pretty in to bumps then.

25 minutes ago, mrwicked said:

It's amazing. 
Where are you flying in to / out of? How long are you there?

Gonna spend ten days there. Flying into Madrid. Right now we’re planning on Madrid (obviously), Malaga, Granada, Seville, Barcelona, Valencia. Thinking just take high speed rail where possible between those places and spend 1-2 days everywhere (maybe add days somewhere/cut a city out of the plans if we’re feeling like it). It’s a pretty loose plan really. Not gonna book much in advance and try to keep as much flexibility as possible.

Any Spain Pro’s in here? Booked a trip there for September and I’m willing to listen to any ideas/suggestions/tips y’all may have.

5 minutes ago, mmc said:

Gonna guess Winker and Wantz each get 3 games, 2 for Crawford, Nevin and Servais one apiece, not sure about Iglesias

Thinking Winker will get more than that for sure.

I'm sure it's been said earlier in the thread, but it seems to primarily be a depth issue to me. We're good to very good on the front end of just about everything, but very sub-par on the back end of just about everything. Lineup, bench (not great all around), rotation, bullpen, etc... The really good teams seem to put together rosters that are above average at the front end, tapering to average or just slightly below at the very back end. It's just hard to consistently win games if guys like Velazquez, Wade, and Rengifo are getting regular plate appearances. With the bullpen I'll admit that it's as much a function of guys underperforming reasonable expectations as it is depth. At least the FO really tried there this last offseason. It just hasn't worked out. As for the rotation, we just haven't gotten much out of the 4-6 slots this year, which I think everyone understood was a gamble going into the season anyway. 

1 hour ago, True Grich said:

Tim Salmon was great, but I enjoyed Erstad's speech more... he really articulated the mindset of the team in a way that was inspiring.  Salmon's speech felt like a speech (and a good one) and Erstad's speech felt like a talk from the heart.  Regardless it was great to see many of the old faces and hear the stories. 

I always thought Erstad was over-rated as an offensive player, but he was awesome as a team leader and a great defender.  He had Moxie.

GGGRRRRIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!