ivdown

I was tempted to not even bring him up, but he's been good in the second half, lol.

Going by WAR isn't really the most accurate way to talk about the value gained. It will only be for 1/6 of the season, but it's when every single game is important and he lengthens the lineup quite a bit. Yes, Pujols is still there, but the Angels have 7 or 8 guys hitting quite well since the AS Break. That's big.

http://baselinetimes.com/angels-acquire-tigers-upton/ Adding Justin Upton to the Angels is huge in itself, but with good second halves from Cron, Calhoun, Valbuena, Revere, Pennington, and then obviously Trout and Simmons, the Angels are poised for a big month of September. Their starting pitching is still a huge problem, but they now have one of the better lineups in baseball going by second half production. In a year when I thought the Angels should sell nearly everything once Trout went down, they have done a great job clinging this close to the playoff race, and the Upton trade is something that I believe can get them a real shot at the playoffs. Bravo, Angels.

We should all realize it's kind of ridiculous at this point in the MLB to just say "Steroids" if someone becomes a better hitter than they used to be. The power for Judge is real. My problem is that I don't think he will ever hit for great average or be over a .400 OBP guy, so he should regress in BA and OBP going forward, and has already started.

http://baselinetimes.com/mike-trout-the-2017-al-mvp-and-barry-bonds/ For real fans of baseball, and not just petty ones worried about their own team, it was awful when Mike Trout went down with an injury in May. Baseball is just better when Mike Trout is playing. Despite having missed 40-plus games, Trout's offensive season is so historic that he should absolutely be in consideration for the AL MVP if he keeps it up. Currently, Trout's got a 208 wRC+, which is good for 20th in the post-Dead Ball Era going back to 1918. The only other player on the top 20 list in the past 60 years is Barry Bonds, who has done it 4 times overall. Only 12 players have had any season with a 200 or better wRC+ since 1918, and all but four of them are HOFers. Two of those are Bonds and McGwire, one played half a season in 1919 and only 1220 in his career, and then Trout. At the current pace, Judge, Trout, and Altuve will all finish with over 8 fWAR if they remain healthy. I'm certainly rooting for that as well as the crazy MVP cases for each player. One thing to consider is even with historic numbers, voters tend to overlook them in favor of players who played the whole season, like Kershaw in the NL Cy Young voting last year.

Was just looking up Wilson a few minutes ago. He retired in 2007 and is still only 42 now. His defense just fell off a cliff, though his offense was right behind him. He had some good potential early on in his career.

Dude, you're gettin Adell! Also: You are going to Skyfall, because you got Adell. While I am surprised the Angels didn't take another catcher (i'm sure that will be their second pick, lol), this seems like a very nice pick for them.

I believe Miggy will end between 550-575. In his career he has just two 40+ HR seasons. So basically Miggy is playing from behind. Pujols - 7 40+ HR seasons Sosa - 7 40+ HR seasons Thome - 6 40+ HR Seasons Griffey Jr - 7 40+ HR seasons Mays 6 - 40+ HR seasons Arod - 8 40+ HR seasons Ruth - 11 40+ HR seasons Aaron - 8 40+ HR seasons Bonds - 8 40+ HR seasons Miggy is much more of a pure hitter than a power hitter. He still has the ability to hit really well, as shown by last season, but he is likely to finish much closer to 550 than 600 IMO.

There's so much that has to go into that situation, unfortunately. He is making such huge massive amounts of money, I wonder if the FO or ownership would push him out there even if he starts giving negative value some time in the future. With so much time left on his deal, there is very little precedent for a player making so much money getting the boot like that. Arod is a really good comp IMO. Even though he had a 2.7 fWAR season in 2015, his 2016 was just awful with -1.2 fWAR in only 65 games. Honestly Pujols could be falling off of that cliff at any time, I just hope we don't end up seeing it quite this early. So far this season Pujols has been worth -0.3 fWAR in 52 games, but if he starts hitting more HR that could start to look much better. I am in complete agreement that if the Angels are pushing for the playoffs and Pujols just isn't doing anything, they need to cut ties with him as a player. He's so slow at this point his one value is in his bat. If that value doesn't rebound, then he's just done.

Pujols has been one of my all-time favorite players since his rookie season, and I wanted to write a little bit about him joining the 600 HR club on Saturday. I wrote about his standing with the other 8 members of the group, as well as the players he can pass this year and the next 2-3 years. I'm still holding out hope for 700.

http://baselinetimes.com/albert-pujols-and-the-600-hr-club/

The last part is incredibly debatable. The NL has better pitching than the AL, so that really wouldn't matter much. The cost of his contract is definitely a concern to any team trading for him, but as with both deals he's been in so far, the team trading him has sent money to the other team to compensate for some of the contract, so I believe the same thing would happen with any future trade as well. I agree the Angels need as many prospects as they can afford, but since they are so bottom of the barrel in that regard right now anyway, it really likely wouldn't be that big of an issue for a team that needs MLB help. That's how I feel about it anyway. Thanks for the feedback.

I actually believe this as well, because I think the Angels should sell and rebuild, but I don't believe they will even consider it.

Is Pujols completely done with 1B? That would definitely be less of a plus in regards to adding Kemp, but even with the abysmal defense in LF, the Angels have had absolutely no value there in the last 3 seasos. They have had a 61, 73, and now 95 wRC+ out of the position from 2015 till now. They have had -1.5, 0.1, and now 0.5 fWAR in the same time. As I mentioned in the article Kemp has been worth 2.5 fWAR in the last 365 days, even with the defense. I'm not trying to convince anyone that he will be an MVP or a savior of a team, but there is certainly a good amount of value left in him because of his bat. The question for the Angels is who would they trade, and would it be worth it. Based on my article yesterday, my feelings are that they should sell. However, if they want to try to compete, Kemp would be very helpful in working towards that goal. I don't know the Angels farm all that well, onlya few names here and there, but I would be interested to see what you believe would be fair in a deal for Kemp, Brent. I also believe the Braves would have to eat money in any deal, probably 10-15 million, maybe as high as 20.

Man, you are saaaalty. Shockingly I've talked to Braves fans, Rangers fans, Red Sox fans, Blue Jays fans, Rockies Fans, Yankee fans, and others without the world exploding. Who would have thought?