nikkachez

Not sure how much it would take to get him, but he would fit like a glove. Walk and K rates are in line with his career norms, his ISO is higher than normal seems to be a product of bad luck (.228 average with a .264 BABIP). Just don't think the Angels have the depth of prospects to get a deal done that they'd be comfortable with. But maaaan, Belt would be a huge boost for the club. He'd be a great 3-4 hitter once Trout's back, but knowing Scioscia, he'll be the 5 hitter behind Pujols. 1-2-3-4-5 of Maybin, Trout, Belt, Pujols, and Calhoun has some potential (sans Pujols). 

21 minutes ago, Angel Dog and Beer said:

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/4/18/15148162/2017-mlb-draft-austin-beck-of-arcadia-north-carolina

Comparisons to Trout. He does have a sweet compact swing though and the speed.

 

Dude's a stud

8 hours ago, Brent Maguire said:

I think Eppler goes high upside position player(Adell or Lewis if he falls) or the college pitcher route. David Peterson is a guy whose really impressing with 3 above average pitches and may be available at 10. This draft doesn't have as much depth as last year but there could be some upside guys(Mitchell, Heatherly, Thompson) or college relief arms(Lange, Houck) at 47, when they select again. Very curious to see the route Eppler and Swanson go. 

Don't sleep on Austin Beck, that might be one of my favorite players from this draft. 

Chris and Elvin Rodriguez, Brandon Marsh, Jahmai Jones, Jaime Barria, and Eduardo Paredes (the next prospect to get the call). Foundation for rebuilding the farm. 

I'm hoping Bukauskas slides to #10 with some prospects getting some helium as the draft nears, that would be a nice mixture of upside and close-to-Major-League-ready the team needs. Take a couple more high-upside prep players (Marsh, Rodriguez, Williams, and Duensing) with the next couple of picks, get ready to jump back into the international market again. Very interested to see what Swanson and the new scouting department do. 

Never been high on Profar, if you can get him for next to nothing, that's the only scenario I'd welcome Jurickson. 

Won't have to have a debate when they're hitting 2 and 3 for the Angels.

Trade Escobar for anything you can get, platoon Valbuena and Marte. Escobar's a one trick pony and don't think his .350 OBP and negative baserunning and defense is enough to make up for Revere/Maybin's .320-.330 OBP and + baserunning and average to + defense. 

Well if this spring is any indication, it hasn't worked 

Sounds like we should hope Jordon Adell hits this spring and makes everyone else drop down a spot. 

The one on Perez definitely supports the eye test, I feel like Carlos never squares up the ball

Royals signing Moss, so that would seemingly eliminate them. 

I don't mind if Trout doesn't want to take place in it. Feel 100% okay with it, in fact. 

12 hours ago, JustATroutFan said:

Don't see the Angels finishing 3rd. Seattle still has better pitching to me because of King Felix and Iwakuma are better than Richards and Shoemaker. They also have a nice #3 starter in Paxton, something I don't see the Angels having. Offense won't be the problem for the Angels, it's their pitching. I guess it's still possible that the Angels prove doubters wrong like in 2014 but that's only if both Richards and Shoemaker puts up ERA's in the 3.00-3.50 range or something like that and have another pitcher coming out of nowhere to put up good numbers.

 

Ask Seattle fans how  "secure" they feel about Felix and Iwakuma, health provided, Garrett and Skaggs are currently better. Felix has a ton of mileage on his arm. 

This is a pretty great minor league deal, this team is getting much deeper and deeper. 

21 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Rosenthal has some more on the Angels signing Valbuena, saying that is was done as a result of concerns about Pujols being ready. At the bottom though, he mentions the plan is for Valbuena to take over at 3B in 2018. 

 

I get it, but I still don't think you sign a Valbuena just because you think Pujols will miss a bit of time, you know? I was hoping they'd sign Moustakas next winter, and I'm still kind of hoping they do, but this definitely makes that look way less likely. Either way, nice to get some positional depth (seeing as Escobar, Espinosa, Maybin, and Revere are all free agents after this year, they were going to need to fill all of those positions). 

Angels claimed Juan Graterol back off of waivers after designating him for assignment, getting claimed by Cincinnati, claimed by Arizona, and now back to Anaheim. Blake Parker was designated again to make room for Graterol. Tony Sanchez and Graterol in Salt Lake isn't too shabby at all. 

Although, I imagine Graterol will be the odd man out when they sign Wieters. 

Trout, Pujols, Miggy, Ichiro, Ortiz (I know he retired), Cano, Beltre, Beltran, Kershaw, Molina, Posey, Sabathia, Utley, Machado, Harper, Bryant, and maybe Chapman/Stanton. 

Billy's almost finished with arbitration salaries already. Agreed with Espinosa last night on a deal for $5.425 million ($125K more than his projected salary), and they've agreed with Kole ($6.35 million is lower than his $6.9 million projected salary), Garrett ($6.85 millions vs. his projected $7 million), and Shoemaker ($3.325 million vs. his projected $3.8 million) on deals today. Eppler working fast, saved just over $1 million dollars (for now, still have to settle with Maldonado), but it's nice to see them hammering this stuff out. Now get Maldonado done. 

5 minutes ago, DMVol said:

Don't think his market has dropped that far Jeff....Boras overplays his hand occasionally and he may have here but wouldn't expect that kind of drop off....heck, that's Jesse Chavez money....

Maybe add some heavy performance incentives? If he hits them, he'd probably be worth it. The current catching duo could quite possibly not crack a .600 OPS. 

I'm hoping for more pitching, but losing faith that they will add some. 

If it's a one-year deal, absolutely. Move Chavez to his natural position as a swingman, move Meyer into the bullpen full-time (I think he's thrive there), improve two areas with one addition. Still like to see them add a lefty reliever in this scenario (Blevins, Logan, Wood). Scott Feldman could make sense in this scenario as well. 

Richards, Shoemaker, Skaggs, Nolasco, Hammel/Feldman

Chavez, Ramirez, Guerra, Meyer, Logan/Blevins, Bedrosian, Street (with Alvarez and Morin as depth). 

Need guys like Jahmai and Thaiss to come up and provide boosts to the organization in upcoming years, making a couple of free agent splashes would also help. Having some of his good friends (Garrett and Pujols) around would seem to help as well. My dream is a starting 9 of Trout, Jahmai, Kole, Andrelton, Moustakas, Cron/Thaiss, Pujols, and then a smorgasbord for catcher and second base in a few years. 

23 minutes ago, disarcina said:

well $20 million for one year of Bautista seems a bit expensive.

Cron's ST performance could be the key -- I am not sold on Cron. He's gotten better defensively, still K's too much.

 

I have to disagree with this, Cron's always been good about putting the ball in play. He had a 16.9% K rate last season, that's VERY good for someone with a .467 SLG%. Put another way, guys he had a lower K% than: J.D. Martinez, Freddie Freeman, Todd Frazier, George Springer, Wil Myers, Nelson Cruz, Ian Desmond, Brandon Belt, Dexter Fowler, Jackei Bradley Jr., Kris Bryant, Rougned Odor, Paul Goldschmidt, Jason Kipnis, Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Correa, Evan Longoria, Christian Yelich, Odubel Herrera, Gregory Polanco, Mike Trout, Brian Dozier, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Bautista, Eric Hosmer, Starling Marte, Edwin Encarnacion, Corey Seager, Bryce Harper, Matt Carpenter, Troy Tulowitzki, Jonathan Lucroy, Joey Votto, Kole Calhoun, Ryan Braun, Manny Machado, Justin Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Beltran, and Josh Donaldson. He woud've been tied for 95th in baseball with Ian Kinsler had he played the whole season. Cron offers a very unqiue skillset of offering + power and limiting K's, that's a very rare combination.

My offseason homework for Cron is simple, keep improving his BB% (went up to 5.4% last year which, while still an improvement, could get better), keep improving as a first baseman defensively, and don't get hit on the hand by a pitch.  

They're not trading Kole, I'm not buying this. Unless a team is willing to overpay heavily with cost-controlled pitching for Cron while guys like Trumbo, Carter, Napoli, and others are on the market, it doesn't make sense to me. Prediction: the Angels don't make a move for a bat (although I wouldn't mind Derek Norris or Jose Lobaton if Washington does sign Wieters), they'd be better off adding pitching through free agency and calling it a winter.