nikkachez

This is one area of concern for me, I think Perez and Maldonado are fine as backups, but one has to start and finding a catcher on the free agent market in upcoming years just isn't an option (unless you want to overpay for a 32-year old Jonathan Lucroy next winter). Catcher is a position of long-term uncertainty for me (up there with second base, third base, and left field).

Thaaaaank you

I wish they had oooooone more impact bat to slide Trout up to the 2 spot, I think he should hit 2nd anyway, but I'd feel way better about it if they had just one more big impact bat. 1. Yunel 2. Trout 3. Mystery Hitter 4. Pujols 5. Calhoun 6. Cron Drool*

Maybin, but we'll see a lot of Revere

Hell yes! That should be a fun 4th outfielder.

Uhhhh we don't even want Street, why would anyone else (for anything of value too)? The answers to those positions are not by trading Yunel, Nolasco, Street, Espinosa, or any of the other impending free agents unless Eppler pulls of a miracle and lands an everyday second baseman for 2 months of Yunel Escobar. Their best bet would be to get Heaney/Trop back and trading a starter for an area of need (which also makes me uncomfortable).

Moustakas seems like an Eppler-type move. He's a very solid third baseman defensively, he makes a ton of contact, walks at a decent clip, good pop. He'll only be 29, he's from Los Angeles, fills a long-term need of the franchise, coincides with Eppler's ability to spend and with the new CBA, you're not forfeiting a 1st round pick. It makes too much sense honestly. So I think that's how Eppler will end the splurging drought, probably won't won't be a huge market for third basemen next winter, Angels should capitalize on that. What concerns me is the need for a left fielder, second baseman, catcher, and some more pitching. Sound familiar? Hahaha And there are no answers for those in free agency next year unless they want an aging Lucroy

One more season of Yunel, thank god, I'm not a big fan of his. Moustakas next winter or Machado the winter after that, that's what I'm hoping Eppler is waiting to spend on. Machado could change the course of the franchise. Plus the new M&M boys hitting in the middle of the lineup? Mike and Manny in the peaks of their careers, babyyy (Machado will be 26 when he's a free agent, Mike will be 27 heading into the 2019 season).

Must've been one of the easier primers to write-up (next to center field) But seriously, Andrelton''s the best defensive player in the game. Him and Espinosa will be a lot of fun to watch. Dreading the idea of watching Yunel again, though.

It's early, but this draft is heavy on collegiate pitching, exactly what the Angels need. I'd love to end up with Lange, his curveball's filthy, him or McKay would be nice gets for a system that lacks pitching.

Antiquated, while you can't let teams around and carelessly, it's not a major aspect of the game anymore. And the more we learn about catching defense, the more it just becomes another factor in evaluating catching defense. Goddamn, I feel like I've had to post this link a million times, HERE IT IS AGAIN if you're interested in seeing how the Dbacks are trying to evaluate it. And here is how it factors into another way of evaluating pitchers, Deserved Runs Against. Give both a read. They're worth the time. Everyone seems wary of it because they don't know what it is.

Can't see why teams would undervalue pitch-framing just because of where they play (especially a team trying to extract as much value from their pitching staff as possible).

Interesting idea, he ranks very well in terms of catching defense, offensively, he's kind of like another Martin Maldonado. He does another thing Eppler seems to be trying to improve: baserunning. It's catcher, so obviously you're not looking for a burner, but using FanGraphs' baserunning metric (BsR), they made a huge upgrade from Bandy (-3.5) to Maldonado (-0.3). Wolters runs very well for a catcher, and it showed (+2.0 BsR). The Angels were 27th in baserunning last year, Maybin, Espinosa, and Malonado replacing Bandy will help with that, but it's another subtle way to improve a team. You get that much better defensively, Wolters is an improvement over Perez with the stick, and he adds value on the bases. I wouldn't trade Cron in that deal (not even really that keen on trading Cron), but maybe kill two birds with one stone? I'm sure they'd like to get rid of one of their left-handed outfielders, and at the top, I'm sure Gerardo Parra's there. Send Perez with an "Austin Adams of the world" for Wolters and Parra? Get your left-handed hitting 4th outfielder, another catcher to complement Maldonado, and you clear up the catching situation. He's their starting catcher, so I'm sure they're not eager to deal him, but I like the idea.

Yeah, it's mostly wishful thinking. He's a free agent next winter, might make sense as a veteran stopgap to help out with run prevention, catcher's another position of uncertainty moving forward. Maldonado's only under control for two seasons. I don't think Perez has a spot long-term. Just another thing Eppler's going to have to piece together.

Put it another way, Judge mentioned on MLB Network that he estimates moving Chris Sale from the White Sox catchers to the Red Sox catchers (still not a great pitch-framing team, but certainly better than Chicago) would've saved him 6 runs. That doesn't sound like much, but if you scratch off 6 runs, that lowers his ERA from 3.34, down to 3.10. That should benefit the pitching staff, and improve them without adding anybody else (but they should add somebody else).

I see where you're coming from, obviously, the quality of pitching will improve just by starters coming back healthy and, hopefully, a few more improvements through FA/trade. But there was one piece from an article I was reading that might help answer your question (assuming I read it correctly). It used Zack Greinke as the example, and Greinke's really interesting because, while he does have a reputation as a finesse pitcher, he lives outside of the strike zone and does his best work when he throws outside the zone. During his amazing 2015 season, Greinke had a career-low in pitches thrown in the zone with only 39.9%. That would make sense, if hitters are swinging at pitches outside of the zone, they're either going to miss or make weak contact. Having a catcher that can frame those properly and even steal you a couple calls is a nice luxury to have, and a huge reason the Diamondbacks essentially swapped out a horrible pitch-framer (Castillo) for a very strong one (Mathis). Another Diamondback, Patrick Corbin, is another guy who lives on the edges of the K Zone. It helps pitchers paint the zone, obviously leading to harder pitches to square up. The difference between Castillo and Mathis in terms of pitch-framing? If you want to read more into the thinking behind it, I looooved this article Beyond the Boxscore did to evaluate the Mathis signing, aside from actually signing or trading for quality pitchers, this seems like a good way to help out in-house options, namely guys who live in the bottom-of-the-zone and produce groundballs (Garrett, Tyler, and Nolasco). I think Maldonado will mostly benefit Garrett, he's such amazing movement on all of his pitches, being able to go lower in the zone will only help the amount of weak contact-induced. Really, it sounds like a beneficiary to guys who live low in the zone. Another reason I really wanted a Brad Ziegler type of pen arm.

Dude, awesome, thank you so much for this. Wish they could've done Perez for Maldonado instead, but I'm sure Milwaukee wanted to take a chance on Bandy's better, albeit not spectacular, bat. I am curious to know if Eppler has intentions on trying to improve Perez's spot, but with the current group in the free agent market, I'd be surprised if he goes that route. Like I said, I know Montero was unhappy about his role with Chicago at the end and I know they want Contreras to get plenty of time there, I'd love to have him. Just curious, where'd you find those numbers? I'd like to check out the total rankings, see if there are more "secret" alternatives Eppler could be looking at.

Jonathan Judge, from Baseball Prospectus/the top tier evaluators of catching defense thus far, breaks down the number of runs each team saved or gave up due to pitch framing. Dodgers: 25.6Cubs: 24.1Giants: 22.2Mets: 21.9Astros: 19.1Toronto: 16.2Yankees: 9.4Nationals: 9.1Cardinals: 8.2Rays: 7.1Pirates: 6.0Padres: 5.1Brewers: 4.4Orioles: 1.3Braves: -0.2Indians: -1.0Angels: -3.9Red Sox: -3.9Rockies: -4.9Marlins: -6.1Tigers: -8.5Rangers: -11.1Phillies: -11.3Royals:-12.0Twins: -16.3Diamondbacks: -16.8Athletics: -16.9Mariners: -17.7Reds: -22.7White Sox: -26.4 If Chicago feels like Miguel Montero is too pricey as a backup catcher, I'd be happy to take him off their hands. Just something to think about moving forward, the Angels improved going from Bandy to Maldonado, but they're still a mid-tier team. Upgrading over Perez could be worth following. Don't think it's a coincidence a lot of elite teams are at the top.

This, Wild Card would be good enough for me. Oh and for Texas to suck, that would really make it a successful season.

Welp, there goes Ziegler. Have a feeling Eppler isn't going to do much in the FA relief market.

He was amazing in 2009, good in 2010, and then yeah, his decline began. But anyone who says "they weren't a fan of Abreu" clearly didn't watch the 2009 team. Him and Figgy at the top of the lineup were incredible together.

I don't know why I can't get on board with Feliz. He's still really young, throws hard, K's people (10.23 K/9 with Pittsburgh). I do have questions about the HUGE spike in homeruns given up and the amount of hard contact he gave up (career average of Hard Contact % is 28.5%, it went as high as 37% in 2016). The 1.68HR/9 is a bit alarming. But the BABIP's so low, weird year for his strand rate as well. Peripherals didn't like him either. Just an off year? I'm not sure, but I'm surprised more teams are chomping at the bit for a 28-year old, hard-throwing reliever.

Definitely, if it's two, I'd really like to see a lefty added

There goes Tazawa, sounds like Ziegler's about to sign soon too.

Dang, I'm digging the FanGraphs love recently. Keep them coming.