Jeff Fletcher

I agree with this, which I think I’ve said and written before. If Ohtani’s decision is based on “how good will the Angels be from 2024-2033, the needle on that one shouldn’t move that much based on the 2023 Angels winning 87 games and missing the playoffs or winning 90 and making it. Winning 75 would seem a lot more hopeless. Also, bear in mind that they have played basically zero meaningful games in august or September since he’s been here. If they even go on a run to where the games matter in September, that will leave a whole different taste in his mouth than 2 solid months of nothing.

The 2021 Cardinals were in almost the exact same spot as the Angels. Look it up. The 2021 Braves were in the same spot as the Angels at the break but they’d already gained a lot of ground by mid August.

This isn’t really accurate. They were 2 different categories. One guy was just an All Star who had a 2.50 ERA and the other was a converted reliever who had just pitched half a season around an injury. The Angels signed Anderson and then they still tried to sign Lorenzen. I tried to press Lorenzen to see whose decision it was not to sign with the Angels and he stuck to “mutual.” I believe it’s possible the Angels just didn’t pursue him as hard as the Tigers did. I also believe it’s possible that he decided it was better for his career to pitch for the Tigers (pitch in a great pitchers park in a bad division to set yourself up for a bigger payday in a year)

Statistically no. The best we’ve ever seen Ohtani pitch was in 2022. Better than 18, 21 or 23.

Except for 2022. That was his best year pitching, by a mile, and he threw a million sweepers.

He’s just spent a lot of time there working out at driveline. I wouldn’t say he “lives” there.

I actually also heard this from someone who knows him. He said thought Ohtani wants to be one carrying a team to success. This was an Angels person, so maybe a biased opinion or wishful thinking but it didn’t sound made up to me.

He was just heating up before he got hurt. He had an OPS over 1.000 in the two weeks before he got hurt.

You can give a player a fixed bonus when the team meets certain attendance thresholds, but not a percentage of revenue or anything like that. For example, player gets $1m if team hits 3M, etc. I don’t think that’s revenant to Ohtani because he’s going to get so much guaranteed that something like won’t move the needle.

Yes

1. I have no idea. I haven’t asked any people outside the organization about this. But I do know the Angels major league roster is a lot better now than it was a week ago. And they have a better chance of making the playoffs than they did a week ago. 2. I’ll say maybe 25 percent. I’m slightly upgrading what the math says because of the guys about come off the IL and the upgrades already made. 3. I don’t think Arte turned down $3B to do a rebuild. I think if Ohtani doesn’t come back they’ll spend all that money and someone else and try to be as good as possible in 2024.

Is this a trick question?

I think it’s gonna be Giolito on Monday and Sandoval on Tuesday. Nevin said they are going to keep Giolito on the 5th day and Ohtani on the 6th and everything else works around that.

Joyce has thrown 2 bullpen sessions last I heard. (Maybe 3 by now.) barring a setback he should definitely be back in August sometime.

It’s gonna be interesting to see what they do when they start having off days again in a couple weeks. I don’t think they’ll use 6 starters then, especially not now that they’re cracking the door to 4 days rest with Sandoval and Giolito.

I have no idea if it’s right or wrong. But it’s more interesting to me to watch them gamble by trying to win now than to gamble by trying to win in the future.

I doubt I will ever get that detailed of information. And for the record, it’s not that meaningful to discuss where prospects are ranked within one organization. Anyone who is not in the overall MLB top 100 is basically not worth discussing. Those guys are all lottery tickets.

Quero was no 84 The Angels would have gotten 2 Quero’s and 3 other middling prospects for Ohtani.

This is actually very good info. I was not aware Toronto had been so bad. So if the Angels can win 2 of 3 this weekend, they will essentially hold the tiebreakers against Toronto, Boston and New York.

@ten ocho recon scout Bingo I wrote a story about this last week. The reality is the Angels would have gotten something like two prospects in the 40-80 range and 3 lottery tickets. Nobody who is a major leaguer right now. That seems like nothing to casual fans but that would actually be a huge haul compared to other rentals. It certainly would have helped make the farm system look a little more shiny and get higher ratings, but it is a gamble to say it would have quickly led to more big league wins. Sooooooo many people who are saying the Angels missed some golden opportunity are vastly over rating what they could have gotten back.

Silseth Detmers Anderson

Neither of those rules apply

It’s worth noting that teams view prospects much differently now than even 10 years ago. MLB teams don’t want to pay established players because the young guys making the minimum are in many cases just as good. It was one of the big fights during the CBA negotiation. So teams aren’t going to give up really talented prospects easily.

Yes

Yes it is. By the way, I don’t think it matters so much if the Angels “make the playoffs” as it does how they look over the final 2 months. Because when he’s making a decision for 2024-2033, that really shouldn’t be made based on whether the 23 Angels win 87 or 90 games. I think if the Angels just play well down the stretch, and young guys like O’Hoppe, Neto, Detmers, Joyce, Bachman, Sandoval are providing hope, Ohtani could very well say the Angels have proven to him they are going in the right direction. Even if all of that adds up to 87 wins and missing the playoffs. That’s why I’m giving it 30 percent even though they probably only have a 15 percent chance of making the playoffs. I think Ohtani wants the Angels to give him a reason to stay, because I think he likes everything else.