Jeff Fletcher

I’ve said this many times, but the whole narrative that “Ohtani wants to win” is dumb. Of course he wants to win. Who doesn’t want to win? What player has ever said he doesn’t want to win? What none of us knows is “how much does the chance to win impact where you want to play? Is it 100%? 70%? 50%? 30%?” None of us knows and he is not saying. Anytime anyone asks him anything that even remotely suggests a decision between teams, all he says is “I’m with the Angels. I don’t know what will happen in free agency. I am thinking about the season. Etc etc.”

No. The Angels did not have the most. The Mariners did. Also, some of the teams in his final 7 were limited to $300k

They were both expected to return but as of 9:44 am I can’t confirm it.

There was no “announcement” about CRod because there was nothing to announce. He wasn’t having surgery or anything. All the tests they’ve done have not shown anything that could be repaired with any new procedure. Nevin just said it had taken too long for him to get better and based on the calendar he was out of time.

I am pretty sure you can’t specify spending on things besides that player in a contract. You can tell him you’ll do X, Y and Z, but it’s nothing but a handshake agreement. The best you can do is give him an opt-out, if that’s what it takes to get a deal done.

Chris Rodriguez is out for the season. I reported that when the Angels were in KC. Honestly I haven’t really asked about Daniel or Marte in a while.

They already said the plan was to give Trout fewer off days in the second half. That’s because of the way the schedule breaks and also just because that’s what they were saving him for by giving him days off in the first half. of course now that’s all out the window. By the time he comes back it’s going to be crunch time so I figure he’ll play just about every game.

I don’t know about the first two, but I assume that Arte knows he is the one responsible for the Ohtani decision.

I don’t. So it doesn’t matter.

I’m just here to report things people within the Angels have told me. You are free to disagree with them or not believe them.

Well OK then. If the Angels trade him you can help me explain that to everyone else who will be mad that they didn’t get 3 major leaguers and fix their entire farm system.

If you asking if they should or shouldn’t, that’s a whole different thing. I don’t know what they should do because I don’t have all the information they have. In general, when a team does something that I don’t understand or doesn’t make sense to me, I assume it’s because they have information I don’t have.

Does this mean if they trade him you will promise not to be critical of what they got back, as long as it’s better than a comp pick?

I think it’s 3 things… -Arte wants to re-sign Ohtani and doesn’t believe he’ll be able to do it if he trades him. You guys can all say “that’s not true” and you’re technically correct, but I have been told directly that the Angels don’t believe they can re-sign him if they trade him. -Arte wants the revenue from two months of Ohtani. -Arte doesn’t want to be known as the guy who traded Ohtani, especially not now that he’s a rental and it’s unlikely the return is going to be anything too exciting. I don’t know what order you’d put those in but those are the reasons.

Truer words were never written.

I still think they aren’t trading him

Born 1-1-00

No chance that’s happening. Ohtani isn’t going to forgo free agency to sign a deal in 48 hours in a place he’s never played.

I mean, maybe. But the Angels seem to feel if they let him go they can’t get him back. I have been told this specifically.

Yep. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and the clubhouse vibe never changes.

It’s pretty much always the same. The vibe never changes.

The reason you’re calling that a Chapman Plan is because he’s the only guy you can think of who did that.

3.97 P/PA MLB average is 3.91

Relevant to that.. The Angels swing at 28.1% of pitches out of the zone, which is 15th. (Almost exactly the MLB average of 28.4%). The fact that they are right in the middle in terms of chasing, but a little better than average in terms of P/PA, probably just means they're a little better than most teams at fouling off those pitches out of the zone that they should be taking, so they at least keep the PA alive.

I believe they have a better chance to re-sign him than almost anyone earth. I've been saying 30 percent, although that was based on them at least contending all season, even if they don't make the playoffs. If this tailspin continues and play the last 2 months with no hope, those chances go down significantly.