Jeff Fletcher

He had one leg last year. And in 2012 he was pretty good for the last 5 months. Chuck, there's a difference between saying the sample is too small and the games don't count. We are talking about predicting the future with a lineup change, and you just don't have enough information to do that.

Mostly my point is that 7 games is too small a sample size to be making drastic decisions.

Albert Pujols has played 7 games this season. If he had 3 more hits he'd be hitting .300

To be clear, this story is not about teams using analytics for personnel decisions, which the A's semi-pioneered and every team (including the Angels) has done for at least the past 7-8 years. This is about advance scouting and game planning and having people in the clubhouse every day who are familiar with the stats and how they can be applied. I know of no other teams that do it exactly this way. Most do it the way the Angels used to, which is hand the coaches a big binder of data and let them do what they can with it.

My understanding is the game stories, notes, news stories and blogs will continue to be free, but the columns and special features will be for subscribers.

Yes there is room for another. Pena and Tracy also refused AAA assignment.

I believe Stewart took the 39th spot. They still have one empty.

I had such a frustrating twitter exchange with one of these guys yesterday that I had to block him, which I almost never do. So then I wrote this... http://www.ocregister.com/angels/deal-607558-mike-trout.html

I have Angels at 178 for next year if they keep everyone under control and re-sign no FAs or sign no new FAs https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AqaE8E5tHZtndEZhbS0zbzMwWnVjRXo3T0VkMHNGd0E&usp=drive_web So if they needlessly went over in 2014, that's a 30 pct tax for 2015, 40 pct in 2016, etc

But it would have cost them $20M against the luxury tax this year for no reason since he was still a 0-3 and you don't have to pay him. As it is, they have a chance of not being over by much (if at all) next year, if they trade Howie.

Prediction: there will be a lot of debate and hand wringing about whatever 2 bench guys make it. And then those guys won't play for 2 weeks.

I honestly dont think this affects the AAV Trout will get now. He's 4 years from FA and Cabrera is 2. So you give up some money to avoid two extra years of risk. He was looking at 25M AAV before so that's still in line. My guess is he wasn't likely to sign a 7 or more year deal before and now he's certainly not. He's going to give up some AAV to get his guaranteed cash now, but he's going to want to get back on the market ASAP to get back any money he's lost. So it's 6 years (3 years of FA) at the most.

Green was never a serious candidate for the job McDonald got. He's just not good enough defensively. If Aybar gets hurt and can't play for 3 days do you want Green at SS? I believe the Angels want Green to keep playing and developing at different positions instead of sitting around doing nothing in the majors. Since the Angels don't pinch hit much, what you really need are bench guys who can play defense, run or who could start 3-4 days in a row to fill in for an injury.

He hit .429 in April before Bourjos got hurt. When he was barely playing. Granted, it's not a lot of at bats, but Scioscia specifically said a guy like him is good to come off the bench because he has a short quick swing and doesn't try to hit homers.As for "competition" in spring training, it's a myth that gives fans and media something to write about. You have much more meaningful information on players from what theyve done in real games in their careers than stupid spring training games. One Angels person when asked about Matt long a couple weeks ago said "it's spring training."

One thing also to remember is that the guy in this role isn't going to play much, so you need someone who can sit around for 5 days and then come up and get a hit. If you look back at last April, before Bourjos got hurt, Shuck proved (in the majors) that he can do this. It's not like Long is this great prospect either. He's older than Shuck. I'm sure Long will get called up at some point this year. But I think they give Shuck the first shot based on what he did last year. If he struggles and Long is doing well at triple-A they can switch them.

As opposed to "Hey JB all you did was hit close to .300 over a full major league season of games that count against other major league pitchers, but this kid was pretty hot over 40 at bats in spring training games against guys wearing No. 73."

The Angels are not going with an 11 man staff. Although they have a lot of off days they still need 5 starters because they have 5 games in a row on the first trip. If you option someone he has to be down for 10 days. You could technically option Skaggs for exactly 10 days (if mar 30 counts as one day since the season opens then), but that doesn't really help much. This is what's certain about the bullpen Frieri Smith Jepsen Burnett (DL) Moran (DL) DLR likely to start on DL Salas likely to make it Kohn likely Maronde or Lyon or Alvarez or Blanton for the last 2 spots, in that order I believe

LeBlanc will not make it as a reliever. And don't be so sure Kohn is a lock. I've got Frieri, Smith, Jepsen as the only locks. I think DLR could still make it. Burnett won't. The rest, in order.... Salas, Moran, Lyon, Maronde, Kohn. Other guys almost no chance IMO

Long is not on the 40-man roster so he has all his options left. The only one who can't be optioned is Romine. He could clear waivers and stick around, just like John Hester did. Of the guys on minor league deals, I'm pretty sure McDonald would not stick around and I don't think Pena, Torrealba or Tracy would either. I think Boesch and Stewart would.

Calhoun Trout Pujols Hamilton Freese Ibanez Kendrick Iannetta Aybar Conger Shuck Pena Green Weaver Wilson Santiago Richards Skaggs Frieri Smith Jepsen De La Rosa Salas Moran Lyon Burnett (DL)

That play is specifically not reviewable because they don't want guys getting hurt by hanging in too long.

Apparently this was discussed for all managers at their meetings with MLB, so Maddon didn't invent it.

Thanks. Just remember that I'm always right and we'll be fine.

Signing bonus on a future contract is not counted. It's like he hasn't earned the money because the contract hasn't started. That's why it's different than a performance bonus. It will count, but just during the years of the contract

The signing bonus on a 2015 contract does not count for 2014, no matter when it's paid. All signing bonuses go into the total value and divided equally the same as the rest of the contract, regardless of when they are paid. For the sake of easy math, say you get a 5 year 100M deal, that counts as 20M a year no matter how much of it is paid in bonuses and how much is paid in salary each year. I assume Trout will get a nice bonus (5-10M) to be paid in '14 for his extension and it won't affect the 14 luxury tax as long as his salary for 14 is unchanged.