Jeff Fletcher

I have discussed this several times with the Angels front office...
The rules for the CBT are this: if a contract is signed after opening day, and doesn't pay him any salary in that year, it doesn't count. I assume the reason that you couldn't sign him today to a 2015 contract is you can't have contracts that skip years, otherwise you could sign him to 10 different one-year contracts and avoid the whole AAV question. But if his 2014 contract is already ticking, then he can get one for 2015.
I'll also say this that I have said on other threads: there is no reason to pay him anything extravagant (more than 600k) in 2014 unless you believe that he's the kind of guy who will be upset and pouty that a system that's been in place for years doesn't apply to him because he's special. If you think that about him, you don't think much of him.
In reality, it's Trout's agent, not Trout, that is a little whiny about the whole thing. His agent is the one who screwed him last year by making it an issue.
Trout's fair market value is $20M. If you pay him $600K or $1M or $3M or $5M you are still screwing him. Those are the rules. Teams get to screw you for three years. Players get to screw the teams for most of the rest of their careers.

Everyone talks about Peter Bourjos' WAR but it's a little misleading with the Angels. First of all, his value is almost entirely on defense as a CF. But with the Angels who is "replacement" if Bourjos isn't in center?
Mike Trout!
So when you put Bourjos in the lineup you're improving CF by a little and improving LF by a lot. So let's say Bourjos was great defensive LF. How valuable would it be to put his bat and glove in LF? You don't sacrifice defense for offense in left.
Kole Calhoun probably has a better bat and he's cheaper, plus it allows Trout and Hamilton to play the positions they are most comfortable at.
So if Bourjos is the Angels fourth OF, his value isn't going higher. Only lower. As for Grichuk, being the Angels best outfield prospect is different than being a good prospect. He's about 10th with the Cards.

Everyone talks about Peter Bourjos' WAR but it's a little misleading with the Angels. First of all, his value is almost entirely on defense as a CF. But with the Angels who is "replacement" if Bourjos isn't in center?
Mike Trout!
So when you put Bourjos in the lineup you're improving CF by a little and improving LF by a lot. So let's say Bourjos was great defensive LF. How valuable would it be to put his bat and glove in LF? You don't sacrifice defense for offense in left.
Kole Calhoun probably has a better bat and he's cheaper, plus it allows Trout and Hamilton to play the positions they are most comfortable at.
So if Bourjos is the Angels fourth OF, his value isn't going higher. Only lower. As for Grichuk, being the Angels best outfield prospect is different than being a good prospect. He's about 10th with the Cards.

Everyone talks about Peter Bourjos' WAR but it's a little misleading with the Angels. First of all, his value is almost entirely on defense as a CF. But with the Angels who is "replacement" if Bourjos isn't in center?
Mike Trout!
So when you put Bourjos in the lineup you're improving CF by a little and improving LF by a lot. So let's say Bourjos was great defensive LF. How valuable would it be to put his bat and glove in LF? You don't sacrifice defense for offense in left.
Kole Calhoun probably has a better bat and he's cheaper, plus it allows Trout and Hamilton to play the positions they are most comfortable at.
So if Bourjos is the Angels fourth OF, his value isn't going higher. Only lower. As for Grichuk, being the Angels best outfield prospect is different than being a good prospect. He's about 10th with the Cards.

No way Howie gets a No 3 pitcher. At best he gets you another Hector Santiago, which is a young guy whose ceiling is a No 3 but who is possibly a no 5/reliever.
Howie costs twice as much as Trumbo and is only under control for 2 years.
Also, you can't trade Howie and have Grant Green as your everyday 2B. They'd have to go get some other veteran. So that's another hole.
Also, Drew also costs a draft pick, so if the Angels are going to trade Aybar for pitching and sign Drew they may as well just sign Jimenez. (They aren't doing either.)

Is it just me or do Angels fans seem way more down on Ernesto Frieri than they should be?
Guy has converted about 89 percent of his saves over two years and aside from 3 horrible games in a two week span has been pretty much nails. And for no money.
What do you want?

Is it just me or do Angels fans seem way more down on Ernesto Frieri than they should be?
Guy has converted about 89 percent of his saves over two years and aside from 3 horrible games in a two week span has been pretty much nails. And for no money.
What do you want?

Is it just me or do Angels fans seem way more down on Ernesto Frieri than they should be?
Guy has converted about 89 percent of his saves over two years and aside from 3 horrible games in a two week span has been pretty much nails. And for no money.
What do you want?

Is it just me or do Angels fans seem way more down on Ernesto Frieri than they should be?
Guy has converted about 89 percent of his saves over two years and aside from 3 horrible games in a two week span has been pretty much nails. And for no money.
What do you want?

Have read through this whole thread but wanted make a point I made on twitter (apologies if it's already been posted)....
Ibanez is the one confirmed name on the Angels list only because his name was leaked (presumably by his agent). My understanding is the Angels talked to him, but I don't believe he's the top of their list.
Despite all the questions I get about who the Angels prefer and who they've talked to and what offers they've made, they don't tell us. (Not very good for negotiating.) It takes a lot to work to get anything.
So don't obsess over Ibanez. He may be No 5 on their list.

The Angels believe Skaggs has the higher upside but at the moment Santiago is ahead of him on the depth chart.
If Matt Garza showed up today and opening day was tomorrow, with no spring training, Skaggs would start at AAA.
Obviously, a lot will happen between now and the real opening day, not the least of which is 6 weeks of spring training. Because of that, where people line up on Dec 13 is not really relevant, although fun to discuss.

Just skimmed through this whole thread. You guys are a riot.
FYI, Angels never had a chance to get 2 Arizona pitchers for Trumbo. And Kendrick was never involved in this trade. And I believe the Kendrick trade the White Sox turned down was for Quintana not Santiago.

Just skimmed through this whole thread. You guys are a riot.
FYI, Angels never had a chance to get 2 Arizona pitchers for Trumbo. And Kendrick was never involved in this trade. And I believe the Kendrick trade the White Sox turned down was for Quintana not Santiago.

Just skimmed through this whole thread. You guys are a riot.
FYI, Angels never had a chance to get 2 Arizona pitchers for Trumbo. And Kendrick was never involved in this trade. And I believe the Kendrick trade the White Sox turned down was for Quintana not Santiago.

Just skimmed through this whole thread. You guys are a riot.
FYI, Angels never had a chance to get 2 Arizona pitchers for Trumbo. And Kendrick was never involved in this trade. And I believe the Kendrick trade the White Sox turned down was for Quintana not Santiago.

Just skimmed through this whole thread. You guys are a riot.
FYI, Angels never had a chance to get 2 Arizona pitchers for Trumbo. And Kendrick was never involved in this trade. And I believe the Kendrick trade the White Sox turned down was for Quintana not Santiago.

Just skimmed through this whole thread. You guys are a riot.
FYI, Angels never had a chance to get 2 Arizona pitchers for Trumbo. And Kendrick was never involved in this trade. And I believe the Kendrick trade the White Sox turned down was for Quintana not Santiago.

I covered this game. Still the best game I ever covered. Jerome and I must have talked about it 10 times last year.

I covered this game. Still the best game I ever covered. Jerome and I must have talked about it 10 times last year.

One thing you guys need to remember is there's really no urgency to sign Trout anytime before he's actually arbitration eligible.
 
Are you worried that his feelings will be hurt if he gets his $200 million contract in May 2014 instead of January 2014? It's the same reason I found it so interesting that fans got so upset that the Angels paid him $510K last year instead of giving him all this extra money that they didn't have to just to make him feel better about himself.
 
It's a system that the players agreed to and everyone follows the same rules. If you think Trout is going to be pouty and have hurt feelings because they didn't change the whole system for him, then you don't think much of him.
 
Also, there's a lot more room for Trout to go down (if he gets hurt or has a decline) than to go up in 2014, so it's not like the Angels are going to save a whole lot of money if they sign him today vs next year.
 
Trout is going to get paid. And he's going to get paid huge. The Angels are aware of this and I'm sure they are budgeting for it.
 
But there's no reason for them to be doing it now.

One thing you guys need to remember is there's really no urgency to sign Trout anytime before he's actually arbitration eligible.
 
Are you worried that his feelings will be hurt if he gets his $200 million contract in May 2014 instead of January 2014? It's the same reason I found it so interesting that fans got so upset that the Angels paid him $510K last year instead of giving him all this extra money that they didn't have to just to make him feel better about himself.
 
It's a system that the players agreed to and everyone follows the same rules. If you think Trout is going to be pouty and have hurt feelings because they didn't change the whole system for him, then you don't think much of him.
 
Also, there's a lot more room for Trout to go down (if he gets hurt or has a decline) than to go up in 2014, so it's not like the Angels are going to save a whole lot of money if they sign him today vs next year.
 
Trout is going to get paid. And he's going to get paid huge. The Angels are aware of this and I'm sure they are budgeting for it.
 
But there's no reason for them to be doing it now.

Wanted to chime in....
Based on my conversations, I don't believe the Angels believe they have enough pieces for David Price.
However, I do believe that's in the best interest of the Angels and the Rays to portray that. Drives up the price if more teams are believed to be in the bidding.

The Angels won't sign him until after opening day because otherwise his AAV would count against the luxury tax for 2014.
 
I'd look for a 10-year contract around May or June.

Wanted to chime in....
Based on my conversations, I don't believe the Angels believe they have enough pieces for David Price.
However, I do believe that's in the best interest of the Angels and the Rays to portray that. Drives up the price if more teams are believed to be in the bidding.

Wanted to chime in....
Based on my conversations, I don't believe the Angels believe they have enough pieces for David Price.
However, I do believe that's in the best interest of the Angels and the Rays to portray that. Drives up the price if more teams are believed to be in the bidding.