ukyah

I suspect Rendon signed with the Angels because we offered him the most money....

No chance that’s true. 
 
I guess the Angels will end up with Keuchel and Robbie Ray. 
 
Just a guess. 

Ryu is not an ace unless you think there's about 20 aces in MLB right now

sign madbum and ryu. keep the prospects. 

seems like Arte and Billy want to keep Fletcher.

Sounds like both Cole and Rendon were possible.  

Eppler said during the press conference he wouldn't be trading because the asking price are too high right now. That means he's more focused on the free agent market for starting pitchers. 
The only part here that concerns me is that the team is still operating under some notion that one more starting pitcher is enough, and that's just flat out wrong. 
The Angels need an ace and a mid rotation starter. Otherwise you've got guys like Andrew Heaney or Dylan Bundy as your #2/3 starter depending on how you view Ohtani, and that's just not going to cut it.

I'll say it again:
I hope Cole never wins a World Series ring. In fact, the Halos knocking the Yanks out of the playoffs on their way to a World Series win would give me a permanent erection.

I hope Arte and co. take this personal. Just as a fan of the team it would be even sweeter now to win the WS this year or win one before the Yanks.
Get some damn pitching and let’s go!

Ryu at $30M/yr is a hell no for me 

Yep 3/54 sounds good. I think Boras may. even be able to get him 20 per. At 3/54 I’m taking Keuchel in a heartbeat. 
 
Keuchel and MadBum would be ideal for me. Then if we want we can explore a trade.
Yes this is pricey BUT it allows us to keep the farm intact and for the first time in a long time we’d be in a nice spot depth wise across the board and prospect wise.

No, because only 3 teams went bat shit crazy with contracts, 4 if you include the Wheeler deal. If you need an arm you’ll either pay market price for Ryu, Bum or Keuchel or you’ll wait the market out for guys like Miley.  To me what hurts the market and the teams more is paying Roark 2 years and $24 million.   If he’s “worth” $12 million then Keuchel and Bum are $20 million and Ryu $25 million, at least. 

People forget, Bumgardner is still only 30.  Keuchel only 31.   I would rather pay for their 31-35 seasons than Prices 35-37 for the same money all day personally. 

I actually didn’t think they were getting a player at all. I thought they were getting back $1.

who are the 5?
rendon, trout, ohtani, upton, addell?

Speaking of Thaiss, hard to forget this split:

Weird to see such an extreme split...if he can get the road numbers even remotely respectable, he'd be a solid piece of the line-up.

harvey's not even a bad signing. one year deal that didn't work out. those are the kind of deals they should have been doing more of. if they perform well, and you're out of it, then you can dump him off to a playoff team for a nice prospect.
harvey had the high ceiling potential to do well. cahill was the shit show because his ceiling was very low.

Possible, yes, but very unlikely. Trout and Rendon are locks. Ohtani has a solid chance, although in 400 PA at most. I assume you mean Upton? I think that ship has sailed and I'd be happy with .800 (plus, his career high is .901). Adell? Not yet. La Stella? Unlikely. No one else has a chance.

Ill say this.
Yes, we need pitching. Same as always.
But regardless of how that shakes out, it will at least be fun again. Not just trout and shohei, with occasional nice hitting from others.
We will finally have a lineup that can mash again.
And all this as the adell era is set to take off... 

A risk worth taking for the Angels.  Now go get some pitching. 

Trade rainfro, keep fletch and la Stella.   Thaiss, ward, Walsh, Jones, rainfro should all be fair game to get pitching right now.  I’d even consider Adams for the right arm. (not all these names at once of course but a combo of 2-3)
I wouldn’t trade canning, Sandoval, adell or marsh though.  Not now. 

Rendon and Pujols are a nice 1-2 punch

I know I was completely opposed to this deal earlier, but one of the things that I really do love about Rendon is how quiet his swing is. Doesn't try to hit HR's. He's a professional hitter and much like Trout, his mannerisms don't change, between feast and famine.
Truly lucky to have him.

Yea...he'd be much better than a lot of the other options being mentioned. Plus he doesn't cost much, which will allow the Angels more flexibility to keep improving.