AngelsFanSince86

To specifically answer your question, nobody wants to trade Ohtani if he plans to stay in Anaheim. But the thought is that he's likely to walk. To miss the playoffs and also miss a chance to trade the greatest mid season acquisition in MLB history would be something only a poorly run organization would allow. If Ohtani won't commit, at the very least, in a, "I want to stay here if you are willing to pay, but I do need to test the market to see my value" type of agreement, then they need to trade him. I said it on other threads from a couple weeks ago. They needed to go at least .500 against the d backs, dodgers, and Padres to hold onto the playoff/buyer mentality. They absolutely failed that. Their schedule is rough over the next month and I expect they will fall under .500. This is not a winning team and unless you are 100% that you can sign Ohtani, he needs to be traded to make the team better in the future. If they don't trade him and don't sign him, it will go down as one of the worst mistakes in recent history. Just adds to the rendon, Pujols, Hamilton, Upton, Wells, etc mistakes. At some point they need to start making smart/tough decisions. We'll see if that starts this season. Now, if they don't trade him and then also sign him, that's the best case scenario (well best case would be to trade him, but then also sign him). If that happens I will fully support it. I will also withhold my judgement on the situation until the offseason plays out.

I'm torn on this pick. Definitely need to fill 1B. This dude should be ready to contribute fairly soon. However, if he doesn't have a great/elite bat at the MLB level then this is a bust pick. Solid hitting 1B are a dime a dozen so using a first round pick on one is a huge gamble unless you're positive his bat will be top of the lineup.

Rendon is the biggest bitch in baseball. Sitting out because of a f'ing bruise? My 11yo is tougher than he is.

Although you're incorrect about the Angels not making the playoffs under Arte, I do agree he needs to go. Most of the teams success under Arte can be contributed to riding the coattails of Stoneman. Once he left it went downhill pretty fast. The Angels need an owner who will hire a president of baseball ops that actually knows at least one thing about baseball. And who will invest in scouting and development domestically and internationally. My hope is that Arte kept the team for one more year so that he could sign Shohei as I assume that would increase the desirability/price of the franchise.

That's not it though. The fact that the Angels have never fully committed to rebuilding or going for it has effected the team each and every year. So despite the fact that the manager, GM, and the overall roster has fluctuated over the last 8 years, their predicament has remained the same: a farm system too barren to either consistently produce MLB talent or to expendable trade talent; a major league roster that is top heavy and an owner unwilling to open the checkbook to fill out the roster the way it needs to be when you have so many holes and $70-100M+ is going to 3-4 players (something that has been pretty consistent over the last 8 years even though the names of those players has changed). Now, Perry is better at drafting and better at trading than the last 2 GMs so he's been able to improve the roster via trade without really hurting the farm system. Simultaneously, Arte expanded the budget cap by a bit this year which has allowed Perry to fill the roster with more legitimate depth than in the past. However, the core issues remain the same. Still not enough roster depth because their farm system is still rather barren. Still have several holes in the roster because although the payroll was increased this year, it still wasn't enough. Personally I think under Perry they are slowly heading in the right direction. If he'd been the GM for the last 5-6 years I think they would be in a great position right now. He's slowly building the farm despite the fact that the team has been consistently mediocre and he's much better at signing depth than Eppler was. The problem is it's too little too late. They are potentially going to lose a 10+ WAR player for nothing. No playoffs, no prospects from a trade. They are also potentially losing a 10 WAR player in trout because he's seemingly started his decline. Losing 12-15 WAR just like that more than cancels or whatever gains they've made as a team. But still, they'll try to win this season with Ohtani, likely fail and lose him to FA for nothing more than a compensatory pick, and next year they'll be stuck trying to replace their ace and their best hitter which will cost more to do than Ohtani cost this year, and as long as Arte still owns the team the budget will remain too low to effectively fill out the roster and the cycle of mediocrity will continue.

Escobar sucks defensively. My 11 yo son would get grilled for not laying out for those last 2 hits.

What their injuries have shown is that despite having the best depth they've had in years, it still wasn't enough. It makes sense to add Escobar and moose because it makes them better now, gives them better depth, and allows them to potentially be more cautious with Neto and rendon. Urshela is out for the season and he was a crucial depth piece. Moose essentially is his replacement. Escobar to me is just an extra depth add. When they lost urshela it really hurt they need to have more guys not just for now, but moving forward this season.

Exactly. They had an agenda to overturn it and that's BS.

There was no evidence to overturn the original call. Just part of mlbs agenda to get Ohtani on the dodgers

I'm torn. I want them to re-sign him and trading Ohtani away would obviously have an impact on their ability to do so. That being said, it's very likely he goes elsewhere. The Angels are currently in it, but to me it comes down to how they perform against good teams from now until the all star break. At some point they have to show they can win series against good teams. Otherwise, they are just a slightly better version of the team we've seen for the last 8 years. I said it in another thread, but they have a tough schedule coming up. So being in it now doesn't mean anything if they can't beat good teams. Especially when those teams that they are just barely behind in standings are the ones they'll have to face. I hate the thought of trading Ohtani, but I hate the thought of the Angels missing the playoffs and losing Ohtani to free agency anyways even more. I can't give a true opinion right now because I think the next few weeks need to play out. If I had to state one now it would be this: to be buyers at the deadline, Angels need to have played at least .500 against good teams and have an actual wildcard spot by July 9.

Yeah I should have specified, but felt like I was already writing so much. I was making 2 separate points. The first was that the Angels hadn't won against a team over .500. The second was the to point out their tough schedule moving forward. I didn't say Mariners were a good team, I just didn't point them out as a weak team. Reds and Padres fall in that same category. Mariners and Padres are both teams with talent that just have been mediocre. Unlike Cardinals who have talent, but have played awful all year. Most of their wins have come from the worst teams in the league this year (A's, nationals, Cubs, white Sox, Cardinals). My point is that they only have a couple of those types of series through the end of August. They also have a few serious against decent teams like Mariners and Padres that could go either way. But must of their games will be against good teams that are over .500. Based on how they've performed in those series so far this year, it's easy to see them losing 60-70% of those games, which would have them somewhere between 12-19 to 9-22 for games against those teams. They could make up some of that against the few series they have against mediocre and bad teams, but would still likely lose ground from where they are at now and be closer to .500. That's just how I feel about it. Winning a couple series at home against teams lower in the standings than themselves doesn't do enough for me to feel good about this team. Last night's win was awesome though. Like I said, if they keep it up over the next few weeks against the good teams then I'll start believing. Just had too many seasons of mediocre baseball and I don't see the point in getting prematurely excited about a team when they haven't played well against good teams. Let's hope they keep it going.

Still not convinced of this team. Still watching and going to games, but just not convinced. They haven't won a single series against a team that's over .500. They'll have to win at least 5 out of the 9 games against rangers, dodgers, and d backs to convince me they shouldn't be sellers at the deadline. Their schedule gets a lot tougher after the all star break. It's easy to be excited because they are 1.5 games out of a wildcard, but that's all by beating up on weak teams. After the all star break they play Astros, Yankees, pirates, tigers, blue Jays, braves, mariners, giants, Astros, rangers, rays, reds, Mets, then Phillies to close out August. Only weak teams there are the tigers and reds. Then A's, Orioles, guardians, mariners, tigers, rays, twins, rangers, and A's again for September. So pretty even split of bad/good teams. My point is that if they don't show now that they can win against good teams, it's pretty easy to see them falling back to at or below .500. I know they'll never trade Ohtani so it's a moot point, but realistically they should be sellers if they aren't playing at least .500 ball against good teams from now until the deadline.

That's definitely a reason, but I would venture to say the Angels relief era is misleading. They tend to hold the opposing team when they are up or down by several runs. Meaning, they hold opposing teams when the game is already decided. When it's a 1 or 2 run game, they blow it. The era looks good on paper, but what it comes down to is that they are giving up runs consistently when it matters most.

Nope. They got to beat up on the struggling cards and the awful A's. This is a large reason they are above .500. They continue to lose games they should have won and continue to underperform as a team. Score 4,5,6, 7 runs and lose and then hold a team to 3 or less runs and still lose. I think on paper they are a borderline playoff team, but for some reason the Angels repeatedly underperform their talent. I won't believe in this team until they prove they worth it. But I'll still go to games and cheer, just with no expectation of success.

I mean give him free reign to be a GM. Allow him to determine what needs to be done to establish a proper scouting, development, and analytics departments. Allow him to build an mlb roster free of payroll restrictions.

1) put an much money into scouting, development, analytics, etc. as Perry thinks necessary. 2) attempt to extend Shohei. If you can't get it done this offseason then allow Perry to field trade offers and give him the blessing to do what he sees fit. 3) regardless of whether he's able to extend Shohei he needs to open up the pocket book without any budgetary restrictions. Essentially, allow Perry to do whatever he wants throughout the organization without any thought to a budget. Anything short of that is failure. He can reinstate an mlb roster budget when the farm system is functioning at a high level.

Honestly, unless Arte is willing to blow past the luxury tax starting next year (should have started this year), then they need to trade Ohtani now. Everyone thinks Arte signing Ohtani or not is the defining moment. Ohtani is going to command more AAV than trout. Signing him while then being unwilling to have an open ended budget is almost a guarantee of another 10 years without a postseason. You either trade Ohtani now or sign him and go bonkers in free agency. Arte is inept though so he'll do one of 2 things: not trade Ohtani and fail to extend him. OR sign Ohtani and keep this marginally increased budget that results in mediocrity on the field.

No way. Anyone who was going to come in on a team with trout and ohtani and win the bidding process was going to be willing to spend more than Arte ever will. Arte is committed to mediocrity. If you have over $100M committed to 3 players you can't win with anything short of a $250M budget unless you have a fantastic farm system, which the Angels do not. The fact he's gloating about a "franchise record payroll" while still having the 3rd, possibly 4th best roster in the division just shows how delusional he is

Yeah I've never understood that. These milestone/historical home run balls are hit by players making millions. If it means that much to them then they can pay market price for it.

Even the regular nachos are shit now. They used to give you a container with cheese that comes from those nacho cheese machines. Now it's a pre-packaged tostitos cheese and it's inedible. I'll eat pretty much any nachos. That was the first time I threw away nachos after one chip.

I just don't see how they can compete next year. They need 2 more legit outfielders. Ward hasn't proven he's the real deal. After his hot start and subsequent injury he has not been great at the plate. They need at least one legit infielder too. Preferably a SS. Fletcher should be a utility man. Rengifo looks like he may be able to man 2B. They have Ohtani, Sandoval, Detmers, Suarez, and several guys as depth. They need 2 legit starters. They need a #1/2 and a proven #3/4 guy. Additionally, they need a closer. So they need to sign at least 6 guys: 2 OFers, SS, 2 starters, a closer. That's probably $100M per year worth of contracts. Highly doubt they do it. Personally, I hope they do NOT sign anyone outside of low price lottery tickets type players that can be traded at the deadline if performing well. I hope they trade Ohtani. Pains me to say, but I think it's necessary. And I honestly think having a 6 man rotation is a hindrance to the team. I think if they do those things and stick to it, they can compete starting in 2024.

I put no hope, but I do have some hope. Just not that they will be competetive. My sliver of hope is that they (Arte) finally understand their position. They traded Iglesias and Syndergaard. Hopefully this is the start of at least a small rebuild. Ultimately I think they will resign Ohtani and then Arte will go back to pinching pennies and they will be stuck in the same cycle of mediocrity. But you never know.

I'd love to, but if he won't sign an extension with them now or means one of two things: 1) he won't sign until the offseason regardless of the team he's on which means the Angels could still sign him even if they trade him. 2) he won't sign an extension with the Angels, but if they trade him he may sign wherever he goes. If that's true he never would have signed with the Angels

It's the smart thing to do given the state of the organization. That's why they definitely won't trade him.