halosfan1970

They are in the Del Taco parking lot, discussing the deal as we speak.

Del Taco is overrated.

Grant Green and Josh Rutledge are both still available.

Gentry has a projected salary of $1.6m while Cowgill projects at $1.0m Is Gentry a significant upgrade justifying the added cost as a 4th OF?

Eppler doesn't do Del Taco ... at the nearby Wienerschnitzel

Wienerschnitzel is truly underappreciated. 

Not be able to hit?

Pennington looks like a .225 hitter. Compared to McDonald and Featherston that's a 50 point improvement.

Two years seems reasonable. Pennington is signed for his age 32-33 seasons. McDonald only signed for one year, but he was 39 not 32.

The Angels will have Simmons/Pennington for about $500,000 per year more than Aybar/Featherston (AAV)

Tough call, he is the late bloomer type but in a position of need. I can't see parting with a Heaney/Richards pitcher but any combination of one starter like a Santiago/Skaggs/Tropeano and Kubitza/Cowart with some minor league talent would be acceptable. I know that probably won't get the deal done since it is a sell high but that would be a baseline

I'm surprised you and Stradling are willing to give up Kubitza. Some sources suggest he has magical gap power.

Pretty fair chance the Angels will be busting through the Luxury Tax, so they may end up signing Upton, Zobrist, Cueto and Soria, which would be like 60 million per year.

If the Angels are going to bust the CBT, they might as well do it in style. It will only be for one year and two at most.

Adding four pieces: (1) Heyward/Upton/Cespedes to the OF, (2) Zobrist to the IF, (3) Cueto to the SP, and (4) Soria/Clippard to the RP would be huge.

LF has to be addressed. (2) - (4) can only make the team better compared to 2015. A 2016 Angels that has Simmons in addition to Upton, Zobrist, and Clippard would be a far superior team to the 2015 product.

The first part of your post is probably what the Angels will do but you can't sign Heyward if you signed Davis to a multiyear contract. It would be insanely expensive and I have a feeling Davis is a boat anchor waiting to drop in someone's bay. 208 strikeouts and the guy is aging. Not promising.

The Big A and that right field scoreboard wall will knock any left handed power hitter's HR count down. If Davis hit 30-32 HR instead of 45 but hit 50 doubles while maintaining a .370 OBP, life would be good. Unfortunately, he won't manage to maintain that (doubles or OBP) in to his mid-30's. The last 3 years of a Davis deal would be painful. However, the 2016 results would be fun. 

I think you and I agree.

I was going to post this, Koreans from Garden Grove and Irvine/Tustin would come in droves to watch him play.  Otherwise, I think he could be a Shin-soo Choo lite type of player.

More or less brittle than Choo (emotionally and physically)?

Heyman is trolling for bigger fish by naming the Angels. He has been a Boras promotional tool for years, naming teams interested in Boras clients when there is no interest to try and create a market. The Angels have absolutely no use for Chris Davis, he doesn't fill any hole and just inflates the payroll without ever addressing key missing pieces.

Depends on how you want to balance a 25 man roster.

You could go with Cowart at 3B and Perez/Bandy at C. Signing Heyward for LF and signing Davis to split 1B/DH with Pujols would be fascinating. It would also be insanely expensive.

We don't have the minor league prospects any longer to trade for starting pitching or LF, but...

We do have assets like Santiago, Bedrosian, Gott, Kubitza, and Cron who each have value. Some combination (not all of them clearly) should be sufficient to find solid help at 2B or 3B if that is the direction the Front Office wants to go.

Relief pitching is fungible. Players like Clippard and Soria are available on the FA market for nothing more other than dollars. 

Holy judgements, Batman. Sure, Braun lied but does that make him a horrible person?

I'd rather focus on actual onfield performance, and from that perspective Braun hasn't been a star since 2012 and while still a good hitter isn't worth that contract by a long shot.

No judgements... Just onfield performance.... I'm sure Jose Reyes is hoping for that approach too.

I wonder what it would take to get Javier Baez from the Cubs for 2B? Probably something like Newcomb, Santiago, Kubitza and Jahmai Jones. That'd be a tough one to swallow, but 2B would be covered for the next 6 years and we'd have the middle of the order bat we were looking for. We'd also have Aybar's eventual replacement at SS.

Or play Baez at SS in the first year. Trade Aybar's contract year, like Kendrick was last year, for prospect(s). The return for Aybar could be used in either a Baez trade or to restock the farm.

But then who replaces him?  We have absolutely nobody in the minors to take his place.

Sign Desmond.

Is there any difference between him and Freese?  Except that maybe we could get him cheaper.

Asdrubal Cabrera has played 3B as a major leaguer for one game in 2007. For all we know, Freese is a better fielding 3B.

Since we've had Pujols, Weaver, Freese, Iannetta, Wilson, Trout and Aybar all playing together we've had zero (0) playoff wins. I think it's time to start taking out the trash. Say goodbye to Freese and Iannetta this season and then say goodbye to Wilson, Weaver and Aybar next season. Leave the past behind and move forward rebuilding the team.

If you want to move on from Aybar, he should be traded now with one year left on his contract. A lot like Kendrick last year. Maximize the return.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/angels-interested-trevor-plouffe-twins.html

MLBtraderumors is reporting that a deal for Plouffe makes sense envolving Bedrock as the center piece, thoughts? Someone pointed out that he is barely above league avg with the bat with a low OBP but he was a 2.5 WaR player last year and 3.5 the year before

With Bedrosian as the centerpiece and not Santiago? That would make a lot more sense.

My only concern with Freese is that if we sign him it means we probably aren't players for the big boys (Hayward, Upton, Gordon).

Why would Freese at $9-10m per season prevent signing a LF (Heyward, Upton, Cespedes, etc.)? He made $6.5m last year, so the incremental increase would only be $2.5m - $3.5m. Declining the options on David Murphy and David DeJesus saved $12m already.

Albert's feet are exploding before our eyes

That's better than that swollen lymph node in his groin exploding before our eyes.

that's a perfectly fine retort, but i don't think your conclusion was as definitive as you made it out to be. the top 10 3b played an avg of 152 games this year. david freese? 121,134,138,144. he has a history of back problems and next season is his age 33 season. if we sign him to a conservative 3 or 4 year deal as MANY on here are advocating, then we will be paying a 33-37 year old 3b with back problems and poor fielding. it defies any reasonable expectation that he would increase his number of games played over those years. so yes, you will need another starting 3b for at least 35 games a season, if he didn't decline or get hurt at all over those age 33-37 seasons. sound likely?

Longer answer... He's going in to his age 33 season. At this point, the Angels know what to expect from him.  

You probably get 130-135 games per year over the course of a 2-3 year deal. I don't think David Freese is an injury prone player who can't stay off the DL. I do think he is heading in to his age 33-35 seasons with a history of back issues. He simply won't provide 152 games per year. I think it's a durability issue over an injury prone issue.

Defensively you get average/competent: solid glove and foot work, average but accurate arm, and a range that seem painfully limited. Offensively you get slight above average: .260/.325/.415 (OPS+ 100-105) 

I think a decision on the direction at 3B is entirely dependent on what other moves are made at 2B, C, and LF. There are multiple moving parts. If you go young and platoon Perez and Bandy at C, going with Kubitza at 3B seems like a second risk. Whether you stick with Giavotella at 2B or try to sign Zobrist or Murphy also factors in.

LOL!  I mean of course.  This couldn't have been done a month ago when the season ended. 

Yep. This sounds like a monthlong delay of wishful thinking. It reminds me of pitchers who try to avoid TJ surgery with rehab and rest.

Cron and Navarro, let's not add to the list of needs at this time.  Stay focused on left field, relief pitching, catching, second and third base.  Pujols knows how to rehabilitate, I trust he'll be back soon enough.  I'm glad he got it diagnosed, and got the surgery done.

Navarro has no value other than as a late inning defensive replacement. He's the Daniel Robertson of 1st base.

if you sign freese, then you might as well accept that you're going to be seeing a lot of kubitza or cowart over there because freese isn't staying off the disable list.

It looks like Freese played in 134 games in 2014 and 121 games in 2015. He's averaged 134 games over the last four years. He went on the 15-Day Disabled List once each in 2014 and 2015. Both DL stints were for a fractured finger following being hit by a pitch.

The narrative that Freese is injury prone is nice but completely unsupported by fact.

it's time people start believing that you need more than 5 quality starters to get to the world series, much less through a season. the fact is, contrary to what tv would have you believe, eight is not enough.

I also agree that over 162 games, you need more than 5 legitimate starters. Organizational depth is important.

However, stashing pitchers like Skaggs and Tropeano in AAA as insurance can have negative impacts too. They aren't going to develop further at AAA, and you are still using their young/prime, controllable years.