halosfan1970

Freese might be a squishie fishie, or he might be scattered chum. I'm leaning toward Aggressively Not.

Delayed until 8:30 PM on Fox Sports West due to NHL coverage.

"I like the Wizard of Oz. I like the Tin Man."

I still like that cat, but damn the pooping. LOL!

I have no opinion on CJ Wilson's current physical status, but something isn't quite right with the way the Angels are handling Tyler Skaggs. This isn't a situation where they are being cautious bringing him back after 12 months. He has rehabilitated perfectly for the past 18 months. Already very methodical. Are the Angels using the DL to stash Skaggs? Unless they aren't releasing some information, Skaggs should be pitching on a Spring Training mound this weekend.

Are you sure? He might just be more like a 16 year old cat that wanders the house moaning and pooping on the carpet all night.

It's reads like William Shakespeare possessed Jose Mota.

Soft hands will open up several post baseball careers for him.

Why do you believe that stolen base attempts in any way correlates to changes in strikeout rate? They seem completely unrelated. Your implied concern about injury risk and the long-term effects on durability related to base running might have some merit. Trout consistently hits for a .300 batting average, a .400 on-base percentage, and a .360 BABIP. It's pure speculation at this point that lowering Trout's strikeout rate will result in improving any of that. He might just end up with the same outs on balls in play which could be neutral or additional GIDP opportunities which would be negative. Even though I had to read your post three times to understand it, surprisingly this is your most cogent post to date on AW.

That is a team friendly deal, but there is no way to know that Murphy was willing to sign with the Angels for the same deal.

Solid write-up. Well done. I still think at a basic level the HOF should respectfully defer to the inductee's wish unless there is an overwhelming reason to override that choice. I realize the Wade Boggs situation complicates that, but no one is accusing Guerrero of selling out to the highest bidder.

I had several out-of-body experiences watching Matt Joyce play in 2015.

David De Jesus is still available. and... Matt Joyce was a disaster of epic proportions last year, but does anyone think it was from lack of effort. I honestly think he's a decent guy who had a catastrophic season. Pittsburgh signing him on a minor league deal seems reasonable, and I hope Joyce finds his success again.

Byrd will occupy the Raul Ibanez Memorial seat on the 25 man roster.

I've been a proponent of the sign and trade idea because it appears to be technically legal under the Basic Agreement. As long as the player consents in writing to any trade prior to June 16 it meets the Basic Agreement. However, I keep seeing reports that the league office considers the move to be an attempt to circumvent the Qualifying Offer system and they will reject a sign and trade.

I'm only here until the restraining order expires.

Both Nava and Gentry walk at a 7.5-9% rate historically. An OBP of .340 for the platoon is actually doable.

Wow. Saunders Advanced Fielding Metrics are all over the place. Before the knee surgery he was considered solid defensively in corner OF positions with the basic range to cover CF as a backup. I don't know how his knee surgery has impacted his defensive capabilities. No doubt any CF duties are out. Gentry is really the only legitimate CF backup. If Saunders could provide .745 OPS as the left-handed side of a platoon with a DRS/UZR of 0, that would fully replace Hamilton for $2.9m.

Which old body? The 2008 body would be perfect.

I'm entitled to my opinion, and I think I'm right some of the time. In the internet age, I have an outlet to express my opinion. However, I'm not delusional enough to think anyone in a position to act gives a ... :-)

CJ Cron can "scoop" with the best of the 1Bs. I wish he had better range beyond a Weeble Wobble. Seriously, David Freese has amazing lateral movement in comparison.

If you are personally embarrassed by any MLB transaction, fine. I think the rest of us can live with that.

Couldn't Butcher tell? That's exactly the issue Josh Donaldson was screaming and hand gesturing to him about last year from the dugout.

This is the thing with sliding Escobar to 2B... He hasn't played 2B since 2007, so there is essentially no data to project Escobar at 2B in 2016. What we do know from 2015 defensive metrics: Escobar's one year of 3B in 2015 was terrible according to both DRS and UZR. Giavotella's one year of 2B in 2015 was beyond terrible according to both DRS and UZR. Freese's two years of 3B in 2014 and 2015 were league average according to both DRS and UZR. So, even if Escobar is as bad as Giavotella at 2B defensively (unlikely), he is probably a better offensive 2B (OBP and OPS specifically). It's not unreasonable to think that in 2016 Freese at 3B and Escobar at 2B is a superior combination both offensively and defensively to Escobar at 3B and Giavotella at 2B.

Escobar isn't OK at 3B either.