WeatherWonk

Dont feel that you have to see the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. I think the place sucks. Way too crowded for an older park, too expensive, and so little shade.  Go see the Angels in other ST parks.

He makes the team because he can play CF, respectably, which is what we need.

But he will still probably hit at .240 or below, in a part time role...........which is his career average over the last eight years. Not a small sample size, like his 2019 ST stats. I guess his glimmer of hope (which maybe is not much of a glimmer) is that Calhoun tanks for long periods again.

Hermosillo's days are done in an Angel uni, IMO.. He will not get enough ABs to be considered as a 4th OF this spring (BITO; barring injury to others) and will likely be passed on the minor league depth charts by others this year.  

Ro-jas, Ro-jas, Ro-jas!!!!!!

Taylor who?

That rule wouldn't hold up in a court of law, I suspect, at least with respect to any member of an organization who does not have direct control over the means to offer a competing player a contract. It would be an infringement on the right of free speech which, last time I checked, was contained in a document that has precedent over MLB bylaws. 

There is more than one rule in baseball that wouldn't stand up to legal scrutiny. Such is the nature of an anti-trust exemption.

16 minutes ago, Jay said:

You're in no position to call anyone a nitwit.

With all due respect.

 

I agree.............without due respect.

Dont understand why I cant seem to get an away audio feed, even at an Angels away game. That's all MLB has been offering. I've already had it with Mota.

"Seems hes the reason were not winning. "

Injuries, bad contracts and the Houston Astros are the reasons we're not winning. Not Mike Trout.

He'll be playing baseball SOMEWHERE in 2021. And I will be able to watch him play. That's the most important thing to me.

As long as he doesn't go to Boston, I'm fine with wherever he plays. Boston is my line in the sand. Truthfully, though...........I'd still watch him.

But I can see an opportunity window in 2020-21, whereby IF our farm is as good as predicted and IF we accrued even more talent through trading Trout, then we would be poised to be the next Houston Astros in the division.

People like to point out that we would never get equal value for Trout in a trade, and that's probably true. But we would get significant value and some of it would likely be a player or two that are MLB proven, not prospects that might or might not pan out.

And the other thing that naysayers to a trade forget is that we would have an additional 34 million/year to spend when Trout is gone. Eppler could do a lot with that. After 2021, an additional 26 mil or so, with Albert gone. That's an interesting prospect to consider.

Anyway, Trout is definitely here for 2019.

Let's give the guy a chance. If this occurred in the reg season, he would probably be back in a week. ST gives them the luxury of giving him a couple weeks. 

I think he's still our starting 3rd sacker. 

2 hours ago, Dochalo said:

It is.  Premier catchers that are legit on both sides of the ball go within the top 5 picks.  

Since the june draft became a thing in 1965, there have been 3 players draft in the first round as a C with more than 25 WAR for their career as a C that weren't taken with a top 5 pick.  

Ted Simmons (1967) - 10th overall
Jason Kendall (1992) - 23rd overall
Mike Scioscia (1976) - 19th overall

There's actually only 10 guys over the last 20 years or so who have put up more than 20 WAR behind the dish.  

The moral of this story is that you shouldn't waste an early pick on a catcher unless you are picking in the top 5. 

 

I appreciate your efforts in coming up with this. Great stuff, Doc!

It begs the question, at least to me. Are drafted catchers so poorly represented in the 25+ WAR list because they were drafted as other position players or are there actually so few drafted catchers that achieve 25+ WAR?

Do teams just make a silk catcher's mitt out of a sow's IF/OF mitt?

7 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Later in the draft is when you start balancing your organization by position because at that point the players are all the same. 

No GM or scouting director would ever use major league positional need as a factor when it comes to one of your top picks. You take the best player, always. 

Well, maybe that explains why we are so deficient at catcher in the system. The best player, if by that you mean athlete, is never a catcher.

Yet, the case could be made for the catcher being the most important position player on the field. And it isnt necessarily an easy position to learn when you've been an IF/OF into your 20s. Seems like a catcher should be an exception to this thinking.

There is a large Mexican food processor by the name of Fud. I suppose that was intentional.

Yeah, Monterrey is fairly famous for bad air. Not as bad as DF, though.

Juan, what can you tell me about Guanajuato, SMdA and Queretaro? Going in late March, hopefully. Flying there from Hermosillo and spending eight days in the area.

Prolly cost less than three days in Scottsdale, seeing Cactus League games..................

I passed on Monterrey. Just couldn't get anyone willing to go there for the games. And these are people who live half the year in Mexico. You'd think I asked them to go bar hopping in Juarez or something.

Is that a for-real quote up there?.  WOW!!!

13 hours ago, yamsi12 said:

As much as I don’t want to say it, I have a feeling the Angels will screw this up. Just a gut feeling Arte won’t pay him what he’s worth. Also a large part of me thinks Trout wants to go home and play. And to be honest I don’t blame him.

The whole website knows where I am coming from on this Trout extension thing. I feel the signs are stronger that he leaves. But I dont believe for a second that Arte wont pay him what he's worth. Arte's offer will be as large or larger than anyone else's offer.

Of course, it might not make a difference, if the team isn't capable of going deep into the playoffs or if Trout really does want to play closer to home. Both of those are still unknowns.

But to a certain degree, the Angels may actually have to bid against themselves on Trout. Stay with me, on this............

If the team isn't a playoff team in the next two years, and if Trout really wants to "go home" in some fashion, then it's going to take some serious money over and above what a winning, east coast team may offer, to woo him. 

Even so, I try to wrap my head around the fact that, wherever he signs, he will have been guaranteed (counting his first extension) somewhere at or over 500 million dollars. What a staggering sum! Isn't it possible a small-town guy like Trout might consider leaving maybe 20-30 million on Arte's table, if he can play close to home, on a contender?

I know, 20-30 mil is a lot. None of us will probably ever earn that in five lifetimes. But consider this. Leaving 20 mil on the table, while already being guaranteed 500 mil, is like foregoing 4K on a salary of 100K. Seriously, cant you visualize a situation where you would reject a 4k signing bonus and earn only 96k? In exchange for that, you get to be near home and playing for a team that is winning and it makes you happy? How many countless employees in the LA Basin have chosen a lower paying job because the job is closer to home and the work environment is preferable? 

Now, 4k isn't utter chump change to a guy making 96k. A guy making 96k probably still has debt to service. So, he might think twice about leaving  that 4k on the table. But a guy guaranteed 500 mil, no matter where he plays? Why not play EXACTLY where you want, even if you earn 4% less?

Heck, you might even justify taking less by pointing out that it leaves money for your new team to go out and make the team even better! That would be a PR coup, for an agent to take that tact! Sounds like something Boras would do, certainly. Of course, Boras isn't Trout's agent.

Now, nobody but Trout's inner circle knows where Trout REALLY wants to play.............and no one knows how good the Angels will be in the next 2-3 years. 

The Angels have little control over where Trout wants to play. But they have a fair amount of control over how good they will be in 2-3 years. Eppler's plan seems like a plan that should succeed, even if Trout leaves. I commend him highly for that. It's the smart strategy. 

I just hope it includes trading Trout if he refuses to negotiate next off season. That's a crushing statement to have to make. But it would be foolish not to at least attempt to trade him, in that situation. That would NOT be a smart strategy, unless the Angels were clearly able to go well into the playoffs in 2020.

2 hours ago, eligrba said:

Why do you continue?  Are you not sure whether everyone heard your point the previous 1,245,576,987,455,298 times?

It seems not.

Still, I'm 1,245,576,987,455,298 x 10 mentions behind the other side, so I have some catching up to do. Thanks for the motivation, though. Gotta get crackin'. 

10 minutes ago, Sean-Regan said:

The issue isn’t what we think Trout might or might not do: We already know. He already signed an extension. That proves he wasn’t dying to play in Philly. He was reportedly willing to sign a career contract at that time. IOW, Philly isn’t something he’s been committed to. 

Could that have changed for some reason? Sure - the rebuild, his wife wanting to be closer to home, his brother-in-law’s death, feeling like he’s given Anaheim enough - any of those could make him feel like it’s time to move on. But I doubt it. And his past contract history showed a prior willingness to stay. Which means you guys are taking a glass half empty approach based on zero evidence other than your own pessimism. 

Well, I think signing a contract that takes away a lot of your arb years is very different than signing a contract as a free agent. Even with that contract, he knew he would still be a young free agent. It was the best of both worlds. Who wouldn't sign that?

5 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

Bryce just mentioned in his news conference there’s another guy available in two years and will see what happens with him. Lol 

OMG, "the weeping and the gnashing of teeth" has clearly  just begun on AW!! Bryce the Harper won't stop Harping on this until Trout signs SOMEWHERE.

Best to stow firearms and opioids out of reach of the foot soldiers of AW.

15 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

You and Jars really want Trout gone, don't you?

Because fulfilling a narrative is better than being a fan. 

F*ck the both of you.

Doesnt really matter what we want. What matters is what Trout wants.

Keeping the narrative on AW on an even keel about Trout and the team is actually more important than where Trout goes, to me. I cant control what he decides, but I can HOPE to bring some reason to the board I choose to talk baseball on. Yes, BASEBALL, not necessarily all-things-Angels. Being a fan of one team is ludicrous to me, with as great as this sport is and with as fickle as fortune shines on teams. Doesnt Arte know. FAN-aticism is for religious zealots.

I think I've mentioned before that no matter where Trout goes, as long as it isnt another West Coast team besides the Angels, It's win-win for me. If he stays, he stays with the team that I've followed the closest for about the last 38 years (though Arte's tenure has tried that mightily!). If he goes east, he is in a more favorable time zone with no blackouts in the area I live in. I get to see him more.

6 hours ago, Blarg said:

How far is Philly from Las Vegas, 2,600 miles from Harper's home?

My bad. The personalities of Harper and Trout are SOOOOO similar. Same with Machado.

What was I thinking? 

Trout is different than Machado and Harper when it pleases the AW chorus and the same as Machado and Harper if that validates their argument. 

The premature splooge-fest on AW over the "unconfirmed rumor" post is rather indicative of the anxiety that is clouding reason, here. Trout was all but at the podium, accepting the Angels' extension, with the reaction that got. You guys already shot your wad, man!! 

80% radio.

I live in Mexico till May and it's too nice outside to sit and watch TV. I like doing projects around the lot with games on. I bought a small one-watt FM transmitter on Ebay several years back and can send any audio signal into it and have it rebroadcast it on any FM frequency. Then, I take a portable radio around with me as I work the garden, the garage, up on the margarita deck, etc. I even have a 10 watt transmitter with and external antenna that I can re-transmit all over our little burg, while driving around, Not strictly legal, that last one. I have an XM radio in the truck with the MLB package, but SiriusXM transmits very few ST games on the radio, so I stream it into the FM transmitter. 

Yeah, the Angels broadcast team is not good at all. Terry Smith is so slow on the calls and Mota has been more talkative than normal, if that's possible.

2 hours ago, True Grich said:

None of us know what Trout is thinking.  Even when he says something about contract talks or not having talks - we STILL don't know what he's thinking.... BUT some of you will pretend like you do.

So true.

Especially all those who think all Arte has to do is throw money at him and he cant' refuse an extension, 3000 miles away from what he calls home.

39 minutes ago, Hubs said:

Tut tut looks like rain. Better stay inside then. 

Ill love it when the Angels win 95+ this year and make all of you sad negative fans happy for a few minutes.

Ward / Fletcher / Rengifo /Jones are all solid if not spectacular now and will all be contributors in 2019 or 2020 at the “black hole” positions of 2nd and 3rd.

Adell will debut in 2019, may not have an impact until 2020.

Marsh probably debuts in 2020 or 2021.

So 95 wins for the Angels and every service is predicting 95+ wins for the Astros. The A's are probably no more than 10 games worse than last year, so that's 87 wins.

For this to happen, there would likely have to be two teams with around 100 losses in the AL West. Just not likely. The Rangers have improved, too. 

Not extending before the completion of this season, since he wants to play for a winning team, and the Angels havent been a winning team in the last three years. He wants to make sure that that Plan Eppler is going to work.

I just dont understand all the AW love for Robles. This guy can never find the strike zone.....except right down the middle.

4 hours ago, happybat4 said:

Until the Angels make the playoffs 

Or maybe have a winning season?