Hubs

I think they won't improve much and will likely regress. They were surprisingly good the second Half and a lot was luck, but they have some really good players, and Safeco is awesome viewing experience. I went to the final game where we knocked them out of the playoffs -- the fans were excited and engaged. Seeing Kyle Seager's farewell was cool too. They also took down the obnoxious 116 win flag or moved it. It used to be in CF and stood out garishly, but not anymore. The concessions were a mess though. I don't think we realize at Anaheim Stadium how good we've got it with concessions and walkways and such. Petco was good this year too. Also, the Angels scrubs and Ohtani dominated that lineup in a must-win game, so they need pitching and pitching and more pitching. I can't see them involved in the SS market, but I can see them try to add multiple pitchers and maybe a veteran hitter or three. They have only $22M committed next season. They do have several arbitration guys and that will increase their payroll somewhat, as Haniger, Crawford, and others are arbitration eligible. They could use another 3B, it didn't look as if they will bring Seager back. Ty France may move across the diamond, I see he's been at 3B. But Seager despite his low average was a productive batter, hitting 35 HR and 29 2B. So that will have to get fixed. I could see them adding here, and also at 2B and DH. So they're a team to watch. I won't punt a baby if they win 90, but if they only win 75 next year I wouldn't be surprised.

The most similar team to 2002 in energy was the 2019 Nationals. I hope we get some of this in 2022.

Yeah, I mean he's well liked but so was Mickey Hatcher. I'd like to see some younger coaches as well as identifying a guy to be a manager in waiting after say three more seasons. Wise I think is the youngest coach on the staff, and maybe he wasn't totally ready for the pitching coach job, but I say give him another year.

He'll likely be a minor league free agent, didn't get into a game with the Dodgers, and I just mean someone like him. Journeyman catchers are easy to find.

Without knowing what is up on the staff, or what is the reason for the change, this is a bit of a joke. I doubt Suzuki would say this, and who else besides Stassi in the organization is a solid catcher? Did he help Thaiss in AAA? Molina may have gotten a bench coach offer, so maybe he's taking that.

I'm an optimist, don't see the point of sports fandom unless you are optimistic always, but I still feel that this is highly negative. SEA, Yes -- they are good. Won 90 games, went 11-8 against the Halos. Have some pitching questions, but definitely have improved. We'll see if DiPoto and Servais can lead the team to the division. OAK -- I think they have one of the largest arbitration classes, and one of the largest free agent class of any major league team. They struggled in the second half. They will have a very different roster in 2022 and 2023. (11 Free Agents and 11 arbitration eligibles, not the most in either case, but with the A's history on both fronts, expect to face a very different club than the one who went 15-4 against this years Angels. HOU -- They cheat, they've been cheating, and they will get caught again. Tepera made allegations last week hat got national attention, but there have been stories all year long that they continued to cheat into the 2019 playoffs and maybe resumed this year too. https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/astros-cheating-book/ Why stop cheating when the players weren't penalized and they have been to 5 straight ALCS and two, maybe three World Series? Even if they aren't caught again, however, or punished, Correa, Verlander, and Grienke are all free agents. LAA -- As I've stated in other posts, the Angels have 70M to reach last years total salary, have a very small arbitration class, and only one key free agent in Iglesias. They pushed their farm ahead a lot last season, and the only thing keeping the Angels back from being in the hunt for the division was not pitching in 2021, it was health, both of the pitching staff and of Trout, Rendon, Upton. Ohtani took a huge step forward in 2021, and is the likely MVP. In 2022, it's not out of the question to assume the Angels five best players to have 30+ WAR. Trout if healthy is a lock for 8-9, and so is Ohtani. They need to sign a starter, hopefully that guy gives you 5 WAR. They need to sign a SS--Semien (7) or Story (4) should give you 4-5 WAR and Rendon should give you 5-6 if healthy, possibly even 7. They had 22.4 WAR total last season. I like DH Ohtani SS Semien or Story or Seager OF Trout 3B Rendon 1B Walsh OF Adell/Upton OF Marsh/Ward C Stassi/Thaiss/Bemboom 2B Fletcher with a Rotation of Scherzer or Stroman or Other TOR FA Starter Ohtani Sandoval Gray or Cobb or Other #3 FA Starter Suarez Detmers/Barria/Canning/C-Rod/Bachman/Naughton/Junk with a pen of Iglesias FA Mayers Warren Cishek Ortega Quijada Etc.

I mentioned literally all of this. The first part of my post was that the 2022 team should be better than 2002 ON OFFENSE. I talked about Health. I mentioned Fletcher hopefully bounces back to 2020 or 2019, I mentioned if Marsh or Adell breakout, and I mentioned signing a top SS. Defensive WAR is being worked in for position players, but the 2022 team should be literally so much better on offense if everyone is healthy that the slight regression in defense mainly in the OF, as Kennedy and Eckstein were just average defensively, Rendon is Glaus's equal or better, Stassi is better than Molina on defense, and Walsh and Spiezio were pretty much equals. But Erstad is superior to Trout, defensively, and even Anderson is better than Adell/Upton in left. Marsh should be better than Salmon in right. Although, I would expect to see many different lineups with Marsh/Adell/Upton/Ward slotting in around Trout in different combos. Trout could even play some left, as he did in 2012. A top SS makeds the infield defense at least on par with 2002's infield, and while the OF wont be quite as good as the Erstad led bunch, Trout alone if healthy nearly makes up the difference on offense. That team on the pitching side had a 18.4 WAR, but the post said the 2022 team would match or exceed the 2002 team on offense. The biggest difference between 2022 and 2002 will of course be health, the 2002 team had 2 starters at 200+ IP and they only used 8 starters. (Shields pitched 1, Callaway 6, Schoeneweis had 15 and Lackey 18. Sele had 26 and Appier, Ortiz, and Washburn all had 32 starts). 2021 the Angels used 17 starters. Three of those could be considered bullpen games, whereas even Shields 1 starts wasn't a true BP game. The 2021 team did have a 14.3 WAR from its pitching, with Ohtani leading the way with 4.1 pitching WAR and then Iglesias being second at 2.8. Then Sandoval 2.1, Suarez's 1.9, and Alex Cobb 1.7 round out the top 5. You'd think the 2002's top 5 was better, Washburn leading the way with 4.5. Ortiz followed at 3.1, Percival 3rd at 2.4, then Appier at 1.8 and Ben Weber and Brenden Donnelly tied for fifth at 1.7. So adding a top starter, which they said they want to do, Bringing back Cobb or signing an equivalent pitcher like Jon Gray, bringing back Iglesias, and getting a few healthy years from Sandoval, Suarez, Canning and Barria, to say nothing of Detmers, Bachman, Rodriguez, or others makes this team right there with the 2002's pitching staff. Scherzer had a 5.3 WAR and Stroman had a 3.6.

Ausmus was the worst manager I’ve ever seen

2022 team should be better on offense than the 2002 team. The best postion players on the 2002 team were Salmon and Fullmer, Anderson being in third. (By OPS+) The best by bWAR was Erstad, at 6.3, which is obviously mainly defense and position, as he actually had a sub 100 OPS+. Next was Eckstein at 5.2, then Anderson at 5.0, Kennedy at 4.5, Glaus at 4.4 and Salmon at 4.0. Fullmer checked in at 2.9, Spiezio at 2.5 and Palmiero at 1.1. Then you had Benji Gil at 0.8 and Bengie Molina at 0.4. The top position players on the 2022 team, if healthy, will be Trout, Ohtani, Rendon, Walsh and Fletcher likely, unless they add a top SS. Or one of Marsh / Adell / Upton has a great year. Trout, Ohtani, and Rendon will be superior to Salmon, Fullmer, and Anderson or to Erstad, Fullmer, and Glaus if you're going by position. But what about the rest of the team? In 2021, Ohtani's bWAR as a batter (4.9) only would've placed 4th on the 2002 squad. Walsh, who was second at 2.9 would've slotted in tied for 7th. But Trout and Rendon really didn't play much, Taking out Glaus and Erstad would have dramatically affected the 02 team WAR. Looking 2002 vs 2022, by position then, Trout should top Erstad, easily. Fletcher would have to return to 2020 numbers (2.0 in 49 games = 5.4 in 132 games, possibly more WAR in more games) to top either Eckstein or Kennedy. I don't know if Adell will top Anderson's 5.0, or Marsh top Salmon's 4.0 or that they'd account for 9 WAR between the two of them, or if you include Upton, 10.1 for the three OF not names Trout seems like a bit of a stretch. Rendon though should easily top Glaus if healthy at the hot corner. Ohtani should easily top Fullmer, and Walsh should top Spiezio, especially if he improves his defense (which though we like it, doesn't play well against the fielding numbers). Stassi, if healthy and hitting, will top Bengie's 0.4, but will the catching duo or trio top the 02 team's catchers? At SS, though, they'd have to sign Semien, Story or Seager to top Eckstein, and only Semien and Lowe as a 2nd baseman topped Kennedy's 4.5 (Altuve was 3rd among 2B at 4.4). The bench of Palmiero, Gil, Ochoa, Amezaga, and Shawn Wooten minus a few negative WAR players who didn't play much totalled a 1.5 WAR positive. I don't know if Ward, Rengifo, Thaiss, Davis, Mayfield, Stefanic, Rojas, a few backup Catchers besides Thaiss, and possibly Gosselin get to a 1.5 positive. I didn't include Upton here, as I have him and the two young OF as three starters in two positions. Not everything will compare exactly. Certainly Ward is capable of getting to 1.1 and Rengifo could get to 1.2 (Amezaga and Gil combined) and perhaps thats more important as the primary bench guys. Thaiss as a C probably rates negative as they most certainly won't like his defense, but I say he would be just fine in part time duty. If Stassi can get to 90 games that is. If not, you'll have to get a Suzuki (-0.5 WAR). The 2021 team was dragged down by -7.0 WAR by the bench and replacement guys, so the total of 8.1 is a bit misleading. They need health as Trout was at 1.8 in just 36 games, meaning a full season puts him over 8 if you prorate it (probably over 9 in reality) and Rendon probably is a 6-7 win player if healthy. That's like 15 WAR and eliminating at least -2.0 WAR from their replacements. That would put the 2021 team around 25.1 WAR. Add that to improvements from Fletcher (+3 WAR hopefully or with Davis taking some of his AB's to be +2), Adell and Marsh (likely just with playing time maybe +5, I saw someone say they could be 5/6 WAR players I think they meant combined), and whatever they do at SS, Semien's 7.1 was 2nd in all of baseball among position players who didn't also pitch (and it looks really good versus Iglesias -1.0 and Rengifo -0.5) but even Story's 4.2 would be a dramatic improvement. The 2022 team could conceivably be in the 40's for position player WAR. They wouldn't need to get any star pitching to make the playoffs, but even adding Jon Gray and say Robbie Ray or Marcus Stroman, and you're in great shape.

For the record, I'm fine with Scherzer, Stroman, Ray, etc. You seem to think that they won't add a pitcher of any caliber. I say they will.

Ok, so if he's 12, he would've watched this on YouTube. If he is 80, then he watched it on the News. Still torn.

I like the other Navy Blue one that was rumored.

I can't tell if this poster is 12 or if he is 80.

In 04, they won the division and got knocked out of the playoffs, cuz they lost one of their best pitchers and one of their best hitters decided to be a jerk and got cut. Also, Glaus underperformed. The investment before the 2004 season though is roughly what I am looking for in 2022. They added two starters, one TOR and one guy who was promising, and added two hitters, one HOF worthy and one on the upswing. Now they really need three pitchers and one hitter (a SS), but this is the year to go for this.

Yeah, I am surprised they both list it under real payroll, not just on AAV. Probably an error in reporting that they both use for their actual payroll numbers.