Hubs

Any Contract is movable if you take on money. Exactly my point all week regarding Cozart. I don't want Craig Kimbrell really, but if it was in exchange for Zack Cozart and a lower tier prospect, who wouldn't take that gamble? And Upton for Price is actually intriguing. I'd prefer Sale obviously, over Price, but either works. Price actually has such a negative surplus value, that it probably costs them Benintendi to move him for Upton, and the Angels have to throw them a guy like say Knowles or Jones or something off the top ten list, but not an elite guy like Adell or Marsh. Can you imagine a scenario where they get Price, Cole, and a guy like Wheeler or Bumgarner? Plus Kimbrel, and Grandal? And yes it's doable financially. Trading Upton for Price and Benintendi adds like $15 in luxury tax dollars per season, but the real dollars are similar. Upton makes 72/3 and Price is at $93/3. Bientiendi is under arbitration. Assume Cole comes at $34 AAV, but lower in years one and two in real dollars. Assume Wheeler/Bumgarner comes at 21 AAV and is lower in years one and two in real dollars. Grandal is gonna be around 3/51. Kimbrel costing only Cozart and a prospect is only gonna cost $3-4 M. I'd send them Bedrosian in exchange. So that the deal is salary neutral. You have $140ish committed. Add the $15 for the Price/ Bientiendi deal, add $22 for Cole in his first year, add $14 for Wheeler in his first year, $14 for Grandal in his first. That brings the real payroll up to 206. Which is an increase of about 20M. You could ask for $5M in the Kimbrel deal and $3M in the Price deal per year, and probably get it. Then you'd be at $198. With a lineup of Fletcher INF Trout CF Ohtani DH Adell RF / Goodwin RF Grandal C Simmons SS Pujols 1B La Stella INF Benintendi LF / Marsh LF And a rotation of Cole, Wheeler, Price, Ohtani, Heaney, Canning With a pen of Kimbrel, Robles, Buttrey, Middelton, Anderson, Ramirez, Pena, Cole

I’m warming to the Upton deal Sherman mentioned. Price out of Boston could rebound. And Kimbrel for Cozart would be a no brainer.

Trade Upton for Price and re-sign Calhoun. This makes a lot more sense seeing as Upton isn’t gonna be as injured as you think. Calhoun also can play some 1st.

What if they threw in Bientiendi. Everyone says yes to that.

Isn’t this what Darren Oliver and others have done. A few unspectacular years as a starter, then transition to a relief role?

Actually in 2011, they didn’t have many injuries three pitchers pitched more than 30 starts and two others pitched 25 ish. Best staff the Angels had under Scioscia

I only meant as part of a package. He’d certainly cost more than just Cozart.

Probably around 13-15 starts. Some other fill ins here and there for the 6th guy. That gives Ohtani 25-26 starts, and the other 4 will be around 31 each. Maybe you slot in Cole and Wheeler/Bumgarner/Sale every 5 days and push them to 32 or 33. Giving Heaney and Canning closer to 27-28. That's assuming no pitcher is out for more than a week or two. Which would be a miracle.

Who the Twins are trying to resign and move to the pen. I literally just saw this in an mlbtraderumors post, and thought yeah a lefty who can work multiple innings and throw 95...ok

Martin Perez fits the bill as a lefty. I'd like a legit lefty reliever.

Is there an issue going after Sale and Cole? Like I realize Sale will cost $$$$. And Cole will cost $$$$. If the Sox took back Cozart in the deal for 2020...Then the $ for 2020 would be roughly a $17.5 M additional salary. They may also be interested in cost controllable pitching like Andrew Heaney or Cam Bedrosian, pitchers who cost more than the minimum. Sale is $30 M for three years, and 27.5 for the final two. Lets assume Cole costs $34 M over 7 years, at $238 M. Say that he gets a $28M signing bonus, payable 14M in 2020 and 2021. Then he'd have a $30M annual salary and a $34M AAV. Sale's AAV is $25.6. So yes, you'd be adding nearly $60M in AAV to the AAV salary. But they have the room under the Luxury Tax Line by unloading Cozart and maybe Cam. They may even have room to still add a catcher, and add some other stuff on the edges.

With the 26 man roster, I'd expect he and Fletcher to be the main guys at 2nd and 3rd, but Cozart if healthy and still on the team will get a some playing time, as will Rengifo and Thaiss who figure to get more. If you think Fletcher plays all but one day a week. 5 of 6 or 6 of 7. Simmons probably figures for a similar amount. Say Fletcher splits his time between 2nd, 3rd, and also plays a little short. That's gonna mean say 60 starts at 2nd and 60 at 3rd, with like 15-20 at SS. Pujols say gets 70 games at 1st and 60 as a DH. That leaves 90ish DH spots for Ohtani. That leaves 100 at 3rd, 100 at 2nd, and 90 at 1st. You'd have to figure that Thaiss gets the majority of the leftover 1st base starts and some at 3rd. Maybe 90 games total. He'll also be in the minors up and down unless he is raking. That means LaStella gets say 75 at 3rd, 40 at 2nd and 15 at 1st? That's 130 starts. I suppose we hope he increases the 1st base time, or Fletcher plays some OF, or that Thaiss plays less Rengifo then only gets 60 starts at 2nd unless this all happens. It will be a fluid situation in the INF.

I'm surprised Knowles jumped over Wilson and Jackson. I think my list of 10 would be highly similar. I might drop in Jam Jones at 9-10, and knock off Sandoval. I don't think a player with 10 major league pitching starts is a prospect anymore. But I have hopes Sandoval can be our swing starter this year. I also hear good things about Yan.

Gotta trade assets to get assets. If not Boyd then, how about Gray or someone else? I have a feeling they move someone for pitching from the infield surplus. Maybe Hermosillo if he has any value. And I think it will be a bigger deal than we expect.

Rengifo and Barria for Boyd.

Replace Thaiss with Ward and have them add a lower level prospect. Done.

I doubt people would be upset if they say traded some of these youngsters in a deal for someone like Syndergaard or Ray, or even an offensive player like Lindor. For me, I have my favorites on the Angels, and I wouldn't want to see certain players traded in a deal that brought them back little or nothing, but in a deal that brings back legit talent?

I will defend the Cozart signing because at the time they had no second baseman or third baseman. None on the horizon. Should they have signed Moustakas instead, probably. Should they try to get him healthy so they can trade him? Yes.

You wouldn't trade like Rengifo, Suarez, and a prospect for a good young controllable starter? He's not currently a starter and they have depth in the infield.

Nah, I say expand, and drop the unequal schedule. Look, right now the top teams are able to outspend the poorer markets, but two small market small payroll teams won wildcards and one won a division. One of the reasons that happens is that the competitive divisions aren't competitive to all teams. Some successful teams are able to beat up on bad teams, and inflate their records. 4 - 4 team divisions per league. AL West - Angels, A's, Mariners, Portland Expansion AL Central - White Sox, Tigers, Twins, Indians AL East - Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Blue Jays AL South - Rangers, Astros, Rockies, Royals NL West - Dodgers, Giants, Padres, D'Backs NL Central - Cubs, Reds, Brewers, Cardinals NL East - Phillies, Mets, Nationals, Pirates NL South - Braves, Nashville Expansion, Marlins, Rays Less of an unbalanced schedule means you can't beat up on the terrible teams to push you into the playoffs.

I'm not saying it's likely, but if they were to say make a move for a pitcher under long term contract at big money, Cozart would absolutely be in the return. Like David Price, or someone like that.

In the fact that everyone thought he was worthless when he was traded. Yes.

But teams need salary relief on multi-year deals. They could've included him in say a trade for Greinke last year, instead of cash. Don't be a jerk. His value has certainly diminished, but there are definitely needy teams out there with their own bad contracts to trade. For instance, I'd bet he, and a prospect of some regard, plus maybe a few million in cash could get us Jordan Zimmerman or Jeff Samardizja. That translates then to maybe $10M in new money, versus $18 or 20. And it's a short committment. No one thought Cron was worth anything and he netted us Rengifo. Same for Hank Conger (Tropeano, Perez) or for Maldonado (Sandoval).

I am really glad you’re not the GM. Trading most of his salary to a Infield needy team in exchange for a bad contract that serves the Angels needs is totally possible

I think they need to sign a marquee starter and upside starter and a catcher and maybe a relief arm, maybe make a trade to clear Cozart’s salary and get something more useful to this team in return. It’s gonna be a hectic offseason that’s for sure.