Hubs

Baseball is going to expand. I'm tired of everyday Interleague Play, and they should never have done it. Going to 16 is a much better solution. No more Turf is a good idea. Don't like the schedule idea unless it has double headers in it. And 27 weeks plus three days is 192 days, so you're gonna give 30 days off. That can work, especially if you limit the teams, but I'm sorry the unbalanced schedule has been terrible for baseball. Adopt the DH in the NL or don't, but for interleague games it should always be in effect. It's an advantage for the NL team in NL parks, and the AL still holds an advantage.

They can just wait to move then. New teams in 2024, Rays move to whichever city doesn't get a team in 2028.

Contract Them. No more Rays. Problem Solved.

Do we know what the penalty is?

MLB can break this lease, and help the Rays pay the penalty. They want fans at games, having 10k announced attendance helps no one. Or they can simply contract the Rays, give ownership an expansion team and expand three times.

I really think it's about warm weather teams not going to cold weather places in those first few weeks. And the unbalanced schedule which needs to be lessened IMHO. 18-19 games against 4 teams is nearly half the schedule. They play the other teams in their league only once home and away and it should really be twice. The need for interleague play constantly also hurts this. It should be mostly division play in the early months, because they play so much more often. If they go to 32, they should also try to fix the schedule to be more balanced. 14 games against the 3 teams in your division = 42 games. (2 x 3 game series, 2 x 4 game series). 10 games against one other division in your league (2 x 3 and a 4 game series) = 40 games. 7 games against the other 8 (one 3 and one 4 each) = 56 games. That's 138. 24 Interleague games. Two divisions. Always play the same geographical location, and then one other rotating every three years. So AL West always plays NL West, Central plays Central, East plays East, and South plays south. The other divsion rotates. Year 1 West plays Central, Year 2 in plays East, Year 3 South. The interleague series is split so you get two home series and two away series in each of the two divisions every year.

It's clearly a hair transplant scar. LeBron has the same thing, and he shaves his head.

Extend Simba, Trade Rengifo, Trade or Keep LaStella. We still have Cozart for one more season too. Ward, Thaiss, and Rojas all play 3rd. They will all likely be called up in 2020. Fletcher / LaStella man 2nd. Simba's at SS, Fletcher can backup SS. Rengifo is surplus. He's developing, but he also has options, and if he could bring back someone like Greinke or Bumgarner, I do it.

I'm almost with you on this except too many traditional teams swap leagues. I get why, but its too many changes. My Presumption is that the Rays move to Nashville. Portland and Montreal get the Expansion team. Or Rays move to Montreal and then Nashville gets the Expansion team. Rays move to National League, Rockies and D'Backs move to the American League. National League: West: Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Portland Beavers* Central: Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers East: Mets, Pirates, Phillies, Montreal Expos* South: Braves, Nationals, Marlins, Nashville Sounds* American League: West: Angels, A's, M's, D'Backs Central: Indians, Tigers, White Sox, Twins East: Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Blue Jays South: Rangers, Astros, Royals, Rockies Alternately, you could give the Nashville Sounds to the AL South (and leave the Rockies) and even out the expansion teams, or the Portland Beavers to the West (and leave the D'Backs)...but Colorado should've always been an AL team... Playoffs would be Four Division Winners Plus Two Wild Cards in Each league, Top two get buys, 3/4 seeds get a 3 game series. Then a 5 game division series, 7 game championship series, and a 7 game World Series. I'd also limit the days off to none in the Wild Card Series, one in the 5 game series, one in the 7 and one in the WS. I'd play one of the Division Series games as a Double Header.

Ohtani, Suarez, and Canning will have options, Barria too. I suppose they could pull that with Suarez and Barria, but I see them having at least Skaggs and Heaney back as well, so that's 5. Adding a FA starter or A FA starter and one via trade, keeps this intact. More Likely they have a pen guy they can start if they play more than 6 games a week. Like Pena or Ramirez. Remember though if they carry 12 pitchers, 12 hitters and Ohtani, that's a 7 man pen, or a 3 man bench. SP Greinke/Ohtani/FA/Heaney/Canning/ (1 of Skaggs or Suarez or Sandoval) RP Middleton/Robles/Anderson/Buttrey/Bedrosian/JC Ramirez/Pena Trout/Upton/Adell/ (1 of Goodwin/Puello/Calhoun/Hermosillio) Simmons/Pujols/Fletcher/LaStella (2 of Ward/Cozart/Rengifo/Bour/Thaiss) Lucroy/Smith

You have to look at teams that are legit out of the race. And by that I mean either 10+ games out of division and wildcard. AL STANDINGS: HOU/TEX/OAK/LAA/SEA -- Only Seattle can likely not enter the playoff race at this point. Mike Leake and Wade LeBlanc may be available. NYY/TB/BOS/TOR/BAL -- Toronto is likely not in the race, and neither is Baltimore. Boston is near our record, and obviously are built to win. Toronto has Stroman and he's likely to get moved, but as is he is cheap and under control, he'll cost a lot. MIN/CLE/CWS/DET/KC -- Detroit and KC are both out of the race. White Sox and Cleveland are at or near our record. Sox aren't built to win now, but also don't have a lot of tradeable assets. The KC staff is arugably worse than ours, and even Duffy has some concerns. NL STANDINGS: ATL/PHI/NYM/WAS/MIA -- Washington and Miami are out of the race. Washington can maybe still salvage their season. Scherzer is a pipe dream. Mets are also under .500. De Grom is a pipe dream. MIL/CHC/STL/CIN/PIT -- Cincinnati and Pittsburgh are out of the race, likely, but not that far out. Neither really have bad contracts in starting pitching or guys they'd need to part with. I suppose Alex Wood is a guy they could look at, but he's currently injured. LAD/COL/ARI/SD/SF -- Only SF is out, SD is under .500 and the other teams are only a few games over, but selling Greinke makes sense for the D'Backs, cuz they sold everyone in the offseason and didn't bring back either of their FA. I'm on MadBum and Greinke still.

Guess I got the games mixed up.

Skaggs hasn’t been great but Heaney has only had three starts, one of which he gave up 5 runs because the pitcher who relieved him gave up a bunch of inherited runners. He’s pitching better than his number shows and it’s a small sample size

Greinke has a 2.65 ERA, MadBum at 3.83.

I also want to point out that the Angels would, if they got Greinke AND MadBum have three of the best hitting pitchers in baseball, all in the AL, where they don't get to hit.

Greinke also has $10.5 M deferred, with $11 M deferred in each of the next two seasons. He is a front line type starter. He also had a no trade clause which includes the Angels. MadBum's does not.

True. I hope the Astros collapse, but...

Bumgarner is owed $12 for 2019, is a free agent and is just about to turn 30. Samardzija is owed $36M for 19 and 20. That's $30M in new dollars for 2019/ prorated for the 57% of the season, so adds $17M to the payroll, which doesn't put them over the threshold, even without trading some salary back. Drop out Harvey for instance, and you then only add $11M in new dollars for 2019, and $18M in 2020.

The St Louis Blues had 34 points (15 W, 18 L, 4 OL) on the mornings of January 3. roughly 45% of the way through their season. That's the worst record in the entire league. They finished with 99 points. (45-28, 9 OL)...1 point shy of the division, and then just won the Stanley Cup a few days ago. The Angels are 42.5% complete with their season and are in the middle of the pack at 34-35.

I was trying to be outside the box. Perhaps, Bumgarner and Samardizja would make more sense. Not as elite as Greinke, and Harvey or Cahill has to go in return, in addition to two-three good prospects.

So, on the 14th of June, with 69 Games played and 93 to go, needing to go 57-36 roughly to secure a playoff spot, should the Angels go For it? I know the history here is not to mortgage the farm, to wait for the next wave of young guys, but...If they are playing well in two weeks, do they go for it? I realize the division is quite a bit out of play right now, 12 games and the Astros won't likely collapse like the A's did in 2014 (Around this point in the season, the Angels were 4.5 games back of the A's, at 37-32). But the Wild Card(s) are both within reach. This team's biggest weakness is its starting pitching. The team's offense is tied for 5th best OPS+ with the Yankees in All of MLB, 4th best in the AL. They're offensive WAR is 6th right now in the AL, at 11 WAR. But they rank 8th in total WAR because their total SP is at 0.5 WAR, and their relief WAR is actually #1 at 4.2. Trading for a starter would significantly help this team and give them a shot at the playoffs. Trading for 2 starters puts them in the playoffs. Now I know this costs prospects and likely puts them over the tax threshold or right up against it. The two I think the Angels should target are Bumgarner and Greinke. one is under contract for the next two seasons, and one is a free agent. Bumgarner isn't the MadBum of old, but a change of scenery probably helps the lefty starter get back to his old form. He's 30 on August 1, which is fine. He's a free agent after the season. Bumgarner will cost prospects, he only makes $12M, which means about an $8M add. While I'm sure Giants will push for Jo Adell and Canning, a starter with a 3.8 ERA and half a season of control doesn't warrant that type of return. In 2012, Greinke was a similar position to where Bumgarner is now.It cost the Angels two double A right handers and a solid (likely their #1 prospect at the time) player in Jean Segura. If the Giants got Brandon Marsh, and say Patrick Sandoval or Jaime Barria, and a young OF like DeVeaux...would that be enough? Adding Cahill to the deal reduces the salary, but I don't think that's gonna happen. I'm fairly confident they could put together a package, likely centering around Marsh. The deal would likely be all prospects, or young guys, no significant salary changing hands. Trading for the D'Backs Greinke would be a little more complex. I don't expect any top prospects to be moved in a Greinke deal unless the D'Backs ate some salary, and honestly I don't see them eating salary. They have almost no one on the books for 2020 and beyond. They could sweeten the deal with better prospects if they ate significant salary. I'd think this deal starts centering around Rengifo, you need to add a young controllable starter like Suarez. I'd say you add Matt Thaiss or Jam Jones. So three young guys. But in this deal, I think they move Harvey & Cozart back. For 2019 and for 2020 they basically reduce the 70M in 2020 and 2021 to $12.67 and reduce the $$ in 2019 by $12. They're saving $70M, and getting three good prospects in return. For the Angels in 2019, you get rid of Harvey, Cozart, and Hopefully Cahill. You lose 6 young guys, yes, and reduce your payroll flexibility in 2020 and 2021, (though some of that is deferred). The Angels also could move Calhoun in either deal (to the D'Backs makes more sense), which may help the overall package. Perhaps the D'Backs or Giants would want more projectable younger guys. Adding two elite starters to a trio of guys in Heaney, Skaggs and Canning, who all are pitching well... You have Upton, Simmons, and maybe Adell coming on offensively. Either of these guys would help the Angels playoff chances immensely, but both?

I really hate this bull shit argument. Los Angeles is the 2nd largest city in the USA, and OC, especially North OC, is very much part of the metro area. If they played in Commerce or Santa Fe Springs or Pasadena or Long Beach, no one would have ever worried about this, and if Disney hadn't changed their name to "Anaheim" they'd have still been the California Angels. When Autry moved from Chavez to Anaheim in 1966, there wasn't a lot between Downtown LA and Disneyland. That is not the case today. Do you drive the 5 South from LA and see a clear dividing line between "LA" and OC other than that the road gets nicer after all the construction? If they move to Long Beach, I hope this shit argument stops.

I actually think if Kole stays this productive at the plate, and even goes on a tear for a month like he did last year, that his option will be exercised. Look, Adell is going to be here in 2020. Is he going to be immediately MVP level like Soto, Acuna Jr., or even Trout? We don't know. And it shouldn't be expected. If Adell is in Right, and Upton in Left, then Kole is basically the 4th OF, and Goodwin is also there. How do you keep them all happy with playing time? Calhoun is a legit Gold Glove defender, and his defense may be wasted at 1st, but he's a good option to take over the Bour role, and be a part time OF.

Thanks Lou. I didn’t post about it last year but since the team drafted a kid named Will Wilson who is exactly the type of player my grandfather loved...scrappy guys like Eckstein or Erstad were his favorites. He liked Bourjos and Figgins and those type of guys. He liked Johnny Giovatella and Would’ve loved Fletcher. Now I’ll root for this Wilson kid to be the next in this mold of player which by all accounts he is.

Hey so some of you who know me on social media know that my grandfather passed in May of last year. He and I really bonded over Angels baseball in the past 25 years as we always went to one game at least when I was a kid when we’d go to his rental beach house in Newport Beach every summer. In recent years we’d always watch games together and we watched game 7 together in 2002 spontaneously (he drove up to LA from Palm Springs for the game) because we wanted to celebrate together when they won. His name was William “Bill” Wilson. So I have a new favorite prospect. (I also Attached a photo of him and my grandmother with CJ’s dad. I’d gotten them Wilson jerseys and he spotted hem when they were in the crowd. Not a lot of Wilson jerseys in the crowd in 2014.)