Hubs

50/1 is not a bad bet. We'll see what they do in the offseason and how it affects these odds.

Moving the ASG out of Atlanta was the right call.
Letting the Asterisks get away with their blatant cheating was the wrong call.

I expect them to sign a starting pitcher and trade for one. And maybe take a one year flyer FA contract on one. 
I also expect them to address SS via trade or FA.
I basically give Upton's money to Ohtani for 2023, under arbitration, and hope you can resign him for 2024 and beyond. The 2024 season will be a bit of a cash crunch if they go add two big names in free agency.
There are a few interesting trade targets who make in the 8-14 M range that may solve a pitching spot or SS -- like Ketel Marte (who would play 2nd) or Jean Segura or Merrifield, Sonny Gray or Luis Castillo or German Marquez.

19 years ago today the Angels won Game 7 of their only World Series to date.
Seems like yesterday.
I don't believe anyone is still playing in the league besides Pujols who played in that postseason. LaRussa and Baker are still managing. 
We also talk about the Angels having a mid grade pitching staff. But they let the American League in fewest runs at 644. 

He turns 42 officially end of January. He is gonna be 45 in actuality lol

Right. I remember this interview. If he was actually 42 he’d have been like 8 when Dotel was 13 or 14 not 11 as he claims. They said he was 16 when he came over instead of 19 so he could go to high school

he's likely actually 47. he fucked up one time in an interview and said he and octavio dotel were the same age and played together at one point. he backtracked really hard, but he was the st louis machine and no one was going to pursue that.
 
edit: i just hunted down and reread the interview and you're right. he said dotel was a couple years older than him and that would put him at 45.

19 years ago today the Angels won Game 7 of their only World Series to date.
Seems like yesterday.
I don't believe anyone is still playing in the league besides Pujols who played in that postseason. LaRussa and Baker are still managing. 
We also talk about the Angels having a mid grade pitching staff. But they let the American League in fewest runs at 644. 

I like the other Navy Blue one that was rumored. 
 

Exactly.

The Season tickets I grew up going to have doubled in price in the past 15 years. They're on the third base side, field level. We'd go to maybe 2 games a year. One year we bought a quarter of them, and tried to give them out to clients, but it was hard to get people to take them, even when the Angels were winning. You can't give clients anything anymore, as it's seen as a bribe, instead of a thank you for your loyalty.
But at $180 per seat, 4 seats, 81 games it's around $60,000 a year. And no one can afford that. 
They're great seats. We have a wonderful usher. Great site lines. 
But I usually just buy seats off seatgeek or stubhub now.
 

The Season tickets I grew up going to have doubled in price in the past 15 years. They're on the third base side, field level. We'd go to maybe 2 games a year. One year we bought a quarter of them, and tried to give them out to clients, but it was hard to get people to take them, even when the Angels were winning. You can't give clients anything anymore, as it's seen as a bribe, instead of a thank you for your loyalty.
But at $180 per seat, 4 seats, 81 games it's around $60,000 a year. And no one can afford that. 
They're great seats. We have a wonderful usher. Great site lines. 
But I usually just buy seats off seatgeek or stubhub now.
 

It would be the coolest thing ever if Arte came on here for one post.  
'It's my money'.  

I'm not advocating Kershaw to Angels either.  I'm just trying to think about what Friedman will do this off-season and where Kershaw fits in.  I'm not fully sold that the Dodgers ownership is willing to live in the luxury tax in consecutive or multiple years. Not even the Dodgers can go all in each and every year. 
Assuming the tax threshold remains as is (who knows with the new CBA though), they have an opportunity to reset their basis to year 0.   I can see them looking at 2023 as the next "all in" year, where Price comes off the books, the Bauer situation is stabilized, DeGrom is available in free agency and they've had another year to replenish a somewhat depleted farm system. 
They still have Buehler, Urias, Price, Bauer (?), May and Gonsolin for the rotation in 2022 and all of them save Price are set for 2023.  Does Friedman see a  highly paid 35 y.o. Kershaw as an asset for their 2023 run or is that 20+ mil better spent elsewhere; and how much does placating fans enter into the decision?  Friedman doesn't strike me as the sentimental type.  I know they'll offer him but whether that offer is a dare to move on is the question.

This is incorrect, though I see a lot of people saying it.  The more accurate assessment of his 2021 season was that he had a 26-game hot streak, but was otherwise a terrible hitter.  I've posted this before, but just to recap:
First 60 games: .255/.287/.294
Next 26 games: .454/.468/.630
Last 71 games: .194/.243/.233
 

Ausmus was the worst manager I’ve ever seen

The opener idea is terrible.
I can understand investing in the bullpen, but getting an elite starter and 2-3 arms is the best of both worlds.
Relievers are also notoriously unreliable.

Fletcher isn’t as good of a defender as De Jong and he was the second worst qualified hitter by OPS+ In 2021.
But because he is a fan favorite and he had two good years with the bat, I don’t think he’s lost his job yet, but maybe he only plays 135 games or so instead of 155. But another year like this and they’ll be looking for a second baseman. 
 
DeJong however had an OPS+ of 86 in his 113 games For the Cards. His OPS+ Is 16 points higher than Fletchers. He also doesn’t walk much, and strikes out far too often. His average is low and so his OBP numbers aren’t good either. He also doesn’t steal. He hits HR, which is good but he’s a rather one dimensional Hitter.
I know you can’t have all-stars at every position but those of you who think DeJong is gonna turn it around and hit like Semien did this year are likely going to be very disappointed.  I wouldn’t trade anything of value for Him. 
 
 

Oh please, don't feel you have to stop there.

Yeah it was incorrectly reported somewhere and then both sites took that report for the actual contracts. 

I understand in negotiations, they won't come out with a super agreeable stance the first or even the third time they present terms.
But here's the main issues from the players standpoint according to this article from CBS. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-cba-negotiations-seven-important-questions-as-baseball-work-stoppage-appears-likely-this-winter/
1) Declining share of revenues for player salaries.
2) Service time manipulation.
And from the owner's standpoint
1) Revenue Split.
So it all comes down to money as always.
My Thoughts:
The owner's initial offer that was leaked says they were going to decrease the luxury tax line and there's no way the players go for that. Even in exchange for a salary floor. In the NBA the players are granted a significant but specific share of league revenues, I could see the owners agreeing to this, but only on ticket sales and media contracts.
The players would however likely get the following in exchange for a larger percent of revenue being split. 1) 5 years to free agency instead of the current 6. 2) Lower free agency threshold like at age 28 or 5 full years in the majors whichever comes sooner. The owners offered 29.5, but will have to come down in exchange for the players to agree. Owners will get a reduction in other areas.
Players would have to agree to a different arbitration schedule, probably one that raises the minimum salary significantly and likely gets a specific minimum salary for all players, instead of allowing teams to manipulate service time and renew contracts. Like $1M for rookies, $1.5M for sophomores, $2M for third year, then two years of salary arbitration. Owners would be paying younger players significantly more, so that should raise salaries across the board. Then, they'd also likely lock in the major league minimum for free agents at 50% of the league average from the year before or $2M. This year that would've been $2M, as 50% of the average would have been like 1.85M. They'll also institute salary arbitration eligibility at completion of 50% of year three, meaning, it will be harder for teams to manipulate service time. It's a variable limit now.
I could also see them limiting non-serious contract options, Bauer's deal angered a lot of the other owners. They'll likely eliminate player benefits and 40-man salaries from Luxury tax calculations, as the numbers paid to those guys is across the board equal.
They'll likely agree to trade draft picks in exchange for the draft being lengthened back to 30 rounds. Players were not happy with the 20 round draft. They'll want a say in this.
They'll also agree to larger playoff field, which owners really want, but maybe this will result in the elimination of unbalanced schedule. Players don't want to be uneven playing field, and playing nearly 1/2 of your schedule against four teams in your division results in certain teams never gets some players to the playoffs, so that's a minor point of contention.
One other point that isn't getting a lot of coverage, certain owners will push for player punishments for cheating schemes. There wasn't a way to punish the 2017-2021 Astros, so they cheat with impunity, and this will be spelled out in the next CBA.
 
 
 
 

If the Angels don't DFA or non-tender Junior Guerra, I'm gonna lose it.

and right now we effectively have a near replacement level player at 2b already.  Two guys who coming off injury who missed huge chunks of the season, Two rookies for the OF who have promise yet are unproven, another OF who's a terrible defender and has been pretty bad for three years running.  Ignoring lineup depth for 2022 would be as dumb as ignoring the bullpen or starting rotation.  To me it's that important.  

If you want to figure out the 0-3 salaries (and it’s kind of a waste of time because it’s insignificant), here’s how you do it…
Count up all the other guys (FAs and arb guys) and subtract that from 26. Then add however many spots you want for your average number of guys on the IL each day in the season. (3-5, I’d say. Pick a number.)
Now you know how many active 0-3’s you’ll have. (When one 0-3 replaces another 0-3 it doesn’t really change the payroll.) Multiply that by some number a little above the minimum (because some 0-3’s make more). We don’t know the minimum for 2022 so just use $600k for the average. 
Its gonna end up being something like $9-12M. Trying to get more precise is a waste of time. 

I changed it so you can see where my numbers come from. You don't pay the entire 40 man major league minimum salaries. They also don't count as to opening day or real payroll, they do count in luxury tax.
First, the signing bonuses are still on both Cot's and Spotrac, and your numbers included them. @Jeff FletcherFletcher mentioned this a while back and so I've dropped the bonuses.
In AAA a guy on the Major League 40-man roster without major league experience, makes a minimum of 46,000. If they have major league experience (only a day in the majors), they make much more, at least 96,000 per year. This is also accounted for in the roughly $2.25-3M in minor league salaries the team adds to its luxury tax payroll, not in "real" payroll. Ettin frequently cites this wrongly in his salary articles. Just because they renew a minor leaguers contract at said amount, does not mean he earns that.
When a guy is brought up, say Packy Naughton is brought up to start, he makes the prorated portion of the major league minimum salary for the time he is up, and then when he is sent back to AAA, he makes his prorated AAA salary. Ward was up for around 2/3 of the season and in AAA for 1/3 of the season last year, he'd make then 2/3 of the major league salary and 1/3 of the minor league one. So 400k+30k. = $430,000k.
You are right that when a guy goes on the major league 60-day DL he is guaranteed his prorated major league salary, but if they are in the minors when they get placed on the 60-Day DL, it's much less. Canning made much less than Sandoval last year because of this fact.
None of this adds up to be a lot of money. They used a lot of guys last year, and that is far from the norm. But by accounting for full salaries for the 26 man roster club control guys, you are able to absorb the cost. If they swap Naughton for Junk, the number to the payroll doesn't increase, Naughton makes minor league salary while Junk makes Major and vice versa.