Dtwncbad

I just saw one for the first time in person. One drive by near my house a couple days ago. It’s sure stands out as different.

We don’t disagree on much then. There is nothing wrong with Drury at first. He’s fine. In the context of Bellinger, yeah he “fits” as a body for first base in addition to his ability to play OF. He would then slot in front of Drury at 1B. My point was more that the Angels do have “enough” depth at first. Yes, the playability of that depth decreases as you get to the third and fourth guy, naturally. I mean, if the Angels were forces to play Ward at 1B for 100+ games it means they had at least three other problems at the position. You realistically cannot build a roster where your fourth option at a position isn’t a significant drop off from the normal starter, right? But even though Bellinger isn’t my favorite player, he does fit this Angel roster pretty well, including freeing up somebody like Ward to be moved for pitching. So I don’t want the Angels to hand out a bad contract, but Bellinger is tempting if the price becomes reasonable.

Probably because he successfully argued that he can also play 1B if three other guys are unavailable.

My guess is we are not going to agree. But are you telling me that Rendon, who has traditionally been an excellent defender at third base, isn’t capable of playing first base at least adequately? I mean, it seems like Rendon’s biggest problem defensively has become throwing accuracy, where at first base that would be masked. Ward is a little tougher to project being good enough, but normally a guy that can play three OF positions, has already played some third, and is a former catcher PROBABLY can handle first base, don’t you think? Plus we are talking about Ward being the fourth person on the depth chart. Personally I don’t have the expectation that the fourth person in the depth chart at the position be anything more than a stopgap fill in temporarily.

They haven’t yet played much first base because the teams they have been in haven’t needed them to. It is based on almost anybody that can play third base can also play first base.

As depth, of course they are.

Yes. Or Rendon. Or Ward. Thats four deep at first. If you are not comfortable with that amount of depth, then add someone that has at least some positional flexibility. Cron is just too narrow a player in terms of his potential utility.

Yeah, probably not. If he sells it will be for more than that.

So Roger Lodge is announcing he is buying the Angels?

Be careful what you wish for.

Your response seemingly has nothing to do with what I posted. The number of “formal offers” is irrelevant to the point I made.

The Cuban name seems like random speculation to me. But the speculation that there could be a deal happening isn’t exactly “random” speculation. He was willing to sell before. He was well into the process before. He changed his mind with the only explanation being the “unfinished business” which was never exactly defined. Ohtani was unique enough that trying to win with him certainly could have been a big part of Moreno’s change of heart. Ohtani is now gone. Moreno is 100 years old. His family doesn’t want to run the team when he is gone. So he IS going to sell the team at some point. The Orioles just announced a deal. It is almost unbelievable that those interested in buying the Orioles would not be actively checking on the Angels, potentially creating a temptation for Moreno to either sell to one of those buyers or to revive the deal with a previous bidder. So I don’t think it is “random” speculation as much as it is reasonable speculation.

If the Angels are really moving forward now on an ownership change, it seems most likely that the new owner would be one of the potential buyers from the last time he was going to sell. If may part of the overall rumor is incorrect, I would bet on Cuban as the buyer being the incorrect part. And that’s what I would hope anyway, as Cuban isn’t somebody I would be excited about as a new owner.

And Trevor Bauer, someone who was the victim of fraudulent claims and extortion, must be excluded from mlb rosters to teach your kids this? Wow. I am just astonished at the lack of mental discipline. Should people teach their sons that they should roll over and allow their careers to be destroyed by criminals, you know, to be in lock step with some hashtag?

So the poll is basically. . . Are you MORE of a Trout fan than an Angel fan or are you MORE of an Angel fan than a Trout fan?

For the Groundhog Day Gazette

I understand this for sure. But, any picks they make in the next 2 years will likely not help the team within the next 4-5 years. And if you actually want to win, you probably have to concentrate your resources into certain windows. The Angels have lots of young players now coming into their primes, so you can argue that this next few years IS the window to concentrate your resources into. Getting Snell and Burnes would maximize this window, while the couple of draft picks probably would not. . . Unless you traded them in a package to get an impact player. But if you are willing to do that, then just sign the players you need and forfeit the picks.

I’ll take both please.

Plenty of space for different opinions. His swing isn’t my favorite because all I see is a guy with very deliberate, coached mechanics applying a technique, rather than a talented natural hitter with his own natural swing in the batters box naturally squaring off against a pitcher. If it works, that’s fine. But I couldn’t say “I like his swing.”

Yikes. I hate his swing.

If the plan is to trade an OF (and mlb trade rumors says it would be Ward or Adell), then I really hope they trade the 30 year old Ward rather than the 25 year old Adell. I give Ward lots of credit for figuring out a way over many years to be productive in the majors. But Adell has so much more athleticism and raw skills and is so much younger, and he “finally” is showing some evidence that he is turning the corner. I put “finally” in quotes because it is notable that to some Adell has had his chance and is a bust at 25 when Ward had no productivity in the majors to speak of until he was 28. I’ll hold on to the guy that has far more years ahead of him.

I don’t want to sidetrack this thread. But let me just say that there are people that literally cannot get along face to face, cannot even function with each other, because of their different social/political opinions. And the there are others that may have wildly different social and political convictions, complete with plenty of energy to disagree, even aggressively AS A MATTERS OF DEBATE. . . but can easily easily get along with each other face to face in real life, and enjoy each others company as legitimate friends. One obvious limitation on a message board is that people from opposite sides of a debate most often don’t even have a chance to function with each other outside of the debate. And that’s kind of a shame because most people are far more valuable/interesting/funny/fun/loyal as friends, etc than just their debate positions.

I don’t know. It seems like the biggest “lefty/righty” issue with this roster is not the lack of another left handed bat, but the rather modest level of success that some of the right handed hitters on this team have against lefties. To that end, you can almost argue that they need a right handed bat that just crushes left handers.

Nice post. Having real life stuff affect what you post here happens to all of us (at least I know it has for me at times). Hang in there, and I hope things get better.

It’s all crazy money to normal people like you and me. But don’t you think $46m a year for Ohtani is actually not all that shocking, given his two-way productions and massive, massive marketing appeal?