Dtwncbad

Let’s play message board king of the hill. Who will have the last post in this thread before it’s locked?

Speaking of human memories being weird, in 20 years I will be baffled why I have a specific memory of David Brinkley in a white bikini leaning against a palm tree.

Checkmate

This is not what I thought I would be talking about on opening day.

So true. Until recently I was 100% sure that I hooked up with Christie Brinkley in the Virgin Islands twice a day for about a month in 1980. But then I found this in a bin in my garage.

Yeah my memory had it as a two-hitter, and I was at the game.

Fun note: I was out drinking beer with Jay Buhner until way too late the night before that game.

I am still furious over the club’s obvious disrespect for Willy Fraser’s two-hitter.

Anybody have a compelling reason to pick one over the other to get access to Angel games?

Some contract lengths represent expected play term and some are really more just extended financing.

His exact quote was “Will Smith slaps.”

Isn’t Clevinger and Belt that new store at the mall right next to Crate and Barrel?

I don’t think anybody is or was thinking that signing a free agent would be the move that puts the team into the playoffs. My concern is comparing what some of these players eventually signed for and whether or not they would have improved the team. I still want the team to try to win as many games as possible and be as entertaining as possible. The team’s foundational level of competitiveness will come from the core they already have. Will they click and do well or will they have a year of just gaining experience? If they click, I want those other bodies to help. If they don’t click then as a fan, I don’t really want to watch 92 losses this year instead of 84 losses to save the owner a few million dollars. In the end, they should have added some talent to the team outside of just building a bullpen.

If we wanted to really be optimists, we could fantasize that the roughly $50m under the luxury tax this year is deliberate for the purpose of being saved money to fund the luxury tax penalties for the loaded rosters in 2025-2027. Too much hope there? Hey if I am going to hope for 130 games out of Trout, 120 games out of Rendon, significant progress from multiple young starters, Schanuel to be here for good and productive, a coming out party for Jo Adell, Moniak finally realizing his potential, O’Hoppe and Neto being all star level players, and Taylor Ward not turning into a pumpkin. . .

This was a fun thread. And I was worried it would be too plane.

Adell is second on the team in homers with 32.

If a GM says they have no limitations (presumably from the owner) on spending to improve the club, that does not mean they are free to sign recklessly expensive contracts. They are still going to be disciplined in trying to make deals that are reasonable. For the record, I am personally bothered by the lack of impact player free agent signings. There were some good players that could have helped this team win more games. My guess is they were open to sign many players but were being fairly cautious to avoid any long-term contract that would be a future albatross. So the alternative is yes they could do short term or do deals with opt outs, but then the salary per year escalates into “Why are we going to pay Snell $30m+ for 2024 when the difference might be 84 wins instead of 78 wins?” Anyway, it is reasonable to believe that having “no limitations” was always in the context of there being no limit to signing contracts they felt made sense for where the team is right now. I would have preferred to chase and land like Snell and Bellinger (both imperfect players in their own ways) because to me it really is in the realm of possibilities that this team could be fairly good in 2024, and even if you have them short term deals you have your own exclusive window to try to extend them if things are going right.

There is only one #4 for the Angels.

I don’t quite understand. Can somebody translate?

Well Moreno was more correct than wrong here. Ohtani’s contract was worth under $500m in today dollars. Yes he agreed to a contract where he will eventually collect $700m. But the only fair, mathematically rational way to Moreno’s assessment of what Ohtani would get would be to talk about it in today’s dollars.

You are mixing up different things. If Montgomery had a draft pick loss attached to him NOW (he already doesn’t) then a team could get around that by waiting to sign until the draft. If Montgomery waits to sign until after the season opens, he will also again not have a draft pick loss attached to him NEXT year in his NEXT free agency. At least that’s how I understand it.

If Moreno gets fired up and motivated over unfinished business, then somebody needs to redirect him to be fired up and focused on the unfinished business of selling the team.

I have it for you. Here you go: