Dtwncbad

1 hour ago, BTH said:

 

Montgomery doesn’t have a draft pick attached to him.

Yes I know.  I thought he could just wait until after opening day to avoid having it attached to him again.  If it’s July, then I messed up on this.

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

I would prefer him to Snell but unless he changes his mind on location that isn’t happening. 

At this point Montgomery might as well wait until after opening day to sign to avoid having a draft pick loss attached to him next year (in case he signs a one year deal or gets an opt out).

Let the 20 pages of Montgomery talk begin.

43 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

Arte is sitting in his office writing out checks to both Trout and Rendon. Both getting 38 mill a year and cannot stay on the field. One could care less if he is on the field. His GM signs relief pitcher to a 3 year deal he is going to start season on IL. Has a young team really not ready to compete for playoff spot. GM, Trout and fans want him to sign Snell, Martinez among others. Just not going to happen.

Are these your notes to write a horrible Haiku?

2 hours ago, Redondo said:

Bengie Gil

10 meaning. . .

On a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid are these ridiculous uniforms?

2 hours ago, Erstad Grit said:

Arte is an idiot for pushing the wrong FA upon our many GMs.
Arte is an idiot for advocating trading prospects and not trading Ohtani last year.
Arte is an idiot for declaring we're not rebuilding and then doing virtually nothing. 

Arte is an idiot for making the baseball decisions instead of the GM. 

There is absolutely no clear plan what-so-ever. 

Being a perennially so-so team is the worst reality for a team. We're not sucking enough to rebuild, and we're not even sniffing the playoffs. 

He is an idiot for lots of reasons.  I just prefer to wait and see what exactly happens with Snell before I conclude that there is something to blame Arte for on the subject.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if player had to pick the length of their next contract when they file for free agency?

They would have to pick the exact number of years and then stick to it.

It would reduce the free agency negotiations to just haggling over dollars, rather than the (sometimes) never-ending going back and forth over dollars AND years.

The mlbpa would never go for it but it is interesting to imagine.

So you might have someone like Snell designate that he is filing for a 5 year deal.  Or JD Martinez files for a one year deal.

Heck, they could even have a freaking auction live on TV.  “Next up, we have Blake Snell for five years.  Opening bid is obviously mlb minimum.  We have $70m, now $74m, we have $100m from the Mets, now $102 from the Yankees. . . .”    That would be fun to watch.

What is the point of talking about things that would never happen?  I don’t know, I’m bored.

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

He is not that quality of a pitcher. He has two Cy Young awards where the competition was crap, unable to beat out a guy that averages 5 innings per game. He was the tallest pygmy last season.

The previous 4 seasons he was a 104 ERA+ pitcher. Patrick Sandoval was a 109 ERA+ pitcher last season. Over the last 4 seasons Sandoval has been a 116 ERA+ pitcher. 

If you think your getting 203 Blake Snell this season you are ignoring who has been most like his career. And that is not a Cy Young pitcher. Not even a runner up. 

I didn’t say he was reliably an elite player.  I said he is a quality starting pitcher.  You are going to have a really hard time saying he isn’t a quality starting pitcher.  He would be the Angels #1.  If he isn’t a quality starting pitcher then you are saying the Angels have zero quality starting pitchers.  And I would disagree.

Snell would be the #1 or #2 on most teams.  Maybe a #3 on a truly elite rotation.

I fully understand the ways to pick him apart.  But you can find things to be concerned about on almost every starting pitcher.

The biggest knock on Snell is “he is a 5 inning pitcher.”

Well, so is almost everybody.

“Of the 117 starters who threw at least 100 innings last season, 13 averaged more than six innings per start (with a high of 6.6 from Marlins Sandy Alcántara, and 12 averaged fewer than five (with a low of 4.6 from Luke Weaver). Everyone else is clustered into the narrow five-to-six range.”

Baseball itself has evolved into strategic equations, where, like it or not, they expect 5-6 innings from the starter.

Snell averaged 5.625 innings per start last year.  Basically 5 2/3.

He is delivering what the equation asks for.

The Angels just built a bullpen set up to be a great fit for the “equation” of starters basically getting through the lineup twice and then going to the bullpen.

I would even be tempted to put money on Snell leading the Angel starters in innings.

He is definitely a quality starting pitcher, unless your definition of quality is “special” or “elite” or “true ace every year.”

3 minutes ago, Blarg said:

None of those teams seem all that interested. If there were any interest he would have been signed a month ago. Between contract demands, his lack of stringing quality seasons back to back, inability to get past the 5th inning, all of these reasons have teams saying, no thanks. He is not as good as the hype around him is and GMs no longer give a damn about one outlier season. 

More like most teams recognize he is a quality starting pitcher that absolutely can help them but the asking price right now is higher than they would like to pay.

Arte is an idiot for overpaying for free agents out of foolish desperation.  The guy has no discipline.

Arte is an idiot for not just signing Snell for his asking price.  The guy is a cheap bastard.

29 minutes ago, Erstad Grit said:

You're right. Arte is the best and Rendon loves baseball and is an incredible teammate/player. If we could only be super fans like you. 

Nobody said that, or anything remotely close to that.

Wait, hold on, I just realized somebody left my garage light on all night last night.  I wonder what happened?  Oh, obviously Arte Moreno broke into my garage and used my tools without asking, and drank beer out of my garage fridge, kicked my dog, and farted in my car and then left the lights on when he left.

37 minutes ago, TroutField said:

To break up all the Snell talk, check out this sick vintage Angels jacket I scored on eBay. 

Very cool.  Here is mine from 1980:

5 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

I guess they didn't want to pay him 7 million or whatever. No other team did.

Exactly. Moreno sucks but not wanting to pay Davis almost 7 million isn’t evidence of that.  No team wanted to pay him that much.

8 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

Once Snell, Montgomery, Clevenger and Lorenzen sign with other teams how soon should the Corbin Burnes thread start.

Me?

30 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

 

 

 

If he threw 60 pitches, that was definitely a “simulated” four innings.  Reality would have been 80 pitches.

Boras is feeding any and all true things, and any and all untrue things, that will help posture his client to get the best contract.

3 minutes ago, T.G. said:

I must admit, I get a little tired of hearing anything about how the "Dodgers are run."  They've won one WS in a Covid shortened year despite all the money they spend and all the talent they develop. 

Yes, I'd take all of that for the Angels in a heart-beat, but the Dodgers aren't the end-all, be-all in baseball.  The Braves are just as successful.  The Astros (yes, I know) are more successful.  F the Dodgers.

Baseball is hard. 

If anything, I'd like to see a change in the organizational culture.  The Angels seem to be dysfunctional.  When Stoneman and Scioscia came to Anaheim they changed the culture.  The culture has gone down hill ever since they lost autonomy. That's on Arte. 

 

Nobody hates the Dodgers more than I do.  I was just comparing the Angels to an obvious local team than wins far more games and controls far more talent on their roster and in their minor league system.

I would agree the Braves are a well run team too.

Heck I like how the Padres are willing to make bold moves.  I would take that too.

But the bottom line is I really want the Angels to find a way to be among to top 20% of teams in terms of drafting and developing players.  Things seem better recently but I suspect the Angels need changes at the very top to really approach what I would ideally like to see.

10 minutes ago, T.G. said:

We sure don't.

I get that. 

Arte could surprise us all in the end, but I think most of us are skeptical of that possibility.  It's getting close to opening day.  The way the team is presently constructed just doesn't inspire much confidence from a fan's point of view.  It's still baseball and surprises happen all the time.  I think a lot of fans have baseball fatigue and the season hasn't even started.

Just for the record, I think Moreno isn’t the right owner for this team.  I would prefer that he sell the team to somebody else that would run it more like the Dodgers are run.

I am excited that baseball is starting again but this exact roster isn’t very exciting to me.  The optimist does see that there is some real upside that could materialize and make them much better than expected (and subsequently far more exciting).

But my enthusiasm is very guarded and reserved until I see something materializing on the field.

And all these opinions about this situation without any real idea what the player and his agent are currently demanding the contract be.  Are they still demanding a stupid contract?  Or are they willing to do a totally reasonable deal but Moreno is being a moron?  We don’t know.

Every team has a budget.  And every team might adjust the budget depending on how opportunities evolve.

If Moreno originally said “absolutely not” to a massive long term deal, and now Minasian has to stay engaged with Moreno on things as they evolve into maybe there being a different opportunity on Snell, it sure would be easy to report that as “Minasian frustrated with Moreno’s unwillingness to sign the player Minasian wants to sign.”

Moreno has definitely earned his reputation so he is going to get thrown under the bus now on everything.

Because he is going to get thrown under the bus on EVERYTHING, it isn’t really possible anymore to know when he is actually being a jerk.

Maybe he is being a jerk.  And maybe he is openly communicating with Minasian on adjusting the budget as things are developing.

We don’t know.

27 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

Like I said IF they do nothing else. I'm ok signing Snell with no opt out until after year 3. Contract has to be something Angels are comfortable with. Opt out after year 1 or 2 for me defeats the purpose of signing. Lorenzen would just be depth piece for this year and maybe tradeable at deadline. 

So just to be clear, Lorenzen is “depth” and Snell would prevent someone else from developing?

2,690,758

59 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

If Angels do nothing else this off season I'm ok with that. Let this be season to develop young players. See if Soriano or Wantz can become starters. Find out if Moniak or Adell will be part of future. Will Sandoval have bounce back year and Silseth become part of rotation. 

Tell me exactly what young player would not develop if the Angels signed Snell.  You do understand that signing Snell would just push one pitcher to the minors, where they would be in an environment whose sole purpose is to develop them.

And you are in another thread literally right now calling for the Angels to sign Lorenzen.  Can you make up your mind on whether or not signing a free agent starter prevents others from developing?