EdmontonAngelsFan

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.

Arte has a terrible track record of going toe to toe with other teams for a player he and other teams equally want. Especially when it's a pitcher. 
They should have wrapped this shit up a week ago before the Urquidy injury. Arte is a dumbass. He has ZERO direction for this team and it's obvious the direction that Perry wants to take (and Wash and Trout) aren't on the same page as the owner. 
Sad to see. 

With Urquidy down now it makes sense for them. 
If they sign Snell and Texas signs Montgomery...

Sounds like Boras trying to drive the price up.

I still believe Angels will surprise many this season. Team with a bunch of no names. I do not want to hear about Mike Trout until he can stay on the field. Just maybe Arte is right by not spending. Young team with hungry players. LET'S GO ANGELS. Maybe he will serve cheese to all the fans who wine.

Of course I am. Reddit Angel fans are the worst. We sometimes have our qualms with each other here, but the level of baseball ignorance over there is astounding.

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. 
 

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.

I've tried over and over and over to give Arte the benefit of the doubt in most things, but I just don't understand what he's doing.  Either you give Perry autonomy or you move on.... This off season hasn't made much sense. 
As always... I try not to get too worked up about things out of my control.  What I can control is my own fandom and I am not overly excited about this season.  I'll still watch, but it's becoming less of a priority every day.

The price 3 months ago is much different than the price now.  So you could have been right then but wrong now.  

So in the past Arte pushed FA on his GM which proved to be disastrous
Now his GM wants FA and he won't approve
Sell the team or stop pretending you're a GM who knows anything about baseball you billboard tycoon old man
 

People in this thread will still pretend Arte might want to spend though for some reason
 
 

That remains to be proven.  Catch me at the All star break.
Plus due to attrition, and Perry's trades bombing out, most fans were all for encouraging the youngsters with some big league looks.  Plus Jordy hit .359 in 2022.

This is kinda how I feel, too. I'm not especially optimistic. 
Snell/Boras obviously have an ultimate goal of a long term deal, but it's self-evident that they won't get one at the level they want at this point in time. So, what's the alternative? They want a deal that is effectively a one year deal but that is structured longer with opt-outs in case Snell underperforms. 
By contrast, Moreno/Perry clearly aren't going to go for a long term deal at the rate Snell wants or it would've happened already. It's not like there's loads of bidders. The problem with a short term deal is it'll be an expensive first year, plus a loss of a draft pick in a season that Arte probably (with good reason) doesn't think we'll be competitive in. And if there are opt-outs, that makes it an even worse deal for us because Arte is assuming all the risk for extremely limited gain. And at 31, I don't see any world in which Snell accepts a deal with the first opt out after two years, which would make more sense for us.
I think the leaks about Snell wanting to play for us are probably true. I think he genuinely enjoyed being on the West coast and playing in SoCal. I just don't see a deal that makes sense materializing easily without Arte bending, because it doesn't really make sense for Snell to shift course. The biggest compromise I could see from Snell is a pure one year deal with no opt-outs. 

With most of the major player reassignment done, the Angels Opening Day roster is beginning to take shape.  While a few questions still remain, I think I've seen enough to feel confident in posting my opinions here. I want to make it clear that I'm not a professional analyst, nor a professional hater. The things I'm talking about here are things I've been seeing and thinking all spring, and as much as I love the players the Angels have I'm an Angels fan above that.  Anywhere I see shortcomings or inconsistencies on the roster I'll comment on it.  With that said, let's talk about the roster:
Too Many Angels In the Outfield?
The entire Angels outfield has been absolutely stellar this Spring - Mike Trout (.694 OPS) has actually been the worst, but he remains Mike Trout.  Taylor Ward (.753 OPS) looks to have left field locked up, new signings Aaron Hicks (1.314 OPS) and Jake Marisnick (1.164 OPS) have been outstanding, and the 25-and-under crowd have impressed as well with Mickey Moniak (.894 OPS), Jo Adell (.704 OPS), and Jordyn Adams (.844 OPS).
That's 7 outfielders who have a chance at the 4 or possibly 5 outfield spots on the MLB roster. Getting the obvious out of the way, Mike Trout and Taylor Ward will be running center and left, respectively. Mickey Moniak has no remaining options, and has played great since his call up last May, making him the obvious choice for a potential platoon with recent Major League Signee Aaron Hicks in right. On the other hand Jordyn Adams appears slated to, at the very least, begin the season as a Bee. There's your 4 outfielders, however here's where things get tricky.
Jo Adell has no options left,  limiting the Angels choices to either A. Field him on the roster all year, B. Place him on waivers, or C. Try to find a trade partner for him. Option A seems most likely, bringing the total to 5 outfielders active for the Angels. In itself this isn't a problem, seeing as Trout will likely be getting a lot of looks at DH and Moniak is far better equipped to hit off righties. However, if we're fielding 5 outfielders, I'd almost prefer the 5th be Jake Marisnick.  He's been outstanding this spring, is better defensively than Adell as well as better on the basepaths.  Marisnick's 5 stolen bases lead the MLB (Adell is 4/4 in stolen base attempts, to be fair), and his defensive pedigree gives him value as both a defensive sub and a pinch runner, providing much needed versatility to an Angels bench that will likely consist of Matt Thaiss, Aaron Hicks, and Ehire Adrianza/Miguel Sano.
Of course, I understand why Adell will likely be the 5th outfielder, as Marisnick is on a Minor League deal, so there's no harm no foul with him starting in Salt Lake while Adell makes the opening day roster. I just really hope we get to see if Marisnick can replicate this spring performance in the bigs at some point this year. 
Who Gets The 4th Bench Spot?
Another internal battle is the battle for the 6th infielder/4th bench spot.  It seems to have been cut down to Miguel Sano, Ehire Adrianza, and *maybe* Livan Soto. While Soto's performance should give him a real chance, I tend to believe he won't get the nod simply because he's younger and less experienced.
Miguel Sano is incredibly fun to watch, however provides 0 value defensively, especially if Wash is trying to fit him in at 3rd on occasion. Adrianza provides familiarity for Washington from the Atlanta days and better positional versatility, albeit at a far lower offensive output than Sano. Adrianza's career high is a 102 wRC+, achieved in 2019 in Minnesota. His teammate, Miguel Sano, posted a 138 wRC+ in that same year, his best in a season with at least 100 games played. 
In my opinion, the spot should go to Sano, especially with the availability of DH at bats.  Adrianza certainly provides value, but Rengifo, Drury, and Neto in the middle infield leaves less room for Adrianza to show it. Sano's role will likely be DHing, pinch hitting, and potentially covering first in case of Schanuel struggling, which I don't think he will. My only issue with this is it leaves Rengifo as the backup shortstop in case of Neto needing a day off, but here's to hoping that under Wash's guidance Rengifo can improve his shortstop defense to make that less of a problem. 
Who's the Closer?
Last year, Carlos Estevez's first half was one of the most dominant Angels closer performances we've seen since K-Rod.  He followed it up with a fine, not great, second half, and thus far in spring he's been very unimpressive. I'm not saying he can't bounce back, but I'd much rather see Robert Stephenson be the go to guy in high leverage situations - 9th inning or otherwise. However, assuming he's not ready to start the season - or struggles with injury during - who's the guy?  We've seen Washington's teams close by committee before, with Gagne, Frank Francisco, and CJ Wilson sharing save opportunities before Neftali Feliz joined the team in 2010. Did Estevez's 2023 earn him the closer job this year? I kind of hope it didn't. There's too much talent in this group to be limited to traditional bullpen roles. I'd like to see Estevez, Stephenson, and Moore all get opportunities in the 9th.
Rotational Problems?
I will start this off by saying that, as a unit, the pitching has been incredible this spring, by Angels standards.  Whether it's the new coaching or the new players, they've been throwing more strikes and it's been great to see. Last year, despite winning the Cactus League, the Angels were bottom 10 in ERA and walked more batters than everyone but the White Sox and A's in the spring.  This year they've improved in both aspects, up to 17th in ERA and 22nd(!) in walks.  While it's not indicative of a top 10 rotation, it's a nice change of pace from the past. That being said, within the rotation I've had some concerns.
Reid Detmers has had a good spring in terms of making hitters miss and getting ground balls instead of fly balls, however mistake pitches still haunt him.  Griffin Canning has looked excellent despite some control issues in a couple starts, but could be poised to make a huge jump this year.  Chase Silseth looks outstanding, I still truly believe he could turn into a 120 ERA+ starter this year if given the opportunity to do so.  Even Tyler Anderson has looked much better than he did last year, though time will tell with that one. 
Patrick Sandoval, though, hasn't looked very good. It's sad, because he flashed so much potential in 2022, followed it up with a dominant WBC before a disappointing 2023 and a 10.29 ERA this spring.  Now, this is far from the end - Blake Snell posted a 5.62 ERA in spring last year and won the Cy Young. I bet Sandy will be very solid in our rotation this year, but it hurts to see this in terms of him becoming the ace it looked like he would become a couple years ago. A lot of his struggles seem rooted in getting behind in counts and getting frustrated with himself. Hopefully Barry Enright and Ron Washington can knock him out of that funk and get him into 2022 form again. Gotta root for the hometown kids. 
As Washington said in a recent interview with Rhett Bollinger,  "Things can change where someone has to leave the rotation."  This leads me to my last question - 
What Does Signing Blake Snell Do To The Angels Playoff Odds?
Let me start off by saying this whole Snell situation is so very frustrating. If Heyman gets on a livestream and says "There's mutual interest between Snell and the Angels, but it's hard to tell if Arte is willing to spend" one more time I might delete Twitter. That being said, in this world we're gonna imagine Arte has a change of heart and the Angels sign Blake Snell. How much closer are we to the playoffs than we were without him?
I think, honestly, quite a bit.  I'm very publicly a supporter of Blake Snell, but I see the qualms people have with signing him. Giving up the 2nd round pick would certainly hurt, especially since our farm system isn't very good, but you can only hope that a second round pick becomes Blake Snell.  Predictive stats and peripherals like Blake Snell more than results have even in his down years, and he's coming off a season where he won the ERA title by nearly 0.38 points, the biggest gap between #1 and #2 since 2007. 
The Angels lost Ohtani, and watching the team this spring has done nothing but make me believe the offense can hold their own without him, but the rotation is gonna miss him.  Starting pitching is clearly the biggest hole this team has, and getting a clear top of the rotation arm fills that gap more than any other single player. We can throw 1 or 2 year prove it deals to players that used to be top of the line starters as much as we want, but to compete for a playoff spot in 2024 or even 2025, I think signing Snell now is the best chance we have.
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Thanks Atlanta!

I’m beginning to think we need a “yawn” rating for posts.
The Snell/Montgomery saga has gotten to be beyond ridiculous.   It’s becoming beyond boring to have them take forever.
Like I said before, it’s getting close to the point that it has to be wanting an opt out after year 1 holding things up.  
If that is the case, just move on.
Now if he’s willing to do opt out only after year 2 and Moreno refuses that, then please sell the team.
 

You invest in a pitcher like Snell you want him around to help build a winner. No opt out until year 3 and if he will not do this move on. If player leaves after year 1 or 2 will be in same spot again next year. You would want Snell to be a building block for this young rotation.

Saw someone on Twitter propose signing Snell then trading Sandoval to NYY for some prospect(s) which would help to makeup for the draft pick loss and I have to say I like that idea
Gonna also mention here that the report that Giants were in on Cease trade talks means they’ve almost have to be having discussions with Snell, which could explain the holdup 

With Snell posting eyes Sunday, Olney and other small timers saying he wants to go to the Angels or that they believed it would be, and the lack of suitors out there (Yanks seem to be a pretty firm no), it seems very odd that a deal hasn't gotten done. And I just have this sinking feeling that it's all going to come down to Arte, and that we will hear soon that Arte refused to give ___ or ____. And he won't ever have to answer for it, and Snell will wind up on the Mariners on a discount deal beating us 4 times a year. 
The guy loves Orange County and has been here all offseason for crying out loud. With a baby on the way. He has clearly leaked that he wants to play here. He fell right into their laps -- nobody else is in position to sign him. And they're still going to mess this up? Only an Arte-led team could manage to botch this so badly. 

I think you’re spot on here.

Again, for me, it's just the opt-out after the first season that is hugely problematic. I'd be less concerned if it was after the second year. 

I’m not sure why Arte would be so stuck on opt outs. It’s not like Rendon and Pujols not having opt outs has really benefited anyone.
I kinda like the idea of signing a guy who is motivated to perform over the next couple years so he can get the hell out of Anaheim.

Angels trade Sandoval to the Yankees for prospects (6th) Roderick Arias (SS) and (10th) Ben Rice (C) and sign Snell. Yankees stay under the cap and get club control, Angels get two high prospects. 

Again I don’t know anyone in the front office, but I know someone who is close to someone very high up in the org. I have zero reason to lie about this as I’ve been here for close to 20 years and I’m not trying to be “that guy” nor do I need street cred.