GA16

Anybody here need a diamond?

His bat has been shit but Marsh may have saved the game with that throw that kept Muncy at 1B.

Now just waiting on the inevitable tweet about Trout.

My signature positive memory of him is a pregame show feature on a charity event he hosted benefitting some kind of program pairing dogs with kids at Children's Hospital. He seemed/seems like a good man. 
But that's not what you want to have as your best memory of a ballplayer, especially when he was traded for one of your three favorite Angels ever. 
More than any single player, Heaney represented the last six years of Angels baseball: Each spring we would convince ourselves that maybe THIS would be the year that he turned it around, and each summer we would be disappointed anew. 
I am glad this era is over. 

That... that looked Iike baseball.

One little revelation here is that Minasian evidently has cajones, assuming “front office” means him. Maybe he finally had enough seeing him get gunned down at second.

It's not a coincidence that the day I got vaccinated that this happened. The shot works people. 

Remember all the people that believed him that he would retire when it was time and not milk the contract for all it was worth.

This is like when we dumped Mo Vaughn before the start of the 2002 season all over again!!!

He is literally fastball command away from being a #1.  

Good teams go through bad stretches. The Astro's were swept by the lowly Tigers and Rockies and lost 2/3 to the Mariners. Does that make the Astros a bad team? 
The Angels were playing great ball at the start. Then we lost Rendon, Stassi, (SP) Ohtani, Lagares, and Fowler all within a week of each other and it started to catch up to us. On top of that the schedule was flipped on its head with weather and COVID postponements. I realize these are excuses but it's ignorant to think that these conditions hasn't had an impact on the record over the last couple weeks. 
I still believe this is an 85+ win team. With some good health and some savvy trade deadline deals, we will make a run for a postseason spot. 

Good teams go through bad stretches. The Astro's were swept by the lowly Tigers and Rockies and lost 2/3 to the Mariners. Does that make the Astros a bad team? 
The Angels were playing great ball at the start. Then we lost Rendon, Stassi, (SP) Ohtani, Lagares, and Fowler all within a week of each other and it started to catch up to us. On top of that the schedule was flipped on its head with weather and COVID postponements. I realize these are excuses but it's ignorant to think that these conditions hasn't had an impact on the record over the last couple weeks. 
I still believe this is an 85+ win team. With some good health and some savvy trade deadline deals, we will make a run for a postseason spot. 

Good teams go through bad stretches. The Astro's were swept by the lowly Tigers and Rockies and lost 2/3 to the Mariners. Does that make the Astros a bad team? 
The Angels were playing great ball at the start. Then we lost Rendon, Stassi, (SP) Ohtani, Lagares, and Fowler all within a week of each other and it started to catch up to us. On top of that the schedule was flipped on its head with weather and COVID postponements. I realize these are excuses but it's ignorant to think that these conditions hasn't had an impact on the record over the last couple weeks. 
I still believe this is an 85+ win team. With some good health and some savvy trade deadline deals, we will make a run for a postseason spot. 

I hope that he just needs a mental break and needs to figure things out, and that it isn't anything more serious than that.
 
But, I'd like to point out that this is why scouting is still such an integral part of the game and will always be a necessary component. So much of scouting is trying to know more than just the physical tools of a player--it's the mental component. One of my real frustrations with the game and the Angels in particular has been the over reliance on analytics and cutting way back on the scouting component. Good scouts know so much more than just the physical potential, they know how they fit in a team's chemistry and their mental component as well. 
 
I hope that Buttrey just needs a couple of days to figure things out and can back to having fun with the game. 

I'm not coming here with a bunch of projections based on ZIPS or PECOTA or ZIPPITYDOPPITYBOOP. We have enough of those. 
I just want to say that for once, it's time we get something positive. I'm so done with losing. I hate being done watching baseball in early September. It's old. It's tired. And this time, it's going to change. 
I'm sick of seeing the "Trout not in the playoffs" shit that plagues social media every year. Fuck those people. Hard. I'm sick of losing interest in the team I love, year after year. 
This is it. Fuck the projections, fuck the doubters, fuck the Red Sox just because. 
We're winning. 
This isn't some feeling or revelation. It's based on absolutely fuck all. I don't care. We've been drifting through the motions for 6 straight years, but this year we're swimming to shore. Fuck. Losing.

Hoping that it is a minor league deal for Noe

Optioning Buttrey might mean they’re zeroing in on acquiring or claiming another reliever who  doesn’t have options. Might be worth watching out of options arms who are about to get squeezed out...could see a small trade like the Orioles did with Plutko or one of those recent opt outs signed. 

It's Shotime

Chris Rodriguez strikes out both batters he faces to end the inning. In the words of a fellow poster, "I'll be in my bunk".

It's a brand new season and anything can happen! 😎

Well he gave Albert $250 million here and traded Cano there.  That about wraps it up. 

There's been a lot of head-scratching at Perry Minasian's moves this offseason as he has eschewed multi-year deals and added minimal if any premier talent (depending upon how you consider Raisel Iglesias).
Now while I don't like the Cobb trade (as the Angels could have found similar talent on the free agent market without giving up Jahmai Jones), I am starting to see a bigger picture that could explain his thinking. I'm not saying that I have definitive proof that this is what Minasian has in mind, but kind of like the hypothetical Planet X, there's lots of secondary evidence that supports my theory, even if the plan (or planet) hasn't been directly seen.
After acquiring Jose Quintana and Alex Cobb, the Angels now have, along with Dylan Bundy and Andrew Heaney, four veteran starters who will be free agents after 2021. So too will be their new closer, Raisel Iglesias, as well as their two position player acquisitions, Dexter Fowler and Kurt Suzuki.
Now consider the farm system. It has a lot of projectable, but largely unproven, talent. Of especial interest to the near future, the team has two very good outfielders in Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh who should be ready sometime this season, and two starters in Reid Detmers and Chris Rodriguez, who also have a chance of major league readiness; if not in 2021, then as possible starters in 2022. 
After those four, they have several starters who could either be #4-5 starters or solid relievers in Hector Yan, Aaron Hernandez, Oliver Ortega, Pack Naughton, etc, as well as a third stud outfielder in Jordyn Adams who could be ready sometime in 2022. The bulk of the rest of the talent is very inexperienced, but with some upside.
In other words, Minasian has inherited a very interesting farm system, but also a very inexperienced one.
Back to the central thesis (of which the farm system will support in a moment): What can we say about Perry's offseason moves? Well, one thing we can say that he's done is raise the floor on the team's performance. He hasn't turned what looked like an 85-win team a couple months ago into a 90 or 95 win team, but he has increased its likelihood that it will reach 85 wins (plus or minus), and perhaps slightly upped the chances of 90.
But of relevance to my thesis, he's done it without adding future payroll considerations. As mentioned, Iglesias, Quintana, Cobb, Fowler, and Suzuki are only paid through 2021, joining Pujols, Bundy, and Heaney, and followed by Upton after 2022.
So what is my thesis? Minasian is trying to both improve the team, but without adding long-term commitments. Why? Because he wants to take a year to assess the internal talent, so he can make choices that will positively impact the long-term health and strength of the organization. And he's doing so in a way that may actually add talent via trades. To illustrate, let me offer two possibilities for the 2021 season, from the perspective of where we might be at in July:
One, more has gone right than wrong and the Angels are in contention. They keep their players, and maybe use excess minor league talent to improve the team for the stretch run.
Two, the Angels are falling out of contention, or out all together. All of a sudden they have four veteran starters and a reliever that could bring in significant minor league talent. They can move aside veterans to give young players like Adell, Marsh, Detmers, etc, a shot.
Meaning, Perry has made his various acquisitions with an eye for both minimizing long-term investments and/or, if the team is not in contention, possibly trading them.
By July we should have the answers to some very important questions for the future: Can Shohei Ohtani be a pitcher, or should the Angels start thinking about him converting to hitting only? How close are Detmers and Rodriguez to being major leaguers? How good is Griffin Canning? Was Dylan Bundy's breakout in 2020 real? Who are Jaime Barria and Patrick Sandoval, really? Are either of Luis Rengifo or Franklin Barreto good enough to be regulars? Are Adell and/or Marsh ready for the Show?
I get the frustration of yet another year of waiting. But given that this is Perry's first year, and the question marks surrounding the Angels farm system and many of their major leaguers, I think it is necessary and that it should pay huge dividends in 2022 and beyond. And who knows, with a weakened AL West, he might have done just enough for the Angels to at least be borderline contenders and, if not, they'll have some trade chips come late July.