Warfarin

Nothing is official, but from the sound of it, I don't think he is coming back anytime soon. Not much has changed for him.

While I'm not sure about the biggest win of the year (I think yesterday's win is worth more), I think this is probably amongst the most impressive. Atlanta is the best team in baseball, and we played very well against them in their house. Tomorrow will be a really difficult matchup, but if we can take 2 of 3 in Atlanta, that's a huge series victory, and we can ride the momentum of that moving forward.

I doubt either is re-signed. Perry's moves are rather consistent and telling - he seems to focus mainly on players who will be free agents in a year, or at most commits to 2 years, with a few exceptions along the way. I suspect Schanuel will start off in the minors but it will likely be a short stay. I expect him to basically follow Neto's timeline.

I think if we make another move, this will be the area that they target. I wanted Hader, but with the Padres playing better and loosely re-entering the playoff race, I suspect he is not available. Having Lopez helps a lot, as we saw today. After relying heavily on Moore and Estevez to absorb innings in a must-win game yesterday, we pivoted to the other part of the pen today, and Lopez's presence helped make that happen fairly easily. All that said, I can't really trust Loup, and I'd rather find a LHRP that can take his spot and serve as another late inning option alongside Moore.

To be quite frank, he was so thoroughly mediocre when healthy that it isn't even any kind of significant loss. He was basically replacement level. Not a big deal to get him back.

"When Rendon is healthy" .. given the nature of his injury, I suspect he will be out for awhile. I think when Drury is back, Rengifo will shift to 3B, and perhaps Moose and Cron will somewhat platoon more.

While Silseth did tire, he has been awfully impressive in his last two starts. I hope they keep running him out there.

It seems likely Drury will come back sometime this week. If so, I would expect to see Rengifo start at 3B more, given how hot he has been. Maybe Moose will platoon at 1B with Cron to some degree? Or maybe Rengifo will get some starts in the OF against LHP, with Moniak sitting? Not really sure. I don't really look at the "what happens when everyone is healthy" scenario, because quite frankly, that just never happens.

Something that I have seen mentioned is some organizations are compelled to trade prospects this year more than in other years because after this year, organizations will be limited in how many minor leaguers they can employ. I believe after this year, the Domestic Reserve List will drop from 190 to 165, which means that we can have 25 less minor leaguers in our organization next year than we did this year.

wRC+ is a more useful stat than OPS in terms of how his offense compares to the rest of his league, and on that front, he was at 104, which means he was slightly above average. He also walked more than he struck out. For a 20 year old catcher in AA, those are really good stats. His offense projects really well. To me, the biggest issue, and one that I cannot tell from just looking at box scores and reading some reports, is how will his defense hold up in the majors? My guess is the FO made the determination that he won't be a particularly good defensive catcher and decided it'd be okay to trade him. And if that turns out to be correct, then this trade was fine.

I think that is probably the crux of the issue. I don't think most feel anyone THAT significant was traded away (although I do think Quero had more trade value than what he got in return), but rather that it takes some time to draft and develop talent, and by trading a number of prospects away for rentals, that obviously impedes our prospect pipeline. I think if we had a much better position in the wild card race, few would object to it. I think the issue moreso is that our odds are fairly low, and it seems that the prospects we are trading are being traded for a low probability outcome. But I did say this earlier - if all of this helps convince Ohtani to stay, because he sees that his FO / owner will do whatever possible to contend while we are close, then that is obviously more than worth every single traded prospect.

Yep. Cabbage will be optioned and he’ll still be an option as needed, too. It’s better to have him as depth, though, than as a guy you are counting on to perform daily for the rest of the year. This move, while not exciting, definitely improved the fringes of the roster. And just think - if Perry didn’t make a move, and then Cabbage got hurt, who would have been our next option?

Yep. I think Giolotto is clearly a rental. They will likely go all out to sign Ohtani. If they are successful, a core of Ohtani, Sandoval, Detmers, Canning, Anderson is likely sufficient. The 6th SP spot will probably continue to be an optionable spot that they can take advantage of to maximize roster flexibility. They also still have prospects in AA who are intriguing, and Dana might not be too far away, given how rapidly our minor leaguers are promoted.

That's actually probably the bright side with corporations - they usually just let whoever they hire do the job they have been hired to do. The Dodgers are owned by the Guggenheim group, but all we tend to hear about in terms of their management is Friedman, not whoever the figurehead of that group is. That's what makes the Mets' situation interesting as well. They are owned by Cohen, not a corporation - will Cohen take a back seat and let Eppler (or whoever he hires) run the show, or will he start meddling more to try to accelerate winning (and thus, most likely, harm their chances)?

I doubt he would ever publicly say that, but it's easy to assume that is likely a goal of his. He is a once-in-a-generation (or lifetime?) talent that you just never see in this game. It is hard enough to be one of the few who can be a good MLB hitter, but one who can be both a star hitter AND a star pitcher? It just never happens. And so given that, it's fairly easy to assume that he would want to be remembered as one of the greatest ever.

I'm personally not particularly inclined to sign a SP to a long-term deal. Almost all of those deals turn out poorly. I like Minasian's approach of signing some mid-tier guys to reasonable contracts. Anderson's hasn't worked out great but he hasn't been awful either. Estevez has been a great signing. Same with Drury. Loup obviously was not, and Tepera was terrible. I think if you can bat roughly 500 in free agency, while avoiding a catastrophic long-term deal (Pujols, Hamilton, Rendon, etc..), you are in great shape.

It has always seemed a little odd to me that a lot feel that Ohtani's decision will come down to whether or not we make the playoffs. Why? What if we barley make the playoffs and get blown out - does that change the calculus? I think "Angels make the playoffs in 2023" isn't as important to Ohtani as "how well positioned is this team to keep competing year in and year out, so that I can have as many chances to win as possible," and "who can help me develop my talent the most to create the most impressive legacy as possible?" So I think if the Angels show they will do whatever it takes to win, and the FO shows to Ohtani it has a strong strategy for developing talent and cobbling together a winner, he will stay. One other point to note - when Ohtani first came here, and he played really poorly in spring training, the club could have easily optioned him for a few weeks to figure things out and service-manipulated him. They didn't, and so he will be a free agent this year instead of next year. Maybe that will mean something to him, maybe it won't, but I am sure he does remember that.

Yeah. Perry's drafting track record will play out over time, but he's definitely made some promising picks/trades - Neto has been a revelation with his quick ascent and becoming essential so quickly, O'Hoppe looks like a strong acquisition, Moniak has been far more than we could have ever hoped, etc. If Perry proves to be a good drafter, and Schanuel becomes entrenched as our 1B next year, then that's a promising sign in terms of building the roster over the long-term.

No. Are people surprised? I think they'll make another trade, too, before the Tuesday 3pm deadline.

Ah, yes. That injury is more nebulous .. not really sure what to make of his situation. I hope he can come back as soon as tomorrow, but back injuries can be tricky, so.. we'll see.

A few things stand out when looking at their splits - 1. Both have been fantastic in July, with Grichuk posting a 189 wRC+ and Cron a 144 wRC+ 2. Grichuk has destroyed LHP this season, posting a 168 wRC+ So basically, both are playing very well right now, and Grichuk will help a lot against LHP.

"When"? I like the optimism, but the reality is someone is always going to be hurt, and this holds true for any MLB organization. That said, it does seem like we should at least get Drury back before the week is over, and that's a significant addition. Trout and O'Hoppe, though .. we'll see when.

It's possible. His bat-to-ball skills, and plate discipline, are remarkably impressive for a 20 year old. That said, a lot of his scouting reports indicate a fairly poor defender, and if that's the case, then that significantly dampers his projection. I think Madden will be the one to watch. I think both Bush and Albright seem mainly like backend SP-types, which while useful, is not a loss to mourn. IF they can retain Ohtani, then our rotation is actually rather set for a few years, with Ohtani, Sandoval, Detmers, Canning, Anderson. The 6th SP tends to be variable, but they have options with Bachman, Silseth, Koch, maybe Mederos, etc. Losing those SPs hurt, but I think only Madden might develop into something beyond a backend SP type.

Seeing Cabbage in CF was one of the most shocking things I have seen. They didn't promote him for awhile because they reportedly wanted him to work on his defense, and that was as a 1B. And now he's playing .. CF? Yikes.

I do think Minasian is really good when it comes to player development and the minor leagues. While I have questioned trading Quero, I am going to put some faith in Perry in terms of knowing which prospects to trade and which to hold. In many ways, that is what makes or breaks most GMs/PBOs. There are some who are rather good at trading quality but holding onto what turns out to be their best prospects, and there are some who are not and end up trading future stars. Over the upcoming years, we'll be able to assess how good Perry was at making that determination.