Griffey's Corner

Forgot about Ward.... Ward instead of Fernandez.

I think they will spend money on the bullpen next year. Make Calhoun the 4th OF. C- Maldonado 1B- Free Agent 2B- Cozart SS- Simmons 3B- Fletcher LF- Upton CF- Trout RF- Free Agent DH- Ohtani & Pujols Bench- Briceno, Thaiss, Fernandez, Calhoun SP- Skaggs, Barria, Heaney, Tropeano, Canning, Ohtani-?, RP- Parker, Bedrosian, Meyer, JC Ramirez, Alvarez, Anderson, 2 Free agents.... one of them will be a stud closer. 27 players.... assuming a couple get hurt.

I think this year or next will be Pujols last season. Most likely the Angels will still pay him all or most of the money owed. Maybe they work it into his services contract or maybe an injury settlement?

It's funny how some fans sitting on there fat ass on the couch at home can look at Blash's swing and for sure say that he will not hit MLB pitching. Do some of you really think you know better than Blash, the angels hitting instructors, other coaches, etc........ He may or may not be good at the ML. Odds are statistically he will not. And I agree with Back the Truck 18 at bats is not enough of a sample size..... anyone that says different is showing off that they have never played the game.

The Offense and the RP are both bad. I would say the Offense needs more help for 6 reasons..... 1. Everyone on Offense is healthy.... and this is what they are doing. 2. RP is volatile.... we can all agree on that.... next year they might be due to be better. 3. Some of the RP are injured and will be coming back at some point. 4. A lot of the players on Offense there contracts are running out sooner. Valbuena, Kinsler, Trout, Calhoun. 5. I think the Angels brass feels more comfortable with the high minors RP than they do on solutions for Offense. 6. I think the Offense has been more offensive than the RP.

ERA is the BEST stat when gauging a pitcher's performance..... always has been.... always will. and while I do not get caught up in wins and losses too much..... after all isn't the bottom line.... did you win the game? QB's in football are judged and looked at by wins and losses.

LOL.... yeah buddy if you want to piggyback off someone else's opinion as your MAIN point be my guest. And no I am not wrong. I gave you guys plenty of statistics (these are FACTS) to back up the claim that Hand is average..... The only stat you gave as a proponent of Hand is well he gives up runs but not via walks. My response to that is who gives a SH.. how the runs come in. I don't see the Angels acquiring him for the 8-9 reasons I gave.... so who's side of the fence do you want to sit on? You can agree with your buddy OR you can go with the facts & that the people who do this for a living are seeing the same information that I am. I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July. And stay safe. We can talk later.

People who actually do this for a living. Who know a sh..... ton more than you have time and time again have said that the DH alone will cause a pitcher's ERA to go up .5 to a full run. If you do not want to believe them.... Bill James, etc.... than just go back for the last 30 years. go back the last 40 years and look at the FACTS.

If you did not read the post than you have no business commenting on the post.

The cost will be at a premium because some GM's panic. It only takes 2.... fictitious or real competitors to drive the price. You have guys like Dipoto who trade Grichuk for Salas straight across..... just because a GM does the trade.... does not mean they were correct.

Than you have not been reading what I have been saying & your reading comprehension is not good. Put Hand in the AL and watch those numbers go up. You would think some of you would learn from past mistakes like Fuentes & Frieri & Salas. Bedrosian is actually a little bit better than what Hand will do. Bedrosian's 3.38 ERA in the AL this year is a better performance than Hand's 3.12 ERA in the NL. I am sorry I do not want my closer to have an ERA over 4 with a lifetime winning % at .315..... call me crazy. I do not see the Angels prescribing to your thoughts and theories and acquiring Hand. If you bring Hand in as a closer to the AL with the better lineups, the DH, the smaller ballparks, and put him in a more pressure environment than San Diego..... his ERA would be at or above 4.

7. Hand's sample size of success is small. 8. Knowing the Angels medical staff he will come here and his arm will fall off.... Just kidding. 9. Change for change sake is stupid. If you are the GM you stay the course and do not overpay and panic just because the fan base is incredibly over reactionary. That is not the way to build a team.

What does it matter how he is giving up runs???? If he has a high ERA than he is failing. Who cares how he is failing. The guy is incredibly average.... why bring him in? Especially when the cost will be at a premium.

Except when he is wrong. To advocate Hand coming in here would be stupid. Let me give you some facts. 1. Hand is not very good. 2. His ERA is over 3 as a closer and he has cost the Padres quite a few games. If he was so great the Padres would not consider shopping him. Yankees never shopped Mariano Rivera. 3. Bedrosian has put up very similar numbers in his career and this year. 4. You guys should do a better job of understanding that when a player comes over from the NL they do not do as well in the AL. Especially pitchers. The DH alone adds about .75 to the average ERA. For some pitchers it affects more than others but the baseball consensus is that is ranges between .5 to a full run increase. So Hand's ERA as a closer would be right around 4.... worse than what we have now. 5. You guys want to give up some premium prospects.... it will not be cheap to acquire him 6. THE SEASON IS OVER.

Frieri was even better for the Padres in his 2.5 years (right before the Angels acquired him) than Hand has been in his 2.5 years with the Padres..... Frieri worked out great for us.

His .168 Batting Average and negative WAR will be missed.

To each his own. If you want to trade away a bunch of stud prospects for a guy with a NL ERA of 4 along with a 17-37 record..... a career .315 winning percentage go for it. I am sure he will fit right in with the rest of the Angel pitchers. For you WAR guys his WAR this year is -0.3. I guarantee you he comes over to the AL which has better teams, more bandbox parks, and the DH his ERA would be over 4 this year. Bedrosian puts up similar numbers and 90% of the board wants him gone. You guys make it sound like Hand is Mariano Rivera.... Hand has only been decent for the last 200 IP. And even with that it looks like he has blown a lot of games & saves with the Padres. I am glad the board is not running the team. After a win most members are saying here come the playoffs.... after every loss it's the Angels suck. Incredibly over reactionary. Lets just stick to facts. The Angels are 43-43. They are 12.5 GB of the 2nd WC. The 2nd WC.... they would have to leapfrog several teams not just the Mariners. In there last 70 games they have gone 30-40..... & they are a worse team now than before they started this nifty little 70 game run. As far as making the playoffs this year the season is over. The best thing Eppler can do is start playing for 2019 & 2020. Before we traded for Street who before he played with the Padres his career ERA was around 3.5 With the Padres his ERA was around 2. and than with the Angels he goes back to an ERA of around 3.5-4.0. Ernesto Frieri put up an ERA of around 2 for 2.5 seasons with the Padres.... even better numbers than Hand's 2.5 seasons. Frieri than comes to the Angels and puts up an ERA of around 4 in his time with the Angels.

Hand has a career ERA of 3.85.... all of that in the NL with no DH. His ONLY good years have been with the Padres at Petco..... the most pitcher friendly park in baseball. The DH alone would cause his ERA to rise from half to a full run. Sounds like a poor man's Huston Street. I would not give jack sh... for him. For the reading comprehension impaired.... let me clarify and say that I would give up very little for him.

Can everyone who is a knowledgeable Angel fan understand that idiot Dipoto did not trade Bourjos for Grichuk. It was FERNANDO SALAS for Grichuk straight across. If you do not believe me I have attached the link with the article that proves this. https://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/bernie-grichuk-s-improvement-is-dramatic/article_e288e62f-bc05-5607-99a7-264e457aa31c.html Yeah Grichuk has a low batting average but if you give that kid 600 at bats he would hit 40 HR's play good defense and steal some bases.

If you guys want to act like jerks that's cool.... but at least bring some intelligence to the conversation. Tomko was nothing. The Mariners did not get a lot in return since Griffey would only consider a trade to the Reds. The point I was making is that one player in baseball does not define a team. With Mike trout in his 20's the Angels have never won a playoff game. What makes you think Trout will be better in his 30's. You guys whine & cry like a bunch of girls on here about Pujols imagine Trout getting paid twice as much. It's more about freeing up $40,000,000 in payroll than any number of prospects that come back to the Angels..... I would rather have 4 Simmons on the team & 2 Sean Newcomb than 1 Simmons & 1 Trout. As I said above it's a bad combination to go through in life to be an ass & be stupid. You think your funny when you post pictures because the sad thing is you have nothing intelligent to say.

It's funny how people react so strongly to a new thread. After all this is a baseball message board & that is what happens on baseball message boards..... people talk baseball. Also if they don't like it they can choose not to read it or start a thread about something different. As far as the original question. Extending Mike Trout does not necessarily correlate with winning baseball games. If signing him to a 10 year $400,000,000 contract to play in his 30's vs. trading him for a boatload of prospects and also freeing up a ton of money to sign 2 or 3 proven veteran studs may be the better way to go if that particular fan cares more about winning than extending Trout. It would be great to keep Trout.... but at what cost? Some of you on this message board seem to care more about Mike Trout than the team itself. There was a thread on here a couple of weeks ago where a lot of people would rather lose with Trout than win a WS without him. When the Mariners traded Griffey they got a lot better and went 116-46. As far as the manager he probably is a great manager in a lot of ways. Personally I wish he would play some veterans less & not be looking so closely at platoon splits. But whatever. Who knows if a new manager would be better..... they could be a lot worse. So sorry I guess I cannot answer the question. I don't hate the manager. And while I like Trout a lot and hope he stays with the Angels.... I do not think that may be necessarily good for the Angels..... especially if Arte draws a line in the sand with not going over the luxury tax. I do not want so much money tied up into one player. In 2021 35%-45% of are money could be tied up just in Trout & Pujols. This is not basketball where one player makes enough of a difference to win you titles. Or even football with Tom Brady.

They stayed just under it with the acquisitions. I could be wrong but I think they have about 10-12 million to play with for this year.

Please don't what? Your post makes no sense.

You may be right and the budget may be maxed. But the owner can go beyond the budget if he really wants to fix the problems......a lot of the problems he created. The owner is incredibly rich & the real estate market is making him richer by the day. He has made a lot of money with the team as well. If he really wants to win than he could spend more money. You spend money you make money. Arte made money on the Pujols signing. He has already made a profit on that. The one thing Arte does not have is a WS ring.

Great post. 100% agree with the 2nd paragraph.