Rally Gorilla

IMHO, the Angels decided that: 1) It was going to take a huge overpay to get one of the top five. (like 9/$324M). 2) Overspending on one or maybe even two top five SP was not going to be enough to bring in a ring in 2020. 3) Overpaying on pitchers (who don't tend to age as well and are more prone to career-ending injuries) was going to hamstring us and leave us in the same predicament we are in now for the foreseeable future. 4) While the rest of the big market teams were focused on top 5 SP, we decided to make a play for our new superstar 3B who is a lot more likely to be productive throughout his contract and therefore more likely to help us end our playoff drought (even if it may take until 2021 or 2022).

Some team is gonna get desperate and give him way more than he's worth.

Keuchel to White Sox https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/white-sox-dallas-keuchel-agree-to-deal.html

And Seattle already started in the hole because of it's prima dona GM and his nerd puppet manager (combined -5.0 WAR).

I get the author's point. Seattle was a good example of how adding a star or two isn't going to turn a whole team around. Adding Rendon, by itself, won't turn our team around either. But... If we can get the rotation, 1B and C to just middle-of-the-road levels, then I think some really great things can happen in 2020. IMHO, Teheran and Bundy are nice pick-ups. Maybe Joe Maddon can work out something at 1B that stops the bleeding there. But we really need to shore up catching and an additional starter would be a very good idea. I'm excited to see opposing pitchers sweat bullets while trying to get through Trout-Rendon-Ohtani. It'll be even more exciting if the rest of the team has done their jobs and the game is on the line.

Love this move. Over 170 IP for seven straight seasons. 2.7 WAR last season. Only one year commitment. Helps us in 2020 w/o the huge risk.

IMHO, SP is overpriced this off season. These huge long term contracts make them bad risks. Let other teams overpay and sweat it out while much of their future rides on a veteran pitcher's elbow.

I'd love to see Ohtani return to form and earn the opening day start, regardless whoever we add to the rotation.

IMHO, we dodged a bullet with him. Paying any pitcher huge $$$ through his age 39 season is a foolish risk that might work out one in ten times. Throw in any concern about his common sense and that risk is even more.

Maybe they'd have offered 9yrs/$324...

Contrast that to Cole's selfish attitude (and, yes, his Boras hat) after game seven. At the very least, Cole's behavior revealed a lack of common sense. Those things do matter, especially if you are signing a guy for seven to nine years.

Kluber is 33 and coming off broken arm and only seven starts in 2019. Baseball-reference projects him to pitch 99 innings in 2020. Our rotation is going to need a lot more help than that.

A REAL 3B!!! Woooooooohooooooooooooooo Now let's get some pitching and catching and see what damage we can do in 2020!

I've always hate it when we trot out low power guys like Callaspo at 3B.....so the prospect of getting a monster like Rendon is pretty exciting to me. I picture it and it makes me smile. And I'd feel much safer giving a seven year contract to a 29 y.o. 3B than I would a nine year contract to a 29 y.o. pitcher. But.. As much as I would like to see Rendon at 3B, I'd be against signing him if it interferes with building a solid rotation and bringing in 2 quality catchers.

Upton has a no trade clause, so he'd have to agree and that would probably take some value out of the equation.

So far, Arte has limited spending for his GM's based on his business model (regardless of what makes sense on the field). He has been willing to go a little over his self-imposed budget, but not a lot. And he makes sure everyone knows that he went over what he would like to spend.

The Dodgers went on a reckless spending spree and it more or less worked for them. They didn't get a ring, but they've won their division seven years in a row with two trips to the WS. That compares very favorably to our one division title and no playoff W's over the same period. But... The Dodgers didn't just spend big on FA.....they KEPT spending to bring in new guys when FA signing didn't work out. I do not believe Arte will do that. In fact, Arte seems to be proud of his self-determined budget. That means huge high risk contracts are not a good move for the Angels. You could argue that they aren't good for any team in the post-steroid era, but they are an especially bad fit for our owner. I hope we make some smart and reasonable FA signings this year to shore up the SP, 1B and C situations. IMHO that is going to be the biggest bang for the buck. Solid talent is going to want solid money, and that is fine. Just avoid the massive risk six, seven or eight year contracts....especially for pitchers. I'd much rather see a balanced team built around Mike Trout over the next few years than see the team try to buy a ring in 2020 and end up being financially hamstrung until 2028.

This isn't Toastmasters. I'd like to see them lose the title and be hit some some big time punitive penalties including loss of draft picks. It was no fun beating them when they tanked and it was no fun losing to them when they used their ill-gotten draft picks and cheating to win.

So, you're saying the Dodgers are locks to get the ring? EDIT: Just kidding. I respect that you disagree with me that an argument can be made. I'm curious to see what the MLB will do.

I hope the take the title away AND get punitive with draft picks and other measures.

Even it it isn't likely to happen, I can see a rational argument for awarding the title to the team that got there, took it to seven games, and lost to a team that was later found out to be cheating.

The point I am trying to make (perhaps badly!) is that IF they take the ring away from the Tanker/cheaters and give it to anyone else, it would be the Dodgers. I think the point @Dochalo is trying to make is that the whole environment is contaminated so no team should be awarded the title. So, I'm guessing he is arguing that even if Astros have their title pulled, it shouldn't and won't go to any other team. But I think an argument can be made that the Dodgers deserve the title because they didn't get caught cheating and they lost the WS to a team that did get caught cheating. And, while I don't really hate the Dodgers too much, I certainly would not like to see them get a title. Their fans are obnoxious enough already.

You could be right. I can see it either way. We'll find out!

I see what you mean. But, there is no way you could award the title to the Yanks and it does no harm to them if the title goes to the Dodgers. Honestly, I'm ok with anything that results in the Astros losing their rings. Maybe they could have a melt-them-down ceremony at MM park that features recorded trash can banging noises.

How likely do you think it is that an AL team's cheating influenced the NL WS representative? Seems pretty unlikely to me.