jessecrall

Simmons has said he doesn't feel comfortable leading off and in 77 games batting 1st, he has a .597 ops so maybe there's something to that...Expect Calhoun to get the best shot at it with Cozart, Fletcher or, if he has one helluva spring, Rengifo, given a look as well.

Mookie was a 5th round pick who only cracked the bottom-half of Baseball America's top-100 after 3 years in the minors. He came up at 21 and was immediately a stud.

David Fletcher wasn't highly touted at all and he put up 2 WAR in half a season. Fangraphs, as good a public source as any, had him outside the Angels top-20 before the season. Maybe he goes backward from here but he's already exceeded expectations. It's the sign of a very healthy organization when you're getting contributions from unlikely sources in addition to your first-round picks.

@floplag But Houston just won 103 games (with a 109 win pythag) because they have a ton of "decent regulars." They had 4 guys put up between 5-7 WAR, 2 of which they developed (Bregman & Altuve) and 2 for whom they traded (Verlander & Cole). Beyond that, Charlie Morton was their best player at 3.5 WAR. They won because they had a lot of decent starting players, good relievers, bench guys who were solid...the Angels gave a ton of innings and at bats to sub-replacement level players and below average regulars. The Astros didn't. If Jahmai Jones, Jose Suarez, Brandon Marsh and Patrick Sandoval become 2-3 WAR guys under team control and Adell and Canning are little better, that's great. That's the foundation of a contender with Trout, Simmons & Ohtani at the top. You don't need these guys to all become stars. If they did, the Angels would win 120 games a year.

There should be a law that says if you call a broad weird-looking on a forum, you gotta post a recent photo of yourself.

Ideally, most of the Canning-Suarez-Jones-Rengifo-Fletcher-Sandoval-Adell-Marsh prospect collection come up and show an ability to be big league regulars by the end of 2020, at which point, you have enough contributors under team control that you CAN break the bank for multiple people (Trout and Simmons extensions, signing Gerrit Cole or Arenado, trading surplus talent for a catcher, etc). I'm sure Eppler's just waiting for the farm to really come to fruition at a big league level before he risks long-term expenditures. Cole and Arenado are both OC products who would presumably show an interest playing for the Angels if they're competitive both on the field and in salary negotiations. You win 85 games this year and have minor leaguers coming up and making noise in the 2nd half, you're gonna appear real enticing for guys looking for 5+ year deals.

The Royals won a World Series with the legendary Edinson Volquez as their ace. We won with Jarrod Washburn. As much as we'd all love to have '99 Pedro making 32 starts a year for the league minimum, the next best thing is a deep rotation in which 5 or 6 guys can give you quality efforts game after game after game. For ~$40 million, Kikuchi's a great gamble. Not to mention he's young enough to make a long-term deal palatable and the Angels could potentially have Ohtani in the ace role next year with other prospects or free agents (Gerrit Cole?) on the way. This team has top-line talent in Trout, Ohtani & Simmons. What they've lacked in recent years is a stable of solid to good players to supplement the stars.

I was high on Kikuchi when I saw that MLB Trade Rumours had him projected at 6/$42, which seemed incredibly reasonable for a guy who was seen as a #3 with #2 potential. He helps now, helps later and at that price, you can weather some injuries along the way. I've seen much higher numbers being floated around but MLBTR's been pretty accurate so far so this doesn't surprise me.

Per the LA Times, Grandal rejected a 4/60 offer from the Mets before they went with Ramos. So I guess that's the 4-year offer we've heard about...Bad news is that apparently, he felt secure enough to reject such an offer (unless he really didn't want to play for the Mets...understandable). Good news is that one of the big buyers is off the table and Grandal's prospects might be dimming. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/12/rumors-grandal-mets-dodgers-tigers-castellanos.html

Also, Thaiss made some swing changes (similar to Kole Calhoun's last year...make of that what you will) and in general had a meh season. You may as well give him a shot to either prove he can be the 1B of the future or at least up his value a little with a strong season in AAA with perhaps a call up at some point. Trading him off an .802 OPS season for an OK, not-inexpensive starter we don't really NEED doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

Jed Lowrie's sprint speed in each of the last 2 seasons was 26.7 feet/second, just a touch under the 27.0 average (for those unfamiliar, 30+ is elite, Trout averages a touch over 29, which is well within the 90th percentile, Ohtani's was 28.4 last year, Pujols was the slowest in baseball at 22.2). More encouraging is that Lowrie's sprint speed was actually LOWER in 2015 and 2016 when he had some injury problems, so while he isn't fast, he also isn't showing the usual signs of decline for someone his age.

I think the years are a bigger concern than the money. $15 mil/per year is reasonable if he's even a 2-WAR player and if you buy his pitch framing skills, he's quite a bit better than that. But do I think he'll be a solid starting catcher for 4 years? Ehhhhhhhh

Thaiss has a really nice stroke, hits the ball to all fields, dropped his ground ball rate...there's definitely untapped potential and like you said, there's no reason to sell low.

Lowrie would be great signing if you could get him for 2 years and much as I would push for Fletcher to start based on our current roster, he's probably best suited for the Maicer Izturis-style 100 games, 300-400 plate appearances/year utility role. If Cozart struggles again or someone pulls a hamstring, his defense alone makes him, in my mind, at least a league average option at 2nd or 3rd and plus option off the bench.

La Stella's below average defensively, particularly at 2nd, so I don't think he's gonna get a ton of starts unless someone gets hurt.

Ideally, either Fletcher would bump up his walk rate or Cozart rediscovers his 2017 plate discipline if not the power so Grandal could hit 7th or something...but yeah, he wouldn't be a bad option at all. Calhoun ran a 13% BB rate in the 2nd half so he COULD be an option if he looks functional...

Right now, Fangraphs has Fletcher projected to put up 2 WAR and Moustakas 2.8 WAR, which seems optimistic. One is young and athletic, the other is big, slow and 30. I just don't see the upside or improvement evident to make a $10+ million investment.

It definitely feels like they're 1 player away from real contention; Fangraphs has them projected at 84-78, 2 games back of the Rays for the 2nd Wild Card. Signing Grandal or signing Kikuchi and flipping a back-end starter like Barria for an OK catcher would make a huge difference if the A's come back to earth and no one else takes a leap forward.

I doubt doubt that Machado will be a valuable, 5-6 WAR player for the next few seasons. But what about after? That's where the "Johnny Hustle" and makeup issues come in. Will he work hard to maintain his abilities even as age slows him down? Do you want to spend $30 million a year on a 32-year-old Machado, particularly if he's a douchebag who antagonizes opposing players and engages in bizarre and even violent antics that turn off fans? Jeff's point about him needing to be on his best behavior for all of 3 months and not pulling it off is a good one; what's he gonna be like when he's already got the money?

I remember a scout being quoted as saying Escobar's defensive degeneration (from a good SS to a lousy 3B) appeared to be due entirely to effort rather than age/injury so I don't think there's anything to feel guilty about.

Try Grandal for 3/$39 (12 mil the 1st year); if he passes, try to sign Kikuchi for 5/$60 and trade a package led by Barria for the best catcher I could get without sacrificing one our top prospects.

And that's by Fangraph's WAR. Per B-Ref, he was a win worse than replacement. But he's still only *checks notes* 33...good luck, Rockies.

1 year, $11 mil plus incentives. That seems...high.

You know what? We can argue about this over and over again or just say Go Angels and move on. I suggest the latter.

Super, then pick a catcher who's good, affordable, won't cost prospects or draft picks and is young/healthy enough to be expected to retain their skills for the duration of a multi-year contract. ALL these guys have negatives. Ramos, Grandal, Realmuto...I see people wanting to sign Maldonado even though he did NOTHING last year besides throw out runners. He's cheap. He's also going to struggle to be mediocre. To suggest that the issue with Grandal is a handful of playoff games is nuts.