angelsnationtalk

They can sign him and still have a 5-man. Dude won't pitch.

Perry sounds a little too bullish on Stassi and Rendon. 
Just hope they aren't blinded with their decisions heading into this week.

This was Robert Murray's BREAKING NEWS from this morning. 
He looked like a kid at the Winter Meetings today. 

Angels look like a sleeper team. That would be spicy seeing them get both.

Angels look like a sleeper team. That would be spicy seeing them get both.

Angels look like a sleeper team. That would be spicy seeing them get both.

"The Angels hired Tim Laker as their offensive coordinator, but Minasian said the meaning of that rather unusual title hasn’t yet been determined. Johnny Washington is the hitting coach who is in charge, but beyond that, it will be up to Washington and Laker to sort out which areas of hitting instruction will be handled by each, Minasian said."
Kind of an odd.  Why hire him without having a clear idea of what he's being brought in to do?

Who gives a shit

So it worked.  Anyone among the “the incompetent Angels can’t even do this right” crowd mature enough to admit they were wrong?

Who do you think will be the biggest name traded?
Who will sign during the Winter Meetings? With what team?
Who will the Angels trade for?
Who will the Angels sign? 
It’s been a painfully slow hot stove season.  Hopefully that changes this week. Lets create some discussion.

if paying him what he's worth is just cause for ownership to let him go, than all 75 rays fans should grab their pitchforks and torches and go storm the castle.

Ohtani will get a truck load of cash, but I don't think it comes down to the highest bidder. 

Ohtani will get a truck load of cash, but I don't think it comes down to the highest bidder. 

Ohtani will get a truck load of cash, but I don't think it comes down to the highest bidder. 

First, defensive metrics are the murkiest of all stats.  BB-Reference's version of WAR focuses on DRS, FGs on UZR they are pretty similar, but DRS throws in subjective analysis using stringers to determine the difficulty by employing Baseball Info's Solutions, "Good Fielding Plays/Defensive Misplays (GFP/DME) system", it does this to try to be more comprehensive but in doing so it can cause some double dipping which they then employ yet another methodology to try to factor that out.  It's there where the differences (however slight) make for "fuzzy" results and what many see as bWAR overrating a player's actual defensive production. 
Offensively they grade around OPS+ whereas fWAR uses wRC+ which is built on wOBA and if I have to explain to you why that makes one stat better than the other then there are multiple discussions that need to be had before even starting on the differences in bWAR and fWAR.  wOBA is built around the proven reality that getting on base (not making an out) is the biggest factor to scoring runs while OPS is treating OBP and SLG equally.
fWAR had Moniak as a 1.5 player.  It seems pretty clear that the version properly adjusting for the importance of not making outs is giving you a better idea of how well Moniak performed.  
Defensively it's back to the slight difference and added components.  DRS uses rPM (runs minus plus saved) to rate the player against the league average -- UZR uses RngR (range above runs average) to try to do the same thing -- both of these stats get their data from the same source (BIS), and RanR like rPM gives Moniak a positive score so it comes down to how much you really want to buy into subjective human analysis vs math.  
I don't know of a single person who prefers bWAR to fWAR.
And yet we see so few do that.
Total number of OFers in all of MLB to post 2-3 WAR seasons among qualifiers 
2018 - 41, 
2019 - 36 
2021 - 32
2022 - 30
2023 - 34
Here are the actual names per year if you want to try to find the "plenty of guys" taken off the scrapheap who managed a 2-3 WAR season.
2018 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&month=0&ind=0&pos=of&team=0&pageitems=30&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2018&season=2018&pagenum=1
2019 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&month=0&ind=0&pos=of&team=0&pageitems=30&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2019&season=2019&pagenum=2
2021 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&month=0&ind=0&pos=of&team=0&pageitems=30&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2019&season=2019&pagenum=2
2022 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&month=0&ind=0&pos=of&team=0&pageitems=30&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2022&season=2022
2023 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&month=0&ind=0&pos=of&team=0&pageitems=30&startdate=&enddate=&season1=2023&season=2023&pagenum=2
More importantly, here are all the Angels OFers to produce a 2.0 fWAR season since 2012 when Trout came up
Trout (every year). 
Hunter (2012)
Trumbo (2012)
Calhoun (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019)
Goodwin (2019)
Upton (2016, 2017)
Ward (2022)
12 seasons, 36 starting spots, another 1-2 back up spots, so anywhere between 36-60 spots and it's happened exactly once with Brian Goodwin.

I don't have any interest in discussing whether or not Yelich at 125 mil from age 33-37 (LOL), would be worth doing.  But let's not downplay just how valuable and yes RARE a legit 2 fWAR player is.  The Trout era Angels will likely be a case study on just how valuable and important a team full of 2 WAR players is .vs the eggs in one (or two) baskets approach the Angels have followed.
Sorry for the long post full of abbreviations and information very few of you likely have any interest in but out of respect for all parties involved I figured I'd do it this way than just say BULLSHIT! and dropping some snark... (like always)
Thank you and may God bless the Angels during these winter meetings.
"Hallelujah, Holy Shit! -- Where's the Tylenol!" 

Draft Lottery is this Tuesday, Dec. 5.  Hopefully a top-3 pick is on the way.  Maybe by the time the draft rolls around there will be some college pitchers ready to step into the rotation.  

You can't think that way. If you do, you will miss out on most trades. 
 
I could easily say that by bringing Burnes here, he falls in love with the place and signs an extension in February. It's a crapshoot that in my trade proposal would cost us Rengifo and Suarez--neither of whom will move the needle that much for us.
 
Yes, other teams *could* trade more than we can. But, they might prefer Cease or Glasnow and wouldn't have to absorb a bad contract (yes, Yelich had a good year last year, but he's still overpaid by about $17-18 million). So, if they can trade for any of them, why do the deal where they have to take on payroll. And, how many of them have the space for Yelich to play?
 
With regional broadcasting dollars in flux, many teams are being very hesitant, so I'm told, about spending this year. As much as Ohtani is holding up the market, money is also holding up the market because teams are being far more cautious (again, so I'm told by people in the biz).
 
Finally, regarding Yelich, as the AW saying goes, it's not my money. Maybe Arte received bad health news (I hope not, as I hope no one does). So, he could be motivated.
 
If I'm Minasian and could swing the deal I proposed, I would convince Arte to do it. We need more stable guys who take walks, and Yelich fits that bill. Adell and Moniak can switch off in RF, but both are freeswingers. So, limiting them to essentially 1 position, makes us a better club. 

then rebuild and burn for 5 years

If the Angels convince Shohei to stay it's because they've mapped out a plan for the future that he's happy with.  And the fact that they're still involved makes me a bit bullish about their level of commitment.  
But here's the problem I see with most baseball players - they generally don't care about the farm system and it's importance to the sustainability of long term success.  They are generally fine with moving prospects and keeping major league assets.  
What that probably means is that keeping him will indicate they plan on taking a path similar to what they've been doing.  
You sorta need a minimum threshold of decency for you development system.  Once you drop below a certain level, the collateral effect sort of snowballs.  Waxing and waning a bit is fine but you just can put yourself in a position to be the worst in baseball every few years.  The time it takes to get back to reasonable seems to be non linear once you drop below a certain point.   

This one was actually very tough to think about. I'll go with the "F-it response"
Who do you think will be the Angels first MLB free agent signing this off-season?
Shohei Ohtani. Before winter meetings. This is why they haven't been "aggressive" yet. They want to get Ohtani done and build around it. 
Who will be the biggest name free agent they sign this off season?
Ohtani for FA..... another top SP via trade.
I'm prepared for a dumpster fire season, however....

Gentle reminder that this is why I’d rather save big pitcher money until next winter. This was tweeted earlier this year by Milwaukee’s near Tim Mead equivalent I think.
Bieber, Glasnow, Fried, and Beuhler all hit FA next winter too, all with SoCal ties.
I don’t think we match up, but it’s also why a trade for Burnes could be in the mix this winter, and another reason why considering assuming some or all of Yelich’s contract could be a scenario that helps facilitate a deal. Milwaukee has four or five solid MLB-ready outfielders outside of Yelich. 

lol you guys, this is like a breath away from being a minor league deal. It's less than a mil for like a 35 year old lefty. It's basically just a fringe depth move with a little more guarantee to it.
We basically need an entire bullpen this winter (IMO) and they need to make a few cheap deals like this.

Wasn't Kikuchi at a Ducks game and then signed with the Mariners? 
At this point, it's just a basketball game and that's all. 

I would shop around Sandoval and Ward 100%

I thought this was very interesting considering Heyman is an Angel hater.