Reveille1984

What is the hype with Harper anyways? He had a monstrous season four years ago and has basically been a 3-4 WAR guy the past three years. I get that he's only 26, but paying $400M over 10 years for "potential" seems like a giant gamble. I'd gladly pay Machado though if he's willing to play 3B, even with his attitude issues. Has been way better than Harper production wise, but someone gets lumped in with him constantly.

Even though it's a moot point, Cron's a negligible improvement anyways. He's worth maybe two wins? It's not like Albert is blocking some 1B phenom we have waiting in the wings. I doubt he'll even sniff 400 PAs this year, the guy is almost 39 and has paper mache knees and feet. He's one of the worst defenders in the league and Ohtani will be sucking up all of his DH at bats. My guess is he'll be gently transitioned into a bench guy over the next few years until he either decides to retire and jumpstart that professional services contract, or he rides out his "veteran leadership" abilities into the sunset ala Chase Utley.

Yeah, both Boston and Houston currently have historically great teams. Imagine being the Yankees and winning 100 games last year just for the honor of a coin-flip play in game. Anything can happen over the grind of a baseball season, but something catastrophic would have to happen in Houston for them to lose their grasp on the division. Even the biggest Angels homer imaginable has to admit they are the class of the AL West right now. The good thing for us is that the playoffs in baseball are such a crap shoot that if we can just snag a spot and get in, we're in good shape.

I feel like you're really underselling how great the Astros were last year, and how great they'll continue to be next year. Their offense was 6th in all of baseball in RS last season, so saying their offense wasn't that good is a bit of a stretch. They're currently projected to be around a 95 win team next year with a top five offense yet again (before the offseason plays out, they could still get better). Not that the Angels can't or shouldn't try to improve, but I don't see a realistic offseason outcome that puts us in contention for the division. We should definitely be aiming for a Wild Card slot though. One of Boston/NY will grab one of them, and the secondary slot will likely be a free for all between us/TB/OAK and others. Getting Corbin would have been nice, but like you said if we can maybe grab a decent starter (hopefully two) we should be in okay shape to hopefully start approaching the 90 win zone.

MLB managers probably have the least effect in terms of wins/losses of any professional sport. The vast majority of the job is common sense and player/ego management. You draw up a line up card, put the good players near the top and the shitty players near the bottom. Let the pitching coach deal with the pitchers, the hitting coach deal with the hitters. We're even in the AL where you don't have to deal with double switches and pinch hitting for pitchers so things are even more plug and play. I agree that we need fresh blood just because we've sucked for so long and it couldn't really get any worse no matter who we hire at this point. Having Trout/Ohtani/Simmons/Upton in the lineup everyday and even passable starting pitching automatically puts us at about a .500 team give or take a few wins, no matter who is managing. The only thing that's going to make us better is getting better players.

Like others have said, I would trade anyone for the right price. Of course you need some cost-controlled talent from the pipeline to complement guys with astronomical salaries like Trout, Upton, etc., but especially while we have the best player in baseball we need to surround him with talent in the next few years. Sure Adell might be a special MLB athlete one day. But even if he becomes a consistent 4-5 WAR player, that development curve is still at least a couple years away at best. And he still has some question marks with his swing and plate discipline. If I could package him for an ace/everday player in their prime, I would do it in a heartbeat.

If we're lucky...

The pessimistic side of me says we sign Sosh to another 10-year extension... please kill me if that happens.

I still cannot believe Albert is on this team until 2021, it makes me physically ill even thinking about it. The sad thing is if a lot these players were even average we would be in an okay spot to compete. It's just typical of the Angels though; when it rains it pours for us and it''s been pouring for years now. Does any other team have THREE regulars in their lineup hitting .215 or below? And that doesn't even include the black hole that is Pujols. It puts so much pressure on Simmons and Upton to perform, and when these guys have slumps or get out of whack we get to enjoy extended periods of scoring 1-3 runs a game. Over the past two weeks we're last in baseball with a team .209 AVG and also last with a .331 SLG... that is abysmally bad.

Breaking - Rally Monkey added to 10-day DL

Only for Kinsler to completely erase that energy by taking a dump on home plate

Pre-emptive ankle braces for everyone!

Calhoun batting a solid .148 now in nearly 200 PAs. Can't decide if he's harder to watch or the bullpen.

Oh Kole, I love you

Two regulars in the lineup batting in the .100's a third of the way through the season, Jesus Christ kill me

They must have all gotten their periods at the same time, offense should return in a day or two

Verlander/Cole make most team's offenses "go bad"

Was Ebel subbing in as Houston's 3rd base coach there?

He should have at least started the 8th

Walk the bases loaded to pitch to Altuve/Correa... splendid

Alvarez's change is doo doo right now

We're not exactly the shining example of a good baserunning team, and Ebel tends to challenge OF arms more often than not.

He's under contract for basically four more years (including 2017). I think we have some time...

In the grand scheme of things, most of these guys are being paid millions of dollars to hang out with their buddies and hit a ball with a piece of wood so its understandable to be upbeat even if your team sucks. Its not like the checks don't clear until they break the .500 mark. Its always funny to me that a group of fully grown men on a baseball team can somehow be shamed or chastised into playing better in a closed door meeting. Like, these players have busted their asses for years to get to the top of their profession but they need a slap upside the head from Sosh to think "hmm, maybe I HAVE only been giving it 90%, I should try 100%!". It seems like something you'd see on The Office or a goofy sitcom

Agreed. Even with his new age treatment, chances are he's still going to need TJ. He'll likely be 29 by the time he can throw a baseball again and 30 by the time he's back to his "normal self", if ever. He had a lot of promise before his two brutal injuries, but the risk with pitchers will always be injury. If another team wants to give up something of value (unlikely as it is at this point), you have to consider it.