BTH

LOL. Joel Sherman with a clown take.

well, I guess it wasn't that outside the box.

There's been nothing to suggest that Swanson's been let go or reassigned. So I'd assume he's still the Scouting Director. Minasian had said a couple months ago that they wanted to put out a press release once everything was finalized, but they never have. Not sure what's up with that. Regardless, we should find out in the next month or month in a half when the Angels Media Guide gets released.

Marsh, Detmers, Jackson, Adams, Paris, Rodriguez, Knowles, Vera, Calabrese, Kochanowicz, Yan, Bonilla, Soto, Holmes, Aquino, Ramirez, Erik Rivera, Jose Alberto Rivera, Naughton, and Deveaux.

so it's the middle of February and still no word... only a month and a half until the season starts and the Angels still need a play by play announcer. One thing that is unfortunate about the Angels is that they aren't really covered like a big market team. Reporters would be digging for the scoop on the new PBP guy in New York or Chicago, but I don't get the sense that reporters are digging for the scoop for the Angels. It's not a knock on the Angels reporters, just a reality that big market teams have more reporters so these things end up getting more attention as reporters try and stand out.

I wonder if the Angels have (or have had) an agreement with Mike Butcher to be the pitching coach and are just waiting for Callaway to be officially terminated.

If anything, Law's assessment further backed up the idea that losing Eppler was a good thing. One thing really stood out in that article and has been mentioned in other places: under Eppler, the Angels CONSTANTLY tinkered with player's swings and subsequently messed up a lot of players swings. Law specifically mentioned Jackson and Adams in his article, and others that have had their swings messed up under Eppler's regime include Knowles, Jones, and Deveaux.

I'd like to see it, but I doubt it happens. For whatever reason, Maddon didn't seem to like Bedrosian. At the start of the season, he put guys like Barnes, Buchter, Milner, and Mayers (before he showed he was good) ahead of Bedrosian in the "depth chart." Then once he got back from injury, despite bad performances from Middleton and Robles, he still never used Bedrosian as a high leverage reliever.

yeah, but there was no chance Minasian added him because of Kela's makeup.

Bard isn't even a starter. The Salt Lake rotation was mainly going to be organizational pitchers who ended up getting released after the pandemic or after the 2020 season. Matt Ball, Adrian DeHorta, JC Ramirez, Jake Thompson, Jose Rodriguez.

Yeah, and we just saw last season how easily relievers can collapse. Robles, Buttrey, and Middleton looked like a solid trio entering the season and they were all horrible. Mayers, Buttrey, and Pena could easily collapse, leaving the Angels in a similar situation as last season. Adding another proven reliever gives them a higher floor in case some relievers collapse and can also give them a higher ceiling if some relievers don't collapse.

I think the RP at the top of the depth chart is better, for the reasons you said, but I think the bottom end of the RP depth is lacking (especially in MLB experience).

hard for us to say. It's possible that Perry has reached Arte's payroll limit or it's possible that Perry has some space before Arte's payroll limit but is keeping that money open for now.

well, I think a lot of us have already set ourselves up for disappointment by simply being Angels fans

In 2021, the Angels pitching depth (of players attending Spring Training) figures to look something like this entering Spring Training: SP: Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning, Jose Quintana, Alex Cobb, Shohei Ohtani, Jaime Barria, Patrick Sandoval, Jose Suarez, Dillon Peters, Thomas Pannone, Jake Faria, Packy Naughton, Chris Rodriguez, and Reid Detmers. RP: Raisel Iglesias, Mike Mayers, Felix Pena, Ty Buttrey, Alex Claudio, Javy Guerra, Jose Alberto Rivera, Aaron Slegers, Gerardo Reyes, Jose Quijada, Kyle Keller, Luke Bard, Ben Rowen, Jake Reed, and Brendan McCurry. In 2020, the Angels pitching depth (of players who attended Summer Camp) looked something like this entering Summer Camp: SP: Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning, Julio Teheran, Matt Andriese, Shohei Ohtani, Jaime Barria, Felix Pena, Patrick Sandoval, Dillon Peters, Jose Suarez, and Hector Yan. RP: Hansel Robles, Ty Buttrey, Keynan Middleton, Cam Bedrosian, Noe Ramirez, Justin Anderson, Ryan Buchter, Jacob Barnes, Mike Mayers, Hoby Milner, Jose Quijada, Luke Bard, Kyle Keller, Taylor Cole, Parker Markel, Neil Ramirez, and Jose Rodriguez In my view, the SP depth looks deeper but the RP depth seems thinner. Thoughts?

Free agent relievers are coming off the board and it seemingly makes the odds that the Angels sign a free agent reliever less likely. It seems like the Braves are going to get one of Rosenthal/Greene, it looks like the Yankees/Mets are in play for Wilson, and if the NY team that misses out on Wilson pivots to another top free agent reliever, the Angels may not end up with anyone.

It's very unlikely everyone ahead of Barria in the rotation is healthy at the same time If it happens, then your "concerns" with Barria ends up being a good problem to have to solve.

I personally don't think getting Barria a spot in the rotation will be that difficult. The odds that every Angels SP ahead of Barria makes it through Spring Trianing healthy/ready to go for Opening Day is pretty low. Someone always gets hurt, has some soreness, or has some delay. One other potential delay for this upcoming season is if someone tests positive and can't start ST from the beginning. That may result in them starting the season on the IL, which is exactly what happened with Julio Teheran last season.

I'm getting concerned that the Angels may not add more to their bullpen. I think they need to, but it doesn't seem like they will.

One (smaller) issue between the 2020 Angels and 2021 Angels is that I feel like the Angels have a lower offensive floor. At the start of 2020, they had: Castro/Stassi, La Stella/Pujols, Fletcher, Simmons, Rendon, Upton, Trout, Goodwin, and Ohtani. At the start of 2021, they will have: Stassi/Suzuki, Walsh/Pujols, Fletcher, Iglesias, Rendon, Upton, Trout, Fowler, and Ohtani. The problem with that is Suzuki is old, they won't have La Stella, Walsh isn't going to put up his video game 2020 numbers, Pujols will likely be worse, there are some questions around Upton, Fowler may be worse than Goodwin, and there might even be some questions around Ohtani. Really, I think the loss of La Stella is going under the radar. He provided the Angels with a quality depth option at 1B and 2B. Now, Walsh's emergence may make up for it, but you knew La Stella had a high floor. For all we know, Walsh could have a 2019 type season in 2021.

Yeah, I think the Angels have added enough to where the back end of the rotation should be significantly better in 2021 than it was in 2020. One worry I do have is that Bundy, Canning, and Heaney may not perform as well in 2021 as they did in 2020, which is why it might've been nice to get some higher upside plays over Quintana and/or Cobb.

There is? Have you seen that said somewhere, is that via a source, or is that your own thought?