BTH

I'd love for the Angels to get at least one more quality setup-man type bullpen arm. Whether it's Hand, Bradley, Greene, or someone in a similar tier.

If Perry has actually convinced Arte Moreno to invest into the front office and baseball operations department, that would be huge. It feels like the Angels have lagged behind in those areas compared to other teams.

I also feel like San Francisco could be a team that swoops in for Bauer. They have shown a willingness to spend money on pitchers in the past, they've stated they want to add more pitching, and they're a very analytical team with smart coaches, which would likely be very appealing to Bauer. Also, his agent/significant other(?) is from the Bay Area and grew up a Giants fan.

Might as well throw out a random prediction... Angels acquire Carlos Carrasco from Cleveland on January 25th.

I think Pena is gonna be strictly used out of the bullpen, but perhaps I am wrong. The Angels haven't given any public indication on that, so we'll see. I guess you are more confident in Faria and Suarez as depth options than I am. Rodriguez has the stuff, no doubt, but I don't know if he's major league ready yet. With a player who has the talent that he does, you don't want to have to rush him.

So you put Barria or Sandoval as the 5th starter behind A Starter You Acquire, Bundy, Heaney, and Canning. Then one or two starters get hurt, and now you're putting Jose Suarez into the rotation. Do you not see the problem? They need depth because we've seen every year that they get killed when they have no depth. That's why Suarez and Sandoval had to come up before they were ready, and it might have ruined Suarez' development.

There's no way the Angels- or any team- makes it through the entire season with no injuries and uses just 5 starting pitchers. People are going to get hurt and they are going to shuffle the rotation around off days to ensure that they can maximize how many starts they get from their best starters.

If the Angels sign two starters, the rotation is Starter A, Starter B, Bundy, Heaney, and Canning with Barria in the bullpen. If Ohtani is healthy, then he would be a 6th starter starting once a week. You are acting if bumping Barria and/or Sandoval out of the rotation is bad thing, but it's actually a great thing, as it gives the Angels more depth.

Is Joe Maddon going to meet with the media either today or tomorrow? I know that the manager normally meets with the media at one point in the week during the Winter Meetings, and I've seen other managers throughout the league having Zoom calls with the media throughout this week.

I wonder if part of that was Passan wanting to appease Blue Jays fans listening. I think Springer goes to the Mets, but I wonder if they go after both Springer and Bauer.

Yeah. Trent Rush is able to get Angels personnel on since he works for the team, but the podcast doesn't come out often.

I actually think it's the opposite of an Eppler-esque signing. Claudio's fastball velocity and spin are each in the 1st percentile. Eppler loved guys who had velocity and spin in the high percentiles.

I wonder if they splurge on one more setup-type reliever (Greene/Soria/Treinen/Bradley). It probably depends on how much they spend on starting pitching, though.

If the Angels are willing to trade that much prospect capital, they should shop that package around and see if they can get a better pitcher than Snell for that same package. One thing that the Angels front office would know that we don't is what the asking price for Snell is in comparison to the asking price for Márquez or Gray. The asking price could be the same, higher, or lower.

I was initially surprised at the relatively low amount Zunino got, but I looked at his numbers in 2019-2020, and they are ugly offensively.

I've kind of cooled a bit on signing Bauer. He definitely improves the team, but they can't allocate all their resources on one player, even one as good as Bauer. Ideally, they can acquire a top of the rotation starter who is on a cheaper contract and spread the money around on C, RP, SP depth, and OF.

It's not so much two starters and one more reliever, but two starters and a reliever of Odorizzi/Gray/Hand's caliber. Perhaps they will do that. I think it's totally fair to expect 2 starters and a reliever, but Odorizzi, Gray, and Hand are near the top of the market at their respective classes and getting all 3 might be too much.

The thing is, I think Bauer believes he can do 40 starts at 6-7 innings. If you've seen his vlogs, he is super in-depth with his pre and post start routine and is constantly taking measurements on his body's reaction after pitching. If anyone could do it, it's probably him.

I think that's an optimistic outlook, IMO. I don't think the Angels will actually do that much, but I'd be thrilled if they did.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned (maybe I missed it): Trevor Bauer has said that he wants to start every 4 days instead of every 5 days. If he can actually do that and still perform well, that could be upwards of 40 starts. That's something to weigh for the Angels, as you may get 8-10 extra starts from him than you would from any other pitcher you could acquire.

The way I see it right now is: 1. Bundy 2. Heaney 3. Canning 4. Barria 5. Sandoval Sandoval is the first to get bumped from the rotation if they sign a starter. Barria gets bumped to the bullpen if they sign 2 starters. Ideally, they get 2 starters that slot above Bundy, Heaney, and Canning. Realistically, they get 1 starter that slots at the top of the rotation and 1 starter that slots behind either Heaney or Canning. Also, I'd be cautious with Canning. Remember, there was a time this Spring when there was fear that he had a torn UCL. It's inevitable that someone gets hurt, so adding some depth starters should be a priority as well.

I think Odorizzi gets a bigger deal then people may think. I think he for sure gets 3 years, and likely gets 4 years. I'm thinking something around 4/$52M.

What is that order for starting pitchers? Is it just random? I'm not sure that Peña is going to be viewed as a starter. Also, I don't think they should even pencil Ohtani in as an option for starters. If he contributes on the pitching side, that's a bonus.

It hasn't happened before using waivers, and the scenario has since been shot down. But since you brought it up again, the scenario said that team Y would receive a prospect to take on Upton. Just like the Giants received Will Wilson in exchange for taking on Zack Cozart's contract.

I would do that deal from an Angels perspective, but I don't think the Rays would. And if the Rays wanted to do that deal, I'd be concerned because the Rays are generally smarter than other teams. It would lead me to believe that they know something about Snell that others don't.