BTH

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.

14 hours ago, angelsnationtalk said:

Jon Morosi said the Mets are focused on Springer and also a target for an Arenado trade. 

Could give leverage to the Angels for Bauer if true. But also feel like a team like San Diego would swoop in and get him. 

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.

1 hour ago, Hubs said:

They have depth at AAA, and just so we’re clear, Ohtani is my 5th starter and Barria my 6th. Barria gets maybe 12-15 starts and Ohtani gets 20-22. 

Heaney, Canning, Bundy and Bauer are getting 30 or More. 

if Ohtani gets hurt, they go to a five man rotation. Barria gets more starts.

If someone other than Ohtani gets hurt, Barria gets fully moved into the rotation and Sandoval steps in for Barria.

if a second someone other than Ohtani gets hurt, Jake Faria or Felix Pena or Jose Suarez steps in for the 6th man. Detmers may be ready by August anyway and he’d be the guy they call on them anyway.

Chris Rodriguez also could step in.

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.

3 hours ago, Hubs said:

Exactly!!!

I think Barria and Sandoval are fine guys for the last spot in the rotation. Even if Ohtani is a full time hitter, which essentially moves them to a regular five man rotation. 

I’d rather have a competent defensive outfield and a catcher who can hit.

They need an Ace.

 

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.

4 hours ago, Hubs said:

If they did what you suggest, with all the days off, everyone would get around 27 starts. No free agent SP wants to pitch less.

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.

15 minutes ago, Hubs said:

One thing to note, they won’t be likely using a 6-man rotation if Ohtani is not a part of It. 
 

So Those of you who Want two starters know that means a rotation to open the year of your two guys, Heaney, Bundy and Canning. 

Sign two guys and everyone’s healthy and Ohtani isn’t in the rotation.

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.

1 hour ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Sorry i missed this. 
 

As you figured by now, there were actually no “virtual winter meetings.” It was just like any other week. Minasian was available when they did things, but otherwise not. Just like a normal week. 
 

The winter meetings as the media and fans perceived them have always been sort of fake anyway. The GMs are talking to each other and to agents every day in the winter, but for four days in December every year MLB throws everyone together in one building and says “you are going to talk publicly this week, whether anything happens or not.”

The only real purpose of the winter meetings is to have a few meetings affecting non baseball ops people (trainers, PR people, traveling secretaries) and a few meetings about rules. As for the trades and signings part, it’s all fake. 

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.

10 minutes ago, CanadianHalo said:

Passan just said on a TV/radio show up here that he thinks Mets get Bauer and Springer goes to Toronto...

Pain.

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.

2 hours ago, Hubs said:

I wish they’d do the Recap one with Trent Rush more often in the offseason maybe once a week.

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

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

This is an Eppler-esque signing.

I like it.

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.

1 hour ago, Warfarin said:

That leaves 2 more spots for relievers.  Likely one will be a LHP.  I suspect Minasian will work to add cheaper options, a la Claudio, as he allocates most of his financial resources towards SP, with a bit left over for C and possible corner OF.

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.

14 hours ago, Second Base said:

Two starters and one more reliever? I didn't think I was being overly optimistic. I'd be pretty disappointed in anything less.

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.

14 hours ago, gotbeer said:

40 starts, 5 innings.  Would be 200 IP per year, which isn't bad.  

40 starts, 6-7 innings.  Would be 240-280 IP per year.  We are approaching Japanese baseball numbers.  And that's never good for pitchers.

2 hours ago, Tank said:

aren't we seriously dropping the bar on our expectations if we're looking at a starter of bauer's quality going 5 innings (and not 6 or 7)? 

that would yet again tax our bullpen. i'd rather see 33 starts at 6+ IP than 40 starts at 5IP, in case anyone asks.

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.

8 hours ago, Second Base said:

I think if I made any guesses as to how this plays out from right now, mid December, I'd say it's going to be Jake Odorizzi and Sonny Gray, likely aging another 20-25 million in payroll and then another bullpen signing for around 6 million. Someone like Brad Hand to serve as an 8th inning set up for Raisel Iglesias.

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.

16 hours ago, ukyah said:

tell me if this has ever happened in the history of modern FA.

why would team Y pay a guy 51 million dollars when he's on waivers? all they have to do is let him clear waivers and they can pay him massively significantly less, and keep their own prospects. what's the upside for them? there is none.

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.

So both Dahl and Renfroe have signed for right around $3 million. I'd imagine that the Angels would look to pick up an outfielder in a similar price range as them.