BTH

Based on reading the tea leaves, I think we are starting to get a pretty good idea of who the Angels minor league teams will be going forward. Under MLB’s new format, there will only be 120 minor league teams. This will be 4 teams for all 30 franchises at AAA, AA, High-A, and Low-A.

It seems like the Angels will retain having the Salt Lake Bees as their AAA affiliate and the Rocket City Trash Pandas as their AA affiliate.

Their current High-A team, the Inland Empire 66ers, will likely become their Low-A team. This is because MLB is switching the California League (which the 66ers are part of) to the Low-A level.

Their current Low-A team, the Burlington Bees, will likely be contracted. This means that the Angels will need likely need a new Low-A team. Rumor has it that the Northwest League will switch from the Rookie Level to the High-A level. If this is the case, I’d imagine that the 8 west teams (ARI/COL/LAA/LAD/OAK/SD/SF/SEA) will align with the 8 teams in the Northwest League (Boise/Eugene/Everett/Hillsboro/Salem-Keizer/Spokane/Tri-City/Vancouver). ARI is already with Hillsboro, COL is already with Boise, LAD will be with Spokane, SD is already with Tri-City, SF is already with Salem-Keizer, and SEA is already with Everett. That would leave two teams- Eugene and Vancouver- for two teams, the Angels and A’s. That means that the Angels High-A team will likely be either Eugene or Vancouver.

TLDR: This is all just an educated guess, but rumors are starting to seep out, and it seems like the Angels MiLB affiliates will be:

AAA: Salt Lake Bees.

AA: Rocket City Trash Pandas

High-A: Eugene Emeralds OR Vancouver Canadians.

Low-A: Inland Empire 66ers.

18 minutes ago, Lazorko Saves said:

Okay, but we didn't non-tender Keynan at the beginning of 2019, after the surgery.  When we was making league minimum.  Maybe what ya'll are saying is we should have done it then.

He's gonna likely be finally healthy now, and the approximately $350k or so Arb2 pay increase is now not worth it?  I don't get that.  Was the $563k for a mostly lost 2019 worth it?

Keynan regressed in 2020. Also in 2020, he started going after Angels fans on social media and was talking trash about them during the middle of the season when he was terrible.

Also, the pandemic factors into how teams are evaluating what they pay players. A lot of players are going to get non-tendered so that there is a flood of free agents on the market and the players have to end up settling for league minimum or MiLB deals.

43 minutes ago, totdprods said:

...I also wonder if Key's anthem protests and Twitter comments might have drawn some ire from Arte.
 

I have to imagine that Key's Twitter/social media comments got some attention from the organization.

A number of fans were livid at him, and criticizing your fanbase isn't a good look, regardless of whether it's deserved or not (and in this case, I don't think it's deserved). Over 3 million Angels fans have showed up to the stadium to support the team for the past 17 straight seasons before 2020. Even when they were terrible from 2016-2019. Yet he still goes on social media and trashes the team's fans? He ended up deleting his twitter account, and I wonder if the Angels had input in that.

Often times, new GM's will end up bringing in players they were familiar with previously. Some guys with Atlanta/Toronto ties from when Minasian was with those organizations include:

C- Tyler Flowers, Luke Maile*, Jeff Mathis, John Ryan Murphy*, Kurt Suzuki.

1B- Matt Adams*, Edwin Encarnacion, Eric Thames.

2B- Charlie Culberson*.

3B- Pablo Sandoval*.

SS- Adeiny Hechavarria*.

LF- Matt Joyce, Rafael Ortega*, Marcell Ozuna.

CF- Billy Hamilton*, Kevin Pillar.

RF- Nick Markakis, Scott Schebler*, Dwight Smith Jr*.

SP- Brett Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin*, Mike Foltynewicz, Cole Hamels, JA Happ, Tommy Milone*, Aaron Sanchez, Anibal Sanchez, Julio Teheran.

RP- Joe Biagini*, Jesse Chavez, Darren O'Day, Robbie Erlin*, Shane Greene, Liam Hendriks, Jeremy Jeffress, Aaron Loup, Mark Melancon, Chris Rusin*.

*- probably minor-league deals

20 minutes ago, Second Base said:

Hedges, Rodon and Yonny.

Chirinos is very interesting, but I doubt the Rays non-tender him. The only reason he's on the list is because he had TJ surgery and he plays for the Rays who are cheap.

If anything, I'd imagine they trade him because he should have plenty of value. If the Rays do have him on the trade market, he's someone the Angels should pursue, despite the fact that he may be out for most of 2021.

9 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

Listening to Minasian's comments, it does sound like he is going to place a very big emphasis on catching in particular.   I would not be surprised to see him bring in a catcher, whether via FA or perhaps via trade (Contreras with the Cubs?).  Stassi showed well and will be expected to be a significant part, but I think Minasian is going to place a huge premium on the position.

I got the same sense as well. I'd assume it's priority #1 besides pitching.

It will be interesting to see who he goes after. Perhaps he goes after someone he's familiar with from Atlanta, like Kurt Suzuki or Tyler Flowers.

I just checked out Yu Darvish's deal and although he's 34, it's very reasonable. He's owed $59 million over the next 3 seasons. $22M in 2021, $19M in 2022, and $18M in 2023. If the Cubs are open to dealing him, the Angels need to be all over this. Build a package around Adell or Marsh.

During Perry Minasian's press conference, it seemed apparent that addressing the defense is a priority, as he said: “With pitching comes run prevention. I think we can’t lose sight of that either. That entails defense. We have to play quality defense. We have to catch the ball. Game calling, game planning, positioning … all the things that entail run prevention, we’re going to attack.”

The positions the Angels may look to shore up figure to be C, 2B/SS, and OF.

With that in mind, here's a look at some of the top defensive players at those positions in 2020 that are free agents, per Fangraphs.

C- Among all catchers, James McCann and Jeff Mathis tied for 4th in DRS. For "Def," Yadier Molina tied for 9th and James McCann was 12th.

2B- Among all second basemen, Enrique Hernandez tied for 1st in DRS, while Cesar Hernandez and Kolten Wong tied for 2nd in DRS. For "Def," Enrique Hernandez was 1st, Kolten Wong was 2nd, and Jonathan Schoop was 3rd.

SS- Among all shortstops, Marcus Semien was 5th in "Def", while Gregorius was tied for 12th in "Def."

OF- Among all outfielders, Jackie Bradley Jr and Michael Brantley tied for 12th in DRS. Among all right fielders, Kevin Pillar was 4th in "Def."

3 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

More likely youll see teams picking up lower level guys with a high end tool or ability...  At least, that's what I'd expect if they end up killing off A ball.

Yeah, they probably will do that. Though, they do need to fill out a roster at AAA and AA if there is a season.

25 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

I really like what Perry said about Donaldson. That they had Carmargo coming off a really good season at the 3B position both offensively and defensively but still went after Donaldson because he made them better. 

It shows that they will be, as Billy Eppler liked to say, "opportunistic."

I'm not sure that the Angels have a similar scenario to the Braves one with Donaldson this season, but going forward it's nice to know that he's just looking to get the best player out there.

I'm surprised Noe Ramirez wasn't listed as a candidate, especially since Anderson and Middleton were listed. Yes, Ramirez has been better than them, but he's also out of options and will be making more than either of them.

I'm most interested in the decision of whether or not they tender Andriese a contract. He's projected to make a decent amount, which may be why they would move on from him, but he seemed to be one of Joe Maddon's most trusted relievers at the end of the season and he had a 2.12 ERA in 17 innings last season once he was exclusively pitching in short stints out of the bullpen.

I'm interested to see if Minasian stocks up on upper-level minor league free agents.

The Angels only have 6  non-40 man roster position players in the entire organization who have played more than 10 games at or above AA. Even if some guys get promoted from High-A to AA and some people on the 40-man roster get sent down to AAA, they still need more players to fill out a roster.

One thing we didn't find out is whether or not all the coaches are returning next season.

I'd expect most of them to return, but I do wonder if some of the coaches that were Eppler hires (Gallego/Reed/Feliciano/Sorrento) don't return.

55 minutes ago, AngelStew43 said:

I think most of us here would like to find a way to trade Upton and convince Albert to retire.  Upton has a no-trade clause, which we would have to buy out.  Albert is not retiring.  

Sign Bauer, sign Hand, sign Wong, sign Austin Barnes, and go over the tax threshold if we have to, it will only be for 1 season, since Albert will be coming off of the books.  

For myself, this is the best case scenario.

Austin Barnes isn't a free agent

12 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Now I'm very curious about who Minasian will drag along with him and if they keep Swanson and others.  

Same.

When Eppler was hired, he brought in Martone from NYY to be his AGM and promoted Strangio internally to be the other AGM. So I wonder if Minasian follows the same path where he brings in his own executive as one AGM and promotes someone internally (Andrew Ball?) to be the other AGM.

It actually seems like a decent strategy, since you have one AGM who you have been close with and one AGM who already knows the organization.

I hope we find out how much Arte is planning on spending at the Minasian introductory zoom conference on Tuesday.

If the Angels are going to use some of their money to get a middle infielder, they need to get someone that is proven and not use it on an unknown commodity.

Kim could be good, but he could also flop. At that point, you might as well go with Barreto/Jones/Rengifo and use the money towards pitching since all those guys have the same boom/bust potential that Kim has.

59 minutes ago, Revad said:

We could use Goodwin right now, maybe the trade was good (pitching!) and the replacement may well be as good or better but I liked Goody.

Goodwin's gonna get non-tendered by Cincinatti. To get arm depth and a top 15 organizational prospect in Packy Naughton is a huge win, especially since the Angels would've non-tendered Goodwin as well.

They could use an outfielder, but there are better options than Goodwin.

It's awesome that she got hired, but how can you say that the Angels may have "missed out" on her? What moves has she made in the last 24 hours since Minasian was hired as GM makes you think that the Angels missed out on her?

The Angels hired the person they thought was best suited for their job, and the Marlins hired the person they thought was best suited for their job.

Both haven't been on the job for more than a day. You can't say that the Angels may have "missed out" on her.

I'd say that, right now, the best are probably Chris Antonetti/Mike Chernoff with Cleveland, Andrew Friedman with Los Angeles, Derek Falvey/Thad Levine with Minnesota, Billy Beane/David Forst with Oakland, Brian Cashman with New York, and Matthew Silverman/Erik Neander with Tampa Bay.

10 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

 

Thanks, @rafibomb, it worked!

Antonetti and Neander and at the top of the baseball operations department for their respective teams, so I think it's fair for them to decline the Angels request to interview them.

However, David Forst is only the A's GM. Unless Beane is truly leaving and they are elevating Forst to PBO, I think it's an classless move by the A's.

7 hours ago, Adam said:

who said that?

Apparently Arte Moreno was on The Sports Lodge on AM830 this afternoon. Did anyone hear this interview and know what Arte said?

https://twitter.com/TheSportsLodge/status/1326295203825688576?s=20

Do y'all think Noe Ramirez gets nontendered?

He's projected to make 1M-1.2M in arbitration. In 21 innings this season, his ERA was 3.00, but his FIP was 4.52 and his xFIP was 5.49. His K/9 went from 10.51 to 6.00 and his BB/9 went from 2.66 to 3.86. Also, his fastball velocity went down 0.4 mph, his changeup velocity went down 0.8 mph, and his curveball velocity went down 0.9 mph as he enters his age 31 season.

4 hours ago, totdprods said:

I’m guessing LaCava because he started as a scout with the Angels back in the Maddon days, was here doing that for ten years during the Maddon years. They’re both also from Pennsylvania, like Scioscia, so there’s some built-in territorial camaraderie. There was some overlap with Stoneman when he came in from Montreal, and then LaCava eventually wound up in Montreal as head of player development around 2000 after a brief time with Atlanta. He’s buds with Anthopoulos who has worked in several solid orgs, he’s been a part of the Jays rebuild. 

Also, LaCava. Goes with the whole Italian thing.

All total speculation though.

LaCava makes tons of sense. I would say he is the favorite except for the fact that he hasn't been confirmed as a candidate for the job. (I know he's been speculated about, but he isn't among the 14 confirmed interviewees.)  If he was one of the candidates that they interviewed, he is likely one of the most likely candidates because of the reasons you said.