BTH

Yeah I saw that. I looked through some of the FA starters who played for Maddon, and there are a few of them. (Anderson/Archer/Arrieta/Moore/Odorizzi)
I haven't looked into it, but I'd assume there are also a number of relievers and outfielders who played for Maddon.

I think that's exactly what it is -- they want longer deals than have been offered.

I think those guys either want more AAV or another year or two on their contract and are waiting to sign until someone goes there. If not, they can always take the offer they have now, but they're probably hoping that teams will get desperate and meet that ask once the upper part of the market gets moving more.
I think Bauer signing could help them, but I think one of the second tier arms signing and limiting team's options could have a greater impact.

I also think it's worth noting that almost all of the free agent pitchers who've signed so far have only signed one year deals. Only Mike Minor and Chris Flexen have gotten two year deals.
Morton, Smyly, Kluber, Richards, Happ, Quintana, Ray, DeSclafani, Perez, Lester, Urena, Chatwood, Wacha, and Wood all got one year deals.
I'd imagine teams are just offering Odorizzi, Paxton, and Tanaka one year deals. Paxton may actually want a one year deal so he can rebuild his value and hit the FA market again, but he likely wants a high AAV which would be why he hasn't signed yet.

Angels beat writers will have one of two titles for their stories once Bauer signs:
1: Angels finally get their ace, Trevor Bauer
2: Angels once again miss out on signing the top pitcher this offseason

While a lefty would be nice, I think the quality of the reliever comes first and foremost. They need someone they can slot in behind Iglesias to be a setup guy along with everyone they already have. Ideally, they could get a lefty in the pen of good quality. Justin Wilson?

Or other teams are being leveraged to get more from us, since it is such an obvious need.  Either way we are closer to the end of this than the beginning and I can’t imagine it isn’t resolved this week.  I simply don’t see us getting a starter, three relievers and an everyday right fielder.  I think we will see a starter, hopefully Bauer, a reliever, hopefully Rosenthal and a 4th outfielder type, Pilar or someone similar.  If we had an off season that looks like this:
Bauer or Odorizzi 
Quintana
Iglesias
Rosenthal
Claudio
Iglesias
Pilar or similar 
That would be an AMAZING off season.  

Yeah, I'd say most fans don't expect the Angels to sign Bauer. I think most expect them to go with a SP besides Bauer.
I'm fine with them not signing Bauer, as long as they add another starter and continue to upgrade the bullpen.

Yeah, I'd say most fans don't expect the Angels to sign Bauer. I think most expect them to go with a SP besides Bauer.
I'm fine with them not signing Bauer, as long as they add another starter and continue to upgrade the bullpen.

Yeah, I'd say most fans don't expect the Angels to sign Bauer. I think most expect them to go with a SP besides Bauer.
I'm fine with them not signing Bauer, as long as they add another starter and continue to upgrade the bullpen.

Yeah, I'd say most fans don't expect the Angels to sign Bauer. I think most expect them to go with a SP besides Bauer.
I'm fine with them not signing Bauer, as long as they add another starter and continue to upgrade the bullpen.

As you stated, most fans want Bauer. That's different than saying they expect Bauer to sign here.  She makes it sound as if she knows something that we don't.  

Yep, and he's had the roster space. 
Personally, it says more about how much Eppler elevated the base talent than it does Minasian being unwilling to go that route.
Hard to argue this kid isn't better than the some of the stiffs they had in AAA from 15-19.

I wonder if Minasian has begun pivoting to the plan where they add a couple average starters and try and really bulk up the bullpen. He already added Quintana, and the rumors of the Angels being interested in Brad Hand came out the next day.
If you could add an averge starter and two high-leverage relievers, that'd be way better pitching than they've had in recent years.

I wonder if Minasian has begun pivoting to the plan where they add a couple average starters and try and really bulk up the bullpen. He already added Quintana, and the rumors of the Angels being interested in Brad Hand came out the next day.
If you could add an averge starter and two high-leverage relievers, that'd be way better pitching than they've had in recent years.

I wonder if Minasian has begun pivoting to the plan where they add a couple average starters and try and really bulk up the bullpen. He already added Quintana, and the rumors of the Angels being interested in Brad Hand came out the next day.
If you could add an averge starter and two high-leverage relievers, that'd be way better pitching than they've had in recent years.

So a thought occurred to me.  With Arte now owning the stadium he now owns the revenue that will come in for future events.  Obviously this isn’t the best year to be discussing this, but do you think that added revenue could cause him to expand the payroll?  Or do you think he will look at it separate like his other business entities?  

Yeah, I should say with the caveat that the FO feels he is healthy enough to contribute and pitch a good amount this season.  Obviously I am not qualified to make that kind of judgment, but rather I was suggesting if they felt he was, then considering he will probably end up signing a 1-year "prove-it" type deal, it would seem that he might be a pretty decent gamble, given he had a very good track record of performance when he pitches.
I do get @Inside Pitch's response to my suggestion and I agree - we need healthy pitchers, guys who we can count on to make a good amount of starts.
If we had a bit more minor league depth, I'd be even more inclined to pursue someone like Paxton.  The rationale is, if we had, say, Bundy, Paxton, Heaney, Quintana, Canning, Barria, Ohtani .. that's 7 starters, and yeah, likely at least one of them will be hurt throughout the year, given their track records, which means that it wouldn't be too hard to juggle them and accommodate those SPs.  But the problem lies in the fact that what if multiple are hurt at once?  You can reasonably rely on Bundy and Quintana to make most of their starts, given their track records, but everyone else is a bit of a question mark - Heaney gets hurt quite a bit, Paxton obviously does, Canning has that concerning elbow issue, and we all know about Ohtani.  Barria I believe has been relatively healthy, but he's probably more of a SP5 type than anything else.  If we had some promising minor leaguers in AAA ready to step in, we could absorb that risk better, but we just simply aren't in that position currently.
So, I do get the aversion to Paxton, and I agree we likely just need to find someone who can come in and make most of their starts and be somewhere between average to above average.  Not exciting, but given that we should field a top offense and have a fairly strong defense behind it, perhaps that is all we really need - to avoid the Dillon Peters of the world.

I dug deeper into Paxton's stats and data today and had the same thoughts. However, I'm significantly concerned about his velocity dip in 2020. 1. It's an indication he may not be fully healthy and 2. I think he needs that velocity in order to be as good as he has been in the past.

I dug deeper into Paxton's stats and data today and had the same thoughts. However, I'm significantly concerned about his velocity dip in 2020. 1. It's an indication he may not be fully healthy and 2. I think he needs that velocity in order to be as good as he has been in the past.

He's 72. Gotta think the Angels would be looking for someone younger so they can make a longer-term investment in them. 

Hope it's not too much longer before the team officially announces the signing.

I saw this tweet the other day. I haven't had the time to dig in and see if it's actually true, but if it is that might be a sign of the approach Minasian's going to take with the Angels since he worked for Anthopolous.
 
 

The biggest problem with having Bauer pitch every 4 days is that you just don't know how that impacts his health.
He claims that his own data and measurements say it would work and actually be beneficial, but we don't really know until someone does it. And it's gonna be hard for a team committing $100M+ to let him experiment with that.

That's also an indication of how having a deep system means you don't have to move your top guys.