AngelsLakersFan

Because he didn't pitch last year..? Relievers have a ton of variation in performance anyway, injured relievers are completely random.

Finally some good news! The money might be a little high, but who cares, the Angels have no way of adding cost effective relievers so it's either spend money or go without. $5 million isn't too much for a pitcher who has been between 1-2 rWAR the past few years.

Why not? The money we just spent on Freese is not that much different than the amount of money we just let Vargas walk over. Money is money.

I'm really trying to like the trade. I really aim. I like that we don't have to count on Lucho or sign a Chavez for third, I like that we got a guy who has put up all star numbers at the position and I like that we traded from a position of strength. The problem I keep running into are the little details. We are penny pinching to keep under the luxury tax this year, yet this deal adds about $4 million. People have concerns about Bourjos' health because of his back to back injuries, but yet Freese injury concerns, back and ankle, seem seriously frightening to me. Bourjos' injuries have kept him off the field, but for the most part his numbers are respectable, Freese' injuries made him a sub replacement level player last year. Freese is an all star at his best, but Bourjos best season was better We got a relief pitcher in the deal, but not one we can seriously count on to pitch well for us We improved the offense at the expense of defense with a guy whose career extra base numbers are not significantly better than Bourjos. Our offense was great last year, but our defense and pitching failed us. This trade does not address the pitching, hurts the defense significantly and potentially leads to another defensive downgrade at second base. If I concede equal value between players I can't help but notice the extra year of team control the Cards get with Bourjos. We gave up a prospect as well

Unfortunately our team has decided that we cannot add any payroll that will put us over the luxury tax. This means we aren't making any of these cash based deals.

Is that a threat Jerry!? lol

None of the options sound very enticing right now.

This is the Wells trade but without all the money...

Maybe it's because I'm not a scout, and I'm generally quite statistically minded, but I have been watching and playing baseball for years now and my 'scouts opinion' of Bourjos has always been a lot higher than he seems to get credit for. The stats obviously love Peter as well, but watching his game it's hard for me to say that he 'can't hit' or at the very least shouldn't be expected to be any less than a league average offensive producer.

This is about as positive as you can be about this trade, and it's basically saying so because Law thinks Bourjos is garbage. At the same time he seems to think Freese is likely to be more garbage.

Dude, you gotta start using Amazon. I've actually MADE money on my last two big tech purchases by selling high on there.

Most of that had to do with the emergence of Trout than anything else. Also I'm still not sold on Freese being a solid 3Bman.

I feel like we just left the pawn shop...

Lol what are we in 5th grade?

I'd say Bourjos is a significantly better defender than Edmonds. Jim was a natural out there but he didn't have the athleticism of Bourjos.

That is another good point. I could understand a deal like this late in the offseason. It's not even December yet and we've already made a bad trade.

Ouch I didn't even realize Freese was below replacement level last year.

The best overall lineup for this team had Bourjos in center, Trout in left, and Calhoun / Hamilton splitting time at RF/DH with Trumbo (who seemed to have the most trade value) being shipped off for pitching.

We really have to cross our fingers with this one. It'd be nice to find a deal where you look at it and only see upside - like Cardinal fans are doing right now.

For the trade to work out Freeze needs to be 100% healthy and producing at the levels he's shown capable of. The problem is, like with Pujols, he's leaving a more nurturing environment. It's hard to see a move to the AL West improving his offensive numbers - even if he's healthy.

WAR is a counting stat... it has no interest in potential...

At some point we have to stop saying this...

What are we doing with Green then, and what are we doing with the two empty spots in the rotation? Trading Trumbo is still a possibility, but it makes less sense now than it did a few hours ago.

Well at this point it's hard to see him not getting traded.

I wouldn't be too optimistic...