oldguy

So I have to disagree with Blum here.
It's not the fact that Arte hasn't spent enough -- he has run consistently large payrolls (but of course never really stepping over the Luxury Tax in any significant manner).
Really the story, here, is HOW the money was spent. There you can point to poor investments in the Minor League system, large contracts handed out players that really, in retrospect (or heck, even at  the time they were signed!), should never have been paid that kind of money. Pujols, Rendon, et. al., the Angels have not invested well for the most part.

Yes!! 

Ohtani is a two-way wonder, that's for sure. But as a pitcher he isn't a rubber-armed innings-eating hog that the Angels need. In five years he has pitched in a grand total of 86 games: 
2018: 10 games, 2019: Injured: 0 games, 2020: 2 games, 2021: 23 games, 2022: 28 games and 2023: 23 games.
I think Ohtani needs to give up pitching. He's proven himself as a 100mph strikeout ace but he has no durability as a pitcher. The Angels have bent over backwards to help him prove himself as a two-way phenom and he has. But he physically can't take pitching anymore. Focus on hitting. 
The Angels have had to have anonymous plug-ins for pitchers because they took their eye off the ball and went for the bright shiny objects like Trout, Rendon and Ohtani, two of the three, maybe three of the three who are now chronically hurt. Individual achievements are fine but not at the expense of the team.
Bottom line, Angels need a new owner who pays for a proper baseball organization, proper training and nutrition for his players and a proper balance to the lineup, not the top-weighted lineup we have now. Arte has a bottomless zeal to show Angels' fans how great of an owner he is by paying through the nose for these often-injured superstars and he isn't going to change his spots. 

Agree 100%.  It might be worth it if you're a legit playoff team and can get him to start some playoff games, but the Angels just never had the organizational depth for a 6-man rotation.  This year, our number 6 starters had a negative WAR, so that detracted from our number 1.
Also, I'm a huge Ohtani fan and wouldn't mind seeing him in the playoffs.  Especially if the WBC was any indicator of what he'd do under pressure.  Frankly, he deserves better than the fiasco taking place in Anaheim.

We didn’t sign Shohei to a 10 year/$600 million extension. We gotta break the streak of signing/trading for people to not play for $30+million a year. As Angels as this is, that would have been even more Angels.

The Ippei era is over in Anaheim.

I still think calling it a drug dealing scandal is silly. It’s two guys who did drugs together. One was a major league pitcher who paid for the drugs, the other worked for the team and would be the guy that went and got the drugs. It’s the drug equivalent of you fly I’ll buy.  

I was going to go with 'they spelt labia wrong' but this works. 
The Angels could hang a banner to celebrate how piss poorly the franchise is run top to bottom.  Just a shit show through and through.

Rendon has a fractured labia.

I'm here all week, folks.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Well, maybe not.

So either he has a broken tibia or someone is telling a fibia.

I like both of these young and talented players. They definitely are a big part of this club's future. I like their attitudes, work ethic, and the fact that they both are talented, of course. They are not in the least intimidated to be around the caliber of baseball that is the major leagues, yet are respectful and excited to be there as well. The club certainly could use vocal leadership-type players, particularly ones with the talent that lends credibility and gives credence to what they would say, and who can also bolster their leadership with productivity on the diamond. While it is still very early in both of their big-league careers, these two have a chance to be these types of players.

My bet is that he would clear them.

My bet is that he would clear them.

Barring the legitimacy of the article, even if he wants out there's just not a lot of realistic options out there. 
He has around 7 years / $250M remaining on his deal and already can't stay on the field consistently.  That likely isn't going to get better in his age 32-38 seasons. 
We'd probably have to be the ones adding just to get rid of that contract.
 
 

We traded Dante Bichette for one subpar year from THIS GUY!

Buzzie Bavasi: "We can get two players to go 8-7 and we wouldn't miss Nolan Ryan."

Make Rendon the back guy and Moreno the front guy.

Ha!  I believe the newspaper headline was, "Guns in the Clubhouse!"

With no more Shohei, Mike is going to be the only really marketable player on the team that has the capability of drawing in the fans.  He'll be good for 2-3 bobblehead and 3 or 4 t-shirt/jersey nights per season alone.  There's no chance he gets traded, and what team is going to take on his contract given his recent difficulty in playing anything close to a full season.

^Yup.
I'd say the over/under on Trout earning his contract is about 5 WAR per season - or $8M per win. 7 years x 5 WAR = 35 WAR. He could reach that, but probably needs to front-load it with another couple big (7+ WAR) seasons, and in order to do that he needs to play 130+ games in a year, which he hasn't done since 2019. 
Not saying that can't or won't happen, but Trout has to prove it. Most teams wouldn't want to risk that for the money he's owed, certainly not a franchise like the Braves. 

I remember a few games back when Rendon tried to fist-bump Ohtani and completely got the cold shoulder.  Shohei knows!!!

Agree.  Read Jordan Rodrigue's coverage of the Rams, then compare to Blum's Halo coverage.  I realize Jordan doesn't have a jockstrap, but if she did, Blum couldn't carry it!

Agree.  Read Jordan Rodrigue's coverage of the Rams, then compare to Blum's Halo coverage.  I realize Jordan doesn't have a jockstrap, but if she did, Blum couldn't carry it!