ThisismineScios

One of the most overrated aspects of baseball is the rebuild. It's pretty easy, especially if you have some talent on your team. -Sell off any talent at their peak for prospects -Sell any young talent you have that doesn't fit the timeline -Draft only sign-able players -Acquire QO eligible players to get extra picks -Spend all your international money Tearing it all down and building a "quality farm system" is not as difficult as it sounds, and deserves very little credit. And it suck for fans as a rebuild in baseball takes a long time.

Upside is key. And I think that's the exciting part for a few reasons. First is the chance that some of the guys hit and we see our ______ of the future (SS, SP, CP). Another is the chance that the farm, ranked in the 20s, can easily become a very good one this year as some guys get their first shot and others show improvement. And then, when we have a little bit of depth, we can become a big time buyer like the Padres, Dodgers, Red Sox have been for years. ESPN Top 100 came out this morning. Has Marsh at #19, Adams at #75. No Detmers. He is very high on Adams (as were Baseball America guys in their reports).

Take these rankings with a jar of salt. There was no season. Consider the following according to reports: -Marsh ready for the next step -Adams took a step forward -Detmers impressed big time -Rodriguez is all Maddon and Mickey (rip) could talk about -William Holmes impressing -Guys like Paris, Kochanowicz, and Vera haven’t played yet -Yan, Ortega, Stiward haven’t been seen in a year Ton of upside and a lot of unknowns.

This is the hard part--the Wild Card is going to be incredibly competitive. Say CWS, Houston, and Tampa take their divisions (not a given), that leaves 2 spots for NYY, Tor, Bos (still not awful), Minn, Cle (great staff), Oakland, and the Angels. I think the Angels really need to focus on winning the Division. It's very winnable, and the Wild Card spots are going to be a blood bath. I think solidifying the bullpen in any spot is important. Rosenthal would be great but Greene, Justin Wilson (LH) or Jake McGee wouldn't be awful additions either.

So if he's at $16 million / year, the Angels could offer to pay $8-10 of that if they wanted to? I'm not totally sold on Price, I'd rather spend that on a reliever.

Perry said something about Marsh being the guy everyone is itching to see.

How much is Boston paying of his current salary?

Geez, I hadn't even thought about May or Gonsolin. I think they should trade Gonsolin; I think he's the odd man out for the next 2 years. They will always be able to attract talent, and with their farm they will always be in play for a trade for quality starters. I think teams that are desperate for relevancy will make a play for him. I could also see him finding the Rangers appealing since he's from the Dallas area.

I know I forget this a lot, but this is really important for team building. Why could the Dodgers pay Bauer? Because their ace (sorry, it's not Kershaw) is still in Arbitration year 1. They won't have to pay Buehler for 3 years. Urias for 4. If you can fill out your rotation with internal options, you are set up to build a top notch rotation by spending or trading.

I think the plan should be to win now, develop all our talent, win over the next 4-5 years, then keep winning, and win forever. Baseball is the hardest sport to be be successful in. I'm old enough to remember when Dodgers fans were boycotting game because of Frank McCourt. Now they have a juggernaut of a franchise that's going to contend for the next 5-7 years, easily. It's not a simple science--it takes a lot of investment and shrewd moves. You can't just buy it--Yanks haven't won in 12 years. You can't just "win now". Culture matters, flexibility matters, and a strong farm system matters. All of the world series teams the last few years have their foundation built in their own developed players. Then, you go out and put the finishing touches by signing/getting just the right guys: Smith, Seager, Bellinger, Kershaw, Urias + Mookie; Strasburg, Rendon, Soto, Turner + Scherzer/Corbin; Altuve, Bregman, Correa, Springer + Verlander/Morton/Cole; Devers, Bogaerts, Benintendi + Sale/Price/Eovaldi; Rizzo, Russell, Bryant, Baez + Lester/Arrieta/Chapman. My point is you HAVE to have a foundation of 5-6 young guys that become great (and are on relatively cheap contracts) to have the ability to then go and make a big signing or swing a big trade. You can't do it in reverse order because you don't know what you have. I agree with Junky; Perry needs to know what he has. Will Adell/Marsh be stars, or good? Is C Rodriguez a potential ace or not? Is Detmers a #3, or just average? Can Ohtani pitch (I'd mark this as the most important)? How good is Canning? Is Walsh real? There are so many questions to answer. But the fact that he's bringing in a ton of talent from historically successful franchises (Braves, Dodgers, Brewers, Royals, Blue Jays) is a good sign that he's building a quality front office. I think this team has a very solid foundation to contend for the Division this year, but has a ton of flexibility going into 2022 to do what it takes to take another step forward.

It was actually Minasian himself--he said on a call that the top 3 guys had an ERA of like 3.80 or something. Therefore you want to solidify that 4-5 spot (Cobb-Quintana-Ohtani-Barria-Sandoval) so you give yourself a chance every game. It's a useful concept. I think they really have to make one more bullpen move. The #5 pitcher and the bullpen are without question what cost them a playoff spot last year--14 blown saves and an ERA over 9. I think the end of the rotation looks good, now they need to solidify the bullpen with one more solid guy.

Seems like that made a difference for Soria and Colomé. If Joe can work his magic on Iglesias maybe they can work it out.

That's why I think Rosenthal may choose to go somewhere else; the title of closer may be important to him. I think Greene would be a good get.

As strong as the desire for a solid "name" pitcher is, I think they need to resist going all in on a guy like Odorizzi. He's a solid pitcher, but 3 for 45 doesn't change the game for them. I think they are much better served going after another reliever like Rosenthal, Greene, or Melancon.

Hard part about walking into the job after 2020 was that Perry had no chance to evaluate our talent. We’ve been hoping he trades for SP, but Perry doesn’t even know what he has yet. What if Adams turns into a Top 100 guy this year? What if Marsh wins the job in Spring? What if Detmers is good enough to pitch in 3 months? So many unknowns. Perry seems to be stabilizing this year’s team as much as possible, keeping flexibility to evaluate and adjust going forward.

Crazy people still think that after all the multi-year deals he has given to sta—

I agree. At worst he’s a good #3, even next year. Solidifies the rotation going into the next few years. Not sure they will do it though.

Odorizzi apparently wants $45 million for 3 years. That doesn't seem unfair but I don't know. Not totally sold on him.

I get what you're saying. Her quote definitely didn't have any nuance whatsoever. They Angels could have made trades for Darvish and Taillon. They couldn't have matched the Snell or Musgrove trades. In addition, I don't think they can trade for Marquez or Castillo without giving up nearly everything.

The site is great and fun. Unfortunately, executives do not use that site. I've used it quite a bit but a lot of the deals that we see don't seem to line up with that. Every team evaluates prospects differently. The Angels could have put something together for Musgrove too, but didn't. I am sure the Angels COULD have made the Darvish trade if they really wanted to. They clearly didn't for what the Cubs wanted. I wish I knew why.

I'm fine with us disagreeing. And for the record, Maria isn't the first person I'd think would have insight into the FO. But I think she works with a guy who is very connected (DiGiovanna) and he may have helped her out a bit. Much like Rosenthal does with the local beat guys--he gets the info, but shares the credit with the local guys. But she was the one who broke on the Angels not even talking to Bauer (which proved to be true), and said somewhere else the Angels aren't going to make a splashy move because they want to know what they have first. She's been right so far. The Bauer thing was probably an intentional leak to let the fanbase know they weren't going after Bauer. My point about the system is they have Adell, Marsh, and a bunch of high risk guys. If you think the Cubs would have preferred and accepted Adams and Yan over what they got, I can't really help you. That's kind of crazy to think the Angels, who we know have been talking to the Cubs this offseason, wouldn't give up Adams and a low level pitcher for Darvish. I don't know what to make of how teams evaluate talent being similar--what bout the Indians asking for Marsh and taking Clase? Detroit wanting Marsh for Boyd? Teams obviously don't evaluate the same way.

Yeah I know that scares me about Baez--he admits he swings at everything. It worked for him in 2018-2019, when he had 6.3 and 4.8 WAR. And he's a stud defensively. But the strikeouts don't fit the Angels MO and Angel Stadium is a pitcher's park. Story--wow. I didn't realize his Home/Road splits were that bad. I was thinking of Arenado, whose H/R isn't bad at all. I'd love Seager. Lindor is re-signing and Correa I'm iffy on.

I agree, I think unless Bundy falls off a cliff when Callaway inevitably goes, you re-sign him. He's relatively young too. I agree, but I think Paris and Vera are still 3-4 years away (haven't even played in Minors yet) and Jackson will move to 3rd. I'm not sold on Jackson until he stops striking out as much. I'd actually be fine with signing Baez or Story to a 4-years deal, but they will get longer offers. But how solid is a Baez/Story-Rendon-Trout threesome? I think they may even try to get rid of some of Upton's money by dumping him after this year. Pay part of it or include a prospect to free up even more money. Marsh is too good of an OF defender to move him away from CF. I think you may even move Trout to LF by 2022 to let Marsh play CF like they did with Torii to RF when Bourjous came up.

Great post. I agree on almost every front. I'd point out that Maria Torres saying the Angels don't have the prospects to get good pitchers is more of an indication that other teams see the Angels farm system as Adell, Marsh, and a bunch of risks. They aren't trading Detmers or Rodriguez, so when you look at the next few guys you're looking at high risk. Do you know what Jackson, Adams, Paris, Vera, Ramirez, and Kochanowicz have in common? 5 haven't played any full-season ball, and Adams got 10 games at High-A. The Angels simply didn't have the prospects to get a pitcher like Darvish, Taillon, Musgrove, or Matz. I didn't agree at first but when I went and looked at the prospects that were traded, they had a little lower risk or they had played a full season somewhere. It just wasn't realistic to make a trade unless we threw in Adell (diminished value) or Marsh (who I think they do not want to trade at all). So Perry did what he could to add around the margins with stable guys. One thing we don't recognize is the team doesn't really have any vocal clubhouse guys besides Heaney. Trout, Rendon, and Pujols are some of the most laid back leaders you will see. I forced myself to read the Q & A with Cobb and I was pretty impressed. He was honest about how excited he was to come to Anaheim, get out of the NL East, and not play for a perennial loser. He will lead, Fowler will lead, Suzuki will lead. These guys are winners. That's important, but it doesn't really generate excitement on message boards. I think the 1-year deals are important because it gives flexibility in many ways. Not because we will go out and spend $80 million on FAs next year, but because if we want a guy like Baez or Story or Syndergaard, we CAN get them. Or we can prowl around for an Arenado and take money on. OR we can extend guys that have great years. Agree about raising the floor piece by piece. It improves the whole team. $29 million for all we've done vs. the $40 million it looks like the Mets are offering Bauer for 2021. I'll take this.

The spot Heaney fills now (#2-3) can actually be #4-6 if we make improvement in development and signings next year. Heaney (or a pitcher similar to his ability) would be a great 4-6.