Underdog Lefty

Certainly a very encouraging article after a really unfortunate injury-filled season. Thank you for the in-depth analysis of Perry's intent to build the Angels' future from the minor leagues up. It has worked well at each of his prior stops. After all, that is the way it's always worked best in MLB, right Arte?

4-6

Great, Angels' GM had months of lockout to analyze needs compared to what's available, and 48 hours after the lockout ends, he brings back Suzuki. WTF!!! It's obvious ownership not only limits spending money on his minor league teams, but even the major league too. Year after year the Angels' no. 1 need is top-shelf, front line pitching, and year after year the best get away and Angels give 1-year contracts to has or never-has been pitchers. And year after year, an offense that is good enough to do damage come playoff time can't even get there due to the sh1tty starting pitching. Even Trout and Madden spoke up about it at the end of last season and said it needs to change, yet...... Is there any way we can force a trade of an owner?

The Angels arguably have the 2-best players in Trout and Ohtani, a few plus teammates in Renton, Fletcher, a couple of highly regarded minor leaguers finally maturing to become part of the major league roster in Walsh, Adell, and Marsh, a promising influx of young exciting pitchers jumping in from an average minor system in Detmers, Canning, Sandavol, Barria, and Suarez, and a whole draft board of pitchers that add much needed depth to their minor league affiliates, with a solid veteran closer now locked down for multiple years. Manager Madden, Trout and Ohtani went public at years’ end stating that it’s time for things to change, it’s time for a top-tier major league starting pitching staff to be added because that’s all that’s lacking for the team to compete for championships for the next 3-5 years. Yet, so far the Angels have added one starter who is a once-feared and hope he will be again starter in Thor that “may” be a no. 1 or 2 if he can return to some resemblance of the past, and then a couple more of the usual 1-year wonders, you know, the “we’ll give you a chance to prove you are a 4 or 5 starter (at best)” type pitchers that have permeated the roster for the last 7 years, instead of holding on to 2 competent proven veterans in Cobb and Bundy that would have been solid, proven 4s and 5s. In the meantime, every healthy free-agent starter qualified to be viable no. 1’s, 2’s or 3’s have all signed with other teams. In the meantime, the Angels year after year add a piece that most Angels fan have to look up on some stat-gushing website just to find out who the heck the guy is, only to turn away in disgust as the best go to the competitors, some of whom in their own division sign former Cy Young award winning pitchers, the type of pitchers Madden, Trout, Ohtani and most bloggers on this site hoped the Angels would be signing. Of course no one should have been surprised that Scherzer didn’t join the Angels, why would he even consider a team that hasn’t given a multi-year contract to a front line starter in almost a decade! But it is very discouraging that Arte wouldn’t at least listen to the leaders of his team, open up the purse strings and at least add a Ray, Gausman and/or Stroman. Nope, once again just another has-been, injury prone pitcher, and a relief pitcher who wants to prove he can still be a starter. Last report I saw said that the two NY teams have the highest 2022 roster payrolls so far this offseason, and next in line is the LA Dodgers. Well the first 3 teams make perfect sense since NY and LA are the two biggest markets in the U.S. But the 4th highest payroll so far belongs to the San Diego Padres, though it’s only the 8th largest city in the country. Congrats Padre fans, you’ve got an owner that wants to win. And how high do the Angels rank on the offseason payroll list? 9th! That’s right, the 2nd team in the 2nd largest city in the U.S. has only the 9th largest 2022 roster payroll. Heck, I guess that’s pretty good considering the Angels team isn’t in the city of Los Angeles anyway, let alone Los Angeles County. In fact, the Angels are in the 55th largest city in the U.S. and has the 9th highest 2022 roster payroll team in all of MLB! You know Artie, that’s actually something we Angel fans could actually have been proud of….IF you hadn’t changed the name to the Los Angeles Angels! And friends wonder why I gave up my season tickets after almost 20 years…….

Yawn, though this guy went to Cal State Fullerton and he’s coming home, I would still rather have Cobb back.

Haha, would of if I could of.

Based on Ray’s stats at https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/starting-pitcher/, I would take a pass on him. Instead, I would go after another former Cy Young award winner that no one in Angels’ land is even talking about, Corey Kubler. Yea, I know, he’s older than Ray and may not be what he used to be after surgery, but geez if he is able to recover successfully enough to be 80% of what he once was……. OMG, take a look at his historical statistics on Spotrac too, they are radically better than any other free agent starting pitcher. I would take him as my 3rd, 4th or even 5th starter in a heartbeat. He’s a bulldog on the mound and the Angels have a boatload of young pitchers throughout their organization that could learn quite a bit from him on how to take command on the mound. Go get him on a 1 or 2-yr deal Angels, he’s worth the risk!

Just as important as needing pitchers, the Angels need a new pitching coach. Has anyone heard any rumors on that yet?

MLB needs a hard cap, just like the NFL. Until then, he who has most money will continue to buy the best players, and also have the smartest front office magicians to scam the system.