Angelsjunky

Recent stadium renovations include a quarter billion dollar statue at first base.

I'm over Napoli, really, but what I'm not over is what Napoli reminds me of: How poorly this organization has been run over the last 4-5 years, petty much since Stoneman left (and even his swansong, i.e. Gary Matthews Jr, was pretty atrocious).
 
The Angels are a badly run organization. I was excited about Dipoto because I thought he had enough brains to turn things around, but so far the results are not encouraging. I guess we can still hope that with less meddling from Arte, and some lessons learned from Jerry, that we'll see positive developments in the next year. But year after year of bad decisions have left the Angels where they are now: a mediocre franchise, when just five years ago they were one of the premier franchises in baseball, or at least in the 2nd tier below the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Braves, etc.

I'm over Napoli, really, but what I'm not over is what Napoli reminds me of: How poorly this organization has been run over the last 4-5 years, petty much since Stoneman left (and even his swansong, i.e. Gary Matthews Jr, was pretty atrocious).
 
The Angels are a badly run organization. I was excited about Dipoto because I thought he had enough brains to turn things around, but so far the results are not encouraging. I guess we can still hope that with less meddling from Arte, and some lessons learned from Jerry, that we'll see positive developments in the next year. But year after year of bad decisions have left the Angels where they are now: a mediocre franchise, when just five years ago they were one of the premier franchises in baseball, or at least in the 2nd tier below the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Braves, etc.

I'm over Napoli, really, but what I'm not over is what Napoli reminds me of: How poorly this organization has been run over the last 4-5 years, petty much since Stoneman left (and even his swansong, i.e. Gary Matthews Jr, was pretty atrocious).
 
The Angels are a badly run organization. I was excited about Dipoto because I thought he had enough brains to turn things around, but so far the results are not encouraging. I guess we can still hope that with less meddling from Arte, and some lessons learned from Jerry, that we'll see positive developments in the next year. But year after year of bad decisions have left the Angels where they are now: a mediocre franchise, when just five years ago they were one of the premier franchises in baseball, or at least in the 2nd tier below the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cardinals, Braves, etc.

Unfortunately Peter is now the typical type of player that other teams buy low on. He's had two injury-marred seasons in a row and doesn't really have a starting job lined up for him. As someone said, I don't know if the Angels will be able to get more than, say, a very good middle reliever/setup guy. That's something, but if Peter is healthy he's going to be much more valuable. I just don't see how it could be for the Angels, unless they trade Trumbo and are willing to rotate players through LF, RF, 1B, and DH.

Mike Napoli had a better year than Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, and Vernon Wells. Combined.
 
Napoli's 2013 fWAR: 3.9
Hamilton + Pujols + Wells 2013 fWAR: 1.8

Mike Napoli had a better year than Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, and Vernon Wells. Combined.
 
Napoli's 2013 fWAR: 3.9
Hamilton + Pujols + Wells 2013 fWAR: 1.8

Mike Napoli had a better year than Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols, and Vernon Wells. Combined.
 
Napoli's 2013 fWAR: 3.9
Hamilton + Pujols + Wells 2013 fWAR: 1.8

Unfortunately Peter is now the typical type of player that other teams buy low on. He's had two injury-marred seasons in a row and doesn't really have a starting job lined up for him. As someone said, I don't know if the Angels will be able to get more than, say, a very good middle reliever/setup guy. That's something, but if Peter is healthy he's going to be much more valuable. I just don't see how it could be for the Angels, unless they trade Trumbo and are willing to rotate players through LF, RF, 1B, and DH.

In before the "let's trade five spare parts for a Cy Young contender" suggestions that are based upon a complete inability to be see beyond homerism.
 
Let's trade Shuck, Romine, Carpenter, Shoemaker, and Mathis for Price. That's five for one!

In before the "let's trade five spare parts for a Cy Young contender" suggestions that are based upon a complete inability to be see beyond homerism.
 
Let's trade Shuck, Romine, Carpenter, Shoemaker, and Mathis for Price. That's five for one!

The Angels foWAR was -1.8 this year. That was among the worst in baseball.

Lost in all the kerfuffle about the postseason, at least for me, is the fact that Mariano Rivera has pitched his last ball. I was looking over his career stats and was reminded of something amazing which is exemplified by this web page.
 
If you're link-o-phobic, here's the gist of it. Here are the top 10 all-time leaders in career ERA+, which is Baseball Reference's translation of ERA to a context-neutral number. 100 is average at any time (so about 4.00 now, 5.00 in the late 90s), 120 is very good, and 140 is great - for single seasons. For career numbers, adjust down a bit.
 
1. Mariano Rivera 205
2. Pedro Martinez 154
3. Joe Devlin 150
4. Lefty Grove 148
5t. Walter Johnson 147
5t. Hoyt Wilhelm 147
5t. Smoky Joe Wood 147
8t. Clayton Kershaw 146
8t. Dan Quisenberry 146
10. Ed Walsh 145
 
Now granted, Mo was a reliever and relievers tend to have much lower ERAs than starters...but that's a ridiculous gap. And it only includes pitchers with 1,000+ innings (there may be other relievers with similar Adjusted ERAs, but none who pitched anywhere close to as much as Mo)
 
That list also points to how great Pedro Martinez was, and how great Clayton Kershaw has been so far; his ERA+ will almost certainly go quite a bit down before he's through; by comparison, recent greats like Roger Clemens (143), Randy Johnson (136), Greg Maddux (132), and Roy Halladay (131) are more likely comps for Kershaw...if he has a long, strong career.
 
By comparison, Babe Ruth had a career OPS+ of 206 - very similar to Mo's ERA+. But Williams wasn't far off at 190, Bonds at 182, and a bunch of guys in the 160s and 170s. To find someone at 155 - which is the same difference as Mo is from Pedro - you have to go to #22 on the all-time list for hitters, which includes Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Mel Ott, and Joey Votto - all great hitters, but nowhere close to Babe Ruth.
 
So this is just me "tipping the cap" to Mariano Rivera - the greatest relief pitcher in the history of major league baseball.
 
p.s. Mo's best single season ERA+ was 316 in 2008, when he had a 1.40 ERA, just above his career best 1.38 ERA in 2005 (306 ERA+). By comparison, Eric Gagne's amazing Cy Young 2003 was at 337, and Craig Kimbrel was at 399 last year (!); Kimbrel's career ERA+ is 282 in 227 innings.
 
Among Angels closers, Troy Percival's best was his rookie year when he as the set-up man to Lee Smith in 1995, with a 241 ERA+ (1.95 ERA). His best ERA+ as a closer was, fittingly enough, in 2002 with a 232 (1.92 ERA). Francisco Rodriguez's best year, at least according to ERA+, was 2006 when he had a 263 (1.73 ERA). 2004 was also very good - 245 (1.82 ERA) - and all his others were below 200. Bryan Harvey's 1991 was also great - a 257 ERA+ (1.60 ERA).

Actually it's third, behind turning the page and tipping the cap.

Four years, folks. That's how many more years Trout is under club-control. A lot can happen in that time.
 
The key is this: the Angels need to become a winning ball-club again AND they need to pay Trout. If they are winning AND he gets paid, Trout won't leave, no matter how much the Phillies and Yankees woo him. He needs to love the Angels, and in order to do so he needs to win and get paid.

They should add at least 1 to each team that insults Native Americans.

Question: Do you think the Rays would trade David Price for Pedro Alvarez? Didn't think so. Pedro Alvarez is basically the NL version of Mark Trumbo. He hit .233/.296/.473 with an NL-leading 36 HR and 186 strikeouts. Alvarez, however, is a third baseman - not a good one, but not terrible. So even if we want to argue that Trumbo's been doing it for longer, Alvarez plays 3B and is a year younger, so overall their value is similar.
 
It is my sense that the Angels - FO and fans - over-value Mark Trumbo. We need to dial back our expectations a bit if we think we can net a pitcher like David Price for him. Maybe Trumbo and two of our best prospects will get the conversation started.

Question: Do you think the Rays would trade David Price for Pedro Alvarez? Didn't think so. Pedro Alvarez is basically the NL version of Mark Trumbo. He hit .233/.296/.473 with an NL-leading 36 HR and 186 strikeouts. Alvarez, however, is a third baseman - not a good one, but not terrible. So even if we want to argue that Trumbo's been doing it for longer, Alvarez plays 3B and is a year younger, so overall their value is similar.
 
It is my sense that the Angels - FO and fans - over-value Mark Trumbo. We need to dial back our expectations a bit if we think we can net a pitcher like David Price for him. Maybe Trumbo and two of our best prospects will get the conversation started.

RePLAY, what's up with forcing everyone to look at your ridiculous "signature" pictures? What exactly are you trying to advertise about yourself?

In case you're wondering and too lazy to figure it out, the Angels will get the 14th overall pick in the 2014 draft, which is not protected as it isn't in the top 10.
 
#14 is a pretty good pick. In a deep draft you can still get an excellent pick, and sometimes top 10 or even top 5 players who are deemed difficult to sign fall that far.
 
I think its reasonably important for the Angels to not lose this pick by signing a free agent receiving a qualifying offer. Stick to Tanaka and trades.

Holy hyperbole, Batman. Don't forget that the Rangers have a LOT more incentive to win these games than the Angels. They're fighting for a wildcard spot.

So all the stupid contract *do* have consequences.  And the "it's not my money" crowd will still continue to spout it.

It will be interesting what the Hall does with Halladay. He was an amazing pitcher for about 10 years, but missed enough time to not garner any of the automatic HoF benchmarks. I'd vote him in without any hesitation, though.

MVP is a clown award, bro.

MVP is a clown award, bro.