disarcina

if it's Castro and Stassi behind the plate for the Halos in 2020- expect about a combined ,.235 BA from that position. if they can frame pitches well, gain the confidence and respect of the umpiring crew and pitching staff - and be solid defensively then .235 from the catching spot will work with the 2020 Halos line up. as for the respect of the umpiring crew -- good catchers have a rapport and respect not only with their pitching staff but with the umps.........when its YADIER framing pitches the St, Louis staff gets more than their share of those close pitches called strikes -- over 162 games (YADIER has averaged about 145 games per season behind the plate -- probably places him in the top ten (perhaps five) all time in games caught behind the plate and average games caught per year -- Bob Boone like numbers) but over 145 games those close calls going your way make a difference.

Jason Castro is an upgrade at catcher for us from last year, If he hits .250 that's a bonus -- he is an excellent pitch framer,

Jason Castro is a solid defensive catcher. if he hits . 250 that would be a bonus. one of the stories I saw about this signing listed Jason Castro as one of the best pitch framing catchers in MLB (not as good a YADIER -- but pretty good). I think this is an upgrade.,

I agree with TroutCron -- look - a quality catcher won't turn a mediocre pitcher into Cy Young but can make the difference around the margins and as TroutCron points out can really assist in the development of young pitchers Iaren't they all young pitchers these days? -- seems so) especially in taking command of a certain pitch and building the confidence to throw that pitch at key points in the count. Also - a weak defensive catcher (does anyone seriously argue that the Yankees Gary Sanchez may be the worst defensive starting catcher in MLB today?) -- Gary Sanchez is a player who I think should fill the DH/ third string catcher role on an AL roster. You then have a back up catcher when a team runs out of players in a game (seems to be happening more and more -- the games where position players end up pitching), So Cole -- he's good -- but would be better with a quality catcher behind the plate - he won;'t have that for a lot of his starts for NYY.

Martin Maldonado just signed a two year deal with Houston. He makes the pitching staff better, I still do not understand that after the Astros World Series run in 2018 where Maldonado did so well (and with the pitching staff responding / performing well) why Houston did not immediately re-sign him, then Maldonado was a left as an unsigned F/A until literally the 2019 season started -- KC signed him because Salvador Perez went down with a season ending injury. So Maldonado goes to KC -- does ok there and they deal him to Chicago (Maddon) and Chicago flips him back to Houston where he winds up where he was in 2018 -- playing for Houston in the 2019 post-season. Meanwhile in 2019 we signed Lucroy - who many here questioned his defensive ability -- well he was gone by mid-August after having a poor offensive and defensive year for the Halos, why didn't we sign Maldonado after the 2018 season (he was an AL Gold Glove winner at C in 2017)? Why didn't we jump in and sign him when we had the chance in 2019 during the season? now Houston - this year - decided to sign him to a two year deal -- meanwhile Halos are without a true every day catcher.

NO. Adell should play RF for the Angels in 2020.

well, it's definitely KOLE with a "K" he averaged 145 K's a season during his Halos career. in 2019 he struck out 162 times -- that's an average of once a game if he played all 162 games. for a hit and run type NL team -- that just won't work. Kole's K numbers per season since 2015: 2015 - 164; 2016- 118; 2017 - 134; 2018 - 133 and then 2019 - 162. on to the D-BacKs

so long Kole -- he had a good Halos career. hope he does well at his next duty station. the old adage applies here - rather part with a player a year or two too soon than a year or two too late. all this being said -- I just don't see high K ratio guy Kole being an effective roster addition to an NL team, how many times did Calhoun strike out last year ? I am going to guess-estimate 125-130 -- far too much for being part of an NL line up.

NOT A BAD SIGNING....gremlins at work above

not Bad signing; Teheran has pitched well (at times) for Atlanta. Has been consistently inconsistent - but he's pitched some real gems. I assume we didn't over -pay for taking a flyer on him sounds like a good idea IMO. his upside is pretrty good - UNLESS the Scouts on the ground (forget all the just the computer stat approach) see something like he's lost velocity to the point he is no longer effective. He could be a fifth starter -- perhaps a swing man out out of the pen -- spot starter/ long relief.

ODDLY - that 'opener' trend seems to be taking hold and working !! LOL !! And - it could be coming much more frequently to Anaheim this season if one of our more interesting and helpful off-season acquisitions has his say: Special Assistant to the GM, TONY LaRUSSA !!

Keuchel now - he and Ryu pretty much last top rotation guys standing. their value goes up with each signing. supply and demand.

Bumgarner is a gamer - would have helped our rotation and given us another PH off the bench, FIVE years a bit much length wise - but $85 million - while on the high end side for Bumgarner - isn't too much of an over-payment in this market. Bumgarner is a FIVE/ SIX inning starter every fifth day these days -- but - if called upon - he can also pitch pre-set up and be that sixth/ seventh inning bridge pitcher to the set up guy/ closer. He's very versatile as a pitcher - and could adjust to being a pre-set up guy in the back half of the contract. He also appeared as a PH and Pinch Runner for the SF Giants when called upon. the guy has a great GAMER like attitude seldom seen anymore in the modern era players. I think he will make Arizona D-Backs a better team, Would have liked to see him in a Halos uni. Oh well.

Yankees got an ace and we got Cole in our stocking -- something like that. oh well -- gotta agree with Blarg -- in the long run we're probably better off not putting that much money on one spot -- if we had to do that -- we've already done it with the right guy - TROUT.

agree completely

we can get two 8-7 pitchers and be fine......

what's left out there now ? Not much, Did Bumgarner ever finalize the deal with St, Louis?

just heard about the Cole deal with the Skanks -- not sure how to feel -- we didn't get the guy we wanted but GEEZ did the Yankees tie up a lot of dollars on one position that pitches every five days. knew when Strasburg signed the huge deal with the Nets that we were probably out of the running for Cole - no way Arte pays out another Pujols like contract like that. I think it's probably best it's not our Halos paying out that contract for Cole,

actually, I am somewhat surprised that there are not more teams taking this approach, The huge long term mega contracts tend to burn more teams than help them -- but I guess when they get it right it leads to championships and a period of dominance in the league -- that's what keeps the owners willing to pony up the big dollars. looking around MLB it appears to be going the same way that some folks say our society is going/ headed -- a few elite stars with mega multi-year contracts, a big fall off to the everyday player and then the MLB minimum. no more 'middle class' represented in MLB as the 6-8 year MIF type veteran with a $8 million per year contract, these guys help win titles (Howie Kendrick for example) but the economics of MLB are pushing them out fast making them nearly extinct on MLB rosters. Instead they want a young prospect, preferably with some college ball experience, they can place on the roster, pay the MLB minimum and have under 'club control' for 4 to 6 years. and looking around the stands in MLB games, one wonders how much longer owners will be able to pay out the type of contract Cole is said to be demanding,

Sean-Regan -- I guess we'll agree to disagree -- I remember the Greinke situation fairly well - he missed his first start here and by the time he was inserted into the rotation - our hopes of a division title or wild card were pretty much gone (remember - this was back before the 'second' wild card era started). Hamilton -- I remember that as a rebound type signing and a terrible one at that -- I seem to remember short timer attitudes on the part of both Greinke (confession time -- I've never been a Greinke fan - don't think he's that good but he proves me wrong by winning - still not a big fan) Dodgers -- may be I don't have them figured out -- don;'t follow them that closely any more.....if they don't compete for Cole - that's does not make sense to me -- he could solidify their riotation and he would absolutely transform ours.

I think Hamilton was - if I recall right -- the Dodgers had just signed some player - can't recall who it was at this point -- but at the time it seemed like one of those New York type battle for the headlines -- where the Yankees would make some move and the Mets would feel compelled to counter it just to recapture the tabloids for a day or two - never made any sense to me --- certainly made no sense then or now (when newspapers are even less read than back then) in the Los Angeles market. But I seem to recall Arte was still a relatively new owner and was tryig to make a splash that was a dud from Day One. As for Greinke -- we traded for him as a trade deadline rental -- was that all he was ? I assume the Halos were willing to make some effort to sign him. Others disagree with my recall on this but watching the games back then I remember Grienke had some arm (perhaps leg) issue his first scheduled start for the Halos was pushed back a few days, perhaps a week. By the time of this first start for the Halos, the Angels had lost several straight games to teams within the AL West and pretty much fell out of contention within a week of Greinke's arrival. So by the time of his first start, if he was a rental, the rental time wasn't working too well and it seemed the only reason to trade for him was to some how get an advantage on signing him long term. That obviously hit a road block as Greinke's attitude day one seemed to be one of he'd rather be anywhere but Anaheim -- sort of like when the Halos did the Mark Teixiera deal as rental -- Teixiera, too, made it well known he was going for big F/A pay day and it wouldn't be in Anaheim -- although -- the Halos did get some valued rental time performance from Teixiera who played well and surprising (to me anyway) was excellent on defense at 1B. As for Cole -- the Dodgers' front office would be nuts if they did not bid on Cole and Strasburg - both with S. Cal ties -- with the issues the Dodgers have with their rotation. If the Dodgers could snap Cole out from under the Angels' grasp -- they'd do it in a heart-beat. A double win for them -- one of the two best starting pitchers available this off-season and they could be seen as stealing him from the Angels. And even if the Dodgers don't bite in a bidding war or give up quickly -- we all know Boras will try to create the perception of a bidding war. This news just in ! LOL !!

everyone says the Halos have the inside track and are the front runners. now all it takes is Arte's money. A lot of it. Hey, if your're Strasburg guaranteed $100 Million over the next FOUR years - do you buy that out and enter this off-season's F/A market? He has a very short window -- 48-72 hours - something like that - from the time the W/S ends to decide. I guess it ends up not being much of a gamble - because his agent can shop him to teams and if they agree to pay more than that -- he opts out, if not, he stays. Talk about a guy on top of the baseball world right now -- $100 million for 4 years is the 'lesser' option and he just won the World Series and is W/S MVP with a brand new vehicle. (I still would prefer Cole over him , however, Strasburg - perhaps not so much this year -- but in the past - missed/ misses a lot of starts). I think Cole right now is for the Halos to lose -- which they could - to that other Los Angeles team. Expect a Dodgers-Angels bidding war. Last time that happened and we lost we ended up with 'rebound' like signing of Josh Hamilton and then another one was Vernon Wells.........both are in the Halos HOF -- the 'worst signings ever' wing. It's crowded.

and the thing is - when Finley retired - the Cardinals really wanted him to come back. He had a good season or three left in him,

reading this just revisits - even back when - what a bad decision it was to give this guy a huge multi-year contract with his substance abuse history.......yeah, he had power , hit a ton of HRs and wow'ed em all at the All Star HR Derby that one time, but he's a classic candidate for one of those NBA type TEN DAY contracts and if he gets through TEN DAYS, maybe you sign him for another TEN DAYS etc. at a minimum it should have been an incentive laden one year contract for bonus money for ABs and if he could keep the number of 'games missed' to under 10 for the season,. For being a pretty shrewd business guy who I am sure had seen his stare of this kind of stiff over in Scottsdale/ Phoenix -- Arte really mis-gauged this one big time. and this is NOT Monday morning or even years later quarterbacking -- I think to a poster - every member of this Board hated that contract and that signing before the ink was dry on the contract. still - sad to hear about a guy who had some real physical talent as a hitter spiral downward further than he already was -- and after all that money -more than many will make in a lifetime -- he's probably broke.

Cole is going to break the bank of which ever team signs him. I look around MLB, see Little League sign up numbers, teams and leagues decreasing in number and participation year after year and I wonder how much longer MLB owners can pay out these large contracts......... seems like the lobster in the pot to me..........actually same thing with the NFL -- YFL and high school sign up numbers for football are way down all over (except maybe TEXAS). These sports are going to find it difficult to sustain the large contract world they've been living in.