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You missed a great opportunity Vladdy: The ArtE of WAR. Good one though!

"Quit Monkeying Around: The Angels 2013 Play Is Off Season"

I disagree. If Arte doesn't just want to throw Mike's contract down the toilet he will try to trade him and could probably find a suitor. It wouldn't surprise me to see this linger on for a while if they are serious about a trade. However if they are serious about just dumping him then yes you are correct.

The baseball season ending is always a precursor to Winter and the combination gets me down a bit.... Hopefully the Winter will pass and we can look forward to a great 2014 season!

I think this would be a mistake.

You should really lay off the crack cocaine. Keep trolling pimp. I liked you better in your old, variety avatar days..... that was your most useful contribution.

That was incredibly morbid.

Let's put it in different terms: Scarcity. The odds of finding a consistent 10 WAR player are pretty astronomical. You could replace him with say 3 3-WAR players but wouldn't it be best to keep your 10-WAR player and attempt to acquire or fill in positions around him with average to above average players (0-2 WAR players who are not nearly as scarce as even a 3-WAR player and can be found readily throughout the league)? The other problem is now you have to pay three 3-WAR players versus just the one. Of course long-term that actually might turn out to be more affordable if you have to offer extensions to all of them (the 10-WAR player will have a huge contract obviously). To me Trout is the rarest of all diamonds. He is irreplaceable and that just makes his value so high that I don't think any team could really provide enough trade value in return for him, making the conversation sort of moot from my perspective, at least right now. Finding high production players (Over 2 WAR types) is not easy and the more productive they are, the rarer they become.

I agree with you in principal on this and the FO should do everything it possibly can to make this happen. However what if Mike doesn't want to play here long term? There will be nothing the FO can do to stop that. Either way I won't stop being an Angels fan and I really do hope they keep Trout here forever, as he is a once in a generation talent, but if he wants to be somewhere else that is probably not going to be the FO's fault.

I like the first sentence where Glen has accurately predicted the state of Angels baseball for the next 90 years! Nice article Glen!

Who is Patsy Cline?

As far as the Rockies go Jonathan Gray is another interesting prospect.

Wow you really must believe it is impossible then?

Cano is smoking crack if he thinks he'll beat A-Rod's contract in my opinion. Frankly I will be surprised if a team goes more than $200 million. He is an aging player who will probably hit a deep decline in the next 2-3 years.

They have some interesting options in A ball but not much near-MLB ready which is what we need. There are better trade partners out there with better pitching. However if we trade for position players that might be a different story. Eddie Butler is an option at AA. Jesse Meaux, Rayan Gonzalez and Trent Blank are deeper A ball sleepers.

Fixed per AJ.

I assume you meant asteroid but it is amusing in an entirely different way.

The thing I have been noticing is a real lack of substantive commentary from Jerry Dipoto lately. It really feels like a decision has been made to either a) Keep both Dipoto and Scioscia or b ) Fire Dipoto only. I really feel Dipoto should be given another chance so if that means sticking with Scioscia again so be it. Not my favorite option but alas it is not my decision.

Stop this you have been making too much sense lately.

Fixed.

This is why I think he would be good in a 7th or 8th inning role. There are times where the opponent's offense gets locked in against our starters and having him come on earlier in relief could really shake a batter's confidence when he sees what looks like a fastball suddenly has a massive downward break.

Well quite frankly with a title like that you'd expect it to cover Mike Trout and Peter Bourjos.

If you were watching the tail end of last night's game you may have noticed Reddick hitting a towering high fly ball to right field. As Kole sat at the warning track waiting for it, shuffling his feel slightly, Victor Rojas said: "Kole gingerly moves to catch the ball." Oh Victor!

Article on Coello's Forkball: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/robert-coellos-fastball-is-thankful-for-his-forkleball/ I really think that Coello has a great shot in a late inning bullpen role next season. Although I see him more in a 7th or 8th inning setup role he could even be a closer-type in a pinch. It really feels like we are a trade and free agent signing away from having a much better and reliable bullpen.

There is a real lack of Dipoto quotes in that article. S-C-I-O-S-C-I-A seems to have grand plans....