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In 2016, five of our players will take up $106 million in payroll. This does not count any possible Trout extension. Yikes!

Yeah nice piece, thanks for sharing Mancini....

FanGraphs posted a link to this website that graphically displays team payrolls (and individual player pay): http://mrphilroth.com/mlbpayrolls/ Kinda cool tool. Also reminds you that Hamilton will make $32 million per year in the last two years of his contract....

Glad to hear it went well! Sorry I wasn't able to attend the tailgate and the game! Next year I promise!

If you were to base your "who to keep and who goes" decision on 2013 peripheral numbers it becomes clear that Frieri, De La Rosa, Burnett, Coello, Brasier, and Roth would be the ones you'd consider keeping for next season. Williams would be appropriate in the long relief role if he re-signs at a reasonably priced contract (which is also a plus because he gives you an emergency starting pitching choice). Unfortunately players like Kohn and Jepsen are just not putting in the performances that show them as belonging on a MLB team. I'm sure they are really great guys but year after year they just don't quite seem to get to the level that we had hoped they would achieve. Even the ones above that you might consider keeping are mostly non-elite bullpen pitchers. They are all average to above average but they aren't quite at that upper echelon. We need to find another young, controllable bullpen arm that has really great stuff to compete for a late inning role with the likes of Frieri, De La Rosa, Burnett, and Coello next season. If we can obtain one high quality and one above average bullpen arm we would have a much better relief corps. If Frieri, De La Rosa, Coello, and Burnett were in the 6th/7th/8th inning roles it would go a long way towards shutting down our opponents.

Tdawg, the best part will be when we win that 14th game in a row and it pushes us out of a protected pick and the winning pitcher for that game will be Joe Blanton.

Storm if someone were crazy enough to claim Hamilton on revocable waivers we could simply dump the entire contract on that team. However the problem with Homebrewer's scenario is that Hamilton could invoke his no-trade clause and block it from happening in the first place.

Indentured servitude? I like where you're going with this....

Isn't he arbitration eligible this off season? More importantly would his salary go up and by how much if so? Also just one season? We don't really have the money to extend him if we are serious about offering Trout an extension.

The stat is HIP = Hindsight Independent Posting

1. Objectively re-evaluate the coaching staff and front office personnel to determine what is working and not working. 2. Acquire one or two young, cost-controlled starting pitchers by trading one or more of either Kendrick, Trumbo, or Bourjos. 3. Extend Mike Trout (for me I would prefer to see a record-breaking contract that keeps him an Angel for life). 4. Make the bullpen a priority and either acquire one or more young, cost-controlled arms through trade or spend on the free agent market. 5. Double down on the farm system and aggressively expand our international presence and scouting corps. Those appear to be the biggest priorities. None of us know what goes on in the clubhouse and although it appears as if S-C-I-O-S-C-I-A is on the chopping block, there may not be appealing options available to replace him. I think Dipoto stays at least one more season. All key office personnel and coaching staff should be evaluated fairly and objectively. Kendrick and Trumbo seem like the more likely candidates to be traded for a starting pitcher. I have always been a fan of Bourjos and as much as we all agree that Trout is a good center fielder I like the idea of letting Mike save his legs a bit (and his body!) by not having the CF workload possibly wear him down a tad. Let Peter race around out there if possible. No matter what we shouldn't sell low on any of them simply to get a pitcher. Any of those players would and should bring back a high quality starting pitching prospect that is MLB ready or near MLB ready. I have been a proponent of making Trout an offer that he couldn't possibly refuse. 20 years/$500 million. Not joking. Pay him $30+ million in his age 25-32 seasons (a mid-loaded contract, I just coined the term), lower to higher amounts in his age 22-24 seasons, and then higher to lower in his age 33-42 seasons. $16, $19, $20, $24, $30, $32, $35, $35, $35, $32, $30, $27, $25, $23, $22, $21, $20, $20, $17, $16 would be an example year by year outlay. Taking salary inflation into account and an average of $25 million per year is probably a team-friendly contract. No matter what, we need to, at the minimum, grab at least a couple of his free agent years.... that has to happen! Even if we lose Kendrick or Trumbo (or both) in trade for starting pitching the priority must be to acquire at least two more reliable bullpen arms. They can either be acquisitions as part of a Kendrick/Trumbo trade or free agent signings (the free agent market for relievers is decent this off season). If we can add at least one good young bullpen arm through trade and then 1-2 more free agent signings it would go a long way towards shoring up the poor performances that we experienced this year. The focus should be on relievers with good peripherals, poise, and good medical histories. One should be a good candidate for the closer role. Finally as part of Dipoto's rebuilding effort we should pour more money into the farm system, our international presence, and adding to our scouting department. I think Jerry is already doing this to a degree but more money spent up front should help create a postive impact later on down the line.

All I know is this: When I see Weaver as the starting pitcher on gameday I have a high degree of confidence that he will go out and compete as good as any pitcher in the league and give us a good chance to score a victory. He has never been a dominating velocity guy but what he has been is a very intelligent, crafty pitch artist with the ability to mix up speeds and location combined with pinpoint accuracy.

Yes you are correct that he was just drafted out of Baylor. You are also correct in your observation that he had to start somewhere in the system where the fundamentals are taught and he has done well. Scott is correct about the age compared to the level he is at. Normally that would not inspire confidence in the front office regarding a prospect's progression. However Scott is wrong to be a party pooper and assume that it means that Towey hasn't performed up to expectations. Cal has and should be given the chance to continue proving that at a higher level next year, perhaps getting to AA by the end of the season if he can show the poise and ability to start off the season. Some recent research posted in a previous thread discusses the higher success rate of younger players entering into MLB as they mature and develop under expert tutelage. That will be an obstacle for someone like Towey but not something insurmountable and he could still become a good player someday if he can replicate the success he had this year against more elite competition.

Exactly! It's not Pocket Seance you know.

You are a party pooper. It was just an observation, nothing more. It is Rookie and A+ ball for goodness sake. The point was that they could NOT be on the top of that list.

I was playing around with the FanGraphs leader board for hitters with enough qualified plate appearances for the 2013 season and, on the first page, we find two Angels players, Cal Towey ® and Zachary Borenstein (A+) near the top of the list with only three others directly above them: http://www.fangraphs.com/minorleaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=1&season=2013&team=0&players=0&sort=10%2cd Of course they are in the low Minors still, but that is a nice showing for the 2013 season. Both are left-handed hitting prospects and Borenstein has his own thread going in the Futures Forum (maybe one should start for Towey the 3B prospect?).

Chris Moneymaker doesn't look to happy about the sign as he realizes he is at the wrong World Series.

I think the one positive thing to read out of that transcript is that there appears to be a real interest in truly evaluating what went wrong and how it can and should be fixed. It seems like S-C-I-O-S-C-I-A is really in the hot seat. If he can't adequately defend his actions and his leadership of the team before the season ends he's toast. I think Dipoto will be given until the end of his contract (one more year) to prove himself. One of the most telling statements was Moreno's own comment about himself having to stare in the mirror and try to guess if he is making the right decision. Perhaps it is a self-evaluation?

Leaving Blanton and JC in also allows them to rest the arms that they might be keeping for next season to avoid possible injury issues. It also allows us to improve our loss record towards a better first round pick. Finally if either one had shown some ability to turnaround their performance it would have, *cough*, showcased themselves for August waivers (not going to happen now obviously). Frieri would be a possible trade piece as Dochalo suggested. He is heading towards higher arbitration salaries and it may not be cost-effective to keep him if he can be flipped for more cost-effective young talent. Everyone except Trout should be in play this offseason.

So this implies we should keep our current crop?

It looks like it represents them just fine AJ?

Nice stat line! Let's hope he continues to progress and work on bringing down his walk rate.

I probably wouldn't call it a surplus, I'd call it building depth. Who knows though, Dipoto might trade one of those away if he can.

While the season may be winding down for the Angels, AO is just hitting his stride!

Yes! Woot! Wisdom of the Crowds!