ettin

This reminds me of the good 'ol days when we'd sit outside the club sharing some alcohol we bought at the store and then went inside and downed a bunch of super cheap drink specials (Kamikazi's and what-not).

"No.... now it ends."

The Los Angeles Hack Saws.

So, I think it is Arte's time to leave, but I wonder if MLB is suggesting to him to do so, based on some of his potential legal troubles. Beyond that we should be careful of what we wish for, the grass is not always greener on the other side of the hill. That all being said, I hope that we get a good owner who maintains high levels of payroll, as Arte did, and extends Shohei Ohtani and puts the proper infrastructure and tender loving care this organization needs from top to bottom.

And this is part of the reason why I think the Angels, after they extend Ohtani, should consider giving Sandoval a deal of his own if they can manage it in the payroll. He's got real talent and is a competitive player on the mound which is what this team needs.

Gee Re(co)n, whatever do you mean?

Ohtani must be the priority, but outside of him Sandoval would be a possibility in my book if we have the payroll bandwidth.

So, speaking in terms of 2023, if a majority of the teams in the A.L. West are in a relative close grouping of projected wins, then Division parity becomes a real thing where even if our team isn't seen as the clear Division leader, we have a real shot at making the playoffs, because each team has a roughly equivalent ability to win against a Division rival at any particular time. Thus wins are distributed more evenly (hypothetically) among those Division rivals, creating the aforementioned parity and ability to sneak into the playoffs. It would be a different matter if, say, the Astros were projected to win 95 games and the rest of the field was 85 wins and below. As a matter of fact the Astros are projected to finish over 100 games won this year, so this may be an issue in 2023, but the point is looking at where you are on the win curve, as well as your Division rivals, whom you will play against more, is an input into the calculus equation of determining how deep you want to commit and go in on a season. Other factors like your player depth, farm system, financials, etc, obviously factor in, too, but each team has to make that dynamic decision on how they want to approach any individual season, as well as where they are at approaching, or in, a potential (or not) window of contention. Same decisions are made approaching the Trade Deadline each year, as well. To answer the question more specifically, I believe that if the Angels can improve in 2023-2026 timeframe, we have a more legitimate chance to compete. After that stars like Trout and possibly Ohtani if we extend him, may begin to decline in a more significant manner, which may hurt the team overall. This of course is discounting what our farm system produces and what trades and free agent signings we may make to potentially keep that window of contention open, longer, but near term is where we need to make our investment. If Trout goes down or Ohtani does not sign an extension, this ship will get a lot more bumpy and a lot more uncertain in my opinion.

Just re-watched that first season last week!

Leave this to the professionals, Doc.

Bad take on Hudler, I'd easily take him back. Physioc not so much.

That is an interesting team, right there.

Valentine definitely has the background, no doubt, but I personally don't care for his slow-speaking analysis, it bothers me for some reason.

The arbitration decision will be based on performance. They will likely take the total number of games and innings pitched and then take his total number of plate appearances and production over those at-bat's and come up with a hybrid number that summates the total production. So it will be some fraction of his pitching and hitting added together and it will probably be a significant, probably record-breaking number. He will get credit for all of his performance, in all likelihood. Of course it may not matter once the Angels extend or, much, much less likely, trade him.

I am sure Patrick O'Neal is a good human being, but he does not belong in the play-by-play booth based on what I have heard from him this season. What invariably happens a lot is that Gubicza says something and O'Neal simply repeats it or regurgitates it in a slightly different way. He doesn't bring a lot of original commentary and that is because he is inexperienced in play-by-play and total baseball experience. Mark was a player and his ability to dissect the game, particularly on the pitching side, allows him to add value in this role. Matty V can add to the broadcast too but if he isn't in a full time role, I don't want him in the booth, either. We had a decent thing going with Rojas and Gubicza, so if we can find the right partner for Mark that can interact with him, not dissimilar to Victor, and make good calls and commentary, bring them aboard. This play-by-play situation needs to be solved and I don't think O'Neal and Matty V are the solutions.

Out of 2022 starters with a minimum of 50 IP, Ray ranks 71st out of 150 pitchers in terms of ERA. https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=sta&lg=all&qual=50&type=8&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31&sort=17,a&page=3_30

So the Angels control Stassi for the next three seasons (2023-2025). The 2025 season is a team option. According to Roster Resource, Wallach and Thaiss both have one option remaining, which, if correct, means that 2023 is the last season either one of them can stay in the Minors. Wallach is more defense-oriented, while Thaiss is more offense-oriented. I should note that it says 1 option for each of them, currently, but those may be gone by the end of 2022, I always forget how they calculate it on Roster Resource. One other important detail is that Wallach appears to have 2 years, 152 days of service time which probably means he is arbitration eligible as a Super-Two player. That will probably lead the Angels to non-tender him this offseason. Thaiss, too, is at 0 years, 162 days of service time, which means, he too, could become a Super-Two player if the Angels keep him up all of 2023 and 2024. Realistically, I don't think Wallach has much of a future with the Angels, since his offense is pretty poor. The Angels would probably prefer the Stassi-Thaiss combination for the near-future since they have opposite-side bats and putting Matt in the backup role would allow his bat to play off the bench and, if Walsh is on the IL, could backup 1B. Jettisoning Wallach (or maybe they kick Thaiss out, who knows) would allow the Angels to inexpensively move Thaiss up to the Majors to pair with Max and then they could add O'Hoppe to the 40-man, which is marked as Dec 2022 by Roster Resource so it seems like this is the likely outcome.

It would be the write thing to do as well.

That would be the lead recommendation.

Only if you use a #2 pencil.

Probably depends on the individual, but the glass half-full angle would point out that at least 3 teams wanted him on their 40-man roster, too, instead of simply DFA'ing him down immediately, hoping to stash him in the Minors.

Did Jared from Subway hijack @tdawg87's account? Or is he floating in a raft in your pool with people making comments that he is 'kind of creepy'?

The goal, each and every year, should be to win a World Series Championship. Doc is correct, because to that end the Angels need to choose: 1) Use the two once-in-a-lifetime player's they have now and go all in by using all of their useful prospect capital to improve the Major League team or 2) implode the entire roster and reboot. Some will make comments about trading Ohtani, but that is shooting yourself in your face to spite your foot. We need ace-caliber pitchers, so we shouldn't be dealing one away. We need impact hitters, so we shouldn't be trading one away. No one is at Ohtani's caliber that we could get back by trading him. So it really is put up or shut up time for the Halos.

My first thought was that was Brandon Marsh, lol. EDIT: Clearly I wasn't the only one, from the above, ha!

Sloppy second's only, Doc.