HBAngel13

Early John Lackey and Detmers are eerily similar. Lackey was plagued by the “big inning” before he made the adjustment and became the front line guy we remember. I’m hoping that Detmers can make a similar adjustment, but my fear is that we don’t have the player development apparatus to help him reach his full potential. The talent is there…

I have totally soured on Rendon BECAUSE he is productive when in the lineup, even at a seemingly reduced capacity. Unfortunately, he rarely IS in the lineup. Therein lies the problem. Because of the financial commitment to Rendon the Angels are forced to manage around him, thereby clogging up a roster spot for a player who’ can’t regularly take the field even when he is on the active roster. We have seen multiple instances this year where Rendon couldn’t play for a couple days and/or extended stretches yet the club refused to put him on the IL. Essentially the club was forced to play short handed in that span. It’s tough to quantify the actual W/L impact to the club, but suffice to say playing short handed does not put the odds in one’s favor. Furthermore, if Rendon reports to spring training 2024 “healthy”, the Angels will be grossly negligent if they dont roster two other players who can provide depth - one player to take the full time reps and a second player who could cover multiple positions. If Ohtani walks and they reserve the DH slot for Rendon, that will go a long way to ameliorating the roster problem. I fully agree that even a diminished Rendon inexplicably makes the lineup function better when he is in there. Unfortunately that benefit isn’t great enough to offset the handicaps and strain he places on the active roster. My frustration comes from the unwillingness of the team to part ways due to the financial commitment. I certainly understand the “why”, I just don’t like it.

The biggest risk of losing this year is a potential Minasian firing. He is far and away the best GM since Stoneman. He is probably better, but Stoneman gets major credit for 2002. I think Perry represents a perfect balance between analytics and traditional evaluation. If given free reign over baseball ops and player development, I believe he can set us up for an extended window of future success Tar and feather me for this, but I would prefer to retain Minasian over Ohtani

My take on necessary offseason changes: Thorough examination of medical and training staff. Maybe it’s just a fluke, but it seems like everyone is getting hurt - young and old. We have seen enough of this over multiple seasons to believe there is something fundamentally wrong. Part ways with Matt Wise. There have been several high profile examples of players going to MILB and getting the proper adjustments. Detmers should have taken steps forward in 2023 but has regressed. I feel like if he was in the Dodgers/Rays org he would already be an all star. Part ways with Marcus Thames. The offense has been good, but the approach is beyond frustrating. Too many Ks, bad situational hitting, hitting with RISP, watching pitches in the zone for called strikes and flailing at pitches outside the zone. Part ways with Phil Nevin. This one is tougher because he does bring an intensity that has been lackingin the past. However, a managers main ability to affect the game is bullpen management. There have been many instances where he has been outmaneuvered or made inexplicable choices. Maybe he is handcuffed by Tamin? Hard to say for sure, but he was a placeholder from when the team was up for sale. Find a way to reduce the strikeouts. This could be a combination of new personnel and/or a revamped approach. A little more contact would go a long way. I really like what Perry has done overall. Not everything has worked, but most of his moves were good, calculated bets. He also has made some shrewd trades. It would have been interesting to see what he could have pried loose for Ohtani. Unless Arte decides to sell, he is going to have his work cut out for him again this offseason. He is one of the few reasons I still have some optimism beyond 2023…

I can’t foresee anyone we gave up making a material difference for future teams. At some point you have to take your shot and this season is likely the best chance they will have for awhile if Ohtani walks. No Ohtani in 2024 means you can either a) use the $30m saved to try and patch the roster via free agency and compete or, b) sell off guys like Estevez, Drury and Ward (?) to help restock the farm and try to do a soft reboot with an eye toward 2025/2026. As someone mentioned above, NOT getting Ohtani may be the best thing We have a good young nucleus with Neto, O’Hoppe, Moniak, Sandoval, Detmers and hopefully Schanuel/Adell. All these guys have 3-5 yrs of control. Plus we have Trout for better or worse. Rendon is dead money but only for three more years and is likely off the roster by 2025 if he continues as he has. Perry needs to continue drafting well, bolster player development and refrain from any more long-term dead money deals. However with so many cost controlled young players, I would like to see him use the payroll availability over the next two years to “buy” prospects by taking on other teams short term dead money. A complicated situation for sure, but I don’t think it’s armeggdon. When we were in this situation with Dipoto we didn’t have the young MLB talent like we do now

Absolutely heartbreaking. I have been reading Lou’s posts for the last 20 years. All the prayers for him and his family. I am very thankful that he has true hope beyond whatever this life holds. As for all the wonderful things you said about him, I only have two words - I AGREE

Totally fair.... However I dont see any of the guys we parted with moving the needle either individually or collectively in 2024/2025 over and above what we already have. Quero and Bush hurt the most, but O'Hoppe's presence eases that quite a bit. If Ohtani resigns, I am going to... ahem... "trust" that it will include other signings to backfill areas of need and that Perry continues to draft well and overhaul coaching/player development. We have a good core at premium positions (C, SS, CF, LF) with potential upside players in Schanuel and Adell at 1B and RF. Pitching is always a need, but we are ok in the rotation if Ohtani is in the fold. What we will be missing is the depth from MILB. Perry may need to buy that for the next couple years.

Perry has excelled in 2023 at increasing depth, backfilling for injuries AND maintaining positional flexibility. We have a ton of guys that can play multiple positions. Pretty impressive all things considered

I cant remember the last time we brought in a front end starter, solid reliever and two starting position players at the deadline. Not to mention Moose and Escobar. Has anything like that ever happened? Biggest deadline moves I remember were Grienke, Texiera, and Jim Abbott (we should have dealt Greene for Cone in 1995 instead). Far be it from me to ever give Reagins any credit but I loved that Tex deal, especially since the comp pick netted us Trout. Edit - forgot about Haren

That feels like a massive overpay. I like Cease, but I would not do that deal. Subtracting two starters that are impacting the MLB roster is too much IMO

Astros are now the team to beat in the West (if they werent already). Even with Scherzer and Montgomery, it wouldnt completely shock me if the Rangers come in third and perhaps miss the postseason entirely. Most of their starting staff were on pace for career high workloads.

Canning and Flaherty have performed comparably on an ERA standpoint with Canning having the edge in WHIP. That said, if we feel that Canning may wear out in the stretch, your point is well taken. Flaherty may play up with a contender and being back at home. Plus, we have a second local boy on an expiring contract that will surely be interested at the idea of playing for the hometown crowd beyond 2023 I wasnt familiar with Gallegos previously and the ERA isnt sparkling, but I do like the WHIP and he doesnt appear to be beating himself with the walks. My quick Googling shows him in the mid-90's. Contreras' ability to catch and play 1B plus his onerous contract are the big draws for me in that we can essentially buy Flaherty and/or Gallegos by taking on Contreras. Not sure what you do with him after Schanuel arrives. Perhaps a platoon at 1B on the days he isnt catching. That probably increases the necessity of a 3rd catcher? Contreras made sense when coupled with Goldy, but less so for Flaherty/Gallegos in my view...

Not sure that Flaherty is a big enough upgrade over Canning to give up all that control. I still like Bachman and he has already shown he can hold his own in MLB, but the injuries are concerning. Layering in Contreras is interesting if it allows us to keep Bachman out of the deal.

Canning - 2 years of control Sandoval - 3 year of control If we could somehow parlay Canning into a Verlander or a Snell/Hader deal, that would be incredibly tempting. Love what Griffin has done this year, but I am very wary of his injury history. Perhaps he is the guy to sell high on...

Sandoval scheduled to start today which probably makes the chances of a blockbuster deal even more remote

Jordyn Adams was the name that sprang immediately to mind. Adell is out there as well, but I would prefer to keep him especially with Wards uncertainty going forward. Verlander would also serve the dual purpose of enticement for Shohei to stay AND providing insurance if he walks. If they ante’d up for Verlander, I would look to frontload the Shohei offer with an opt out after year 3. Assuming health, the frontloaded salary would be designed to virtually guarantee an opt out. Gives them a three year window for Ohtanis peak years and allows them to almost completely reset if things go south by timing the opt out with the end of Rendons contract. By that point, Arte will likely be selling if he hadn’t already.

I would be hesitant to trade Sandoval period, but in this win-now mode, him and/or canning might be our biggest chips to bring back something significant. I’m having a hard time envisioning what a Verlander package would look like? I would imagine it would include cash coming back our way. Maybe it could be an opportunity to give Eppler back some of his own draftees? Maybe include Fletcher?

I was wondering about a Sandoval+ trade for Snell and Hader. Verlander would be fantastic for this year, but that contract scares me.

Would love if Joyce makes his way back. He could be a major weapon in a playoff series. That said, I feel like his arm could detach from his torso on any given pitch. What’s the word on Bachman? Add these two back to the BP depth chart and we could have something special.

Don’t want to be overly dramatic, but this feels like the biggest win of the year. New additions pay dividends immediately and a huge performance from the pitchers on a day that Moore and Estevez weren’t available. Hopefully we can steal this series It feels great to be playing meaningful baseball!

“When Cortez reached the new world, he burned his ships. As a result, his men were well motivated. Personally I give us…. 1 chance in 3” — Sean Connery as Marko Ramius in Hunt for Red October Angels have committed to 2023. Today’s win should silence any rumors of a last minute sell off. That said, we need more help. What would you do in the next two days to boost this club? I would go bold and look hard at a Goldy/Contreras deal. Take all the money to limit the prospect return. With Ward out indefinitely and Neto in and out, we need some spark in this lineup.

Thankful for todays win! We are still breathing and hopefully Perry brings in some reinforcements in the next 1-2 days. That said we were only 1-11 with RISP today and a baffling 1-28 on the series. That HAS to change…

I was excited to see the team commit to a course of action by pushing the chips in for Giolito. The worse thing they could have done was nothing (or effectively nothing by making some marginal improvements). It’s a long shot for sure, but we haven’t played meaningful Aug/Sept baseball in close to a decade. If it backfires, it’s a likely tear down scenario anyway I would have been more excited if they would have traded Ohtani and sold off the non-core guys like Estevez, Drury, Moore, etc… That would have been the best overall franchise move, but I think we all understand why they didn’t pull that trigger I may not have chose the win-now path, but I definitely didn’t want them to sit in the middle and do nothing. I can at least respect them trying to win now, even if it feels like a Hail Mary Let’s hope they get the last game tomorrow. The DET sweep gave them some slight margin for error. We just need to consistently win 2 of 3. A win tomorrow accomplishes that over the last 9 games.

25 game stretch against winning teams update: 0-2 record 0 for 17 with runners in scoring position 29 of the 54 batting outs by K Ward likely out for the year Ohtani has cramps Escobar Rendoned himself Neto can’t play Loup turns back into a pumpkin Did I miss anything?

If Angels really want to go “all-in” go get Goldschmidt and Contreras from the Cardinals. Take back Wilson Contreras contract in the deal (signed for 4 years after this one) You may remember the Angels pursuing him in free agency so we know Perry likes him Contreras would shore up catcher (looking at you Strad!) and can also play some 1B. He would be a valuable pinch hitter on days he isn’t starting. Goldy locks down first and Moose/Escobar handle 3B Contreras contract makes it a negative value deal per the simulator. Ship them Fletcher and a couple decent but lower level prospects that are 2-3 years away This would push payroll into the stratosphere, but it would be the very definition of an all-in move. Plus Goldy would give them some offensive insurance if Ohtani walks.