CartiHalos

This was certainly one of the moves that the Angels could make.

Very fair assessment. Ideally I wouldn't give him 4 years but that's what the rules I set has him at. My only fear is having to rely on Garcia or Kolarek in high leverage situations.

Still put up a Sub 4 ERA and a 3.5 FIP. Not sure why half a season would label him as a mistake, especially when he's been, pretty consistently, well above average since 2018 including in 2023.

Remembered seeing the headline that "Red Sox exploring trades involving outfielders" and didn't realize they were trying to trade THEIR outfielders, haha. Definitely wouldn't work. Could see Marlins, especially if they're trying to move on from Sanchez.

I can get behind that, I'm just big on Stephenson because his peripherals make him look built to have a pretty solid stretch. I'm good for just about any form of bullpen that isn't the one we currently have. I'd also add that Matt Moore essentially only had one good year as a reliever when we signed him, but he was outstanding last year and you're willing to sign him again. I think Loup and Tepera were the problems, less their contracts.

Agree Grissom was blocked, I'm just not very big on Kelenic's ability to produce long-term. Sale was good last year, but still only pitched like 100 innings and he's still aging. I guess it's just a collection of players I'm big on (AJSS, Grissom) and players I'm not (Sale, Kelenic), but I'm not an exec so I might just be letting my biases show.

If I were Perry, and we lived in a perfect world: (Assuming I've got ~60M to spend, using MLBTR Contract Projections and Baseball Trade Values Simulator) Get Blake Snell for 7 - 200M (31.5M Left) Taylor Ward to the Red Sox for Kutter Crawford and Yordanny Monegro (Back to ~35M) Get Robert Stephenson for 4 - 36M (26M Left) Get Tommy Pham for 1 - 8M (18M Left) Get Gio Urshela for 2 - 20M (8M Left) ~8M left to round out depth or whatever.

Lost Grissom, which I think about as big of a loss as Kelenic is a gain. Sale is fine, if he can stay healthy, but far from the ace he was, I might prefer Smith-Shawver in the rotation. The bullpen help is relevant though. They're better but not as much better as they should be given how many moves they've made.

I get the sentiment, but you can't plan your team around Rendon getting hurt. Is it likely? Yeah. But you can't plan on it. I like the idea of him being a primary DH but I just don't think that will be the direction the team goes. To be honest I think it's an underpay. I don't really see a reason for Paredes to move anyways. As for the lefties... I see how that's a concern for people but I really don't think it's a problem. At least not a big enough one to make a trade for the sole purpose of getting rid of one.

This just doesn't make a ton of sense to me... he's really good but doesn't fill any of our holes and not sure why we'd trade a pitcher for it.

Janikowski can be a backup utility guy, but if we're planning on trotting him out as our everyday right fielder there's serious problems.

I've been here for a little but never technically introduced myself, so... My name is Carter, I'm just about 19, I love the Angels specifically but I eat, sleep, and breathe baseball (and sports in general). Grew up in Orange County, now I go to Utah Valley University and I'm studying Comp. Data Science, with the eventual dream of working in an MLB front office. I'm big on sabermetrics and have very strong opinions. Prior to Angelswin I spent a lot of my time arguing with people on Twitter, so feel free to follow me there if you want to see that @cartihalos. I also tweet occasionally about my other teams, the Jazz (ouch), the AZ Cardinals (yeowch), and the Golden Knights.

Merry Christmas Chuck + Everybody! I'm super happy to be back in the OC for the holidays (a lot warmer than Utah), and my dad is cooking up some steaks for us tonight. I got some cool clothes (including a baby blue Angels hat and my first hockey jersey - go Knights!) and a couple baseball books like The Book by Tom Tango and Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnaski. Thankful for family, friends, life, and, as hard as it is sometimes, the halos this holiday!

If we're throwing out guesses, I'll say he gets 3/$55M with no option.

I mean, he's similar to Renfroe play style wise, but with elite offensive history and his 2023 was much better than Renfroes. They shouldn't cost the same price.

I agree, it feels like the kind of thing we've tried out a million times and has never worked. Kepler would be great.

While I agree the K's are a problem, and the lack of walks is maybe an even bigger problem, he has had great offensive seasons in spite of those things (his wOBA numbers from 2020-2022 were excellent). For $15M, there are a lot worse options. When you start paying him 18 or more, or giving him the 4th year I tap out. I disagree very much on Adell. The quality of contact has never been there for Adell to expect him to put up a .435 slugging% or a .178 ISO over a full season like Teo did. Also, Adells strikeout/walk problems are just as bad.

He's Hunter Renfroe with better peripherals, 12 higher OPS+, and not coming off an abysmal year. I think the hardest thing for him to get will be the 4th year, but he'll almost certainly get between 15-20 AAV (my guess is the higher end.)

NYY have way too many Catchers (including Austin Wells who's basically better Thaiss) and also have 2 bench bats that hit from the left side. Also if they were in the market for a backup 1B (despite DJ being able to play there) I would guess they would want a righty.

This was so affordable, and we are probably going to end up with Teoscar who they let walk for like 80 million.

Agree there's value, just not sure how much. I expect if there's a deal specifically with him, people will be disappointed with the return.

I actually figured he did it with us, too, but I might just be confusing him as an innings eater because he reminds me of Mike Leake. Regardless, I'd take his production from either of his 2 full years as a starter on a 1 or 2 year deal still.

I think giving Montas a 1 year prove it deal is very low risk and he's been outstanding in the past, Lorenzen is a near guaranteed 150 innings, Jakob Junis is a great pitcher but probably a little bit riskier of an option, and even a guy like Kluber or Paxton I'd be okay with (although I'd prefer a righty.)

With Yamamoto off the board, I think we'll see the starting pitching market pick up quickly. The Angels look poised to be right in the mix of things, with their eyes presumably set on one of the top 3 free agent starting pitchers - Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, and Shota Imanaga - whom I have lovingly dubbed The 3 Lefties. The gap between these 3 and the next best starter (Giolito...) is pretty large, so if we're gonna be hunting for a pitcher, I hope it's one of them. I'm gonna give my arguments for and against each, then reveal in order who I'd want. Blake Snell Pros Full disclosure, I really like Snell. I'd be willing to go up to 7 years to get him. I think his profile is probably the best case scenario for our first 5+ year pitching contract since, if I remember correctly, CJ Wilson. He strikes me as a player who's built for longevity - he misses lots of bats and gets K's but doesn't rely on an incredibly high velo fastball to do so. He also has ace potential, something I definitely want out of a long term pitcher. A big criticism he gets is his "2 good seasons," but realistically his floor is pretty high. His only truly bad season was 2021, his first year in San Diego. He's not a Cy Young contender yearly, but there's a pretty unusual and interesting reason why that I'll get into more in the cons. Cons Obviously, cost. He'll likely cost more that the other 2, but like I said I'd rather go in on a signing than half ass a commitment. Besides his oft-pointed to lack of IP, Snell's major drawbacks are 1. His BB%, 2. His Barrel% and 3. 'Losing Pitches'. A lot of his issues are tangled together - he throws more pitches, leading to less innings, more walks, and more hitters counts (which means more barrels) because he can struggle with control. Besides that, he sometimes 'loses pitches' from year to year, which it really weird. In 2016 and 2017, he had a killer offspeed, but a pretty middling fastball and breaking ball. 2019 and 2021 he had a strong fastball, but a weak offspeed. In 2020, he had an incredible offspeed and breaking ball, but a weak fastball. Finally, 2022 Snell had a great fastball and breaking ball, but a bad offspeed. He's only had his whole arsenal firing for 2 years in his career, and I'll let you piece together which ones those were. Jordan Montgomery Pros Don't have to look far. Just look at what he did for the Rangers during their World Series run this postseason. Unlike Snell, he controls walks well, and throws more innings per year thus far, and has been okay at deterring hard contact as of late. He's also cheaper than Snell, but likely more expensive than Imanaga, and about to turn 31, putting him in the middle age wise as well. Cons His peripherals are, simply, unimpressive. Unlike Snell, he controls walks well, but also unlike snell, he doesn't get lots of strikeouts. He gets lots of groundballs, but the elite groundball pitchers usually have far lower barrel and hard hit rates than Montgomery does. I also doubt it will be a significant price decrease, and, in the simplest terms, Montgomery has a lower floor and a lower ceiling than Snell does. Shōta Imanaga Pros If you wanna look at stats for stats, Imanaga's are the best. He's been dominant in Japan, and a career ERA of 2.96 speaks for itself. He relies heavily on his wicked breaking balls and offspeed, because even though his fastball has good spin, the velo isn't there. In the World Baseball Classic he had the best Stuff+ out of any pitcher, beating his teammate (and new Dodger) Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Despite his lack of velocity, he controls speed well, with his fastball around 90 MPH, an 85 MPH splitter, 85ish MPH cutter, 73 MPH curve, and an 80 MPH changeup. He's also the youngest and the cheapest, which may appeal to the Angels who need a lot of help. Cons He gives up lots of homers, gets hit hard on occasion, and is unproven on an MLB level. My simplest criticism is that his floor could be long relief and his ceiling is a 2-3 pitcher. I do like him, though. P.S. If you've never watched him before, you'll be shocked how similar his delivery is to Tyler Anderson. It's crazy. My final verdict is I want Snell the most, then Imanaga, then Montgomery. I think money spent is money spent, so if you're spending money I want upside, and I want the best chance for sustained success. I think Snell gives us that the most, and I really think he's a top tier starting pitcher in the league. Who would you guys want? Any of these 3? Giolito? No-one? Let me know.

1. Hard agree on Snell. He has ace stuff with some inconsistency but really not as bad as a lot of people think. 2. I think this would never happen, both because the Angels wouldn't seek this out and I think you're overvaluing Drury. I think the max package Preller would give up would be MAYBE Cronenworth + Mazur, and Maybe $3-5M, and I think the Angels wouldn't see the merit in picking up another contract like that for a position player, especially when Drury fit so well last year. 3. Like the short term option, but don't love Clevinger. He's already had a drop in numbers and will likely drop even harder faster with his elbow, and I think your estimates a little low (I'd guess he ends up around 13-15 AAV). I'd prefer someone like Lorenzen, Montas, or Junis. 4. Love it, Love it, Love it. I'd probably prefer Stephenson to Hicks but any attempts to improve the bullpen are steps in the right direction, IMO. I still think an outfielder and a 5th infielder would be nice, but I like the ideas. Anythings better than doing nothing and stretching our thin farm even thinner by rushing young guys up.