samwum

I completely agree and appreciate the way you stated this. Schanuel should be screwing around in AA, and trying to set the all-time walk record while falling asleep to Freddie Freeman clips in order to figure out by osmosis how to hit homers.

Really working against yourself when your big ticket veteran signings are basically nobodies. Drury was a career AAAA before one promising season then the Angels brought him on. Anderson was a #5 on really bad teams before one promising season then the Angels brought him on. Estevez was a middle of the bullpen guy and the Angels inexplicably gave him the contract and role of their closer. Stephenson was in and out of bullpens before one incredible half of baseball and then the Angels brought him on. Considering how Perry talks about bullshit like makeup and the clubhouse in basically every interview he does it's hilarious that all his veterans are guys that were scrubs for like 90% of their careers.

The peripherals in the MLB have really never been good. I'd also be pretty surprised for the Pirates of all teams to get rid of for free a young pitcher under team control. If there were literally anything promising with the player they probably would have found it and kept him. They're actually pretty good at developing pitchers.

Great writeup. They tanked like hell and had an awesome front office. They developed young players well with proprietary and esoteric advantages -- IE their pitching coach for much of the time Brent Strom is kind of known as a spin rate genius. Also the cheating thing is in there too lol -- if they were bold enough to do the trash cans thing, I bet they were on top of the sticky stuff with pitchers too. Lastly I think I needs to be emphasized that the Astros did more than draft and sign international prospects well -- they were fucking nails with the Alvarez, Verlander, and Cole deals along with more. They not only were great with prospects, but they swindled other teams too. You have to do both to actually get a dynasty type of thing going. This is why Perry in my mind is a lost cause -- even if you like the young guys he's drafted, he's been a total dipshit with major league player evaluation which is reflected in the big league club somehow getting worse every year he's been here. Fortunately for us, now their front office is in Baltimore and they have made some dumbass signings with Abreu and Hader. Reign of terror might finally be subsiding.

Oh good catch. I should have been more careful with that. I suppose Sandoval will be set to make $7mm-$10mm through arb next year. Probably a similar range to Ward and Rengifo who like Sandoval making ~$5mm this year.

I think you're pretty much spot on. Anyone on an expiring deal will surely be up for grabs. My only additional thought is it may be time to consider moving players who are getting up there in arbitration years. Many small budget teams each year reset by trading a player who has 1 or 2 years of arbitration left. We just saw it with Miami dealing Arraez and Tampa has done it many times with Chris Archer, Austin Meadows, or Tyler Glasnow. If you're "right" about the player's long term evaluation, you can pull off a massive win of a deal. Every year many "value surplus" focused teams like the Yankees or Twins make trades for rental players who via arbitration aren't being paid as much as they maybe should be. Alex Verdugo would be a prime example. This brings Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, Patrick Sandoval, and maybe Griffin Canning into play. If any of these guys aren't going to be worth a big deal in the future, they also become trade candidates. Sandoval is making $10mm this year -- arbitration isn't cheap. I don't know if Perry in the last year of his deal has the long term focus to be thinking about these sort of things, but a wise GM might try to maximize these guys' value before they actually become expiring free agents.

Huh. You're not wrong. That's shocking to me. Although his peripherals last year suggested he's more of a 4.00 ERA than the 3.25 ERA guy he was. I guess maybe we do know that Perry can't even properly evaluate the relievers he himself chooses to bring in.

Internet forums - where if you choose not to read the discussion before your own comment, the previous discussion does not exist!

Appreciate the thought and research you put into this post. Have seem the Griffey comp a lot over the past couple days and it feels very real. I really wonder if the best scenario for the rest of Trout's career is moving him to LF, on a team where he doesn't put all the pressure on himself as the main/only big dog, and telling him to chill the fuck out and not try to carry the team. Like a Manny Ramirez playing #2 or #3 to David Ortiz, or whoever else those Sox teams had. I'm actually glad we have Adell because as frustrating as he is sometimes, he has that level of potential where he could become such a star it takes some spotlight off Trout. We just need more guys. Trout can't be the guy.

Perry's first and only call was to the Braves. He is trying to keep a good relationship with his former boss in case he gets let go by the Angels at the end of the year. (Sarcasm) (Maybe)

Riiighttt... you're absolutely right in premise but.... This is a guy who is 30 years old, has 3-4 more years of team control, an option remaining, and put up a 2.48 ERA in 2022. You sure you can't get a player back for that if you talk to the right people at the right time? I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it and its could've/would've/should've but....... ya could've.

This one is actually really interesting. Perry has shipped off a lot of AAAA young relievers with team control, and although Hoby Milner somehow ended up turning into maybe the best LH reliever in the league last year, not many of the others have really turned into anything we're really missing out on. Packy Naughton, Oliver Ortega, and Austin Warren would be the main guys I'm thinking of. Before Herget, all those AAAA young reliever castoffs were Eppler guys, so you kind of figure a new regime would shake things up anyways. Herget might represent the first and only young and team controlled reliever found by Perry who had legitimate success in the majors, stayed in the system for multiple years, and ended up getting DFA'd. Jacob Webb was another nice find by Perry and a regrettable DFA, but Webb unlike Herget was only with the organization for a couple months so maybe Perry just didn't have enough time to see his potential. Recent memory of Herget, also formerly doing business as "The Slim Reaper", is less favorable since 2023 when he got nuked for a 2.17 HR/9 and 4.66 ERA. But in 2021 and 2022, Herget had outstanding peripherals, and in 2022 he was the best reliever in the organization with a 2.48 ERA. He also has least 3 more years of team control and 1 option. So to me at least, this Herget thing is the first time we can fairly see an entire lifecycle and evaluate Perry's ability to find a young and team controlled reliever, squeeze juice out of them for good production, and then appropriately know when to move on. Will be interesting to see what happens. It is absolutely unconventional to DFA a pitcher who has had significant recent MLB success and team control while there are several pitchers on the 40 man with either no team control, or no proven MLB success. Either way, I'm rooting for the Slim Jim and those goggles in his future endeavors.

The money analogy is crazy to me considering this is one of the more expensive bullpens in baseball.

It's been 4 years and Perry hasn't developed one useful reliever who is under long term team control. That is just an insane level of atrophy to the bottom and middle level of your roster.

You might be right, either way I completely agree with you.

Yeah you're exactly right to bring this up, although I think Cimber has one more year of arbitration. Perry's inability to utilize fringe prospects and young players under team control in depth and low leverage situations is killing the organization. You have to have an Andrew Wantz or Austin Warren or Oliver Ortega getting Hunter Strickland's low leverage 6th inning outings. This isn't negotiable in team building. Nobody else is doing this shit that the Angels are. The lower level of the roster has to have guys who are working on moving to the middle or top level of your roster. This bullpen has absolutely 0 long term upside, and its currently in about as bad of shape as you can imagine. It's just a disaster and completely symbolizes why the Angels have gotten worse every year with Perry.

Gotta wash the hands. Don't need to give the fans a daily reminder Hicks stunk as the offseason's 4th OF solution, and at one point the Angels batted him in the meat of the order as if he might be a key contributor or something. You're right in that the results between Pillar and Hicks almost certainly would've done the same, they are just scrambling to manage PR.

s/o the marine layer for that one, lol

Really curious how Estevez fairs this season. Historically he has a massive BB problem which is interesting given the coaching staff's emphasis on first pitch strikes. This year so far, Estevez has been great with walks and fantastic overall.

Oakland.

Cmon, give him something low in the zone and offspeed.

Yeah you're absolutely right. I know for a fact that teams right now are looking at stuff like the degrees and angles a pitcher's arm moves at, the degrees and angles a batter's bat approaches the plate, and I'm sure much more.

Yea yea... I'm just kidding. I'll play ball and pretend with you that he's not another Phil Gosselin/Tyler Wade/Jack Mayfield.

Oh great. Cole Tucker just locked himself in for 2 more months of the worst ABs imaginable.

Sacrifice bunt with our #5 hitter in the 6th inning? In April? C'mon dude.