Yellow Balloon

You must be new here, sir.

Glad to see people have come to understand the postseason is a crapshoot. 
Back when the Angels were a well run franchise that always was in contention the fans base couldn't stop bitching about the GM that wouldn't make big trades or the owner that wouldn't spend with the big boys, because "that" was what was keeping them from returning to the WS.
Bitch less about the lack of flashy moves, bitch more about the lack of vision.  I truly believe Arte's desire to give the fans what they wanted has set the team back... Fans (like Arte), don't know shit.
Let the baseball ppl work already.

Remember when Ohtani didn't want to share the spotlight with any other Japanese players on the team? 

It pisses me off the Rangers consistently make the moves I openly state I hope the Angels would make.  Meanwhile, the Rangers are the WS Champs and the Angels are the butt of jokes.

As for the pitchers...
Snell and Nola feel like they're going to get more $$$ than worth risking. I have a feeling Montgomery gets a lot too. Stroman is intriguing, could see him getting really overpaid but also his prior blowups and late-season crash hurting his market. Yamamoto, Rodriguez, and the other overseas arms are all worth looking into. Sonny Gray would be great on a Chris Bassitt-llike deal, but something tells me he's going to stay Central/East. I'm definitely interested in Eduardo Rodriguez, but to add another lefty to the rotation would almost necessitate dealing a lefty IMO.

I've also seen Flaherty floated on MLBTR for 3/$40m. I think he's worth the risk. He'll only be 28, local, and even with his recent struggles, his metrics support that he's a solid #4 with potential to step that up a little bit. That contract reminds me of recent deals for guys like Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson. It was reasonable at the time and they wound up overperforming those contracts, at least the first year and a half, and it yielded decent trades for the Rangers. To me, it's worth the gamble.  I like Nick Martinez, Sean Manaea, Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo, and Michael Lorenzen all for similar money/years, maybe a year less, as they could also theoretically serve as solid swingman/long-relief types, albeit expensive and presumably middling if they underperform enough to fall back to that role. Buys time for guys like Silseth and Davis to develop.

Frankie Montas looked decent in his very brief cameo. He'd be worth kicking the tires on a one-year. I like Mahle a lot, but that would be a two-year deal more than likely that doesn't really pay off until next season, and not sure there's roster or rotation space to wait for that to come to fruition. Not against Giolito on a one-year.

For the bullpen I would absolutely look at Shintaro Fujinami. After he moved to relief last year he turned his season around and had a solid showing for Baltimore. Think he'd continue developing as a reliever, but to have the option of considering a move back to starting could add some value. I really liked Reynaldo Lopez too and would try to bring him back into the fold. Matt Moore as well, though have to wonder if age will catch up to him soon. Will Smith? Might as well given how his last three years ended.

I don’t think Bochy would have come out of retirement for just anyone.  He and Chris Young had a history together from their days with the Padres.

i'm glad semien hit that homer. it let the kid off the hook for his error in CF which allowed two runs. carrying that guilt around as a young player would weigh awfully heavy on even the best of us.

I don’t think Bochy would have come out of retirement for just anyone.  He and Chris Young had a history together from their days with the Padres.

Hifives! It's strange. Had the Rangers beat St Louis in 2011, it would have been pure joy and excitement.
But, because of that devastating loss, the dominant emotion I feel is a sense of relief.

Woot!
Suck it, Houston. 
 
The 11-0 road record is something else.  Records are always meant to be broken but, I don't see that one falling anytime soon.
 
 

Congrats, Rangers.
And THANK YOU for sending the Astros home.

There is no feeling like leaving a post season game, win or lose. 
If your team wins you are on such a high.  Everyone is walking out just buzzing.
If your team loses you are on a real low.  Everyone is bummed out.

Not the amount of spending that counts, but the right kind of spending, on the right kind of players.

Im glad to see them there if for no other reason than to reward the effort they made and the money they spent. 
It was for them the only path to it in the short term, as is the case for us, and they took it whereas we did not. 
I will pull for them to win it all at this point frankly for that same reason, they deserve it for the effort made. 

Bump

The Rangers are on their way to winning their 6th in a row since this thread was started.

Why?  Is she planning on suiciding some of the players?  

O'Hoppe looked great before he got hurt, but hes far from establishing himself. Neto has had a great year and hes definitely a building block. Moniak is a platoon outfielder, with maybe Joc Pederson upside, but thats not a difference maker. Adell is, who knows.
They have some pieces for sure but this is a long way off from having a legitimate winning core. 

Gene Autry was one of the most beloved Americans of his era. To the first generations of Angels fans, and the parents of the next generations, he was one of our foremost entertainers, not the owner of a middling baseball team. I think he's still the only person with five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And, toward the end of the Autry ownership, Gene got older and his wife basically took over, so she was the one that was blamed.
Arte never had the reservoir of goodwill Gene had. No one knew who he was when he bought the team.

i'd like them to return to their team uniforms instead of what they've been wearing the last couple of years. it's hard to tell who all of the players are.
the black pants the NL wore tonight looked like black skinny jeans. didn't look baseball-y at all.

I don't give much credibility to any of these so-called prospect rankers. Majority of them have east coast bias'. Funny how they rate the Yankees way too high every year, it seems. If their farm is so good, why do they have to sign so many free agents every year. They trade most of their prospects. And those guys they trade usually flop with their new team. They would be the last team i would ever want the Angel to trade with. If a team is regularly able to promote 2 of their guys a year to mlb, they are doing good. I made a prediction awhile back that 3 of the 4 Angels minor league teams would be in the playoffs in 2023. Even if i am right, those fools that do the rankings will still put the Angels down near the bottom of the heap.

I'm not so sure we've had four players contribute more than Brian Downing.  

I wonder if Vladdy has his own complex in the DR of just his kids.  

Martin Perez accepted QO.