KingJustinian

I agree more depth would be good, but what if adding 3-4 mil now prevents us from trading for a better higher priced pitcher during the year, if the need develops. It's tough to evaluate the lack of action without knowing the true budget constraints and the future plan.

Possibly, but that doesn't mean a team with good pitching and average offense is better than a team with a great offense and average pitching

And the Cardinals need to go sign 2 or 3 hitters because their lineup isn't that of a contender. /s

I think Dipoto is leaving his options open for a midseason trade based on what ends up being the biggest weakness. For all we know we get 5 solid starters and Blanton rebounds but the bullpen has issues.

There was some article that I vaguely remember from like a week ago saying that is a possibility, such as taking in a pitcher that is good but is paid a lot. He might not want to pick up salary for a fringe starter, even if it's only a couple of million, because of that.

But the best girl at the bar was a 6.5/10

All that fat is dead weight, no pun intended. It makes him slower but not stronger. It definitely hurts his performance. Why the guy you responded to may be incorrect is because Fielder has never been in good shape, so he could be in the best shape of his life but still very out of shape.

Compare this team to the 2012 team. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=2012&t=ANG Several things didn't go right for them, and they still had 89 wins.

This is what I think too. Without any big injuries and the big name players perform I could easily see 90+. Most of the AL West looks underrated on here.

Might as well add another 5 years at 1 million per year to get that AAV down

And also, just because we're going into the year with what we have it doesn't mean it's a rebuilding phase. We have three solid young pitchers with upside that a lot of people have wanted. If we sign someone else, Skaggs probably doesn't get a shot right away. If one of them struggles or there is a significant injury, you can still trade Howie or Aybar midseason. That being said, I'd still prefer to sign one more veteran type to compete for the final spot.

Dont forget good ole Jeppy

That's my thinking. Fans having unrealistic expectations affects the media and in turn can put a lot more pressure on Tanaka, which Cashman probably doesn't want.

Last year Hamilton as Pujols were way below the trend based on age. Pujols hitting a 850-900 OPS and Hamilton about the same next year would not be above the trends for their age, but would be a huge improvement.

I don't think he'd come over and light it up, but if he takes a one year deal and it keeps the Angels below the luxury tax, then they should get him for sure. At least consider a two year deal depending on the AAV.

What that means to me is that our pitchers know how to pitch, not just throw the ball. So they shouldn't drop off a cliff in terms of production. On another note isn't Skaggs fastball average? And use to be above average as recently as a year ago? 91-92 is average for a lefty.

And this is right after a team predicted to finish 3rd or 4th in their division won the World Series, with a rebound from their 37 year old slugger.

I've said Arroyo reminds me of Blanton and was referring to their whole career. I'm just saying that cherrypicking one year out of a 10+ year career is referring to an extreme, even if it is the most recent year.

And people who is saying he is comparable to Blanton maybe aren't referring to the one outlier/very bad year out of 10+ for Blanton. I could easily see Arroyo being similar to Blanton excluding 2013.

Our only high priced options were Tanaka and Garza. Garza is very risky and Tanaka would turn potentially turn it into the Pujols and Tanaka era of bad contracts.

This is a year or two old but still relevant. http://battlingbucs.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/the-average-starting-pitcher/ People here always seem to overestimate how good a pitcher should be in a particular slot, except for maybe #1's. CJ Wilson was definitely a good #2 last year. Basically, by that definition, Richards should be a #4 with these projections. Even assuming that the #5 average is skewed because of outliers (really bad pitchers given a shot on bad teams, injuries, etc.), he still would project to a #5 with the ZIPS projections, which are slightly pessimistic IMO. It's getting old seeing people say a guy with a low-mid 4's ERA is garbage.

Pretty much. What's interesting is if one plays well but the other doesn't. Then it comes down to how much the pitching improves.

I don't buy that. Balfour is pretty competitive so I bet he has some pain somewhere but thinks it isn't an issue. That's just me speculating without knowing any details.

So we should get a guy who just failed a physical?

Dipoto said he's looking to sign a veteran starter still right? Idk if that was before Mulder was signed or not though.