monkeywithahalo

If you all thought Scioscia made some frustrating in-game strategic moves, just wait until you get a load of what "The Binder" is capable of.

I understand the point on the surface that Aybar is hardly a star SS and that make him theoretically replaceable, but who would actually replace him? Have you seen the FA market for SS this winter: Clint Barmes (35) Willie Bloomquist (36) Jamey Carroll (40) - $2MM vesting option with a $250K buyout Alexi Casilla (29) Stephen Drew (31) Yunel Escobar (31) - $5MM club option Rafael Furcal (36) Alex Gonzalez (36) Cesar Izturis (34) Derek Jeter (40) - $8MM+ player option with a $3MM buyout John McDonald (39) Jhonny Peralta (32) Brendan Ryan (32) That leaves the Angels having to trade prospects they don't have to replace him or use Romine who can't hit at all. I'm not opposed to trading Aybar, it is just really bad timing to do try and do so.

Are.. are we supposed to hug now? I'm pretty sure that's how this works.

I'll fall on my sword here, ettin. You are absolutely right, I made a lot more out of the comment than it merited. Let's just say that this garbage team has made me a bit more ornery than normal. My general point, and I never intended for it to be directed at you, is that there is a lot of hand-wringing over the Angels budget that I find unmerited. The Angels definitely need to keep their budget under control, but I think it is wildly overstated by many that the Angels are in some kind of budget crunch. As I stated previously, this franchise can easily carry a $150 million payroll and probably could go $25 million beyond that. With their current obligations, they probably can't (and shouldn't) be handing out a nine figure contract to a free agent this summer, but they aren't exactly handcuffed either. I've seen some people in various outlets suggest that somehow the Angels won't be able to afford an extension for Mike Trout and that is nothing but fear mongering. Then to see the Berg statement, it just triggered me as being the ultimate in "penny wise but pound foolish" thinking even though it was just an innocuous question. I'll just shut up now, apologize once more and try to keep my rants to myself... at least until someone suggests the Angels trade Trumbo or Bourjos for a freaking reliever.

Set aside the fact that I'm fairly certain that calling him up now actually has no impact on his service time (I believe that is why the Rays called up Myers when they did as the cutoff had already passed). I'm indignant because you are pinching pennies on one of the most fungible assets in baseball. Berg has a low ceiling. At best, he becomes Darren O'Day and makes $4 million per year in free agency when he is 34 FREAKING YEARS OLD! The line that you never know which reliever is the next Rivera/Papelbon/Shields is patently false. These aren't guys that just fall out of trees. Pedestrian minor league relievers don't become elite relievers for years on end. So why worry about saving one or two million bucks over his arbitration years which won't start until three year from now when you are trying to win a World Series in the immediate future? That is pocket change to a team with the spending power of the Angels. The odds of a guy like Berg even being in the majors long enough to see his arbitration years are small to begin with. But on the off chance he turns out to be decent, the Angels will have figured it out now during a period where it doesn't hurt them if he turns out to be awful. That has value in its own right. If that costs them an extra two or three million in a few years, then I would argue that it is more than worth it (and again, I don't think there are service clock repercussions this late in the season). The same goes for just about any other of their fringe prospect guys. Call up Shoemaker. Recall Roth. Keep Green in the lineup somewhere when Howie gets healthy. Start Calhoun every single day. Call up anybody that they think might be able to help the 2014 team now and see if they can hack it. The only good thing about the Angels being horrible is that it has granted them two months of free evaluation time for their young players. Now, if we were talking about a high end talent like Cron (not that he's ready, just an example) then maybe you have a point because the future money it costs is several times higher. But even then, for a team that intends to contend in 2014, it should be a minor concern. Budget control is great, but flags fly forever.

A month ago everyone was up in arms that Conger wasn't getting all the playing time due to his vastly superior defense. Now all of the sudden both he and Iannetta should be tarred and feathered. I'm so glad everyone isn't overreacting to two games.

Service clock? Really? How about finding out if he can get big league hitters out? In case you haven't noticed, the Angels don't have many relievers that can do that right now. If they are desperate enough to call up no names like Stange, what is the harm in seeing what Berg can bring? He has a different style than the rest of the relievers which can actually be a good thing since it forced opposing lineups to adjust instead of facing a parade of guys with iffy control who through 95 MPH with a lousy slider. Maybe Berg sucks. Maybe he doesn't. The games now are meaningless so there is no better time to audition him or anyone else with even a hint of being big league ready relievers. Considering Dipoto's philosophy on not paying premiums for relief pitching, you'd think he'd be more eager to see what these cheap sources of bullpen help can do.

Good points, but I kind of have a problem with grading moves based on the results alone, especially the trades. I'm of the opinion that we can only really grade the moves based on what we knew at the time. For example, the Madson signing is an F but that is because we know now that he never got healthy. At the time there was no reason to believe he wouldn't come back at all. The recovery rate is so good on TJ surgery now that hardly seemed like a major risk. If you want to give someone an F, give it to the medical staff that reviewed Madson's records and gave Dipoto the thumbs up. Similarly, I suspect that the grade on the Frieri trade would've been much higher had you done this 30 days ago when his ERA was under 3.00. Mind you, I'm not defending Dipoto necessarily. He has clearly made a lot of risk-laden moves and they have almost uniformly blown up in his face. But what if they went the other way? We'd be giving him 'A' grades across the board for doing the same exact things.

If you look at his WAR values across the three calculations of it, he is basically a consistent 2.5 win player for three years running. That is nothing to sneeze at. It also isn't anything worth hoarding. He may be a one trick pony, but it is a really good trick. A trick that some teams might overvalue and I think the Angels are one of those teams.

I think I can safely say that on behalf of people named Garrett everywhere, if you really want to congratulate him on a job well done, spell his name right.

I have to think Lindsey is the long-term 2B of the future. Green might hold it down for a bit until he is ready. After that, I am kind of in love with the idea of Green becoming a super utility player. There are a lot of things wrong with the current roster, but one of the underrated issues they've had is bench depth (or lack thereof). A player like Green who could play almost every position (maybe not well, but at a passable level) would be a big help in that regard.

The problem is it could also mean that his shoulder is going to disintegrate. That's why the Braves had him alter his mechanics in the first place. But, believe it or not, this means the Angels actually do have SOMEONE doing some fine pitching coach work. They had Hanson make this adjustment. De La Rosa says he had his mechanics adjusted to cause his spike in velocity and Weaver made a change to his arm slot to recover his lost fastball. Maybe we shouldn't bury Mike Butcher just yet.

Sure enough, somebody at least figured out how Hanson got his velo back: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/tommy-hansons-velocity-is-back-up/ Good stuff.

I know you are kidding, but I actually thought that might be the case when I saw Hanson touching 94 MPH but the Pitch f/x data supports it.

I know everyone noticed Tommy Hanson suddenly throwing hard again the other night, but it turns out that almost across the board, Angel pitchers are gaining velocity. After 2012 when it was pretty much the exact opposite, it makes one wonder if this is just coincidence or if the Angels are actually doing something different in terms of training, coaching or preparation. You may now commence your various comments about how it couldn't possibly be anything Butcher is doing.

If only Calhoun hadn't broken his hand right before Bourjos' first injury, he'd have already gotten his shot and the general existence of J.B. Shuck wouldn't be the bane of my existence.

I love how this devolved from the wisdom of trading Trumbo to debating his living situation.

He never had a good defensive reputation, but he was definitely better than this. I do know that one reason Colorado was willing to trade him was frustration with his inconsistent defense.

Oh, and Mathis ranks 6th in those rankings. Feel free to set yourselves on fire now.

Matt Klaasen released his latest update to the catcher defense ratings and, once again, Chris Iannetta rates next to last. What is more intriguing though is that Conger has jumped up to 41st (middle of the pack) when he was only a few spots ahead of Iannetta previously. And these ratings don't even take into account framing, where we know that Conger outclasses Iannetta by a mile. I still like the idea of them platooning because of the offensive contributions they both bring and because of Conger's durability issues, but if the defensive gap keeps widening, that is going to be harder and harder to justify.

The only positive this really tells us is that the front office is good at identifying washed up thirty-something prospects from the independent leagues that can put up decent numbers against baby-faced prospects. JARRETT GRUBE 4EVA!

I'm convinced Blanton was signed because he was durable and consistent, even if he was "consistently" below average. The 2012 Angels got burned so bad by the ups and downs of Santana and Haren that I think Dipoto over-corrected and opted for stability only to find out that you can't really depend on much when it comes to back-end starters.

Two months late, but at least they finally figured it out.

Hanson looked great, but let's give him a few more weeks of throwing 94 MPH before we hand him a 2014 rotation spot. The guy's shoulder has the structural integrity pudding. He is a risky guy to have in the rotation because you never know what he is going to give you or how long he will stay healthy. If the Angels really want to contend again, they have to do better than Hanson as their third-best starter. Unless Richards suddenly realizes his potential, that upgrade isn't coming from within.

That $150 million figure I quoted includes them giving up their chunk of TV revenue for sharing, it is all detailed in the link in my comment. It is actually a pretty good overview for anyone who is curious to see just how MLB slices up the TV revenue money.