Pancake Bear

31 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

I read that his velo was lacking last season, despite his fine overall results. 

Yeah - either the front office didn't like something about him or else there really is no more money to spend, despite what they keep saying. Or could be Minasian just got caught napping, I guess.

2 hours ago, Stradling said:

If you do lose you’ll at least beat me in golf. 

A decade ago, I bet my brother a round of golf that the Angels would sign CJ Wilson in the upcoming offseason. That was cool for a minute. 

3 hours ago, Torridd said:

I guess I live under a rock. I never heard that he wanted to play the OF. Do you guys have a link? Moreover, I'd be surprised that the Angels wouldn't let him.

Minasian mentioned in passing that Ohtani floated the idea of playing outfield now and then, but it's not happening. Dude already has enough he's doing without adding more on top of it. 

Props to the Lion for getting ballsier with his "scoops".

2 hours ago, Trendon said:

If they don’t give him $50 mil a year, will they be competitive?

I understand the concern with committing $50M on top of the Angels current commitments, but they’d then need to figure out how to replace an 8-9 WAR player.

They're already committing $30, so it isn't adding a total of $50. Additionally, we don't know what the contract will look like, but I'd be surprised if it ends up being quite that high an aav when all is said and done. 

20 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

They can offer him 60 mill and maybe they have offered 50 already. Nobody knows and the biggest factor is what does Ohtani want. I feel he just does not want to DH on days he not on the mound. I think he would really like to play in OF once a week. I know I will take a lot of crap about this. All this upcoming season every place Angel's play the question will come up about where will Ohtani play in 2024.

Yes, Ohtani is going to hold out for a team that lets him play outfield once a week.

The USA lineup is sick. The pitching is....eh...

35 minutes ago, Kotchman said:

Can’t fault arte if he decides to go the prospect route and not take the half a billion dollar risk. I spent 15k on a fence for the 10 year old family dogs but the wiser decision was probably putting them up for adoption. 

I can fault him. If he does that, he likely won't see a championship before he exits. We have an extremely narrow window due to aging stars and a bottom tier farm, and unless you get extremely lucky with prospects (most trades for superstars don't), you're left with a gigantic hole in the rotation and a solid one in the lineup as well. Maybe you can sign Nola in the off-season, and maybe whoever you trade for replaces Ohtani's value quickly, but that's such an infinitesimally small likelihood that it seems absurd to even consider it. Basically, we're screwed if he leaves. Our only shot in the short term necessitates going all in now. Hopefully Arte has committed enough money to competing this season, but I'd like our chances better with a couple of more small moves. 

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

It's cute how so many fans still have faith in Arte.

I have faith in Arte to spend money on a marketable player since that's what we seems to care most about. 

Back on topic:

4 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

Freaking cost me $11.15! Holy balls!! Now I remember why I hardly ever go to In N Out.

I mean, INO is pretty good on price compared to most places.

2 hours ago, Deek said:

We hope he's "willing to do whatever it takes to bring in Ohtani"... but it's far from a "100% yes" (and we won't know until Ohtani actually signs his next contract)...

 

He's saying the right things, but I can't be the only person that got a chill down his spine by the thought that this could just end up being public posturing and propaganda...

 

I hope I'm wrong...

You misread my post. Fair, since I probably wrote it poorly. But nonetheless, I was contrasting with the other topic that we don't care about: Namely, why Arte took the team off the market. I was saying that the Ohtani extension is by contrast 100% of interest. 

24 minutes ago, Revad said:

How’s this against lefties.

Ward LF

Trout CF

Ohtani DH

Rendon 3b

Drury 2b

Renfroe RF

Urshela 1b

Stassi C

Rengifo/Fletcher SS

 

 

 

 

Rengifo and Drury both have excellent splits against lefties, so I expect Rengifo to play those games since Walsh won't be. 

2 hours ago, Revad said:

So 2 games at 3rd, 2 at 1st and 1 at SS each week?

I suspect this is pretty typical for guys coming off of significant injuries and surgery. The key point is he's healthy enough to play now. Very few players are 100% through a season, we just rarely hear about it except for quotes like this that make people freak out. 

3 minutes ago, Revad said:

From the article above:  “Should Walsh miss any more time or struggle to get back on track, Drury would likely be first in line for extended time covering first base, with Jake Lamb also in the organization on a minor league deal. Though if Walsh is healthy, it would free Drury up to strengthen the club’s depth in the outfield corners or other infield positions.”

Urshela should be first at first I thought.  I haven’t looked into it but I just assumed Drury is a better corner OF and 2b but Urshela is better at 3rd and Perry thinks 1b is a fit.  Neither are SS but both might play there at times.  This article makes it sound like Jake Lamb is an option.

I wouldn't make too much of what they say. IIRC, Nevin said the other day that Urshela will play basically every day between 3B, 1B, and SS. What he and Minasian says weighs more than some other site's commentary. 

Personally, I think it'll just come down to who is healthy and performing well. Of the six infielders, all but Walsh can play 3B. Urshela probably won't play 2B, but Drury, Rengifo, and Fletcher will likely split time there in that order. 1B could be any of Walsh, Urshela, and Drury - again, in that order. Shortstop will be the interesting one. Fletcher is the best defensively and Urshela is probably the best hitter, but given Urshela's defensively flexibility, I'd only expect to see him at SS if Rendon and Walsh are both playing, and I'd only expect to see Rengifo at short if Urshela is playing corner infield. I doubt Drury plays shortstop much if ever. 

For the record, I don't give a crap why Arte didn't sell. Would've preferred he did, but he didn't. Knowing why doesn't change anything. I'd maybe like to hear if sticking around means he's more committed to going all in and less micromanaging his GM'a decisions, but it still wouldn't change things. 

On the other hand, is he willing to do whatever it takes to bring in Ohtani? 100% yes. That is by far the most important question that needs answering from open Angels perspective, imo. 

And, fwiw, Heyman is a national reporter out of New York. The vast majority of his readers aren't going to care in the slightest why Arte stayed. For him - and for everyone else in baseball outside of Angels fans - Ohtani's future with the Angels is the only thing they will care about where the Angels are concerned.

18 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Not if you want your feeling constantly hurt. 

It's a real trip going on Twitter and seeing all the outrage from the twenty-somethings cosplaying as sixteen year olds. We all need our rage outlets, I guess.

47 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Everything you posted is true. While I dislike both reporters, I got to give kudos when it's due as Heyman was at least able to get an Arte Moreno interview and his thoughts about Ohtani. 

It would have been a much better "Exclusive interview" if he got him to talk more about why he didn't sell the team. 

Exclusive interview = Heyman was hanging out when Arte was walking past and got him to answer two questions.

Probably.

3 minutes ago, Make Angels Great Again said:

It always feels like these takes from media outlets start off well, then finish in such a lazy way.

That paragraph you linked characterizes the additions of Drury/Renfroe/Urshela etc as fodder. And yet, all 3 of them had an OPS+ last year that would have slotted right into the Astros lineup. Only really beat out by Yordan, Bregman and Altuve. Those aren't inconsequential additions.

Szymborski's commentary is dumb, but the projections are from the system, not his own predictions. And actually, most predictions this season have the Angels pretty low, so we'll see which ends up being correct. IMO, our depth is much improved, but health is still going to be the key.

21 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

No sorry that’s silly.  I sImply used simple language to make a point.  How many innings and starts do YOU think Canning would have to log to end up with a 7-6 record?  Make yourself answer that question.  If you use your brain, the language I used (throwing out a win/loss record and era) was just fine.

Lol. Someone is salty today. It's pretty simple: Using wins makes it sound like you're old school. The implication that it implies how much time he played as if that was your main point feels like a logical stretch, but maybe we just use our brains differently.

37 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

56 innings was a full season?

But regardless, you either got the point or you didn’t.

You didn’t.

The bar for a “breakout year” for Canning is extremely low.  Is that language easier to understand?

Then use innings. Wins is a meaningless stat, and the way you framed it implied you saw wins as the definitive metric for evaluating Canning's past seasons.

4 hours ago, Revad said:

Trendon is Beyond the Halo?  I’m so confused.

No doubt. 

1 hour ago, mmc said:

 

@Trendonis famous. 

I would disqualify non-players like Scioscia, Stoneman, and Autry. Obviously they were all hugely significant for the franchise, but the list is hard enough to get to four without adding oranges in among the apples.

I'll start with e obvious: Trout is far and away the best player to ever play for the Angels. He's played long enough. He's a first ballot hall of farmer. Even without playoffs, he's more than earned it.

After that it gets dicier. 

I feel like you gotta include a rep from the WS team, which, for me there are two obvious choices: Salmon or Anderson. Both had fantastic careers with this team, but I'd probably lean toward Salmon as (imo) the better player. Anderson was more durable, but I don't think he was as good as Salmon when healthy. 

Gotta include a pitcher. The two best were Finley and Nolan. Nolan was better, but some would prefer to disqualify him since he walked away during his prime and only played eight seasons here. I'd probably still lean Nolan Ryan, though. 

That last spot is tough. Fregosi was our WAR leader prior to Trout. Vlad is currently our only rep in the Hall of Fame. And Ohtani is doing stuff that nobody - even Babe Ruth - never did. That said, I'm eliminating Ohtani for now. If he signs an extension and keeps doing this for a couple more years, he'll be a lock for Mt Halo next this discussion comes up, but it's too short for me as of now. But Guerrero only played six seasons here, so I'm gonna lean to Fregosi.

My four: 

• Mike Trout
• Tim Salmon
• Nolan Ryan
• Jim Fregosi

But if Ohtani stays and keeps up what he's doing for another couple of years, he's replacing one of the bottom three. 

2 hours ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

Basically if we make the playoff and make a deep run into the playoffs, it greatly increase the chance. If we miss the playoffs it greatly decreases 

If he hasn't signed an extension by that point, he's almost certainly not staying.