Pancake Bear

Less than 3 now. How we feeling about the bet?

Trying to make four moves to fill one hole feels like video game management that doesn't take anything else into account - like clubhouse chemistry.

Our outfield depth is already lousy. Trading our second best outfielder and one of our best bats seems shortsighted when I don't feel like the rotation is an urgent need. There also really isn't a great replacement in free agency at this point unless you move someone else for outfield help. It just feels a bit too convoluted at that point unless they really don't believe in Ward or other players they'd move in that hypothetical.

Not quite. I think what it means is they have the financial ability to spend more, but only if the deal makes sense to the front office and ownership. A deal that makes sense to anybody or even everybody on here wouldn't necessarily make sense to the Angels. What I'm saying is that they're not like children who have ten dollars and are just going to spend it because they have it. You don't go over the luxury tax casually.

All are high risk, but I'd go for any if the price is right. Of them, I'd probably prefer Kluber for clubhouse presence and the fact that he isn't coming off a high like the other two, so his value hasn't been unduly inflated.

Might mean they're just checking around opportunistically looking for a deal rather than being particularly aggressive - like a team that is in urgent need of another starter.

Texas is really going high upside and high durability risk this off-season for the rotation. Next they'll trade for Chris Sale. /s If their top guys all hit their upside and put some innings in, they could be pretty good (Eovaldi was pushing 6 wins in 2021), but considering the missed games already in the rotation, Eovaldi is a hell of a risk for them to be taking. Would've been a better fit for the Angels considering the 6 man rotation and ability to absorb risk, but ️.

Maybe we could trade for Brujan to close.

Baseballtradevalues says he has almost no value, but at the same time we constantly hear about teams trying to trade for him, leading me to believe he has more value than they think, but I don't know how much.

Depends what it costs. I don't really want to lose any pieces we need this season. Kluber is okay, although I'd prefer Eovaldi.

Sale hasn't pitched 50 innings (total!) since 2019. And in 2019, he was pushing a nearly 4.50 ERA. He's also making like $20m a year the next couple of years. I'd give them Adell if they took on half his salary...

Rengifo trade coming in...

I mean, Rendon is a risk, but it isn't like he's the only one.

Ward was in demand prior to 2022 and then went off at an all-star (snub!) level. Rengifo has been in demand lately, and while it isn't entirely rational, I can't help but be nervous about the possibility of dealing him and seeing him turn into a 4 win player for someone else.

Other people linked the Angels to Eovaldi shortly before he did. Wouldn't make much of that even if it happens.

I'm not saying Rendon will be a top 2 3B going forward. I'm hoping for improvement, but hip surgery is a big deal. My point was basically that his performance the last two seasons isn't really indicative of much of anything since he was injured since spring in 2021, and it's not surprising to see him start slow off of a hip injury recovery in 2022 before injuring the wrist. He wasn't awful at the plate in 2022 before his injury but definitely not what we'd expect for his salary. I'd expect at least a 120 wRC+ and I'm hoping he might even get back to the 130's. 150+ of 2019-2020 is probably not coming back again, though.

I quoted it earlier. We were ahead of Texas substantially in pitching. The offense being behind was an aberration rooted in injury due to lack of depth. We no longer have a lack of depth. Even with deGrom - who would need to pitch like a 9 win season to get Texas' pitching ahead of ours (which FG seems to think will happen) along with a step back from our starters - Texas is simply not a Wild Card team. But like Strad said, your phrasing implied you think we're fourth in the division, which is just absurd, and then you tried to gaslight everyone for calling you on it.

2022. Look 'em up.

I'll say it again: 82 wins is their ceiling and our floor. They didn't improve 13 wins worth.

They think we'll be a better offense than Texas but worse pitching. Hilarious.

Yeah, but we aren't about prospects.

Because no one ever played injured. Clearly he just fell of the map in 2021. This is just a really dumb take, especially since it's well established his hip issue began in Spring Training 2021. He had a slow start in 2022, for sure, then he injured his wrist. If he still sucks in 2022, you can say you told us so, even though it was based on nothing but superficial analysis.

Today I learned that looking at stats is being a homer. Huh. Their best players had the seasons' we'd expect, while several of our best did not. Some Angels could regress, obviously (Ohtani is an obvious pick there), but most of them seem like just players developing (Detmers and Ward especially). I just don't see anything the Rags have done to get them up to 10+ wins.

Last time Rendon was healthy, the only 3B who outperformed him was Jose Ramirez.

Guys with upside and durability issues should be avoided by teams with shallow rotations. They make sense for teams with solid depth. We have an excellent 1-5, so we can afford to gamble on upside where teams with murkier situations in their 4-5 pitchers shouldn't.