AZMike

Dipoto's policy of not signing players with draft pick compensation means we won't be able to bring back Santana =(

How was Mathis the scapegoat of 2009? All was forgiven by his play is the ALCS. How did Fuentes not make the list? That pitch to Arod in game 2 was unforgivable.

...remember who *called* for that pitch?

Given the cost and expectations going in, I'd say 2013 should be given to Josh Hamilton, if not, it should be a tie between Hamilton and Blanton

And maybe we wouldnt have been if Matsui had hit in the first half

Perhaps this year we might have been in contention had we not been saddled with the least clutch player in the American League putting up great stats on papers but failed to deliver when it counted

He wasn't clutch enough (in other words he wasn't lucky enough).

The least clutch player in the American League was Mike Trout

For all the talk about rally killing, the Angels were 22nd in MLB GIDP last year, grounding into 118 double plays. The Cardinals, who played in the World Series, led all of baseball with 160 GIDP. The AL leaders were Baltimore and Minnesota, grounding into 147 each. The fewest in MLB was Oakland, with 96.

 

Individually, the Angels did not have a player in the top 20 in GIDP in the AL. The AL leader was KC's Billy Butler with 28, followed by Boston's Dustin Pedroia and Houston's Jose Altuve with 24 each. Howie Kendrick was the Angels leader with 16 (tied for 23rd in the AL), followed by Erick Aybar with 14.

The Angels led the AL in GIDP's with 150

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=0&season=2013&month=0&season1=2013&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=18,d

Pujols and Trumbo each hit into 18 GIDP's. Then Kendrick and Hamilton were tied for 3rd on the team with 16. 

who hits more GIDPs - GIDP juan rivera or GIDP howie kendrick?

GIDPujols has them both beat

No we look at Howie and compare him to other second baseman and we realize we have it really good. Also if clutch doesn't exist then neither does not being clutch.

Interestingly Howie was not the least clutch player on the Angels in 2013. Mike Trout was the least clutch player in the American League. 

I'm thinking he'll set records in all years of arbitration, but by extending him with one year left of 500k you'll reduce the overall AAV by several million dollars. Say down to 8/200 from 8/240

I like the idea that has been posted of giving him something like 20yrs/$200M, very heavily front loaded, with an opt-out after 8 years. That keeps the AAV low for tax purposes. 

We've been offseason champs the last two years, and the results on field have sucked.

 

Maybe, just maybe, if we are offseason cellar dwellars, the corresponding on-field results will be similarly non-correlated.

Last year the Dodgers were the offseason champs, and they didn't do too badly on the field. 

as i've thought about it, this occurred to me - if Trout gains his typical 50 pounds of pure blubber again this winter (like he did last winter), the team indeed could be in trouble next year.

Hamilton will just lose another 50lbs and things will balance out* nicely 

*I'm referring to the position players v pitchers annual tug-of-war, captained by Mike Trout and Joe Blanton, respectively

Looks like the Angels are taking it in the A.

Angels will be taking it "up the Pujols" so to speak for 4+ years

Wait a minute, aren't you the guy that keeps pounding on the table with his shoe how important advanced metrics are for judging players and then say Trout with a -0.9 dWAR was better defensively than Shuck who posted a -0.6 dWAR. Of the three outfielders that logged the most innings the ranking by dWAR is Shuck, Trout, Hamilton.

 

Kendrick and Aybar were the same in terms of dWAR with a shockingly poor 0.1 dWAR. For middle infielders on a team that supposedly stresses defense that is abysmal. Of the regular infielders it is a tie for worst with Trumbo and Callaspo at -0.8.

 

By far, though, the Angels best defender was Peter Bourjos but his playing time was cut short due to injury.

according to dWAR, the Angels best defensive player this season was Hank Conger 

This Wacha fellow seems pretty good

7-0 good guys!

It's unfortunate that of the teams remaining in the *LCS phase of playoffs, the Tigers -- for the second consecutive year --are the "good guys" 

We got about the same amount of strikeouts from Hamilton as we would have from Greinke.

Well at least the Dodgers got the same amount of significantly more offenisve WAR from Greinke than we did from from Hamiltlon. 

...oh wait that's bad 

No way should the Angels trade Bourjos. IMO the Angels should go back in time, not sign Josh Hamilton for $25M a year, then run an OF of Trout, Bourjos and Calhoun 

How did we let him get away. Was it simply because he was too expensive or was it because his contract demands towered over Weaver's hometown discount. The signing of Hamilton over Greinke still makes no sense when pitching was supposed to be the priority.

I suspect the Angels bid $125M for Greinke. The Dodgers bid $145, and gave him an opt-out clause to boot. 

Hard to fault the Angels for not signign Greinke to that kind of money. The problem was turning around and giving that money to Josh Hamilton. We would have been better off doing nothing in the offseason and remaining comfortably under the luxury tax cutoff. 

This really sucks. Literally every team I wanted to advance in the first round got eliminated.

Red sox. Then I'd take a shower afterwards and pray to God for forgiveness.

Same story as last year. Two years straight the Angels have ended in 3rd place and every team I kinda liked got knocked out in the first round.

I actually put a small bet on the A's to win the WS before the season started. I thought they were grossly underrated (and I thought the Dodgers and Angels were overrated) in the odds going into the season. 

Vernon Wells got better...

 

 

 

for about a month

The Pujols and Hamilton deals make the Vernon Wells contract look like a bargain...

Jeff Fletcher (the Angels OC Register beat writer), doesn't think the Angels will give a qualifying offer to Vargas.

Best bet would be to give Vargas a qualifying offer (to make him less valuable to other teams due to draft compensation being attached) but, simultaneously, try to work out a longer-term deal for lower AAV (Better for 2014 luxury tax)

IMO we either need to bite the bullet and pay luxury tax to go hard after pitching, or start to dismantle the team and rebuild. Half measures will just lead to more seasons like this one (mediocre ~.500 baseball).

WS Loss

WS loss with a pretty brutal collapse

September collapse and WC game loss

And now this.

 

That's not a fun 4 year stretch.

I'm of the [apparently unpopular] opinion it's better to go far in the postseason and fall short than to miss the postseason altogether. 

'08 and '09 had heartbreaking endings but the last few season have been worse overall IMO.

You're generally pretty astute when it comes to actual baseball stuff, which makes it pretty baffling that you exhibit such relative silliness when talking about this.

 

A lot can change in 4 years. For instance, 4 years ago...

 

-the Angels were in the ALCS. 

-the A's finished 22 games behind the Angels

-the MARINERS won 85 games

-the Twins won 86 games and the Royals won 65

-the Pirates won 32 fewer games than they did this year

 

The ONLY guy that's on the books past 4 years is Pujols. Why can't some of you seem to realize that when evaluating whether or not we can afford to sign Trout? If this organization makes moves that make it more competitive and treats Trout with respect as time goes on, if it offers him a fat check that kicks in four years from now, there's a damn good chance he sticks with the Angels.

 

Stop being such babies.

Unfortunately that is not true:

According to this article the Angels aren't even going to offer Vargas a qualifying offer because him accepting it would cause them to go over the cutoff for the luxury tax. If true then the Hamilon deal looks even more idiotic than it did during the 2013 season.

Would it be safe to say that Dipoto is officially incompetent if he re-signs Madson?

If that happened and I were Arte I'd hire a PI to see if he's added extra stories onto his house from the kickbacks he's likely getting from Boras under the table.

Re-signing Madson AGAIN would be eerily similar to the time Reagins inherited a wad of cash from some random unknown relative shortly after the Wells trade...