According to Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times, "Link":http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-angels24-2009nov24,0,3419215.story

The Angels have resumed pursuit of Jay's Ace Roy Halladay. The asking price seems to be a good young, cheap: Starting Pitching, Short Stop & an OutFielder. The list of Starting Pitchers presumably would be one of (Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders or Ervin Santana), plus a short stop not named Eric Aybar (I'm thinking Wood), and an outfielder (Reggie Wilits?). 

The new Jay's GM seems more willing to deal Halladay than let him walk at the end of 2010.

Hopefully this list of our best young players is enough to get us a negotiating window to see if we can sign Uncle Roy to long term deal. Thats a lot to pay for one year of service!

Your thoughts...

As noted earlier today, congrats to Kendry Morales for joining a select group of six other players in Angels HISTORY to finish in the top 5 in MVP balloting. Also kudos to Chone Figgins for becoming just the third player in Angels history to garner MVP votes in at least 4 different seasons (along with Vlad's 5 and Jim Fregosi's 8).

Do you feel like looking at a (hopefully complete) list of Angels appearing in the MVP vote? Here goes, with the parentheses for those who came to the dance on multiple occasions:

1 Don Baylor '79, Vladimir Guerrero '04
2
3 Doug DeCinces '82, Vlad (2) '05, Vlad (3) '07
4 Leon Wagner '62, Garret Anderson '02
5 Dean Chance '64, Kendry Morales '09
6 Reggie Jackson '82, Donnie Moore '85, Vlad (4) '06, Francisco Rodriguez '08
7 Jim Fregosi '67, Baylor (2) '78, Tim Salmon '95, Salmon (2) '97
8 Alex Johnson '70, Bobby Grich '79, Wally Joyner '86, Darin Erstad '00
9
10 Chone Figgins '09

Continue reading this post »

I am surprised by the general sentiments that have befallen over fellow HH’ers regarding John Lackey. It seems that many seem rather indifferent over whether we sign Big John or not. Many of the off-season posts are acting as if Lackey is as good as gone. Perhaps, this stems from a lack of confidence in our FO putting up the $ to re-sign him. But I ask you this:  How is John Lackey NOT the face of this organization? And why wouldn’t the FO put up the money?

Continue reading this post »

The cost in prospects would be steep--almost certainly Reckling and/or Walden, plus two or three other players. Kendrick might have to be included to allow the Marlins the ability to then trade Uggla. This wouldn't be cherry-picking in any way.

The Miami Herald is reporting that talks between the Marlins and Johnson's agent broke off because the Marlins wouldn't guarantee a 4th year, while Johnson wanted something resembling what Greinke signed with the Royals ($38M/4 yrs), which would buy out the two remaining years of arbitration plus the first two of free agency.

Johnson will be just 26 when Spring Training begins, so a 4 year deal would still be within his prime years, unlike a 5 year deal for Lackey. Johnson had Tommy John surgery in 2007, and this past season represented the beginning of the time when a player is supposed to show the benefits of that procedure. It wasn't just that Johnson was 15-7 last year, but that some of his NDs were heartbreaking; he could have easily won 20 with an offense to support him. Like Kazmir, he saw some high pitch counts by the 6th or 7th innings in many of his starts, but that is often something which fixes itself as the pitcher matures and becomes a smarter player.

At 6'7" and 240, he's an imposing figure standing on the mound. The downside to being that tall is that a small quirk in delivery can make a huge problem in the outcome, so a pitching coach needs constant vigilance to ensure that the mechanics are sound. 

Should the Angels make a move to lock up a young talent, knowing it will cost them talent as well? Would he become the cornerstone of a rotation for years to come? Is it smarter to pursue established starters like Halliday and Lackey, whose prime years may largely be gone, or to roll the dice on an impressive young player with huge upside?

On mlbtraderumors.com is a report that Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman dumped API as his representation and is now represented by the Hendricks Brothers who Kendry Morales recently defected and jumped ship to as his new representation. What does this mean? Probably nothing but this is the kind of story that keeps us warm during the hot stove league. Did API (who doesn't have another baseball or maybe even athlete as a client) rub too many teams the wrong way with their demands?

According to "Mlblogs":http://hotstove.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/11/rivera_a_trade_chip_for_angels.html

Juan Rivera has been indicated as Trade Bait, possibly for Curtis Granderson or Edwin Jackson.

This would make since if the Angels are not expecting to resign John Lackey. Jackson had a good 2009 season, posting a 3.62 ERA and 1.26 Whip.

Granderson could move from Center to Left and cost the club a similar $5.5M in 2010. He is signed through 2013 at 11=8.25M, 12=10M, 13=13M (courtsey of Cot's contracts).

                      AVG  HR  RBI  RUNS SO OBP    SLG

Granderson     .249   30    71      91     141 .327   .453

Rivera             .287   25    88      72      57  .332   .423

Now you've gotten your daily Granderson rumor.

Do you like this trade? Would you prefer Jackson or Granderson or someone else?

The void that will be created with the departures of John Lackey, Chone Figgins, Darren Oliver, and Vladimir Guerrero will be felt long after they sign new contracts with their new teams. Lackey is a true number one Ace, Figgins is a true lead off hitter and has great defensive skills, Oliver isn't only a lefty specialist, and Vladimir was the face of the franchise. But like Tony Reagins said on The Drive yesterday, you have to take the emotion out of the business decisions.

We Will Win, With What We Got or Lightning Strikes Twice.

Continue reading this post »

Quick usage tip for a common word on HH this offseason:

Here's the correct way to use the word that means "sign again" versus the one that means "retire voluntarily from a job" or "accept something undesirable that can't be avoided":

"I hope the Angels re-sign Vladdy, in part because when he resigns from baseball, he will go into the HOF as an Angel."

"If folks here continue to misspell re-sign, then I will be resigned to the fact that this is apparently the nature of The Internets."

Since we're in awards season (and The Soth aside, we're not going to see much action there), I thought I'd craft some alternative awards to recognize some of the more obscure achievements of the 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Rather than drifting into cliché and repetition (I'm not dishing out an award to Bobby for unsung hitting coach of the year, for instance), these have a vaguely quantitative feel (vague in the sense that there are numbers involved, but for the most part I have no idea what they really mean)*.

* - I have recently discovered Fangraphs and, notwithstanding some of the smug self-aggrandizing bollocks spoken by the numbers fascists over there, there are a couple of things which do tickle the interest, not least this bloke who is at least introducing some random poetry to his analysis (emphasis on the 'random' part)

And without further ado, the envelopes please…

Continue reading this post »

Alright, so I know most of the discussion so far about the offseason has involved our free agents (John Lackey, Chone Figgins, Vladimir Guerrero, and Darren Oliver), big hitting free agents (Jason Bay & Matt Holliday), and trades (anyone remember a discussion about Curtis Granderson?), but there has not been much discussion about other free agents on the market which could really help our team.

What REALLY concerns me is the bullpen. It was torture last year.

Continue reading this post »