A.P. Reporting, 12/21/2023, 11 hours 6 minutes ago -- Agent Scott Boras has come to terms with The Devil for a contract spanning 27 years and just over $1.2 billion.  Reports from inside sources confirm that the deal came together quickly following news that a mystery deity had entered the fray with a 26 year offer.  It had been widely speculated that The Devil had an offer on the table for 25 years approaching a billion dollars and that that offer had been not been accepted in the week prior to these turn of events.

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http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/free-agent-joel-pineiro

Check the link, there’s the difference. Joel Pineiro sucked until he developed a two-seam fastball. He didn’t have one until 2008, and then it became his go-to pitch in 2009, when he basically ceased using his four-seam fastball (which doesn’t have much movement). In 2007, he used his four-seam fastball 54% of the time.  36% in 2008.  11% in 2009.  Meanwhile, he basically didn't HAVE a two-seamer in 2007 and prior, with it only being 3% of his pitches in 2007, but then 23% in 2008, and then a whopping 59% in 2009.

This suggests that the improvement is very likely sustainable to a good degree!

More fun facts:  The new pitch has apparently been generally mis-identified.  It isn't a two-seam fastball, but actually a one-seam sinker.  Helps to explain the increase in Piñeiro's ground-ball rate from around 48% in most years to over 60% last year (among the best in the majors).  This likely also helps explain how he halved his home run per flyball rate from previous years as well.  The only thing that I have a hard time believing he can maintain is his absurd 1.14 walks per 9 innings rate.  I think that might've been best in the majors last year, and while I'm sure that he should be able to keep his walk rate lower than in years past, that rate is just unbelievable and likely to rise at least a little.

Bottom line - he's unlikely to repeat his 3.49 ERA from last year.  But if he can even post a 4.00, that's just incredible from a guy we're calling our 5th starter!

The other cool thing is that it was big Mariner’s fan Dave Cameron that wrote the article back in November, so anytime a Mariner fan gives you shit about this signing… feel free to point this out!

Update:  It wasn't Dave Cameron that wrote the article, it was Dave Allen.  That's too bad... but the point still stands!

Update x2:  Rob Neyer just quoted us from this post:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/2107/which-pineiro-are-angels-getting

Of course, being the notorious Angel hater that he is (how many years in a row has he predicted the A’s to win the West now?), he fails to comprehend the key parts of the post. Not surprising.

Now, let me take this opportunity should Neyer still be paying attention to say this: Eff you, you horrible, biased son of a…

Thanks to the pending Mariner signing of Figgins, the Angels are in line to receive the #18 overall pick in the draft next year (thank you, Seattle!).  Should Seattle also sign Bay, this really screws us over, as Bay is ranked a higher Type A free agent according to Elias Rankings, which means that now the d***** Red Sox would get Seattle's #18 pick, and we'd only get Seattle's 2nd round pick.  By signing Bay, Seattle in effect would help Boston out while simultaneously screwing the Angels.

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Update:  I woke up to big car trouble this morning on the way to work, and it's going to be expensive.  So as much as it breaks my heart, I really can't afford to go or to organize this anymore. 

For anyone that still wants to go, I would highly recommend watching StubHub throughout the day today and even tomorrow morning, as I would expect after yesterday that prices will drop significantly.  So, use this FanPost to organize any fans that can go, I would love to hear about a meetup!  I'll be cheering all of you on from home!

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Who were Torii and Lackey quick to credit with the ALDS wins?

The FANS.

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Seems like a lot of stories recently have been questioning who the Angels MVP is this year, and whether we have multiple candidates for league MVP.  So, I thought I'd take a look at who it takes to be hot for the team to win.  Using www.baseball-reference.com, I'm comparing all of our starter's stats during wins and losses.  Here is what we see (sorted by OPS in wins):

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While I'm admittedly a huge Sean Rodriguez and Brandon Wood fan, every once in a while you have to acknowledge insane performances from unlikely candidates. 

And that is exactly what happened today when 29 year old AA Arkansas Traveler CF Coby Smith hit two home runs.  In one inning.

Coby Smith 2HR in 1st Inning of tonight's game

While the Angels were busy putting together another come from behind victory, our minor league teams were busy saying "Hey, don't forget about us.  With all the talk of how barren the Angel's farm system is now due to promotions, we still have what it takes."

Anyway, not groundbreaking news, just thought I'd give a shout out where it was deserved!

Our whole farm is entirely devoid of any kind of decent hitting prospects.  Oh no!  Whatever will we do!?!

Oh, except these guys today:

AAA SLC:
S-Rod 3-4 today with his 19th HR in 206 AB.  That projects to 55 in 600 AB (granted, this is the PCL, but that's still impressive).  That all with an avg/obp/slg line of .310/.412/.660.  After seeing his defensive skills earlier this year in the majors, is there not at least a shot we see him starting at SS for the Angels in 2009?

AA Arkansas:
So I went to look at Rancho, and noticed that 1B Mark Trumbo didn't play today, so I had this sneaky suspicion he'd been promoted.  Sure enough, he had!  Just today!  In his AA debut?  Try 5-5 for 2 HR and a double.  That puts his MILB season total at 28 in 412 AB.  Oh, and if that wasn't enough, Chris Pettit, who missed most of the beginning of the year hit 2 tonight as well.  Both were back to back with Trumbo. 

For all the talk of how our system has no good prospects left, I'm not sure I agree.  And this is without even discussing our elite prospects Conger, Walden and Adenhart, nor those starting to show solid growth despite being a little to old to be considered star prospects, aka Sandoval, Matt Brown and Jason Bulger, nor the slightly-starting-to-be-kinda-frustrating-but-supposedly-elite-prospect Brandon Wood.

Update: To put this in perspective, I'm including a chart of S-Rod's age 23 season in AAA and D-Mac's age 23 season split between AA and AAA. It should help explain why this is so exciting. Also, if you include D-Mac's age 28 MILB season, you see that while he is hitting more HR, it's not drastically faster rate, and S-Rod has a much better AVG and actually draws walks, too! The only disclaimer here is that D-Mac kept this performance up over a much larger sampling of AB. All stats include S-Rod's performance today. A little crazy, eh?

Much like the MLB teams, Angels AAA affiliate SLC took down the Mariner's own very best (worst) Tacoma to the tune of 20-7 last night.  Box Score Here.  Wow, Seattle really can't catch a break recently, huh?  Gotta love it.

Sean Rodriguez, not to be outdone by Chris Pettit's 7 RBI performance for AA Arkansas the day before, went 3-5 with a 3 run HR, a 2 run HR, a double, 4 runs scored and EIGHT RBI.  (Yes, I understand I'm venturing dangerously close into Acuda MILB-mancrush territory with S-Rod.  It's a slippery slope).

Also, Nick Adenhart picked up his 6th win of the season with the Bees.  Unfortunately, it was the offense that caused the win, not so much his pitching prowess.  He went 5 IP, allowing 10 hits and 7 ER with 3 HR to raise his ERA to a whopping 5.74 on the year.  Something tells me he might benefit from repeating AAA in 2009...

It's a bit early to call this, maybe, but we might have a new #1 prospect after this year.  Here are the numbers from 2008 so far, and what they project to based on 575 AB at SLC. 

Want to take a guess who that is?

No, it's not Brandon Wood.  It's our very own 23-year-old Sean Rodriguez.  Think it's kind of fluky?  Clearly he had a poor 2007, but go back and check out his 2006 MILB stats.  He may not have 40-50 HR power, but the 30 HR potential is there with a decent average.  He has also reduced his K rate from 26% of the time in 2007 to only 17% in 2008. 

Towards the end of his time in the majors before Figgy and Howie came back he started showing signs of coming to life.  While he's primarily played 2B this year in the majors and minors, in 2006 and 2007 he spent most of his time at SS.  While Aybar is working to become our everyday SS, if S-Rod keeps this up, he might force the organizations hand in 2009 or 2010! 

Thoughts?

Let's have a little fun with our magic 8 balls today and make some predictions for 2008.  Here's my take:

Boston/NYY/Tampa Bay/Toronto/Baltimore
Detroit/Cleveland/Minnesota/Kansas City/Chi Sox
Angels/Mariners/Oakland/Texas

NYM/Philly/Atlanta/Washington/Florida
Chi Cubs/Milwaukee/Cincinnati/Houston/St Louis/Pittsburgh
Arizona/LAD/Colorado/San Diego/San Francisco

Best Record:  Tied between Detroit and Angels
Worst Record:  San Francisco by a mile

ALDS:
Angels over Cleveland(WC)
Detroit over Boston
ALCS:
Detroit over Angels (sorry, folks)

NLDS:
NYM over LAD(WC)
Arizona over Cubs
NLCS:
Arizona over NYM

WS:  Detroit over Arizona in 6

Thoughts, anybody have any bold predictions?

Alright everyone, we're about halfway into Spring Training, and so let's take a second to look at what we've seen thus far, and insight into what we'll be looking at these last two weeks before Opening Day.

• Torii Hunter has not yet proven to be overpaid.  If anything, he's a bargain having gone 11 for 18 with 8 extra base hits thus far.  His 2.021 OPS leads all MLB players with at least 15 AB.  While we can't expect this production to continue at this rate, it's encouraging to see his excitement to be hanging out with the Rally Monkey in Tempe.
• Aybar, or Izturis?  Thus far Izturis' bat has been slightly stronger than Aybar, but neither has been a slouch, either (.950 OPS vs .762).  Neither has committed an error, leaving open the possibility of a 50-50 platoon this year.  Also, while Wood has hit 2 dingers in 24 AB, he also leads the Angels in Ks at 10.  Back to AAA he goes to start the year.
• Darren O'Day wins the bullpen spot vacated due to Bootcheck's injury to start the year.  Tip back one for O'Day on Monday for St. Patty's Day, but while this one isn't official yet, it's looking awfully likely.  In 9.1 innings this spring, he has not yet allowed a run, only 2 hits, yet has 10 K's.  Dude might not even hit 90mph, but lookout for him to hit the Anaheim bullpen sooner rather than later. 
• Ervin Santana, after a dominant playoff series in the Dominican Republic, has picked up right where he left off last year in the rotation.  In 8.2 IP, he's allowed 8 ER for a not-so-healthy ERA of 8.31.  While he's a lock to start the season in the rotation due to Kelvim's shoulder soreness, keep an eye on him, as if he continues in this vein he won't hold the 5th spot in the rotation over Saunders for very long.
• Peter Bourjos, at just 21 years old, has gone from low-A ball last year, to being clearly on the Angels radar at this point.  Scioscia has been quoted as saying he's rivaling Willits and Haynes for the title of "fastest Angel in camp," and it's not just his speed that has impressed.  At 8 for 18 this spring with a 1.111 OPS, keep an eye on this youngster this year to see how he does in A ball, as at this rate he may end up in Arkansas by years-end.

While these aren't the only stories this spring, these have been the most interesting.  Let me know if I missed anything, and we'll take another look at the end of camp to see where things stand!

Poll edit:  Scratch Jose Arrendondo off the list.  Despite not earning a run yet in 5 IP this Spring, he has been reassigned to minor league camp.  This would appear to clearly be a reflection of our front office's position on his "attitude problems."  Keep an eye on him, though, as he would clearly be a candidate for a September call-up or fill in due to injury.

Just a reminder from last year, this is how to get to gameday links for spring training. Example link:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/y2007/gd.html?2008_02_27_cinmlb_phimlb_1&brand=mlb

The only 3 things you will need to change are in bold: the date, the away team first, and the home team second. All the teams use 3 letter codes, we will always be ANA. Most 3 letter codes are obvious, the only ones that are confusing are cities that have two teams. For those, the 3rd letter is always either A or N to denote AL or NL. (Example: NYA = yanks, NYN = mets)

Hope this is clear! And no, gameday doesn't have our split squad game today, but yes, it should have tomorrow's opener against Tehas!

Per ESPN

Too bad its only a minor league deal.  This should make them contenders this year.  It might just be enough to push them over the top.  The scale has been tipped in their favor (pun intented).

Good luck chewing on this one, Sox fans... I know Colon will.  Twinkies, that is.  Ho hos, maybe.

MLBTraderumors.com has announced, per Ken Rosenthal, that the Blue Jays and Cardinals have swapped 3B Scott Rolen and none other than our very own ex-Angel Troy Glaus.  

This seems, at least offensively, to be a steal for the Cards.  Rolen at his offensive peak of the last 3 years was Glaus' average over the last 3 years.  Defense, on the other hand, is a different story...

Note:  Rosenthal's story on foxsports.com says the deal is not done and still is pending physicals for both players.

Interview with Bill, from mlb.com

He's not talking about baseball in the quote, but it is funny how many would agree with this in the baseball sense, as well:

"Stoneman: Oh, Diane handles that [X-Mas shopping]. I may be the world's worst shopper -- unless it's at a hardware store. I'm great in the hardware store, but everywhere else I'm pretty useless."

Happy holidays everyone :)

Fox Sports MLB page

Click on the fourth picture of the main stories.

Big picture of Big Bart.

Headline:

"GETTING THIN"

It's a story about how thin the free agent market has gotten at this point, but seriously?  Too funny.  Check it out before it gets taken down!

Time for some more egg nog...

Per mlbtraderumors.com,

Tony Jackson of the L.A. Daily News reports that the Dodgers have signed Kuroda to a three-year deal worth between $36-40MM, pending a physical.  The Dodgers will go with Brad Penny, Chad Billingsley, Derek Lowe, Kuroda, and Jason Schmidt if he's healthy. Esteban Loaiza might have to move to the bullpen for now.

Lookout Landing realizes this means that the M's now will end up ponying up far too much for Silva, or make a dumb trade with Adam Jones.

With Oakland trading Haren yesterday, Seattle doing a whole lot of nothing, and Texas being, well, the Rangers... this is looking like an August pennant clinch for the Angels, barring injury catastrophy.

We've spent a lot of time talking about whether or not Hunter is enough extra pop in the lineup to make us successful.  So, I put together a chart to see what a 2008 lineup would look like vs what we fielded in 2007.

Assumptions:
-Howie and Kotchman actually play a full season, and naturally mature into slightly more power.
-Lineup will play a role, and may not be what Scoscia actually pencils in.
-Vlad and GA regress.  This is to be conservative.  I actually would guess Vlad would rebound a bit from a down power year.
-Scoscia doesn't lose his mind and put Aybar out there instead of Izturis 4-5 times a week.  This is a big if, knowing Scoscia's man-crush on Aybar.
-We make no further moves before April (hope this isn't true)

So, without further ado, my projections:

In 2007 we placed 27th out of 30 MLB teams.  If we'd achieved the 162 I'm projecting here, we'd have been 20th, right above Seattle.

Thoughts?  Anybody agree, disagree?  And if so, why?

I think we have all grown to realize we're odds on favorites to win the AL West through at least 2009.

Given that our potential (potential bastards) trade partners, the Marlins, have won 2 championships in the last two decades, it does beg the question of what an appropriate franchise strategy should be.

(For the record, I'd rather have option A, and compete every year, even if we're not favorites to win it all)

I was a huge early supporter of Cabrera, even prior to A-Rod going back to the skanks.  

At first news of the move, I did have a moment of panic, thinking "what in the hell will we do now?"

The more I think about that statement, though, the more it rings true.  What will we do now?

The reason why we have such difficulty finding any other new trade ideas is, simply put:

We have a hell of a team, and one that is built on contending for many years to come.

Is that to say Cabrera wouldn't have greatly improved our chances next year?  Of course not, he would have been a fantastic addition at 3B and as protection for Vlad.  That said, missing out on him does not end our clear advantage over the AL West for the next 2-3 years. Additionally, the move nearly guarantees that Detroit's new-found lack of pitching depth will keep them from being a force in the playoffs between 2009-2011.  

I don't like that we got beat here, but it's not the end of the world.  Reagins may, or may not, have more up his sleeve, but at this point, I think we should be content with what we have for 2008, and trade any excess OF and SP depth for minor league talent to keep our farm system one of the best for the years ahead.