moralesforpresident

"Verlander's BABIP has been quite low for over two years now, raising the question of whether he might have slightly more skill than other pitchers in limiting hits on balls in play. ... "Jered Weaver ... has had remarkable luck/defensive help on balls in play -- .225 BABIP, by far a career low." Seriously? With Weaver it's luck, but with Verlander it's skill? Not exactly relevant or news worthy, but it's agitating.

OK, it's more like not saying no, but still interesting. Given Dipoto's time in Arizona, it would not surprise me to see him at least get involved. Dipoto seems to value players more for what they can be than what they have been in the past (Ianetta, Frieri), and Upton has a world of talent. Time to buy low. I apologize to those statisticians who criticize Upton's production. I have a weak spot for toolsy players...

Our friend over at Halos Daily, Hudson Belinsky, is writing for the big boys over at ESPN. When you're being compared to Williams, Mantle, and Griffey you're certainly in good company.

"Trumbo averaged 424.9 feet per homer in May, best in baseball. For the season, Trumbo has averaged 422.3 feet per homer, has five shots of 430-plus feet and has only hit one less than 400 feet."

Every now and then ESPN has a decent article. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. "I don't like hearing Mickey Mantle's name when people talk about Mike, but shoot, the kid looks like him,'' Bane says. "He's got '80' power, and he'd be more than an 80 runner if you could go that high. What's the ceiling for guys like that? I've heard people say, 'If he has a lousy career, he'll be Kevin McReynolds.' And Kevin McReynolds was a heck of a player.''

Let the Pujols era begin.

Baseball Prospectus analyst Ben Lindbergh wrote an article for ESPN Insider listing the teams with the best positional improvements according to PECOTA's 2012 WAR predictions. To break it down, it says Albert is a 4.9 WAR improvement over Mark Trumbo, and Chris Ianetta is a 3.1 WAR improvement over that other guy. Translation: PECOTA predicts we added 8 wins simply by signing Pujols and trading for Ianetta. This isn't even factoring in CJ Wilson. Chatwood put up a -0.6 WAR last season while CJ provided 5 WAR. That's a significant upgrade.

"Pujols has asked not to be called that in deference to St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Stan Musial."

"Over the same span, Angel Stadium has a Ballpark Factor of 96, which is near the MLB average. Therefore, if a right-handed hitter has 20 home runs in a season in Busch, that converts to 24.7 home runs in Angel Stadium."

Apparently the Angels were discussing a deal that would have sent Abreu to the Skanks, but Burnett rejected the deal. Call me crazy, but if they sent cash our way in this deal, I'd do it.

Which begs the questions, should we keep him and for how much?

After factoring in the new deals for Callaspo and Aybar, we now have a final payroll for 2012. This does not, however, include our young guys making the MLB minimum. We'll have roughly ten guys making anywhere from $400-$600K, so you can add roughly $5M to that total. Impressive. That's the only word to describe it. Dipoto has already shown his aptitude and creativity. That's certainly a welcome change.

According to Dipoto, our payroll has reached it's limit (who knew?) and any further moves we make will likely be via trade. On trading either Kendrys or Trumbo: "We'd have to have a fairly compelling reason why we'd move either one right now."

Rev and WiHalofan both offer their two cents. However, the REAL reason I'm posting this is for a glorious Ricardo Marquez quote: "Closing games is a struggle for [the Angels]. Or you can just tell the Rangers they're playing in a World Series game. ZING!"

Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney for Josh Reddick, Miles Head, and Raul Alcantara. I'm just glad Texas didn't get him. I'm assuming that means Boston is out on Ryan Madson. Who else has the money to sign Madson? Sidenote: It's crazy how fast this news travels. I got the original tweet on my phone and less than 5 minutes later MLBTR has a full section on the deal.

I'm not particularly high on the writer, but on a slow news day it's something. He was fair in some parts, such as the closer situation, but some parts were questionable, such as a draw between Lewis and Santana. Problem is, the comparisons don't match our stars for their stars. For example, of course Pujols is better than Moreland, and as good as Bourjos is, he is no Josh Hamilton. All things considered, I think we have a deeper team than they do.

Rosenthal thinks if we sign CJ, we'd likely be out on Pujols. Nightengale says we can afford both. SIGN ALBERT

I'm glad to know we aren't caving into his $100 million asking price. I'd be happy if we could get him for five years and no more than $80 million.

Other noteable things in the article: The Angels may make a play for Wilson AND/or Ramirez. To make room on the payroll for such free agents, DiGiovanna speculates that Santana, Izturis, and Callaspo could be trade bait. JeDi's comments made it sound like we will be bigger players in the trade market than free agency.

Jim Bowden: Red Sox stiffest competition on Madson are coming clearly from the Blue Jays and Angels...this is a fun one to watch

Jim Crane is expected to shake things up with a new look in the Astros' front office.

Nothing really concrete here, but apparently they're talking. That's more than The Other Guy did.

Per Mike DiGiovanna TWEET, Dipoto is meeting with his agent in Milwaukee tonight. UPDATE: MLBTR says the Rangers are going to have to give CJ his world series ring AL pennant pledge pin when the Angels visit Arlington.

Per Saxon, Angels GM Jerry DiPoto is gauging Wilson's interest in playing close to home. Gurnick also outlined DiPoto's offseason priority list here.

Dipoto: "My preference is to explore the trade market." Plunkett agrees.

Two of which are working for teams still in the playoffs.

And indirectly suggests Kim Ng might be a GM candidate.

OK. So the Angels weren't completely cheap, just a little bit cheap.