Angels acquire Danny Espinosa from Nats for Kyle McGowin and Austin Adams

[zenmaster]

I'm sure it's been mentioned already but we traded for Yunel on dec 10 last year and Danny on dec 10, both from the nationals of course. Maybe we will sign Bryce next year on dec 10

[stormngt]

12 hours ago, gotbeer said:

For the lolz.  Seriously though.  I can't think of one player we have aquired that has improved, and more often than not, they seem to get worse.

Simmons says helli

[totdprods]

1 minute ago, stormngt said:

Simmons says helli

Marte, Nolasco, Bailey, Guerra, and Ramirez chime in as well. 

Hmmm....I see a trend.

[CanadianHalo]

About as good as it gets! Like it!

[totdprods]

I don't see it happening, and it would be quite a break from the plan, but it Turner did somehow fall into our laps, what a crazy defense this team would have. 

Escobar's role as lead-off hitter is more important than ever now though. Many of us had thought about a 2B who was high contact and high OBP and could slot in at the top, but Espinosa certainly doesn't fit that. 

[JAHV76]

I like that it's only one year of Espinosa's contract.  Its a minimal risk deal at a reasonable cost and since he will be playing for a contract next season it's in his best interest to have his best season as possible.

[Hubs]

8 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

Do you even realize the offensive "production" this team got from 2B in 2016? Why in the world would he need to hit like Dozier to be an upgrade? That's absurd. He needs to hit like Gia did, which won't be hard.

Giavotella wasnt the answer. Last year they had three black holes on offense and while we addressed LF how does acquiring one of the worst offensive NL players improve 2nd? So we went from 30th in production to 29? Defensively this is a win, but if he's a black hole on offense? If they bring in a platoon partner and ditch Pennington I'll be happy. Espinosa has really only been the full time guy two of the last four years. 2012 at 2B and 2016 at SS. He should be used to a platoon and Utley or Drew would reall make me happy now. (Or Turner, of course)

[Second Base]

I know other people don't think it's a sexy move, but it's pretty exciting to me. We're going to prevent a ton of runs with our defense now, which makes our pitchers better. Not only that, we added a local kid that's going to punch 20 HR in the bottom of our lineup!

[totdprods]

Looked up Espinosa's HRs yesterday and most of them weren't cheap shots - I think all but maybe two would have gone out at Angel Stadium, so it's not like his numbers were inflated. 

I read also that for a good portion of the season, his strikeout rate was lower than it had ever been, and his walk rate was higher than it had ever been - it got away from him at the end of the year when he had a big slump. But there are some signs that he is capable of improving on his offensive side of the game still as well.

[AngelStew43]

I would like to see if he could do what Simmons did last year, and raise the batting average.  If Espinoza can hit .250 with 15 HR, its a steal of a deal.

[Rico]

He has problem making contact, maybe he just needs glasses.

 

[Troll Daddy]

Another Shoemaker breard ... yuck

[Blarg]

Looks like a cast member of Duck Dynasty.

[totdprods]

Being quite the bearded fellow myself, I read up on Espinosa's facial hair fables as he has also had a ridiculously awesome mustache in the past. 

Turns out, his plan is to grow some unwieldy facial hair over the offseason and wear it through picture day in spring training, then shaving it all off, so all year long his scoreboard and profile pics have crazy facial hair that doesn't match his on-field appearance. The Nats apparently did not like this and drummed up clean-shaven photos instead, feeling Espinosa was making a mockery of it all.

[Redondo]

59 minutes ago, AngelStew43 said:

I would like to see if he could do what Simmons did last year, and raise the batting average.  If Espinoza can hit .250 with 15 HR, its a steal of a deal.

Icing on the cake if he can do that

[totdprods]

I'd even be fine sacrificing some batting average if he can keep building on his walks. For the first half of last year, he was doing a much better job of drawing walks and controlling strikeouts, then had a couple really rough months in the second half where it got away from him. But he showed some progress. 

I'm also optimistic that simply by playing in a new league may benefit him. I think it helped Simmons last year. Both had some of their best offensive seasons in their first full year, giving me a hunch that pitchers underestimate them at first and make adjustments after a year or so. Simmons '16 line reinforced that thinking for me. Will be interesting to see if Simmons turned a corner last year or just took advantage of pitchers not knowing his weaknesses, and to see if Espinosa can take the same advantage this year. 

[Brent Maguire]

This trade got me thinking: Is Cliff Pennington necessary now? With Espinosa on board, he has the flexibility to play 2B/SS/3B. Maybe Eppler has more planned now that he has 3 shortstops on board.

Maybe Eppler can shop Pennington as a piece that can offset an overpaid reliever/starter coming back to Anaheim? Glen Perkins(coming off shoulder surgery/owed 6.5 mil in '17) or Clay Buccholz(owed 13.5 mil in '17) are 2 guys who make sense. Hypothetically, you could get either guy, with cash thrown in with Buccholz. Now, you've added another pitcher and can utilize the rest of the cash for one more reliever/starter and add someone like Chris Coghlan who can play some 2B and LF. 

Maybe they really do plan to have Espinosa play 2B all year long but I could see Eppler acquiring another part time 2B like Coghlan/Drew who can spell Espinosa and allow Danny to play some other positions too. 

 

[totdprods]

6 minutes ago, Angels_Baseball said:

This trade got me thinking: Is Cliff Pennington necessary now? With Espinosa on board, he has the flexibility to play 2B/SS/3B. Maybe Eppler has more planned now that he has 3 shortstops on board.

Maybe Eppler can shop Pennington as a piece that can offset an overpaid reliever/starter coming back to Anaheim? Glen Perkins(coming off shoulder surgery/owed 6.5 mil in '17) or Clay Buccholz(owed 13.5 mil in '17) are 2 guys who make sense. Hypothetically, you could get either guy, with cash thrown in with Buccholz. Now, you've added another pitcher and can utilize the rest of the cash for one more reliever/starter and add someone like Chris Coghlan who can play some 2B and LF. 

Maybe they really do plan to have Espinosa play 2B all year long but I could see Eppler acquiring another part time 2B like Coghlan/Drew who can spell Espinosa and allow Danny to play some other positions too. 

 

I brought this up earlier - thinking about it more, it does make it theoretically possible but I can't see it being part of the plan. It does give them flexibility to be more open to a Coghlan/Descalso guy as the 4th OF/2B bench player, instead of limiting themselves to pure 4th OF options like Crisp/Revere. Maybin could serve as the back-up CF. They probably feel it is in both Danny and the Angels interest he goes into '17 comfortable knowing he is the everyday 2B and can focus on adjusting to the league and the position change without worrying about playing time, especially as that was his chief concern in Washington. 

I do think that if for some reason a club inquires about Cliff it does give them much more of a safety net to let him go, and it's possible if Danny does well here he would be willing to re-sign and potentially be happy with a super-sub role here being that he is local. 

[totdprods]

Some good reading on Espinosa:

'Danny Espinosa is Better Than You Want to Admit' from The Nats Blog (2016)

'So, Danny Espinosa Has Hit 18 Homers' from Fangraphs (2016)

A rather benign 2014 WaPost article but has a nice Espinosa bit in the middle on his base-running

Aforementioned 2016 WaPost article about using his facial hair to troll Nats photographers

A YouTube highlight reel from first half of '14

 

 

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, totdprods said:

Being quite the bearded fellow myself, I read up on Espinosa's facial hair fables as he has also had a ridiculously awesome mustache in the past. 

Turns out, his plan is to grow some unwieldy facial hair over the offseason and wear it through picture day in spring training, then shaving it all off, so all year long his scoreboard and profile pics have crazy facial hair that doesn't match his on-field appearance. The Nats apparently did not like this and drummed up clean-shaven photos instead, feeling Espinosa was making a mockery of it all.

That's awesome. I am now a fan of Danny Espinosa.

(I'm also a bearded fellow)

[totdprods]

For us who wanted Josh Harrison, we got a guy fairly comparable. Way more k's, but way more power. Cheaper and a switch-hitter too.

[greginpsca]

Just looking at stats, i think we just traded for Caleb Cowart.. Low batting average, low obp, good defense, a little bit of hr power, switch hitter. But we payed $ 5 mil more than Cowart. If it weren't for the intentional walks Danny was given batting 8th, so they could get to the pitcher, he would have a sub ,300 obp. This trade makes no sense to me as he is what 6 years older than Caleb. This , to me , only makes sense if they plan on using Caleb at 3rd and trading Escobar for a pitcher. This would make for a lockdown infield defense.

 

[ispy45]

3 hours ago, zenmaster said:

I'm sure it's been mentioned already but we traded for Yunel on dec 10 last year and Danny on dec 10, both from the nationals of course. Maybe we will sign Bryce next year on dec 10

Next year, Bryce is not a free agent. 

[Make Angels Great Again]

Nats fans seem ecstatic to be rid of him.

[Brent Maguire]

10 minutes ago, greginpsca said:

Just looking at stats, i think we just traded for Caleb Cowart.. Low batting average, low obp, good defense, a little bit of hr power, switch hitter. But we payed $ 5 mil more than Cowart. If it weren't for the intentional walks Danny was given batting 8th, so they could get to the pitcher, he would have a sub ,300 obp. This trade makes no sense to me as he is what 6 years older than Caleb. This , to me , only makes sense if they plan on using Caleb at 3rd and trading Escobar for a pitcher. This would make for a lockdown infield defense.

 

This is a lazy comparison. Espinosa is much better defensively and his power and walks make him useful offensively. Cowart has shown zero signs to figuring it out offensively and if the Angels thought highly of him, he would've been handed a gig a while ago.