Inside Pitch

Talking about among Angels fans.... MLB seems to have a better grasp on his value. But the divide between what he is and what some people here think he is seems pretty wide.

Iannetta as an Angel -- 105 OPS+. Weiters for his career -- 98 OPS+ Weiters would be an offensive downgrade from what we got from Iannetta. Weiters OPS+ last year was 87. Iannetta's gawd awful 2015 came in at 78. Obviously Weiters would be an uptick over what we have seen the last couple of years but there seems to be this belief going around that he's a better player than he's actually ever been.. His career best OPS+ in any full season was 110 ..... five years ago. Dude needs to take a one year make good contract from someone and call it a day.

How long have you known him? Is he a good kisser?

I like Cron... Im one of those guys that thinks his best years are in front of him. He has value.. I think he will have more.. I think some of my issues are I view 2017 as less about contending and more about helping fuel the next Angels run. Not saying they can't compete, I'm just in favor of creating a new, better, window. Anyway -- I don't hate Weiters, I just think he's more name than production these days. He would make them better, just not sure he makes them a lot better.

Sure, it's too early to say he is expensive moving forward but it's not hard to argue how expensive and overrated he's been in recent years and that was what was being comped in the post I responded to. So what do you think are the chances he signs for less than what Carlos Gomez did? I understand his options are dwindling, but he's another one of those guys who isn't likely to believe he's not worth a lot more. Gomez got 11.5... A guy viewed as a part time player (Valbuena), just got a 2 year 15 mil contract.. How low do you think Weiters will be willing to go, and just how much are you willing to pay for a guy who's been marginally better over 650 PAs than Maldonado? Mostly, I'd rather they throw money at arms at this point. I'd sooner advocate signing Weiters in hopes of him creating trade value than I would for actual performance -- I just don't think he is going to become the player many envisioned. Injuries have really hurt him.

Martin Maldonado 14 - 502K, 15 - 825K, 16 - 1.250M, (1.7 WAR 2.2 per 650 PA 14-16) Matt Weiters 14 - 7.7M, 15 - 8.3M, 16 - 15.6M, (3.2 WAR, 2.9 per 650 PA 14-16) One of these guys is massively overrated, and expensive. The other one is already signed for 1.7 Mil this year. Like Fletcher says -- Weiters has been trending down -- catchers don't typically get better in their 30s.

He's done.... people will try to look for something that supports the opinion that he got better -- whatever.. the dude isn't Jered Weaver anymore. All that being said, he's always been a bit of a BABIP outlier type, likely a byproduct of his deception and other crap we really can't identify with the numbers -- the smoke and mirrors. He was smokier and more mirrory in September but, still done. It's sad, I wish it wasn't true but it is.. Again, it's not something I can readily support with data, but I've often felt he managed to stave off the end for as long as he did because some hitters may have been expecting more of the old Weaver than what he's become. Anyway, I offer no predictions on what to expect next out of Weaver, but moving to the NL is likely his best shot at prolonging his career -- but it will all be built on smoke and mirrors IMO.

they all loo..... racist....

Looking forward to his speed impacting the Angels from SLC. Hopefully he will be able to see the third base coach waving him in.

Well, in recent years we signed guys knowing they were hurt and gave them guaranteed money anyway. If they are taking their time because of physical concerns this would be a huge step in the right direction.

12/6 curve.... He probably had the best 12/6 in MLB during his prime.

Good call dude,,,, 17-3, 2.67 lifetime

In August 2002.. There was talk of a potential strike, and prior to the vote Angels fans disrupted the game by throwing beachballs and crap to stop the game -- I guess to make the game last longer, this grew to include foul balls -- people were throwing them back and causing the umps to go chase after the balls -- they also chanted don't strike, don't strike during the 7th inning stretch too, I remember it well. So after the game Schoeneweis called them out -- questioned their class and made a few other smarmy comments, the big one comparing them to 4 year olds who get mad and throw stuff. Then to double down, he said something along the lines of he expected to work the next day, but he guaranteed that if they voted to strike he wouldn't. So yeah -- SS basically won a spot on a lot of people's shit list.

I was too, but I will never forget my Dad and his Ricky Ricardo accent saying "this effing guy, McGregror" anytime he was the SP against the Angels. Always cracked me up.

Arod, Brad Radke, Scott McGregor recently Bud Norris. Brad Radke absolutely owned the Angels... Career era of 4.22 .vs 2.09 against the Halos.

There was a huge born again story with Gaetti too -- IIRC the dude blew out his knee in like 1988 and while rehabbing found God. It was like overnight he went from being a boozing womanizing degenerate to walking around with a bible in hand trying to convert people. Gaetti went from being the lead party boy to admonishing his teammates for their life choices, the situation supposedly drove him and Hrbek apart but where it became most evident was in his play. As he rededicated his life to Christ and lost some of the fire to play he went from an OPS+ of 148 in his final season as a heathen to 88, then 76, and to 86 in his first season as an Angel. Gaetti was supposedly the original too blessed to be stressed Angel, it was said that when people would try to work with him he would rebuff them saying God had a plan and it would come together on it's own. So anyway, part of his moping was supposedly because nobody wanted to have him preach 24/7, he didn't have a history with guys and many just tried to avoid him like the plague - it's sad because the guy was doing his best to live a good life and stay on the straight and narrow after basically wrecking his marriage etc etc. Alas, the almighty apparently did have a plan.. Upon being released, it broke Gaetti, dude went on a bender and apparently after the stupor he did another 180... this time finding greater balance in his life. With the booze came the hits and everyone lived happily ever after. Last I heard Gaetti was managing the Sugarland Skeeters. Maybe one day he and Hamilton can unite and share stories about their lives as Angels.

Those weren't the droids I was looking for..

Dave Hollins.... Not only was this piece of human excrement one of Terry Collins' clubhouse goons, but when Glaus first came up he did everything he could to make his life miserable. It was so bad that Preston Gomez felt the need to ask him what was going on ... only to have Hollins tell him that if anyone expected him to help someone gunning for his job they were nuts and that he would stop at nothing to make sure Glaus didn't take it. Terry Collins BTW was okay with it because "the rookie had to learn his place". Leave it to a guy that never played a single day in MLB to be the warden of what it takes to be a MLB player. Anyway, the Angels traded Hollins before the start of 1999 for Tomas Perez.... he was released before the trading deadline. To this day the only time I've been happy to see a guy's career come screeching to a halt. FU, Hollins

Six...

2016....

eleventy

Wow.. Terrible news. Thoughts prayers to the family. RIP

Those baby blues really are awesome....

Your attempt at sarcasm aside, they were. Night and day different. Taking high risk high reward HS players with four of the top 6 picks is significantly different than what we saw under JD and what the Mariners did last year. It's normal for teams to take more college players than HS players - a trend that's been growing as bonus money has been scaled. Gone are the days when teams could make picks in the middle rounds on HS guys with college rides and offer them first round money. But make no mistake, Angels fans grew very accustomed to the type of college player JD went after. If last year is any indication, you will too.

Cez, the entire Angels run in the 00s was basically built by Bill Stoneman. He was famous for thinking farm first, second, and last -- so much so the knock on him from Angels fans was his unwillingness to part with prospects. There are similarities sure -- but to claim Stoneman was irrelevant is off-base. Without Bill Stoneman and the impact he had on both Disney (stopped them from tearing team apart), and Moreno (seemingly tempered his spending), the Angels don't win a WS or come close to their run of success. If anything the issue was that once he left the Angels went back to the sort of stupid; spend first, think second, ways that made/kept them a second division club for most of their history.