Angelsjunky

Good news about Conger - I'd really like to see Hammerin' Hank do well and even--dare I say?--fulfill his earlier potential as the catcher of the future for the Angels. I think he's a potential .800 OPS hitter so if he can manage even just mediocre defense he's going to be a major plus. I agree with this roster 100%. Calhoun and Jimenez need a bit more polish and Shuck has a nice OBP/decent speed package that is more ideal for a 4th outfielder/pinch runner.

Here's a case in point: Albert Pujols 2012: Spring Training: .383/.437/.850 with 7 HR in 23 games March/April: .217/.265/.304 with 0 HR in 23 games Hmm.

To be honest I'm still a bit mixed on Jerry's work. I think the Pujols contract is going to be really ugly for at least half of it, and the Hamilton one is questionable and a huge over-pay. I'd also have preferred to give Haren one more year, at least over the three starters he brought in. But I think its a bit soon to say. This year is rather huge in terms of whether Dipoto's various gambles have paid off: Can Pujols come back strong? Can Hamilton re-find his superstar stroke? Was letting Haren and/or Santana go a mistake? What about Hanson? Etc. In other words, the jury is still out either way.

Good job, Dave. I like how you school him on Lincoln. LOL.

I heard he's going to be living in Trout's mom's basement.

To quote Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Yeah, for some reason I think Aybar is going to have a career year.

What an absolute moron.

Of course not, but I just think that many of us Angels fans are setting ourselves up for disappointment. Trout had a historic season in 2012 and while it is possible that he equals or even surpasses it in 2013, chances are he's going to drop a bit. Now I don't buy into a lot of the rather pessimistic outlooks that I've read from many stathead pundits about Trout, but if we're talking about probabilities than predicting 35 HR and 60 SB, while possible, is very, very unlikely.

I should have known based upon your picture there.

Scotty, I think you're being very optimistic with regards to Trout and Pujols. I'm not saying that I out-right disagree with you and I certainly hope you're right, but my expectations are quite a bit lower, maybe something like .290/.370/.500 with 25 HR and 40 SB for Trout, and .290/.350/.550 with 33 HR for Pujols.

I hope this is satire. If not, here's one for you: Why should American law reflect Christian belief? And not even all Christian belief, but fundamentalist literalist belief? Do you disagree with the founding fathers on freedom of religion?

I'm so sick of (some) Christians telling everyone again and again that they see homosexuality as a sin. I mean, who cares? Just keep it out of government legislation.

807

It would take at least Conger, Cowart and Maronde.

They also have the Rangers at #3, which seems a bit high.

So in retrospect the Angels paid (or will pay) Vernon Wells a total of $71 million. The original four years remaining was abou $89 million, minus $5 million that Toronto paid = $84 million. The Yankees pay $13 million of his remaining contract which brings us to $71 million. This is what the Angels got for $71 million: 208 games, .222/.258/.409, 36 HR, 95 RBI, -0.3 rWAR Could that be the worst large sum ever spent in big league history?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/brad-mills-claimed-rangers-angels-192251335--mlb.html

Maybe, maybe not. Wells' numbers will get better in NY. I could see him hitting .250/.320/.450 with 25 HR. Couple that with pretty good defense and all of a sudden he's a 2 WAR player.

Or another way to look at it...

This keeps getting better. Sounds like its virtually a done deal and they're just hammering out numbers. My guess is the Angels still pay $25-30MM of the $42MM remaining. I can't see even the Yankees wanting to spend more than $10-15MM on two years of Wells.

Jeff Passan tweets: "Hearing money going back to Yankees is not nearly as significant as one might think." Now this is really a tease.

It is unlikely the Angels get anything more than a grade C prospect for Wells alone. If they're throwing in someone else they might get a decent arm.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Conger and/or Callaspo involved. Hopefully Dipoto has somehow managed to pry Gary Sanchez or Austin Romine from the Yankees.