disarcina

and so it begins is right. we've seen this movie before.........

Beatlesrule: can't buy me time -- I understand your position about auto draft -- but for folks in our league, it's impossible to arrange a live draft.......too many schedules to accommodate for folks to all be in one place at one time, even if my computer or phone.......

significant upgrade at SS. who is our catching dept. looks like a platoon there.

no interest in joining an ESPN fantasy league with other AW.com posters. this is a low maintenance league --- takes maybe five minutes a day to participate and you can set line up a week at a time if you choose to do so. auto pick ESPN draft so no need to coordinate all league members being in one place at one time. if no interest expressed will open the last spot up to non- AW.com folks.

I think the biggest selling point for the 2016 Halos is that the other AL West teams really are not that great. I see us competing. The key, as always, will be pitching -- last year our starting rotation over-performed during the first half of the season and did quite well. Everyone got tired at the end and sort of a let down -- but few expected the rotation to do as well as it did the first half and into the second........this year the rotation will be bolstered by a better defense behind it....Simmons at SS is a major upgrade (although I liked Aybar) and Escobar at 3B is an improvement over Freese (has Freese signed with anyone yet?) We have some weakness at 2B -- I think Giovatella is going to have to work hard to keep the starting job coming out of ST..our pen looks good -- we have some depth in the starting rotation -- to the point that could see one of our starters -- Santiago ?? -- being dealt for a 2B during ST. Halos defense should be better in 2016 than 2015 -- and we lost some games last year because of defense. Could the Halos have done more during this past off-season -- Yeah -- but that's ok. We should be competitive.

agreed that Kazmir has somehow made it back - not all the way back to where he was when pitching for Tampa Bay and was among the league leaders in K's for several seasons. but us Halos fans just recall him pitching in several starts and then in lesser pen roles when he totally lost whatever he once had. as for the NL West -- I think the SF Giants look pretty good - rotation, starting line up, bull pen and team chemistry.

I may catch the Saturday March 19 game at Tempe Diablo. Late change of plans opens that day up for me and I plan to go to the Angels game and stay to at least until the subs all come in about the 7th inning....

I know we're not going to have an AW.com Fanfest this year -- and I applaud and thank the AW.com folks for making that announcement early on -- they certainly deserve a rest from organizing what had/ has become a huge event. Who is all going to ST this year? I will be at the Halos game in Tempe (vs. Mariners) on Tuesday, March 15 and on Friday, March 18 at Surprise Stadium (Angels at KC Royals). other games as well . but those two are the Halos games I'll be seeing. looking forward to seeing Simmons at SS. He's going to prevent a fair number of runs this season. Pitchers will be liking that. Who's at second base? that'll be interesting to watch this ST.

We have an ESPN league composed primarily of Angelswin.com members. The league is now in about it's 12th year or so. We have TWO team owners who have not signed up for 2016 and those spots are now available to two Angelswin.com members who contact me ASAP and express an interest in joining. Please list your e-mail address in the text expressing an interest (not just relying upon the AW.com return e-mail)....... READ THIS about our league before deciding if you want IN: -- our league is for the baseball fan who follows the game but is not a 24/7 fantasy league fan. -- we do a robo auto draft through ESPN because its way too difficult to get any of the team owners in the same place at the same time. -- it takes five minutes or less per day to adjust your line up and you can skip a day or so because you can set your line up for the week. -- we DO need team owners to PLAY ALL THE WAY TO THE LAST DAY OF THE SEASON -- as every's team's score impacts other team's scores...........so if you're in 7th place in this 8 team league and have no hope of catching up during the last month of the season -- don't give up.......play right to the end. -- we are a KEEPER league so you have until March 14 to pick FIVE keepers from the team you inherit. -- the auto draft is set for Good Friday, March 25. -- we are a very simple overall points scoring league - sabermetric type stats - no weekly head to head match up stuff. -- this league is not for the rabid FLB guy who's life apparently revolves around FLB -- this is for the fan who wants to keep up with all MLB players (because playing FLB does that) but not spend half of his/her waking time doing so. -- some that want a more intense FLB experience may consider this league FLB - lite. So be it. Less time consuming, plays better. If you want IN drop me a AW. com message.

am sure our folks here saw the headline in today's LA Times -- Scott Kazmir may be the number two starter for the Dodgers starting the 2016 season........... wow! I still remember him getting lit up in every type of role the Halos tried to give him before they DFA'd/ released him. The Halos gave him every chance. Now after having some success with the A's - he's Dodgers number two rotation guy..........perhaps the Dogs can call upon Blanton in relief.............

did they really shut down the MLB message boards -- haven't even checked over there in a number of years. I used to like to some of the other team's message boards on the ESPN site - some like the Cardinals and the Cubs that were pretty active. Could learn more stuff about the team and position battles during ST than in traditional media outlets........but have not even checked the ESPN message board in, geez, maybe five years......which would have been to look in on the Angels board there one look (less than ten seconds) told me the place was a wasteland.......they had a guy with 50 repetitive posts in a row spewing some sort of nonsense........no wonder ESPN shut it down....better late than never.

Unfortunately, the crash with a thud of his Angels career and the circumstances surrounding it, over-shadow the fact that Tony Phillips was a good playmaker type player -- could play numerous positions, had speed, was great as leader off hitter and even had some decent power....... He was a spark-plug type player who spent a good portion of this career with the A's.... He was a solid player who manufactured runs and made the whole team better. Unfortunately, his demons got the better of him -- he played a few more seasons (for other teams) after the Angel debacle incident on Katella -- but was really the same. He was once a very good ballplayer who just helped teams win.

For all those concerned that we would get next to nothing for letting T. Featherston go, - well you were and are right. How the Angels kept Rule 5 guy on the 25 man roster all last season, taking up space in the dugout but playing little and getting barely 100 ABs -- just so we could KEEP HIM and not send him back to Colorado -- well, here we are - we DFA Featherston this year and send him ((I forgot where he landed -- it was a minor league deal for us one step ahead of DFA time running out) out to make space for LHP Christian Friedrich who we are told was once a prospect with great stuff........ and now we're sending him back to where he came..........so, yeah, we got less than nothing for Featherston and the taking up of a roster spot for the entire 2015 season.

As for Seattle, they've got that great ballpark up there and yearn for success which has been very elusive. Really, the only high priced free agent that has worked out really well for them is Robinson Cano -- most of the folks the M's signed to big contracts seems to immediately tank once they hit Seattle. One prime example is Adrian Beltre who had hit something like 42 HRs from the 3B position for LA Dogs, signs the big deal with the M's and is barely above .200 by the All Star break that year....he rebounded the second half (after the M's were out of the race and the pressure was off) to end the season with close to respectable stat figures.....and then on to Boston and Texas where he revived his career and by the time he's done will have close to 400 plus HRs and could be a HOF'er at 3B for his era. I have no ill feelings / will towards DiPoto -- he treated Angelswin.com well and was gracious with his time. Obviously, it is a division rival but I wish DiPoto success up there and I hope that MLB can do well in that great ballpark.....A little spark went out up there when Ichiro was dealt away -- his ten years there were amazing. a 200 plus hit guy over 10-12 years straight and a 100 hit guy for more than that is impressive. He's down in Miami now and I hope he gets enough ABs to reach the 3,000 hit level for MLB here -- that would add to his 1,200 hits or whatever his Japanese League career stat is to give him close to 4,500 hits lifetime between MLB and Japan and a claim to being the 'all time hits' leader as opposed to that other guy who probably won't be getting into the HOF any time soon (even though I think its time he be allowed to placed on the ballot --for whatever his gambling stuff was -- Charlie Hustle was something to watch as a player.....

I like DiPoto and I like Scioscia -- I never liked the mix of those two together as GM and manager. DiPoto as M's GM has now hired his own manager in Seattle -- he never got that chance in Anaheim and wasn't about to get it. The lines of communication and authority re GM/ Manager and the rest of the organization was blurred from Day One with DiPoto who is a stronger GM type taking over for Reagins who, apparently, never got in the way of what Scioscia wanted. The DiPoto-Scioscia mix in Anaheim was doomed from Day One and more than several regs here saw it coming. The Angels and DiPoto/ Scioscia spent a lot of time denying any communication/ struggle over control existing when it clearly did. Eppler seems to be working out but then Moreno isn't opening his wallet for F/As.

The problem isn't spending money on F/A it's the signing the Angels have made. From GMJ to Vernon Wells to Hamilton --all rotten deals when made and everyone said so. Pujols long term contract ties up a lot of money and going in was going to have declining returns on the later years of the contract......but the F/A signing -- while very expensive -- was not a terrible signing -- many here - me included -- were very excited about Pujols joining the Angels.......and his numbers have been pretty good. If you are going to sign a long term deal, be sure it's to the right guy -- (example: Trout -- even signing Weaver to that hometown discount longer term deal was a very good signing). All of us are still scratching our heads about how you give a guy like Josh Hamilton a long term contract -- If he were in the NBA, he'd be a guy getting a series of TEN DAY contracts - incentive laden......Angels should have done a one year plus one year option (all incentive laden) for Hamilton......it was obvious to all of baseball and fans that you could not sign a guy like Hamilton with his history to a long term deal......

DiPoto is in Seattle. Anaheim has left his rear view mirror. Let's move on. A lot of time during the DiPoto-Scioscia era in Anaheim was spent denying (both sides and the organization) that there was any sort of communication problems, power struggle etc. between the two when clearly there was from DAY ONE, apparent to most folks who followed the team until finally communication and power struggle issues became too much for DiPoto to bear. Eppler is same situation -- Scioscia is a strong manager with 18 years at the helm, his swath and control over team operations is a lot larger than his 'manager' title implies. Having Bud Black in the organization should help as well as Ron Roenecke -- although I rather see Roenecke back serving as bench coach.

yes -- Grant Green a non-roster invitee in Scottsdale camp with the SF Giants. going to be tough to find playing time in SF at SS or 2B........perhaps some 3B-OF. Green has not played a lot of 3B -- oh well. I just don't see Green being a good fit on an NL team. he needs to be a utility INF-OF with the possibility of DHing once in a while.

as for flexibility -- not a good glove guy but I thought we should have kept Grant Green on the opening day 25 man roster last year -- oh well, he, too is gone. I saw he signed on with someone else -- going to ST on a minor league contract - is it the SF Giants??

I don't think there is any way to justify the Featherston roster spot last season. It sort of became a situation of : well, we kept him this long, so why not wait it out. sort of the same rationale of throwing more good money after bad. oh well, mistake noted, move on. hopefully this LHP can provide some over all pen depth - even if he starts the season at SLC.

geez -- isn't great that we wasted a roster spot on this guy all last season !! I still think there were several games last year that we may have lost because of limited flexibility and lack of options because of that roster spot taken up by Featherston.......so we keep the Rule 5 guy for a year and let him go as soon as the season is up.........Huh? He should have never made it to the 25 man roster on opening day...

the Hamilton signing never made any sense at any time. the day he signed to the day he was released/ given away / traded and paid to play against us. actually signing Hamilton when they did would have been OK perhaps if it were a ONE year deal laden with incentives.......ABs, Hits, Games he showed up to play..........

ah -- could see this coming -- why did we waste a 2015 roster spot (ALL SEASON LONG) for this Rule 5 guy? I think I asked that question at least 50 times in posts last year. So now I assume Featherston goes to the Rockies as a non-roster guy, Well, at least I'd rather have a LHP than Featherston. I think we lost several games last year because we did not have the flexibility of actually using that roster spot for a player we could use rather than Featherston. Oh well, at least we didn't sign a certain pitcher (BLANTON, really ??) like the LA Dogs have done...........

wonder what's up with the whole Ted Williams cryogenics situation -- his family members (kids) fought over the issue -- can't remember who was on which side but there was a real split in the family........Ted's son -- not sure if his name was Ted Jr. or not -- but remember when the Red Sox signed him to a minor league contract near the very end of Ted's life.....his son was something like 33 or so -- had not played organized ball for years and suddenly the Red Sox sign him --- I think he played some at Single-A level even a bit after Williams' died.......but he certainly didn't inherit his father's swing and after a painful (to watch) number of ABs he was quietly let go, released........the son died a year or so after that experience. now that some of the key family members who made the decision to go the cryogenics route (it was in some refrigerated warehouse in Scottsdale) have passed away, I wonder if anyone has pulled the plug -- the maintenance cost can't be cheap.

we're not getting Cespedes -- wonder where this stands with other clubs? Cespedes must have some 'clubhouse' issues or something -- has been with about four different clubs in three years. But he's been a leader on each of those teams -- never did understand the very un-Billy Beane like deal that sent Cespedes -- with another year left on his contract -- from the A's to Boston for renting Lester -- a gamble that certainly did not work out for the A's......the division leading A's playing great ball fell off sharply the day Cespedes left their line up showing his true value to the team.......Lester didn't help much and was, predictably, GONE. Cespedes then did well with Boston, the Tigers and really led the Mets team all the way to world series last season once he got dealt there. Cespedes is likely holding out for too much -- but if his price comes down -- some team will get a deal with him and he'll help lead that team to wins. He's done it everywhere he's gone --- I still remember that great throw from LF to the plate that he made against the Angels when he was with the then Division leading A's........the drop off when Cespedes left the A's was significant.