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Five more Angels agree to contracts
February 26th, 2009, 9:20 am · 10 Comments · posted by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
TEMPE, Ariz.
Today’s list of contract agreements — 2B Howie Kendrick, LHP Joe Saunders, RHPs Dustin Moseley and Kevin Jepsen and IF Matt Brown.
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Latest Angels headlines- AngelsWin.com Blog Feed
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You get what you pay for. Five players with outstanding ability, who have yet to prove anything but a hope and a dream.
Kendrick, if healthy, is a singles hitter, and an average 2nd baseman, Saunders is a nice pitcher, who does not seem to have major league stamina as a 200 inning guy over a long season. Moseley, is just your average player, not a high lite reel about him. Primarily a long reliever.
Jepsen and Brown, well have yet to prove anything with litte major league experience.
I would be surprised if the Angels won their division this year. Lackey is way over rated. He’s not a top ten pitcher. Santana can be taken out of his rhythm by batters wasting time in the batters box. Saunders lacks the 162 game stamina. Weaver has not returned to the form he showed when called up. Then there is no fifth starter.
The left side of the infield is in turmoil. Figgins, Wood, Aybar and Izturis are vying for playing time. Wood might finally show the big bat and lock up a position, Izturis is a lock as he can play 3rd, ss and 2nd. We’ll see. Morales, is probably a weak choice at first, but has that position for now.
The outfield is centered around Vlad having a good year. If he fails then the middle of the order fails and the Angels are left with many left on base. He’s an aging star and a very big question mark.
Bringing Abreu in just means trying to get a man on in front of Vlad. If no Vlad. Then Bobby gets no runs.
Hunter and Matthews have been big disappointments. While they might be able to play better, hit better and drive in more runs, they just have not done the job.
Rivera might finally get more at bats and might be productive. If he sits on the bench, then he might as well be traded for a first baseman.
Willits, unfortunately, does not get a chance to play as much as Quinlan. They are equally talented and good bench players. Not the best, But O.K.
Overall, this team has shed Garrett Anderson, Frankie, Garland and. Teixera and is worse off than it was with them
It will make the Western division much more competitive and perhaps anything can happen during the course of a long season. I do look at the 2 highly touted call ups of the Rangers and the A’s which are imminent for 2009 and the addition of leadership of Griffey as helping the division rivals.
Wow.
How will this team ever win a game?
Reva obviously follows the Angels closely. Too bad he is so insufferable.
Bill,
It’s a known fact. You can take 25 guys right now from free agency and they would win more games than the Mariners won last year. Difference being they wouldn’t have Ichiro the Barbarian (ironic how the Japanese call foreigners barbarians), who stays in different hotels than the team and feels above his team mates, which caused great divisiveness. Hopefully, Ichiro being in Japan for the WBC, the new manager, Bedard and the team is suddenly a whole lot better.
No need for the snide remarks. Just do some research as to who the Rangers and A’s will call up this year and their ranking in the top 10 rookie prospects in the nation, while Adenhardt is ranked 58th.
If you watched Lackey pitch in the second half of 2008, then you know why there is no extension talk. He was decimated in July by Halladay, who will be available, most likely, at the trading deadline. Let’s see if Lackey is injury free and returns to form.
So no rah rah sis boom bah yet. If this team wins the division, it won’t be by much. But they could also finish dead last if Vlad or the pitching goes down.
In any event, I don’t “hate” or “love” baseball teams. I was surprised when the Angels won their World Championship in 2002 after the long drought. Do I expect another one so soon? Oh please. The magic has to be there. Will it?
Reva,
I know very well that the Rangers and A’s have some talented prospects. A’s GM Billy Beane has done a terrific job of restocking their farm system with his trades the past couple years (Harden, Swisher, Haren).
But citing a prospects list as your evidence is a pretty weak argument. A lot of the Angels you dismiss out of hand (Kendrick, Jepsen, Saunders, Wood, etc.) were once prominent features on those prospects lists. They’ve established themselves — to some extent — as major leaguers, something the players on those lists have yet to do.
But I will agree with you this far. The AL West is a weak division — though it irritates Scioscia every time any of us take that stance — and the A’s, Rangers and Mariners have all closed the gap on the Angels from last season.
Bill- I don’t remember Saunders being a top prospect, are you sure?
Saunders was a first-round draft pick in 2002 and the Angels’ minor-league pitcher of the year twice on his way up to the majors. Must have been on somebody’s list somewhere.
He was also an All-Star last season. That counts for a little more, I think.
I am so thrilled that baseball is back! Don’t we all want to see if Figgins has blimped out again?
Saunders is a good pitcher…for 3/4 of the season. But he’s not pitching AAA. He’s got to get his stamina up.
If Wood keeps hitting then maybe Willits will lead off and Abreu will DH. See I too can be a dreamer. But in the end, the line-up is already carved in stone with Figgins leading off and Abreu batting second.
The real question though is, will there be any bat behind Vlad? Or will it be Hunter who batted 7th for the Twins? What kind of year can the Los Angeles Angels have without a power bat, perhaps Wood? Perhaps Napoli? These two fellows need lots of at bats. You can not platoon Wood or Napoli and expect the pressure from the offense every inning.
The rotating outfield/DH might be O.K. except that Napoli is probably best suited for the DH role, seeing that he needs the most at bats. Now throw Wood into the mix and sit him down andd does he get a chance at rotating DH? Or does he just sit? Or does he replace Aybar? Or Figgins? Or platoon?
Reva -
All you had to say was that you wanted Willits to have regular playing time… that’s enough for me. You’ve proven your “knowledge” of the team with that one statement.
Reva, you’re a pessimist, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to at least be a realist.
1. Joe Saunders logged 198 IP in his first full year, and was lights out in Boston in the playoffs. There isn’t one Oakland A who can say that.
2. If it was so easy to throw off Ervin Santana, then every team would do that. Last time I checked Santana pitched 200+ innings with 200+ K’s 16 wins and a sub 3.50 ERA.
3. The Angels seem to be doing just fine with Lackey as their ace, last time I checked, even without Lackey we were still a great deal better than any team in the West.
4. Jered Weaver is the best 4th starter in baseball, anyone who argues differently has an agenda.
5. The left side of the infield is in turmoil? Would you listen to yourself? Figgins is one the better leadoff hitters in the game, and has great range at 3B. Aybar has the best range of any SS in baseball. As if that weren’t enough we have the top power prospect in all of baseball waiting to step in for both of them.
6. Yeah, bringing in Abreu and his 20+ HR’s 20+ SB’s and .400 OBP percentage means nothing.
7. Hunter a disappointment? A gold glove in CF, face of the franchise 20 HR 20 SB is a disappointment?
We’re better at catcher, we’re deeper in the infield, we upgraded in the OF, we’ve upgraded our bullpen (Yes I take Fuentes over K-Rod) and Escobar’s coming back before midseason so we’ve upgraded our rotation. The only downgrade is at 1B, but we did save 22 million there. We won 100 games last year, and we’re a better team this year. Expecting anything less that 90 wins and it’s clear you have a bias against this team. Be a pessimist all you want, but at least be real too, otherwise no one could take you seriously.