I don’t substantially disagree with any of that. I just think that you’re dramatically downplaying the difficulty of keeping it up for that long, plus making a significant permanent adjustment that dramatically improves your offense.
Like I said though, I hope he meets and surpasses Ozzie’s career because that would be a ton of fun to watch.
And I apologize for being a wet blanket about an exciting young player on your team. Those guys are the best. I just couldn’t let “surefire hall of famer” go unchallenged. ;)
Somewhere I read that the Mariners are trying to get Gardner from the Yankees. Offering pitching. I can’t see the Yankees making that move though unless the Mariners just offer to much to refuse.
In exchange, the Braves are expected to receive veteran shortstop Erick Aybar along with the Angels’ top two prospects, lefty Sean Newcomb and righty Chris Ellis, sources said. The Angels are also expected to send $2.5 million to the Braves, according to the New York Post. Neither club has confirmed the deal.
Medium team that gives you hope… unless you are one of those fans who never actually watches (or listens to) the team play. As a Cleveland fan, I’ve seen really atrocious teams, bad teams, mediocre teams, and teams good enough to win it all… but didn’t. That is also my order of preference. If you are watching a team on any sort of regular basis, you want them to give as much enjoyment as possible, and nothing sucks the fun out of rooting for a team like a prolonged losing streak. Sure, I didn’t expect the Browns to beat the Bengals last week, but a competitive first half and a close loss is SO much more enjoyable than an ugly trouncing.
I expect teams to be competitive enough that most games are worth watching through the end. That frees me from the burden of unreasonable expectations. That also works for very good teams ("it doesn’t matter unless they win the world series/ stanley cup/ superbowl) and very bad teams (I just want the Rams to be within two scores in the third quarter).
I’ll take average over shitty-with-moments-of-brilliance. A team that truly sucks – say, the 2011-2014 Twins – are just brutal to watch. You know they’re losing, they know they’re losing, the opponents know they’re losing. It’s just no fun for anyone, aside from the occasional individual player doing something crazy or unusual (no-hitters are always great, no matter the circumstance).
And let’s not forget that the Simmons deal also got the Angels a catcher who OPSed .482 in High-A as a 23-year-old last year.
They have much larger problems than a window closing. They needed those pitchers and Aybar wasn’t that much worse than Simmons. They are a fairly young team once you get past Pujols. But they are missing a decent catcher, 2B, and 3B. They passed on renewing with Freese.
It’s a gamble. Not sure they’ve got many options, though.
Aybar and Simmons aren’t real good comps, I don’t think. Aybar had an OPS of .693, and number still represents his entire WAR value of 2.6. And he’ll be 32 next year.
Simmons will be 26 next year and is under team control for the next 5 seasons. His runs saved for the last three years are off the charts, and his WAR of 4.7 is fantastic. You put Simmons into the field with Trout and you’ve got some amazing defense.
Freese had a solid year last year, but he’s aging metrically and has always had foot problems and general staying-on-the-field difficulties. And he’s never had range at third, either. He’s close enough to being a replacement level guy that it doesn’t make sense to sign him. I’d expect the Angels to try grab some low-hanging fruit via free agency now. But…yeah, you’re right. There’s not a lot out there. Hard to get excited about Alberto Callaspo or whatever’s out there at third. Maybe they try to get the band back together with Howie.
This. Runs saved is sorely overlooked in favor of runs created. How often does a player of Simmons’ caliber and youth even become available on the trade market? I think the Angels were smart for jumping on this to build more around Trout. And if by chance Simmons’ bat improves, its icing on the cake.
