Angels Agree To Terms With Juan Rivera

"Brown says the Halos are pursuing other free agents as well and operating as if Mark Teixeira will sign with the Red Sox."

haha, he should read the thread right before this one, email it to him tim, that would be funny!

no doubt he's going to be the everyday LF.

now all we need is Tex back...

Good! I love Rivera and would welcome him back in a heartbeat to play LF everyday. He is a solid bat that is needed. Lock him up Angels!

The Nationals may not be good for another half decade, but Baltimore has some good young talent already at the MLB level and a pretty decent farm system. They also have some flexibility financially. They may not have the cash to spend year in and year out like the Yankees, but if they need to they can afford to pony up some decent money. I seriously doubt the Red Sox are out of it, but I can definitely see why Tex would want to sign with Baltimore as well.

What does signing Rivera have to do with Tex. Nada, the Halos need a LF and Rivera fits the bill. So then you go after Tex for 1b. Simple. The Sox bailed out and if Tex wants to go to the Nats or the O's whatever, but the Angles should be hot on the Tex track now! Give him 8-176 and he should take it. Hell give him 8-184.

Rivera back is great. Tex is solid, but I believe that Kendry Morales will have his day if given an opportunity to play everyday. a 5th starter and a solid hitter in front of Vlad should be the priority. The Angels can win with what they have now and take a look at mid season as they did last year for another bat or arm to fill a void. Tex will regret signing with the Red Sox when he sees them fall out of playoff contention and dream of playing in those sunny warm playoff games in Anaheim.

I'd love to see Rivera starting in LF. He can mash and has proven his leg is healed and can go full time.

I'm a big fan of Rivera. While hoping for someone a little more consistent, I think Rivera could go 275/330 with 25 HR's (if playing FT). If you can acquire that for $5m/year then it's a good deal.

I wonder if the Angels look towards Manny now for LF. Use the money earmarked for Tex and give it to Manny. Rivera can spell Vlad and Manny in the field or rotate with Morales at 1B. With less potential suitors and the Dodgers being cheap Manny might come as a bargain.

Oh, and please, please, please do not even consider signing Fuentes. The draft pick loss + his salary would be money not well spent.

Ksy92003 -

i seriously doubt they'd re-sign GA if they're bring Rivera back on a 3 year deal.

actually, i seriously doubt Rivera would sign somewhere that wouldn't give him substantial playing time (as would be the case with a GA return)

woops.. i meant that for the teixera post

I was hoping they'd get Burrell or Abreu AND bring back Tex. Rivera is too much of a risk.

I wouldn't consider Rivera a risk. I would have preferred Bobby Abreu over him, but he will do. Hopefully the Angels can find somebody who will take GMJ's awful contract of our hands.

so what happens to matthews?? hes just goona sit in the bench and look pretty! they should put him 2 use! the guy could still play just didnt have a good year!

"my guess is tex makes the biggest mistake of his life and signs with the nats, 10 years, 200+ mil"

They only offered 8 years.

Angels won't be trading Matthews for anything of value unless they eat 50% of his contract.

For the record he has 3/33 left - basically what Raul Ibanez just cost the Phillies.

I think the Angels keep him. Even with Rivera, Hunter, and Vlad there will be plenty of time to cover for one of the corner outfielders while they rotate into the DH spot.

I think Rivera is a great talent and it is unfortunate that he was blocked by GMJ's contract and some rust last year. My only real problem with this signing is that the Angels suddenly have a dearth of left-handed power in a lineup when the following are their currently signed power hitters:

Vlad
Napoli
Rivera
Hunter

Everyone of those guys is straight RH, and this team suddenly looks like the Cubs. Morales, a switch hitter, may be the solution, but who knows?

"Now get GA as a role player...teach him RF"

GA played RF regularly and effectively in 1998, posting 9 assists (11 total) and a 2.31 RF/9. He has also spent more than 400 games in CF, though his age probably wouldn't allow that any more.

"So Dunn hits 40 homers in four consecutive seasons while playing the NL in a big time hitters park, and then moves to the AL and a neutral park, and now he hits 50 homers? Explain."

The AL is the better league for hitters, simply because of the pitcher use and lineup protection. The park does play a big difference, however, as Anaheim is neutral overall and eats home runs alive.

3 Years.. 12.75 million. (MLB.com)

Solid signing if at $4m/year.

I don't think this has any impact on Manny/Dunn, etc.

la16 -

i saw a story on the LA Times that siad they thought Dunn was a defensive liability and a base-clogger, so sadly, i doubt it.

I REALLY hope Pat Burrell comes nowhere near Angel Stadium.. he's overpriced and useless. The Angels would be better of going into the season with their current team (now with the addition of Rivera).

That being said, I still think Tex comes to Anaheim

An OPS+ of over 122 the last 4 years is "useless" now, wow you learn something new every day.

To PL:

Juan Rivera broke his leg, he's hardly an injury prone guy. He had an incredibly solid year of batting .310, 23 HRs and 85 RBIs over about 120 games. Given more at bats, easily would have reached the 100 RBI mark, and neared the 30 HR mark, that's a solid player.

He missed about a full year because of broken leg and wasn't able to get into a rhythm this past year early in the season, which he finally did halfway through the season, and became solid.

I'm not going to argue that Burrell or Dunn are not more consistent because they've shown year after year, though Rivera will bat for a higher average as a career .280 hitter. For only $4 million a year, I'd say this a nice signing.

The Angels last year were 20 games AHEAD of the second place team in the division. Losing the division is not something the Angels are concerned about this year, its all about the playoffs. The Angels could stay put (even minus Teixeira), and still win the division, our priority however is acquiring (or holding onto) someone who would assist us in the playoffs.

Don't how this is a bad signing. Maybe not a blockbuster deal or anything, but I would prefer Juan Rivera for four million FAR MORE than the following through with the previous rumored interest in Raul Ibanez.

"I think they'll sign Burrell even though he walks too much."

Holy s... I didn't think people like you existed anymore. Mind boggling.

LMAO @ "base clogging"

Let's say a few things.

"The Angels last year were 20 games AHEAD of the second place team in the division. Losing the division is not something the Angels are concerned about this year, its all about the playoffs. The Angels could stay put (even minus Teixeira), and still win the division, our priority however is acquiring (or holding onto) someone who would assist us in the playoffs."

The 2008 Angels were NOT a true talent 100 win team. Look at their Pythagorean record. Pythagorean O/U of +12, which means that true talent was more that of an 88-90 win team. Which, albeit good, isn't "we're running away with the division" good.

I'm not going to sit here and say that this is a bad signing. It's very low risk. Let's assume the Angels don't get Teixeira. Morales plays 1B, and you have an OF of GMJ-Hunter-Rivera, with Vlad DH. Dunn/Burrell would force Morales to the bench, which is NOT what you want to do with young talent, ESPECIALLY when your farm system is looking thin.

"I always thought Vlad took them out of the Manny sweepstakes. Vlad needs to DH to save his knees. Eventually, if not now, Manny's going to have to DH."

Manny pouts when you ask him to DH. He's a Gold Glove outfielder. Just ask him.

"The 2008 Angels were NOT a true talent 100 win team."

Are you stupid? Get off James' sack for a second... the Angels won 100 games. period. that means they were good enough to win 100 games. get over it.

Maybe this should put the Abreu, Burrell, and maybe Dunn rumors to rest. Because hopefully the Halos will get Rivera 500+ at bats.

Rivera, Hunter, Vlad, Matthews Jr, that's the OF/DH rotation. Hard to justify any big money for a fifth guy when that means you're either paying Rivera $4m+ or GMJ $10m+ to be a pinch hitter.

But then again, maybe last spring's plan of moving Rivera to first base is what this is about. Making Rivera Plan B at 1B if Teixeira gets away.

the angels are scum. yeah good luck with that juan rivera thing. They are gonna get screwed this off season. They are gonna miss out on tex and any other high profile free agent that they are supposed to afford. If juan is your big signing this year good luck.

People still hiding behind pythag as if it's some kind of be-all, end-all determinant of how good a team is?

All it factors is runs scored, and runs against. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. There are NUMEROUS factors for a team that can make their pythag artificially inflated one way or the other that don't mean the talent is any less or more talented than their overall record indicates.

I'm not saying it's a useless measure...but rather that it's not a stand-alone tool to judge a team by. That's lazy. Factor other things in. For example, the Angels had a very tight bullpen that held most of its leads, and a very strong rotation. This kept the other team's score relatively low, and since the Angels didn't have to, or just plain DIDN'T score a ton of runs, they got a lot of 1-2 run wins. That's not indicative of a bad team at all, just a team that wins a different brand of baseball with good pitching.

As far as pythag goes, that brand of baseball leaves you EXTREMELY susceptible to having an inflated 'estimated win/loss' with run differential, because it means any single blow-out loss can suddenly "negate" SEVERAL wins. So if the Angels, via their brand of small-ball, and strong pitching, win a bunch of and 4-3 ball games, then throw up a 10-2 loss (which can happen for a number of reasons, including putting in bullpen scrubs when the game started to slip away...and having watched the team all year, I KNOW this to be the case...Chris Bootcheck will verify that), and suddenly you've offset EIGHT wins with ONE loss via pythag...giving you a .500 record. And yet your record is a 100% legit 8-1 at that point.

And go look at the numbers, this WAS the case: they were 31-21 in 1 run games, but lost games by scores of 14-2, 15-8, and 13-4 in the first couple of months...that's enough to offset TWENTY-EIGHT of their one-run wins, and cancel it to a pythag-.500 record. And yet, in reality they would be 28-3 over those 31 games (the 28 1-run games, and the 3 blow-out losses).

Amazingly flawed system for keeping track of a team's real talent if you don't take the time to use it in conjunction with other factors. It unfairly prejudices teams with certain playing styles.

Did you just compare a team that hasn't won a world series in 100 years to one that hasn't in 6 years? Wow, that's a hell of a reach.

Also, no...Stoneman is not.