Email a copy of 'West Notes: Trout, Angels, Sizemore, Eppler, Cain, Astros' to a friend
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By Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'West Notes: Trout, Angels, Sizemore, Eppler, Cain, Astros' to a friend
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Rarth
The Astros did not receive Wates, they dealt him. The comp pick was a very underrated asset acquired by the Astros in the Cosart deal.
Jeff Todd
Yeah I goofed on Wates. It’s not like I’ve written about the deal four times or anything …
And yes, the Comp pick is certainly a valuable piece of that deal, very much so. Don’t mean to demean it by not mentioning it here. Believe I mentioned in the write-up of the trade that it was especially important because it adds to what will be a huge draft pool next year for Houston. Number two pick, another top five pick, and something in the low-30’s for the comp … they could pick up a lot of talent.
SFGiantsfan_10
The key is, will that talent sign due to the whole Brady Aiken fiasco? I say that it’s a 50-50 chance on whether or not future Astros draftees take stock of that whole mess before they sign.
Jeff Todd
I’m sure that agents will think about it, and MAYBE some would even try to dissuade the Astros from taking a high-end guy, but ultimately there are limits to how much pre-draft negotiating power players have. With the slotting system, the lower you get picked, the less free cash there is to negotiate over.
And it’s not like the Astros are the only team that has invited some scrutiny over how they deal with amateur players. The Phillies last year, the Yankees with the story on the international guy today …
SFGiantsfan_10
True, true. You are right in that there’s only so much negotiation power draftees and their agents have with the team during the signing period.
But I’m just saying that now the incident happened there’s no guarantee that it won’t rear its ugly head in future drafts for Lunhow and Co. Just in the same way future draftees could look at the seperate incidents with the Phillies and the Yankees and be slightly less inclined to take their offer.
Jeff Todd
Yeah, it’s definitely possible there will be some ramifications, but I would emphasize that money always talks in the end.
Karkat
Can someone tell the BBWAA that Mike Trout is and has been baseball’s best player for a while now?
Jaysfan1994 2
“But his team didn’t make the playoffs, so I’m voting for Miguel Cabrera because everyone knows RBI’s are the most important statistic to measuring a players worth.”
-BBWAA
Jeff Todd
He’s going to win it this year. Won’t make up for the two snubs, but it’s something.
Karkat
I don’t think there’s literally any more he could do at this point, so we’d better hope so! I’ll just start calling him “Three-time MVP Mike Trout” regardless xD
Jeff Todd
For sure. The silly thing to me is that the debate is framed as some kind of old school v new school or saber v [whatever] debate. Recognizing the value of defense and baserunning isn’t a new concept.
It’s not as if someone is advocating for Jose Molina to take home the MVP because he saved some outlandish number of runs with pitch framing. (Even there, statistics are merely helping to quantify an impact that has long been recognized by people who are in the game.)
Karkat
The thing that really, really bugged me in 2012 was how the defense from the traditionalists (and a lot of my Tigers fan friends, oddly enough!) was “But come on, it was the first triple crown since Yaz!” But it’s like, okay, leading (however narrowly) in those three categories has a name. Annnnnnnnnd?
It’s stuff like this why I have to avoid places like ESPN and MLB Network and just be grateful that I have this website >_>
Jaysfan1994 2
I wouldn’t say he’s going to win anything yet, Tanaka looked like a guaranteed winner for a Cy Young/ROTY before he got hurt.
Although it’s hard to argue that anyone else has been better then Mike Trout this year in the mediocre American League.
Jeff Todd
Sure. I usually hedge everything I say, but then I feel like I’m lawyering everything I write.
Barring injury, or some unbelievable collapse from him and the club, it’s shaping up like he’ll run away with the voting. I think that plenty of people who haven’t voted for him in the past will feel like he’s paid his dues, or some such strained reasoning, and finally vote for him.
alva9596
you know, i just don’t understand why the Yankees end up releasing Scott Sizemore instead of keeping him in AAA. he couldn’t have possibly been all that bad for the Yankees. better yet, have him start him at 2nd base instead of trading for Stephen Drew (although Drew was alright during that 3rd game against the Red Sox).
MadmanTX 2
They make it sound like Arte Moreno knows what he is doing and directing the Angels the right way. I think his mistakes and pursuing offense instead of pitching say otherwise.
Jeff Todd
Runs are runs, whether you prevent them or score them. And it bears noting that pitchers present an inherently riskier long-term investment.
Actually, the Halos’ staff has been average or better this year.
RyÅnWKrol
He has always known what he’s doing. But the realities of baseball set in over the last few years, and major injuries (Morales, Weaver, Wilson, Haren) and a few meltdowns (Wells, Kazmir, Santana, Blanton) brought them back to Earth for a while. Same thing has happened to the Yankees, and of course… your Texas Rangers. It’s just the way the game works. If Arte Moreno didn’t know what he was doing, he would not have seen his club win 5 division titles in 7 years, and would never have been able to sign a star like Albert Pujols. Looks to me like the Angels are finally climbing back to where they should have continued to be from 2010 through now.
tesseract
Cabrera is better than trout…. let the discussion begin
J Robert Hanson
“When you know the people as well as you get to know them over a player’s tenure in your organization, you feel more comfortable signing them to longer-term contracts.”
Hmm, then please explain the signing of Pujols whom no one in the Angel organization knew beforehand. I smell a bit of fibbing here.
RyÅnWKrol
A light bulb didn’t just suddenly go off when the Angels made him the offer. They were on him for years after the way they missed out on him in the draft. Hindsight though. He was picked quite low in that draft. Still, it was a situation that had been brewing for years, and Arte finally got his coveted superstar.
J Robert Hanson
Not the point I’m making. Pujols had zero tenure in the Angel’s organization yet was given a 10 year deal. Obviously it was more than tenure that did that deal. It was superstar status that did it. For the same reason they signed Trout. Not because of socalled tenure.