6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Reuniting old Cal State Long Beach teammate Jered Weaver, the Mariners have traded Jason Vargas for fifth wheel DH Kendrys Morales. Morales couldn't really hit lefties in 2012 (.229/.289/.471), though he did manage to do better earlier (career .250/.286/.416). On a typical late Scioscia-era team full of DH candidates who will need to rotate into that spot as a "day off" position, this move makes a ton of sense; it gives the Angels some much needed rotation depth, if mothing else, and makes someone like a Jerome Williams (is he even still in the picture?) at least superfluous so far as the starting staff is concerned.

Vargas was better at striking out righties than lefties, but lefties hit him worse last year than righties. A big red flag, though was his home and away splits, where he earned a 2.74 ERA in Safeco but a 4.78 ERA on the road, almost twice as high. Still, I can grit my teeth through the road if his 2.27 career ERA at Angel Stadium is any indication of how he'll pitch. Welcome aboard, and go Dirtbags!

Update: Weird paragraph from this Alden Gonzalez piece at MLB.com:

The Angels used the flexibility afforded to them with the Josh Hamilton signing, sending switch-hitting designated hitter Kendrys Morales to the Mariners on Wednesday in exchange for left-handed starting pitcher Jason Vargas.

Usually when one discusses "flexibility", the word "payroll" is in the same sentence. While the Dodgers have gotten all the press for the spendy spendy, Jerry Dipoto hasn't exactly taken his foot of the fiscal gas pedal, either.

Labels: angels, hot stove, mariners, trades, transactions

If I told you the Josh Hamilton deal was really, really bad, you wouldn't be surprised, right? BPro's Ben Lindbergh, at ESPN Insider:

Because Hamilton doesn't add any value via the walk, most of his offensive performance hinges on what happens when he makes contact. The outcome of a batted ball is dependent on two things: speed and quality of contact. The early 30s are when bat speed starts to slip and reaction time suffers. If Hamilton had better command of the strike zone, his ability to take walks could compensate for his inevitable declines in other areas. As it is, his offensive value is closely tied to skills that soon start to fade in free agents of a certain age.

Which is to say, yes, very, very bad. He's like buying into Vlad Guerrero with more off-the-field problems, way lower walk rate, and starting with his age 32 season. Or maybe Vernon Wells would be a better comp, at least on the field. Regardless, Hamilton's on schedule for a 3.4 WARP season in 2013 according to PECOTA, which figures to be a pretty lousy bet for the kind of money the Angels are throwing at the problem. The always readable Sam Miller exits thusly:

Jerry Dipoto has been the Angels’ general manager for 13 months, and he has now made a whopping 13 moves at the big-league level. He has shown two skills that can make for a great GM: he’s great at picking up small pieces (especially in the bullpen) for cheap, and he’s great at making the big deal happen, which can be as easy as but also much more difficult than "offer the most money." Those big ones are the moves that get GMs into trouble. From a surplus-value calculation, the Albert Pujols deal alone threatens to undo all the other small, savvy moves Dipoto has made. Yes, the Angels have the money to outrun that mistake, and they have the money to outrun the Josh Hamilton mistake, if it is one. But avoiding the mistake in the first place would be best.

That, from his track record thus far, seems unlikely.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

$125M/5 years, no I can't.

WTF ARTE IS WRONG WITH YOU???

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

• Over the weekend, the Dodgers signed Korean lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu for the insane figure of $62M. At least, that's the figure MLB.com's Ken Gurnick provides; the LAT claims it's only $36M to the pitcher and the balance as a posting fee to his Korean team. In addition, MSTI records that he has $1M annually in performance bonuses available. Not following Korean ball, I don't know for sure but that seems like that posting fee has to be some sort of record for anyone out of that country.

  Ryu profiles as a starter, and had a 98-52 record with a 2.80 earned-run average with Hanwha. I don't know enough about him to know how well he'll translate to the majors, but it appears that he may have been the best Asian pitcher available this offseason. A different viewpoint comes from the always-interesting Fangraphs. Eno Sarris writes

  Of course, Ryu’s changeup is his best pitch, while Wells was known for his curveball. You can scout Ryu yourself with this youtube playlist put together by Dan at MyKBO.net if you like (The video embedded below probably has the best angle). And it’s a little early to say that Ryu has a four-pitch mix like wells. He throws four pitches, yes, but by most accounts, his slider is not exciting and his curveball may just be a lefty-on-lefty type of pitch that won’t solve a platoon issue if righties like his changeup.

  Sarris doubts Ryu will survive all six years in the rotation.
• The big signing of the weekend, of course, has to be former Angel Zach Greinke, with the Dodgers opening an apparently bottomless spigot of money for a $147M/6-year deal, according to early reports in the Times. Apparently, also, he can exit the deal after three years, which the Dodgers would hope he does if he stinks (much like J.D. Drew did, to the Dodgers' relief).

  I try, as a matter of principle, to avoid getting too excited about any particular signing, one way or another. Usually with free agents, I'm skeptical, and this case is no exception. Greinke was actually pretty good for the Angels late in 2012, but not enough of a difference-maker to salvage a lost season. He at least has been healthy; MSTI was thrilled, given that the next step down was Kyle Lohse. Gah. Not a ringing endorsement, but it has its limited advantages.

Labels: dodgers, hot stove, transactions

It's cute how they give a phonetic pronunciation guide after his name in this Angels press release. The former Oakland and St. Louis closer was last seen with the Mets in 2011, where he compiled a 3-3 record with a 4.05 ERA as a 38-year-old. He'll have his work cut out for him to make the team out of spring training.

Update: Isringhausen will become a free agent if he doesn't make the team, which is probably best for all parties concerned.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

Per Buster Olney of ESPN, the Rangers signed Japanese import Yu Darvish to a 6-year/$60M deal. Favorite Twitter gag about this so far:

Props to Angels GM Dipoto. Angels sign Wilson for 75 mil, force the Rangers to spend 120 mil to back fill his spot in the rotation #genius

I'm not so sure about that; word so far is that Darvish may be the best Japanese pitcher to hit the US in approximately ever, and is quite a bit younger than the Angels' C.J. Wilson. On the other hand, Texas paid a "record" $51.7 million posting bid. That's a lot of money to have sunk into a guy nobody's ever seen pitch in the majors. We'll see how this plays out.

Update: Supposedly — and this is unconfirmed — Darvish has an opt out clause after five years.

Update 1/20: No, not on the weed.

Labels: angels, hot stove, rangers, transactions

The Dodgers have signed one important and one unimportant piece for 2012, signing Andre Ethier and James Loney for single-year deals at $10.95M and $6.375M, respectively. The team will go to arbitration with Clayton Kershaw, with the Cy Young Award winner asking for $10M in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and the Dodgers offering $6.5M.

Also, the Angels signed Erick Aybar for $5.075M, and the team will seek to long-term him.

Labels: angels, dodgers, hot stove, transactions

Per MLB.com, though I haven't been able to find dollars, the Times and Register both agree the amount is likely to be in the $3M range.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

The Angels signed second baseman Howie Kendrick for four years, buying out his last year of arbitration eligibility and the first three years of his free agency, and is said to be worth $33.5 million.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

• We know more about the district court's stay of the Dodgers TV rights auction:

  Stark said lawyers for Fox have demonstrated a substantial likelihood they will succeed in January's hearing. That's because the bankruptcy judge who freed the Dodgers from the current contract arrangement with Fox improperly relied on a single case in making his decision, Stark said. In addition, Stark wrote that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross likely made two factual mistakes: finding that the sale of the broadcasting rights was necessary to ensure creditors were paid and finding that the broadcasting rights needed to be sold to maximize the team's value.

• Here's a fascinating New York Times article on the post-Moneyball A's, and how the period documented in that book actually represented a high-water mark for the franchise. Beane, apparently, has started to look beyond baseball for his intellectual and career challenges; it seems that with the team stalled in Oakland, he's not especially interested in it. After his deal ends in 2014, I expect he will resign.
• The Angels signed Ryan Langerhans to a one-year minor league contract. Of course, the real reason to read this is that the Register's Sam Miller wrote it.

Labels: angels, athletics, dodgers, hot stove, mccourts, transactions

• Per the Times, the Angels signed Kendrys Morales to a $3M/1 year deal.
• The Brewers have signed former Cub Aramis Ramirez worth $36M over three years with a fourth year mutual option.
• The Cards re-signed Rafael Furcal to a one year deal worth $14M.
• The Dodgers non-tendered Hong-Chih Kuo, though the team is interested in re-signing him. The Dodgers did tender contracts to Andre Ethier, James Loney, and Clayton Kershaw.

Labels: brewers, cardinals, dodgers, ex-dodgers, hot stove, transactions

Per a tweet from the Dodgers official Twitter account. Dylan Hernandez says the deal is worth $850,000 in 2012 and $1.15M in 2013. Fangraphs seems to think this isn't such a horrible idea, valuing his 2011 contributions at $7.1M.

Update: Earlier versions of this story said Jerry Hairston, Jr. Corrected.

Labels: dodgers, hot stove, stupid ideas, transactions

Bill Plunkett tweets that the Angels have signed arbitration-eligible (!!) 30-year-old Jerome Williams to a one-year deal, dollars unknown.

Update: Mike DiGiovanna has the skinny: $820,000 for one year.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

Several versions of this interview with Deidre Pujols, wife of slugger Albert, have appeared on the Interwebz, but I'm linking to the NBC Sports version because it contains all the key pieces you need to know. In particular:

“I understand you’re talking to us, then one TV station, and that’s about it,” is how Sandi Brown, morning show host at 99.1 Joy FM in St. Louis, opened her conversation Monday with Deidre Pujols, the wife of new Angels first baseman Albert Pujols.

“This is the moment of truth for us,” Deidre replied. “Four days have passed and most people are probably sick of hearing our name by now, but I’m ready to let people have our side of what has happened and be able to make better judgements.”

...

“When you have somebody say, ‘we want you to be a Cardinal for life,’ and then only offer you a five-year deal, it kind of confused us,” said Deidre, calling the offer an “insult.”

So, tainted by that "insult" offer, and a subsequent arrangement that would have deferred $30M of his salary (the Angels' deal is 100% current with no deferments), Pujols eventually decided to become an Angel. This annoys me to some degree, because Pujols' decline is already to some degree evident. I am not convinced the back half of his deal will be of any value to the team that likely just signed the final contract of his career. However you may feel about that, it's a business decision, and we'll see whether Pujols becomes synonymous with Mo Vaughn or some of the other expensive free agent disasters in Angels history.

Related: Scott Miller of CBS Sports tweets that Pujols is contracted to the Angels for the first decade past his presumptive retirement when this contract ends. Yow.

Labels: angels, cardinals, hot stove, transactions

• Turns out the Dodgers have a first baseman in the news, too: James Loney wrecked his Maserati November 14, and was arrested for drunk driving. A song for you, James:

  You are now allowed to make jokes about Loney finally hitting something.

  Update: Those of you with long memories may recall that was the day the Dodgers announced their new long term deal with Matt Kemp. Jealousy? Out of control celebration?

• Sam Miller has a roundup of how Ken Rosenthal was right and everyone else was wrong about the Angels' pursuit of Pujols. Amazing, and good work, Robo!
• One of my friends on Facebook mentioned that for Astros fans, this has to be pretty ridiculous: their team changes leagues and he's still in their division. Nice...
• Matthew Poulliot projects Pujols' 2012 and comes up with a .310/.429/.605 year with 42 HR.
• The terms of Aaron Harang's deal have been released; he's getting a backloaded 2-year/$12M contract with a mutual option for 2014.
• In more Dodger trades, the team traded Dana Eveland to Baltimore for LHP Jarret Martin and OF Tyler Henson, neither of whom look especially interesting. Martin is 21 and had a 5-12 record with a 4.96 ERA for single-A Delmarva. Henson is 23 and hit .247/.313/.321 with AAA Norfolk last year.
• Jon has some thoughts on the consequences of the new TV deal for the Angels as it will eventually affect the Dodgers.

Labels: angels, dodgers, hot stove, trades, transactions

Worth at least $250M; mind, blown. Albert Pujols hardly needs introduction, though I might add that his recent decline may make Angels fans recall the days when Mike Port was the team's GM. As my friend Philip Michaels quipped on Twitter,

I'm very excited for Angels fans who will have the chance to watch Albert Pujols, Vernon Wells, and Torii Hunter age rapidly together.

On the other hand: it's interesting to note that Kendrys Morales has never even been a 5 WAR player (his breakout year, 2009, was 3.8) and Mark Trumbo last year had a 2.1 WAR. Meantime, Pujols has never been less than a 5, though looking at his recent dropoff I do wonder just how steep that curve has been. Was Jerry Dipoto given marching orders to get Pujols at all costs? We'll probably find out in the coming hours and days. As with all such big signings, the front end isn't so bad; it's the back end that starts to smell, and it bears repeating that Pujols will be 42 by the time this deal is over.

Also, a little bit of snark from Molly Knight:

On a scale of 1 to Eeyore: how sad are Dodger fans going to be if the Angels sign Albert Pujols?

I honestly don't know the answer to that question. For me, I don't much care, because I know that this is Ned Colletti's last offseason as GM, which makes me happy, almost regardless of the players he signs. Because I view the Pujols signing as such a mixed bag, I can't get too excited for the Dodgers to miss out on him.

Update: The C.J. Wilson signing is official per New York Post writer Joel Sherman, via Craig Calcaterra at NBC Sports. I sure hope they have the money to pay for draft bonuses next year.

Update 2: Rev. Halofan reminds me that the Angels signed LaTroy Hawkins, Pujols, and Wilson in a span of 24 hours and didn't need to move anyone from the 40-man roster to do it. Nice.

Update 3: The thing fueling all this madness may well be the finishing touches being put on a new TV deal with Fox, to be announced later. The offer to the Dodgers for an extension last spring was $3 billion.

Update 4: Wilson signed for 5 years/$75M. Nice price.

Update 5: Bill Plunkett:

#Angels Moreno just committed $325m to 2 players today. Roughly twice what he paid for team in 2003. #Pujols.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

For one year, dollars currently unknown, but I would expect it to be in the $3-4M range. Last year represented the final year of a two-year deal with the Brewers that was worth $4.25M, but free agent pitching has been bid up considerably with the deals the Dodgers did for Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano. Hawkins had a pretty good season last year, a 3-1 record with a 2.42 ERA, and a 1.9 BB/9 and 5.2 K/BB. He's not striking guys out much, but he also isn't giving up a lot of home runs, either (only one in 48.1 IP). It's hard to get excited about a guy who'll be playing out his age 39 season with the Angels, especially given his 2010 with Milwaukee (8.44 ERA, 0-3) that was shortened by early season shoulder trouble which sapped his normally mid-90's velocity.

Update: The Register's Sam Miller on the deal.

Labels: angels, hot stove, transactions

A stray tweet by the SB Nation blog Lone Star Ball claimed that C.J. Wilson had been converted to Angeldom, but multiple tweets from other pro bloggers and sportswriters (Mike DiGiovanna of the Times, Yahoo's Tim Brown, Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman) indicate that bidding remains active, and that the Marlins have offered a sixth year. Jon Morosi claims Wilson has met with Nolan Ryan and Ryan does not think Wilson will return. Best tweet so far, from Jeff Passan:

Six years on C.J. Wilson, huh? The Marlins really are like the lottery winners who spend themselves back into poverty within a couple years.

Updates as they happen.

Update: Mark Buehrle to the Marlins, $58M/4 years. That sets a definite floor on Wilson's price. It also likely leaves the Marlins out of the Wilson bidding per Mike DiGiovanna.

Labels: angels, hot stove, rumors

Per Howard Cole of the Register, the Dodgers have signed Aaron Harang to a 2-year deal, dollars currently unknown. I remember Harang mainly from his start with the A's, but he spent most of the last decade in Cincinnati following a trade for Jose Guillen, of all players. Last year, he was with the Padres, where he earned a 3.64 ERA and a 14-7 record in Petco's cavernous confines. His 6.5 K/9 and 2.14 K/BB rates are acceptable-good, not great. He gave up 13 of his 20 home runs at home, which is really saying something, although that total represents his lowest since 2004. His 1.365 WHIP is likewise reasonable, and I expect Harang to act as a 3-4 rotation slot pitcher. As Cole put it,

... [I]t’s the deal Los Angeles should have made instead of signing Chris Capuano, not in addition to. But what’s done is done.

Labels: dodgers, hot stove, transactions

Things are moving along quite smartly this offseason, as the Angels unloaded Jeff Mathis for LHP Brad Mills to Toronto, which means the Halos have managed to trade both their 2010 receivers to the same team. Mills was actually fairly interesting in the lower minors, but he spent three years at AAA posting uninspiring numbers (4.32 ERA with a 21-23 record, 7.8 K/9, 2.63 K/BB). If he sticks with the Angels — and apparently, he has an option left — he'll be fighting for a role in the rotation, though Rotoworld seems to think he's better suited to relief.

Obviously, the upside of this deal is getting rid of Jeff Mathis, whose Angels career has been mainly a case of mistaken identity, i.e. Mike Scioscia took him for a starting catcher. The Napoli schism has tended to be overdone (even by me):

Angels Catchers Games Started At Catcher

Year	Jeff Mathis	Mike Napoli
2006	14	77
2007	52	68
2008	90	71
2009	78	84
2010	62	59

Only two of those years — 2008 and 2010 — did Scioscia start Mathis in more games than Napoli. Yet, as Bill Plaschke pointed out earlier, Napoli only got 57 starts at catcher for the Rangers this year, a surprise for people who defend him as a good defensive receiver. (For the record, my position isn't that he is or is not good, just that Mathis can't be shown to be superior by any metric I am aware of.)

Mathis' major league career may already be over; his days as a starting catcher are probably over, anyway, and if it turns out that the Jays jettison him, too, I won't be terribly surprised. All in all, a necessary trade to keep Scioscia from playing Mathis.

Update: Any time you can link to a Grant Brisbee piece about a trade involving a team you follow, you totally should, because he is teh awesome.

Update 2: Sam Miller is predictably great:

Brad Mills has an 8.57 ERA in 48 career Major League innings. That’s actually only the 29th worst ERA in history, minimum 25 innings. Stu Flythe had a 13.04 ERA in 1936. “Hey, Alex, what’ll you give me for Jeff Mathis,” Jerry Dipoto asked. “Hmmm,” Alex Anthopoulos said. “I’ll give you Stu Flythe.” “But he’s dead. He’s been dead for, like, forever. He’s not on your team. Your team didn’t even exist when Stu Flythe died.” “Sorry, Jerry. That’s the best I can do.”

Labels: angels, blue jays, hot stove, trades, transactions