AGonzalez11

that is already 2 months old though... I still dont think they go after a 3B(unless McPherson is a 1B/DH in 05) 582028[/snapback] That's what I'm saying...trade for Lowell, use McPherson at 1st or DH if he's ready. If that doesn't work, deal Mota for Guillen, to set up for KRod, then deal Lowell for an affordable SP that would replace Shields in my rotation :cool

"The Angels were quiet at the deadline, but they could be major players again this offseason after they shed the salaries of 3B Troy Glaus, RHP Aaron Sele, and closer RHP Troy Percival, who are being paid nearly $27 million combined. The singing of Astros CF Carlos Beltran as a free agent would enable CF Garret Anderson back to left and trade LF Jose Guillen for pitching. Another option would be to sign Dodgers 3B Adrian Beltra, use Class AAA 1B Casey Kotchman or 3B Dallas McPherson at first and trade 1B Darin Erstad for pitching." http://mb3.theinsiders.com/fanaheimangelsf...picID=907.topic Now that was before Guillen's outburst, so who knows, but I just don't think getting a veteran 3B and moving McPherson to 1st is out of the question.

Sign Joey Eischen to a 1 year 700k deal. Not anything spectacular, but insurance if Perisho bombs out next year....he's far from a sure thing.581994[/snapback] Is Joey an FA? I wanted to bring him in last season but no one thought anything of it. He's among the better lefty specialists in the game, better than Perisho IMO. 582012[/snapback] I was under the impression that he was...the list on the top doesn't have his name on it though. :confused

I just don't see us finding a taker for a 38 yr old making 4.75 mil...and if we somehow do, it wouldn't be a good move from a PR standpoint. He turned his season around bigtime....if he could repeat his numbers, hopefully with more consistency, he'd make a rock solid #6/#7 hitter, depending on wh youd prefer first (Conine or Lo Duca). I read an article on the Angels targeting Beltran or Beltre this offseason, since they have some serious $ to spend (No more Sele(8mil) Appier (10 mil i think) and also rid themselves of Glaus, Ortiz, among others. Lowell would be cheaper than Beltre, obviously, which could allow them to sign an OF or possibly another SP.

Pure fantasy...but let me know what you think :thumbup -Trade Juan Encarnacion and Trevor Hutchinson to the Colorado Rockies for Shawn Chacon. The only way to deal Enc is to take another teams' problem, and we'd be doing just that with Chacon. He's a mess right now, but has good stuff and was MUCH more successful as a starter, he's even made an all star team I think. Enc would replace Burnitz or Walker or Wilson if the Rockies could find a taker. He could all of a sudden become a 25-30 HR, 100+ RBI .300 hitter at Coors with Gold Glove D. Trade Mike Lowell to the Anaheim Angels for OF Jose Guillen and RP Scot Shields. Angels would have to agree to give Lowell a no trade clause to get him to sign off on it. Yes the Angels have Dallas McPhearson, but he struggled in his cup of coffee this year, and if impresses could DH or play 1B with Erstad moving back to the OF. Guillen would be a productive, bang for your buck player. Yes, his lockeroom troubles are a huge concern, but $3 mil for 30 HR, 100 RBI, .300 average isa bargain we can't afford to pass up. Shields can pitch in relief or start, but IMO would be a great, 4th-5th starter at a relativley cheap price. Trade Guillermo Mota for prospects. I like Mota, just not convinced he'll make a good closer. If we re-sign Armando, we can't afford to pay him the 2.5 mil he's going to get to set up. Re-sign Armando Benitez. He found a comfort zone here and we can't let him get away. We went through too many Vladimir Nunez' Braden Looper's etc. to take any risks at this position. Sign Magglio Ordonez to a 1 year, $8 million dollar deal, with a mutual option for 3 extra years at 34.5 mil (11.5 per). Maggs would get to prove he's healthy for a pretty good pricetag, and also could get the big bucks long term...with Hampton and Pudge's $ off the books, we can afford the 11.5 per annually long term. Sign Matt Mantei to a Ryan Dempster-esque deal. 1 year at 700k, team option for a 2nd year at $2mil. Mantei was atrocious this year, probably because he was pitching with a bum shoulder. He's always been injury prone, but a risk worth taking at 700k IMO. Could make a dominant setup man if healthy. Sign Joey Eischen to a 1 year 700k deal. Not anything spectacular, but insurance if Perisho bombs out next year....he's far from a sure thing. Starting Rotation: A.J. Burnett - $3 mil Josh Beckett - $2 mil Dontrelle Willis - $ 500k Scot Shields - 1 mil Shawn Chacon - $ 1.85 mil 8.35 mil Matt Perisho .5 mil Joey Eischen .7 mil Rudy Seanez .5mil Tim Spooneybarger .5 mil Matt Mantei .8 mil Armando Benitez 5.5 mil 8.5 mil C-Paul LoDuca - 5.5 mil 1B- Jeff Conine- 4.75 mil 2b-Luis Castillo-5.33 mil SS-Alex Gonzalez-3.1 mil 3B-Miguel Cabrera-.5 mil LF- Jose Guillen- 3.0 mil CF- Juan Pierre - 3.4 mil RF- Magglio Ordonez - 8 mil 33.58 mil Bench: Mike Mordecai-.5 mil Matt Treanor- .3 mil Lenny Harris - .5mil Chris Aguila - .2 mil Damion Easley- 1 mil. Aaron Guiel - .5 mil 3 mil Pudge/Hampton-13 mil TOTAL: $66.43 mil Lineup: CF- Juan Pierre 2B-Luis Castillo RF- Magglio Ordonez 3B-Miguel Cabrera LF-Jose Guillen 1B-Jeff Conine C- Paul Lo Duca SS-Alex Gonzalez (Lots of RBI men) Rotation: SP-AJ Burnett SP-Josh Beckett SP-Dontrelle Willis SP-Shawn Chacon SP-Scot Shields Bullpen: RP-Matt Perisho RP-Joey Eischen RP-Rudy Seanez RP-Tim Spooneybarger SU Matt Mantei CL-Armando Benitez Be Gentle

Some guys are just meant to be setup men...Mota doesn't have a strikout pitch like most successful closers do. He throws hard, but his fastball is as straight as a dart and his changeup is overused. 577474[/snapback] WTF? Mota's fastball moves. In fact, Benitez ironically is the one with the 96-98 MPH straight 4-seam. 577479[/snapback] Are you watching the same Mota we are? If his fastball had movement, he wouldn't be so reluctant to throw it.

Some guys are just meant to be setup men...Mota doesn't have a strikout pitch like most successful closers do. He throws hard, but his fastball is as straight as a dart and his changeup is overused.

Extra $$ will be available with Hampton's contract coming to an end (at least our portion) 576975[/snapback] You sure? I read something a few weeks ago saying that we have $10 million tied down to that for the 05 season. 576979[/snapback] Yeah, I mean after that, $$ will be available to pay Maggs the 12.5 mil per long term. 8 mil for someon of his caliber is a bargain...we'd probably have to deal Enc and Jeff to make room, but he's worth it.

My Early prediction: Florida signs Magglio Ordonez to a Pudge-esque deal....with his knee injury, the marketplace for Maggs is going to be thin, no one wants to spend significant $$ on an injury risk. Sign him to a one year $8 mil deal, with a mutual option for 3 extra years at 11.5-12.5 mil per. He'd get a chance to prove himself next year, and if he stays healthy gets 3 extra years for bigtime money. Extra $$ will be available with Hampton's contract coming to an end (at least our portion)

Catcher Bengie Molina and utility outfielder Jeff DaVanon expressed surprise at the sanction. "He's aggressive, he's a good teammate," Molina said. "I would be more than glad to have him back."

all Im saying is, this isnt the first clubhouse not to agree with Guillen this is now 3 times 575223[/snapback] I don't think he was a "cancer" with the Angels...from most of the comments i've seen, they said he was liked in the dressing room. He just has a short fuse, ala Milton Bradley, which gets him in trouble. He's always had a bit of an attitude, but a couple of our pitchers aren't saints either.(Beckett & Burnett) At 3 mil a year for the kind of production he can offer, it's a risk a team like ours should definatley take. He'd come at a reduced rate, not only financially, but personel wise, because of the "cancer" reputation. You plug Guillen in RF and find someone to somehow take Enc, this lineup goes from being suspect to potent. Pierre Castillo Cabrera Guillen Lowell Conine LoDuca Gonzalez Looks good :thumbup

I'm optimistic. Pavano's career was resurrected by Loria. 575052[/snapback] As was Armando's in a sense...coming into this year, Benitez was far from a dependable closer...now, he's arguably a top 5 guy.

There's no way in hell the Angels take Encarnacion for Guillen. Put it this way...we would probablyhave to pay someone to take Encarnacion, let alone get a guy who probably would have hit .300, 30 HR 100 RBI for only 3 mil. Here's an idea though...trade Lowell for Guillen+ a prospect or bullpen arm(Shields?)...if the Angels can promise Lowell a no trade clause. They want a 3B to replace Glaus who is a FA, and we can use the 5 mil saved to re-sign Armando and/or Carl.

Starting Burnett over a Cy Young nominee? I like AJ, but it's Carl's spot to lose. Whoever said Pavano is a solid #3 starter should be shot. 574125[/snapback] let's not get ahead of ourselves here. this is Pavvy's first real good year.... anyway I go with Burnett 574147[/snapback] True, but how many Cy young winners/nominees didn't start opening day the next year? Probably very rare. Pavano deserves it...

Starting Burnett over a Cy Young nominee? I like AJ, but it's Carl's spot to lose. Whoever said Pavano is a solid #3 starter should be shot.

Speaking of Mota, I worry that we'll be in the middle of next season figuring out that Mota is far from what Benitez was.? Hopefully that's not the case, but it does worry me. He can look dominating at times, but he's blown some games.? You say big deal everyone blows a few?? Benitez hasn't. 571257[/snapback] Actually, Benitez has. :thumbup 571309[/snapback] In 15 career save opportunities, Mota has BLOWN 10 of those saves, and only successfully converted 5 of them. That's beyond awful.

So Koch is not a FA. That's good. He can be re-signed for cheap to fill out the bullpen. 570477[/snapback] He's arbitration eligible...and he made over 5 mil last year, so there's no way in hell they pick up what he's awarded. That being said, if the market for him is nonexistent in free agency, they could bring him back for cheap then.

The Fish getting swept by the Sillies is just an exclamation point to a frustrating season...but, probably to your surprise, this season can't be considered a failure per se for many reasons. First, I think last years miraculous season blinded all of us from the fact that this is still a VERY young team. Yes, they gained a lot of experience in the run we had last year, but when your best hitter is a 21 year old in his first full major league season, as special as Miguel is, you're going to have some ups and downs offensively, which we definitely did. When your pitching staff is as injury prone as our guys have been this year, you can't expect too much when your forced to throw out minor league fodder or immature kids out there every fifth day. Hopefully they can keep this team in tact. One thing no one can deny is they work their ass off day in day out, regardless of what situation their in. Things didn't go our way this year to say the least, but hopefully the majority of this team can stay together and make a run at it again next season.

If he could add a changeup to his fastball/slider combo, I'd go as far as saying he has ace stuff. That's a nasty 2 seamer if I've ever seen one. He doesn't seem to be able to locate his fastball at high velocities, though. He misses pretty badly every time he cranks it up to 96-97 MPH. If he can somehow control his stuff and add another pitch, he could be a damn good one.

This guy might have the "potential" to be a great starter one day but that day sure as s*** hasnt come yet, SEND HIS ASS BACK DOWN! If not bench his ass for good. Yeah yeah i know he was one of the few options that was able to be called up, but damn this guy is not ready AT ALL. 569074[/snapback] What the hell did you expect from a 21 year old called up from SINGLE A? Kensing did fine considering the circumstances. He definatley wasn't ready for MLB hitting, hopefully it doesn't stall his development.

:::::Yawn:::: :plain

"was" being the key word. He's a Marlin right now and has established himself as a heart and sole player of THIS team. Any successful businessman knows to learn from his mistakes, and hopefully Beinfest has too. You don't hand jobs to young players, you let them earn it. Re-sign Lo Duca, and if Willingham plays so well that he takes the starting job from LoDuca, then you can move him. Um.. then why not trade Pierre? JP is due close to $4M in the final year of his contract and is nowhere being within the top 3 at his position like Castillo is. I don't necessarily think either should go or that you can't utilize two similar batters in the same lineup (bating one of them in the 6th/7th spot worked well). However if you're going to make this type of argument then surely you'd have to come to the conclusion JP is the one you'd want to trade. A) JP is simply a better leadoff hitter B) We have a capable replacement for Castillo.. That being said, I don't think either should be moved. Like Admin said, their a huge part as to why we're the defending champs. That "redundancy" is such a luxury some of you take it for granted. To have two guys like Luis and JP at the top of the lineup is an embarrassment of riches, most teams would die to get either of them. Dumbest thing I've ever heard. Do you actually think we were 10 games over .500 BECAUSE Ramon Castro was batting .150? We were 10 games over .500 DESPITE Ramon Castro's putrid play. Can you succeed without a productive catcher? Sure, but we don't have anyone who's going to hit at the pace Choi was hitting for that first month, or Lowell, or Cabrera...you get the point. Miguel and Lowell both were on on pace for 40-50 HR seasons in the first month, as was Choi if I remember correctly, needless to say, it was an aberration. LoDuca is a top 5 catcher in this league...keeping him should not only be a priority, it's a necessity.

You actually think this team has a prayer with Logan Kensing/Nate Bump/whoever pitching every fifth day? I admire your optimism... 561838[/snapback] I don't take anything you say seriously anymore after you gave up on the team with a month and a half to go. We have a chance either way, it's not over. 561839[/snapback] :lol Like I said...I admire your optimism.

And our season along with him.... Doesn't mean much coming from you since we were basically mathematically eliminated in your opinion in August. :plain Bad news about AJ. Major setback for the team IF he is done. 561837[/snapback] You actually think this team has a prayer with Logan Kensing/Nate Bump/whoever pitching every fifth day? I admire your optimism...

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/conte...notes_0917.html Just crushing news...devastating.