2016 MLB Thread

[SKO]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

[Oleg]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

The luxury tax thing would be maddening to me if I were an Angels fan.

They have Weaver and Wilson coming off the books next year.  There's a new CBA that will be negotiated this off-season.  Trout is so amazingly awesome that he'll have HoF numbers by the time he's 28.

Imagine a team of Trout and 7 Murtons winning 57 major league games.  Holy shit.

[Eli]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

The Joe Sheehan piece about them trading Trout was spot-on in its idea and it'd be interesting to hear more people talk about it (because his Cubs' offer, as we discussed, was laughable).

[Oleg]

While we're at it, BP published their Nationals top-10 prospect list (now with 99% fewer hot takes!).

Top 10 Talents 25 And Under (born 4/1/90 or later)
1. Bryce Harper
...

Let this sink in for a moment: Bryce Harper will be on the 2018 25U Nationals list.

[Brownie]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

Ernie Banks... OK, you said playoff era:

1) Tim Raines and Andre Dawson and Gary Carter and Tim Wallach... 1 playoff appearance over 6 years together.
2) Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray after 1983
3) Dale Murphy
4) Paul Molitor, Robin Yount ... no playoffs after 1982.


Those are stretches, nothing like Trout.

[Eli]

While we're at it, BP published their Nationals top-10 prospect list (now with 99% fewer hot takes!).

Top 10 Talents 25 And Under (born 4/1/90 or later)
1. Bryce Harper
...

Let this sink in for a moment: Bryce Harper will be on the 2018 25U Nationals list.

It's so crazy that he'll be younger than Kris Bryant for at least one more season.

[Oleg]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

Ernie Banks... OK, you said playoff era:

1) Tim Raines and Andre Dawson and Gary Carter and Tim Wallach... 1 playoff appearance over 6 years together.
2) Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray after 1983
3) Dale Murphy
4) Paul Molitor, Robin Yount ... no playoffs after 1982.


Those are stretches, nothing like Trout.

None of those players are even close to being as good as Trout (peak years).

How ridiculous is it that we get to watch Trout, Harper, and Kershaw?

[Brownie]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

Ernie Banks... OK, you said playoff era:

1) Tim Raines and Andre Dawson and Gary Carter and Tim Wallach... 1 playoff appearance over 6 years together.
2) Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray after 1983
3) Dale Murphy
4) Paul Molitor, Robin Yount ... no playoffs after 1982.


Those are stretches, nothing like Trout.

None of those players are even close to being as good as Trout (peak years).

How ridiculous is it that we get to watch Trout, Harper, and Kershaw?

Or that the next two best players from this era might be Bryant and Addison Russell?

[Oleg]

If we already have a 2016 general mlb thread I apologize.

Reading the ZiPS projections for the Angels and kind of marvelling at this:

A team composed of all exactly replacement-level players and also Mike Trout would record roughly 57 wins over the course of a season — meaning the Angels, as a group, need to augment Trout's contribution with about 30 wins of their own in order to qualify for the postseason in some fashion.

And then laughing at this:

Kole Calhoun (604 PA, 2.7 zWAR) and the newly acquired Andrelton Simmons (590 PA, 3.7 zWAR) would appear to be useful in that endeavor. Depending on the health of his foot, Albert Pujols (602 PA, 2.7 zWAR) might also be, as well. After those four players, however, finding even an average projection among the club's hitters is difficult.

Add in that Keith Law and others seem to think that the Angels farm system is the worst in the majors by far, and that they appear unwilling to spend their way past the luxury tax while Pujols becomes dead weight more and more each year....it's kind of depressing how the Angels are going to waste the best years of Trout's career.

I wonder if there's any other team in the playoff era that has managed to consistently waste that level of production from one or two young superstars.

The Joe Sheehan piece about them trading Trout was spot-on in its idea and it'd be interesting to hear more people talk about it (because his Cubs' offer, as we discussed, was laughable).

There's just no reason to trade him.  He's so young that he'll still peaking (quite a trip) in 5 years, right?  Their albatross contracts (Wilson, Weaver, Hamilton) will come off the books and he'll still be the best player in the league and still within his current deal (I'm pretty sure that's true).  With their money and Trout's prime years, they'll never have to rebuild.  That's my theory.

[Eli]

There's just no reason to trade him.  He's so young that he'll still peaking (quite a trip) in 5 years, right?  Their albatross contracts (Wilson, Weaver, Hamilton) will come off the books and he'll still be the best player in the league and still within his current deal (I'm pretty sure that's true).  With their money and Trout's prime years, they'll never have to rebuild.  That's my theory.

He's in his peak, which I think is different than "still peaking." He's not a normal ballplayer, so you can't assume he'll follow normal aging curves, but I don't think it's safe to say he'll be as good at age 27 as he is now. Probably still very good, but it's unreasonable to count on someone to basically continue being unprecedented.

[SKO]

There's just no reason to trade him.  He's so young that he'll still peaking (quite a trip) in 5 years, right?  Their albatross contracts (Wilson, Weaver, Hamilton) will come off the books and he'll still be the best player in the league and still within his current deal (I'm pretty sure that's true).  With their money and Trout's prime years, they'll never have to rebuild.  That's my theory.

He's in his peak, which I think is different than "still peaking." He's not a normal ballplayer, so you can't assume he'll follow normal aging curves, but I don't think it's safe to say he'll be as good at age 27 as he is now. Probably still very good, but it's unreasonable to count on someone to basically continue being unprecedented.

What if the Angels are saving up their cash to make a run at Harper when he becomes a FA? Imagine having both of them on the same team. It's not an entirely unrealistic scenario

[Oleg]

There's just no reason to trade him.  He's so young that he'll still peaking (quite a trip) in 5 years, right?  Their albatross contracts (Wilson, Weaver, Hamilton) will come off the books and he'll still be the best player in the league and still within his current deal (I'm pretty sure that's true).  With their money and Trout's prime years, they'll never have to rebuild.  That's my theory.

He's in his peak, which I think is different than "still peaking." He's not a normal ballplayer, so you can't assume he'll follow normal aging curves, but I don't think it's safe to say he'll be as good at age 27 as he is now. Probably still very good, but it's unreasonable to count on someone to basically continue being unprecedented.

What if the Angels are saving up their cash to make a run at Harper when he becomes a FA? Imagine having both of them on the same team. It's not an entirely unrealistic scenario

My mind is literally spinning. I'm spinning around in my office chair.

[SKO]

Whatever future plans they may have, not making moves this offseason seems pretty inexcusable in what's clearly a buyer's market at this point. They could have easily gone after Cespedes and the like that would have helped them approach that Trout+30 number without being albatrosses like the Hamilton deal. They've effectively punted a year in which their top player should be worth 9 wins. Unbelieveable.

[Saul Goodman]

Whatever future plans they may have, not making moves this offseason seems pretty inexcusable in what's clearly a buyer's market at this point. They could have easily gone after Cespedes and the like that would have helped them approach that Trout+30 number without being albatrosses like the Hamilton deal. They've effectively punted a year in which their top player should be worth 9 wins. Unbelieveable.

That whole shine on Arte Moreno being such a great owner...whatever happened to that?

[SKO]

Whatever future plans they may have, not making moves this offseason seems pretty inexcusable in what's clearly a buyer's market at this point. They could have easily gone after Cespedes and the like that would have helped them approach that Trout+30 number without being albatrosses like the Hamilton deal. They've effectively punted a year in which their top player should be worth 9 wins. Unbelieveable.

That whole shine on Arte Moreno being such a great owner...whatever happened to that?

Yeah, I mean if you define "great owner" as "willing to spend" he's certainly not been cheap, going all the way back to signing Vlad Guerrero back in '04, but letting that whole mess with DiPoto and Scioscia carry on the way it did and now sitting pat while Trout's best years go to waste...not a good look.