Nobody in baseball. Take your average all-star and tell them they should sign with the Dodgers or Angels and apparently you have to literally twist their arm to make them sign with one of these two teams. Let's break this down ESPN News left side scroll style.
Angels
Key losses:
Mark Teixiera (Signed with the Yankees late December)
Francisco Rodriguez (Signed with Mets in early December)
Key Additions:
Brian Fuentes (signed mid January)
Bobby Abreu (signed early February)
They lost two guys rapid fire after the winter meetings at the beginning of December. The Angels pretty much took the stance that they were letting Rodriguez go, which was probably a smart idea in theory, until he signed for way under market value and his perfect storm of free agency didn't happen. Then they were sort of in on the Teixeira sweepstakes, but once the bidding started escalating slowly, they put on the brakes and said they weren't going to go any further. They remained quiet and it just didn't make sense. They have had some success in bringing up young pitchers, but not so much bringing up young bats. Remember when Dallas McPhearson was a big time prospect? What about Brandon Wood and Kendry Morales? Yes, they made the big club at the end of last season, but they were supposed to be teetering on the fence of being all-star at this point.
Brian Fuentes just doesn't make sense to me a lot the same way that Keith Foulke didn't make sense to me. He doesn't really have anything that makes him unhittable, he has a odd release point, but still looks like he's trying to throw an egg without it breaking in his hand. It's going to be interesting to see how he does, my gut tells me that by the end of the year he's either going to be Joe Borowski circa 2007 or Joe Borowski circa 2008. Either way, I'm predicting Jose Arredondo is closing by the end of the year.
The signing of Abreu was genius and the Angels got a good deal on him paying only $5 million for the season. Though coming off a season when he hit 20 homers and drove in 100 though had a dip in his batting average. As a Red Sox fan, I couldn't be happier that he is out of the Yankee lineup. He wore out Sox pitchers and drove up the pitch count with endless at bats and clutch hits. This is a good fit for the Angels because he fits their scrappy style, though this doesn't really make them that much better. They are completely void of pop in their line up, and are packed with ground ball hitters who have moderate speed. I think they are regressing and not progressing, and now they're supposed to knock off the two teams coming out of the AL East this season? It's not happening, if Matt Holliday doesn't plunge like Andruw Jones this contract year (I'm calling it, his numbers outside of Coors Field, horrible) they might have to look out for the A's.
Dodgers
The Dodgers can't even be broken down at this point. They are completely reliant on Manny Ramirez at this point there is no question that they are going to sign him but I don't know which way the contract is going to go. The last offer I heard had Ramirez (a year ago he was Manny to me, no longer on a first name basis. Bromantic break ups are tough) was for 2 years and 45 million dollars. Which as I recall is the same offer that they originally offered him back at the very beginning of December before the Winter Meetings. In between the Dodgers upped their offer, Scott Boras has called made fun of their offers and at the end of the day they are destined to reunite. It is like when you break up with your girlfriend, and they start offering you stuff to stay, clothes, food and various other relationship perks to come back to them. It's sad and we all know somebody who this has happened to. Well in this case, that's the Dodgers, they've been dumped so their boyfriend (Ramirez) can go off and play the field and get drunk with his buddies for a few months and see if he can find a better looking girl elsewhere. In the end it will come back to a backslide and the Dodgers and Ramirez will get back together like Zack and Kelly did during the middle of the College Years. That is unless those sleazy Yankees jump in like the college guy who worked at The Max and took poor Kelly Kapowski's innocence. I wouldn't put it past them, and if we have learned only one thing from the Czar of Sports, Bill Simmons, "The lesson as always is, women are just plain evil."
Sterling Pingree
Angels
Key losses:
Mark Teixiera (Signed with the Yankees late December)
Francisco Rodriguez (Signed with Mets in early December)
Key Additions:
Brian Fuentes (signed mid January)
Bobby Abreu (signed early February)
They lost two guys rapid fire after the winter meetings at the beginning of December. The Angels pretty much took the stance that they were letting Rodriguez go, which was probably a smart idea in theory, until he signed for way under market value and his perfect storm of free agency didn't happen. Then they were sort of in on the Teixeira sweepstakes, but once the bidding started escalating slowly, they put on the brakes and said they weren't going to go any further. They remained quiet and it just didn't make sense. They have had some success in bringing up young pitchers, but not so much bringing up young bats. Remember when Dallas McPhearson was a big time prospect? What about Brandon Wood and Kendry Morales? Yes, they made the big club at the end of last season, but they were supposed to be teetering on the fence of being all-star at this point.
Brian Fuentes just doesn't make sense to me a lot the same way that Keith Foulke didn't make sense to me. He doesn't really have anything that makes him unhittable, he has a odd release point, but still looks like he's trying to throw an egg without it breaking in his hand. It's going to be interesting to see how he does, my gut tells me that by the end of the year he's either going to be Joe Borowski circa 2007 or Joe Borowski circa 2008. Either way, I'm predicting Jose Arredondo is closing by the end of the year.
The signing of Abreu was genius and the Angels got a good deal on him paying only $5 million for the season. Though coming off a season when he hit 20 homers and drove in 100 though had a dip in his batting average. As a Red Sox fan, I couldn't be happier that he is out of the Yankee lineup. He wore out Sox pitchers and drove up the pitch count with endless at bats and clutch hits. This is a good fit for the Angels because he fits their scrappy style, though this doesn't really make them that much better. They are completely void of pop in their line up, and are packed with ground ball hitters who have moderate speed. I think they are regressing and not progressing, and now they're supposed to knock off the two teams coming out of the AL East this season? It's not happening, if Matt Holliday doesn't plunge like Andruw Jones this contract year (I'm calling it, his numbers outside of Coors Field, horrible) they might have to look out for the A's.
Dodgers
The Dodgers can't even be broken down at this point. They are completely reliant on Manny Ramirez at this point there is no question that they are going to sign him but I don't know which way the contract is going to go. The last offer I heard had Ramirez (a year ago he was Manny to me, no longer on a first name basis. Bromantic break ups are tough) was for 2 years and 45 million dollars. Which as I recall is the same offer that they originally offered him back at the very beginning of December before the Winter Meetings. In between the Dodgers upped their offer, Scott Boras has called made fun of their offers and at the end of the day they are destined to reunite. It is like when you break up with your girlfriend, and they start offering you stuff to stay, clothes, food and various other relationship perks to come back to them. It's sad and we all know somebody who this has happened to. Well in this case, that's the Dodgers, they've been dumped so their boyfriend (Ramirez) can go off and play the field and get drunk with his buddies for a few months and see if he can find a better looking girl elsewhere. In the end it will come back to a backslide and the Dodgers and Ramirez will get back together like Zack and Kelly did during the middle of the College Years. That is unless those sleazy Yankees jump in like the college guy who worked at The Max and took poor Kelly Kapowski's innocence. I wouldn't put it past them, and if we have learned only one thing from the Czar of Sports, Bill Simmons, "The lesson as always is, women are just plain evil."
Sterling Pingree
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