The Angels are in on the Joel Pineiro bidding, according to ESPN's Buster Olney (via Twitter). We first heard of their interest in the righty back in December, but they'll have to compete with the Mets and Dodgers for his services.
After losing John Lackey to the Red Sox and making a push for Roy Halladay before he landed in Philadelphia and Aroldis Chapman before he signed with Cincinnati, it's clear the Angels are looking to add another quality arm to their rotation. Despite that, they will not in attendance for Ben Sheets' workout today.
Please snap him up Angels. Keep him far, far away from the Mets.
That’s too funny. First they lose Lackey for who knows why and lose out on evey other viable pitching option until NOW they are scraping the litteral bottom of the barrell for a guy the RED SOX kicked out of their Bullpen in mid 2007 because he was getting hammered by AL hitters. This guy is a NL pitcher at best…I love this move for the Angels if it happens.
Whoever signs Joel will be extremely unhappy when he actually starts pitching. See the track record of Junkballers signing out of St. Louis, ie. Looper and Suppan. That being said, where are the Brewers at? They should be begging for this guy to cement their rotation of Dave Duncan Specials.
Looper is a FA
Wow that is an ugly bottom paragraph Mike.
Anyway, it is clear that the Angels need rotation help and Pineiro may be their best option at this point. I do not foresee any quality pitchers being traded at this point in the offseason so the Angels may have to to overpay for Pineiroi’s services
Personally, I don’t think the story is accurate. The Angels have better options in their system than signing Pineiro. The dead give-away is using Pineiro and “quality arm” in the same sentence.
I see no reason why the Angels shouldn’t be interested in Sheets. That’s just crazy I think, to prefer Pineiro over Sheets, -even- with the injury risk.
Mets will get him. Angels should go after Jon Garland he is more of AL -pitcher
As an Angels fan I would take a chance with Ben Sheets instead of Joel Pineiro. Last time Joel pitched in the A.L. he was horrible.
— Good chance that Pineiro suffers major regression in a move to the AL.– Wouldn’t be the first time though that a pitcher improves after being married up with a good coach.– The Angels have 4 very solid starters (Saunders, Weaver, Kazmir, Santana). They do have internal options as well. That said, my guess is that the Angels would rather have innings than outstanding pitching. Guys like Bedard and Sheets can’t be counted on for doing anything. A guy that can give the team 180 innings of mid 4’s ERA is probably more valuable than a guy who might give you 120 innings of a mid 3’s ERA.– With all that said, I don’t like the move for the Angels. Unless Pineiro comes on a 1/$8 type deal he will be severely overpaid.–People need to realize it is not 2007. Whatever happened to Pineiro back when he was a Mariner or Red Sox carries less weight than his most recent year with the Cards.
I would imagine that for them to be interested, it will be about 1 year/6-8 million. They may throw in an option of some sort for a 2nd year if it makes or breaks the deal, but I can’t see them going overboard money wise.
Mets offering 2 years $16 million (for now, might increase with Molina rejected their offer and now are puttin their attention on Pinerio).
In that case, he will probably go to the Mets. I’m not sure the Angels would want to guarantee two years to someone who may or may not to do well in the AL.
Angels probably don’t want to guarantee two years to anyone. They have 4 good pitchers looked up for multiple years and have a lot of prospects who aren’t quite ready. They just need a 1 yr stop gag.
Not to mention that the following players have contracts ending in 2012…Torii Hunter, Juan Rivera, Kendry Morales, Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui and if I am not mistaken, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders are arbitration eligible 2012.
I think you have a few mistakes in that post.
Below is how many years and dollars are left for each contract. Contracts that expire after the 2012 season would be those that have 3 years left on their deals (Hunter and Santana):
— Hunter – 3/55
— Rivera – 2/6
— Morales – 1/1 – arb eligible in 2011 (under control until 2013)
— Abreu – 2/18
— Matsui – 1/6
— Santana – 3/25
— Saunders – first year arb eligible in 2010 – team control through 2012)
“A guy that can give the team 180 innings of mid 4’s ERA is probably more valuable than a guy who might give you 120 innings of a mid 3’s ERA.”
I would argue the opposite is true, in a well run organization. You should hopefully have a guy who can at least give you a high 4 ERA in your farm, so a mid 3’s ERA over half a season could easily be more valuable. Especially if those 120 innings are on the back of the year during the postseason.
Jim – I totally agree. In my post I speculated that the Angels would rather have innings. Not my personal preference.
That said, in this case I might take those bulk innings. We have at least 2 major injury question marks in the rotation today (Kazmir and Santana). If either of those guys go down and you are stuck with another pitcher (like Sheets) who may only give you 100 innings that’s trouble.
I wouldn’t hate the idea of going into the season with Palmer/O’Sullivan/Surprise from Spring training. It’s just not ideal.
As others have posted, the Angels are looking solid over the next few years with minor league talent maturing. 2010 could be a problem though.
You may be right, as the Angels have shown a preference to seek durability over quality at times (ex. Garland). With that said, the Angels tend to have a solid farm system that can recover (as you also mentioned). I can’t say I’m that high on the Angels this year either. They’re in the mix, but they’re in the middle of the pack rather than being the frontrunner.
Indeed, the Angels are looking good in pitching. They have a very good bullpen lined up, and you can believe that Santana, Saunders and Kazmir will all be back in their 2nd half form. The Angels will only have 3-4 million left to play with after arbitration, but could expand this for the right player. But Piniero’s not the “right” player.
The Angels minor league system is stacked with pitching and whoever is the 5th starter this year is merely a stop gap. 23 year old Trevor Bell had an ERA under 3 last year between AA and AAA. Trevor Reckling had an ERA under 2.50 in AA last year and he was only 19/20 years old. Then there’s jordan Walden who projects into the front of a rotation if he can stay healthy. Their lower minors is where all the gems are though. Tyler Skaggs, Fabio Martinez, Garret Richards, Pil Joon Jang are all studs.
I fully expect the Angels to either go with Matt Palmer as their 5th starter or a cheap one year commitment like Jon Garland.
Ben Sheets thats all that needs to be said.
I am a HUGE Angels fan, but this has been a very disappointing offseason that started off with a bang! We started off by signing Abreu to two years (YEAH!), then went on to provide Figgins with a “courtesy” offer ($10m less than M’s offer, no wonder he left). They provided a “courtesy” offer for Lackey which I honestly did not expect them to keep. Linked to opportunities like Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Javier Vazquez, Jason Bay, Adronis Chapman and now Joel Piniero? And so far, our fantastic front office has inked Abreu and Hideki Matsui. We stay have HUGE holes in the 5 hole in the rotation as well as 3B. Way to go Reagins!
What did you want to do with Brandon Wood? The guy needs to play or be traded. I am more than happy to save $10m/year and give Wood a shot.
Matsui is an upgrade over Vlad.
We don’t have the money to resign Lackey.
There is plenty to not like about the Angels off-season. Here is what I would have done:
— Offer Abreu arbitration and hope he walks.
— Sign Matsui to DH
— Sign Holliday for LF
— Offer arb to Oliver and hope he accepts
Those moves would have cost about the same as bringing in Rodney, Matsui, and Abreu.
I agree with the Matsui signing….great move and is a serious upgrade from Vladdy (Sorry Vlad!). Hideki is the POLAR opposite of Vlad. He is patient and does not K as many times as Vlad did. Then when you put Juan Rivera behind Vlad, that was a killer last year. Cant remember how many times Figgy and Abreu got on, then Vlad K, Rivera DP….end of inning. As for Wood, yes its time to S*** or get off the pot. This is the time that Wood needs to do something and we do have a nice backup plan with Izzy so I am not too worried there.
Losing Ollie was HUGE….when we paid Fernando Rodney MORE money than Darren Oliver, something is seriously WRONG! Abreu was a great signing….too.
I LOVED the idea of Palmer at #5 but for some reason Scioscia does not like him in the starting position. Mike likes him in the long relief role.
I am not sold on Ortega or Bell yet and am on the fence with O’Sullivan. He showed sparks last year, but then as the tables turned on him, he faded quick, but he is young.
trevor reckling
Give Ben Sheets a 1 year deal
Give Sheets a 6-month deal. That’s all you’ll need.
Don’t think Angels sign him, I read on the site and heard on AM 830 that palmer will be the fifth
C’mon mets forget molina and sign joel..
right now, angels have weak OF defence past Torii
and an old OF
think they could put a package together for Brandon Webb and Chris Young from the Dbacks?
(Walden, Bourgos??) Young plays RF until Torii either fades or is done, and maybe he finds it at the plate way down in the lineup
actually in one stat i read, juan rivera is one of the better OF defenders. not sure which stat that is though (WAR? i dont know somebody help me). and Angels would be reluctant to go after Webb, who just came off injury and is a FA. they would rather push for Haren than Webb, which wont really happen
right now, angels have weak OF defence past Torii
and an old OF
think they could put a package together for Brandon Webb and Chris Young from the Dbacks?
(Walden, Bourgos??) Young plays RF until Torii either fades or is done, and maybe he finds it at the plate way down in the lineup
As an angels and mets fan, i rather have pineiro sign with the mets cuz they need it more than the angels and the angels r set with pitching even though it would be nice to have another potential ace in their rotation