The Angels will induct former outfielder Garret Anderson into their Hall of Fame on Saturday, as Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register notes. Anderson hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since being released by the Dodgers in 2010, and he says he’s enjoyed his time away from the game, in which he hasn’t had to deal with the frustrations of failing. “I was a mess in the minors. If I struck out in my first at-bat, I was done. For a good player to become better, he has to put that aside,” he says. “I miss the one-on-one with the pitchers. I miss competing against Pedro Martinez, a guy who could make you miss. Other than that, I don’t miss anything. When it was over, I was going home to be with my family. The game was never my identity.” Interestingly, Anderson credits Mike Scioscia — who appears likely to remain with the Angels in 2017 — with instilling a winning culture that changed the Angels. “We had a third-place mentality,” he says. “We’d have good years but we wouldn’t get the player we needed, so that’s how we played. Then Mike Scioscia came in and after a while I realized, this guy really thinks we can win.” Here’s more from Anaheim.
- Third baseman Yunel Escobar could wind up on the disabled list, Jeff Fletcher of the Register tweets. Escobar left yesterday’s game after bunting a ball off his face. X-rays came back negative, but he is sore. The 33-year-old is batting a strong .320/.368/.402 in his first season with the Angels. He has a $7MM club option for next season.
- Angels pro scouting director Hal Morris is leaving the organization to work in athlete development for Fantex in San Francisco, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Fantex is the company that makes deals with athletes, paying them an upfront sum in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings and then offering shares of those players to investors. Its MLB players include Jonathan Schoop, Maikel Franco, Collin McHugh, Yangervis Solarte, Tyler Duffey and current Angel Andrew Heaney. Morris, the former Reds first baseman, was a candidate for the Angels’ GM job before the team hired Billy Eppler.
I would invest in Franco, but my only concern is that the Phillies will lock him up on a team friendly deal to stick around as is the culture with most young players now a days. I could see him signing a 5 year $60 million dollar contract with the Phillies after 2017 with 2 options. I just feel like that would be something that this new Phillies regime would be about.
Solarte could make some money through arbitration, but by the time he hits free agency, he will be 33-34, and let’s face it, he won’t be bringing in a multi-year deal any time soon.
Schoop, however, could be a safe investment because the market for young, quality second basemen is scarce to say the least, and I can’t see the Orioles shelling out all that much money for him with Machado, Bundy and Gausman likely their priorities and Davis and Jones already making as much as they are- so he seems likely to hit the open market.
The other guys are either too much of an injury risk or non-tender candidates
The thing is, Franco is not going to sign that kind of deal any more because he does not ‘need’ the money (That is, of course, if he hits better than he has after the all star game). The players can afford to take a bet on their future, going through the regular arbitration process and becoming a free agent as soon as possible. They don’t need a deal buying out 1 or 2 free agent years in exchange for a little bit more money during their first 3 years in the bigs. I don’t think Singleton, Lucroy, etc. would have signed extensions so early in their career if they had a deal like this.
You are saying the you would rather have Franco, one of the worst defensive third baseman in the game over solarte, somebody who posts good offense and decent defense numbers ? Another lost Phillies fan
Franco has 30 HR/100 RBI potential and defensively he actually ranks 5th in third baseman fielding percentage (for the NL) and 4th in 3B putouts (for the NL) which means that he is AT LEAST in the middle of the pack in the MLB and both numbers rank higher than Solarte– Franco also has a solid arm which also helps his case in the field.
Solarte is a great hitter on a bad team right now, and yes, he provides solid defense but I was talking on the grounds of earning potential and future value. Right now, in single season WAR for 2016- Solarte may narrowly takes it over Franco, but when you are investing in a player’s earnings and a player’s future, I’m taking the 24 year old who looks to be a corner stone of a budding young team over the 29 year old place holder who seems as if he will be a stellar, albeit unspectacular journeyman for the next 5 years any day.
Fielding percentage doesn’t show how good of a fielder a player is
But at the end of the day, would you rather have a guy who makes 98.5 percent of the plays and looks sloppy or unorthodox or 90% of the plays and looks good doing it
I’ll take efficiency over “fielding the right way” any day
I don’t like the Fantex deals. With these deals players will never sign extensions and just wait until they become a free agent and are able to sign whichever team offers them the most money. That is already happening quite a bit these days, but Fantex will eliminate all that is left of the loyalty of the (some) players. I hope it will be made illegal in the next CBA before it gets out of hand.
Honestly, I do like it a bit- like I would totally get involved in this new thing. It’ll be like fantasy baseball meets wall street