Only true baseball fans start talking about their team's offseason plans and next season plans while the playoffs are still rolling along. That's where we find ourselves today. Most of our Angels offseason posts tend to focus on offseason articles from various "real" media members. Today, I'll reflect on Mark Saxon (he's back from the dead!), who recently wrote an article of three things he thinks about the Angels offseason. We'll explore each one quickly.
1. The Angels will have to go big to get Carl Crawford.
How long have we been talking about Carl Crawford around here? It feels like the old Miguel Tejada talks, or more recently the Paul Konerko rumors. Is Carl Crawford actually going to come to the Angels? Is he even right for us? Saxon correctly points out that the Angels would have to go far beyond any payroll they've ever had to add Carl to the mix. Would it be worth it? It's hard to argue with his stats, indeed. At 28 years of age, C-squared hit .307 in 2010 with 19 homers, 90 RBI, and 47 stolen bases. His WAR was 4.8, a standout mark. He's good. You can't argue that he good.
The question I have is, "Are we really that far away from being a good team?" Would we really need to make a move like this to get this team back to the top of the AL West. In a word, no. I really don't think so. The Halos missed Kendry Morales for the majority of the season, and we all realized that he's the lifeblood of this team. We got poor production from a lot of players in the same year. Can that really happen again? I don't think so. People may say I'm an idiot, but I'm confident with an outfield of Rivera, Bourjos, and Hunter for next year. You know what Torii brings, JR has way more talent than he showed just last year (as he's showed in years previous), and Bourjos has a chance to be something special in his first full season next year.
Sure, Crawford would be amazing to add to this team, but do you really think Arte is going to pull that trigger and (more importantly) write that check? I guess we'll see, but I don't see it happening.
2. Hideki Matsui probably isn't coming back.
Shocker. Way to go out on a limb here. Godzilla hit .274 (tied for his lowest season BA in his career) and had 84 RBI (the lowest, by far, in any full season in his career). I'll admit, it was okay having him around, but there is no way the Japanese slugger will be back next year. I think it goes without saying.
3. Scott Kazmir may be released in the offseason.
Boy, this is a tempting one for me to bite on. A 9-15 record with a 5.94 ERA doesn't even begin to help non-Angel fans understand just how bad Kazberries was this season. He never seemed to be able to get beyond the 5th inning, even if he was having that rare "good" game, and just looked like a pitcher who had lost all confidence in himself (remember that game where the Angels left him in to give up like 13 earned runs? Yeah, that killed it). I've suggested multiple times that Kazmir will shift to being a long reliever until his contract runs out, but Saxon seems to suggest that he may be cut because the Angels are "running out of patience with him."
However, Saxon points out that the Halos would stand to eat the remaining $15 million left on his contract. This is the key point. Two things here: First is that the Angels do not want Kaz to become another Kevin Appier or Gary Matthews, and I don't think they are interested in paying someone not to play. Secondly, much like Brandon Wood, I'm not convinced that the Halos are ready to give up on Scott just yet. If you listened to Scioscia after all of Kaz's starts, he's always quick to point out that he likes his stuff even though it wasn't any good. He always talks about how Butcher is working on some stuff with him, and he's sure he'll bounce back. Well, he never did. But, I think the Angels still think he will. He'll most likely start in the rotation, and if he doesn't have it, he'll end up in the pen by June.
What do you think?
Let's get this postseason over with and let the offseason begin!
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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