I love fiscally responsible clubs. Teams like the Rays and A's that do so much with so little will always be my favorites and deserve the greatest respect. That being said, nothing is as fun as high impact free agent signings. While Omar Minaya may have screwed the Mets in the long term we always knew he would try to solve our problems by throwing huge amounts of money at top players.
Last year the Angels signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. They had probably the best rotation in baseball and the best player of a generation. During the year they added the best rookie of all time and a Cy Young winner and still missed the playoffs. They could have pulled a Marlins, cashed in some chips and went back to trying to grind it out with the rest of us palookas. Instead Jerry Dipoto looked down at his cards, eyed the competition and pushed all his chips into the center of the table.
Josh Hamilton is an Angel.
Josh Hamilton, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols are a power trio the like we have rarely seen before. In 2012 they combined for a 17.9 WAR. Exactly equal to every member of the Rockies and higher than eight other MLB clubs.
Combined they hit 103 home runs equal to the entire SF Giants.
They had an average slash line of .308/.366/.552
The combined for 296 RBI and scored 317 runs.
They did all of this and none of them even played a full season (Pujols came the closest with 154). Imagine what these team can do if they stay healthy and productive? The 2013 Angels are going to be an absolute spectacle.
... They had the best rotation in baseball last year? Really? Weaver is an ace, but Santana is terrible and Williams was a rookie. Wilson is solid, but not great, and Haren can be good but is always injured.
ReplyDeleteI probably wouldn't have listed them in the top 5 MLB rotation, and might have struggled to crack my top 10.
Imagine in 3-4 years when the Angels will have close to 100 million just for Wilson, Pujols, Weaver, and Hamilton. If the Angels don't win now, it's gonna get real ugly.