Comments on: The Rodney/Fuentes Situation

By: Juliana

Juliana — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:09:11 +0000

Why no love for the old man Oliver? If you go by WAR, Oliver alone was twice as valuable as Rodney and Fuentes combined in 2009. That’s not to say Oliver is immortal, but it implies just how mediocre and overpaid the Angels’ new closing duo is.

The Angels would’ve been better off saving the $12 million they’ll spend next season on Rodney and Matsui and instead putting that towards signing Figgins, who they made little effort to resign. Figgins’ will only get paid $8 million next year, so essentially they could’ve kept Figgins and still signed Rodney since they seemed intent on doing so.

Sorry for my rudimentary analysis, I’m kind of a noob.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:56:14 +0000

I’d like to state for the record, that the ‘Alex’ listed above is not me, and I don’t share his opinions. The Angels were unlucky that Fuentes didn’t perform well, but they’re just being stupid signing Rodney. Jepsen looks like a nice late round flier with these duds ahead of him in the bullpen.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:20:14 +0000

The Angels are paying for late inning power. It’s reasonable to think they have more playoff confidence in one more power arm than Oliver’s high-80′s stuff. They also have a tendency to spend to their budget and with about $5MM to spend, he was in their opinion – the best they could get for their money.

By: Charlie Saponara

Charlie Saponara — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:33:58 +0000

And he is out for the year with TJS.

By: Charlie Saponara

Charlie Saponara — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:33:17 +0000

After a rough start last season (problems with command), Jepsen became the best reliever in the Angels pen, even taking on some ninth inning work away from Fuentes late in the season. I think they see him as the closer of the future, but he does need to prove consistent with his command. My bet is that Jepsen ends the year as the Angels best late inning option in 2010. His strikeout rate has a ton of room for improvement.

By: alexmullen4180

alexmullen4180 — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:10:32 +0000

The Angels non-tendered Arredondo.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:02:54 +0000

Fuentes’ 2011 option is guaranteed with 55 games finished in 2010. The Rodney signing makes just a tad more sense knowing that (still no good), but I agree they could/should give Jepsen, Bulger, heck maybe even Arrendondo some late inning chances to prevent Fuentes’ option from vesting.

By: The A Team

The A Team — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:39:28 +0000

I haven’t gotten much of a look at Jepsen, are they down on him? I guess I don’t understand why any team would hand out more than 5ish million for anything but the best relievers when finding comparable league min talent takes a little effort and a couple months of experimentation…

By: BX

BX — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:23:15 +0000

Let Jepsen close, Bulger set up, and demote both Fuentes and Rodney to 3rd and 4th reliever.

Best way to win the most baseball games, if that’s the objective of this endeavor.