The Angels were basically made up of Mike Trout, Andrelton Simmons, and the good decision of letting Jered Weaver leave to sign with the Padres. That was before Thursday’s trades, which saw them acquire both Justin Upton and Brandon Phillips in an attempt to overtake the Twins for the second AL wild card: The Angels might actually have enough to survive both the regular season and the AL Wild Card Game now.
Angels increase wild card chances with Justin Upton, Brandon Phillips trades
Friday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the fallout from the Aug. 31 trade deadline.
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
The race for the second wild card has been a disaster — a beautiful, hilarious disaster that we can’t stop watching and appreciating, but disaster nonetheless. No one has been able to catch the Yankees for the first wild card or hold on to the second wild card for anything more than a short burst. And it wasn’t that long ago that there were eight teams we ranked to see who had the best shot at winning the wild card and then the World Series. Eight! That’s half of the AL, and it didn’t even count the Yankees or the division leaders.
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So the Angels getting Upton and Phillips isn’t just some desperate last shot at belonging or keeping pace. They sit 1 1/2 games back of the Twins after an off night on Thursday coupled with a Minnesota victory. Upton automatically becomes the second-best hitter on the team. Phillips isn’t amazing by any means, but Danny Espinosa has played more games at second for the Angels than anyone else and posted an OPS+ of 39 with them. For reference, that’s basically half of the horrific OPS+ that Albert Pujols has with the Angels this season.
The Angels added a league-average-ish second baseman to replace the horrific production they’ve gotten from the position in 2017. They swapped out the disappointing left field duo of Ben Revere and Cameron Maybin — going so far as to send Maybin and the remaining money owed to him to the Astros, even — for Upton. The Angels will still need luck on their side when it comes to pitching, but the lineup filled in two major holes, and the chances of Mike Trout having runners to drive in just went up. Not bad for Aug. 31 for a team without many prospects or room in the budget.
- Speaking of Pujols, who is arguably the worst player in MLB when you take his production and playing time and all that depressing stuff into account, Grant Brisbee took a look back at the non-Angels teams who wanted to sign him to see how history would be different if they had.
- Sure, the Cubs have been bad for most of their history, but still, there is a lot of history to unpack there! That’s what makes Kris Bryant hitting his 25th homer impressive: He’s the first Cubs player to ever hit at least 25 dingers in each of his first three seasons.
- Upton wasn’t the only deal the Tigers made on Thursday, of course. They also sent Justin Verlander to the Astros for a number of prospects.
- The Verlander deal literally went down at the last minute, and there were even confusing signals sent out saying he had rejected the trade.
- Even before those major trades went down, Tigers general manager Al Avila penned an apology letter to season ticket holders.
- The Mariners added Mike Leake before the August deadline, but they also happened to add him in the middle of the week from hell.
- The Rangers aren’t quite finished with 2017, either, as they added Miguel Gonzalez while the Angels were making the big moves.
- MLB and the Indians are “not exactly aligned” on the Chief Wahoo logo. MLB wants to get rid of it because it’s bad PR to have a team with a racist logo in the league. The Indians disagree, as they believe their fans are awful enough in large enough numbers that the team can either keep it or try to both sides an issue that should be very easy to solve when Cleveland already has a different non-racist logo it could be using instead.
- Hey, I didn’t say you were awful, Indians fans. Paul Dolan is the one assuming the worst about you, and you should let him know if you feel differently than he believes you do.
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor cheered on Aaron Judge from the Judge’s Chambers at Yankee Stadium.
- The Cubs and Brewers are in the middle of the most boring feud in baseball.
- Netflix’s Long Shot is a documentary about a Dodgers fan who was acquitted of murder charges with help from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
- It’s not shrimp, but the White Sox did something just as embarrassing, gifting the Twins a win with a walk-off hit by pitch.
- Pete Rose will not return to FOX broadcasts for the postseason, so it turns out there are lines even FOX Sports won’t cross.
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