With the trade deadline less than 24 hours away and the Angels have yet to make a single move even though AT LEAST one is absolutely necessary if they wish to cash in on their championship aspirations. Since Tony Reagins seems intent on dragging this out until the last minute, allow me to take a crack at GM duties since I have a plan and Reagins’s plan is either very top secret or just plain not working right now. There is no time to waste, so let’s get right into my grand scheme should I ever be named King Angel for a day:
- Call J.P. Ricciardi and tell him to shut up and listen for a minute. Explain to him in animated fashion that with Philly trading for Lee, the Angels are the only shot he has at dealing Halladay this year. We know he isn’t dumb enough to trade Halladay within the division which narrows the suitors down to the Angels and Dodgers, only the Dodgers are out because they won’t give up Billingsley or Kershaw and have no suitable replacement in a trade package. Once done with that, give him the Angels’ FINAL offer of Joe Saunders, Brandon Wood, Trevor Reckling and Peter Bourjos and that he has exactly one hour to make up his mind with no counter-offers. After the hour is up, the offer is off the table permanently, good day sir. If the Jays say yes, fantastic. If they say no, too bad for them and the Angels will just have to make do with the current rotation because their just isn’t another high quality starter out there.
- While waiting for Toronto to mull over the Halladay offer, contact all the GMs in the league and let them know that Sean Rodriguez is available for the best offer of a right-handed reliever. S-Rod just isn’t in the Angels’ long-term plans, his offensive game just doesn’t mesh with what they like to do, but that doesn’t mean he can’t fit in well with another franchise.
- There has been very little news about Vladimir Guerrero’s current injury and that concerns me greatly and makes me think the Halos need a contingency plan for their DH to not be back this season, at least not at full strength. I think we have all seen that having Gary Matthews play every day is not a suitable strategy, so another outfield/DH type is needed. As such, I’m taking a run at Mark Teahen. He can play all four corner spots, can hit for average and has a little bit of pop and fills the need for a left-handed bat off the bench. He may not play much if Vlad ends up being OK, but so be it. It never hurts to have depth and Teahen is under control through 2011 so they can find a more regular gig for him next year, especially since you have to think that at least one of Bobby Abreu, Vladimir Guerrero or Chone Figgins is bound to leave via free agency this winter. Teahen comes with the added bonus that KC general manager Dayton Moore appears to be a moron, so it shouldn’t be too hard to extract Teahen for the price of two mid-level prospects.
Certainly the trades will cost the Angels a great deal in terms of prospect talent, but with this team already fairly young and perenially in contention, the Halos have little use for all those prospects. Heck, if they can’t even find a way to use a guy like Brandon Wood how are they ever going to find a spot for the Mark Trumbo’s of the world?
So what do you think? Got any better ideas? Let us know.