By Glen McKee and Nate Trop, AngelsWin.com Staff Writers -
It’s election season – or as they call it in Japan, voting time – and many people are feeling the Bern.
That’s a topic for either the AngelsWin political spin forum or your doctor, if it doesn’t go away. Here at AngelsWin.com we’re more concerned with whether we should feel the Freese again. You know, David Freese – perfectly adequate 3B for the Angels for the last few years, opted for free agency and is still out in the cold (geddit?) as the only notable 3B on the market. Now that his price has assumedly dropped to a level where Arte could pry open his massive wallet and bring him back without incurring the luxury tax, the question is: should the Angels bring him back?
Glen: Chill out, d***wad! Bring him back.
Man, the opportunities to go Bill Simmons on this one are overwhelming and I can’t resist. First off, there’s the question if we should feel it again with Freese, since we’re well past the honeymoon phase:
God, I loved Honeymoon Suite, such an underrated hair band. Anyway…let’s look at his stats a bit. In his two years with the Angels he’s produced a 1.4 and a 2.3 war, according to Baseball Reference. He’s also put up an OBP of .321 and .323, which may not seem like much, but on the Angels it puts him in the running for the silver medal. Our offense was at the bottom end of mediocre last season and it’s only made marginal improvements. Bringing back that production would allow the Angels to move Escobar to 2B and Giavotella back to the 50s, where his looks come from (I love you, Gia), I mean to the bench. That would make our bench, a stinking, gnarled piece of driftwood last season, into at least a solid 4x4.
Now, let’s talk defense. Yeah, Freese isn’t the best out there. He has the range of one of those little brown extension cords that doesn’t even have a goddamned hole for the ground pin so I have to tear it out of whatever I’m plugging into it and that pisses me off. Fortunately, I “watch” most of the games on MLB gamecast at work so I don’t get to see his fielding. That makes me OK with it.
Contract, you say? Juan Uribe just signed for $5 million for one year. Statistically he’s comparable to Freese. If we could bring Freese back for say 2 years $15 million, that would be a good deal. Freese is younger than Uribe, not fat, and white. All three of those count for something so he should get a little extra.
Intangibles? Something about Albert Pujols and the Cardinal way, drunk driving, whatever. He’s been here a few years, he know how the team works, he’s a solid if unspectacular player. He’s the 6 you go home with at 2 am after all the 7s, 8s, and 9s left with guys with better game. There’s nothing wrong with a 6. Bring back Freese.
Nate: No, hell no, f*** no!
When Glen brought this up, I was surprised to see that Freese was still available based on the fact that he didn’t receive a QO and his numbers aren’t terrible. Then I realized he must be asking for a boatload of money. The Angels just can’t afford to pay another mostly injured poor defensive infielder. I really don’t think he would sign for Glen’s laughable 2/15, I think he will get at least 2/20 and maybe even 2/25 from a team if not more years. This Angels team needs a lot of help and I do not see a minor upgrade at 2b making any difference.
Now Gia… he is bad, really bad. I don’t know how the dude ever made it to the majors with such terrible defense and such a light bat. He literally doesn’t fit the mold for a middle infielder in any way. The problem is, Escobar hasn’t played 2b in quite a while and nobody knows how good his defense will be if he goes back there. You end up paying for an always hurt douchey drink driver 3b to try out your historically an asshole played 2b a long time ago new acquisition at a position he might be terrible at.
This season was lost as soon as Arte didn’t open his wallet for a LFer, this off season everyone, including me was so excited for a major upgrade in the OF and like El Nino it never f#$&ing came. I know fans don’t want to believe it but Arte gave us all the finger when he kept his wallet shut this offseason and the reality of it is that this is a bad team and a small upgrade in the IF is not going to make a lick of a difference. At this point I think the best thing is to stand pat, get a top 10 draft pick and next season off season when President Trump makes America Great Again™ and abolishes the luxury tax, Arte can go crazy spending, as long as President Trump doesn’t deport him.
