[interesting hypothetical] Ohtani and the Marinera

I think Mariners do earn wildcard berth with Ohtani. But I don’t think they overtake the Astros….

At the same time, why would Ohtani sign with the Mariners, when they were not too much in contention then. I think Ohtani thought that him and Trout, along with Pujols, were going to rake!

 

If you do the quick and dirty math of adding his WAR to the Mariners, then yes, they do win the division. No clue why Ohtani thought it wise to join the Angels, probably was duped by their name to thinking they played in LA and not Orange County.

Then again, after seeing Ichiro's career go to waste in Seattle, I can see why he avoided them as well.

 

Heck Trout and Ohtani was a spectacular pairing. But a team still has to get quality players around the superstar contracts. And when any of those mega paid players go down, there went the season and any fringe of contention.

I think the Angels with Trout and Ohtani will still fare much better next season. As the Astros will likely lose Correa. Not to say the Angels will overtake the Astros, but I think they’ll be fighting for a playoff spot in September at the very least.

 

Wasn't it also reported that since Ichiro was already a star in Seattle, he didn't want to follow in his foot steps. He wanted to go to a team where he would be the 1st big Japanese star for that franchise. Although not sure how true that was because if it was, why did he even consider the Mariners? Also why were the Rangers an option and not the Astros? Is the location that big of a difference?

 

The Angels are utterly doomed in both regards. Their farm system sucks balls and has sucked balls for the last decade. A big reason why they have to spend so much in free agency is because of the lack of young, cost controlled players. Combine that with terrible FA decisions (Pujols, Rendon, Kasmir, Wells, CJ Wilson, Freese (lmao), J-Up, Matt Harvey (lmao)). The Rendon signing made even worse because if they just waited a year they could have poached Correa from us with ease, or at the very least a Seager or Story.

The Astros farm system is rated poorly since all the talent is in the majors now, yet we still churn out decent big leaguers at a consistent rate, with more on the way (Leon, Pena, Lee, Brown). The Angels can't do that, its what dooms them to mediocrity despite TWO once-a-decade talents.

 

I think he's more of a puttanesca fan

 

I think you could add Ohtani to the NYY, Boston, Blue Jays, Dodgers or Cards, and would have made them division winners also.

 

I'm always amazed at the lack of urgency by the Angels to add good pitching every year. It's LA, they got Trout and Ohtani...it's not like they're a small market team.

 

And Rendon

 

They should also show some urgency in making sure the pitchers they do have on their roster are still alive.

Sorry, I'm just a tad bit bitter about how the Astros are STILL getting dragged by the media and fans even though we had a team with an honest to God DRUG RING operating in their ****ing locker room, which led to the death of one of their pitchers. And it all happened in the same time frame as the cheating scandal. And yet, media does nothing with that story, and instead continue to beat the dead horse that is the 2017 Astros. It's ****ing vile, and ****sticks like Buster Olney, Jeff Passan, Bob Nightengale, Evan Drellich, Alyson Footer, and the rest of those assholes should be made to answer some questions on the way they went about their "investigation".