Thursday, March 27, 2008
Angels may have to trade for starting pitching
Posted by Bryan TsaoSeems like rumor-mongering by the LA Times to me, as the actual Mike Scioscia quote is as follows:
"We're still confident that, in house, we have enough depth on the pitching side," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "The short-term answers are in-house. If we lose guys for longer, the answers might have to come from the outside, but we're not at that point yet."
Nonetheless, the article tosses out some names, the most interesting of which is A's starter Joe Blanton. I can't think of a recent instance of the A's dealing with the Angels, which is probably a function of both the teams being relatively successful over the past few years and former Angels general manager Bill Stoneman being reluctant to trade prospects for veterans when the A's have been rebuilding. Still, it seems doubtful that the Angels would move for Blanton unless they were struggling, and while I still don't think the A's are serious contenders for the division, I do expect them to be decent, and if the Angels are struggling it might be exactly the situation that would make it difficult for the A's to move Blanton to a division rival.
Bryan Tsao is the editor of The Hardball Times website. He welcomes comments, questions, and suggestions for both himself and the site via email.