Kingdom

By now, you know. By know, you probably realize. An 86-76 team just added the best free agent in the market and one of the best starting pitchers in the market. And could they even be done? I bet not.

From a quick glance, you see they have a 4 deep rotation and can afford to play around at the 5th spot (Pineiro, Williams, random minor leaguer?). A creaky lineup that was experience several down years slowly had youth injected into the stream (Trumbo, Trout, Conger) gets a middle of the order bat to stabilize the offense, so it's a matter of Kendrick, Hunter, Abreu, and company to perform or perform better. Although he's not the second coming of Johnny Bench, the acquisition of Chris Iannetta at catcher and trading of Jeff Mathis is a monumental improvement (an OPS under .500 vs. an OPS close to .800, you can do the math). You can see there's a chance for a season worth of great battles with Texas. And possibly the Evil teams of the American League East. But.

Why stop there? There's room to tinker and tweak the bullpen to improve. You hope Walden can build on a good rookie season, but also one that saw him blow quite a few games (10 blown, September was one of his worst months). You wonder if they'll find a way to get Trout more playing time without the older players in the mix for the outfield and DH spots. And then there's a wealth of talent at the 1B position. Trumbo was a rookie of the year candidate, and provided a lot of pop. And we know when healthy, Kendrys Morales is a good hitter. There really isn't enough room for all of the outfielders/DH types, let alone 1Bs. Ah. Trade bait.

Trumbo (2011): 29 home runs, 31 doubles, 9 steals
Morales: (2009): 34 home runs, 43 doubles, OPS over .900

Obviously, health is a concern for both, especially Morales. If he's back, he's the better bat. Trumbo has to work on his plate patience, and you could see him elevate his numbers to what Morales did in 2009. No matter, there should be a market for power hitting first basemen under the age of 30. Just consider teams with a real possible need: Washington, Milwaukee, Chicago, Pittsburgh, LA, Colorado has an older 1B, Texas, Oakland and of course St. Louis lost theirs and Miami seems to be in the business of creating news left and right. So there's a market and that doesn't even take into consideration any additional AL times that would want a DH or move their current 1B to DH.

So what's next for the Los Angeles of Anaheim in California Angels?