What the Angels need this offseason

As an Angels fan, I like thinking about who my team can get in the offseason and with pitching the obvious need - it maybe Gerrit Cole or bust.

However, I'm not going to fret about Cole at all until I check my phone and see he has signed with a team - Cole might 'hold out' until the spring and as much as the Angels desperately need him, they need to move on getting other guys.

This is my crack at attempting to solve the Angels pitching problems - that almost has little to do with actually getting the guy the Angels are thirsty for the most.

Hyun-Jin Ryu - he might be the more realistic non-Cole priority as a guy who is a magician on the mound, though there might be risks in signing him to a 3 or 4 year deal at a premium rate.

Though he was relatively healthy in 2019, I wouldn't want to sign the guy and see him breaking down again where he might pitch like a Cy Young contender - but someone who may make only so many starts and pitch so many innings.

Cole Hamels - as a veteran who has pitched for Joe Maddon, can he have a little bit of late career success on a 1 or 2 year deal? I don't think of him as that old, but has all the innings and usage caught up with the lefty?

Julio Teheran - on a start-per-start basis, he seems like someone who Angels fans would have fits about on Twitter or on fan forums, though nothing 'bad' really stands out when looking at his stats.

Dylan Bundy - maybe the Angels can trade for the 27-year old and turn him into something he hasn't been as a Baltimore Orioles pitcher. Despite double digit losses and inflated ERAs during the past two seasons, the 27-year old has been relatively healthy and may have some potential to be unlocked.

Wei-Yin Chen - maybe the veteran lefty has just had the worst luck since signing a big money contract with the Miami Marlins; going dumpster diving, maybe the Angels can offer him a spring training invite to see if he can show something to make the team as starting rotation depth.

Hold-overs - Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning, Shohei Ohtani, Jaime Barria, José Suarez and Patrick Sandoval.

2013 Topps Heritage blaster recap #3

After having tried two Walmart blasters, I decided to impulsively get a Target one - just to see what a red bordered parallel would look like [as if there is a difference when these Heritage parallels are basically the same cards].

Pack one
#7 Buster Posey / Andrew McCutchen / Ryan Braun / Yadier Molina - 2012 Topps NL Batting Leaders
#190 Derek Jeter
#157 Charlie Manuel
#200 Clayton Kershaw
#76 Ron Washington
#181 Jose Valverde

#499 Jesus Montero - SP
#221 J.J. Hardy
#264 Vernon Wells

Pack two
#284 Yasmani Grandal
#215 Francisco Liriano
#289 Lonnie Chisenhall
#270 Trevor Plouffe
#278 Shaun Marcum
#271 Matt Dominguez
#350 Matt Cain - Target red border variation
#59 Adam Wainwright
#369 Greg Holland

Pack three
#61 Kirk Nieuwenhuis
#357 Ryan Hanigan
#225 Jason Kubel
#236 Jim Johnson
#67 Davey Johnson
#240 Allen Craig

#HC14 Martin Prado - Chrome parallel serial #'d 970/999
#208 Juan Pierre
#140 Carlos Pena

Pack four
#112 Jarrod Saltalamacchia
#224 Jamey Carroll
#375 Austin Kearns
#342 Homer Bailey
#377 John Axford
#113 Johan Santana
#NF-MLK Martin Luther King Jr. - News Flashback insert
#353 Chris Heisey
#394 Brandon Inge

Pack five
#301 Ernesto Frieri
#217 Alex Gordon
#122 Hisashi Iwakuma
#302 Neil Walker
#48 Peter Bourjos
#304 Paul Goldschmidt

#491 Wei-Yin Chen - SP
#219 Stephen Strasburg / Gio Gonzalez - Young Aces subset
#417 Juan Francisco

Pack six
#143 Clint Hurdle
#189 Freddie Freeman
#283 Wily Peralta
#338 Tommy Hunter
#125 Yu Darvish
#17 Nick Markakis
#NAP-SC Starlin Castro - New Age Performers insert
#196 Chris Carter
#82 Pablo Sandoval

Pack seven
#286 Tom Wilhelmsen
#259 Miguel Montero
#390 Brandon Belt
#328 Patrick Corbin
#104 Jonathan Papelbon
#385 Glen Perkins

#490 Buster Posey - SP
#410 John Lackey
#114 Cody Ross

Pack eight
#54 Ron Gardenhire
#178 Everth Cabrera
#43 Brandon Morrow
#248 Jim Leyland
#169 Elvis Andrus
#50 Curtis Granderson

#BF-FR Frank Robinson - Baseball Flashback insert
#241 Geovany Soto
#354 Sean Marshall

Featured autograph - Wei-Yin Chen

Baltimore Orioles rookie Wei-Yin Chen signed this baseball a couple of weeks ago - I didn't really know much about him, except he's a Taiwanese import who played in Japan to start his professional baseball career.

Who knows how he'll hold up but he's been impressive for the upstart Orioles so far in 2012 - I wanted his autograph on the sweet spot but he signed it on a panel and I realized that maybe the way he has signed baseballs in his life as a ballplayer.

If he decides or is taught to sign with a more traditional Western style autograph - maybe he'll be able to sign on the sweet spot like how collectors of single-signed baseballs likes them.