Angels mailbag: International signings and some roster questions

Your favorite baseball team performed well last week, beating both Toronto and Detroit in series. The Blue Jays and Tigers are competitive, contending teams, and the Angels beat them in their home cities and stadiums, which is not something they have done often this year.

Anyway, they’re 56-74, and on pace to win 70 games. They would pick sixth in the 2017 MLB draft if the season ended now.

As always, this is the place to ask anything you want about the Angels, with questions submitted through my email (pedro.moura@latimes.com) and Twitter account (@pedromoura).

I received several questions about Johnny Giavotella, the 29-year-old second baseman whom the Angels designated for assignment on Aug. 20. I get that Giavotella is a fan favorite because he plays hard and seems to have fun doing so, but he has done nothing to indicate he is a big league regular over 1,334 plate appearances. 

He has a career .256 batting average, a career .295 on-base percentage and a .361 slugging percentage. He worked diligently to improve his defense last off-season, and he did so. But you have to understand that he was coming off a 2015 in which he was probably the worst everyday defender in the sport, with the possible exception of Hanley Ramirez playing left field at Fenway Park.

Giavotella is probably a major league bench player, but he has never proven he can play another position capably, so that limits his utility. 

He is going to triple-A this week, where the Angels have said he will try to play third base and left field and maybe some shortstop. One problem is that the triple-A season has only one week left.

I think there are two sources of importance within the pitcher-catcher relationship. The first, I think, is that both men must feel comfortable to perform at their best. It doesn’t matter much if the team’s starting catcher is an equally good receiver to the backup; if the team’s best pitcher believes the backup is far superior, the backup should probably be catching him.

Secondarily, I do think it’s necessary for catchers to sufficiently practice with each pitcher before catching him in a game, and with mid-season trades that often isn’t possible. So much of the Angels’ early spring training is spent to that end, familiarizing each of an organization’s top four catchers with its top 25 or so pitchers, so that they can be prepared in any situation. It’s not surprising to me or to many that a new catcher would have a difficult time corralling a specialty pitch from a pitcher he has never caught before, as happened with Carlos Ruiz and Kenley Jansen over the weekend.

Yes, beginning July 2, 2017, the Angels can sign elite international players to significant signing bonuses once again. The preparation for that class has already begun. It’s likely we’ll hear them connected with certain prospects well in advance of that date, because that’s how the international market works. This is the domain of Carlos Gomez, the Angels’ director of international scouting, a Jerry Dipoto hire.

You know, that is an excellent question, and not one I had thought of previously. I don’t think the Internal Revenue Service is much concerned with people of my pay grade, but it does seem like I could save some money if I were able to pay taxes on the states I worked in instead of California for all of my income. California has high state income taxes. That was said to be one reason Zack Greinke chose to sign with Arizona over the Dodgers last off-season.

I know that for ballplayers on the disabled list, the difference between traveling with the team on a road trip and staying home can be in the range of $20,000.

Yes. I had an awesome peameal bacon sandwich from this place called Tuckshop Kitchen, in the Junction neighborhood of Toronto. Near there, I ate some incredible fish dishes — trout salad! — at this fish shop and wholesale counter called Honest Weight. The Toronto food scene seems awesome.

I asked Randy to clarify what he meant by loading up on draft picks, because of course the trading of picks is prohibited by MLB. He said he just meant focusing on them, more or less. I think the Angels will definitely be placing a strong emphasis on their 2017 draft and international signing class. As I have written and sometimes detailed in this space all season, the organization is currently in awful position for the future.

But, as we are repeatedly reminded, the fortunes of baseball teams can change quickly. Which team could you say with certainty won’t win the World Series in 2020?

Right now, I don’t think any, and the Angels can give themselves a much better chance if they acquire impact players next summer. It’s not a stretch anymore to think that their 2017 first-round pick could pair with Mike Trout in 2020. Four of last year’s eight top choices are already in the majors. 

I do not know the answer to this question, but I suspect it is a no. I am mostly including this here so I can remark on the fact that the Olympics did not resonate within the Angels’ clubhouse, which is somewhat surprising. I was not covering baseball the last time there was a Summer Olympics, but I would’ve guessed players would pay attention, based on how interested they are in basketball, football, golf and horse racing. I can’t say I remember seeing the Olympics or highlights on once during August.

Katie Ledecky is pretty great, though.

This is a common question. Again, Angels owner Arte Moreno has declined repeated requests for interviews from The Times, but there is nothing that indicates he is interested in selling the team. Owning teams can be exceptionally profitable.

There are a few contenders. My instinct is to go with the Joe Smith dropped-ball balk in Baltimore. Yunel Escobar drawing a strike zone in the dirt the next day was pretty memorable, too. Also the Ken Griffey Jr. jersey-retirement ceremony this month in Seattle, where Mike Trout robbed a homer and struck out a bunch, and Tim Lincecum’s first inning with a new team in Oakland, across the bay from where he was once a star.

Unsurprisingly, the most memorable moments are twinged with negativity.

I would dub almost nothing a 0% chance, but, Mike Scioscia being fired from his job as the Angels manager is not a likelihood. Again, as I’ve written in this space several times this year, he is under contract for two more seasons at $5 million apiece, and that is a significant sum. Additionally, the downfall of the 2016 Angels is not on him.

That said, could you come up with rational reasons to part with Scioscia after 17 seasons? Of course. But I’d posit that the Angels would post similar records next season with Scioscia or without. Removing the manager is not the solution to all that has ailed and looks like it will ail the Angels.

Aren’t those pretty much the same? Preventative medicine is essentially about strengthening one’s body so that it can be healthy and avoid future injury. What’s that they say: a small quantity of prevention is worth a much larger quantity of cure?

Angels right-hander Garrett Richards’ ulnar collateral ligament tear was never particularly painful, as he tells it. It was also the less severe version of the tear — in the opposite direction through the tissue — as Andrew Heaney’s. None of that means the stem-cell injection will enable him to pitch next season, but he’s certainly closer now than three months ago. And if he is able, it would behoove him to undergo regular injections. Why not, when the only evidence showed it helped?

That concludes this week’s Angels mailbag. Send in your questions to the below addresses at any time, and check back each Monday for answers.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura