November 19, 2006, 3 years ago today, the Angels signed former Toronto Blue Jay pitcher Justin Speier as a free agent. It was a Bill Stoneman signing.
The 4-year deal (yes we will be paying him next season) was a precursor to trading Scot Shields and a prospect to the Atlanta Braves for Andruw Jones - whoops wait a minute, was that my analysis? Oh dear. And then in the comments, Welch says "no way" in the comments and I say "way" and am actually persuasive about it.
Funny thing - nobody in the comments was upset about this signing, especially relative to the vitriol that Speier managed to "just inspire" among Angels fans.
Read the NOVEMBER 19,2006 Halos Heaven Post.
0 recs | 11 comments
Seemed like a good investment at the time
He was coming of a couple really good years in Toronto and it just made the bullpen that much stronger. He even played pretty well for us that first year.
HaloFanInDC - November 19, 2009
Do you have the old threads? That would be a hoot.
jimmuscomp - November 19, 2009
i added a link
check it out
Rev Halofan - November 19, 2009
"Just inspire"? Really, you had to go there?
opiejeanne - November 19, 2009
I wonder if any team will hire him for 2010.
44FAN - November 19, 2009
To pitch? No.
To do really bad impersonations of Harry Caray? I’d say no, but then we had a full season of batting stance guy…
sothball - November 20, 2009
i remember the first home stand of 2007
gmj looked good and speier was lights out. i remember thinking that stoneman was a genius and he was going to be the last one laughing about those signings, boy was i wrong. i also think that hillenbrand was signed after rivera got hurt, what a horrific off-season after the 2006 turned out to be!
thejd - November 19, 2009
It was a good move at the time
Remember how nails we all thought he was until he got that stomach bug, and even then for most of 2007? And how nails we expected him to be in 2008?
It’s just too bad the deal didn’t work out.
Clutch - November 19, 2009
"...and a prospect"
[Sad sigh.]
AlanFalcon - November 19, 2009
I remember that day
after the failed JC Romero experiment I thought it was a great signing. I figured it would add to ur bullpen depth and we wouldn’t have to over work Shields. It went great for the first year and everything looked great.
But we all know how that one ended
UCIHalo - November 20, 2009
I have fond memories of being at Speier's last game
and getting whiplash from watching those 3 HR’s leave the park in the 5th inning. Everyone was looking around at each other like “what the hell just happened?”
Fred Fredrix - November 20, 2009
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