Jerry Dipoto Radio Interview: “Why fix something that’s not broken?�

[DB24]

"It would be difficult for us to go out and upgrade our roster. We had an average-or-better major league player at every position on the field. That’s hard to go out and replicate and find. The going rate for that on the free agent market is high, and in order to bring that guy in we’re putting someone else that is average-or-better out of work. So, I don’t know that it makes sense to try and fix something that’s just not broken."

 

http://kfwbam.com/2014/12/09/angels-gm-jerry-dipoto-why-fix-something-thats-not-broken/

 

 

 

[NorCal Halo]

Um, because your competition got better?

[tdawg87]

Probably because there's always room for improvement and unless you are complacent and not 100% serious about competing, then you will always look for ways to do so.

 

And yeah, the competition got better.

[Blarg]

It is an interesting point of view, every single starting position player had a plus OPS last season had a positive WAR according to BBREF.

[Adam]

Yeah. Interesting logic

[CanadianHalo]

Unless winning the regular season championship is the end goal there's always room for improvement.

[arch stanton]

He has a point for sure. Among position players there's the 3 big contracts that aren't going anywhere and to upgrade any of the other 5 would cost a lot more money and probably not guarantee significant increase and cycling Cron, Navarro, Cowgill through the lineup and DH should make the 9th spot at least league average for peanuts. 

[Cdaniel]

Hey, it worked for the 2003 Angels.

2002 wasn't a bad team either.

[ettin]

Actually I agree with Dipoto's statement.

Having above average players at every position mitigates the risk that if one of them goes down the whole team folds.

Depth across an entire organization is a very important component of maintaining consistent performance. The A's have been doing that the last couple of seasons with generally good results.

I believe this has been one of Jerry's stated goals of building depth across all positions.

Also if the right opportunity comes for Dipoto to improve the team of course he will do it. He's just not eager to lose an established player for the potential of a possible marginal upgrade somewhere else. If he makes a move it will be for a real upgrade.

[Blarg]

Hey, it worked for the 2003 Angels.

 

Yeah, Cals, the 2003 Angels are exactly like the roster for the 2015 Angels in depth.

 

The fact is every position is manned by an above average player, whether anyone here can wrap their head around it or not. During the season we witness all the flaws and downplay the good, all the while thinking the other team has a better squad. In truth there is not much to be improved upon without spending egregious amounts of money for what is probably a marginal gain.

 

The one area that can see a vast improvement is not position players but in the starting five. But as been hashed over and over, the payroll and the players on the market are not in alignment and silly notions of getting some value out of a Wilson trade are easily dispelled by what reports we have gotten that the Angels are not eating that contract.

 

I know you all wanted Santa Dipoto to drop a nice big gift on the hearth this Christmas but this year you are getting some practical items, likes socks, t-shirts and players like Vinnie Pestano. Y'all holler Beane is a genius for working with a limited payroll, well Dipoto is now playing that game. He is just as budget constrained as the A's when you soberly think about it and he did pretty damn good last season. I'm going to have some faith he will do it again.

[AngelsLakersFan]

This is the swing in philosophies around MLB.

 

The Royals and Giants proved last year (and many others before them really) that you don't need to be that good to get great results. The Angels were the best team in baseball last year, the Royals and Giants were in the top 1/3rd, there is no benefit in trying to get better when you aren't significantly increasing your odds of winning the World Series.

 

The Angels will be competitive next year, and probably at least as good as the Royals and Giants were. With the same amount of luck maybe they make it to the world series.

[James]

He is right. Signing one solid SP is a minor tweak which is all that is needed.

Edited December 9, 2014 by James

[nikkachez]

I agree about having all that depth and making a deeper and better roster, but why wouldn't you try and get even better? Especially with Seattle making noise, Texas being healthy, Chicago making huge acquisitions, Boston returning back to form, and Toronto looking like a potential power house. Oh, and that's not even mentioning Baltimore, Detroit, and New York

[AngelsLakersFan]

Yeah, Cals, the 2003 Angels are exactly like the roster for the 2015 Angels in depth.

 

The fact is every position is manned by an above average player, whether anyone here can wrap their head around it or not. During the season we witness all the flaws and downplay the good, all the while thinking the other team has a better squad. In truth there is not much to be improved upon without spending egregious amounts of money for what is probably a marginal gain.

 

The one area that can see a vast improvement is not position players but in the starting five. But as been hashed over and over, the payroll and the players on the market are not in alignment and silly notions of getting some value out of a Wilson trade are easily dispelled by what reports we have gotten that the Angels are not eating that contract.

 

I know you all wanted Santa Dipoto to drop a nice big gift on the hearth this Christmas but this year you are getting some practical items, likes socks, t-shirts and players like Vinnie Pestano. Y'all holler Beane is a genius for working with a limited payroll, well Dipoto is now playing that game. He is just as budget constrained as the A's when you soberly think about it and he did pretty damn good last season. I'm going to have some faith he will do it again.

 

I was very concerned with the 2003 Angels decision to not make any serious moves. That was a great team but it had some obvious flaws in the rotation and in terms of expecting repeat performances from a handful of guys. Ultimately it was the injuries that were the main reason they didn't compete, not so much the lack of offseason upgrades.

[Coachbulldog]

I know you all wanted Santa Dipoto to drop a nice big gift on the hearth this Christmas but this year......

 

Like Josh Hamilton? A lot of Angels fans were pretty pumped with they opened that gift from Santa. 

[wopphil]

If we could replace CJ Wilson with James Shields, I'd feel a whole lot better about this team going into 2015.

[Glen]

That statement ignores the huge question marks in our starting rotation.  As much as I like Shoemaker there's no guarantee he's gonna repeat his success, although I hope he does.  CJ is anybody's guess.  Richards should be ready to start the season from what I've heard, but he also had a long layoff.  Weaver is a battler for sure but he could decline at any time.  You can't have a staff full of aces but there is definitely room for improvement.  

[Angel Oracle]

I have maintained all along these past 2 months that Pujols (mid .800s OPS), Hackilton (.800+ OPS), and Nibs (high 3.00s ERA) ALL need to produce to their capabilities in 2015.   That, along with starting pitching health, are the big keys for 2015.

Everything else is pretty much set up as it needs to be.

 

Only tweaks are necessary for 2015.

Edited December 9, 2014 by Angel Oracle

[Dave Saltzer]

Hey guys, I just want to point out that you should be listening to Sam Farber on the Beast 980. He is the former play-by-play man for the Angels Cal League affiliate, and really knows our system inside and out. Congrats to him on getting the radio gig and the interview with Jerry Dipoto.

[Tyler]

We could use an upgrade at catcher and LF as well as a top-end SP.

 

I'd be disappointed if he was content with this current roster.

[eligrba]

Wow,

 

Not sure how bad C.J. and Josh need to be before Dipoto considers them broken.

 

I hope this is a misdirection and not the direction of the off-season.

[ispy45]

We were 40-41 against teams over .500 in baseball.

[Stradling]

Are you all taking him for his word here? Of course he's trying to improve the team, he just knows he has a pretty good team to start with.

[nando714]

Because cj wilson, "cj" santiago, and Nick Tropeano round out your starting 5.

Improvement needed

[Glen]

I have maintained all along these past 2 months that Pujols (mid .800s OPS), Hackilton (.800+ OPS), and Nibs (high 3.00s ERA) ALL need to produce to their capabilities in 2015.   That, along with starting pitching health, are the big keys for 2015.