From Window to Wormhole

[Docwaukee]

Lesson learned.  I hope.  

 

This is not about speculating who's to blame for a failed attempt at using the free agent market to create a window of opportunity, but it's fairly clear now that the philosophy has changed and that the goal is to build a sustainable winner for years to come.

 

At the end of the 2013 season, if you had tried to convince me that this was possible I would have been very skeptical about whether that could be accomplished.  We had a terrific offense, almost no bullpen, two aging starters, and one solid, young rotation candidate.  One.  In the entire org.  

 

The 2012 and 2013 off seasons saw the Halos commit nearly half a billion dollars in guaranteed salaries to players over the age of 30.  

 

So they made a run at it and it didn't work.  Usually when most high payroll teams do this, they go the way of the Phils where they fight the inevitable for a year or two and then trade off as much as they can to get back to winning in a few years.  

 

But the Angels were (possibly) able to circumvent that to some degree.  They tried to build a nice little window with a partial ocean view that was immediately obstructed by their neighbors 3 story condo complex.  Yet in the basement behind the Christmas ornaments and next to that box of crap that smells like old cheese and standing water was a portal into another dimension.  A space-time continuum bridging New Jersey to Anaheim.  And from this wormhole emerged a savior who rescued the franchise from certain annihilation.  

 

When that happens, you don't clog the wormhole with millions of dollars to 30+ year old players, but you do everything you can to keep it wide open for as long as possible.  And to do that, you need the key master to build his protective army of left-handed pitchers.

 

Mike Trout saved this franchise from a period of darkness.  One that we have seen before, but the second component to that is the power that be recognizing that a new opportunity has been created and it's needs to be exploited for as long as possible.  Having the best player in baseball on your team for the next 7 years means that you adopt a philosophy to accommodate that.  It's a bit of a chicken/egg discussion, but in the end, you do what you can to expand your window for as long as you have the best player in baseball.  

 

Discuss.  

Edited December 22, 2014 by Dochalo

[Stradling]

Real good stuff Doc. This team has been brought back to relevance by Mike Trout. Dipoto has really put his stamp on this team the last two years. I didn't have a problem with either of the signings when they happened, I understood what Arte was trying to do, but can you imagine what this team would look like if Jerry was able to do what he is capable of the first couple of years.

[eligrba]

I am excited to have the best player in baseball be a lifetime Angel.

[Stradling]

I am excited to have the best player in baseball be a lifetime Angel.

You say that now, wait until he starts to slow down on his next contract, and he is getting paid $30 million a year. Then I am sure there will be plenty on this message board that will be shitty to him.

[LAAMike]

Too much "Interstellar".  Worm holes on an Angelswin message board?

[Angelsjunky]

Good post, Doc. Clearly Trout's impact has been enormous, but for me I'm shocked--in a good way--with what Dipoto has done over the last year or so. Like you said, rather than be in denial and try to prevent the inevitable death spiral, he has instead re-tooled and extended the window so that the Angels look like they can stay in contention for years to come. The emergence of Richards and Shoemaker has been huge in this regard, but Dipoto's work on the pitching staff has been nothing short of astonishing.

 

Now let's hope he works the same kind of magic with position players, but now he's got time to do it.

[Troll Daddy]

"Mike Trout saved the franchise from a period of darkness"

Sorry but lol

I think even Trout would have a good laugh at that statement.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Troll Daddy

[Troll Daddy]

I'll give Dipoto BIG props on putting together a once embarrassing bullpen.

I'm not convinced yet about his mark on starting pitching.

[Bruce Nye]

Not a good post Doc, but a great post.  In my years as an Angel fan ((now 46 years worth) never have I seen a clear path to continuance of a really good competitive team.  No more chasing the Boras FAs and losing draft picks, but instead adopting a St. Louis Cardinal type business model.  In the past our long term strategy was in the hutch behind the gravy boat next to the collectible  investment in the U.S. State quarters.  Now it is youth and the stockpiling of pieces for the future. I attribute this awakening to Dipoto and to be sure, the emergence of Mike Trout, GR and Shoemaker.

 

Long live the Angels as a competitive team.  Kudos to the FO and more modern thinking!

[ettin]

You had me at wormhole.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Im a little curious to how long we can have a thread that links trout and holes, and no comment yet from tdawg. Is there a winter storm back east?

[QuinlansMinion]

"Mike Trout saved the franchise from a period of darkness"

Sorry but lol

I think even Trout would have a good laugh at that statement.

I think thats actually kinda true.  Without him our offense stinks.  

[Tyler]

You can win championships without Mike Trout. You can not win championships without a little luck.

[Docwaukee]

You can win championships without Mike Trout. You can not win championships without a little luck.

you can, but it changes the entire dynamic of how you try to get there and that's the point.  luck can help you through the playoffs, but not to them.  

[Troll Daddy]

you can, but it changes the entire dynamic of how you try to get there and that's the point. luck can help you through the playoffs, but not to them.

What's your point? Please enlighten us Doc ... are you referring to Trout?

I'll be the first to admit I don't understand WAR. The Angels won the division by ten games. Could they have won the division without Trout?

[Docwaukee]

What's your point? Please enlighten us Doc ... are you referring to Trout?

I'll be the first to admit I don't understand WAR. The Angels won the division by ten games. Could they have won the division without Trout?

 

I have no clue if we could have without Trout.  Too many variables to account for.  

 

The point is that having a player like Trout changes the entire dynamic of how you are able to construct your team.  For the current season and going forward as long as you know you have him.  

 

WAR is a tool that has it's place.  There will never be a stat that can predict the future.  Or at least I don't think there will be.  But what every team will attempt to do is to use stats to give them a baseline of what they can expect within a certain range.   You want to try and get that range as narrow as possible and WAR accounts for a lot of variables but not all of them.  Not even most of them.  But more than a lot of other tools.  

 

Why not use all of the information you have at your disposal to guide you in your decision making process?  

 

It's not yours or any of our jobs to understand WAR.  Some of us do because we find it interesting but there is a ton of info out there that we just aren't privy to.  But I guarantee you that the people making player personnel decisions for the halos understand it or at least a proprietary version of it and any team that doesn't is missing an opportunity to at least collect potentially useful information to help them do their job.  

[QuinlansMinion]

What's your point? Please enlighten us Doc ... are you referring to Trout?

I'll be the first to admit I don't understand WAR. The Angels won the division by ten games. Could they have won the division without Trout?

No, we dont win the division without Trout.  We didnt have a single player in the lineup other than Trout with an OPS over .800.  And Pujols doesnt get 100 RBI, and doesnt have a .790 OPS with Trout not in the lineup.  Everyones performance suffers including the pitchers from getting less run support.

[Troll Daddy]

No, we dont win the division without Trout. We didnt have a single player in the lineup other than Trout with an OPS over .800. And Pujols doesnt get 100 RBI, and doesnt have a .790 OPS with Trout not in the lineup. Everyones performance suffers including the pitchers from getting less run support.

I believe Pujols place in the lineup helps Trout more than it does Pujols. This is why they will stay connected next season. It works for both players.

[arch stanton]

Not a good post Doc, but a great post.  In my years as an Angel fan ((now 46 years worth) never have I seen a clear path to continuance of a really good competitive team.  No more chasing the Boras FAs and losing draft picks, but instead adopting a St. Louis Cardinal type business model.  In the past our long term strategy was in the hutch behind the gravy boat next to the collectible  investment in the U.S. State quarters.  Now it is youth and the stockpiling of pieces for the future. I attribute this awakening to Dipoto and to be sure, the emergence of Mike Trout, GR and Shoemaker.

 

Long live the Angels as a competitive team.  Kudos to the FO and more modern thinking!

As another 40+ year fan I totally agree. It's so nice to believe we can be competitive long term with players who will first be identified as Angels players.

[ELEVEN]

The key to the window might be Hamilton performing a defenstration.

[Spencer]

Natalie Portman is an Angel fan?

[Chuck]

Great post, Doc!

Like so many others have posted, I agree with all of your points.

[Angel Oracle]

The dynamic is in this franchise never before having a young player do what Trout has done from 2012-2014.

We have always daydreamed of having that kind of player to build a lineup around.

 

And now, JeDi is building the pitching staff in the image he desires, and for that matter the team in general (once Hackilton's contract isn't an albatross).

 

Pujols' contract by itself admittedly isn't crippling, as long as he continues to put up at least around an .800 OPS.   Adding Hackilton's mitigated that.

[AngelStew43]

I wouldn't say that it hasn't worked yet.  Neither Hamilton nor Pujols has been the player that they were prior to coming here. 

 

On the other hand, the trades DiPoto has made for the young pitching have been excellent, and made from a position of strength.  The additions of Perez, Joyce, and others as complimentary pieces were

pretty good moves, too. 

 

If Richards comes back to the form he showed last season, the team may be poised to make a deeper run in the playoffs, and we are well under the luxury tax at this point, so if we need to add a

piece or two, it can be done.

[Hollyw00d]

My wormhole just exploded