Angels purchased the contract of RHP Victor Alcantara

[Mark68]

I have come around to the idea of using prospects to build a major league team through trades. Normally that might not make sense, but with one of the best players in the history of the game under contract for just five more years, the team should be going for it now. If it doesn't work out, you can trade parts and rebuild in a few years.

Of course, we cannot overlook that one of the best players in the history of the game was nothing more than a prospect four years ago. Eppler & Co need to be able to identify that type of talent and not trade it.

[Stradling]

Hell how bout we draft some useful major leaguers. Outside of Trout and Kole when was the last time we drafted an everyday player, Howie? I guess we can throw Cron out there, but seriously, it's been awful.

[ksangel]

Seems the Angels have three issues that have led to the worst minor league system.

 

1. Sign top free agents (Pujols, Hamilton and CJ Wilson as examples) and give up first round picks.

 

2. Trade top minor leaguers (Grichuk, Segura, Rondon..etc) for pitching or an infielder (Newcomb / Ellis).

 

3. Don't develop minor league talent (BWood, Cowart....etc) like other teams do.  The Giants home grown infield is made up of a 5th round pick (Belt), a 4th round pick (Crawford) and an 18th round pick (Duffy).  Panik is the only 1st round pick and the Angels chose Cron before him in the 2011 draft. 

Edited November 23, 2015 by ksangel

[Angel Oracle]

Seems like Arte doesn't give a da_n about a strong farm system? 

[Docwaukee]

Fans love home grown players way more than anyone signed as a free agent.  The most beloved players in the history of this franchise either came up through the farm or were acquired at a very young age and grew up as players in front of the fans eyes. There is no substitute for that.  

 

Fans want Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, Mike Trout, Troy Glaus, Jim Edmonds etc. not Pujols, or Hamilton or Mo Vaughn.  Torii is probably the only FA signing I can think of who really connected with Angel fans.  Maybe Ocab as well.  

 

I think Arte has the perception that if he brings in guys that are well known across baseball it will expand the Angels brand and give us a larger market.  But nothing expands your market like winning.  

 

Honestly, the only thing keeping this franchise from utter disaster is Mike Trout.  

[Angel Oracle]

Arte needs to change that STAT!

[Mark68]

Just CHANGE that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ten ocho recon scout]

Hell how bout we draft some useful major leaguers. Outside of Trout and Kole when was the last time we drafted an everyday player, Howie? I guess we can throw Cron out there, but seriously, it's been awful.

which is weird because it wasnt always like that. This team was a factory for about a decade. We never produced a bonafide mvp like trout until trout, but in between salmon (to start) and say aybar (to end), you had a run of edmonds, anderson, erstad (who some will shrug at), glaus, and bengie.

So lets say that was the result of years of crap records, a la KC, houston and teams like that. But then you had guys like howie, aybar, kotchman and napoli, etc come up.

Im not near as familiar with the minors and more importantly the people behind the scenes as some of you guys, but what the hell happened?

Different topic but similar, in another thread people were talking about lack of latin players (more or less), and its weird because it seemed like it used to be the opposite. Ortiz, santana, aybar, morales etc. Hasegawa is the lone asian player i can remember us bringing up. Not sure when this switch happened, and maybe its more perception than anything, but it used to be that we failed to develop pitching. Position players we used to do well. Obviously need to get back to it

[ten ocho recon scout]

Fans love home grown players way more than anyone signed as a free agent. The most beloved players in the history of this franchise either came up through the farm or were acquired at a very young age and grew up as players in front of the fans eyes. There is no substitute for that.

Fans want Tim Salmon, Garret Anderson, Mike Trout, Troy Glaus, Jim Edmonds etc. not Pujols, or Hamilton or Mo Vaughn. Torii is probably the only FA signing I can think of who really connected with Angel fans. Maybe Ocab as well.

I think Arte has the perception that if he brings in guys that are well known across baseball it will expand the Angels brand and give us a larger market. But nothing expands your market like winning.

Honestly, the only thing keeping this franchise from utter disaster is Mike Trout.

agreed on ocab and torii, but you forgot vlad.

[HeavenlyHalos]

Hell how bout we draft some useful major leaguers. Outside of Trout and Kole when was the last time we drafted an everyday player, Howie? I guess we can throw Cron out there, but seriously, it's been awful.

 

The only others that come to mind are Trumbo and Napoli.

Edited November 24, 2015 by HeavenlyHalos

[Brent Maguire]

Or we draft better. Look around the MLB at how many good players were drafted after the first round. Hell we have Richards and Kole after the first round. So if we could draft guys like that after giving up first round picks we would be fine.

Yup. This team has been absolutely piss poor at drafting since 2010. That 2009 draft was an absolute godsend to this organization but you can't draft as poorly as the Angels have lately and not get burned, regardless of how much money you have to spend in free agency.