How do you feel about the overall direction of the franchise?

[Angelsjunky]

So what do you think? How do you feel about the direction of the franchise and the short, middle, and long-term health of the organization? Are you confident the team is build to content now and in the foreseeable future? Is the org going in the right direction? How do you feel?

 

Vote in the poll.

[mtangelsfan]

I am not optimistic.

[LAAMike]

Small sample size so far but if this trend continues it appears that the members of this board are very impatient and are not inclined to give existing management and ownership the benefit of the doubt which they should as they really do know more than us.  I would hate for many of you to be my boss with such a short fuse and unrealistic short term expectations.  These things take time and in the meantime we are in the chase every year.  I can only hope that this short term point of view does not extend to your own personal financial planning. 

[Revad]

I live in Atlanta, you all are going to love Simmons for the next five years. We have two of the best players in the game, in my opinion both the best at their positions and both entering their prime. This may not be our year but the future looks bright.

[eligrba]

I am optimistic and will remain optimistic.  I like the restraint shown by the Angels even though the team is not much better.  With as many holes as the Angels have, I think it is reasonable to expect it to take more than one off season to address everything.

 

Not every team can be operated like St. Louis or San Francisco.  And, it is not as though either of those teams were always well run historically.

[laagamer]

Well I'm not happy.  

[Second Base]

Although I'm an optimist in nature, I'm pessimistic about this team's future. Off the field, we have an inconsistent, meddling owner, a manager too powerful for his own good and a GM that doesn't appear to have a clear cut plan.

On the field, we're overrated. Yeah we have the hands down best player in the game. But after him, Kole Calhoun went from severely underrated to overrated. Poor platoon splits, OBP hasn't translated, neither has the speed. Poorly deployed as a lead off or two hitter. We don't have a LF. Pujols might be reaching that cliff of no return with his lower half issues and age. Giavotella is fun, but overall not very good. Our brand new SS is a wizard in the field but doesn't solve anything with the bat.

The things I am excited about is our catching situation, love Prrez, looking forward to Soto. Bandy is going to surprise people and right now Taylor Ward looks like a steal of the draft instead of the overdraft we thought he was. I think Cron is about to break out. I think Cowart's glove or Kubitza's bat are going to be revelations, as are Tropeano and Skaggs.

[zenmaster]

I'm pessimistic to he point of feeling bad for trout being in such a crappy situation.

[Docwaukee]

you forgot to make confused one of the options.  

 

I chose pessimistic but that is based on what I think is gonna happen in five years.   It's also why I've been so adamant about them making the team better now.  

 

The team is actually pretty good right now with a real chance to horribly suck in five years.  

 

My biggest concern is the lack of attention to player development and more importantly, the feeling I get that we are going to continue to treat it the same way.  ie. ignore foreign markets, low budgets for scouting and development etc.  We truly missed our window to use our biggest asset to our advantage (money) and stock the farm with as much foreign talent as we could because we just didn't have the opportunities stateside.  But that is in the past and we can do nothing about it.  

 

Granted, outside of 2009, we have drafted poorly or at least it seems that way.  I didn't like the philosophy of grabbing older college players.  The thing that people don't realize as to why they went to this philosophy.  The excuse was that it was to rebuild the farm system more quickly.  Get more advanced players that are closer to the majors.  

 

The real reason?  It's cheaper.  It requires fewer bodies and less resources to scout college because it's more easily available.  Plus, since they are less raw, it's easier to make a decision about projectibility and therefore, you have to see them less often.  There is also less negotiating and less time and effort once you show interest.  

 

I am bringing this up because going forward, if we are going to dump all of our org currency into the major league club for the next five seasons, then our ability to draft becomes paramount.  We have to be, consistently, one of the best drafting teams in baseball.  That is a very tough task considering that we have one of the lowest scouting and player development budgets in all of baseball.  

 

So we have five years to bring home a trophy with a very slim chance to keep the major league club competitive beyond that.  Of course that is contingent on one big thing and that is keeping Mike Trout.  

 

There is part of me that wonders if we are better off doing poorly for the next two years in the hope that we could sell off our assets and do a quick 'rebuild' so that Trout will stay beyond 2020.  

 

What I don't want, and what I see happening right now, is that we end up somewhere in the middle.  We are just good enough to compete yet not good enough to have any real chance.  It makes us hold on to our org currency way too long and we don't realize any value for it.  Then, come 2020, the farm is still bare, most of the roster has moved on and Trout sees no reason to stay.  

 

The safer bet is to play for now as it appears we do have an opportunity and there is no guarantee we will sell our parts for the right players.  

[Stradling]

Well I had season tickets every year except for 2001 since the day the strike ended in 1995. This year I decided to give them up. Part of it is how I feel about the team right now, the other part being I would only be able to go to a handful of games in April and basically no games in September. Very difficult decision to give them up considering I had moved so far up the priority list for season seats. I am sure I will get them again, just not this year.

[tdawg87]

Small sample size so far but if this trend continues it appears that the members of this board are very impatient and are not inclined to give existing management and ownership the benefit of the doubt which they should as they really do know more than us.  I would hate for many of you to be my boss with such a short fuse and unrealistic short term expectations.  These things take time and in the meantime we are in the chase every year.  I can only hope that this short term point of view does not extend to your own personal financial planning. 

 

Small sample size? It's been 6 ****ing years.

 

What a stupid post.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

If I believed that there actually was a direction, I might be a bit more optimistic. For instance, I don't understand why they cut loose David Murphy and brought in two guys who hit worse than Matt Joyce.

[Blarg]

Small sample size? It's been 6 ****ing years.

What a stupid post.

I believe he is referring to Eppler being the GM.

[Jay]

Small sample size? It's been 6 ****ing years.

 

What a stupid post.

Dude calm down.

It's only baseball.

[Troll Daddy]

A little premature with the poll. The know-it-alls here are cute as always.

Lol

[Docwaukee]

It sucks for Eppler, but he doesn't have any time.  He is essentially slated to be our GM for almost the entire remainder of Mike Trout's Angel career.  He's got no farm system and no money to work with yet he is tasked with keeping the major league team competitive over the next 5 years.  Good luck dude.  

[wopphil]

I am somewhere between "mixed" and "pessimistic." I have little confidence in management, and think this is the most clueless organization of all with respect to farm development. But there is a fair amount of major league, affordable talent, and Arte has been generally willing to spend lots of money (albeit poorly). So I don't think we are at immediate risk of turning into the Phillies.

Edited January 11, 2016 by wopphil

[Hollyw00d]

Pessimistic

There's one guy keeping it from going full blown game over.

[Hollyw00d]

And he's gone in 5 years

[AngelsFanSince86]

Mixed and I don't think its a cop out.  Too soon to see how Eppler will fair with drafting, international presence, etc.  And too soon to be pessimistic about the team.  I have been pretty pessimistic at times this offseason because of the lack of moves given the available players, but I also admit there is plenty of time left and plenty of those players still available.  Come ST I will no longer have mixed feelings.

[AngelsFaninGA]

I couldn't answer the poll as I have no idea how ownership/management even views the direction of this franchise based on the offseason so far. Seems to just be a mix of random transactions, most of them completely inconsequential or outright contradictory to each other. 

[gurn67]

Considering that the two biggest problems in the organization are still here and not going anywhere soon, not optimistic at all.

[totdprods]

I also put mixed - it's too early in the Eppler tenure to know how the team could operate in the next season or two, and those two years will go a long way to shaping the rest of the Trout Years.

Eppler still has a lot of options on the board to improve the team this offseason. I posted a list of still available players in the Hot Stove thread and its staggering how many players remain that could be productive.

In addition, seeing how the team plays the first half of '16 - and how Eppler responds - will go a long way to shaping my opinion.

[totdprods]

Although I'm an optimist in nature, I'm pessimistic about this team's future. Off the field, we have an inconsistent, meddling owner, a manager too powerful for his own good and a GM that doesn't appear to have a clear cut plan.

That same inconsistent meddling owner could also snap and buy Upton, Chen, and Bastardo in a week and most of us would be singing a different song about the team.

I like what Eppler has done and what Arte hasn't done so far. They've waited out a deep market and have saved millions of dollars - whether or not they sign a big bat still.

They also could very well have decided to just hold tight, focus on the farm, and go with smart, frugal acquisitions at the MLB level and rely on the talent already here - most of which is young and under contract for several more seasons and has been competitive the last two seasons.

[Angelsjunky]

I am somewhere between "mixed" and "pessimistic." I have little confidence in management, and think this is the most clueless organization of all with respect to farm development. But there is a fair amount of major league, affordable talent, and Arte has been generally willing to spend lots of money (albeit poorly). So I don't think we are at immediate risk of turning into the Phillies.

 

Anyone ever notice how similar the phrase "albeit poorly" is to "Albert Pujols?"