Keith Law: "by far the worst (farm) system I've ever seen"

[Hollyw00d]

Not gonna happen he has to take several major steps forward at the dish

[Hollyw00d]

He was last season

He was better than aybar in his worst season as a pro and down swing of his career

Not a ringing endorsement

[AngelsLakersFan]

He has been as good or better than Aybar 3 of the last 4 seasons.

[Stradling]

He was better than aybar in his worst season as a pro and down swing of his career

Not a ringing endorsement

Neither is being on the down swing of his career. So I am glad we upgraded short stop instead of hiding our head in the sand hoping Aybar bounces back.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I really think that Simmons is going to turn out to be a Better hitter than Aybar!

 

It's not beyond the realm of possibility. We brought in a young, elite defender who has probably not yet hit his prime. We traded Aybar before the precipitous dropoff that is coming not far down the road. The Simmons trade isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is the complete lack of activity in the face of the best free agent class in recent memory.

[ten ocho recon scout]

I dont say this to defend dipoto, but i would think the poor drafting is more on the scouts and scouting director. I would assume the GM occasionally gets out to see minor league games, and maybe in the offseason catches some travel team stuff. But as for the guys going into the draft (high school, college), theyre playing when the season is going on in the bigs...not sure the GM really sees any of them (could be wrong). I assume the GM of any team pretty much goes by the scouting reports sent to him from the giys who go and see the kids play.

[NrM]

I dont say this to defend dipoto, but i would think the poor drafting is more on the scouts and scouting director. I would assume the GM occasionally gets out to see minor league games, and maybe in the offseason catches some travel team stuff. But as for the guys going into the draft (high school, college), theyre playing when the season is going on in the bigs...not sure the GM really sees any of them (could be wrong). I assume the GM of any team pretty much goes by the scouting reports sent to him from the giys who go and see the kids play.

 

Yea but it's on Dipoto for hiring the scouts and scouting director.

Or was it someone else who brought them in? 

Edited February 12, 2016 by Poozy

[Troutta here]

lol @ anyone who takes farm system rankings seriously. It's a crapshoot. 

[tomsred]

lol @ anyone who takes farm system rankings seriously. It's a crapshoot. 

 

 

This is what happens when a sport has a long offseason that is too thoroughly covered, people in the industry have to start making up something to keep filling the void.

[NrM]

For anyone curious. ranking since 2013

 

Baseball prospectus

2013: 30th

2014: 30th

2015: 28th

2016: 30th

 

Baseball America

2013: 30th

2014: ???

2015: 28th

2016: 30th

Edited February 12, 2016 by Poozy

[Docwaukee]

The draft is only part of the rebuilding process.  But it's a slow roll.  The high floor technique was meant to infuse some talent into the upper levels more quickly while some lower level talent developed.  

 

No doubt our draft haven't been great, but we have another thing working against us........we use every last resource to fill holes at the major league level.  

 

That, by far, was Dipoto's biggest asset.  Taking known major league talent with soon to expire contracts and turning it into younger, lesser known, soon to be major league talent.  

 

But that also comes as a sacrifice to the farm system.  

 

The easiest and quickest way to rebuild a farm system is to use that major league talent.  Look at the braves.  They are gonna suck this year but they probably need two years before they are competitive again.  

 

We haven't used major league talent to replenish the farm is almost 15 years.   We haven't signed many international players.  We have lost draft picks left and right and we are essentially living off of free agency, one good draft, and a couple of savvy trades.  

 

You can't pump every last resource into the major league club forever.  Even the lesser moves that fly under the radar eventually catch up to you.  Losing guys like Clevinger, Jairo Diaz, Sappington, Geltz etc.  in addition to Segura, Newcomb, Ellis, Gott, Grichuk etc.  It's also why the inclusion of Aybar in the Simmons deal matters.  It's why my hope was that we'd spend.  Spend to preserve.  

 

Imagine if we hadn't made the simmons or escobar trades and even spent modestly instead.  We could potentially have signed Desmond on a friendly deal, brought back Freese, added Gallardo and Fowler on club friendly deals as well.  Sure we'd be out a couple of draft picks, but all those guys would bring value to the org above and beyond those draft picks.  Plus we'd have enough redundancy to trade Aybar and Santiago for prospects.  Even if we still made the Gott/Escobar deal, we have a farm system that includes Newcomb, Ellis, whoever we could get for Aybar, and Santiago.  A rotation of Richards, Heaney, Wilson, Gallardo, Weaver, plus Skaggs, Trop, Shoe and a couple guys on the way.  A lineup of Fowler, Escobar, Trout, Pujols, Cahoun, Desmond, Freese, Cron, and Perez.   That would be a considerable add to payroll for 2016, but we'd be damn close to being under the cap next year with Weaver, Wilson, Freese and Smith coming off the books.   Next year's rotation would be set by slotting in 2 of skaggs, trop, and newcomb and you'd still have ellis and shoe as depth.  

 

And if it goes bad?  Pretty much your entire roster has trade value outside of pujols.  Everyone but Trout and Albert have 3yrs or less come 2017.  

 

Going over the CBT for one player was always bullshit.  Go over for the team.  Make some value adds and preserve the farm.  But again, it's all about those 3 million fans.  

[ELEVEN]

"The problem is, you have teams with a good farm system, then you have teams with a bad farm system. Then there's 50 feet of shit... and then there's us."

New shit has come to light.

[TroutCron]

The biggest problems with the farm system is the total lack of international scouting and signings. If you look at championship teams there are a plethora of international players who contribute big time. The US is not producing top talent in the kinds of numbers that Latin America does. Ignoring this market is suicide.

[bloodbrother]

For anyone curious. ranking since 2013

 

Baseball prospectus

2013: 30th

2014: 30th

2015: 28th

2016: 30th

 

Baseball America

2013: 30th

2014: ???

2015: 28th

2016: 30th

 

Very consistently terrible. Good job by the Angels

[Reveille1984]

As much grief as the Angels farm system gets, it's still produced some out of nowhere major leaguers the last few years, and many of those prospects have still been used in decent trades.

Who really have we traded away recently have we rely regretted? Grichuk and Will Smith?

At least they've done a good job at dealing from this crappy farm and not having it bite them over and over.

 

How many of our major leaguers are really out of nowhere the last few years though?  Maybe Calhoun has been better than expected, but he was always actually slightly underrated given how much success he had in the minors.  Guys like Cron, Gio, Perez, Trumbo etc. are pretty much the definition of replacement level or worse.  LF has been a black hole for years and we haven't developed an above average IF prospect since Howie Kendrick.  Mike Trout has literally single-handedly saved the Angels from being a bottom of the barrel franchise, adding around 10 extra wins a year to the major league roster right out of the gate.

 

Its actually mindblowing how few of the players we've drafted that have made zero impact over the last five years when you consider how massive the MLB draft is.  Every team has guys in their system that come out of nowhere to perform above what is expected of them.  The fact that we haven't regretted many of our trades just means that the guys developed in our system actually go on to still be crap somewhere else, which isn't really a positive.   

 

Like Dochalo iterated to, you have to pick a direction at some point and just bite the bullet if necessary.  You can only be competitive for so long when A.) you never rebuild or package expensive major leaguers for younger players and B.) draft terribly and continuously throw away the few decent prospects you do have to supplant the major league roster.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Reveille1984

[Ohtaniland]

Reagins and Dipoto are to blame for the current mess. Eppler has his work cut out for him.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

We're basically in purgatory. The farm system sucks, meaning that we have nothing to trade and nothing coming to help the major league roster. Add to that the fact that we have an owner who is suddenly allergic to signing impact free agents and the situation is ripe for this team to become very bad for a very long time.  

[Stradling]

We're basically in purgatory. The farm system sucks, meaning that we have nothing to trade and nothing coming to help the major league roster. Add to that the fact that we have an owner who is suddenly allergic to signing impact free agents and the situation is ripe for this team to become very bad for a very long time.

We're going into a season where we are better than last year but we will need to be healthy, other teams will need to have struggles and we will need a couple of career years and we will need the bounce backs.

[Troll Daddy]

We're basically in purgatory. The farm system sucks, meaning that we have nothing to trade and nothing coming to help the major league roster. Add to that the fact that we have an owner who is suddenly allergic to signing impact free agents and the situation is ripe for this team to become very bad for a very long time.

Omg lol

[Ohtaniland]

We're basically in purgatory. The farm system sucks, meaning that we have nothing to trade and nothing coming to help the major league roster. Add to that the fact that we have an owner who is suddenly allergic to signing impact free agents and the situation is ripe for this team to become very bad for a very long time.

We are one Mike Trout trade away from fixing the farm. Then we wait.

[Docwaukee]

We are one Mike Trout trade away from fixing the farm. Then we wait.

we are a Mike Trout trade away from 20 years of oblivion.  

[ABC]

We are one Mike Trout trade away from fixing the farm. Then we wait.

 

How many people are still alive after the 80's Royals run to their reemergence? 

[Angel Oracle]

And who hired Reagins and Dipoto?    Arte!

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Omg lol

 

I don't find it funny at all. I don't know how else you would characterize a team with a barren farm system, holes in the roster at the major league level and an owner who will not sign major talent.

[itsKnoppUitsme]

We're basically in purgatory. The farm system sucks, meaning that we have nothing to trade and nothing coming to help the major league roster. Add to that the fact that we have an owner who is suddenly allergic to signing impact free agents and the situation is ripe for this team to become very bad for a very long time.  

Yeah, but think of all the "High draft choices" we can stockpile!