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Chalk Talk with Billy Eppler


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Just an FYI to Billy and Arte.  

 

Ian Desmond is a free agent and could have been signed for 4/60 at most.  He's not a backup SS.  You sign him and trade Aybar for prospects and you still have Newcomb, Ellis as well as whatever you get for Aybar, and you are spending about 3-4 mil more per year than you are for Simmons.  

 

Desmond averaged 4.5 WAR before 2015 where he freely admitted he was worried about doing well to get a good contract.  Even still, he had a 1.7 WAR season.  

 

Not saying that Desmond would be better than Simmons in 3-4 years, but you aren't giving up any prospects to get him.

I think at this point I'm done analyzing what Billy should've done. I feel like even with his financial restraints, he made some questionable or downright "bad" moves. But, I've been trying to focus on what he has done well. It's a much more fun track to be on. For instance, we don't have yo worry about finances for a while, though I guess you can say that would've happened regardless of spending due to Weav, Wilson and Hamilton all coming off the books soon. Eppler has made this a deeper ball club. A much better bench and more bullpen options.

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The Angels have not invested half as much money as the Yankees have in scouting and analytics. He came from a better run organization with more tools at his disposal and is putting that together here. The Simmons trade was going to be a Yankees move had Eppler not taken the Angels position. Eppler moved fast and the Yankees took a step down and traded for Starling Castro.

You say he sounds arrogant and yet you pontificate all off season about your superior master plan with absolutely no industry experience or access to any of the Angels data.

You can't figure Eppler out because he is working on a level you are not familiar with. Hell, none of us fans are used to a GM that can start the off season with a hard cap and improve the quality of the team without increasing spending. Usually the previous GM's just bought their way out of trouble.

I'm looking forward to what else Eppler can do. So far he has been impressive.

 

you do see the irony of your post right?  

 

None of have access to data.  All GM's are working from a position that none of us are familiar with.  We offer our opinions.  Sometimes we agree.  Other times we don't.  

 

I really hope that Eppler is the the smartest guy in the room.  I kinda doubt it, but maybe he is and that would be great for us.  

 

I have an opinion of what I would like this franchise to do.  My 'superior master plan' as you call it is rooted in the fact that we have the best player in baseball for the next five years and I would like to see the team take advantage of that.   My opinion is that we haven't done so to the extent we could have.  

 

And Eppler has spent this offseason.  Maybe not money, but certainly currency.  Using either for now decreases your flexibility for the future.  

 

I have yet to form an opinion about whether he has been impressive.  So far, I see business as usual.  Not epiphanies and changes in philosophy.  Just a dry well limiting what we have always done and what we will do again in the near future.  

 

Some I'm gonna continue to pontificate about it and you can continue to be condescending to everyone here like you always are.  

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I think at this point I'm done analyzing what Billy should've done. I feel like even with his financial restraints, he made some questionable or downright "bad" moves. But, I've been trying to focus on what he has done well. It's a much more fun track to be on. For instance, we don't have yo worry about finances for a while, though I guess you can say that would've happened regardless of spending due to Weav, Wilson and Hamilton all coming off the books soon. Eppler has made this a deeper ball club. A much better bench and more bullpen options.

Eppler is in a tough situation trying to carry out the directive of keeping the team competitive without free agent money to spend and now no farm currency.  It took me awhile to figure out why he's done what he has and while I would have liked to see things done a bit differently, I do think the 2016 team is better than last years club.  Since Arte is the driving force behind the lack of additional improvement for this year, the most interesting thing about Eppler going forward is what he does to improve the farm and how many rabbits he can pull out of his hat.  

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Just an FYI to Billy and Arte.  

 

Ian Desmond is a free agent and could have been signed for 4/60 at most.  He's not a backup SS.  You sign him and trade Aybar for prospects and you still have Newcomb, Ellis as well as whatever you get for Aybar, and you are spending about 3-4 mil more per year than you are for Simmons.  

 

Desmond averaged 4.5 WAR before 2015 where he freely admitted he was worried about doing well to get a good contract.  Even still, he had a 1.7 WAR season.  

 

Not saying that Desmond would be better than Simmons in 3-4 years, but you aren't giving up any prospects to get him.  

 

Simmons costs less money in the short term than Desmond, so it was really the only move they were considering.

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There is some fun stuff here.  I, too, am surprised that Eppler thinks he's bringing a level of analysis to the table that no one else is.  Pretty arrogant to think that considering the amount of money and effort poured into this realm by pretty much every team.  

 

I hope he's right of course.

 

I can't figure Eppler out as of yet.  Sometimes I get an uber confident vibe where I want to believe, and other times I get the feeling that he wants to be one of the cool kids but never will be.  

 

I think it may be more than what Arte has spent previously on a Quantitative Analysis department headed by a physicist....

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