Dipoto

[OregonLAA]

I have heard a lot of people calling him and out and I really just don't get it. I would love to hear what the people here would have done. He didn't have a lot to work with, but I thought he did great with what he did have and the players just aren't performing. Here is how I see it:

 

Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols: Everyone loved these deals. We all understood that they might not be incredible for the full length of the contracts, but we were excited for a few years of great hitters. They haven't performed. Did anyone here know that they would hit like this to start off their Angel careers? I doubt it. Plus we all know Moreno had some control over this anyways.

 

Starting Pitching: Haren and Santana were awful last year and they were not worth the amount of money they were about to make. Letting them go was smart financially. Vargas and Blanton were cheaper and all they had to do was be as good Erv and Dan were last year. I mean we almost made the playoffs with those 2 under performing, so even just a little improvement might get us in the playoffs. Greinke wanted a lot of money and we all know how big pitching contracts end up working out. He has been hurt most of the year (although that's not really his fault).

 

Many posters here wanted different options for starting pitching like

 

Brandon McCarthy: 0-3 with a 7.22 ERA

Joe Saunders: 2-4 6.15 ERA

Edwin Jackson: 0-5 6.39 ERA

Anibal Sanchez: 3-2 1.82 ERA

 

So out of the 4 starters people were asking for only ONE of them has an ERA under 6.

 

Plus people were saying we should have traded Trumbo instead of Morales. Not only is Trumbo under club control for longer and currently cheaper, but he can play multiple positions.

 

Trumbo: .294/.364/.548 - He has made great improvements with walks

Morales: .261/.356/.400

 

Trumbo has been the better player.

Dipoto also chose to let Hunter walk and trade Wells so Bourjos could play more. Bourjos is currently injured, but he was one of our best players before he was hurt. Most people on here thought Hunter didn't have another year left in him and every danced a little when JD got as much as he did for Wells.

 

Relief: This where JD gets the most flack. Last year he traded for Frieri and that was a great move. Burnett and Madson were great additions....except they're hurt. Jepsen was great coming back last year and was supposed to help us big time. And now he is hurt. 3 guys who were supposed to be KEY for us are hurt. How is that JD's fault? De La Rosa was traded for and everyone didn't understand why, but he has been very solid for us in the bullpen. Some of the others have been like throwing darts with your eyes closed and just hoping one of them sticks, but he made a lot of good moves. He went for Fujikawa, but he chose the Cubs (don't ask me why).

 

Maybe his moves weren't perfect, but I think he made the right moves. A lot of the reasoning for the hate is because the players haven't performed as well as they should be. Anyways, that's my long rant. I am a JD fan and I hope he sticks around for a while, but I may be alone in that thought

[Tyler]

He should be alot brighter than posters here. He failed to build a pitching staff.

[mancini79]

Great analysis Oregon. Just to clarify the SP issue. Anibal signed for 5 yr, $80m which is insane. The Angels would have had to get in a bidding war with that.

[OregonLAA]

Great analysis Oregon. Just to clarify the SP issue. Anibal signed for 5 yr, $80m which is insane. The Angels would have had to get in a bidding war with that.

I must admit, I thought he would be awful, but I agree that I don't like that contract

[Mark68]

I was one of the ones that wanted McCarthy. I also wanted to trade for Dickey. They have both sucked, but won't continue to do so.

 

Of course, once Greinke came off the board, that didn't leave much left. A bunch of back end of the rotation types or guys who were going to be too expensive (especially once we signed Hacksaton). JD did well to get what he got for how much he got them. If they were performing to their career norms (I'm looking at you, JoeBlah), then things wouldn't look so bleak for our rotation (well, once Weaver gets back, that is). We all had had enough of Santana's high wire act, and it certainly appears that Haren may either still be bothered by his back injury or has simply lost some velocity.

 

The problems are magnified, of course, due to Hamilton's struggles, Pujols' second slow start in a row, and the early struggles of the pitching staff as a whole. But these underwhelming performances are not what JD had in mind. His idea was to construct a staff that was average, spending average money on them, because an average staff was all we needed.

[AngelsLakersFan]

Blanton is the real head scratcher, I think we all thought "DiPoto must know more than the rest of us" when that went down...

[Erstad Grit]

I hated the Pujols deal and while I was in the minority there were others of us.

 

I disliked the Hamilton deal. I never saw him being this bad but I did not like the deal.

 

I wanted Angels to keep Haren and Santana for one more year. Haren has not been great but > than Blanton. Santana would be our ace. 

 

I would have put Trumbo in RF and Morales/Pujols and 1b/dh.

 

I would have spent the $ on assembling and upgrading a real bullpen. 

 

He has not done his job. 

[sneaky_flute]

giving a blockbuster contract to someone in his 30s is never a good idea. i don't understand why most fans seem to take umbrage with his pitcher deals while having no problem with the pujols and hamilton signings. his pitcher moves were actually the more reasonable ones.

[OregonLAA]

I hated the Pujols deal and while I was in the minority there were others of us.

 

I disliked the Hamilton deal. I never saw him being this bad but I did not like the deal.

 

I wanted Angels to keep Haren and Santana for one more year. Haren has not been great but > than Blanton. Santana would be our ace. 

 

I would have put Trumbo in RF and Morales/Pujols and 1b/dh.

 

I would have spent the $ on assembling and upgrading a real bullpen. 

 

He has not done his job. 

So tell me who you would have gotten for the bullpen. I'd love to know

[Mark68]

I was also not on board with signing Hamilton.

 

There was a need for a big LH power bat, but that ship sailed the previous offseason when Pujols was signed instead of Fielder. I think this team would be doing a lot better with Fielder instead of Pujols and Hamilton. Then again, I'm not the owner, and Arte really wanted Pujols and Hamilton.

 

However, nobody expected Santana to be this good, and I don't expect it to continue. Vargas>Haren, and, when all is said and done, Hanson will be better than Haren as well.

 

2013 Blanton=2012 Santana

[YouthofToday]

I strongly disliked the Pujols deal but I did like the Hamilton deal. Clearly knowing the player before offering $100 million+ is rather important.

[AZMike]

I was also not on board with signing Hamilton.

 

There was a need for a big LH power bat, but that ship sailed the previous offseason when Pujols was signed instead of Fielder. I think this team would be doing a lot better with Fielder instead of Pujols and Hamilton. Then again, I'm not the owner, and Arte really wanted Pujols and Hamilton.

 

However, nobody expected Santana to be this good, and I don't expect it to continue. Vargas>Haren, and, when all is said and done, Hanson will be better than Haren as well.

 

2013 Blanton=2012 Santana

Agreed, I wanted Fielder (before the fact) and CJ Wilson

 

I strongly disliked the Pujols deal but I did like the Hamilton deal. Clearly knowing the player before offering $100 million+ is rather important.

Same. I kinda felt OK about the Hamilton deal (compared with re-signing Greinke). I felt the Pujols deal would be a huge disaster (I suspected he was if not lying about his age at least genetically predisposed to aging quicker and peak younger than normal based on his appearance in high school) 

[Erstad Grit]

So tell me who you would have gotten for the bullpen. I'd love to know

 

First off I would have kept Walden. Trading a young, inexpensive, allstar closer for a SP who was terrible was perplexing. 

 

I loved the Burnett signing. He is someone i wanted. 

 

Soriano I was hoping but at that price I understand passing. 

 

Oliver Perez looked great down the stretch and could have been grabbed cheap. (yes I said this during the off-season-it's on the old board) 

 

Joe Nathan who looked good down the stretch 

 

I also would have given an invitation to Krod 

 

Bottom line is our BP was TERRIBLE last year and we traded Walden and signed someone who hadn't pitched in a year. 

[mtangelsfan]

The entire pitching staff sans Weaver and Downs is Dipoto's.  Guess what sucks the most on the team.  The pitching.

[Ohtaniland]

Reagins Angels GM winning percentage .560

Stoneman's Angels GM winning percentage .542

Dipoto's Angels GM winning percentage .510

[Second Base]

I count one person who actually said we traded the wrong power hitter, and if I'm not mistaken, I called him a butt-dart and Chuck has since booted him off the board. 

[Tyler]

I don't understand why this Trumbo vs. Morales thing keeps getting brought up.

 

Trumbo would have netted us a much better SP. It's not a slight against Trumbo to have wanted him gone over Morales because, as we can see, pitching is our major problem

[ScottT]

To be fair, he dealt for two guys that could've helped the staff greatly.  Skaggs and Corbin.   The guy he dealt, Haren, fell off surprisingly quickly.  Granted, he was in a different position when that trade was made, but it is something to consider.  Wilson is an enigma.  Didn't expect him to do a lot worse leaving Texas for Anaheim. Expected him to bounce back after the injury.  Still hoping.  I would've preferred to roll the dice with Santana for a year and not settle for Vargas and Blanton, but Santana isn't exactly reliable.

 

Pujols was all Arte.  I wanted Fielder, Kuroda, and Ramon Hernandez.  Would've gone 2 for 3... if they would've signed.  Fielder got more than I expected.

 

I was not that excited about Hamilton.  Better than standing pat, and arguably better than signing Greinke at the same price.   It is a relatively small deal for a recent MVP, but his strikeout rate and chase rate last year were alarming.  He ended up with very good numbers last year, but there was a big change.  I expect him to bounce back, but he was overrated.  

 

Iannetta was a good move... despite Tyler Chatwood's hitting.  Gave up a good young pitcher for Frieri, but the Angels desperately needed a reliever last year and he could've ended up being the difference... still may at some point.   Hanson trade was solid.   

 

This team has had some bad luck the last couple years.  It's cute that people are angry over moves now, but I don't remember the rage when most of them happened.  

[AZMike]

Reagins Angels GM winning percentage .560

Stoneman's Angels GM winning percentage .540

Dipoto's Angels GM winning percentage .510

Bad analogy. The Reagins "resignation" is analogous to removing a pitcher after he just walked the bases loaded. Given the mess Dipoto inherited all losses in the first three years should be charged to Reagins

[Ohtaniland]

Bad analogy. The Reagins "resignation" is analogous to removing a pitcher after he just walked the bases loaded. Given the mess Dipoto inherited all losses in the first three years should be charged to Reagins

 

Can't wait to see the the poor sap that inherits Dipoto's mess of contracts. 

[mancini79]

Bad analogy. The Reagins "resignation" is analogous to removing a pitcher after he just walked the bases loaded. Given the mess Dipoto inherited all losses in the first three years should be charged to Reagins

 

"Inherited Losses"

[Angel Oracle]

Stoneman built the org from garbage. Just wish he had hired someone other than Bane before 2004.

Reagins inherited that and proceded to wreck it by year 3.

Dipoto has a lot of work to do to clean up Reagins' mess.

[Ohtaniland]

"Inherited Losses"

Dipoto also inherited $350+ million to fix it. Reagins never got that checkbook.

[Docwaukee]

In 2011 before the 2012 season, JD added a SP  to complement three very good ones

 

Here is what happened between 2011 to 2012 for those four guys

 

Weaver 2.41 to 2.81

Haren 3.19  to 4.33

Santana 3.38 to 5.16

Wilson 2.94 to 3.83

 

That's one year.

He traded the most expendable of players available to improve the team for this year.

 

Yes, Trumbo would have likely had more value in a trade yet now we have Trumbo on offense instead of Morales.  The net is likely zero.  Morales and slightly better pitcher than Vargas or where we are. 

[AZMike]

giving a blockbuster contract to someone in his 30s is never a good idea. i don't understand why most fans seem to take umbrage with his pitcher deals while having no problem with the pujols and hamilton signings. his pitcher moves were actually the more reasonable ones.

I and many fans on this board believe the Pujols and Hamilton signing were primarily pushed by Arte Moreno, not Dipoto.