Dipoto

[Tyler]

I'll take Morales and the better pitcher.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

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

 

Completely agree. Dipoto is in his second year, and he spent the first one trying to restore some semblance of competitiveness after the shambles of the Reagins years. Anybody who believed that this was all going to be fixed in two off-seasons wasn't realistic about the state of the club Dipoto inherited. Given his owner's dogged pursuit of Pujols and Hamilton and the resultant cost of those two signings, he wasn't going to assemble a staff of Cy Young winners. My assessment is that he acquired who he could with what he had available, and those might not have been the moves he would have preferred to make. 

[VariousCrap]

It is so easy to look at the situation now and say what it is Dipoto should have done and/or not done.  I can say I didn't care for the Blanton signing or the trade for Hanson.  At the time, most here were not happy with either of those.

 

Looking at it now, it would have made sense to do:

 

Sign Hunter (saves money)

Sign Anibal Sanchez (uses money saved above)

Keep Santana

Traded for Vargas

 

Rotation:

 

Weaver

Sanchez

Wilson

Santana

Vargas

 

That would be much better than what we have now.

 

 

As for the bullpen, they would have been able to keep Walden, sign Burnett and sign Rafael Soriano.

[mancini79]

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

 

It's no mystery that Arte played a vital role in signing Josh. According to Josh, Moreno (not Dipoto) flew to Texas to talk $$$. A couple days later Hamilton signed on the dotted line.

[AngelsAndRamsFan]

I didn't like the Hamilton and Pujols signings.

 

I hated the Blanton signing.  

 

I was fine with trading Morales and trading him for Vargas was an ok, but unimaginative trade.

 

I was ok with trading Walden, but trading him for Hanson was a gamble that Dipoto couldn't afford to make because of the questionable bottom third of the rotation.    

 

I didn't like the Greinke trade because even with the trade, I didn't like the Angels chances to make the playoffs. Losing two prospects from a weak farm system for two months of Greinke and a chance at the playoffs wasn't worth it. If the Angels got the same type of compensation as they got when they weren't able to re-sign Mark Teixeira, I would've been fine with the trade.     

 

Signing Madson was a low risk signing, but I don't think it was a risk Dipoto could afford to take because of the Angels weak pen and the lack of a true closer. Even if/when Madson comes back he'll probably be a set up guy and it will be awhile before he returns to being the pitcher he was before his injury.    

 

Other than the things I've listed, I love everything that Dipoto has done.  

 

Edit: I liked the Burnett signing and I was fine with letting Hunter, Santana, and Haren go. 

[Docwaukee]

JD's biggest failure has been the pen imo. 

[RePLAY]

i hated getting Pujols....hitting multiple homers in the World Series....possibly the best hitter in the game....Horrible!

[Richard]

The Blanton deal should have gone to beefing up the pen. I would have been more than fine with Richards as our 5th starter.

[mancini79]

In 99, I would have picked Pujols over Amezaga

In 05, I would have picked Buchholz over Trevor Bell.

In 03, I would have picked Kemp over B Wood

In 02, I would have picked Votto over Saunders

In 07, I would have picked Kimbrel over Bachanov

In 02, sign Felix as an undrafted free agent.

[OregonLAA]

I'll take Morales and the better pitcher.

We assembled an "amazing" pitching staff last year. Look how that turned out. There is only so much the man can do

[AZMike]

In 99, I would have picked Pujols over Amezaga

In 05, I would have picked Buchholz over Trevor Bell.

In 03, I would have picked Kemp over B Wood

In 02, I would have picked Votto over Saunders

In 07, I would have picked Kimbrel over Bachanov

In 02, sign Felix as an undrafted free agent.

 

If you want to go back to '99 how about signing Randy Johnson instead of Mo Vaughn?

 

 

We assembled an "amazing" pitching staff last year. Look how that turned out. There is only so much the man can do

 

Yep. 2011-quality Weaver, Haren, CJ Wilson and Santana wouldn't been enough to win the division and probably go far in the playoffs. 2012 Weave, Haren, Santana and CJ, not so much.

 

But that's the problem with the whole "Blanton and Hansons' career numbers are better than Haren and santana's 2012 numbers"  mantra we heard all offseason. Yes  Blanton and Hanson should put up better numbers than the God Awful numbers Satanana and Haren did in 2012, but they can't do a whole lot better, and they could do much much worse-- as in flirting with DFL in MLB in mid May worse. 

[Tyler]

We assembled an "amazing" pitching staff last year. Look how that turned out. There is only so much the man can do

 

huh?

[RePLAY]

huh?

He is saying "We assembled an "amazing" pitching staff last year. Look how that turned out. There is only so much the man can do".

[AZMike]

huh?

we had the "best rotation in baseball" 

 

from DocHalo's earlier post in this thread, ERA's in 2011 and 2012, respectively:

 

 

Weaver 2.41 to 2.81

Haren 3.19  to 4.33

Santana 3.38 to 5.16

Wilson 2.94 to 3.83

 

 

Admittedly the bullpen was still a bit of a gasoline fire. But they also underwent a similar decline between 2011 and 2012. Hence the great mystery of why the f*** does Mike Butcher still have a job.

[Tyler]

Still makes no sense. The team was pretty damn good after Trout was called up. Learn to separate

[Tyler]

Last season was an omen for not delaying the inevitable.

[OregonLAA]

Last season was an omen for not delaying the inevitable.

And you "huh"ed my comment?

[Docwaukee]

Still makes no sense. The team was pretty damn good after Trout was called up. Learn to separate

we also got Greinke after trout was called up. 

 

Weaver, Wilson, and Haren actually got a little worse after Trout's call up. 

We got better after Trout got called up because of Trout. 

[Tyler]

That was my point. We filled our holes, but started too late.

[Docwaukee]

That was my point. We filled our holes, but started too late.

when should he have started? 

[Tyler]

He should have broke camp with the team.

[Docwaukee]

He should have broke camp with the team.

oh.  you mean Trout.  I thought you meant about the pitching

 

I think Trout was pretty sick at the end of camp and they didn't want to start his clock.  If the team hadn't started slowly, we might not have seen Trout till July.  Oddly enough, the slow start to the season may have actually resulted in the team winning more games than they would have otherwise.  If they go .500 early on and Trout doesn't get call up in april then maybe they hover around that level all season. 

 

Maybe we should send Trout down and then call him back up to ignite the team. 

[Tyler]

Nah, I think we should just get one more legit starting pitcher and let the chemistry gather.

[Mark68]

Nah, I think we should just get one more legit starting pitcher and let the chemistry gather.

Like whom?

 

Who is available, and what on Earth do we have to trade for him?

[Docwaukee]

Nah, I think we should just get one more legit starting pitcher and let the chemistry gather.

I would be all for that if Madson and Weaver were both in play. 

 

If they can put together a run over the next 15-20 games while those guys are still out then I would consider it.  The pen needs to get their shit together as well though.