The Official 2017-2018 Hot Stove Thread

[Dick B Back]

1 hour ago, jordan111280 said:

The latest on Stanton. Eppler goes the way of past Angel GMs. Plays his cards close to the vest. I doubt we’ll hear any rumors until it was almost a done deal if Angels were to trade for him. 

How does Bob know they haven't shown the slightest of interest? Doh!

[ten ocho recon scout]

Still have a bad feeling stanton ends up a dodger.

[krAbs]

I hope the Giants get him. It would be weird facing them in the WS if they didn't have a ridiculous slugger on their team.

[rottiesworld]

Let the crappers get him and watch them lose the World Series because they are short on pitching like the old Texas Rangers.

[nando714]

31 minutes ago, krAbs said:

I hope the Giants get him. It would be weird facing them in the WS if they didn't have a ridiculous slugger on their team.

Why would any offensive player want to play 81 games at att park? 

[tdawg87]

2 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

Why wouldn't he?  He has stated over and over and over that he will not go over the tax.  The Angels have more to upgrade.  Stanton alone is not the answer and getting him inches closer to that tax while still needing to address other positions.

I think he was referring to Trout.

[gotbeer]

3 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

Stanton is not even on my radar.  I have no reason to think Moreno takes on a contract like that.  Keep in mind, if he wants to keep Trout, he will have to offer way more than 295 million.

With Stanton, we have the offense to be legit contenders.  Without Stanton, not only are we right where we are right now.  But Trout is going to get offered funny money no matter what, probably from the team next to his favorite football team.  I'd rather try to win now, then have nothing to show for Trout.

[Jeff Fletcher]

3 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

Why wouldn't he?  He has stated over and over and over that he will not go over the tax.  The Angels have more to upgrade.  Stanton alone is not the answer and getting him inches closer to that tax while still needing to address other positions.

Actually, I don't think he's ever said it. 

His actions indicate he doesn't want to, but he's always says that it's not a deal breaker. 

From my conversations with him, I really think he is more concerned with having a big contract that goes bad than he is going over the tax. 

The point is money, not a tax. Paying $100M to a guy not on your team is worse than paying $2M in tax.

[CanadianHalo]

*goes to get a Stanton jersey made*

 

Thanks Jeff!

[beatlesrule]

I could have sworn I've read him talking about not going over it.  You are right about his actions though, if it was only about winning a World Series, he would have certainly been a big part of FA over the last 4 years.  It's clear that he only wants to spend a certain amount and has his GM's work with it and do the best they can.  He is okay with wasting Trout and not winning a World Series.  He owns the team so he can do whatever he wants.  We as fans have to hope the team gets "lucky" and that's pretty sad when we live in the 2nd largest market and have the best player in baseball.  Oh well.

[Jeff Fletcher]

41 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

I could have sworn I've read him talking about not going over it.  You are right about his actions though, if it was only about winning a World Series, he would have certainly been a big part of FA over the last 4 years.  It's clear that he only wants to spend a certain amount and has his GM's work with it and do the best they can.  He is okay with wasting Trout and not winning a World Series.  He owns the team so he can do whatever he wants.  We as fans have to hope the team gets "lucky" and that's pretty sad when we live in the 2nd largest market and have the best player in baseball.  Oh well.

He did just spend $106 million.

[beatlesrule]

23 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

He did just spend $106 million.

He has A LOT more money he can and should have been spending over the last 4 years.  Again, Upton is a good illusion he wants to win.  It will insure that he gets his 3 million fans.  Fact is that he hasn't been surrounding the absolute very best talent out there around Trout.  He hasn't signed the very best free agents year in and year out.  He hasn't spent nearly enough to produce a winner.  With the crappy situation the farm is in, he needs to win other ways and that means signing the best free agents.  The proof is all around us.

[Jeff Fletcher]

1 minute ago, beatlesrule said:

He has A LOT more money he can and should have been spending over the last 4 years.  Again, Upton is a good illusion he wants to win.  It will insure that he gets his 3 million fans.  Fact is that he hasn't been surrounding the absolute very best talent out there around Trout.  He hasn't signed the very best free agents year in and year out.  He hasn't spent nearly enough to produce a winner.  With the crappy situation the farm is in, he needs to win other ways and that means signing the best free agents.  The proof is all around us.

Or, maybe he realized after spending about 400 million bucks in 2 years that it doesn't work. 

[beatlesrule]

On the wrong people, sure.  Again, the Angels are his plaything.  It's clear that he is not nearly as passionate as many of us Angel fans are.  He once again has a great opportunity to sign very good players.  History has shown that he won't do it so let's see what happens this time.

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

He has A LOT more money he can and should have been spending over the last 4 years.  Again, Upton is a good illusion he wants to win.  It will insure that he gets his 3 million fans.  Fact is that he hasn't been surrounding the absolute very best talent out there around Trout.  He hasn't signed the very best free agents year in and year out.  He hasn't spent nearly enough to produce a winner.  With the crappy situation the farm is in, he needs to win other ways and that means signing the best free agents.  The proof is all around us.

How many of those best free agents have worked?  Scherzer and who else?  

Also please list the teams in the last 30 years that have won with the best player in baseball.  I can think of 2005, Cardinals and Albert.  Obviously, the last six years it hasn’t happened. Was Arod the best player in the game when he won it all?  

[Stradling]

Cespedes (kinda)

Cano (kinda)

Greinke (kinda)

[totdprods]

I'm not suggesting this, but Ichiro Suzuki seemingly checks a lot of the boxes Eppler would look for in a 4th OF.

[beatlesrule]

Again, he has't signed good players like Murphy, Cespedes etc.  Forget the top FA for a sec and look back at the players available and the ones the Angels ended up signing.  He is clearly not doing the absolute very best he can to give Trout as much help as possible.  I don't know what was going on at the time and the finances of teams with the best players in the game but the Angels probably have more money than any of those teams.  If the Angels were like a mid or small market team, I wouldn't be making these posts.  It all has to do with the simple fact of where the Angels play and the whole Los Angeles thing.

[Jeff Fletcher]

6 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

Again, he has't signed good players like Murphy, Cespedes etc.  Forget the top FA for a sec and look back at the players available and the ones the Angels ended up signing.  He is clearly not doing the absolute very best he can to give Trout as much help as possible.  I don't know what was going on at the time and the finances of teams with the best players in the game but the Angels probably have more money than any of those teams.  If the Angels were like a mid or small market team, I wouldn't be making these posts.  It all has to do with the simple fact of where the Angels play and the whole Los Angeles thing.

Also, free agency is a two-way street. Teams don't get to unilaterally decide which free agents they get. 

Cespedes did not want to sign on the West Coast, according to what I've been told.

The Angels problem now is they haven't recovered from spending too much money on the wrong players while letting the farm system slip.

Teams don't win because they sign 100M free agents. They win because they develop players. 

 

[Jeff Fletcher]

I've used this before, because I covered the Giants. 

When they had Barry Bonds, they neglected the farm system and chased after all these free agent band-aid "name" guys. Matt Morris, Steve Finley, Mike Matheny, Ray Durham, Omar Vizquel, Armando Benitez, etc etc.

They were all over 30 (as free agents usually are) and they were mostly pretty bad. The Giants were terrible.

Then they got rid of Bonds, stopped chasing short-term fixes, drafted Lincecum, Posey and Bumgarner and won 3 WS in 5 years. 

The Angels, however, have about a 12-years-younger version of Bonds, so they don't need to wait till he's gone to build around him. They do need to do it with young players, though, not a bunch of free agents. 

[beatlesrule]

That's true about the player not always wanting the most money.  My point is that there are A LOT of good players the Angels didn't signed and weren't even linked to. Sure, you have every right to think that no good FA's over the years wanted to play for the Angels and that would be extremely sad if it were the case.  I am simply looking at the facts and they prove that the Angels are either not in talks with or lose out on all the good FA's.  Upton is a very good step but he is just one of many the Angels need to take this offseason to have a legitimate shot of winning their division let alone the World Series. 

Arte is not proving to us as fans that he is doing the absolute best he can despite his famous line of we're doing the best we can.  I get that you need to develop players but history has shown us the Angels are not very good at doing that.  We can't find a replacement for Glaus to save our life.  We have needed a replacement for 2nd base for years now.  It's too depressing to go over every position and the ineptness this org seems to have at most of them.  A real owner that wants to win the World Series would not be letting a 38 year old WAYY WAYY WAYY past his prime bat 3rd or clean up every night. He would have realized the situation long ago and gotten a replacement.  I am hungry and am getting too riled up over this org's incompetence.  I will just hope for the best this offseason. 

[Stradling]

Just now, beatlesrule said:

That's true about the player not always wanting the most money.  My point is that there are A LOT of good players the Angels didn't signed and weren't even linked to. Sure, you have every right to think that no good FA's over the years wanted to play for the Angels and that would be extremely sad if it were the case.  I am simply looking at the facts and they prove that the Angels are either not in talks with or lose out on all the good FA's.  Upton is a very good step but he is just one of many the Angels need to take this offseason to have a legitimate shot of winning their division let alone the World Series. 

Arte is not proving to us as fans that he is doing the absolute best he can despite his famous line of we're doing the best we can.  I get that you need to develop players but history has shown us the Angels are not very good at doing that.  We can't find a replacement for Glaus to save our life.  We have needed a replacement for 2nd base for years now.  It's too depressing to go over every position and the ineptness this org seems to have at most of them.  A real owner that wants to win the World Series would not be letting a 38 year old WAYY WAYY WAYY past his prime bat 3rd or clean up every night. He would have realized the situation long ago and gotten a replacement.  I am hungry and am getting too riled up over this org's incompetence.  I will just hope for the best this offseason. 

What you keep ignoring is there weren’t a lot of good free agents.  Murphy, Scherzer.  Who else?  Also your bullshit about a real owner is just dumb. List the $25-30 million players riding the pine.  Thanks.

[Ohtaniland]

3 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

The Angels, however, have about a 12-years-younger version of Bonds, so they don't need to wait till he's gone to build around him. They do need to do it with young players, though, not a bunch of free agents. 

This^^^^^^^ @Stradling

Yet there are so many people here who think that Arte can just whip his wallet out and buy a championship.

You can do that if your organization is already on solid footing from the farm to the team on the field but maybe only needs a couple of pieces to reach the top. We are far from that. 

Keep building Eppler!

[WeaverFever]

Anyone else realize we had the 11th highest opening day Payroll this past year?? It’s not like we had any room then either. Why not bring in a Arieta type until Trout needs his deal. Hell if we got money to spend let’s spend it when we have the room. 

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, Calzone said:

This^^^^^^^ @Stradling

Yet there are so many people here who think that Arte can just whip his wallet out and buy a championship.

You can do that if your organization is already on solid footing from the farm to the team on the field but maybe only needs a couple of pieces to reach the top. We are far from that. 

Keep building Eppler!

Why would you act like you’re showing me something I don’t know?  Rebuilding happens with or without Albert.  Rebuilding doesn’t cost salary, and he’s blocking no one.