This Bullpen is on Eppler

[Glen]

[DMVol]

On 6/19/2018 at 12:34 PM, The Boogie Man said:

.....Fletcher was at 15, I wouldn’t trade him for a rental......

I would if we were better positioned to make the playoffs....

[Stradling]

10 minutes ago, DMVol said:

I would if we were better positioned to make the playoffs....

We all have different opinions, but I would not trade a potential starting 2nd baseman under club control for 6 years for 3 months of a player, not with this team.  If we were Boston or the Yankees where it is pretty obvious they are going to make the playoffs, and seem to be pretty set at positional talent going forward, then yea I make a trade like that if I believe it puts me over the edge.  

[DMVol]

1 minute ago, The Boogie Man said:

We all have different opinions, but I would not trade a potential starting 2nd baseman under club control for 6 years for 3 months of a player, not with this team.  If we were Boston or the Yankees where it is pretty obvious they are going to make the playoffs, and seem to be pretty set at positional talent going forward, then yea I make a trade like that if I believe it puts me over the edge.  

I believe that is what I said.....

[AngelsFaninGA]

One or two bullpen arms aren't going to push us over the top this year. I'd rather just sit tight and play for next year rather than trading away a top 10 prospect and then still missing the playoffs or getting shut out in the WC game because the offense also isn't very good. 

[totdprods]

@Jeff Fletcher tweeted this out today - good article from Fangraphs on how the FA relievers this past offseason haven't really been worth it either. 

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/offseason-spending-on-relievers-isnt-working-out/

[mulwin444]

1 hour ago, totdprods said:

@Jeff Fletcher tweeted this out today - good article from Fangraphs on how the FA relievers this past offseason haven't really been worth it either. 

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/offseason-spending-on-relievers-isnt-working-out/

Yeah, pretty much this ^^^^

Eppler's strategy was sound and if he had a 6-man rotation still averaging around 6 innings a night of quality starts it would work.  

Problem was, as soon as Ohtani went down, you lost pretty much a "sure thing" one game a week, not to mention a potent left handed bat, and quality of starts goes down.  Then Tropeano, Richards and Skaggs all kind of hit at once.  Both Ohtani and Richards have "ace" stuff but Ohtani appears mentally stronger, even at a younger age, so I'd rank them as 1-2 in this rotation followed by Skaggs at three, Heaney at four, Jaime Barria at five and Tropeano at six.  Those guy can usually give you 6 quality innings but once you start dipping into the Lambs and Penas of the world, you inning pitched predictability drops and your pen usage goes up.  Add to that arms like Middleton, Johnson, and Wood going down only to be replaced by Morris, Paredes, McGuire, Robles and Drake, and the deconstruction is complete. 

So, yeah, a LOT of bad luck...I know people want a reason but sometimes that reason is "shit happens" and "who you gonna call?"

Ohtani, Richards, Skaggs, Heaney, Tropeano, Shoemaker, Ramirez, and Barria were the rotation depth prior to this season and Bedrosian, Johnson, Wood, Middleton, Noe Ramirez. Parker and Alvarez were the initial BP options.

Out of this depth of 15, 7 are currently active and contributing.

[totdprods]

Last year's pen wasn't expected to do well with a bunch of random arms and it did. I think a lot of it is just dumb luck.