What do you feel is management's plan?

[Cdaniel]

Just now, 2020worldseries said:

Drafting 3 top 100 prospects in 2 years while hands are tied with international $$...

Plus a payroll near the tax threshold. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

But...but...it's not his fault!

He's doing the best he can with the players he's been given. He's a great manager. Anyone else we hire is bound to be a disappointment next to Mike. I say give him five more years, we're bound to win another World Series with him at the helm. Just be patient.

 

Remember how we used to bitch about hatcher, because our offense was never that of the yankees, sox etc?

Or butcher because our pitching? How he slept like a baby?

It didnt matter that we replaced those guys...because the players in those groups were still never on the same page at the same time.

Scioscia mqnages trout. And simmons. He likely has as much to do with their success as calhoun turning into a pumpkin. In other words, he was calhoun's coach when calhoun was a bat a few years ago.

Again, its time to move on from sosh. But this org has FAR bigger problems than him.

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Question for you AO. 

How old will Upton and Maldonado be in 2020? We are talking about the possibility of getting a lifetime commitment from Mike Trout. 

If we truly want to convince Trout to stay and win we have to stop surrounding him with the Lakers version of Stockton, Malone and Nash. It’s time for Eppler to start checking birth certificates and try to get the old folks moved out of the way ASAP. 

 

While I agree with that, its not as simple as saying "f*ck it, lets solve our problems with the best!"

Top talent isnt simply readily available. The guys you consistently want are usually locked up before they hit FA, or become available at an age you preach to stay away from.

Couple that with the fact weve had nothing to trade for several years...

[Lou]

2 hours ago, JarsOfClay said:

 Some guys are a completely different pitcher when they are the closer and the pressure is on them. 

I remember many closers would shit the bed when it was a non save situation, but give them the lead and it was light's out.

And when you have no other alternatives in the pen, then I'd go with a guy who has the experience until he proves me otherwise. Johnson was never given a real chance.

Yes or no?

Would you make Johnson the closer? 

[floplag]

2 hours ago, The Boogie Man said:

Ok if you say so.  

The numbers say so, what i say doesnt really matter after that. 
With all those other concerns, if the pen had saved only have of what it blew would would be a minimum of 6-8 games better in the standings.
Now, to be clear in mot saying these others things are not issues or concerns, only that the bullpen is far and away the most urgent and directly impactful 
If they wait another month to address it, they might as well not bother.  
The sad part  is that i agree with you that this is their plan, which irritates the hell out of me.

[VariousCrap]

I didn't read all of this thread, but I think Eppler isn't going to make any moves by the trade deadline this season.  I think he will just let this team play out the season and whatever happens happens.  I don't believe he will think it is worth giving up the young talent for this season.  I do think next off-season he'll be sure to sign some arms for the BP learning from his mistake this past off-season.

 

 

 

[Stradling]

13 minutes ago, floplag said:

The numbers say so, what i say doesnt really matter after that. 
With all those other concerns, if the pen had saved only have of what it blew would would be a minimum of 6-8 games better in the standings.
Now, to be clear in mot saying these others things are not issues or concerns, only that the bullpen is far and away the most urgent and directly impactful 
If they wait another month to address it, they might as well not bother.  
The sad part  is that i agree with you that this is their plan, which irritates the hell out of me.

Why does it irritate you?  Why buy when the price is its highest?  Who would you buy?  I Absolutely would not buy or trade for a rental right now

[ten ocho recon scout]

To answer the original thread, i think the plan the last few years has been treading water...

I think over the last few years, the team realized how bad of a position it was in. Bloated, bad money, no farm. It would be like any other industry knowing its time was limited because technology was passing it. 

So instead of throwing more money at a core team that was still flawed as hell (our entire staff was out with tommy john at one point), they decided to focus on the next core.

Aside from trout's extwnsion, the only long term players weve brought in have been simmons and upton for example.

All the past their prime guys and spot fillers weve brought over were simply to fill out a roster. Probably more of a "maybe this team can be good, and if so we'll add to it, otherwise stay the course".

We shall see if it plays out good or bad. Im optimistic for now, in all honesty. Come 2020, we should still have a solid core of SP. We will be in a financial position to keep trout and simmons, and we should start replacing the dead weight with our farm products. Im not as up on the farm as some of you guys, but i think thaiss and marsh will be vast improvememts, and just as important, affordable. The next crop of adell and jones will be further off, but hopefully the are as good as advertised.

Looking at it from a glass is half full perspective, in the next 2 years we will have bad contracts coming off the books, cheap help replacing them, and the money to finally spend on impact guys, not fillers.

[floplag]

5 minutes ago, The Boogie Man said:

Why does it irritate you?  Why buy when the price is its highest?  Who would you buy?  I Absolutely would not buy or trade for a rental right now

Because its gone back over a year, they have had ample time to address it, and did nothing.  
You buy when you can still save the season, not when its the cheapest.
I would do what it took to get this team back in the race, without leveraging its future.  Doesnt matter, they wont, theyve made themselves clear.  We as fans want more for the club than they do.  I just dont want to hear anyone saying dont make moves bitch when Trout walks, you lose that right. 

[Stradling]

Just now, floplag said:

Because its gone back over a year, they have had ample time to address it, and did nothing.  
You buy when you can still save the season, not when its the cheapest.
I would do what it took to get this team back in the race, without leveraging its future.  Doesnt matter, they wont, theyve made themselves clear.  We as fans want more for the club than they do.  I just dont want to hear anyone saying dont make moves bitch when Trout walks, you lose that right. 

The bullpen was good last year.   So it goes back 12 weeks.   

[floplag]

17 minutes ago, The Boogie Man said:

The bullpen was good last year.   So it goes back 12 weeks.   

No, the bullpen was lucky last year.  Huge difference.  
In both case he went dumpster diving

[ten ocho recon scout]

1 minute ago, floplag said:

No, the bullpen was lucky last year.  Huge difference.  
In both case he went dumpster diving

This.

All winter long i saw people on here raving how astute eppler is at building a pen for pennies...it fell way more like luck to me.

Maybe we are just unlucky this year? I dont know. But whenever a player(s) perform different than expected (both good and bad), im always in the "we'll see" camp.

[Angel Oracle]

4 hours ago, Lou said:

i have a great plan to fix the BP problem . . . 

WIndex?

[maximus p]

6 hours ago, UndertheHalo said:

 

Eno Sarris has a great piece in the Athletic today that covered 3 things that can happen for the Angels to get right.  Because teams tend to undervalue 1B he suggested that be our spot to target for improvement.  Also, because we have the 3rd worst 1B output in the majors.  Anyway, as a lot of us have been saying.  It’s time for the Angels to accept the situation with Albert.  If we we desire success the Angels can’t continue to pretend he’s an everyday player.  The guy is killing us.  Maybe not as plainly the as the problems in the bullpen or RF.   But it’s extremely bad.  There’s no way we can have playing for another 4 years.  We need to just get it over with and move on.  For me personally, I don’t want to see him in the line up beyond this season.   Hopefully the Angels see it the same way. 

 

Agree.  Last year I thought he may retire at the end of this year after getting 3000 hits.  Now it looks like he is chasing 2000 RBI, which will probably be next year.  I have no hope, anymore, that he will retire before 2021.  Sad to say, but who do they have to replace him?  He's at least better than 3-4 other starting regulars on a given night....not a good thing.

[Inside Pitch]

4 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

This.

All winter long i saw people on here raving how astute eppler is at building a pen for pennies...it fell way more like luck to me.

Maybe we are just unlucky this year? I dont know. But whenever a player(s) perform different than expected (both good and bad), im always in the "we'll see" camp.

Except -- the numbers backed it up -- they weren't getting lucky, they were genuinely good.  Problem is .... Bullpen volatility is a very real thing.   So a guy being good this year doesn't really mean he will be good next year -- some of that has to do with leverage situations and the sort -- but it's pretty common...  Closers don't see as much crazy volatility but again -- they are always typically used in the same sort of leverage type situations..   Anyway, there was a very good article recently using the Indians and their bullpen struggles this year as an example..   Last year they were God-level good and this year a nearly identical pen has completely imploded.   It's the nature of the beast..   Angel fans don't really understand how good they had it all those years with the big three at the back of the pen..    

[ten ocho recon scout]

15 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Except -- the numbers backed it up -- they weren't getting lucky, they were genuinely good.  Problem is .... Bullpen volatility is a very real thing.   So a guy being good this year doesn't really mean he will be good next year -- some of that has to do with leverage situations and the sort -- but it's pretty common...  Closers don't see as much crazy volatility but again -- they are always typically used in the same sort of leverage type situations..   Anyway, there was a very good article recently using the Indians and their bullpen struggles this year as an example..   Last year they were God-level good and this year a nearly identical pen has completely imploded.   It's the nature of the beast..   Angel fans don't really understand how good they had it all those years with the big three at the back of the pen..    

Yeah, good point. Relievers go up and down. I still would have felt more comfy if we signed at least one reliable stud. Which with our luck would have gotten hit by a bus. But as snakebit as this team has been the last several years, i wish we would finally spend money on RP.

That said, RPs are so expensive now its not as simple as it used to be.

[Inside Pitch]

1 minute ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Yeah, good point. Relievers go up and down. I still would have felt more comfy if we signed at least one reliable stud. Which with our luck would have gotten hit by a bus. But as snakebit as this team has been the last several years, i wish we would finally spend money on RP.

That said, RPs are so expensive now its not as simple as it used to be.

They needed a back end guy.... Period.   Not getting someone to replace Petit and Norris was a mistake.

[ten ocho recon scout]

10 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

They needed a back end guy.... Period.   Not getting someone to replace Petit and Norris was a mistake.

Totally agree. That was kind of where i sat last winter. We lost but didnt add. (Everyone knew johnson was merely for ohtani money).

Hoping this winter they have their eye on a few guys in case plan A doesnt work out.

[Angel Oracle]

For TORS:  looks like Adell is actually further along than Marsh.

Adell is destroying the baseball for  the Sixers, while Marsh has been struggling.

Adell might be the starting RF by ST 2020, at age 21.

[kevinb]

Serious question. Epplers been here 3 years right? How long was the contract he signed for? 

[ten ocho recon scout]

20 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

For TORS:  looks like Adell is actually further along than Marsh.

Adell is destroying the baseball for  the Sixers, while Marsh has been struggling.

Adell might be the starting RF by ST 2020, at age 21.

Good to know. Hes the chosen one were waiting on.

Still wont mean a ton if at least 2 more dont make it, though...