Eppler's 2nd biggest flaw so far

[GrittyVeterans]

#1 is obviously the bullpen.

His 2nd issue has been the fact that he pays for mediocrity. Some of that is because of the prior regimes leaving the farm system with no depth, but some of it has been a lack of foresight. Kinsler was fine. We had no options for that role internally coming into the year before Fletcher's breakout and it was a 1 year commitment. Whatever. But I find the Cozart/Valbuena deals pretty frustrating.  You're paying a lot of money for guys that just don't have a ton of upside. I know this team got burned hard by going for the big upside with Hamilton, so it's somewhat understandable. Calhoun probably isn't on Eppler but that's another guy we're paying a lot of money to to be mediocre if we're lucky at this point.

 I think it's time to start filling depth roles with prospects making the league minimum and start chasing some stars. We need a bat this offseason bad. After Trout/Upton/Simmons it is nothing but big question marks.

[TroutField]

36 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

#1 is obviously the bullpen.

His 2nd issue has been the fact that he pays for mediocrity. Some of that is because of the prior regimes leaving the farm system with no depth, but some of it has been a lack of foresight. Kinsler was fine. We had no options for that role internally coming into the year before Fletcher's breakout and it was a 1 year commitment. Whatever. But I find the Cozart/Valbuena deals pretty frustrating.  You're paying a lot of money for guys that just don't have a ton of upside. I know this team got burned hard by going for the big upside with Hamilton, so it's somewhat understandable. Calhoun probably isn't on Eppler but that's another guy we're paying a lot of money to to be mediocre if we're lucky at this point.

 I think it's time to start filling depth roles with prospects making the league minimum and start chasing some stars. We need a bat this offseason bad. After Trout/Upton/Simmons it is nothing but big question marks.

We were in a transitional period with an expensive roster and no upper minor league depth to fill the void, what did you want him to do? 

 

You can only do so much with the cards you are dealt. There really should be zero complaining from Angels fans right now. I get it, it sucks but 2 1/2 -3 years ago the major league team was terrible and we had zero minor league talent. Trading Trout seemed like the only option to be a contending team. In the next decade. Now we are on the upswing with a very good farm and a good core of major leaguers, while we are not quite there yet, the future is bright. We have a ton of prospects ready to make an impact(Thaiss, Ward, Suarez, Canning, Fletcher) and money to spend this offseason. Eppler is sticking to his long term plan, he isn’t going to mortgage all the work he has done on the likes of Valbuena, Kinsler, etc for a one game shootout. Patience my friends... Next year and 2020 we will be dangerous. 

[GrittyVeterans]

1 hour ago, TroutField said:

We were in a transitional period with an expensive roster and no upper minor league depth to fill the void, what did you want him to do? 

 

You can only do so much with the cards you are dealt. There really should be zero complaining from Angels fans right now. I get it, it sucks but 2 1/2 -3 years ago the major league team was terrible and we had zero minor league talent. Trading Trout seemed like the only option to be a contending team. In the next decade. Now we are on the upswing with a very good farm and a good core of major leaguers, while we are not quite there yet, the future is bright. We have a ton of prospects ready to make an impact(Thaiss, Ward, Suarez, Canning, Fletcher) and money to spend this offseason. Eppler is sticking to his long term plan, he isn’t going to mortgage all the work he has done on the likes of Valbuena, Kinsler, etc for a one game shootout. Patience my friends... Next year and 2020 we will be dangerous. 

I acknowledged that it wasn't entirely his fault.
Still, most of his offensive signings haven't worked out yet and he has spent money that could have been allocated to the bullpen on it. I'm not saying fire the guy, I'm saying he needs to learn from this. I have been saying for a while that 2020 is probably our best chance to contend for a multitude of reasons: 1) our good prospects will be ready hopefully; 2) The Pujols situation will hopefully be dealt with; 3) New manager with a fresh voice; 4) last year of Trout's deal is a reason to go all in. So I am not advocating mortgaging the future for the current lifeless group. Quite the opposite actually. This team needs to keep every cost controlled asset they have and look to get rid of the expensive plugs. it's why I advocated eating some money on Valbuena and moving him last offseason. Honestly, we're "stuck" with Cozart as our 2B/utility guy for the next 2 years at this point. He's not a complete zero in that role, so whatever. But it's a learning lesson. He gambled on a guy with little offensive track record and it hasn't worked out so far. Sometimes you strike gold with a Justin Turner and sometimes it just doesn't pan out.

Overall he has done a great job and will be a far better GM than what we have had post-Stoneman