3rd Place!!!

[Docwaukee]

7-3 since the ASB.  piecing things together left and right.  

the bummer is that we've played well but gained all of 1 game in the WC.  

[totdprods]

27 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

7-3 since the ASB.  piecing things together left and right.  

the bummer is that we've played well but gained all of 1 game in the WC.  

Oakland is looking like they’ll be extremely difficult to catch. They might even knock Houston out of first if the Astros don’t get a major upgrade or start playing better baseball. 

I think passing Boston and TB in the WC race is likelier at this point, simply because the AL East can beat up on each other still.

Edited July 22, 2019 by totdprods

[eligrba]

How do the A's do it?

[Slegnaac]

4 minutes ago, eligrba said:

How do the A's do it?

Rope-a-dope

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, RBM said:

I hope Eppler can pick up a SP. 

Halos need a lot more than that to compete this season. 

[Stradling]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Halos need a lot more than that to compete this season. 

Yea, two starters.  

[totdprods]

My hope is they trade for an arm with control and then just turn everything and anything they can over to the kids. Let Suarez, Barria, Peters, Mejia, maybe even Sandoval just run out the starts for the rest of the year, let them take their lumps, see what happens.

[Stradling]

Gotta assume Canning will be on an innings limit this year, probably keep him under 150 combined innings, which means he has about 50-60 innings left this season.  

[Docwaukee]

We really need Heaney to get healthy.  really.  having a mid rotation starter vs. a call up from AAA is an obvious necessity.  

Next year could be really good.  This year is gonna be a tough go.  

[totdprods]

22 minutes ago, #WeNasty said:

Gotta assume Canning will be on an innings limit this year, probably keep him under 150 combined innings, which means he has about 50-60 innings left this season.  

Yeah that’s why I figure we’re almost getting to a point where Eppler has no choice. He’s gonna need to get an arm, especially after Harvey’s release and Heaney’s injury. Mejia, Derek Holland, waiver claims...he has to do those regardless now too. 

Get a controlled arm to give us a safety net in FA, maybe snag a real cheap #5 type if ones out there, and start shuttling all the kids into the rotation. Get a 6-man going to spread innings and prep them for the Ohtani rotation next year. 

[Chuck]

1 hour ago, eligrba said:

How do the A's do it?

I honestly ask myself this question every year. Especially the past two seasons. 

[Claude]

2 hours ago, eligrba said:

How do the A's do it?

Economically. 

[Second Base]

I'm telling you guys, Chris Archer has an Eppler feel to it.

[yamsi12]

Yay?

[nando714]

We still play the teams in front of us though

these next 2 weeks we can pick up some ground 

dodgers- we usually play tough 

4 vs the O’s - we should sweep 

3 vs the tigers- we should sweep 

[Billy_Ball]

Albert Pujols and Mike Trout are co-MVPs during this stretch.

[Lou]

Archer sucks.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

7 hours ago, eligrba said:

How do the A's do it?

For one thing they don't give out enormous, or long contracts to aging players. Once they get a contending team together they ride them until the players reach or about to reach arbitration, then trade them away for prospects. They may tank for a few years collecting high draft picks, and then rinse and repeat. I have heard them called everyone's farm team.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Chapman traded in a couple of years unless the A's organization magically finds a new revenue stream. He is bound to receive a substantial raise in arbitration. Same goes for Matt Olsen.

[Docwaukee]

6 hours ago, Second Base said:

I'm telling you guys, Chris Archer has an Eppler feel to it.

I totally feel the same way although to Lou's point, he's been pretty bad.  really bad.  Allowing 22 hrs in 90 ip.  

the biggest problem in trying to get him as a reclamation project is working against the absolute thrashing that the bucs took in that trade.  If he were just some guy from their farm system that hasn't worked out it would be much easier, but that looks like one of those trades you see on a bleacher report 'list' a couple years from now as one of the worst ever.  Point is, they can't just let this guy go for a song.  They'll want more than what he's actually worth right now.  But if they make it reasonable, I would totally take a flyer on him.  

His fastball has lost a little bite with a 1.5 mph drop since 2017 although my guess is that could be mechanical.  It does help that Pitt is one of the few teams in the NL that's pretty much out of it.  5.5 gb in a WC race at 6 games below .500 and 7 teams ahead of them.  

Archer is the exact type of guy you should be able to get for redundant AAA parts like Ward, Rojas, Walsh etc.  He's in his 30yo season and if you want to keep him for 2020 it will cost 9m which is Harvey/Cahill territory.  And he's been nearly as bad by era so the optic could be tough to stomach for Arte after the FA catastrophe from last off season.  

In other words, there are a lot of perception issues working against getting someone like him.  It would be a fairly bold move from Billy in terms of his own safety and actually could end up his swan song of a deal if he commits Arte to another toilet flush of 9m and the Angels don't have a good 2020.  

I would say go for it, but there is a lot more to it than that and I don't think it will happen.  

[wopphil]

Archer's H/9 and K/9 are in line with career norms. He is walking more guys, but that is fixable.

The biggest difference has been his HR/9. It is way elevated this year. I wonder if that is the product of bad luck, or if his stuff has degraded to the point that he is now just more hittable. 

[Inside Pitch]

10 hours ago, eligrba said:

How do the A's do it?

Occasionally with steroids...

Edited July 22, 2019 by Inside Pitch

[Blarg]

Archer is the guy that never reaches his potential and yet teams keep picking him up thinking they can fix him. See Edwin Jackson as a comparison. The guy shows brief periods of being a top of the rotation starter then craters. And yet for the last decade there is the get Edwin Jackson pleas in threads involving trades or free agents. Archer is that guy, in 2016 he fell off and has never gotten back to league average. And league average is bad in comparison to other decades.

The Angels have spent enough on reclaimation projects. It's time to spend on guys that are not a huge question mark and hoping to solve the suckage equation.

[Vlad27Trout27]

On that Notice, seems like both the Twins and Rays maybe be reeling. Both are 4-6, while the rays have fallen out of the wildcard after holding the 1st spot and actually were ahead of the Yanks for a good amout  of the time, The Twins are only 3 games ahead of Cleveland.  

[Angelsfan1984]

11 hours ago, eligrba said:

How do the A's do it?

Dude they made a movie about it....what was it called again? the sandlot?

[tdawg87]

12 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

Dude they made a movie about it....what was it called again? the sandlot?

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