Make a deal already

[Second Base]

45 minutes ago, CanadianHalo said:

It is Eppler’s fault he’s backed himself into a corner where everyone knows how desperate he is for pitching. This is his 5th offseason. He’s the one that’s let this issue get to this point. No one else.

That's fair. And that's why the Angels have some decisions to make this winter. They've got some intriguing young arms ready to make a big leap forward in Canning and Sandoval. They've also got what should be a very steady backend presence in Jaime Barria, and a wild card that misses bats in Jose Suarez. It's not what you build a staff out of, but it is the makings of a really good future 4-5-6. 

On the farm there is upside in Aaron Hernandez, Chris Rodriguez, Jose Soriano, Hector Yan and Jack Kochanowicz. That's about it. Hernandez really impressed in the AFL, and his ceiling would be that of Marcus Stroman. More than likely a reliever, but if the adjustments made in the AFL are real, he could be an option in 2021/2022. Rodriguez just needs to stay healthy. His ETA is right there around 2022 as well. Soriano has the same ETA, just needs to be more consistent finding the strike zone. Yan is probably 2023 with significant chance he ends up in relief, and Kochanowicz, earliest ETA would be 2022, latest would be 2025, and a more realistic timeline is someone in 2023. 

Simply put, even an optimistic view of the farm puts the Angels 3 years away from receiving significant help internally on the mound. Other agents know this as well as they do. So unless the Angels want to punt until Trout is 32 years old, they're going to need to either trade Rengifo, Marsh and Adams for the help they need, or they're going to have to spend some serious money over the next few years to bridge that gap.

Teams and agents can ask whatever they want because the Angels are running low on alternatives.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Second Base

[Billy_Ball]

45 minutes ago, RBM said:

Clase is in the majors to stay.  He’s a unique talent that the Angels could not match. 

We'll see.  @Jeff Fletcher what is your view on Clase?

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

1 hour ago, RBM said:

Clase is in the majors to stay.  He’s a unique talent that the Angels could not match. 

Really?

[Blarg]

3 hours ago, CanadianHalo said:

It is Eppler’s fault he’s backed himself into a corner where everyone knows how desperate he is for pitching. This is his 5th offseason. He’s the one that’s let this issue get to this point. No one else.

Is Skaggs death predictable?

[Stradling]

Just now, Blarg said:

Is Skaggs death predictable?

No, but at the same time, there wasn’t a single one of us comfortable going into last year with the rotation, even with Skaggs.  Obviously Eppler holds a lot of the blame for the bad, bad rotation we have had for several years.  At the same time the only way to really solve it is to draft and develop and he has chosen to draft more bats in the early rounds than arms.  Those things are in his control.  You and I both know that even if he did draft arms early and often the attrition rate means it still isn’t solved in 5 years of drafting, but it would be closer. He can’t control if most of the quality arms wanted to play back east.  But there is no reason he couldn’t have targeted a Lance Lynn, or any number of arms that have had success on the free agent market the last few years.  

[Dtwncbad]

The problem with having no farm and no money in the budget is they have not had the “capital” to do motive the team.

Now that there is a farm,  I am sensitive to people being too resistant to using it.  Nobody wants a gutted farm again and no pitching.

But that isn’t the same as prudently trading some of your prospect capital to secure the right pieces you need for the major league roster.

One time at work 20 years ago, there was an office manager named Joey.  Joey was responsibly for making sure the supply cabinet was stocked (staples, paper, envelopes, markers, etc).  She kept it locked.

When you asked Joey to unlock the cabinet to use the supplies she would literally refuse because it was her job to make sure it was fully stocked.

Stupid little story but to some degree I think some Angel fans are far too concerned with trading away certain prospects.

To get the MOST value out of your farm system you have to identify which will help your major league roster and which can be used in trades to help your major league roster.

The catch is you are going to have to trade some prospects that are good enough to project to help your major league roster if you expect to actually acquire quality in return.

I don’t want to trade Canning because this team needs pitching.  And then there are some prospects whose upside is so good that it is just too hard to let them go, like Adell.

But outside of that, I don’t get the resistance to trading some reasonable combination of players to get what your major league roster needs.

I think a GM that won’t use minor league players to solve obvious problems, if it results in another year of garbage on the mound and floundering irrelevance in the baseball world, should be fired.

[Jeff Fletcher]

2 hours ago, Billy_Ball said:

We'll see.  @Jeff Fletcher what is your view on Clase?

Everyone I’ve asked said he’s really good. 

[angelsnationtalk]

8 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

The problem with having no farm and no money in the budget is they have not had the “capital” to do motive the team.

Now that there is a farm,  I am sensitive to people being too resistant to using it.  Nobody wants a gutted farm again and no pitching.

But that isn’t the same as prudently trading some of your prospect capital to secure the right pieces you need for the major league roster.

One time at work 20 years ago, there was an office manager named Joey.  Joey was responsibly for making sure the supply cabinet was stocked (staples, paper, envelopes, markers, etc).  She kept it locked.

When you asked Joey to unlock the cabinet to use the supplies she would literally refuse because it was her job to make sure it was fully stocked.

Stupid little story but to some degree I think some Angel fans are far too concerned with trading away certain prospects.

To get the MOST value out of your farm system you have to identify which will help your major league roster and which can be used in trades to help your major league roster.

The catch is you are going to have to trade some prospects that are good enough to project to help your major league roster if you expect to actually acquire quality in return.

I don’t want to trade Canning because this team needs pitching.  And then there are some prospects whose upside is so good that it is just too hard to let them go, like Adell.

But outside of that, I don’t get the resistance to trading some reasonable combination of players to get what your major league roster needs.

I think a GM that won’t use minor league players to solve obvious problems, if it results in another year of garbage on the mound and floundering irrelevance in the baseball world, should be fired.

 

 

Her name was Joey?

[CanadianHalo]

6 minutes ago, angelsnationtalk said:

Her name was Joey?

[Dtwncbad]

1 hour ago, angelsnationtalk said:

Her name was Joey?

Yes.  Probably 4 foot 10 with a gigantic forehead and the longest arms any human could have.  She was a jokester and out of the blue she would just hit you when she was clowning around.  It was a bit shocking because your senses tell you that you are out of range and suddenly she hits you from like five feet away and you are just stunned that she has that arm length.

We have now been married for 20 years.  OK no I made that part up.  But I imagine she is still well stocked on unused Manila folders.

[Dtwncbad]

1 hour ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Everyone I’ve asked said he’s really good. 

And how about his baseball skills?

[Lou]

7 hours ago, angelsnationtalk said:

Her name was Joey?

hi @Brandon

[Stradling]

Now might be a time where I remind people that we made a deal. 

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, Lou said:

hi @Brandon

Yeah, but does this Joey have a meme made after her?

[Tank]

16 hours ago, Stradling said:

Now might be a time where I remind people that we made a deal. 

sure, but what has eppler done for us lately?

[yk9001]

There was an episode of MASH ( the good ones, with Trapper and Col. Blake) where the doctors are looking for an incubator, for developing bacterial cultures.

They wind up at the 728th evac hospital in Pusan.  The supply clerk there has not one incubator but three.  Great, the MASH unit can get an incubator!  But not so fast... the supply clerk won't give the doctors one.  Because if he gives the doctors one, he'll only have two in his supply!

 

A lot of people here feel the same way about our farm system.

[Lou]

14 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

There was an episode of MASH ( the good ones, with Trapper and Col. Blake) where the doctors are looking for an incubator, for developing bacterial cultures.

They wind up at the 728th evac hospital in Pusan.  The supply clerk there has not one incubator but three.  Great, the MASH unit can get an incubator!  But not so fast... the supply clerk won't give the doctors one.  Because if he gives the doctors one, he'll only have two in his supply!

 

A lot of people here feel the same way about our farm system.

that was one of the best posts ever on AW. 

[Dtwncbad]

36 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

There was an episode of MASH ( the good ones, with Trapper and Col. Blake) where the doctors are looking for an incubator, for developing bacterial cultures.

They wind up at the 728th evac hospital in Pusan.  The supply clerk there has not one incubator but three.  Great, the MASH unit can get an incubator!  But not so fast... the supply clerk won't give the doctors one.  Because if he gives the doctors one, he'll only have two in his supply!

 

A lot of people here feel the same way about our farm system.

 

[Mark68]

On 12/19/2019 at 8:27 AM, RBM said:

Pitch Repertoire At-A-Glance 

Emmanuel Clase has thrown 345 pitches that have been tracked by the PITCHf/x system in 2019, all of them occuring in the MLB Regular Season. In 2019, he has relied primarily on his Fourseam Fastball (99mph) and Slider (91mph).

BETA Feature:
Basic description of 2019 pitches compared to other RHP:
His fourseam fastball has heavy sinking action, is a real worm killer that generates an extreme number of groundballs compared to other pitchers' fourseamers, is straight as an arrow, is thrown at a speed that's borderline unfair and generates a high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers' fourseamers. His slider is thrown extremely hard, is a real worm killer that generates an extreme number of groundballs compared to other pitchers' sliders and has exceptional depth. 

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/landing.php?player=661403

•  

This does sound extremely filthy. I think we'd love to have a guy like this.

[Angel Oracle]

Clase started off similarly to K-Rod in the Halos org.    He struggled as a starter (command issues), and after being converted to the pen for the 2018 season, dominated in the minors and then in 2019 at the MLB level.

That could explain the lower prospect ranking until very recently.