Talk me off this ledge....

[Chuck]

Why did we fail to sign any of the top 5 pitchers in FA when clearly that was our 100% need?

[Angels_Fan]

Eppler must be working on a trade. It’s honestly the only thing that makes sense. I refuse to believe that Eppler can be dumb enough to think the current rotation is adequate enough.

[Stradling]

I can give you the reasons but they will sound like half excuses and half reasons.  

[failos]

Eppler secretly works for the Yankees

[totdprods]

Outbid on Cole, Strasburg never seemed likely to leave Washington, Wheeler wanted time stay East, Bumgarner wanted to play in Arizona, and Ryu needed four years which is reckless. And Odorizzi took the QO.

Edited December 23, 2019 by totdprods

[Halos of Anaheim]

Trade for Trevor Bauer. 

[GregAlso]

Gray.... Price....

[ScottT]

Cole, because..... he allegedly always dreamt about being a Yankee.  Oh, and the richest team by far, offering a crazy deal

Strasburg wanted to go back to DC. And he was offered a crazy deal.

Wheeler wanted to stay in the east.

Bumgarner is a weird dude. He has horses.

Ryu, who has battled injuries lately, and is 32, for four years

I hate it, but it's all understandable. This is why I scoffed at the notion of trying to sign 2 or 3 of these dudes. We are lucky Rendon wanted to play here.

You've gotta go back on a winning track. It will help you get a player or two down the road.  That may have changed things with a couple of the guys

[Tyler]

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are gonna get Lindor and Clevinger.

[floplag]

6 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Outbid on Cole, Strasburg never seemed likely to leave Washington, Wheeler wanted time stay East, Bumgarner wanted to play in Arizona, and Ryu needed four years which is reckless. And Odorizzi took the QO.

This, right here, there really isnt much else to say on the matter.

[Stradling]

I also think we need to look at the last couple of years and the direction of free agency and the contracts that were being handed out.  So Arte thinks he is going all in, and that is based on the fact that the market wasn’t all that bad the last few years.....then this year happened.  Last year a 28 year old Corbin gets $140 million.  This year, albeit a better pitcher gets not just twice that but damn near 250% of that contract.  That was just a few days after a guy set the all time contract by a pitcher.  The Yankees beat that by $80 million.  So wins are wins and they went the direction of getting the most wins they could and did that with Rendon, which is the safer bet than giving a ton of money to a starter.  I still wish they would have grabbed one or two of them, but I get why it happened.  

[bloodbrother]

9 minutes ago, Halos of Anaheim said:

Trade for Trevor Bauer. 

That won't be an option until July at the earliest, and even then it depends on where the Reds are in the standings. Reds are heading into the year with contending in mind. They have a pretty damn good rotation with Castillo, Gray, Bauer, Miley

[TroutField]

5 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

That won't be an option until July at the earliest, and even then it depends on where the Reds are in the standings. Reds are heading into the year with contending in mind. They have a pretty damn good rotation with Castillo, Gray, Bauer, Miley

Offer Adell, Jones, and Thaiss for Castillo. 

[UndertheHalo]

We just gotta hope for the best with our guys.  Ohtani, Heaney, and Canning are all talented pitchers.  Let’s see these dudes step up.  It’s disappointing that we missed on Wheeler and Cole.  I’m not going to get worked up about the other guys. 

[beatlesrule]

23 minutes ago, Tyler said:

Meanwhile, the Dodgers are gonna get Lindor and Clevinger.

And Roberts will mismanage them in the playoffs and lose.

[Inside Pitch]

20 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

We just gotta hope for the best with our guys.  Ohtani, Heaney, and Canning are all talented pitchers.  Let’s see these dudes step up.  It’s disappointing that we missed on Wheeler and Cole.  I’m not going to get worked up about the other guys. 

I think that's where they are too.  The guys they have are projecting to a 4.35 ERA, this is after coming in at 5..65 combined last year...  They need to safeguard themselves and sign another body but, they obviously are banking on guys playing to what the numbers are saying and possibly Callaway having some magic pixie dust ... I don't really like to pin my hopes to "coaching" but, the owner is who he is .... And that's ultimately who had the greatest ability to impact the situation.

Arte has always said he would stretch for the right guy...  Obviously the right guys were Cole and Rendon...   I wouldn't expect a trade for anyone with big money attached, because most of them aren't the right guy either....

[Chuck]

40 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I can give you the reasons but they will sound like half excuses and half reasons.  

Fair.

[bloodbrother]

Just think, the Angels could trade Mike Trout for an entire rotation!

[Lou]

7 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

Just think, the Angels could trade Mike Trout for an entire rotation!

it would probably be Seattle's 

[WTFaRtie]

I’m a bit Disappointed for sure, but hear me out. Getting Maybe the 2nd best 3rd baseman in all of baseball isn’t a terrible consolation prize. Plus Teheran isn’t exactly nothing. He’s at least durable and a 2 time all-star. Shohei coming back is essentially like signing a top notch starter. Who knows how good he can be? He might still be the unicorn people hoped for. Canning, Sandoval, Suarez, Barría etc...surely one of these guys are bound to step up. Bundy is also durable if nothing else (lord knows we have the worst luck with pitching health). IMO we are one more 3rd starter away from being a threat to make the playoffs and do some damage. Add all of that to one of the best managers in baseball + the soon to be emergence of Jo Adell/Brandon Marsh and it’s far from depression time in Anaheim. 

[hangin n wangin]

44 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I also think we need to look at the last couple of years and the direction of free agency and the contracts that were being handed out.  So Arte thinks he is going all in, and that is based on the fact that the market wasn’t all that bad the last few years.....then this year happened.  Last year a 28 year old Corbin gets $140 million.  This year, albeit a better pitcher gets not just twice that but damn near 250% of that contract.  That was just a few days after a guy set the all time contract by a pitcher.  The Yankees beat that by $80 million.  So wins are wins and they went the direction of getting the most wins they could and did that with Rendon, which is the safer bet than giving a ton of money to a starter.  I still wish they would have grabbed one or two of them, but I get why it happened.  

We should have paid Wheeler 140 million... 

[angelsnationtalk]

1 minute ago, WTFaRtie said:

I’m a bit Disappointed for sure, but hear me out. Getting Maybe the 2nd best 3rd baseman in all of baseball isn’t a terrible consolation prize. Plus Teheran isn’t exactly nothing. He’s at least durable and a 2 time all-star. Shohei coming back is essentially like signing a top notch starter. Who knows how good he can be? He might still be the unicorn people hoped for. Canning, Sandoval, Suarez, Barría etc...surely one of these guys are bound to step up. Bundy is also durable if nothing else (lord knows we have the worst luck with pitching health). IMO we are one more 3rd starter away from being a threat to make the playoffs and do some damage. Add all of that to one of the best managers in baseball + the soon to be emergence of Jo Adell/Brandon Marsh and it’s far from depression time in Anaheim. 

Again, we've been optimistic like this for years now and it's gotten us nowhere. The Angels need a #1 starter and they've failed to do that. Only option now is to trade prospects when that could have been avoided in the beginning.
Yes, I agree that Teheran and Bundy can help stabilize things, but this in no way gets you deep in the playoffs.

[Lou]

where does pessimism get you?

[ukyah]

eppler, arte, the angels collectively fucked this offseason. they either go to spring training with not nearly good enough pitching for any kind of serious contention or they blow up their farm system, just like before, to get a pitcher that they just could have bought with money they had available.

D offseason, and only because of rendon.

all of those quality FA starters available and they couldn't land just one of them. what a load of shit.

[hangin n wangin]

Angels are poop dick.