What are you rooting for?

[Jeff Fletcher]

17 hours ago, Kevinb said:

I’m aware. I don’t believe Bundy and Heaney are long term stays in the Angel rotation. I’d rather they were traded for younger pieces to help rebuild this thing. 

Long term? No. But in 2021? Yes. 
 

And unless decide they are giving up on 2021, they can’t get rid of those guys without replacing them with guys who can be as good in 2021.

[VariousCrap]

At this point, I say bring up and start every young guy with promise the Angels have and lets see what they can do.  Let them sink or swim.

The Angels will get a good idea of what they have for the future and they will most likely end up with the number one draft pick.

 

 

 

[Angels 1961]

I want them to WIN. Like to see Sandoval and Barria continue to improve. Hope to see Barreto play along with young players Thaiss, Ward, Walsh, Rengifo and Adell. I would hope they sit Pujols as young players the future of this organization need to play. Rest Trout, Rendon and Upton every other day as we know what they can do. Use the September games like a Spring training. Hope everyone stays healthy fans and players.

[BTH]

I want some guys to step up and grab hold of jobs for 2021 and beyond.

Stassi: prove that you can be an everyday starter at C.

Walsh/Thaiss: one of you step up and take Pujols' job at 1B.

Rengifo/Barreto: perform well in the majors and earn the starting 2B job next year.

Adell: live up to the hype that you have as a top 5-10 prospect in MLB.

Barria/Sandoval/Suarez: grab hold onto a rotation spot and prove that you are a MLB caliber starter.

Barnes/Mayers/Middleton: show us who you are. Can you be a trustworthy reliever in the majors?

[Angels 1961]

1 hour ago, Trendon said:

I want some guys to step up and grab hold of jobs for 2021 and beyond.

Stassi: prove that you can be an everyday starter at C.

Walsh/Thaiss: one of you step up and take Pujols' job at 1B.

Rengifo/Barreto: perform well in the majors and earn the starting 2B job next year.

Adell: live up to the hype that you have as a top 5-10 prospect in MLB.

Barria/Sandoval/Suarez: grab hold onto a rotation spot and prove that you are a MLB caliber starter.

Barnes/Mayers/Middleton: show us who you are. Can you be a trustworthy reliever in the majors?

Mayers had 1 bad outing giving 4 ER in less than an inn been outstanding since.

[UndertheHalo]

It is unambiguously good for the Angels if they lose every single game from now until the end of the season.  In fact, it would be better for them to finish in last place than go on a run and barely squeeze into the playoffs.   This teams desperately needs elite prospect talent.  You need the top pick for that.  I hope they lose every single game the rest of the season.  I think they should make some bullshit up and send Mike Trout home to hang out with his family until next year.  Play the prospects.  See if any of them show you anything and lose as much as possible.  Tank hard and who gives a shit who notices. 

Edited September 2, 2020 by UndertheHalo

[Dtwncbad]

16 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Long term? No. But in 2021? Yes. 
 

And unless decide they are giving up on 2021, they can’t get rid of those guys without replacing them with guys who can be as good in 2021.

Jeff, if the Angels roll into 2021 with Bundy and Heaney (or replace them with guys who can be as good), the team might as well be giving up on 2021.

This is not rocket science.  The Angels need at least one (and probably two) starting pitchers BETTER than Bundy and Heaney.

 

[Chuck]

14 hours ago, UndertheHalo said:

It is unambiguously good for the Angels if they lose every single game from now until the end of the season.  In fact, it would be better for them to finish in last place than go on a run and barely squeeze into the playoffs.   This teams desperately needs elite prospect talent.  You need the top pick for that.  I hope they lose every single game the rest of the season.  I think they should make some bullshit up and send Mike Trout home to hang out with his family until next year.  Play the prospects.  See if any of them show you anything and lose as much as possible.  Tank hard and who gives a shit who notices. 

As much as i hate to concur, I agree with this. 

While I can never root for the team to lose, I wouldn't mind if Trout packed his bags and went home for the rest of the month and they just played all of their prospects and young position players for the remainder of the season to get an idea of where they stand in 2021. 

With as bad as this season has been, if the Angels end up with the 5th pick in the draft it will be incredibly disappointing because they went on a ridiculous winning streak that didn't mean squat in the month of September.

It would be even worse if one of our stars that we're counting on for 2021 got seriously hurt like Trout, Bundy, Rendon, Fletcher and we were without their services in 2021.

[Jeff Fletcher]

47 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

Jeff, if the Angels roll into 2021 with Bundy and Heaney (or replace them with guys who can be as good), the team might as well be giving up on 2021.

This is not rocket science.  The Angels need at least one (and probably two) starting pitchers BETTER than Bundy and Heaney.

 

You need (at least) 5 starters. If your goal is to have 5 better than Bundy and Heaney, you’re going to be disappointed. If Bundy and Heaney are 4-5, or even 3-4, they would be pretty good. 

[Chuck]

11 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

You need (at least) 5 starters. If your goal is to have 5 better than Bundy and Heaney, you’re going to be disappointed. If Bundy and Heaney are 4-5, or even 3-4, they would be pretty good. 

I agree. 

I said this in another thread. 

You go into 2021 not counting on Ohtani at all. If he's good to pitch and he's rediscovered his 2018 velo and stuff, you now have a 5th or 6th starter. 

Otherwise it should be Bundy #3, Heaney #4, Canning #5. Barria, Detmers, C. Rodriguez, Yan, Sandoval and anyone else becomes depth. 

The Angels need to sign Bauer or trade for a legit frontline guy and then sign Stroman or trade for another solid #2 guy if they want to have any chance at competing in what hopes to be a full season of 162 games. 

[Dtwncbad]

1 hour ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

You need (at least) 5 starters. If your goal is to have 5 better than Bundy and Heaney, you’re going to be disappointed. If Bundy and Heaney are 4-5, or even 3-4, they would be pretty good. 

Yes exactly.  But if Ohtani can’t pitch and your two best starters are Bundy and Heaney. . . Buckle up for a .500 season and fans talking about 2022 by May.

Maybe my frustration is showing but I personally am sick and tired of basically having six #4ish starters as forcing myself to rank them 1-5 to convince myself the Angels have a legitimate rotation.

There is a glaring vacancy at 1 and 2.  Until that changes, I couldn’t care less if the Angels have 2 other starters or 20.  It doesn’t matter.  You stink.

[Dtwncbad]

2 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

You need (at least) 5 starters. If your goal is to have 5 better than Bundy and Heaney, you’re going to be disappointed. If Bundy and Heaney are 4-5, or even 3-4, they would be pretty good. 

Jeff does the Angel front office openly acknowledge the ABSOLUTE NEED to bring in a couple of starters to be the #1 and #2 on this team?

Or is there some vibe of a philosophy that it is acceptable to just keep adding depth to the middle/back of the rotation and just cross your fingers?

I get it that a front office doesn’t want to make promises they can’t keep.  But at some point it would be nice to know they are literally committed to do everything in their power to fix the problem the right way.

[Angelsjunky]

As someone said up-thread, I can't watch an Angels game and actively hope they lose, even though I know a higher draft pick would be better for them club long-term. But even if they get hot, they should get a top 5 pick. 

What I'm hoping to see for the final 24 games...

*The young guys playing - Adell, Marsh, Rengifo, Barreto, Thaiss, Jones - and hopefully signs of life.

*Improvement from Trout, Upton, and Ohtani.

*Pujols spending more time on the bench.

*More consistent outings from Canning, and hopefully signs that Bundy's improvement is real, even if not the ace he looked early on.

[mmc]

Eppler fired

[Jeff Fletcher]

2 hours ago, Dtwncbad said:

Jeff does the Angel front office openly acknowledge the ABSOLUTE NEED to bring in a couple of starters to be the #1 and #2 on this team?

Or is there some vibe of a philosophy that it is acceptable to just keep adding depth to the middle/back of the rotation and just cross your fingers?

I get it that a front office doesn’t want to make promises they can’t keep.  But at some point it would be nice to know they are literally committed to do everything in their power to fix the problem the right way.

Last year they acknowledged that needed to bring in two starters and they tried to get Cole, Strasburg, Wheeler, Kluber and Boyd, among others. They had interest in Keuchel but for two years, not three. 
 

So I think what you’re asking is: At what point do they do something they don’t think is a good investment because “at least it’s something”?

I have said this a million times: you can’t “acquire” a great pitching staff, or even a good one. You have to develop them yourself or trade for them when they’re young.
 

Once a starter is established enough to where you guys would get excited about him, he’s unattainable or old (and by extension highly risky.)

I believe Eppler’s philosophy has been not to take gigantic risks that could threaten the health of the franchise (like giving out huge contracts and trading away the farm system). 
 

If you want to take that approach, you’ve got to develop really well and they haven’t. Certainly the system is better, but not where they hoped to be. If you want to criticize, criticize for that. Not for failing to give that fourth year that would have gotten them a 32-year old starter whose name you know. 

2 hours ago, Dtwncbad said:

Yes exactly.  But if Ohtani can’t pitch and your two best starters are Bundy and Heaney. . . 

I don’t think I ever said anything about them being the two best starters. I said they could help them in 2021. Period. 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Jeff Fletcher

[Dtwncbad]

And I agreed with you.

[T.G.]

At this point, I don't see the pitching getting much better anytime soon. It's frustrating, but baseball is hard and winning is even harder.

I don't know if Eppler is the guy to fix it. I dont lnow if he's not either.

Some of it has just been bad luck. 

I'm just tired of seeing the team go into each season with tons of questions in the rotation and bullpen. 

This year's poor record, might be a blessing. They obviously need to draft and develop better.

 

[angelsnationtalk]

"What are you rooting for?"

A F****** miracle. 

[Angel Oracle]

Arte Moreno to restore the scouting and development budget to Stoneman era levels.

Only when that happens, will success happen into the future.

Otherwise, maybe it’s time for him to sell the team.   But with owning the stadium and surrounding land, no chance of that happening.

[Jeff Fletcher]

6 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Arte Moreno to restore the scouting and development budget to Stoneman era levels.

What is your basis for this statement?

[Stradling]

10 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

What is your basis for this statement?

Not this year obviously but do you know whether or not there are as many scouts as there used to be?  How does our scouting department size compare to other organizations?  Do you happen to know this information?

[Jeff Fletcher]

16 hours ago, Stradling said:

Not this year obviously but do you know whether or not there are as many scouts as there used to be?  How does our scouting department size compare to other organizations?  Do you happen to know this information?

I’d have to go through a bunch of media guides and count. So, no I don’t. 

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

I’d have to go through a bunch of media guides and count. So, no I don’t. 

Lazy.  

[nate]

The Angels greatest success came with a very conservative GM, the one difference being the amount of home grown talent the Angels were able to bring up.  Eppler took over a farm system that was more barren than Victors mom.

[Stradling]

2 minutes ago, nate said:

The Angels greatest success came with a very conservative GM, the one difference being the amount of home grown talent the Angels were able to bring up.  Eppler took over a farm system that was more barren than Victors mom.

Yep and Stoneman took over a young stacked team and then built on that.