Jo Adell, at Driveline

[ten ocho recon scout]

8 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

It was smack in the middle of the OBP/Power era.  Carew was all about being aggressive within the zone, specifically with your hands .vs patience and load..  He had a rep for being a "hitters" coach .vs a "sluggers" coach and it probably dinged him.

I wonder how much influence that had on GA. That describes GA perfectly. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 minutes ago, Tank said:

it's my understanding that the pitching machines there are now topless.

"Would you like to buy the off-speed machine a drink?"

[BTH]

57 minutes ago, Pancake Bear said:

I kinda wonder if Arte pushed for Adell to be promoted quickly and pressured Eppler into it. I remember lots of people online were clamoring for Jo to be called up and Eppler said (to much fan hostility) that he wasn't ready. Then, suddenly, he was "ready". Except he wasn't. Just makes me think that maybe it was a "call him up or look for a new job" situation. 

I wondered that as well.

It’s possible, but we’d just be speculating.

[BTH]

37 minutes ago, Tank said:

My recall is that since AAA was canceled during the 2020 season, this was a way to let Adell continue to play and, hopefully, develop quicker by seeing major league pitching at a time when there was no other baseball being played.

From the OC Register on the day of Adell’s promotion:

Maddon said that Adell had been playing well in games at the alternate site in Long Beach, and he had cleaned up some of his defensive issues, but Upton’s slump was the final spark to light the fuse on Adell’s career.

“If J-Up had been hotter, it probably would not have happened (now),” Maddon said. “I can’t deny that. That’s 100 percent true. It was a combination of factors. His readiness and the opportunity. J-Up could easily get back into a regular rotation, but for right now we’re working with a platoon with him and Goody. That’s the straight up truth.”

 

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Trendon

[BTH]

2 hours ago, Stradling said:

I don’t think it was to spark the offense as much as it was to continue his development, which was misguided. 

From the OC Register on the day of Adell’s promotion:

Maddon said that Adell had been playing well in games at the alternate site in Long Beach, and he had cleaned up some of his defensive issues, but Upton’s slump was the final spark to light the fuse on Adell’s career.

“If J-Up had been hotter, it probably would not have happened (now),” Maddon said. “I can’t deny that. That’s 100 percent true. It was a combination of factors. His readiness and the opportunity. J-Up could easily get back into a regular rotation, but for right now we’re working with a platoon with him and Goody. That’s the straight up truth.”

 

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Trendon

[DCAngelsFan]

The Angels over the years remind me of the accident chain phenomenon, like in aircraft accidents.  

They do something stupid, which leads to a chain of subsequent mistakes which lasts for years, so that one mistake reverberates thru time.

For example, we trade for Greinke (giving up Segura, etc), then don't bother to resign him 'cuz we thought he owed us a discount, apparently, and in a fit of pique, sign Hamilton instead, losing our 1st pick.  Two slots after that pick, Aaron Judge is drafted by the Yankees.

Meanwhile, since we lost Greinke, we "replace" him by signing guys like Joe Blanton and Tommy Hanson (because we can sign 2 pitchers for the price of Greinke), and then after that blows up in our face, trade away Trumbo and Kendrick for more (mostly) failed pitchers.  When Hamilton crashed and burned, we traded for Joyce to backfill, then let him walk 'cause he was terrible, followed by a merry-go-round of bad left fielders, a trade for Upton then an extension, then his injuries, then poor performance, leading to calling up Adell prematurely and potentially ruining him.

In a more perfect universe, we could've resigned Greinke (depriving the Dodgers of his contributions), not signed Hamilton, not be hamstrung by his salary, not signed Blanton, etc, and drafted Judge to be our "future" left fielder, and left Adell in the minors to develop properly.  

[Rollinghard]

"He didn’t know how to scoop a ball in the outfield. He didn’t know how to get into throwing position."

He should have learned this stuff ^^^^^ when he was 11 years old. How can the scouts be sooo wrong/blind?

[Stradling]

7 minutes ago, Rollinghard said:

"He didn’t know how to scoop a ball in the outfield. He didn’t know how to get into throwing position."

He should have learned this stuff ^^^^^ when he was 11 years old. How can the scouts be sooo wrong/blind?

He was ranked that high even with those flaws. They saw the flaws and his tools still had him ranked top 5. 

[Dtwncbad]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

He was ranked that high even with those flaws. They saw the flaws and his tools still had him ranked top 5. 

Exactly.  Scouts offer their opinion of future value, what they believe a player can be, not just what they already are.

[Docwaukee]

18 hours ago, DCAngelsFan said:

The Angels over the years remind me of the accident chain phenomenon, like in aircraft accidents.  

They do something stupid, which leads to a chain of subsequent mistakes which lasts for years, so that one mistake reverberates thru time.

For example, we trade for Greinke (giving up Segura, etc), then don't bother to resign him 'cuz we thought he owed us a discount, apparently, and in a fit of pique, sign Hamilton instead, losing our 1st pick.  Two slots after that pick, Aaron Judge is drafted by the Yankees.

Meanwhile, since we lost Greinke, we "replace" him by signing guys like Joe Blanton and Tommy Hanson (because we can sign 2 pitchers for the price of Greinke), and then trade away Trumbo and Kendrick for more failed pitchers.  When Hamilton crashed and burned, we traded for Joyce to backfill, then let him walk 'cause he was terrible, followed by a merry-go-round of bad left fielders, a trade for Upton then an extension, then his injuries, then poor performance, leading to calling up Adell prematurely and potentially ruining him.

In a more perfect universe, we could've resigned Greinke (depriving the Dodgers of his contributions), not signed Hamilton, not be hamstrung by his salary, not signed Blanton, etc, and drafted Judge to be our "future" left fielder, and left Adell in the minors to develop properly.  

the chain of events don't propagate if we don't keep using the same incorrect process to make decisions.  To me, it actually outwardly started with the Wells trade.  Inwardly we don't really know for sure when and where the process got broken but I suspect that there was a shift away from drafting and developing from around the time that Stoneman left.  Possibly even before which could have been one of the reasons for him to have handed over his position to someone else (among other reasons).  

This isn't so much of a cascade where one bad decision leads to another but using the same flawed decision making process over and over.  Like thinking a single expensive player is enough to overcome serious flaws in several other areas.  Or putting less to almost no emphasis on a long term approach and instead dedicating your organizational resources to band aids, duct tape, and WD-40 fixes to major foundational problems.  

[totdprods]

Nightengale (I know) said the Royals have more trades lining up after the Taylor and Mondesi deals.

Seems like KCR has an opening in the OF now, and after acquiring a couple arms, could move a reliever.

Adell for a KC arm makes sense, but what a bummer if that’s all we wind up getting out of his potential and his trade value.

If Adell is traded this season, it would suggest to me that Perry will have really soured on Eppler’s “farm”, which would lead me to think the minors will have undergone a complete development/scouting overhaul and that we could see any of Eppler’s prospects start to make their way out, either by DFAs, trades, minor league FA, Rule 5…

Edited January 24, 2023 by totdprods

[Revad]

1 hour ago, Docwaukee said:

I suspect that there was a shift away from drafting and developing from around the time that Stoneman left.

Me too.

[DCAngelsFan]

2 hours ago, Docwaukee said:

the chain of events don't propagate if we don't keep using the same incorrect process to make decisions.  To me, it actually outwardly started with the Wells trade.  Inwardly we don't really know for sure when and where the process got broken but I suspect that there was a shift away from drafting and developing from around the time that Stoneman left.  Possibly even before which could have been one of the reasons for him to have handed over his position to someone else (among other reasons).  

This isn't so much of a cascade where one bad decision leads to another but using the same flawed decision making process over and over.  Like thinking a single expensive player is enough to overcome serious flaws in several other areas.  Or putting less to almost no emphasis on a long term approach and instead dedicating your organizational resources to band aids, duct tape, and WD-40 fixes to major foundational problems.  

Agreed, it's not just the original mistake or failure, it's that decision-making process that led to the original mistake didn't change.  One way to look at it is as a perspective problem - we see "oh, we need a left fielder *now* because the current one sucks and we have no one to play the position" - without asking - "Why haven't we developed any left fielders in forever?  Or any players for that matter?  What's wrong with our talent acquisition process that got us here and how do we fix it?" 

But the overpays and desperate quick fixes nearly always cost us greatly down the road, and so the pattern would repeat (even if the events weren't necessarily connected, they represented symptoms of the same disease)

And I think you're right, too, I feel the same - that the Wells trade as a signpost, if you will, signaled something was really, really wrong with the way the club made decisions and built a team.  Any fool could see that Well had an unbearably bad contract, and 1 season of decent hitting performance that was easily seen as a mirage didn't change that.  But *someone* in the org figured he was the one piece of duct tape that would solve our problems.

I'm glad things under Eppler, then Perry seems to be moving in a direction to fix those problems.  But in baseball, it can take years to see the benefits of an improved draft/development operation - and this is the destructive view I think Arte put into place, the need to invest in winning now, not in some future he can't wait for.  

 

[BTH]

I miss a few days ago, when this thread was the biggest issue being discussed on this site.

[ten ocho recon scout]

12 hours ago, Trendon said:

I miss a few days ago, when this thread was the biggest issue being discussed on this site.

Arte Moreno has changed his Instagram from "For sale" to "I'm staying and so is the rally monkey".

[Blarg]

Arte fired the rally monkey a decade ago. 

[Taylor]

14 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Arte fired the rally monkey a decade ago. 

He actually made the Rally Monkey part time at first, then slowly cut more of his hours until the RM got fed up and quit.

[Angelsfan1984]

3 hours ago, Taylor said:

He actually made the Rally Monkey part time at first, then slowly cut more of his hours until the RM got fed up and quit.

[T.G.]

I thought the Rally Monkey died because all they fed him was Del Taco.

[Just Sayin]

On 1/3/2023 at 8:43 PM, Blarg said:

Did it even cross your mind for a split second how improbable your statement is? 

Jo Adell knows his career hinges on the outcome of the 2023 season. If he doesn't show some growth in his baseball skills he may never see a major league field again. 

Driveline is in Washington, he lives in Kentucky. Do you really think for a moment he is going to spend the money to book a flight to Washington to have one hitting session and say, thanks guys, I'm good. Then hop a flight back home and call it a productive off season? 

Actually …..yeah.

[Tank]

10 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Arte Moreno has changed his Instagram from "For sale" to "I'm staying and so is the rally monkey".

Fun fact: the RM was “born” June 6, 2000 against the Giants. I was at the game with @Inside Pitch and @Brian Ilten. 

[tdawg87]

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, tdawg87 said:

I JUST watched this the other day.

[Blarg]

For the tenth time?

[Tank]

3 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

you carnivores will eat anything.