So umm.. thoughts on Jerry Dipoto

[HaloCory22]

Low balling Tori Hunter wasn't very smart. Should of at least offered him a 1 yr/13m deal. He was the leader in the clubhouse last season.

How was it not smart? We didn't want to repeat the mistakes of Bobby Abreu. Giving an aging vet who had a career year a multi-year contract IS NOT smart.

[gotbeer]

I like him. And I'm fine with his moves.

 

Seguras minor league numbers weren't very impressive.  So trading him for a chance at Greinke was ok.

Letting go of the pretender I'm fine with.  

Morales for Vargas I'm fine with.  Bad luck that Vargas has a blood clot.  But the AW.com geneuses probably saw that coming.

Hanson for Walden I'm fine with.  Not Dipoto's fault that he killed Hanson's brother.

Frieri for Amarista I'm good with.  Frieri is still young, and will become better.

Madson to a one year deal.  It was a risk vs reward move.  And it was a good chance to take.  

Trading Geltz for De La Rosa.  Didn't like it at the time, but De La Rosa is coming into his own.

Declining Santana's option.  Liked it.  He is in a totally different environment now with a lot less pressure in a contract year.  I'll laugh if a big team signs him to a big contract.

Declining Haren's option.  Didn't like it, but proved to be the right move.

Trading Wells and not eating the entire contract.  Don't even need to comment on that.

Hamilton.  I thought it was a good signing, although a bit rich and long.  But didn't think that Hamilton would do so poorly.

Pujols.  Didn't like the signing, and not sure if this was more Moreno marketing or Dipoto.

 

Blanton.  Was an egg.

[Angel Oracle]

How was it not smart? We didn't want to repeat the mistakes of Bobby Abreu. Giving an aging vet who had a career year a multi-year contract IS NOT smart.

Except that we could have simply given him the one year arb.   Then if he struggles, you aren't out that much and aren't shelling out $125 million to a fast declining Hamilton.

[avejoe1]

I fault GM Dipoto on the Zack Greinke deal without getting any commitment from Greinke for a longer stay in Anaheim.  It was clearly evident then that Jean Segura was worth more than any half year rental of Greinke.

 

The Angels have been poor at developing prospects for a number of years now.  With numerous misses on high draft picks, failures to sign top Latin free agents, failures to sign top prospects (Posey, Harvey) and then having high picks fail to make it out of the minors, it is disheartening to see the few that do become successful traded away.  Jean Segura was one real bright spot in a sea of darkness.  He showed that he could hit, had speed and could play major league defense.  I believe he also switch hit and had the potential to bat 2nd which has been a sore spot in the Angel lineup for some time.

 

Keeping Segura was the perfect opportunity to make the Angels younger by replacing a veteran (Howie Kendrick) at 2nd or (Erick Aybar) at short instead of giving both long-term, high dollar contracts.  It was just stupid to give up such potential and youth and savings for the half year of Greinke.

 

(The big problem for me is that this is a repeat of the Dan Haren type deal showing that the Angels never learn from their mistakes.  The Angels had needed left-handed starters for years.  They went about solving the problem the long way by using rare first and second round picks to draft Tyler Skaggs and Pat Corbin.  Then when these two showed real promise, they traded them away for a year and a half of an old warrior going down hill.  I continue to be dismayed that such statistical geniuses make the same stupid mistakes year after year.)

[Angel Oracle]

And why are we trading away lefty pitching prospects like they are Cracker Jack boxes?

Corbin, Torres, and Skaggs!

I thought teams valued developing and KEEPING lefty pitching talent.

My mistake

 

This org has done just about everything WRONG over the past going on 4 years,

outside of getting the new tv deal. 

[ettin]

I like him. And I'm fine with his moves.

 

Seguras minor league numbers weren't very impressive.  So trading him for a chance at Greinke was ok.

Letting go of the pretender I'm fine with.  

Morales for Vargas I'm fine with.  Bad luck that Vargas has a blood clot.  But the AW.com geneuses probably saw that coming.

Hanson for Walden I'm fine with.  Not Dipoto's fault that he killed Hanson's brother.

Frieri for Amarista I'm good with.  Frieri is still young, and will become better.

Madson to a one year deal.  It was a risk vs reward move.  And it was a good chance to take.  

Trading Geltz for De La Rosa.  Didn't like it at the time, but De La Rosa is coming into his own.

Declining Santana's option.  Liked it.  He is in a totally different environment now with a lot less pressure in a contract year.  I'll laugh if a big team signs him to a big contract.

Declining Haren's option.  Didn't like it, but proved to be the right move.

Trading Wells and not eating the entire contract.  Don't even need to comment on that.

Hamilton.  I thought it was a good signing, although a bit rich and long.  But didn't think that Hamilton would do so poorly.

Pujols.  Didn't like the signing, and not sure if this was more Moreno marketing or Dipoto.

 

Blanton.  Was an egg.

 

The only thing I would readily disagree with is Segura's performance in the Minors. His 2009 and 2010 seasons were quite good and at one point he was keeping pace with Trout in the Minors. But beyond that you are pretty much correct about the above statements.

 

I'm on the record as a supporter of Dipoto to this point in time. I believe he will right this ship eventually and we will all be the happier for it.

[mulwin444]

I don't think you can evaluate a GM's moves unless you put them in a situational context.  These moves don't happen is a vacuum.

 

Vargas for Morales:  Both players were going to be free agents at the end of 2013 and the Angels were not going to re-sign Morales with Pujols, Trumbo, and a host of younger, cheaper options.  Angels needed SP and Seattle needed offense - deal made sense for both parties.  Morales is essentially a one-trick pony - a DH playing 1B with zero speed and late-order pop on a good offense.  RIght now his numbers are .280/.337/.800 which is good but not spectactuar for a 1B.  Vargas averaged 200 innings and  3.80 ERA 1.25 WHIP the prior three seasons and averaged looked to be a solid back-end starter.  He was busy matching the numbers from the past three season when he developed a blood clot, which I'm sure everyone here predicted would happen (haha).  This was a good trade.

 

Hanson for Walden:  WIth Santana, Greinke, and Haren not coming back, Dipoto essentially had three rotational spots to fill.  Vargas filled one of them using a surplus of IB at his disposal.  Hanson for Walden was essentially a swap of projects by the two teams.  Walden, armed with a fastball that could touch triple digits, struggled with location (4.4 BB/9) and mechanics, was poor in high leverage situations, and dealt with bicep issues.  Hanson was a top pitching prospect that found initial success but struggled with injuries but, up until last season, averaged a 1.18 WHIP and a .225 BAA.  Project for a project...it wasn't a bad nor expensive gamble.  Who could have predicted his brother's death?  How do account for that as a possiblity?  I'm not busting him for this one.

 

Dane De La Rosa:  He found this guy totally off the radar and he has a delievered with a 1.11 WHIP, .224 BAA and 40 K's and only 13 BB in 43.1 IN.   

 

Sean Burnett:  He's averaged 60 appearances since 2008 with a 1.20 WHIP and a has been especially tough on lefties (.227 .293 OBP .567 OPS againt).  Unless you can read the future, don't see how this would be considered a bad signing.

 

Ryan Madsen:  A $3.5 mil gamble on a potentially quality arm...how is this a big deal?

 

J.B. Shuck:  Despite his defensive misadventaures, has a been a solid fill-in aquired for cheap.

 

Ernesto Frieri:  Despite a couple of meltdowns, the guy has converted 22/24 and is sporting a 1.16 WHIP .178 BAA with 61 K's in 40.2 IN...and he got him for this generations Alfred Almezaga.

 

Chris Ianetta:  At the time, when they traded for him, Chatwood was giving up a BB for every two innings he pitched and it will take more than 70 innings of 1.29 WHIP .260 BAA to make me break out the torches on this deal. 

 

Not signing Torii Hunter:  He was 37 coming off one his best seasons hitting in front of a HOFer and he had the great fortune of finding a similar scenario in DET.  He also said he'd here for a discount...until the first two year deal came his way.  The only mistake the Angels made was signing Hamilton instead. 

 

The fact is there is logic behind these deals, sound logic, and for one reason or another they haven't worked out.  The only obvious and glaring mistake is the Blanton signing, which cannot be defended.

[gotbeer]

 

The fact is there is logic behind these deals, sound logic, and for one reason or another they haven't worked out.  The only obvious and glaring mistake is the Blanton signing, which cannot be defended.

 

Sound logic?  This is AW.com.  Where they determine OGAAT means, if we didn't win the game, fire the manager.

[gotbeer]

The only thing I would readily disagree with is Segura's performance in the Minors. His 2009 and 2010 seasons were quite good and at one point he was keeping pace with Trout in the Minors. But beyond that you are pretty much correct about the above statements.

 

I'm on the record as a supporter of Dipoto to this point in time. I believe he will right this ship eventually and we will all be the happier for it.

 

I would have to disagree with you on Segura.  His numbers, where he got more than a handful of AB's.

 

2009 Orem Rk .346/.904

2010 Cedars A .313/.829

2011 Indland A+ .281/.758

2012 Arkansas AA .294/.749

 

IMO, it looked like he would be a mid to low .700 OPS hitter.  He decreased his OPS at each level he advanced to.  I wouldn't be surprised if by year end, Segura's OPS is around a .725-.750.  

[Docwaukee]

not sure if anyone actually looked at bullpen stats from last year to this one, but there has been substantial improvement.  One of the worst pen's in baseball last year is now average to lower end top third depending on the metric.  Counting on Madson was a bad idea, but the burnett injury was unexpected as he was generally pretty durable. 

 

not sure if anyone looked at SP stats from last year to this one, but they are about the same while sustaining significant time lost from their #1 and #3 guys to the total of about a full seasons worth of starts.  Or about the equivalent of losing a #2 starter for the year so far replaced by about a mid 5's era.

So on top of having to replace 3 starting pitchers, you have effectively lost another due to injury and you have nothing in the upper farm system to draw from. 

Yes, Blanton was a mistake.  No doubt.  Hanson for Walden was a meh move anyway. 

CJ wilson has a 3.37era with 110k/120ip btw.

 

Regardless of whether the signing of Hamilton was all Arte or with JD's influence, the failure of that is on Josh Hamilton.  We have seen the guy perform so the talent is there.  

 

The loss of Jean Segura means nothing to this team this year unless he was moved for someone else in the offseason instead of at the break.  So he'd either be in the minors or on another team.  Likely the former if the Greinke move wasn't made.  

 

Overall, JD get's a C+ in my mind.  The Blanton and Hanson moves weren't good, but there was too much to overcome.  The pen has improved.  The pujols and hamilton moves should have worked short term and they haven't so he is somewhat culpable in that but only get's a small ration of the blame.  He can't be blamed for injuries, crap defense from players that should play crap defense, and crap baserunning.  

 

Best case scenario:

Pujols heals in the offseason

Hamilton turns back in Hamilton or at least 80-90% of the talented MVP caliber player

JD gets us a front line starter and ditches Blanton and they sign Vargas to a reasonable deal leaving us with a rotation of Weaver, Newguy, Wilson, Vargas, Hanson/Richards/Williams/Someothernewguy

Burnett comes back strong and they add someone to replace Downs

The farm continues to improve and we get help to at least the pen next year. 

 

Worst case scenario:

Pujols and Hamilton repeat the shit show

They don't sign Vargas or any other FA and end up with a rotation of Weaver, Wilson, Hanson, Blanton, Williams/Richards

They don't replace downs and burnett struggles after his return from injury 

The recent drafts fail to infuse the system with quality players

[mulwin444]

I would have to disagree with you on Segura.  His numbers, where he got more than a handful of AB's.

 

2009 Orem Rk .346/.904

2010 Cedars A .313/.829

2011 Indland A+ .281/.758

2012 Arkansas AA .294/.749

 

IMO, it looked like he would be a mid to low .700 OPS hitter.  He decreased his OPS at each level he advanced to.  I wouldn't be surprised if by year end, Segura's OPS is around a .725-.750.  

After an exlposive first two months, his OPS for June was .724 and is .732 for July.  Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see a .750-.800 OPS by seasons end, which is still very good.

[kevinb]

I thought he was going to be a good change at GM but he has missed the boat on a lot of deals. I don't know why people blame Arte for signing Pujols, CJ and Hamilton, and giving no blame to Dipoto. But maybe Dipoto wanted Pujols and Hamilton so bad he told Arte to get after it as well and sell the team to them. Dipoto hasn't been very good here and most of his decisions have not worked out. I kind of hope for a rehaul of the organization this off season. With Dipoto and Mike being let go and letting a whole new cast of characters run this team. But hey that's just me.

[ettin]

After an exlposive first two months, his OPS for June was .724 and is .732 for July.  Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see a .750-.800 OPS by seasons end, which is still very good.

 

For a shortstop this is above average without a doubt, so I'm not sure why you are so down on him Beer?

 

Even if he maintains an approximate .750 OPS he is still very valuable to any team especially considering his propensity for base stealing (like 30+ SB's a year?).

[gotbeer]

For a shortstop this is above average without a doubt, so I'm not sure why you are so down on him Beer?

 

Even if he maintains an approximate .750 OPS he is still very valuable to any team especially considering his propensity for base stealing (like 30+ SB's a year?).

 

Not down on him, I just don't think he's the next Jeter like half this board makes him out to be.  IMO, his minor league numbers said he's about what we have right now.  I'll take a MLB player over a minor leaguer if the numbers say they are about equal.  

 

His SB's are nice.  But if he was on this team, I would think his numbers would be way lower.  It's just headscratching how we stopped stealing this year.  Especially when it comes to Trout.

[WallyWorld]

I thought he was going to be a good change at GM but he has missed the boat on a lot of deals. I don't know why people blame Arte for signing Pujols, CJ and Hamilton, and giving no blame to Dipoto. But maybe Dipoto wanted Pujols and Hamilton so bad he told Arte to get after it as well and sell the team to them. Dipoto hasn't been very good here and most of his decisions have not worked out. I kind of hope for a rehaul of the organization this off season. With Dipoto and Mike being let go and letting a whole new cast of characters run this team. But hey that's just me.

 

Earlier this year I was blaming Arte for the Pujols and Hamilton signings, but lately I've changed my tune.  Even if they were purely Arte's idea, it's the GM's job to talk him out of it and explain why it's a bad idea.  In the cases of both Pujols and Hamilton, there were quite a few red flags apparent that any good GM should have seen.  

 

I want to like Dipoto, and I still think he's capable of being a quality GM, but it's hard to argue that his short tenure as GM hasn't been a complete debacle thus far.

[bloodbrother]

I would have to disagree with you on Segura.  His numbers, where he got more than a handful of AB's.

 

2009 Orem Rk .346/.904

2010 Cedars A .313/.829

2011 Indland A+ .281/.758

2012 Arkansas AA .294/.749

 

IMO, it looked like he would be a mid to low .700 OPS hitter.  He decreased his OPS at each level he advanced to.  I wouldn't be surprised if by year end, Segura's OPS is around a .725-.750.  

 

A .750 OPS SS who hits .300 with 35+ SB ability is very, very valuable, and that's without taking into account the fact that he has 10-15 HR power. He's looking like he's about to cement himself as one of the top 5 SS in MLB

[tdawg87]

Joe Blanton.

That is all I am adding to this discussion.

[mtangelsfan]

I am not pleased with Dipoto's performance so far.  I would probably give him another year.  However, if I'm Arte I pull Jerry aside and say that this will be his last year.  If he wants Sosh gone then Arte needs to make it happen.

[Mark68]

You're reaching here, this guy has spent 50% of the year the DL.  And he has had only 1 good month out of the 3 he has actually pitched.  He might not even pitch again this year.  I would rather have a guy who can pitch the entire season but if your satisfied thats cool.

 

Vargas trade stinks, Hanson trade stinks, Greinke trade stunk, Madson, Blanton, and Burnett signings stink.....nothing he did was good except getting Mr. Erratic fastball as closer.   He's been a very bad GM, and you're completely blind if you think otherwise.

I'm sure you looked into the crystal ball and just KNEW that Vargas was going to have a blood clot. The same guy who has averaged over 200 IP the last three years. If you knew this was going to happen, why didn't you say so?

 

Hanson was a no-risk trade. He traded a reliever who was inconsistent (to put it nicely) for a starting pitcher who has showed promise earlier in his career. It was a trade of a risky reliever for a risky starter. A wash. And I'm sure it's Dipoto's fault that Hanson's brother died.

 

I'm sure if you looked into that crystal ball, you also would have seen that Burnett, a guy who averaged 69 appearances per year from 2008-2012, would all of a sudden turn into glass as soon as he became an Angel.

 

And I'm sure that very same crystal ball told you that Segura, a guy who projected to have an OPS in the low .700s, and who was blocked by two guys that just signed extensions, would turn into the Next Coming of Derek Jeter (but with a glove) in the first half of this season, so would NEVER have traded him.

 

Madson was a low-risk ($3.5 million), high-reward signing. Three and a half million is chump change for this team.

 

Blanton, if he was his usual self, wouldn't be an issue. He's been worse than his usual self, by a full run. I guess you saw that coming, too.

 

De la Rosa has been a good find.

 

The vast majority of us wanted Dipoto to let Santana and Haren walk. At least for Santana, we got a reliever, who, unfortunately, wound up under the knife. But you knew that before it happened, didn't you?

 

He got SOMEONE to take Wells AND some of his salary.

 

Hindsight is always 20/20, but, apparently, you had incredible FORESIGHT which should have been shared with us, and, more importantly, with Arte and Jerry. Please don't hold back next time you just KNOW that someone we're considering getting who has never had any injury history to speak of, will spend more time in the doctor's office than on the field. We need someone with your prescience (or your crystal ball) to help our front office.

[Mark68]

Oh, and by the way, Jered Weaver has spent half the season so far on the DL, and has been inconsistent otherwise, so, thanks, f'ing Reagins, for extending him.

[mtangelsfan]

For Sosh, it's his fault.

For Dipoto, it's just bad luck.

 

and a huge lol at defending the Blanton signing.

[Mark68]

For Sosh, it's his fault.

For Dipoto, it's just bad luck.

 

and a huge lol at defending the Blanton signing.

And a huge LOL at cherry picking one thing out of that post.

 

I blame Sosh for how bad this team has become at fundamentals, but that is a separate issue than the personnel, because even the personnel that WERE here prior to this year are screwing up in the field and on the basepaths.

[mtangelsfan]

but the personnel are the ones who aren't practicing the fundamentals.

 

Just bad luck I guess. 

 

and if you didn't want one of your points questioned, you shouldn't have made it.

[bloodbrother]

We can go back and forth with all this, but the facts are that results are what ultimately matter. Dipoto's vision this past offseason was bulding a staff/pen that catered to the teams elite defensive OF. They decided to go big money on another bat to make that offense more potent and then hope that the league average arms they got for cheap would be good enough to give them some innings and let the defense help them out with their range. It's been a disaster. The guys he brought in have not produced, and the team has gone backwards from 2012. Dipoto deservedly should be criticized for this past offseason and this next offseason could be a make or break year for him.

[Scott34]

Who cares about Segura. The guy had no shot at being an MLB regular on our team with the middle infield locked up for 5 years. Only argument you can make is trading him for someone else, but that's it.

 

That's when you trade Kendrick or Aybar... They have bunches of value.  That's how competent teams do it.

 

I hate the "nowhere to put him" excuse, if the player is good enough then he will make room for himself.