WallyWorld

"a deal between the Cardinals and Angels that would have sent Aybar to St. Louis for two top pitching prospects has fallen apart.  It appears that the deal fell through upon St. Louis receiving a medical report on Aybar that contained a close up photo"

I don't get everyone's hesitation with trading away Aybar and Howie. Both players are solid players but they are not championship type role players we want. We are already screwed so why not trade these dudes for some promising prospects who will help us. We aren't going anywhere anyway.

If Arte ran the Angels as a real CEO, he would have fired Scoscia and DiPoto and Butcher by now...simply because the results are not there. Neither are the fundamentals...most can't bunt, pitch recognition is awful (see Trumbo and Howie). Angel pitchers invariably throw more pitches per inning than the opposing pitcher, taking a walk is evidently forbidden etc etc.

If you've watched Jered Weaver at all in his career, I think it's pretty obvious he cares deeply about winning.  Part of the reason he signed here long term at a discount was because he thought he would have a good chance at going to playoffs every year.  I'm sure he didn't expect to ever have a season where they were out of the race in July.

fans of the Miami Marlins (all 3 of them) think this is ridiculous.

If you've watched Jered Weaver at all in his career, I think it's pretty obvious he cares deeply about winning.  Part of the reason he signed here long term at a discount was because he thought he would have a good chance at going to playoffs every year.  I'm sure he didn't expect to ever have a season where they were out of the race in July.

I think the plan is pretty obvious.  Get as many of the young guys with potential as possible up here to see who sinks or swims, while dangling a couple of their best trade pieces (Kendrick, Aybar) to see what they can get in return.  As has been discussed at length on this board, there's really not much more they can do at this point.  They're obviously trying to retool for 2014 as best they can.

trading either or both of these guys for good SP would be Dipoto's best move yet, IMO.  Hope he's able to get it done.

trading either or both of these guys for good SP would be Dipoto's best move yet, IMO.  Hope he's able to get it done.

Side note:
 
Downs has a nice chance to go to the playoffs for the first time in his career now.
 
Always seemed like a cool guy, so good for him.

darn, was hoping he'd been traded.

they're all losers, with the exception of trout.

what are you, stupid?

I honestly don't know how much of a drop off Cowgill is from Hamilton. At least Cowgill saw some pitches before k'ing.

what are you, stupid?

Apparently for a lot of board members this is the first season they've watched Howie Kendrick play.

what are you, stupid?

what are you, stupid?

what are you, stupid?

what are you, stupid?

what are you, stupid?

so there's been zero under-performance the past few years? it's just bad luck that the team has come out of the gate each of the past two seasons unprepared and looking like zombies?  bad luck that they have a team full of good defenders and are one of the worst defensive teams in baseball?  
 
Give me a break, Bruce.  How much failure do you need to see before you think it's good idea to change direction in managers?

This organization needs a gritty reboot. I nominated Christopher Nolan for new GM.

Went to Seattle and Safeco for the first time this weekend.  Only went to Friday's game because of other plans and the pitching match-ups.  Gorgeous ballpark, marred only be the Angels' poor performance.  Very friendly fans, though pretty 'vanilla', if you know what I'm saying
 
Ended up unintentionally staying at the same hotel as the team, which we found out on Friday night when we got back at the same time after the game and ended up waiting in the lobby for the elevators with a bunch of the players.  Callaspo and Aybar were dressed in fancy duds looking like they were about to go hit the bars/clubs (good luck finding a merengue club in Seattle) and were preening in front of the mirrors.  Pujols was right next to me and was chirping at them in Spanish, presumably making fun of them.  J.B. Shuck was standing nearby and we kind of shared a laugh about it.  If you didn't follow the team closely and saw Shuck in street clothes, you would have zero clue he was a pro ball-player.  Just a really unassuming, nice-looking guy.  Anyway, a bunch of the other guys - Wilson, Weaver, Roth - were standing in front of the elevators.  In all there were probably 20 players/team personnel standing there, and outside of Pujols chirping at Callaspo and Aybar, nobody said a thing or even looked at one another.  Frankly they all looked miserable.  Rode up in the elevator with Pujols, Frieri, and one of the clubbies.  Pujols was joking with the clubby and Frieri was focused on his phone in the corner not saying a word.
 
When we got back to the room, my wife - who, keep in mind, doesn't follow baseball at all - said "those guys really don't like each other, do they?".  Now, this was after a pretty miserable game, it was late, the guys were tired I'm sure, and spending 7+ months with a group of guys, it's not going to be a party every night.  Still, like I said, it seemed like a pretty tense, unhappy environment.  Now this is just one impression, after observing for about 5 minutes total on one night, after a loss, so I'm not trying to make any larger point, other than saying what I observed.  Take it with your preferred size grain of salt.