avejoe1

Posey and Harvey were not unknowns. They were highly rated but dropped in the draft having made it known that they either wanted to go to college or wanted a high bonus to sign. The Angels could have signed them by paying the money. The team chose to go with those that would sign for slot or below slot. The Angels got what they paid for.

The Angels missed not only on Harvey but on Posey too because of being cheap. They had the right to sign them both. So add to all the top talent traded away Harvey and Posey and the International major league ready players not signed over the past four or five years and the International top prospects not signed and it is very understandable how this dumb ass organization is so bereft of talent.

No, No, No to those who say the downturn in production by newly signed free agents is not the fault of Jerry Dipoto because no one could have predicted their decline based on their prior years statistical performance. All baseball players get old and their production declines. This is a basic tenet of Oakland's GM. Trade players about to decline in performance for prospects who statistically show a high upside. Trade players who are expecting a big payday for those declining years for prospects who can perform well at below market or low cost. Trade older legs for young legs. How is that working out for Oakland? This team signed free agents by a GM and an Owner almost on paper who looked at a prior years performance and assumed the next year, the next five years, even the next ten years were going to be the same or better. This is insanity. There is a clearly defined curve by which most players decline with age. Torii Hunter and a few others have been exceptions. Those on roids became exceptions. The Angels acted as if no decline could be expected. It could be and should have been. To proceed full speed ahead oblivious to that is stupidity in its highest form.

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.)

I see that Carlos Lee has retired after 14 seasons and 358 home runs. Let's see a multiple all-star, big name home run hitter who may now be available? Quick, get Dipoto and the rest of the brain trust to offer him 5 years at $25 million per and perhaps the Angels can add him to the rest of the overpaid, washed up lineup. If Houston wants something in return, perhaps they would accept all of the left-handed starters in the Angels minors. And if that isn't enough maybe the Angels can throw in next years number one draft pick. (Typo on Lopez, sorry.)

Blanton is one of the worst starting pitchers in the AL. His 1-10 record is no accident. His 5+ era is pitiful. Any decent AL team would have pulled him weeks ago. The Angels have six starting pitchers. Being STUPID of course, the Angels still have him in the starting rotation. The Angels being 31-39 is also no accident.

All of the analysis boils down to this. Jerry Dipoto is good at making trades for pitching. He sucks at signing free agent pitchers. The good: Trading Jordan Walden to Atlanta for RH starter Tommy Hanson and trading Kendrys Morales to Seattle for LH starter Jason Vargas. Where would the Angels be without these two solid starters? Much has been made of the lack of stability in the starting pitching but without these two it would have been a total disaster. Dipoto deserves significant credit for getting the trades for these two starters right. The bad: The obvious is signing RH starter Joe Blanton and his batting practice fastball to a guaranteed THREE YEAR CONTRACT. Why is it that when the Angels really screw up it has to be for three to ten years? The next two which have proven to be equally bad are the signings of RH reliever Ryan Madsen and LH reliever Sean Burnett. My gosh, don't the Angels have any scouts who can look at a player at the end of a year and see the guy's not the same player as earlier in that year? Do the Angels always have to sign free agents according to how their statistics look on paper (ie. past performance) without any projection as to how they can be expected to decline due to age or be unavailable due to a history of injury? Look back at most Angels free agent signings and you have to wonder if any fantasy league participant could have done as badly.

It would be exciting to think of Jerry Dipoto pulling off a trade for the Angels like he did when the Diamondbacks acquired Skaggs and Corbin for Dan Haren. Unfortunately, Dipoto no longer has the Angels to trade with.

I think all of these comments are relevant. The Angels have a proven track record of making free agent signings and trades that may have short-term benefits but stink long-term. It is sad to go over these transactions and bemoan what could have been. It is tragic that no one in management seems to learn anything from prior errors. After Bottenfield and GMJ Jr. and Haren and Pujols and this years signing of Hamilton, I am convinced this brain trust lacks the capacity to understand the long-term effects of the decisions they make.

The Angels minor league system is deficient because it is always deficient. It was not an accident that Cedar Rapids dropped the Angels for another organization. It was not an accident that Rancho dropped the Angels who had to go out to San Bernardino. These cities/stadiums gave up on the Angels because they were not provided the prospects to make their teams successful. Salt Lake remains the AAA city because no one else wants it. Arkansas remains with the Angels because they have a giant outfield which screws up power hitting prospects. This shows long-term neglect by the Angels of their minor league system. The Angels have been plugging holes like firemen in the major league club for many, many years by signing major league free agents with compensation due and by trading away minor league prospects. The problem has been in the PARENT CLUB. A team should be able to bring up trained, tested, minor league quality prospects to plug holes and then use them in a manner that they gain experience to grow into major league regulars. Scioscia doesn't train prospects. Prospects are brought up too early and then discarded (see newest examples to be: Michael Kohn, Roth, Maronde). Draft choices have been significantly lesser due to compensation. Draft choices exercised have often been busts. Money to buy top prospects when that system was in place was not spent (Buster Posey, Matt Harvey, Nick Castellanos). International free agents were not signed (like the Rangers and Athletics regularly do). The International Director was lining his pocket instead of doing his job. Dominican players and that minor team were neglected. I am not indicting Jerry Dipoto in this as he was left with Tony Reagins mess which was Bill Stoneman's mess, etc. etc. Throwing money at Gary Matthews Jr, Albert Pujols and Hamilton is not the solution, it is the problem. Trading for Dan Haren and Vernon Wells is not the solution, it is the problem. Arte Moreno has to start investing heavily in acquiring and preparing prospects so when holes arrive in the Angels, there are minor league prospects ready to move up. Once a fire has started, it is a bit late to start thinking about fire prevention.

It is very disappointing to see the Angels seemingly make the same error over and over. GMJ was the solution at $50 million but he had only one year to base his high batting average and slugging percentage on. Matthews turned out to be a complete bust. Vernon Wells had a disaster contract that all the other teams in baseball avoided and laughed at. It didn't stop Mr. Moreno and Tony Reagins from trading away Napoli for Wells. Angel fans got to see first hand what a disaster Wells was and how well Napoli played for Texas. Instead of waiting anxiously to see how great this season will turn out, we get to see another agonizing disaster (which should have been predicted) on a rebuilt cheap pitching staff slowly unfold. The inept decision making has not only been with the offseason moves but in the drafting, signing of players and international matters. The Angels drafted Buster Posey and Matt Harvey but chose to bicker over money and did not sign them. Can you imagine how good this team would be with those two on it? The Angels had multiple 1st round and 1st round supplemental draft picks in the past few years but the only decent pitcher drafted was Garret Richards. Now when the team needs two or more good pitchers to bring up they are not there but the old Kevin Jepsens (big fast ball but fire starter control) are still on the roster. The good international players over the past couple of years have gone to the A's and Rangers but the Angels wouldn't shell out the money (it was "invested" in Wells, etc.). The Dominican minor team and the international staff are still trying to recover from the international director who was stealing from the Angels international players. I find this whole mess disheartening. The Angels are now tied with the Astros in the standings. Can this get any worse?