Dave Saltzer

Talking about how last season was his best offensive season. Talking about change in his hands from going up high with his hands before helped, and should help him going forward. He's confident with it.

In the press conference now. Will give some updates. These aren't exact quotes, just paraphrasing. Originally, Eppler looked at Cozart for 2B, and Cozart was excited to play 2B for us, but then Eppler got the call from Detroit on Kinsler, and Cozart was willing to move to 3B. Cozart is excited to play for us and wants to win.

I wouldn't go making baseless accusations without some substantial proof. By doing so, you are accusing someone of committing a crime. Just because you don't like Dipoto, that doesn't mean he did in fact leak the information. All the ball clubs knew this, and possibly rival agents who didn't land him as a player may have known about it. The potential pool of suspects is quite large. As I see it, there are at least 6 possibilities as to who leaked the information. 1) A rival GM/Agent/Coach. This makes sense if you believe that a person such as this would actually release this information out of spite, jealousy, or some other negative impulse. But, if we think about this for a second, that person just committed a crime. Sure, it's not a big crime (although the civil penalties can add up, plus the risk of a civil lawsuit by Ohtani for damaging his reputation which could put millions at risk). The bigger question is, why do it? It's cutting off your head to cure a headache. Baseball is a small industry, and word does get around. Even if it doesn't, aspersions will be cast, and reputations will be tarnished. Lots of players have injuries and illnesses that they don't want the general public to know. Sometimes reporters get to know these conditions and can't comment when obvious decisions are made (or aren't made) during games. If an agent did this, and word got out, how many players will want that agent representing him? If a rival GM leaked this, it would invariably hurt his/her ability to sign a future player as well as putting his baseball career at risk. If some agent/GM/front office person did do this, I hope that s/he does get reprimanded heavily by the league. 2) The Angels themselves leaked it. This is a possibility. The information was presented to all 30 teams, so, it was out there. Maybe to get ahead of the story and to make it a non-issue for Spring Training, they just got it over with and put it out there. This would only have been done with Ohtani's blessing and permission. By making it old news, and releasing it when they did, it got buried. However, if the Angels did this, I don't see why there'd be an investigation by MLB, or, if there was, it would disappear quickly. 3) Ohtani and his agents released it. Same reasoning as the Angels, except this would be done with the Angels' approval. 4) It was in the press materials that came out already. Since a reporter got ahold of the press materials, maybe a reference to it was in there. Since I haven't seen the materials in detail, I can't say what was or was not in there. I don't think any club would want their entire sales pitch known out there, so I was surprised that it was released. The information could have accidentally come out in the materials, or, when the Angels saw the press information out there from another team, felt that they had no choice but to release it and get ahead of the story. 5) A person from Japan released it. Maybe a doctor, medical person, etc. in Japan who had knowledge of it released the information. I don't know if there is anything like HIPPA in Japan, so maybe the rules are different there. If that's the case, this may need to be addressed in a different manner. 6) Another person with an issue or vendetta released it. There are always plenty of people seeking their 15 minutes of fame and who have nothing better to do than poke at people who have accomplished more than them. Internet trolls have done a lot of damage over the years, and sadly, will continue to do so. So, just because there appears to be a motive for Dipoto to have released this information, and just because it's in vogue to do so around here, doesn't mean you should go jumping to conclusions. I'm keeping an open mind that there are plenty of other potential suspects and will wait for the investigation rather than jumping to conclusions.

I'm telling you, I was there. Scioscia and Eppler both said repeatedly that they will listen to Ohtani and his people when trying to develop what to do for him. There's no book written on this (I think Scioscia even said that). I'm not on the Scioscia express, but it's kind of ridiculous to keep reading people projecting a negative attribute on Scioscia (Scioscia won't listen, is stubborn, etc.) when they've been told repeatedly the exact opposite is the case when it comes to Ohtani.

I took issue with the belief that Scioscia will handle this all wrong. What if he does everything that Ohtani and his people say he should do? Is it then always his fault for following their direction? If you don't like Scioscia, that's fine. But to just slam him (and by extension the organization) without facts is a bit much. Eppler and Scioscia were clear that they are going to have an ever evolving dialogue on how to handle this essentially unprecedented situation.

I take issue with this. You say that there is little to no precedent for this, yet you say you have no faith in how Scioscia will handle this? That's particularly difficult to accept because as has been reported widely, both Eppler and Scioscia said numerous times that they are going to work things out with Ohtani and his people, and that whatever plans they had on using him will get changed now that they can have 2-way conversations about it. We won't know how much of this comes from Scioscia or how much comes for Ohtani. So, it's not right to blame Scioscia for any and all perceived misuses when it will be a combination between him and Ohtani to work through this unprecedented fete.

The more I think about this, the less I like the idea of trading the pitching to land him, even assuming we had what it would take. One interesting byproduct of this is maybe the Machado trade market puts a damper on what Moustakis can get on a deal.

Who wouldn't love or dream of doing this? Only a few problems--we need a 3B, and Manny says he wants to play SS. If he's cool with playing 3B long term, that's a big difference. Second, the only way I'd do this is if I had a good idea that I can sign him long-term. The only way to do that would be to backload his contract to get around Pujols' contract. But, by that point, Trout will need a new contract and Ohtani will be getting a bit expensive. Maybe Ettin can model the payroll, but, I'm not sure that we can fit his expensive contract into our long-term payroll. Finally, who represents Manny? If it's Boras, there's no way he won't test the FA market.

With this trade, I wonder if Solarte would now be expendable from the Padres. Might not be a bad option since he brings such defensive flexibility.

After listening to Eppler, who said that they were looking more at 1B,now that they have signed Ohtani, they are shifting their focus elsewhere from 1B. And, that makes sense with Pujols playing more 1B next year. They also expect to be busy at the Winter Meetings. Gotta wonder how that will go down with all the other 29 GMs being g jealous.

Hey! I'm another reporter!

Is there any way you can send that to me so I can show my kids and save it for posterity?

Sweet!

LOL. It was a lot of fun, and I loved getting be be a voice for the fans.

I'm all prepped for it. Got a haircut, filled up on In & Out, and am getting ready to go. Should be great!

What would you want to ask if you had a chance to ask a question during the press conference? Post your questions here. Tomorrow will be a great and fun day, and I'd love to see what you want to know. Angelswin will be there, and we want to make sure we can get some of your questions answered. So, post your questions in here.

Can we merge this with the other thread on the formal article that I wrote?

I think we need to add today to our AngelsWin.com Top 50 Moments in Angels history. This is truly a franchise altering event. The question is, how big is it and where should it be ranked? @Chuckster70, where would you place it?

Ettin, think you can come up with a good piece on going into the Winter Meetings and what we might do, now that we have Ohtani?

See my article that I published.

I was joking in that one. Ohtani is the #1 prospect by a long shot. As BA even wrote, this signing probably pushes our ranking up to the mid teens in farm systems from the upper 20s.

In today's world, it's easy to get cynical. No doubt about that. That's one of the good thing about the holiday season--it gives us time to make a pause, reflect, think about what's good in life and get away from that negativity. But, I really believe Arte on his twin goals of winning a WS and raising the bar for our franchise. The two go hand in hand. He's worked hard to raise the trajectory, now all we need is the WS. We are lucky to have him as an owner. He's like Autry was in the good years, but done a much better job at permanently altering our franchise for the better.

Yeah, we've started the process on updating the list. We're having our internal discussions right now. It may be a tough call . . .

Here's the thing: Arte's primary goal is to win a WS as the owner of the Angels. He also wants to elevate and alter our team's direction. I fully believe him when he said at our Fanfest that he wanted to raise the status of our franchise, not just for one or two years, but forever. He wants us to be seen as a powerhouse team on the West Coast and wants to alter our franchise's trajectory. Like it or not, the Pujols deal was about that. Signing Pujols elevated our TV deal and set the stage for an expanded payroll. The Hamilton signing was about trying to win a WS. He thought adding a slugger like that would put the team over the top for a couple years, so was willing to override the huge risks by signing him. The Ohtani deal fits both goals. It raises our trajectory and gives us a huge global stage. And, it puts us on a path towards another WS, especially if we solve 2B and possibly 3B. Arte has done so much to alter and improve this franchise, that even if things don't always work out, we, as fans, are really lucky to have him. Imagine how Mariners fans are going to feel seeing their farm gutted (so no future), a bloated payroll, and no Ohtani. Things could be a lot worse for us. So, please remember that the next time you feel like going on an anti-Arte rant.

That's the icing on the cake!!!! We easily can still get a 2B and another bat if we want! Woot!!!