krAbs

Does Taylor Blake Ward just troll all day long?

Correct - and I do. I've actually rated Eppler pretty highly in the past, especially on Ohtani and Trout (Ohtani because it really was about selling the Angels due to the fact that everyone was paying him about the same amount, and Trout because from a WAR perspective, that's probably the most team friendly contract in modern baseball). The Simmons trade was also a stroke of genius. But, this is definitely a frustrating black mark against him (unless he's about to pull some kinda rabbit out of his sleeve).

IDK man, isn't part of a GM's job is to figure out ways to convince players that they want to play for their team? Like, I get it, its a hard job. I couldn't do it. But, that's why I'm getting paid 80k a year and not...what DOES Eppler get paid? I'm guessing between 750k and 1.5mil a year, but I can't seem to find any sources. This can explain why individual pitchers did not sign, but a failure to get anyone significant reflects poorly on Eppler's ability to do his job.

20 is actually better than I expected, to be honest.

Guys guys, look on the bright side side. Arte is saving millions of dollars by not worrying about having a team that can compete. So, you knows there's that.

Idk man

Hey, maybe Rendon can pitch and none of us know about it?

"Eppler, however, believes the pitchers currently on the Angels’ staff have the potential to form a strong rotation." Haha awesome, awesome. Awesome.

“If you ask any team in baseball (if they need more pitching), they would say yes,” Eppler said. “Any time you can use more pitching, and we’ll follow along with that. If the opportunity presents itself, I think we’ll be mindful and look to make acquisitions to be better wherever we can be better.” Cool. Cool cool cool. This is fine. Sounds like a priority.

I mean...this seems a little unrealistically optimistic. I'd be pretty surprised of we signed Ryu - recent signaling is pointing that we may well be done.

This, combined with epplers recent comments about "being open" to more starting pitching...looking forward to another year of .500 baseball!

Dang, I had wanted him back. We have a lot of young pitching who could use a solid catcher.

Its possible that we are (as a group) underestimating Barria a little. https://theathletic.com/1161472/2019/08/26/it-gets-harder-every-time-angels-pitcher-jaime-barria-frustrated-by-frequent-demotions/ I don't have a subscription, but it sounds like this article goes into how Doug White kinda broke Barria. This somehow escaped my radar when it came out, but man...brief summary from reddit: "Doug White tried to make him throw four seamers up in the zone like every other pitcher in the league. Barría to my understanding was having a melt down (mentally and statistically) with being forced to change his style." If that's true....1. fuck Doug, and 2. he becomes a prime candidate to get back to his roots and have a big bounce back year. Still want to pick up at least one more top of the rotation guy, but pieces like this could be huge next year.

IDK, Probably Garret Cole (per steamer, he is projected to be the best pitcher in baseball next year by WAR, and is younger than anyone else in the top 5), or maybe Bieber (young guy, plenty of talent, good singer). Realistically, Ryu. He has injury problems, but we picked up a couple of guys who can eat innings. We're gonna need some luck to do well in the playoffs, so at least lets have guys who can do it if healthy.

True. Also just the hard reality: we need arms. Its interesting, baseball reference is a lot higher on him than fangraphs projections. 4.15 ERA vs 5.44 ERA (and a WAR of 0.5). If we get the BR version, then this is a solid pickup.

Career 38.0 GB% - so unfortunately not really.

Julio Teheran - technically a pitcher.

Marsh and Adell both hitting this year would be HUGE. Would give us the chance to move Upton to DH to split time with Ohtani, instead of having Pujols there when he's given a rest from 1B. And, Upton would be a killer 4th outfielder. Fangraphs is project Upton to have a bit of a bounce back year at the plate, with 30 home runs and a BA of .240. It would also give us the potential to have a defensive outfield to match our defensive infield.

Fangraphs projects Price and Keuchel to have essentially identical WAR next year. I think its less that people see something in Price, and more that we need SOMEONE and all the options suck.

A couple thoughts: 1. If all we get is Rendon, then you're right. If we make real moves for pitching this off season, then it kinda seems like a good move. Basically the question is: will the money be used or not? 2. I've been watching more soccer, and this kinda thing is actually extremely normal in the soccer world (read: the sports world outside of the US). Its super unusual to trade players - typically a team will sell players to a team (often in a different league), and that other team will re-negotiate a contract with that player and pay the original team. Then, your team can use that money however they want - maybe send it to several different teams for several different players, maybe package it along with some money from the war chest to get a big player, maybe just add it to the team's war chest. This was odd to me, until someone pointed out that this is literally just how modern economies work - we don't go to the grocery store with some chickens and try to trade it for food. We sell our time for money, and then use that money for goods. This doesn't really happen as much in the MLB (or most American sports) because of players unions, and the fact that there is REALLY just the one league we are dealing with - but, there isn't any reason why this is totally a crazy idea. Its...literally just capitalism.

I get the point this thread is making, but it still sounds like one of the stages of grief.

Very very true

haha not meaning to targeting you, specifically. And I get it. Every pitcher out there has an issue of some sort - unless they don't, and then their issue is the price tag. I would be good with any two of those, tbh. The trick is I'd like enough money left over to sign a catcher, and ideally a bullpen arm - and also I'd like to not totally sell the farm. I personally like the idea of Kluber and Ryu because the upside of a healthy/in-form Kluber-Ryu-Ohtani front three is incredible. I also think that Keuchel plays to our team's strengths well.

I love this time of the year because everyone starts whipping our their profoundly negative takes about every free agent pitcher on the market. What I've learned reading this board: Ryu is a huge mistake, Bumgarner is a huge mistake, Keuchel is a huge mistkae, Price is a huge mistake, and Kluber won't be worth it; but, we BETTER sign at least two starting pitchers.

My understanding is that their projection system thinks he's a big injury risk, and that's most of it. We'll see. But, I think its like..."half way between a full season of batting .300 and half a season of an injury-driven .220, lets call it .260 or so on "average"."