Angels

Good starts? They were akin to a blind squirrel finding an acorn. He had more walks than strikeouts in that final "good" start, only two strikeouts, and at one point during the first few innings threw more balls than strikes. It was obvious he wasn't pitching well Santiago may have been inconsistent and far from a good option...but compared to Wilson? ... And hey, speaking of bullpen games...do you think that Wilson would've given the team more innings than Rasmus or Santiago? I mean, what was the difference as far as expected innings? Forget quality innings for a sec.... just expected innings. Was there some difference to be expected there?

The snide idiocy aside, who the F ever said that Dipoto was infallible? Of course he isn't. He has made a few questionable trades. Some of his signings were busts. He is far from infallible. However, Wilson was literally one of the absolute worst pitchers in baseball from around the end of May all the way to the end of the season. There was absolutely no reason for him to start over Rasmus or Santiago. None. If Dipoto truly advocated or agreed with the decision to start Wilson then he is not who I thought he was. I still think that was a Scioscia decision. Besides, does anyone really believe that Dipoto and Scioscia agree with everything? Who gets their way in the event of a disagreement (managerial decision)? Scioscia.

Yeah. I'm not watching and I don't care. And I can't even begin to imagine how shitty the ratings will be.

What if they didn't? What if only Scioscia did? Nobody here really knows what they truly discussed or what happened behind closed doors... but common sense will tell you that no matter what happens, the manager's voice is the loudest when it comes to managerial decisions. The manager decides who plays and who doesn't. That's what a manager does. Scioscia isn't some rookie manager, anyway. He's well established and you can be certain that he would not let some newbie GM dictate how things should be done on the managerial level

People who think alike won't always agree on everything. Now picture Scioscia and Dipoto. Managerial decisions are on Scioscia. His voice is the loudest because he is the manager. If Scioscia wanted to start Wilson and Dipoto tried to convince him that that wasn't a good idea, who gets their way? Dipoto or Scioscia? Common sense will tell you that the manager does. After all, he is the manager, not Dipoto. There is no way though that a SABR-minded GM would advocate starting Wilson - especially after what we've seen these last 4 months. Dipoto ain't that dumb

Right. So Dipoto tells Scioscia what to do and who to play. Scioscia agrees. Right. Yeah, no. Common sense will tell you that a manager decides who should play and who shouldn't. That's what a manager does. Just like common sense will tell you that all those in-game decisions had nothing to do with Dipoto and everything to do with Scioscia. Again, that's his job.

Every single player on the postseason roster was viewed as a potential asset. That does not mean that Dipoto told Scioscia who to play, who to start, etc. They both decided who should be on the roster, that's it. The rest was up to Scioscia to decide on who should play and how he should best utilize the players at his disposal. He's the manager and that's his JOB. Do you guys think Dipoto and Scioscia agree on everything, anyway? Of course not. And when it comes to managerial decisions Scioscia's voice is the loudest...for obvious reasons.

Being on the roster doesn't mean Dipoto wanted Scioscia to play him. It just means that he was viewed as a potential asset and it's up to Scioscia to decide on how to best utilize the players at his disposal. It's not a general manager's job to tell a manager who to play and how to manage. Nobody told Scioscia to bunt all those times. Nobody told him to start Wilson. Nobody told him to play Hamilton every game.

Billy boy traded away some pretty good prospects only to witness one of the most epic regular season collapses ever. And the epic choke during the WC game.

With what prospects?

He's going to need to figure that out during the offseason. And another thing that may help him (in the K department) is for him not to be taking strike 1 and 3 so often. But he better figure out that high fastball because that's what he will get in the future. And if he doesn't we may see an even more unrecognizable Trout next year.

That's because the first half Trout was incredible. And then pitchers started to adjust to him. Pitchers started throwing him WAY more high fastballs and he wasn't the same.

He did decline offensively from 2013. Did you see his second half numbers, though? He was getting more and more high fastballs and he didn't know what to do with them.

Given the circumstances, it's not stupid to suggest that he would've been left off of a bunch of postseason rosters. Dude missed the final month+ of the regular season. Couldn't even play during any point of the final week of the regular season. Reported that it hurt to breathe. And all of a sudden he's fit and good to go for the postseason? Does not compute. And the results and the way he looked say it all. Here were also his second half numbers: .228/.283/.387

Really doubtful. Regardless of his behavior...he's way too talented to trade.

And Iannetta was excellent. Yeah, let's get rid of all of our good players.

Was that supposed to be a sensible, well-thought-out post? Lumping Kendrick and Aybar with Hamilton and CJ is a joke.

Different hitter, different player. But still awesome.

He wasn't the same hitter during the second half. Pitchers started pitching to him differently and kept attacking him more and more with high fastballs. It's also not as much about how much he has declined as it is about the way he has declined. He's a different hitter.

Yea. "Cowboy" Joe West will be the star of the show. Well done, MLB.

Aybar is awesome. And a ridiculous bargain. Why would anyone even want to see him traded?

And it's pretty apparent looking at the evidence that Trout came into this season with a different approach and mindset. He wanted to be a HR hitter. It was intentional. Who knows, maybe he took losing MVP to Cabrera personally? I want the old Trout back!

Tony Blengino is still writing for fangraphs? What a massive career facepalm to go from assistant to a MLB GM to some part-time writer on fangraphs.

Reading comprehension..... You've said if before. Though is it any surprise that you would be losing track of the things you've said? I wonder why

You've said many times before that Dipoto duped Arte into signing those guys. Sure doesn't seem like it considering he's still the GM, does it?