DoubleOffTheWall

I want Freese back. We win ballgames when he plays.

These are some good reasons. I am particularly interested in seeing how this young pitching staff develops. They could be really good. However, in the end, I think we are in for a rude awakening when we see the talent on some of these other teams.

Are the yankees in on either? They could sign one Upton or Cespedes, and trade Gardner. I wouldn't count them out. I think these players go to the Yankees and Nats.

When you look at this roster, do you see a team leader? Maybe that's an overrated element, especially in a 25 man game like baseball. But with Weaver in his twilight, I really wonder if this team has a leader or if there are a core of leaders like the 2002/Stoneman-built Angels had (Erstad, Salmon, Percival, Anderson) You look at recent champions and I think you can ID who the leaders are. Giants...Bumgarner and Pence Royals...Wade Davis, Gordon and Salvador Perez Cardinals...Wainwright, Pujols, Holliday Blowsox...Ortiz, Pedroia Phillies...Utley, Rollins, Hamels I guess the team leader right now is Pujols. I for one don't really see one, with Pujols hobbling around and a shadow of his former self. Hard for Weave to lead when he's diminishing as a player quickly. Perhaps Trout will emerge as one. But I think our lack of leadership really highlights how weak of a core the team has.

If they are so similar (aside from age), then one of the determining factors has to be the draft pick compensation, which I believe is attached to Upton only right?

I haven't closed the book on Arte yet. He may yet pull a move to improve this team greatly. While he did make poor decisions in the past (signing Pujols and Hamilton), when he left things to the "baseball people", those people also made dumb decisions, like Scioscia screwing Napoli and trading him for Wells, and Stoneman signing GMJ. As for comparing him to Sterling, that's laughable. Arte's Angels have had more success in his 12 years of ownership that Sterling ever had. Balmer took over and CP3 still ain't seen even the conference finals, and that team is starting to suck more and more.

lol @ the "its not my money" crew. they should be showing up soon. welcome.

what about Kubitza at 2nd instead of Gia

TDawg drops analytics with a mix of attitude. I love his posts.

I am not that impressed yet. All we have done is improve 2 areas where we either were solid (aybar) or had a decent replacement which would have only required money and no players (freese) - and we had a proven track record of winning when the latter plays. We havent done anything to address the real weakspots - LF, 2b and the pen and we have also weakened our farm to improve those areas where we already had some strengths.

Trading Gott was not a wise move. Who is in our pen now exactly? Wade LeBlanc?

Bourjos

we arent gonna get anyone. we are going to have kubitza in 3b and johnny G at 2b.

freese is a better player and the angels win when he plays.

Initial whining was over bourjos. Most people have realized long ago the true loss was Grichuk, which is a big loss. That being said, we win games with freese. A humongous sample size shows it. And people wanna roll with dudes like kubitza, which is laughable.

Lackey winning games while weaver turning into a pumpkin. Explains angelsbaseball since 2010

Conger sucks

haha

angels win when freese plays, bottom line.

We should improve our pitching by adding better defense, like we did adding Ocab back in thE day. If you remember, it was our putrid defense that got us in the end. We need to upgrade defensively at 2b, 3b and left field, and possibly inject better offense by doing so as well, which would address our biggest problem - scoring

We need flamethrowers out the pen, not big money starters. We also need a better defense at 3 positions. I would recommed shoring up the D instead - that will make the current starters look better.

how does everyone feel about upton? Feel like he's being overshadowed greatly by both Cespedes and Heyward, but 2-3 years ago we would have said he is the best of that bunch.

I don't think I would roll with Joe Nathan. We need someone like O'Day or Clippard.

These guys need to be in the world series often, hopefully against each other. Eppy u got work to do

Are you talking about the 2015 angels? They definitely could not hit and Smith sucked, so they had a 7th inning and a 9th inning guy only. If you are referring to the 2014 angels, then maybe. But that team had other problems beyond the slump, like no speed and no bench and they struck out a ton.