halomatt

Good stuff. 
I think to really understand the Astros, especially how their arc is relevant to the Angels, we have to go back before even that terrible period. They were a good team from 1997-2005, with six playoff berths out of nine seasons. Those were the days of the "Killer Bs" - Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman, and Derek Bell (sorta). Bagwell retired after 2005, Biggio after 2007, Berkman traded in 2010 - which was also staff ace Roy Oswalt's last year (Bell left after '99 but was a bit overhyped to make the "Bs" a threesome, before Berkman came along).
Meaning, the core team got old and retired, and the Astros followed a natural pattern of decline. As far as I can tell, they didn't grasp at straws and try to keep things going. They accepted the natural cycle of things--of rise, peak, and decline before rising again--which pretty much no team is immune to. Some have shorter cycles, some longer. The Yankees of the last 25 years have kind of broken the mold of that, mainly through spending far more than everyone else. From 1995 to 2022 they have reached the postseason in all but four seasons, but even most of those are clustered together (three from 2013-16). They didn't make it last year, but seem playoff bound again this year.
The Angels from 2002-09 were sort of similar to the Astros from 97-05, but at least they won a WS. But even when much of the core team departed after 09, Arte wouldn't accept a down-cycle, maybe partially because he missed out on that lone World Series, but also because he didn't seem to understand how baseball works. By 2009, the Angels farm had become fallow. After peaking in 2005 (MLB #1 org rank), most of the most exciting prospects turned out to be not all that exciting (e.g. Kotchman, McPherson, Mathis), though some had become pretty good players (e.g. Aybar, Kendrick, Napoli). But everything that happened from 2010 on speaks of a team owner who was unwilling to face reality: the Golden Age of 2002-09 was over, and there was no easy way to get back to a new Golden Age - you had to go through the cycle, the "Fall" of mythology.
As a thought experiment, let's line up the Astros' 2006 to the Angels 2010. The Astros skidded along in mediocrity for a few years in the wake of their good era, as the last remnants of those teams departed and weren't replaced. and then accepted the inevitably and were really bad from 2011-14, before rising from the ashes in 2015. If the Angels had followed a similar pattern, 2010-14 would have been mediocre, 2015-18 really bad, and 2019 the beginning of a new era. Or something like that. The Astros in the 2010s didn't have Mike Trout, so presumably the Angels could have shortened the down-cycle to maybe five or six years, and been good again by the mid-2010s -- and within another half decade of Trout's prime.
But it didn't happen, because Arte Moreno is megalomaniac and doesn't understand baseball, and none of his GMs could make up the difference (I could wax philosophical here and say that Arte's primary mistake is that he doesn't understand that baseball is more naturalistic - that is, it follows the cycles of nature - whereas he, as a businessman, treats it as a capitalist venture, and thus more mechanistic).
So here we are, still circling the drain - quite possibly facing the worst team record since the 90s, if not before (they were 70-92 in 1999, the worst of the 90s, and are currently on pace for 59-103; their franchise worst record of 65-95 in 1980).
As CG Jung said, the only way out is through. What "through" means, in my opinion, is not worrying about contending for the foreseeable future, at least not in the front office (Ron Washington can sing that song in the clubhouse)--but re-diverting resources to farm development. Nothing new here. I'm pretty sure Perry knows this, but the question is whether he can convince Arte - or if Arte will kick him to the curb after another terrible year, and look for the next second rate GM candidate who will always say "yes."
I suppose I still hold out hope that Perry already convinced Arte of that, thus the lack of major free agent signings in the offseason. I think a lot hinged on Shohei - if he had returned to the Angels, Arte would have gone all in and had a Metsian payroll. Maybe Shohei's departure and Trout and Rendon's injuries sealed the deal, and Arte will resign himself to rebuilding. If so, and if the Angels do it well, they're already part of the way there. They've got some solid young players to build around, even if none of them become more quality regulars and maybe a borderline star or two. In a best-case scenario, the Angels are able to bring in some prospects at the deadline this year, the young players continue to progress, some of the prospects currently in the minors progress well, they have a good draft and sign some good international talent. I know, that's a lot of things. They could even be interesting to watch as soon as next year, though probably not a serious contender until 2027-28 at the very earliest. Maybe soon enough to Trout into the postseason, even if he needs a wheelchair.
 

Well, that assumes that Arte doesn't panic buy and overspend on older guys and middling free agents, in the hopes of returning to relevancy. Meaning, what you're saying should be the case, but it is contingent on Arte accepting the reality of the situation.
I suppose the good news is that he didn't do that last offseason, and seemed to accept the "taking stock" approach to 2024. If 2024 is truly a taking stock year, as I suggested before the season began, the stock is that the Angels suck, top to bottom. There's some potential, but the nucleus of young guys is both not large or good enough to build a near-future contender. Meaning, the Angels entered the season with the hope that Trout and Rendon could stay healthy and lead the young guys to, if not a wildcard, at least a winning record and franchise upswing. Now it looks like they're only going deeper in the hole. Any hopes of a Rendon revival and a Trout renaissance are squashed, and the young guys all still have a ways to go before they reach their prime, and probably not as good as hoped.
 

I think you're pretty much spot on. Anyone on an expiring deal will surely be up for grabs.
My only additional thought is it may be time to consider moving players who are getting up there in arbitration years. Many small budget teams each year reset by trading a player who has 1 or 2 years of arbitration left. We just saw it with Miami dealing Arraez and Tampa has done it many times with Chris Archer, Austin Meadows, or Tyler Glasnow. If you're "right" about the player's long term evaluation, you can pull off a massive win of a deal. Every year many "value surplus" focused teams like the Yankees or Twins make trades for rental players who via arbitration aren't being paid as much as they maybe should be. Alex Verdugo would be a prime example. 
This brings Taylor Ward, Luis Rengifo, Patrick Sandoval, and maybe Griffin Canning into play. If any of these guys aren't going to be worth a big deal in the future, they also become trade candidates. Sandoval is making $10mm this year -- arbitration isn't cheap. I don't know if Perry in the last year of his deal has the long term focus to be thinking about these sort of things, but a wise GM might try to maximize these guys' value before they actually become expiring free agents. 

Guys that we should trade
   * The one-year Bp arms (package them with the bigger guys)
   * Anderson and Ward (trade them while there values are high)
   * Drury (this M'f needs to start hitting the ball, and than get packaged with Ward) 
Consider trade, if it a nice return or keep
   * Rengifo
Assess trade Value
   * Sandoval
   * Canning 
   
 

I broke my ankle in mid October. Still walking with a limp and a cane. 8 screws and a metal plate and two surgeries later, I’m still trying to get full range of motion. Sucks for sure. 

I broke my ankle in mid October. Still walking with a limp and a cane. 8 screws and a metal plate and two surgeries later, I’m still trying to get full range of motion. Sucks for sure. 

i listen if i'm in the car during a game.
i also listen on the MLB app if i'm at school. 
i find it useful.

Come on now, that's a 70-75 win team at least!
Seriously though, Neto and Schanuel are guys who could be nice complementary players on a good team. I think it is unrealistic to think of them as players to build around, but good teams need guys like them. O'Hoppe could be a bit more, but playing catcher really limits how much you can count on a player for a full season of star level production. Still, he definitely seems like a guy who could develop and be a leader on a championship team if things progress well. Adell is a guy to dream on, but still very much a work in progress and has as much probability of being a career AAAA guy as he does of being a quality major leaguer. The pitching is dismal. Detmers is a 4-5 guy at best at this point in a good organization. He could still develop, but I think mid rotation is a good deal of improvement away for him. Anderson is a known commodity and shouldn't be anything more than a backend of the rotation guy. Sandoval and Canning both are backend of the rotation guys or Triple A insurance on a championship caliber roster. Nothing reassuring in the bullpen either. I don't think Minasian can take the full blame, though he certainly hasn't done anything that makes me hopeful for the future. The organization is a mess, top to bottom. I don't see that changing until Arte either sells or brings in an Epstein type and divests control to them entirely. Restructuring from the ground up is needed.
It would be great if Ward, Rengifo, Drury, Anderson, Estevez, etc. can perform well enough to get some value in return. 
There isn't a single player in the organization that shouldn't be available for the right offer.
I tend to be a homer but anyone looking at the organization at this point and seeing anything other than disfunction is deluding themselves. It works for Arte, he's gotten an amazing return on his investment and continues to benefit from the market he was fortunate to buy his way into. But the on field baseball portion of Angels baseball is very broken at all levels.
 
 

Do not....do not make any moves to improve this year.  Make moves for the future only. 

Lol, sir, it is over and isn't going to happen this year. It never was. 

With these types of injuries, the biggest determining factor is whether the ankle was fractured into the joint line of the ankle disrupting the cartilage of the ankle. Very difficult to recover with long term consequences, think Tiger Woods. Also depends on how well the surgeon is able to align the fracture lines. If it happened above the joint, should heal well but the rehab is long.

Hope things get better for you soon!  As a side note, can you play 3B?

Get better!  

I broke my ankle in mid October. Still walking with a limp and a cane. 8 screws and a metal plate and two surgeries later, I’m still trying to get full range of motion. Sucks for sure. 

I broke my ankle in mid October. Still walking with a limp and a cane. 8 screws and a metal plate and two surgeries later, I’m still trying to get full range of motion. Sucks for sure. 

I broke my ankle in mid October. Still walking with a limp and a cane. 8 screws and a metal plate and two surgeries later, I’m still trying to get full range of motion. Sucks for sure. 

You guys shouldn't have been hyping him up. 

Yep.  And I'm sure someone will chime in and claim that's because the Angels get guys to the bigs faster, etc., etc.  Cool.  The team has still consistently been mediocre-to-sucky for a decade now, so it's clear that even the guys they're getting to the majors faster aren't collectively enough to truly make a difference.  And, yes, I understand that strategy is a recent trend, but as I've said elsewhere, you basically can't miss with any of those guys if you're employing that strategy--especially when your other picks have been mediocre at best and disastrous at worst.

Or sell and tank. They should be taking offers now, but don't really have much to sell - except for guys they'd want to keep. So right now the hope is that guys like Ward, Anderson and the relievers play well enough that they can be flipped for prospects in July. I mean, except for maybe 6-8ish guys in the entire org, everyone is expendable. 
 

I think what gets me most, and what makes me feel like it is just a terrible organization, is that they've now had almost a decade of mediocrity-to-crapitude, and still have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball. It is frankly mind-boggling.

Just in the last couple weeks:
Anthony Rendon out indefinitely (again) Trout out for 4-8 weeks (at least) Breakout prospect Cole Fontenelle has major leg injury, out for year After seemingly breaking out, "staff ace" Reid Detmers has given up 16 ER in last three starts (12 in last two) Also after seemingly breaking out, Jo Adell is back to sucking Probably more that I can't be bothered typing The team is 12-22, ten games below .500 on May 5, with no signs of improvement. Meaning, it is going to be a long season, most likely. Not sure, but it is probably one of their worst starts in years (and yes, I know about 6-14...but they were 18-16 at this point in 2002).
What's worse is that it is hard to imagine a path out of this morass. Except for a few kinda bright spots, the farm system still sucks, and there's just not enough talent between the major league team and the best of the farm to put together a contender in the foreseeable future. And at this point, let's be honest: nothing Perry Minasian has done in the last few years earns confidence in whatever his path forward is (most likely out of a job before 2025).
I suppose the silver lining is that, ironically, the last two years feels like the streak of mediocrity has ended, as the team is legitimately bad. Actually, they've been pretty bad for a few years, but this year could be really bad. But I'm sure the Angels will find a way to even fuck that up, and play better in the second half, and scramble for 70ish wins somehow. 
But who knows, maybe 2024 is for the Angels what 2011 was for the Astros. The Astros then had three years in a row in which they lost at least 106 games, a better but still really bad year in 2014, but then started getting good in 2015 and were a powerhouse from 2017-23. 
We can dream, right? 
Right now I feel more apathetic about the Angels than I have in...well, ever. I just don't really care all that much and can't muster up my usual angle towards optimism (aka "spin"). I suppose this is what happens when a perennially mediocre team loses its top-end talent--Trout to injury and decline, Ohtani to fresher waters. Trout and Ohtani were masking what has been the case since 2016 or so: a bad franchise and bad team. 

That might not have happened if he cared more.  

Oh I get it -- I just dont want to see another guy pushed into something and then being worse off for it.  

Call me a hater, but there's a part of me that is enjoying seeing their refusal to add IF help or sign an OFer come back to bite them in the ass.  I wasn't in the "sign the big guys" camp, but I wanted them to make sensible offers to people who weren't absolute trash. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that would have kept them from playing the young guys AND making an attempt at safeguarding themselves by signing capable players. 
People can say that it takes two to tango and the sort, but there's enough info out there to know who the Angels did and didn't make offers on.  
 

Funny you should say that, the last time they got him on video we got to see what he said .vs how Sam Blum reported it.  Also, did you read what he said after his most recent injury? 
I know some of you just want to hate the guy but you're going at it like Clod did AP.

Don't be a pussy, Doc - I'm rooting for it.