eaterfan

I believe that only moving up counts as winning the lottery. They didn't move up this year, so they can move up again. Finishing 1 or 2 isn't counted as winning if you are in your original slot.

Hard disagree. Get as much young talent into the org as possible. It's not money and this team isn't competing. If Arte can pay $$$ to get a recent first round pick as a PTBNL or something like that, why not? Why does it matter what the payroll is, as long as it's below the luxury tax? It's not like taking on more money will keep us from signing anyone who would lead us to the playoffs. One huge advantage that large market clubs have over small market ones is the ability to throw money around at young talent. The Yankees and Sox did this to build up their farm systems before the hard cap on draft slots went into place. Arte never did. The Dodgers take on bad deals to get in talent. Arte should, too.

I think at the end of the day, Arte is just cheap and short-sighted. He'll spend money on things the clients will see like the MLB payroll and the scoreboards, but will be as cheap as possible with every other facet of the game. A lot of the teams that do have the "secret sauce" to draft and development spend money on scouting, analytics for minor leaguers, better coaching and nutrition for them. It's not just random that teams that have invested the most in minor league development continue to have the most success with it.

One of them is 6' 3" 185 lbs and one of them is 5' 8" 160 lbs. I think the power projection between the two is different.

I'm not focused on it because to me Cellebrini is in a tier all his own. After that there are about 12 guys in the next tier. There are some I like better than others, but to me I wouldn't be surprised if any one of them became the best NHL player of the bunch. The Ducks don't "need" a forward any more than they "need" a defenseman. So basically, I see very little difference between having pick 2 and having pick 5. The chance of winning the one pick is pretty low.

The tax accountant talked to Ippei? I mean, how many financial classes do you think Ohtani has taken in his life? How comfortable would you be discussing technical finances in your second language in a country you aren't familiar with tax laws in? It's a sizeable chunk of money, but if you don't care about money and let people manage your money for you and there's always plenty in the account when you want to buy something, why worry about it? I mean a guy just stole $20 million from the Jacksonville Jaguars for gambling and the owner speaks English and could talk to anyone. There's a lot you can do if you have access to people's accounts and the accounts aren't getting close to $0.

It can. It depends on a lot of things. From the time FTX collapsed until Sam Bankman Fried was sentenced was only a year and a quarter. In that case there was a trial, and there were billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of accounts effected, lots of financial maneuvering, and SBF wasn't cooperating. If Ohtani handed over his financial information, I imagine it wouldn't take long to examine his few accounts. Plus, it sounds like the bookie is cooperating, too. I don't think this is the complicated web that FTX is. If Ipei wants to avoid a trial, I'm not surprised this isn't taking that long.

I don't get the hype with Rada. It's fun to daydream because he's so young, but what is the upside? He's small and has no pop. He has good command of the zone, but as the pitchers get more control as he moves up he will probably walk less. He doesn't seem to have the power to keep pitchers from throwing strikes. I get that power is the last thing to develop, but it's not like he's 6' 2" and skinny with a frame to add more weight. There's the occasional Altuve, but I don't like the odds of Rada being close to that. What does he project as in the big leagues? CF David Eckstein?

He can afford a halfway decent accountant. He shouldn't be paying any taxes anywhere.

The only All-Star game that mattered was MLB. And with interleague play it lost its luster. Get rid of interleague and it will be more fun again. The other games are really hard to do well because effort matters so much. In baseball the pitcher and hitter are really the only ones who need to try. Basically it requires the players to try for about 10% of the game. The other sports require effort from everyone all the time or else it doesn't look like an actual game that counts.

Sure, but we aren't winning and haven't been. So many teams have guys that are as good as those and in similar volumes. The rest of the Angels have been so bad for so long that we've grown into thinking that a few young guys contributing anything is exceptional. Also, is been a year. We've had Fletcher, Walsh, Borjous, Barria, Canning, Suarez come up and look good for short periods of time. The system was bad and still looks bad.

Yeah. And every year people on here say we're ranked too low and scouts only pay attention to the Yankees and Dodgers prospects... Meanwhile we've produced Trout, Ohtani and no one else of note in 15 years. Maybe the low rankings were right.

I'd like them to sign him. The team isn't going anywhere this year and I'd rather watch Joey Votto hit (or not) than a marginally better player who I don't care about. This is to say I'd rather win 80 games with Votto than 82 with CJ Cron.

Chargers hired former QB Jim Harbaugh as head coach. 5 year deal. Hopefully this works out for them.

Gibson is sick and they need to activate a backup. LaCombe is eligible to be sent down. Simple as that.

Even with all the players sitting out because they are entering the draft or transferring?

A 7-5 UCLA team is playing a 7-5 Boise St. team in something called the "LA Bowl hosted by Gronk" on December 16th is ruining college football way more than the transfer portal ever could. Maybe it's me, but I loved watching the Oregon Washington games between transfers Penix and Nix instead of them being stuck on mediocre Indiana and Auburn teams fighting to reach the Bahamas Bowl or whatever. But maybe you enjoy that more?

There are dozens of courts by my house. Whenever I walk by, they're half filled with old men with beards and mustaches wearing skirts trying to win the first place trophy in the ladies 55+ division tournament. It's horrid and unfair and no one can say anything about it because of this PC cancel culture BS.

If it's an unprotected first this year and maybe a first or second next year, I'm running to the phone to say yes. It would suck if that's the reason the team misses the playoffs...But I like how Dostal is playing and this team is legitimately a year away from being playoff caliber and 2 away from really contending. Oilers are all in this year and their goalies are really holding them back. Their coaching staff and front office are barely hanging on and need to do something. They are up against the cap, so Campbell has to come as an offset and maybe eat some of Gibson's salary this year. But if that can get two firsts (this year unprotected) it's with it. Plus, as you mentioned, it reduces the cap load the next few seasons. That could do a lot to help keep the youngsters together or add some solid depth. The Ducks need some more scoring and if they can have 2 lottery picks that would be awesome. Eiserman is supposed to be a scoring machine but will likely go in the top 3. Beyond that, it's pretty heavy on defenseman. 2 picks would allow you to go BPA with at least one of those picks instead of forcing a winger in the draft. For example, if the Ducks end up with picks 5 and 12 they could take an awesome defenseman at 5 and roll the dice on a wing at 12. If the winger pans out, great! If he doesn't, at least you got a great piece with the other pick.

They just through out huge contracts to aging vets who won't be contributors by the end of their deals. Yeah, overpaying is bad, but there's at least a significant chance the young guys outplay their contracts. I don't get throwing money around recklessly and then claiming the need to spend wisely. It's not a coherent plan. Especially when those big free agent deals were longer term than needed when those young stars you mentioned are coming up for bigger contracts. There are also big risks with the bridge deals, if both players play well, their next contracts will be much bigger right when we need to sign the guys who are coming in behind them. The cap is rising, so you might have to pay $3-4 million more each in 2 years, when the bridge deal is over.

Got to love the strategy of offering ridiculously high contracts to aging mediocre veterans and nickel and diming your young stars. I can see why this team has been so successful over the last half decade.

First was Pujols!

That's why he wouldn't give a definitive statement, but he said it's really hard to come back from a second UCL tear.

Talked to a guy who is an orthopedic surgeon today. He thinks it's likely that Ohtani is done as a pitcher, but he says it's not impossible he comes back to pitch. I imagine he probably moves to the outfield after he recovers from TJ if necessary. I think he'd be pretty good out there if he starts playing out there regularly and that brings more value than just DHing.

Even if Arte were willing to hire someone who could stand up to him, the meddling is only half the problem. The other part is that Arte is cheap and won't spend on anything that isn't on the MLB roster.