Catwhoshatinthehat

I looked through this forum and the last FF thread I saw was for 2015 so figured I'd start one for 2016. With everything else going on football season has (thankfully) snuck up on me and opening night is a week from Thursday. I have both my drafts next week, have done little or no research and will likely just read some articles and view rankings before my drafts. I look at the rankings and we continue to see more of a shift to WR's especially after so many of last year's top RB's were busts by fantasy standards. Any players you are targeting or strategies you're using for drafts? I'm picking 1st overall in a 14 team league and 8th in a 10 team league. In both cases I think I'll be going WR unless a top RB falls to 8 and even then I'm hesitant.

As of the end of March the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station was considering an upgrade so they could handle bigger ships. I know there was also talk of possibly closing it and selling the land which most people in the area are opposed to. There was supposed to be an open forum meeting in early April for citizens to voice their concerns but I can't find any articles that discuss what the conclusion was. Regardless about the last thing I want to see done to that area which includes a wildlife refuge is the land being sold off and developed. It's not just the 405 north traffic that's a nightmare the 605 to 405 south interchange is always slow starting at about 4pm during the week even going back to when I made that drive daily over 10 years ago.

So upon reading up some more on it this seems like a nice spin job by San Diego. The CBA agreement from 2011 that set the rookie pay scale makes rookie contracts 4 years with a 5th year team option. One stipulation some teams have put into contracts is that if they cut a player in the 4th year they don't have to pay him for that year because absent that language they would have to pay him as would another team that signs him for that season. What every third overall pick has had in their agreement since the new CBA went into place is either language removing that 4th year payment or their signing bonus fully guaranteed at the end of their rookie season. Bosa is asking for the same thing and San Diego won't concede on either. So unless what I'm reading is wrong Bosa isn't expecting anything unusual given where he was drafted while San Diego doesn't want to give him the same contract other players drafted in the same range have received. I know both sides have made comments about this whole dispute (Bosa's mom) but this really makes it awkward for whenever it does get resolved because they're trying to make him look like the bad guy.

As much as I like seeing the Chargers make the news for the wrong reasons while disappointing their fans I'm 100% on their side on this. I'm not sure what Bosa expected given the agreement that's been in place for 5 years now which puts a scale/cap on rookie contracts. It'll be interesting to see if he doesn't sign and ends up back in next years draft because I don't see some team giving him much more than what San Diego has offered.

The Angels had what was considered the top farm system in 2005 and were top 5 in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Over the 2003-2007 period they had the 2nd overall farm system based on cumulative rankings per Baseball America.

I remember reading an article after his first start back that talked about how he looked good but to expect him to have some kinks to work through as pitchers coming back from TJ are generally erratic early on while they get their control back. I'm not concerned right now as long as he's able to stay healthy.

I don't think the team and players have that much to do with it. It's been mentioned by others over the years but before the mortgage bubble popped some of the luxury suites were occupied by companies that now no longer exist. OC was one of if not the worst bubbles and the amount of money being thrown around was ridiculous. I don't expect cities to not do stupid things that cost taxpayers but I think you'd be hard pressed to get the support of voters to finance a sports team stadium. As far as Arte goes I don't think he's cheap I think he's just trying to get the best deal for himself like any of us would and yes the name change will (and should) cost him during these negotiations.

A lot of angry words come to mind but I'll just go with "disgusting."

So Maddon buying beers at the Cubs Convention makes him an idiot liquoring up fans but the owner, GM, scouting director, etc. who have come to the AW fan fests are good guys for shooting the **** with fans? Is it just the act of buying beer that makes him an idiot? Generally fans of teams appreciate when players/owners/front office personnel hang out with them or come off as regular people. I've got nothing against Mike about his interaction with fans and don't think a manager being like Maddon or Mike is an issue as far as personality goes I'm just trying to understand where the line is drawn.

This type of thread will illicit the same type of responses we see in the 11 game losing streak thread and various other Scioscia threads: Some posters will question the accuracy, how could other execs really know Scioscia wields too much power or forced Jerry out, it's not his fault and so on. Others will say it reinforces what they've been saying for years. Either way I'm in the camp that says it's just time for a change. The injuries are a big reason they have the record they do but too often teams under Scioscia have seemed to play like they're just going through the motions. There's only two constants left the last 10+ years.

As to the question I don't think a team with the best player in the game is hopeless but they definitely aren't in good shape. Even without the injuries I don't think anyone who objectively follows the team thought they were playoff bound in 2016. The fact that they only have 3 regular contributors who were drafted going back to 2009 and no presence in the international market doesn't bode well for the next few years. Hopefully I'm wrong and some guys they didn't expect much out of step up.

Just a heads up that I posted the article on page 5 in the losing streak thread: http://www.angelswin-forum.com/forums/topic/27469-scioscia-on-11-game-losing-streak-you-turn-the-page-from-every-game/?page=5 I posted it there because of the manager comments but it may lead to a different type of discussion here.

The area that I tweak is my upper back near the left shoulder and it limits the range of motion in my neck and upper back. I learned a few times ago that if it grabs to start stretching immediately which I imagine accomplishes the same as laying on a ball or roller and rolling it out. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes for me to immediately start stretching it out.

Might be a Craig but came across this and thought it was relevant to where the discussion has ended up: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/six-reasons-the-angels-look-like-the-most-hopeless-franchise-in-baseball/

Overall the crime rate for OC is pretty good but the rate (violent, property and so on) in South OC whether you're talking Mission Viejo, Aliso, Irvine, etc. is quite a bit lower than that of Santa Ana and Anaheim. You're counting on gentrification which could work but it's far from a guarantee. They're building in Costa Mesa as you mentioned and we drove by one of the new condos yesterday that I swore they were advertising in the low 600's. Maybe I misread the amount and I'm sure they're nice but there's no way I'd pay anything like that to live in a condo when you can find houses in that same price range. Irvine and surrounding areas get away with places like that because of the number of professionals working in Irvine/Tustin and so on but also because it's a desirable area. I live in Huntington far enough from main street that I can avoid it completely. Huntington is far from perfect and the overbuilding they've done has led to some of the problems. Pacific City is fine in theory but traffic on Beach and PCH was bad enough before they put that in and it's not like you can hop off a freeway right there. To Pacific City's credit they're trying to get away form the Main Street bar scene which has led to a lot of the problems they've had downtown.

They will come initially but long term is the bigger issue that every new development faces. Irvine is one of the biggest safe cities in America with a low crime rate and great schools and people feel safer dropping their kids off at the Spectrum than they would in Anaheim. As far as the big city feel that's exactly what I don't want and I'd wager a lot of people in OC feel the same way considering what the growth in South OC has looked like. Personally I want nothing to do with an area like LA and much prefer living in a housing track like I do now. I understand that plenty of people prefer the big city feel, like living where they can walk to everything and so on but I don't want to deal with crap parking, loud neighbors and the list goes on.

My mom's been working with Make A Wish for I don't know how many years. There's a lot of athletes and famous people who work with the foundation regularly that you don't hear about because it's not on an ESPN special and they do it because they want to. The irony is those are the ones most of us would appreciate most but we don't hear about it. I'm sure there's some famous people out there regular folk think are selfish aholes and they're doing a lot off camera for foundations and charities.

2016 depends on the QB play and whether or not there's a championship hangover on the defensive side of the ball. They lost Jackson and Treviathan from last year which hurts but I think they still have the talent to be fine on defense assume Talib can refrain from Plaxico Burressing himself. I'm still in shock they won it last year because I said the only way it happens is if the defense played out of their minds which I no way in hell expected to happen. I really can't complain about anything that happens this year or the next few after they won it all last year. Hopefully Lynch or the other kid develop into the long term answer at QB.

Anything is possible but both the Cubs and Rangers had top 10 farm systems in 2014 which help the rebuild or rebound process. Both teams are in 1st in their respective division and have top 10 (Texas) and top 15 (Cubs) farm systems still. The Angels meanwhile have the worst farm system in baseball which makes it harder to rebuild but also puts them at a disadvantage because teams with better farm systems can acquire veterans via trade or bring up players to fill out the roster. I'm not saying it's hopeless just that they have a much harder road ahead of them then the 2014 Cubs or Rangers did.

I don't even need to bring up the previous minimum wage thread to know the vast majority predicted this would happen. Anyone who has taken econ 101, owned a business or has the slightest idea how business works knows this is why raising the minimum wage backfires. The only people who pushed for it either didn't believe it, didn't care, wanted to push feel good legislation or were buying votes.

Just covering his bases with the first 4 as it's better to be safe than sorry. Pretty sure the last one is for society.

Waiver add, cost controlled arm with some possible upside that isn't going to displace anyone considering how bad the farm system is. Sooner or later some of the sh*t the front office has flung at the proverbial wall has to stick.

What a ****. In all seriousness though he's right. I sit in front of a computer for 10+ hours a day which doesn't help my metabolism or posture. I make it a point to get up and take walks and couple that with exercise/diet and I've lost about 10 lbs this year which has helped my back.

My back issues have always been upper/center so I can't quite relate but going to a chiro has helped me. That said years ago I initially started off going weekly and have scaled that back to once every 2-3 weeks because over manipulation, i.e. adjustments cause my muscles to tighten up. Knock on wood but I haven't had a flare up for a while and I've been doing a lot more interval training which involves stretching and that seems to help as my back in general is looser.