TroutCron

2 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

It's just such a disaster. It all really boils down to the players who take things into their own hands (i.e. throwing at batters) getting suspended and the cheating players getting off scot-free. 

It's like a person robbing someone's home and the homeowner gets jail time for shooting the robber, while the robber gets off because "the pain of being shot" was punishment enough. 

Manfred can deep clean my balls, taint, and asshole with his tongue.

I just threw up my dinner! 

On 2/17/2020 at 10:10 AM, DMVol said:

Sorry if already discussed but, if LaStella isn't going to play any 1b, who are we going to play when Albert DH's or when Albert gets hurt or when Albert hits like most guys who are 41?  

This is very disturbing. If Albert plays more than twice a week then 1B becomes a big liability. I hope that Walsh figures it out  because I agree that Thaiss and Ward are AAA career players. 

So how do you build a trade now when you don’t know how prospects will progress or if your pitching targets are indeed available, are healthy and aren’t on a team that has a chance to compete for a division title or WC spot? Way too many variables right now to venture a guess.  

23 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Really hard to predict. Ohtani, Heaney, Bundy, Canning, and maybe Sandoval (if he gets the playing time) could all produce 2-3 WAR. If healthy.

If healthy.

If....

healthy.

Of course Suarez could figure it out and be a big surprise. Teheran's peripherals are too mediocre. Ohtani has the highest potential, of course, but also has the lowest inning cap (120?). So I'd guess one of Heaney, Bundy, or Canning. Bundy?

 

The only thing Suarez will figure out is where the next buffet is. He has very little chance of being an effective MLB pitcher. 

The Angels didn’t have a pitching coach last season, they had Doug White! 

My feeling is that the Angels organization lacks the development skills that successful organizations, like the Dodgers, Rays and Braves have. Some of the problems also come from finishing in the middle of the pack for years. Drafting isn’t an exact science but scouts have to be able to project. 

Doesn’t Chris Rodriguez have to show something too? Hopefully he is healthy and can start to move up in the system. He could  be a good September call up for some starts.  

Soriano out for 2020 with TJ surgery! The hits keep on coming. 

6 hours ago, halomatt said:

I’d rather trade Pederson and Marsh to the Padres for Gore and a reliever with options. 

Let Adell start the year with the big club and take his lumps. 

The Padres aren’t trading Gore just like Adell is untouchable. The lesson here is if you want top of the rotation starters you need to draft and develop them, with emphasis on development. 

1 minute ago, Dochalo said:

I don't understand why we wouldn't just give up a lesser prospect and not take pages.  

Pages has huge upside at 19 years old though a pitching prospect would be more desirable.. 

On 1/9/2020 at 2:53 PM, tdawg87 said:

The QO is intriguing. He may very well accept it. If he does, that gives an extra year for Wilson to develOhhh.

Wilson, who was traded to the Giants in the salary dump with Cozart? 

Pederson crushes righties and Goodwin is better against lefties. This is a good platoon for RF. Defensively, Pederson is a superior defender. 

If Ohtani can give the Angels 5-6 innings a start @3.30 ERA then that is a big plus. If he has difficulty pitching this season then I would give him a 1B glove and play him there full time. I would rather rotate guys through the DH spot to keep everyone fresh.  

4 minutes ago, SlappyUtilityMIF said:

I'm more into the flexibility lineup. I spread and balance it out.

1. Fletcher/LaStella

2. Pederson/Goodwin

3. Trout 

4. Ohtani 

5. Rendon

6. Upton

7. Pujols/Walsh

8. Simba

9. Castro 

 

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La Stella will play 1B against righties and 2B when Fletcher needs a rest. He is an excellent utility player. 

16 hours ago, Biergott said:

Bye Rainfro, I just hope this doesn’t mean Marsh is going and Adell has to be untouchable.

Pederson is a FA at the end of this season so there is no impact on Marsh unless he tears it up in AAA. Marsh should be starting in RF by 2021 with Adell in LF. 
 

My big Question is who plays RF against Lefties this season? Pederson is totally useless against southpaws. 

There could be something else in the works. If the Angels keep Joc he can be flipped at he deadline if Adell isn’t ready. For now, the Angels can use the left handed power bat. Rengifo was a fair price to pay. 

5 hours ago, stormngt said:

We have two new starting pitchers.  We signed an impact 3b for the offense.  We have more outfielders than we need.  We seem to have more middle infielders than we need.  We signed our catcher.

Therefore are we done?  Will the any other acquisition from here on out only going to be minor improvements?

Have you been following the Angels for long? The Angels always are near the top of the injured list. A lot of times over the course of 162 games, the teams with playable depth are often the winners. Depth is a good thing. 

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

Cleveland, twice, apparently 

I am not talking about the past, I mean from this point until the end of Spring Training. 

What team is going to trade a TOR pitcher, especially one with team control? Maybe try to get one of the Marlins young starters and try to develop him into a frontline pitcher. This is just an example. Bo team that has designs on contending is going to trade a TOR pitcher. 

On 1/4/2020 at 10:53 AM, Stradling said:

Yea, the reason I chose these trade ideas is none of them are desperate.  Losing any of these guys isn’t going to have a long term affect on the team.  If you lost Fletcher it would absolutely sting, but he’s never going to be amazing, just a very useful part.  We would be bringing in other very useful parts that even if they weren’t the saviors (which they aren’t) they would be solid starting pitchers.  

I wouldn’t trade Fletcher for any of those guy. I think a lot of you guys are underestimating just how valuable Fletcher is. He is the perfect compliment to Trout and Rendon. He does everything well and is cheap.
 

LaStella shouldn’t be traded unless Thaiss shows some major improvement with the bat. Ward is just a throw in in any deal given his very poor showing in MLB both offensively and defensively. The Tigers are asking a lot for Boyd, he probably won’t be moved until July. The same goes for Gray.  Samardja is just another arm who doesn’t move the needle much. I would pass on all three. The biggest problem the Angels have is not having young pitching to trade in return. The Rockies, Giants and Tigers all need pitching.
 

On 12/31/2019 at 5:13 AM, Pancake Bear said:

Catchers don't make that big of a difference.

Wrong. A quality catcher can control the running game, can detect a problem with a pitcher’s delivery, and can control the pace of the game. This is especially inportant with young pitching. 

On 12/30/2019 at 4:09 PM, nate said:

Not saying he is perfect, his biggest mistakes were hiring Ausmus and signing Cozart.

When you consider though how big of a mess the entire organization was when he took over, I think he has done well building the team up to be winners in the future.

Consider that he had the worst farm system, a team full of bloated salaries and no pitching depth.  He also had a stubborn manager that had clearly lost pace with modern baseball.  Consider that he wasn't drawn into huge bidding wars and overpays for pitchers that allowed the Angels to come into this offseason with a good amount of cash to spend, unfortunately the pitching was still way overpriced but I am happy with the direction of the team and also pleased that he hasn't emptied out the system with reactionary trades.

I really hope Eppler gets a couple more years but I am worried that if this season doesn't go well he is gone.

I have to disagree. You aren’t going to win signing a bunch of guys to one year contracts and where is the young pitching? There still is no catching in the organization. 
 

I would like to see an overhaul of the Scouting Department and give Eppler the June draft to bring in high upside pitching. 

On 12/30/2019 at 10:31 PM, Second Base said:

It all depends on the deal. Marsh for Boyd, Ray or Price is desperation and a severe overpay. Marsh for Lamet or Gray is pretty reasonable.

Marsh headlining a package for Clevinger would be a steal. Though as I have come to understand, there are some things that Clevinger really didn't like when he was with the Angels. So I don't see that happening.

As far as Adell goes. If it's a deal for Walker Buehler, I'd very strongly consider it. Anything else, don't bother, really.

Clevenger doesn’t gave a say on where or if he is traded. I would think that a team trading a TOR pitcher would want young pitching in return which the Angels don’t have. The Angels need to do a much better job of evaluating and developing pitching if they are going to have TOR arms. 

Adell should be untouchable and Marsh only be traded for high end pitching. 
 

2 hours ago, Erstad Grit said:

I think the opposite is true too. At this point who is giving Castro a two year deal? 

The Angels have no catcher in the minors even remotely close to the majors so I see no reason that they can’t sign either Chirinos or Castro. A trade with the Blue Jays for a catcher would be ideal. 

Pujols has two seasons left.He will be lucky to hit 40 more. Hopefully Maddon Sees Pujols’ negative value and cuts his playing tine to two games a week.