AngelsFanForever

I’ll say this, if they do nothing, that’s a clear indication Arte is 100% done. I think that’s what will happen this year regardless. I don’t think the team will announce it’s up for sale, we will just get a report saying Arte is in agreement with some other dude on the sale of the team.  

Soto's great and all that but he's got old player skills and those guys tend to age the worst.  Maybe more importantly he's going to cost a shit ton to keep around and those are dollars better spent on pitching.
The other thing to consider, Schanuel had the best OBP on the team now that Ohtani is a free agent.  He managed to do that despite playing less than 50 minor league games.   He's a building piece. I'm sure someone will argue that 1B is power position which is true but not making outs and actually making contact are good traits regardless of the position.

This will get me a ton of shit, but I will say it anyway.  I would definitely consider buying low on Alex Monoah.  

Parenthetically, it needs to be said that we cannot worry about getting into the playoffs during the "Trout window" - this can no longer guide our thinking.  No need to recap this past season's catastrophic "reload for a playoff run".
Like you say, we need to build using improvements in scouting (both US and international), player development, analysis, and while we're at it,  get our names out of the "bad press" business - treat players and their families better, at all levels - no more articles about guys living in their cars and going hungry or being one of the only clubs voting against things like increased spending caps.  I guarantee you, this team has a bit of a crap reputation among players - not Oakland A's terrible, but not the Dodgers, either.  
Arte's had 20 years to figure this out, and I see few signs of progress - he needs to sell the team to someone with the vision and the will and the money to fix all this broken culture and infrastructure.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

I know most people assume you have to spend a lot of money to win, but the Rays (and Guardians for awhile) prove every year that you don't.  A team with a strong analysis and scouting department can circumvent player payroll.  What we need Arte to do, beyond all else, is invest heavily in those areas.  It DOES seem like he is starting to, but that is only a fairly recent development.
We have some good young talent, but obviously need more.  What we CAN'T do, IMO, is start trading our young talent for "win now" type moves.  Keep developing players, see if you can overpay (within reason) for a player or two, and then keep building from within.

Where I'm at, too - well, with the caveat that "everything else being equal, they'll choose a team that's not a clusterf*** and has a chance at the post-season."
So, we have to overpay, take on risky players, and maybe pick up a guy who'll come here for $1 more than someone else offers and doesn't care if they ever go to the playoffs.  
Ohtani leaving doesn't help our reputation as a desirable place to play - but I suspect most FA's already would prefer somewhere else to play.  He could've gotten that same deal from Arte - but he didn't want to stay here.  That speaks volumes.  
Oh, did I go 10 minutes without saying "FU, Arte, please, for the love of God, sell the team already."
(ahem)

I don’t think any high profile players will sign here until Moreno sells the team and is long gone from here. 

angels sucking as bad as they did really fucked over their international image.
its probably gonna take years of success for that to rehab and until then im not expecting any high profile int fas to sign with the team, which is the biggest bummer of failing with ohtani.

So, just to be clear, he's not meeting with the Angels?
Did we ask him and his agent laughed at us? 
Or are we just so beat-down we didn't even bother calling?
 

WTF is this to make 4M a year?

He is a reliever and the Angels need some. Beyond that, I agree with you. 
He'll be 37 at the beginning of the year. Just as likely (if not more) to put up a 4+ ERA than to have a good year. At least he didn't cost much. 

In all honesty, I would be OK with a couple of mediocre seasons, if I knew that the Angels were now shifting their focus to scouting, drafting and development for the future. 

It sucks and I think about how much it sucks he joined the dodgers quite often. It doesn’t help living in So Cal and having tons of dodgers friends, they are all super happy and i can’t help but to feel a little heart broken one of my all time favorite players won’t wear Angels red. He just looked right in an Angel uniform. 
 
Like has been said, can’t blame him, Arte has driven this organization into the ground and continues to (the Clint hurdle thing comes off as petty and cheap). It would be nice if he showed that he has learned his lesson and we are changing our ways , but I guess not. If I was a free agent I wouldn’t sign with the Angels, as big as a fan of them as I am. They suck ass right now across the board. I think we will have a tough time competing with Arte as the owner and can only hope he chooses to sell to competent owners that care about a winning culture. 

Yes we know. We're talking about the Angels though.

Some here won't admit it but we all know that the Halos are pretty far away from being a championship caliber team. Ohtani knew that as well so I doubt it was a hard decision for him to make and none of us should be surprised he left. It's just hard to stomach that it's the Dodgers he picked. 

My disappointment was short lived and never so severe that I felt like I was punched in the gut. 

The way I see it, if he doesn’t want to be here, so be it. 
That being said, F the Dodgers.

It is going to be a tough year, in that regard. I suppose we'll all eventually get used to it, but he's going to be on the screen even more than he already is and we're going to get highlights for every time he makes contact.

As much as it might feel like he planned this all along, I really don't think he did. It was a culmination of issues the past couple years, so it's hard for me to blame the guy. 
He wants to win. He gave the Angels 6 of *probably* his best years to prove to him we were serious contenders, and we didn't do that. 
The only people to blame is the Angels inept Organization, and I'm not going to get mad at Ohtani for that. 

I have gone back and forth from a hell no to a cautious maybe on Trevor Bauer for the past few months, but my opinion on the Angels signing him has moved into a hell yeah stage.
Since Ohtani has moved on to our hated cross town rivals, I would love nothing more than the Angels to sign Trevor Bauer and Cody Bellinger.
How awesome would it be to have two motivated players who were spurned and given up on by the Dodgers play on the red-headed step child’s team just down the I-5 fwy.

No matter what any of think of Bauer, Arte isn't going to sign him. You should all know Arte's MO by now. It's never going to happen.

Not to play both sides of the issue, but we also shouldn't pretend Bauer is a victim. Blessed by God with an elite ability to throw the ball, lived out his dream and became a millionaire in the process. 
He's no victim. 
But as I said, in a baseball sense he's guilty of nothing more than Gerrit Cole, yet one of protected by the establishment and the other isn't. Bauer admitted everyone was cheating, then said, "fine, I'll do it too just to prove a point." Then he's the best pitcher in baseball. 
Bauer is a loud mouth asshole. But he's absolutely right, and isn't guilty of anything illegal. Yet people are so enslaved to the narrative that he's evil that they'll say stupid shit like, "clubhouse chemistry." Chemistry means jack squat when you're losing 90 games a year. I'd rather they be at each other's throats and win 90. 
It's like the baseball version of Trump. He's so hated, yet when you peel away from the Trump Derangement Syndrome people have, you're forced to admit that everything was better with him that it was with Biden. Doesn't make him a hero, doesn't mean he's not an asshole. It just means he's better than the other guy, by a lot. 

I don't have much of a career to destroy. And Bauer seems to be doing alright for himself.

No, it’s because he’s an asshole and we’re trying to build a positive culture 

My goodness if Rendon could just not suck that would help so much.