EE_

Forget about the Pujols and Hamilton mistakes. They are dead money. Any production we get from them going forward should be viewed as a bonus. Learn from those mistakes by not repeating them. Quit trying to buy a championship team. It doesn't often work.
 
So we have to operate with a $50 million disadvantage for the next 4 years, a $30 million disadvantage for 4 more years after that.
Is this team not capable of competing with an effective $110 million payroll? Tampa and Oakland are contenders with a ~$60M payroll. We still have a large advantage in payroll over those teams. We also have the advantage of having the best young player in the game.
 
Invest in talent acquisition. If you don't have the best scouts then hire them. If you don't have a top presence in the  Dominican then you do whatever it takes to build it. Everybody will remember the awful Wells trade, but the neglect of the DR development is the worst thing that that regime could have done. Did they really believe that they could allow every other team to pull serious talent from that region while ignoring it themselves and not pay for it?  
 
After you've acquired the talent you don't allow it to be squandered by inferior coaching. The development of pitching, especially at the major league level, has been miserable.
Money used on draft and development is well spent. Had they sunk even the (now small looking) $40M they wasted on the GMJ contract into draft and development in 2007 this would be a very different team. It's tougher now with the new rules but still the best path for sustained success.
 
They can turn it around but not if they continue to be stupid.

I was working a party for travel agents thrown by Delta airlines and some of the rental car companies late last night
So I got to watch a hammered travel agent spend a solid 5 minutes trying to push open the door to the men’s room that was clearly a pull door.
I feel like that guy is the perfect analogy for this team

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Take a look at the free agent class of relief pitchers last year.
 
Rafael Soriano: $28M, 46.1IP, 2.91 ERA
Jonathan Broxton (DL): $21M, 27IP, 4.33 ERA
Jeremy Affeldt (DL): $18M, 33.1IP, 3.51 ERA
Mike Adams (DL): $12M, 25IP, 3.96 ERA (shoulder surgery)
Kyuji Fujikawa (DL); $9M, 12IP, 5.25 ERA (TJ surgery)
Sean Burnett (DL): $8M, 9.2IP, 0.93 ERA (elbow surgery)
 
So 5 out of the 6 top paid free agent relief pitchers are currently on the DL. None of those 5 have come close to earning their contracts falling short by either effectiveness or innings pitched. Soriano has pitched well but at $14M per season he's no bargain for his production. His K/9 is way down to 6.8 which doesn't bode well for next year either.
 
Good luck trying to buy a pen. The teams with the best pens built them from the farm or supplemented them by picking up "projects" and getting big production from them. Sometimes both. The sack of shit we have impersonating a pitching coach could try for 30 years without having the success of a Maddux, Young, Hickey, Price, Duncan etc. Tampa quickly saw that they had a lemon and let him go after one season. We're stuck with him for 7 years now. It might be hard to find a more apt name for a pitching coach than "Butcher". Why does a team that aspires to be the best have to settle for someone's "good buddy" with no track record (and now a terrible 8 year track record)?
 
Would any of the arms that Dipoto traded really be helping this pen right now? Pena (5.19 BB/9 in AA), Hellweg (13BB, 3k's in 10.2 IP with the Brewers) or Roach (5.24 K/9 in AA)? I doubt it. Would Chatwood be anything other than the erratic walk/hit machine he was with the Angels? He had almost as many walks (71) as strikeouts (74) with us. A strikeout rate of 4.69 K/9? Someone taught him how to pitch.
 
This problem wasn't created in a short time (and certainly not in the less than 2 years of the Dipoto GM) and it won't be fixed in a short time. Drafting almost exclusively pitchers in a pitching heavy draft seems smart and a good start. Bringing in pitching coaches with a long track record of success handling young pitching should be the next step. It's not as easy or quick as opening the checkbook and purchasing one or two decrepit old arms on the free agent market.

Since 2008, Santana has had the best slider in MLB while also having the worst fastball. (Fangraphs Pitch Values: Fastball -76.9 , Slider +67.9).
This season he's throwing his fastball at a career low rate of 50.9% while throwing his slider at near career high rate 38.1% (38.2% in 2011). Just shocking that he would see improvement by throwing his best pitch more often instead of grooving those awful straight 4 seam fastballs. He's also added a 2-seam fastball this year which has likely improved the effectiveness of the 4 seamer.
 
Have you ever heard Butcher say anything intelligent or insightful? I haven't. I used to listen closely to Black, Lachemann and Coleman because they almost always said something really smart. From Butcher we get simple explanations that could be recited by any fan while including prickish denials like "I know how good I am" and "I'll sleep like a baby". I wouldn't care how prickish he was if he was effective. He's not.
 
The next young pitcher to flourish under Butcher will be the first. It's possible that in 7 years there just hasn't been any young talent for him to work with. It's also possible that he's not a very good teacher and should be replaced. Tampa had no problem allowing him to leave to a lateral position with another team while also requiring no compensation.

Since 2008, Santana has had the best slider in MLB while also having the worst fastball. (Fangraphs Pitch Values: Fastball -76.9 , Slider +67.9).
This season he's throwing his fastball at a career low rate of 50.9% while throwing his slider at near career high rate 38.1% (38.2% in 2011). Just shocking that he would see improvement by throwing his best pitch more often instead of grooving those awful straight 4 seam fastballs. He's also added a 2-seam fastball this year which has likely improved the effectiveness of the 4 seamer.
 
Have you ever heard Butcher say anything intelligent or insightful? I haven't. I used to listen closely to Black, Lachemann and Coleman because they almost always said something really smart. From Butcher we get simple explanations that could be recited by any fan while including prickish denials like "I know how good I am" and "I'll sleep like a baby". I wouldn't care how prickish he was if he was effective. He's not.
 
The next young pitcher to flourish under Butcher will be the first. It's possible that in 7 years there just hasn't been any young talent for him to work with. It's also possible that he's not a very good teacher and should be replaced. Tampa had no problem allowing him to leave to a lateral position with another team while also requiring no compensation.

Since 2008, Santana has had the best slider in MLB while also having the worst fastball. (Fangraphs Pitch Values: Fastball -76.9 , Slider +67.9).
This season he's throwing his fastball at a career low rate of 50.9% while throwing his slider at near career high rate 38.1% (38.2% in 2011). Just shocking that he would see improvement by throwing his best pitch more often instead of grooving those awful straight 4 seam fastballs. He's also added a 2-seam fastball this year which has likely improved the effectiveness of the 4 seamer.
 
Have you ever heard Butcher say anything intelligent or insightful? I haven't. I used to listen closely to Black, Lachemann and Coleman because they almost always said something really smart. From Butcher we get simple explanations that could be recited by any fan while including prickish denials like "I know how good I am" and "I'll sleep like a baby". I wouldn't care how prickish he was if he was effective. He's not.
 
The next young pitcher to flourish under Butcher will be the first. It's possible that in 7 years there just hasn't been any young talent for him to work with. It's also possible that he's not a very good teacher and should be replaced. Tampa had no problem allowing him to leave to a lateral position with another team while also requiring no compensation.

The problem with government schools is that they exist.

Since coming back from the DL, Petey is batting .400. Good call on having one of the hottest hitters waste an AB trying to bunt.

Letting Haren and Hunter go look like good decisions.
Haren has been atrocious for Wash. (5.70 ERA). Picking up his option at $15.5M would have been dumb.
 
Hunter started hot but had a .655 OPS in May and a .494 OPS so far in June. Two more home runs on the season than Reggie Willits. He will likely turn it around some but $26M isn't cheap either.
 
Both Vargas and Morales have been good but the Angels needed pitching more than another DH type. Especially if those at-bats came at the expense of Trumbo. Good trade.
 
None of those moves absolve the terrible Hamilton signing.

Sorry Hamiltown, but your assessment of Dipoto is BS. Everyone, including baseball writers, picked the Angels to at least make the playoffs. This is because Dipoto did build a winner based on the talent. The pieces are there but are being mismanaged and/or slumping.

Armed tax collectors dressed in costumes.

I thought Hamilton was out for a couple days with a yeast infection?

Peter has a career wRC+ of 98. A league average hitter in CF with elite defense is quite valuable.

Nobody blamed Butcher for Kazmir's slide. He was damaged goods, and already had gone downhill prior to acquistion. What Butcher has been criticized for is his claim that he could 'fix' Kazmir and get him straightened out. Under Butcher's watch Kazmir showed no improvement at all. That is not necessarily Butcher's fault, Kazmir has to look inward for blame, but Mike Butcher certainly didn't help or become part of the solution either.

Realistically, Dipoto could only do so much to salvage a decent bullpen by picking up free agents.  Good teams save cash and maintain flexibility by developing cheap, cost-controlled bullpen arms that have electric stuff and can miss bats.  We have developed who in our current bullpen that has shown any success... Jepsen?  And even he has sucked most of his time in the bigs.  Downs - FA, Burnett - FA, Frieri - Trade, Madson - FA, Jerome - Reclamation Project.  Kohn has some upside but is coming off TJ surgery.  Richards has a 5.00+ ERA.  The rest of the guys are just shit we're throwing against a wall to see if anything sticks.  
 
If you look at the teams with the best bullpens and highest BP WAR so far, you'll obviously notice they aren't spending big money on their bullpen - Giants, Twins, Rockies, A's, Rangers, Indians, etc.  To blame Dipoto for not constructing a good bullpen is kind of stupid.  When your farm can't develop one lights-out BP arm there's only so much you can do to salvage things.  

No thanks, we already have enough ex-Dodgers stinking up the joint in that dugout.

From 2008 to 2013 Santana has had the best slider in the game (pitch value-fangraphs). There was never a question about his stuff.
 
The problem was that over that same 5+ years his fastball was the 2nd worst pitch in the game. It was clear that after losing so much velocity (elbow problems) after 2008 that his fb was no longer a plus pitch. It quickly turned into a homerun pitch but no changes were made. No change to a cutter or 2 seamer. No additional reliance on a change. Just keep throwing it. He kept throwing the fb about 56% to 58% of the time.
 
This year he's throwing the fb only 43.7% of the time but has added a 2 seamer (11.9%) and he's throwing the slider a career high  40.7% of the time.
 
Nice adjustment.

That is what a real pitching coach can do for you.

It was time for Scioscia to leave the minute he gave that ridiculous interview following the Hatcher firing.
He looked like a damn wet hen. White knucklin and eyes rolling. 
 
How do you repay the owner who gave you an unprecedented 10 year contract? You try to undermine his new choice as GM, that's how.
Instead of being a pro and supporting the necessary move, he acted like a petulant, pouting child that just got scolded. He should have been gone then.

It's an opinion.
We've had no shortage of snide, snippy posts of absolutely no value from you for years. You are likely the most unpleasant person I've ever encountered on this board or any other.
I bet you are much more likeable in real life. Otherwise you would be taking a weekly beating.