Hufflepuff

Definitely not my entire argument, but if Heaney is getting that kind of swing and miss on two pitches... I think he can absolutely take his game to another level once he works his changeup in. I haven't been on the board long, so maybe you're right with people giving Heaney slack for the reasons you mention. I give Heaney slack because I think his potential is much greater than Skaggs.

I'm not sure how you figure they're statistical clones. Heaney gets a "longer leash" because his advanced stats are significantly better. Heaney is essentially working off 2 pitches right now (fastball and slider), and rarely throwing his change up (which happened to be a great for him last year). Heaney's Swinging strike rate is at 19.4% which is absolutely amazing. He attacks the zone, has a low walk rate, and is way more efficient with his pitch count. Not only are their stats different, they're just different pitchers all together. Heaney is definitely the better pitcher. 2020 Rotation: Ohtani, Heaney, Canning (potential ace level pitcher), Skaggs, and pick an arm amongst 6 available back end guys. That's a very solid rotation. I think our pitching will be fine.

I like the guy slotted at #55, Drew Mendoza. Big guy at 6'5. Don't love his swing, and scouts don't think he can stick at 3B, but I love the idea of a big lefty bat at 3B. He had solid offensive numbers at FSU.

Hopefully we save money with our 1st round pick, and can throw more money at our 2nd round pick. Get a high ceiling high school kid that's slipped down the draft board like Hunter Barco.

I agree with your assessment. If we were drafting "best available" I think we let one go with Jackson Rutledge. I'm sure there's a lot more behind the scenes we don't know about, but I don't think we drafted a position of need or best available.

That would explain the decrease in BABIP. I wonder if an increase in his launch angle coupled with a continued hard hit % would be beneficial. Take advantage of that RF fence being lowered. Bottom line: I agree, ground balls into the shift are no bueno, and he needs to continue to just focus on that hard hit%

Swinging strike % down from 14.9 to 12.7. Still pretty good. If he can regain his command, I can see him having a solid rebound year.

Good thing this board doesn’t run this team. Great upside trade. Garcia has a live arm and great peripherals. Check out his fangraphs. Even if Garcia doesn’t pan out, losing Alvarez means nothing.

What if we took David Peralta attached to Grienke for someone like Jahmai Jones / Castillo?

I think this is a great opportunity to get a solid pitcher, plus fill another hole. If Goldschmidt is being packaged for an additional 1 year, Jake lamb, or Robby Ray, than you gotta make this deal happen. AZ gonna pay up to 10 mil a year according to USA Today’s Nightengale. I’d give up any of our prospects not named Jo Adell or Griffin Canning.

I don’t believe SP will be the problem next year. Oakland, NYY, MIL, ATL, COL, and heck even the Cubs all lack a Degrom/Scherzer/Snell type Ace, yet have made the playoffs. We have some holes on offense and in the bullpen, SP can wait.

What about an everyday bat that can come in and close games?

Good catch. Engrish are my second wanguage

I’m sure many have an opinion, but after watching Diaz close a game out last night, and Trienen have a 10 pitch shut out inning tonight... isn’t it kind of obvious? Sure we have holes, but don’t you think we would be 10 games over .500 if we had a lights out closer? We have 22 saves on the season vs 42 (Sea) and 32 (Oak). We’ve blown 18 saves this season. A good bullpen/closer gets 13 of those 18. This team isn’t as bad as some people think. They’re 2-3 good RP’s away from contending.

Sucks to lose obviously, but I like where this team is going. I think Eppler has by far done more good than bad. He’s been extremely resourceful considering the salary bind he’s been in. He sees the big picture, and where he wants to steer the ship. He’s done a good job in the draft, which to me says a lot. He’s made great acquisitions with Ohtani and Maitan which nobody seems to give him credit for. The moves people feel are his “bad moves” have never hurt the team long term, and I felt we’re caluculated risks with upside. Many people on this board were so excited and praised the kinsler and cozart signings. They didn’t work out, so what. They very well could have had great seasons and suddenly he’s a genius again. Bottom line, the trade and signing didn’t hurt the team or effect his long term goal in my opinion.

Agree 100%. Even if we get 4 Solid contributors out of that bunch, it’s worth holding onto them. We need to have a sustainable, affordable core group of guys to build around.

Lol Bless her heart... go Angels.

They said the same thing with Pablo Sandoval and Matt Adams. I hope the weight loss leads to less stress on his body ultimately helping him stay healthy this season. Based off my knowledge (which is nothing) I say Pujols hits 25+ HR’s with 90 RBI’s. Hopefully he’s on the (+) side of the WAR column.

Kevin Maitan could easily be #2 on this list. Some may not be familiar with him, but he was very highly touted. He had a rough start to his career, but from everything I’ve read on him, his ceiling is supposedly very high.

Mariners get 1mil from the twinkies for a 5th round catching prospect, we had to cough up a 3rd? Bummer

Any chance MLB would lean toward a designated runner for the designated hitter? Pujols needs to commit to losing weight. I think a lot of his joint and foot issues wouldn't be as severe if he was like 40 pounds lighter.

That's why I'm asking, who could they have signed? Adding more big contracts on top of bad contracts because we have a young superstar doesn't fix the problem. It makes it worst. They haven't just been waiting for big contracts to fall off the books, but have been desperately trying to rebuild a farm system that was by far the worst in all of baseball.

I don't think they're trying to "rebuild" as you put it. Signing big free agent contracts, as you suggest, doesn't help this team. Who do you think we missed out on? Jason Heyward??? Zack Grienke??? No thank you. Trout is the best player in the game, and he's also very young. I think we're on the right track. Draft well, make smaller acquisitions that help the team like Maldonado, maybin, Meyer, and Escobar, and let the young talent come up and fill in around Trout. Hopefully we're contending in 3-4 years (Trout will still be south of 30). Its a process that you just gotta watch and try to enjoy.

Very promising, and very exciting

The guy has consistently called great games from behind the plate which has probably contributed to the solid pitching we've seen. I would have never thought that nalasco, shoemaker, Chavez, JC Ramirez, and Meyer would lead to a top 12 team ERA. Sure pitching in Angel stadium helps, but that's a rag tag group. I think Maldonado was a great pick up.