Inside Pitch

To be fair, the only one that still slightly resembles a prospect is Sims.. Wisler in four years into not being very good. Tucker is what 27 now and still sporting a negative career war. Duvall isn't much but at least he's provided value. Wouldn't really surprise me if the Braves offered those two guys just to clear space on the 40 man

You see the Astros presser??? Luhnow was asked about the domestic abuse issues hanging over Osuna's head... Dude actually looked dead at the person asking the question and said "the Astros zero tolerance policy only applies to players currently on the Astros". Lol... He followed it up with the usual pap about believing in second chances, but by then I was laughing too hard to follow along.

Meanwhile, we know the NYY will.... They have added almost 4 mil in bonus money this week.

Agree it's silly to make predictions based on AZL results but, as a AL prep player the AZL is a fairly decent step up from what he had been facing, and its worth noting the average age there is 20, Bbref has him as being 1.5 years younger than the league average. Info at Stats.Inc has his walk rate as being above the league average. They won't have swing rate data until after the seasons ends so no clue if he's chasing or not but he's not flat out hacking.

He's given up his body his entire career and it's caught up with him.... Yes he's a Red Sox, and that's enough reason to dislike him but you take the best parts of Eckstein and Erstad (the good hitting version), that's Pedroia.. Grade A stud.

They asked before the season, they said they'd cross that road once they came to it in the offseason.

Definitely always worth a chuckle.

Off the top of my head ... No.... But I try to not think about the guy ..lol...

Possibly because he's had almost no experience there. He's had a total of 40 chances at 3b the last two years and under 80 total including his time in Cuba -- I think he had fewer than 20 put-outs there, lifetime the only time I looked. Still, if the reason they haven't promoted the other guys is due to the 40 man roster, it shouldn't matter anyway. Also, despite brutal metrics last year and in the handful of games he played there in Cuba, he's caught everything hit his way this year. It may just be a case of Fletcher over Fernandez, than Valbuena over Fernandez. At least until or unless they move Kinsler.

Stephen Smith..... Sorta leaves a bad taste in your mouth doesn't it?

Specht doesn't really hit the profile, he never really hit that well until he was 24 and in AAA and he was taken out of a HS in CO... But he was definitely one of the best of a very bad lot of prospects in the early 2000s when Stoneman took over. Amezaga, Durrington, Larry Barnes, Nathan Haynes.... Was slim pickings for position players back then.

Research as it pertains to us or pitchers in general?... Because the research on usage and injury pretty overwhelmingly concludes fatigue (due to usage), is THE biggest factor. People like to bring up Nolan Ryan but, the list of prominent pitchers that broke down after heavy usage is rather significant. Not sure that any team has found a way to avoid pitcher injuries so, no clue if there is anyone the Angels should be looking to emulate, but the Chicago White Sox have been either lucky or good at avoiding them in recent years. Or had been anyway.

Fatigue is the greastest contributor towards injury. There are ways to have them continue to gain strength without exposing them to possible injury. Every pitcher in MLB is one pitch away from being retired, no matter what their health history has been.

They have allowed more runs. They have scored fewer runs. Their fans think everyone else is lucky....

Their ownership has more money than Moreno.... They could spend, instead they choose to play the poor card.

It's okay -- tomorrow if he rolls out the same lineup, someone else will say it's predictable how he just sticks with guys no matter what.

In this case, he hasn't realized he's pitched like a turd.

It's a lot closer to an attack than anything that was said prior to you whining about "being attacked" -- but again, that would require perspective on your end. No surprise you can't see it for what it is. Be well.

You didn't come off as anything other than respectful -- in fact if anything you should have been applauded for taking the time and effort to come up with a list that did exactly what you set out to do -- show perspective. It's just impossible to reason with anyone not willing to listen to any perspective other than his own.

Jesus are you capable of entering into a discussion without claiming you're "being attacked" when met with disagreement? Apparently the only positive outcome for you in any debate is one where everyone agrees with you. Guess what dude..... everyone agrees that the pen has been an issue -- the difference of opinion is that not everyone agrees that they didn't make an effort. Why is that so hard to grasp? If anything, you're the only person not allowing for any opinion other than their own... "Whats that you say? All the guys seen as THE PIECE blew up? Doesn't matter! They should have tried!" I can't speak for anyone else but I can honestly say I've never been remotely interested in trying to change your opinion, not on this, not on anything else... I doubt anyone else is either.. but where you can only see black and white, others are seeing shades of grey. Maybe respect the difference of opinion and refrain from acting like you've been wronged for once.

Man -- not sure what is up with Krall -- dude got his start in the A's organization, pretty sure he started out as a batboy there but he was definitely there in the middle of the moneyball era. He's worked under some really good baseball people including Jocketty, and was on the development end of things for a long time but they have really had a penchant for punting on guys a bit early since he's been GM.

Mulwin listed all the players acquired via what you seemingly term as dumpster diving. Look you can hide behind word play all day but you are basically saying you want them to try how YOU want or it's not enough. Other people see it differently and view the team finding those guys he listed as trying. What you are calling flashes is what others view as RP volatility and the reason for not throwing a huge amount of resources at the bullpen. FWIW, I agree they need to find an anchor, but not having done so yet doesn't mean they haven't been trying -- which is exactly what you said... here let me remind you before to you attempt to say you are being misquoted or taken out of context So please, tell us -- How does one go about procuring an established consistent anchor without spending resources the team is only now starting to rebuild?

We have to build up our inventory of failed/converted starters in hopes of finding some shut down types and possibly producing our own closer.. Despite Eppler's tendency to mine for RPs from readily available sources, It wouldn't really shock me to see them make an effort to sign a FA closer so long as they believe they have enough pieces to fit in front of one.

Yep -- too early and luckily they have both. Jackson is a neat story in the sense that he's both physically raw (maybe not raw but skinny), and somewhat advanced mechanically. Dude was a varsity starter from 7th grade on, he won two State titles in HS, granted the state was Alabama, so it's not exactly a baseball hotbed but he's been pretty committed to baseball. There were a few publications that had the Angels connected to Jackson for a long time. I think it's possible they saw enough of him before and after he had his eyes checked and added the glasses to buy into his spike in performance being driven by the improvement in his vision. I think there is more projection and possible upside with Adams in part because he's nowhere near as experienced as Jackson .... he didn't really make baseball a priority until his senior year but... so far so good with both guys. In the short term I think it's likely we see more performance from Jackson but it may all even out as the physical tools and experience comes into play. Like you, excited about both.