Inside Pitch

It's opportunity to go to Dodgers stadium and leave a mess in one of their suites..... You aren't looking at all the possibilities..

He needs to show up with a sack of double doubles and a note on Angels stationary..

If the issue was that they aren't winning because they like him, sure. But it isn't. I'm good with them making changes, so long as they believe they are fixing something. Change for the sake of change.... Meh.

In this case, with the added benefit of hindsight .... It's a lot easier to question the benefit of trades actually made.

So the only effort that counts in your eyes is sacrificing organizational currency.... regardless of the risk or long term costs... Gotcha. Meanwhile the GM is seemingly thinking long term.... It's almost like he was paying attention while the Yankees remade themselves into a super team while the Angels simultaneously made vain efforts to contend and pissed away their future in the process. This too can be looked at as hindsight or for those looking to learn from it.....history. The Wells, Grienke, Freese, trades all showed effort. The Wilson, Pujols, Hamilton deals all showed effort. All of those deals came with a price that set the franchise back for years but at least they were trying right? Like everyone else who is a fan of this team I want to see them try...... but I'm glad the front office is concerned with more than looking like they are trying. Sometimes building a winner requires restraint. Sometimes restraint takes legit effort. Hopefully it will all prove to be 20/20.

Proven winner though.... At least that was the mantra

Knowing who flies Slave One is a sign of uber cool.....

Giradi is supposedly a robo manager -- reads book, book says make a move, Robo manager makes the move. Also, the players hate him.. At least thats the story.

I liked it... I think AJ is faking his level of dorkiness....

Godzilla reference

Grandal..... Realmuto..... You dorks are spelling Mathis wrong. The circle of catching....

There is a bit of rage in Astrosland

AND he got them a pitching prospect like you were hoping to see more of..... Little by little...

I've read you long enough to know when you're just in aww F*ck it mode.... It just read funny when I saw it... I know you haven't punted on either

I get it.... There was a lot of hype on Devo the Younger, in instructs and extended ST... He's finally played and not really produced, plus the awfulness at the MLB level has everyone in a sour mood. But despite the results with Devo, and the troubling "malaise" that seems to hang over Maitan, you see the obvious talent with both.... At the end of the day we need to remember they are 18 year olds... But I get the angst.

Lol.... Chuck is not impressed with the early returns on the hype. Devereaux is a prime example of why I like to see guys play before forming an opinion on them. You watch him play and you see all the tools people rave about and all the faults Doc points to as needing development. Maitan is another guy you watch and see the tools and the issues why some have punted on him. Both guys are blessed with ability/skills, both guys show why they are both prospects AND projects..... We are better off having them than not having them.

BBA is about projection over production in most cases... Guys can tank and still have the tools to succeed and that's true of Jones. Keep in mind he is still very young, four years below the league average in AA.... Consider your example of Hunter Jr... He's three years older and two levels below him.

Not that it will take that long to rebuild but for there to be the kind of depth we used to have -- yeah

You don't draft for need in MLB, not unless you are sure of what your needs will be in 3 years. FF to 2021, there is no guarantee Trout is still an Angel, you don't know if Simmons is still around -- you know AP is finally gone but still no guarantees with Ward of Thaiss -- hopefully we get to see A LOT of both of them after the deadline. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see them be a little more balanced and if there is an outstanding pitcher available I hope they consider drafting him but I really don't want them to go away from the whole BPA philosophy. It would actually be depressing if they did. Also -- it's sort of silly to question how many IFers the farm needs. Coming into this season Fletcher's performance projected him as no better than a UTIF -- his power potential still really doesn't paint him as being much better than that. Ward was still a C until ST... beyond that neither Ward nor Thaiss really looked like a front line starter on a playoff caliber team -- MLB players, fine -- but far from cornerstone guys and until they prove to be that the team should still be looking to find that sort of player -- preferably from within. it's also worth pointing out that the farm system at one point had Erick Aybar, Brandon Wood, Alexi Cassillas, Alexi Amarista, and Alberto Callaspo all capable of playing SS.. Aybar became the guy, Wood busted but the two Alexi's and Alberto Callaspo were all initially moved for arms -- Bulger, JC Romero, Frieri. Then they had to trade pitching to get Callaspo back. Anyway -- I'm sure we'll see the team look for more pitching in the draft, but the utter lack of position players up and down the system really needed to be addressed -- still kinda does.

The Angels have under-performed their own pythag by a few wins, but you cant account for another team being out of their mind lucky which is what has happened. The Mariners are 20 games above .500 .vs grading out as a .500 team. Fangraphs, 538.com, BBprospectus.com, pretty much everyone out there has put out a piece recently pointing out how ridiculously lucky they have been to date. In the predictions thread I mentioned the A's the team I was worried about. They had a lot of arms in the system, some underrated players and a solid core. The two guys at the corners looked like guys they could build around and that's exactly what they have played like. Two mid 20s guys putting up 120 OPS+ seasons at positions where the Angels have gotten AP's 98 OPS and Valbuena's 60.

Kinsler is on pace for a 3 or almost 4 Win season depending on if you prefer fWAR or bWAR. He's hit less than what people were hoping for but hardly a bust. Valbuena on the other hand has been a total disaster.

It honestly is the highlight of the thread.

Sigh... Chili's always been my first choice for Hitting coach -- I think he's gonna be a manager some day.

A little surprised Evan White isn't in there and then again no.... I think some of it may be the M's reluctance to play him anywhere but 1B to date and he's not really shown a lot of power albeit the park in Modesto massively deflates HRs. Kyle Lewis just doesnt look right still -- he's had a rough go of thing physically. We have seen what a guy losing his legs has done to AP -- Lewis has had knee injury after knee injury in his 20s.