DEVLBAT

Why showboat when it’s in the yard? Why showboat at all when you’re not even good? 

Why showboat when it’s in the yard? Why showboat at all when you’re not even good? 

Gosh, even when Luis Valbuena does something well, he sucks. Instead of spending a second to perfect your bat-flip making contact with the ball, GET YOUR ASS OUTTA THE BATTERS BOX.

Me when I finally meet Mike Trout ??
 

Shut up idiot.

Get this god damn man some protection already. F*ck.

And yet we all watch.  

Weak contact is better than no contact! Blash rules

Blowassh.

Idiot.

This team with RISP induces vomiting.

Send this asshole down, please. F*ck.

Lunch at del taco with Eppler so you can explain everything that he is doing wrong

Another nice foul ball, his claim to fame so far.

Blash, can you just not strike out at least

Now would be a good time for JMF to hit his first HR

Every time I read your GD first post, I'm afraid someone is gonna tell me I won 2 nights free at some hotel where they're gonna try to sell me a timeshare.  

He generates a lot of air conditioning with all those moving parts in his frantic swing, so at least the catcher and umpire won't overheat.

Fueled by the annoyance of last night's loss, I was on a mission to point out Eppler's and Co.'s failure in regard to acquiring several under performing players over the last couple of off season.  In particular, the most recent.  What I found was an important reminder which is to consider the starting point and the body of work since.  
The halos had come off the 2011 season with a winning record yet they had clearly lost faith in Tony Reagins to the point that most speculated him as a mere figurehead with Scioscia and Arte involved in quite a bit of the duties normally taken on by a general manager.  The truth or accuracy of which is only relevant to the point that it led to the hiring of Jerry Dipoto.   But the stage was set for having an atypical dynamic between owner, gm and manager.  Jerry said all the right things and looked good doing so.  But behind the scenes it was a much different story.  He was very aggressive in his approach of gearing all resources toward the major league club.  While the lack of harmony in the front office wasn't all his fault, his method was like gas on an already smoldering fire.   Which is ironic considering that he burned the Angels farm system to the ground as well.  So when all the fires got out of control, he grabbed his flame thrower and walked right out the front door mid season and 30 days before the trade deadline leaving the halos to finish 31-37 and 1 gb of the WC as well as 3 gb of the division.  
On Oct 4th, 2015, the halos hired Billy Eppler.  I feel like Arte was the 'bad deal' direct tv guy and Eppler was the guy answering the door.  
'Can I interest you in being the GM of the mediocre Los Angeles Angels?'    No
'Ok, Ok.  You want me to sweeten the deal?  That sweetener is a broken front office dynamic and you can't bring in your own manager.'   That's a bad deal. 
'Oh, we got a haggler.  I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm gonna give you the worst farm system in baseball with an international signing lockout and zero payroll flexibility to work with.'   That's not a good thing man!  Do you see that everything you are saying is worse than before?  
'What I see is someone that wants to play hardball.  Ok.  Batter up.  I'll give you a broken down former superstar that makes $25mil per year that has to bat in the middle of the lineup, an ace who throws a fastball 84 mph, an offense that finished 21st in baseball last year, a terrible bullpen, and in less than 6 months, pretty much every pitcher worth anything on the roster will be injured and out for over a year. Oh, and the team has the remain competitive.  But that's my final offer. '
'Shut the door in my face trick huh?  We have Mike Trout!'  
And the door opens back up.  'Fine.  I'll take the job'.  
Let's all be very honest.  This franchise was circling the drain less than two and a half years ago.  
Here is what Keith Law said shortly before the start of the 2016 season:
I've been doing these rankings for eight years now, and this is by far the worst system I've ever seen. They traded their top two prospects in the Andrelton Simmons deal and had no one remotely close to top-100 status. They need a big draft this year to start to restock the system or we're going to start talking about whether it's time to trade Mike Trout.
So that's how his mission started.  
His first order of business was to hold hands and sing Kumbaya with Scioscia.  
Next, he traded for Simmons.  A controversial deal from both sides.  But he's become one of the top 10 most valuable players in baseball.  
Then the entire pitching staff fell apart.  Richards out.  Heaney out.  Trop out.  Skaggs couldn't come back.  CJ Wilson done.  Huston Street done.  Rafael Ortega led the team in LF at bats.  Giavotella at 2b.  Made some small moves like grabbing the serviceable Yunel Escobar and Jefry Marte.  Claimed JC Ramirez.  Got Nolasco and Meyer at the trade deadline.  But importantly, had a very good draft.  
At the start of year two, still hampered by payroll restrictions (189mil in 2016, 176mil in 2017), he grabbed Blake Parker off waivers.  Shortly after, he got Cam Maybin for Victor Alcantara.  Signed Jesse Chavez, Traded for Martin Maldonado, Signed Ben Revere, Traded for Espinosa, Signed Bud Norris and Yusmeiro Petit.  Grabbed Luis Valbuena.  So lots of minor move again.  Almost all for expiring players due to a lack of payroll.  Again, another good draft with Adell and Canning as well as a leap back on to the international scene with Deveaux and Knowles.  Got some good mileage out of Bridwell.  Got some time out of David Hernandez and turned him into minor league depth piece.  Grabbed Noe Ramirez mid year.  Then, of course, shored up LF for the first time in a long time.  
Before and in year 3 he locked up Upton, grabbed Ohtani, Cozart and Kinsler.   Got Rengifo for Cron.  Signed JMF and Rivera.  Let a lot of pen arms get away due to understandable inflation.  Got some additional intl prospects in Maitan, Soto and a few others.  Had what many consider to be another good draft.  And that's where we stand.  At 37-30 in 3rd place and five games back in mid June.  
This exercise was important for me and I hope it was helpful to you as well.  We are currently a solid major league team with a real chance to make the playoffs.  We have a farm system now at least in the top half of the league and many of those players are actually do well in the upper levels on the verge of actually providing help at the major league level.  Should I repeat that?   Yes, Calhoun and Cozart have sucked.  We've sustained some injuries again and the pen is more than shaky.  We need Simmons back.  It would be great to get Ohtani back back as well but I won't hold my breath.  A pen arm or two is a must.  A few other things could stand to go right as well.  
But jog your memory back to mid 2015 through early 2016.  Did you ever imagine this team would be a playoff contender with a good and improving farm system and be on the actual upswing as a franchise by 2018?  Not everything Eppler and company does is going to be perfect.  But to date, Billy  and the Halo IMF have done the impossible.  
 
 
 

Scioscia better throw a Facking chair at a wall or something.  This is bullshit.

the bottom of our lineup is good vs. no one.  

I think Mota just had a stroke.

Jose Mota seems confused as fuc*k

Blash is awful.  I don’t care what he does in AAA, he can’t hit up here, because his swing is fucking retarded.