bruin5

There is no winner here. The Angels should have announced some type of diagnosis and prognosis assuming he had a fracture. 

If Rendon had a fracture, why be a dick and not tell some of the writers. Seems to me he saw that he was getting crap talked by everyone and realized maybe that he had to take some of the pressure off. 

I can’t see them bringing him back as it seems the Angels and him have relationship issues. 

So, basically they are bringing in these guys:

At one time, wasn’t the waiver process a bit more secretive? Didn’t teams put players on waivers all the time just to gauge trade interest and then pull them off if somebody made a claim? 

Obviously this isn’t what is happening here…

16 hours ago, Tank said:

It was a major leaguer who blew the whistle on the Astros cheating scandal. 

Rendon is the Angels problem. Non Angels players are not affected by it. Astros cheating was everyone’s problem. 

25 minutes ago, BTH said:

You were questioning why someone might tell a reporter, and I’m saying it might be for the same reason that someone told you.

Because they have a relationship and are willing to share the info with that person.

That’s fair. It used to be that reporters spent a number of years with the same team. Now they turn over much more frequently so there may not be the level of trust. I would think that Jeff Fletcher has some great relationships with certain players. Sam Blum not so much. 

1 hour ago, BTH said:

Yet you infiltrated that circle.

Idk what the upside is, but they told you.

Believe what you want. This wasn’t a stranger by any means. 

41 minutes ago, BTH said:

Considering how easy it is for multiple users on this board to get info about Rendon being a bad clubhouse guy, I’m surprised no writer (Angels or national reporter) gets wind of this and writes about it.

Maybe your sources need to speak with Sam Blum, cause I’m sure he’d love to write an article calling out Rendon.

Yeah, not sure this is going to happen. Major leaguers are like a group of Yentas. They talk among themselves but try to keep it within the circle. Besides, what is the upside of telling? 

Spoke to a former major league player and he confirmed it’s pretty much universally acknowledged that Rendon is considered a bad teammate. I know, not a shocker. 

What I don’t understand is what type of background did Arte and Eppler do before he was signed. You would think some type of basic due diligence would have provided enough information so that they could make an informed decision. 

Just now, Stradling said:

Actually, the TV contract was announced just after the Albert signing, if I recall correctly it was days later.  

So, it could have been part of the negotiation process. If I was Fox, I would want to announce first and then market the signing of a superstar. I’m just speculating, but I do believe that these events weren’t unrelated. 

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

I have no idea if Arte forced Hamilton, I doubt it, I am positive Arte approved it or the signing wouldn’t have happened. But as @Inside Pitch pointed out years ago, there’s an ESPN the Magazine article from January of 2012, that breaks down Dipotos pursuit of Albert and in that article it states Dipoto went to Arte with the idea and plan very early on after being hired.  He also took every ounce of credit for the signing. I think fans believe it was Arte signings because Arte met with both Albert and Hamilton in person.  Albert to help close the deal and Josh to see if he was a changed man. Fans also believe it was Arte because the signings failed and everyone hates Arte. Gotta have villains these days. 

IIRC, the prevailing thought at that time was that Arte wanted to make a big splash signing because they had just signed a large broadcasting rights contract with Fox Sports West. It could be both are true- Arte wanted a splash hire, and DiPoto found the right candidate (Pujols was the biggest name out there that year so it’s not like he had to do a lot of research). 

1 hour ago, DMVol said:

I think Dipoto gets credit for job he’s done in Seattle… I don’t think you can judge Minasian yet…And I don’t think Dipoto did a great job with the Angels…Eppler inherited a weak farm system and very little international talent from Dipoto…The lack of International talent goes back to Reagins but Dipoto made it worse by using all of his allotted money for an awful signing of Baldoquin…We don’t know the entire story but Pujols and Hamilton were signed on Dipoto’s watch…maybe Arte forced those signings on him but it’s hard to give Dipoto a total pass there.

I can’t find the date but wasn’t part of the international talent problem the scandal that caused Arte to pretty much close the operation? 

7 hours ago, gurn67 said:

I know it's an unpopular thing to say here, but Jerry Dipoto is much better at his job than any of the guys that followed him here. Scoreboard.

DiPoto was given much more latitude to tear down the team he inherited and stock minor league talent. Neither Eppler or Minasian had anything resembling that chance. It’s not like DiPoto lit it up during his tenure in Anaheim. 

Apples to oranges comparison. 

1 hour ago, mmc said:

 

If a winning percentage of 685 is only 5th best record in the league, how many dumpster fire teams are in that league? There must be a number of teams tanking, lol. 

Minasian needs to stay. I have much more trust in him rebuilding the team than Eppler or DiPoto. 

3 minutes ago, drpiranha said:

I am a diehard Angel and UCLA fan. They are the only teams I follow. I'm sorry to have joined Angelswin so late that I didn't have the opportunity to interact with Lou. We could have had some great conversations. My heart goes out to his many many friends and family. RIP.

Same here (user name makes it obvious). Lou was far and away the most clever person on this board. Amazing what he could do with a 3 word response or resurrection of a 3 year old thread. Rest in peace Lou. 

Seems to me the issue is from the people in the truck. I would assume the director or producer developed that slide. Announcer is just doing his job.

19 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

A lot of our farm system was dumped during this trade deadline.  Most (not all, but most) were from Eppler's regime.  I am thinking the current FO and player devo department has a different take on which prospects to keep and which to trade.

We'll see how this ultimately turns out, and how good Perry is at determining who to keep and who to trade.

And I guess that Eppler still believes some of these guys have high ceilings. 

15 minutes ago, HeavenlyHalos said:

This ump is fucking terrible. This is absolutely absurd how poorly called these two games have been. 

Thank God Nevin straightened them out yesterday. 

This entire interview thing is brutal. Glad I have 1/4 of my screen to watch the actual game. 

5 hours ago, Trendon said:

The farm system that Keith Law dubbed the “worst I’ve ever seen” is probably the worst.

The top 10 was: Jahmai Jones, Victor Alcantara, Taylor Ward, Nate Smith, Kaleb Cowart, Julio Garcia, Kyle Kubitza, Jake Jewell, David Fletcher, and Greg Mahle.

At that time, weren’t we losing 1st round picks for signing guys like Pujols and Hamilton? 

Just now, Inside Pitch said:

Of course it is -- it's also easy to make mistakes while doing so, and anyone who's read this message board over the winter will admit that most people would fuck it up chasing names.  Dude pretty much hit across the board last year. I'd argue that was more lucky than good but it happened. 

I would argue that it’s not luck. If you have the type of money that allows you to sign proven WAR guys, your’re going to hit more often than not. 

7 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Yeah -- never mind that the team was operating as if it was going to be sold and adding yet another high end player may not have been the most ideal set up to a potential buyer.   

The sale likely saved the Angels from yet another Arte driven screw up, because Mianasian's intestinal fortitude somehow failed to keep him from adding pretty much everything his former manager asked for in his first two winters as a GM -- and Arte is the sole reason he had to cater to that dolt.

Did you happen to miss last season when the Mets went from 77 wins to 101 wins? 

Three of their top four pitching performances in 22 (using fWAR), were Eppler FA adds plus Ottavino who was aquired in much the same manner Minasian did Iglesias.. AO gave them another 1.1 fWAR as a middle reliever for a total of 10.7 fWAR.  Offensively, Marte, Canha, and Escobar gave the Mets 8.1 fWAR. Please indicate where his FA moves proved to be anything but a complete success last season, I'll wait.

The Met's 2023 season has been a complete clusterfuck, largely due to injuries and underperformance by players who were already there 

Their top 4 pitching performances using fWAR are all Eppler FA adds, Senga, Verlander, Scherzer, and Robertson.  Brooks Raley who ranks 6th is another Eppler add via trade. Offensively, Nimmo who Eppler brought back has been their second best performer.  Tommy Pham fourth.  Escobar and Canha again both had positives bWAR, while Marte has tanked.

Bret Baty has tanked.  McNeil has tanked. Carrasco, Megill and Peterson have all tanked and Alonso is riding a .179 BaBip freaskshow of a year.

Maybe more importantly -- Escobar is already gone (Minasian gave up two SP prospects for him), Canha may get moved and bring something in. Both Scherzer and Verlander are still productive if overpaid but neither guy is signed beyond next season so the only real potential problem child is Marte because those migraine/vision issues he's having may end up being a chronic problem.

Just say this, and quit slanting things to try to make him look better.  As is stands now Perry's tremendous acumen and insight has resulted in a collective 22 games under .500.   This despite 5 of his 6 SPs already being in place and much more autonomy than Eppler ever had.  We will get to see if that was an actual change at the top or if Arte's flirtation with selling the team allowed Perry to do what he wanted for a change -- lord knows Perry has earned the chance to do it his way.

Again, I like Perry, I think he's hired better, more experienced people than Eppler did.  IMO he may have a wider view of things in part because he was a part of three different organizations .vs Eppler who was essentially a Yankee guy for most of his career.  But there is no denying who had it worse at hello and how much that impacted how they went about things.  One need only compare how much Eppler was allowed to spend those first two years compared to Minasian.

 

Of course, having an owner who is willing to pay $108,000,000 in Payroll Tax also helps. I’m pretty sure if some of the posters on here had that kind of money to spend they could come up with a pretty competitive lineup as well. 

Mets 2023 Payroll

8 hours ago, Dtwncbad said:

Who should the Angels pursue (if they are not trading Ohtani)?

I think it makes some sense to trade some prospects for an impact player that is controllable beyond this year.

Any ideas?

No one. Start the rebuild now. Sell off any tradeable assets. At the deadline it’s a seller’s market.  

Minasian’s phone is lighting up right now with inquiries from other teams regarding Ohtani. 

Nevin and the entire coaching staff needs to be swept out. And, in anticipation,  Erstad is nowhere near the answer.  

Nevin is a tactical genius. We definitely need to retain him with a long term contract.