bruin5

I’m firmly in the “Trade Ohtani” camp. 1. We can’t have the payroll flexibility with Trout, Rendon, and Ohtani making big bucks. We’re essentially the Lakers, building around Lebrun and AD with a bunch of average to marginal players. Doesn’t work. 2. We need much more organizational depth. For all the optimism, Eppler really struck out on a lot of his high risk/high reward picks. When we are calling up Jose Rojas for depth you know we are in deep trouble. 3. We need much more batting order depth. 4. By trading, we control his destination. I would hate to see the Dogs or another AL West team sign him. Trade him to the Giants, or Arizona. If we could get 1 MLB above average player, 1 MLB average player, and 2 higher level prospects in return I would be fine with that.

Rojas makes it official - we are tanking. Forget farm system rankings. If Rojas is the best we can do for outfield depth then we suck.

Didn’t the total tear down of our Dominican system lead to a lot of these issues?

IIRC, Eppler went to Trout for his opinion on Adell prior to the draft. So, I blame Trout….

They don’t. It’s just basically the best thing that can be said about his performance to date.

Agree. I’m long over the Anaheim High School connection. Guys like him are put on waivers every day. But, the Davis consternation seems a bit off. He’s just another guy who’s bounced from team to team and has no really pathway to the Majors with the Angels.

Agree. It’s nice to actually see the beginnings of guys (especially pitchers) who could provide some legitimate depth in 2023 and beyond. I’m looking forward to this year’s draft. My sense is that it will be about 50% pitchers this time. I would concentrate on middle infielders and catchers. If he has a good hit rate again we have the beginnings of a farm with some real depth and tradeable assets.

Thankfully Jerry Dipoto was there to oversee Trout’s development.

So, integrity of the game is not as important as sending a message regarding sexual predilections? No Astros players were suspended as a result of their cheating, and MLB tried to cover up the Yankees doing something similar. If MLB has more information (as some have alluded) then Bauer’s suit will certainly bring that to light. It doesn’t sound like Bauer or his team are afraid of that happening. Bauer is a POS as a person, but this seems ridiculous. I see MLB reducing the suspension to just this season only but that may not be enough for Bauer.

He has a great one on the Yankees/Guardians game where Yankee fans were being their typical a-hole selves….

This is very early, and not indicative of future progress, but current Angels affiliate records: SLC. 9 -10 Rocket City 10 - 6 Tri City 9 - 6 San Berdoo 8 - 8 Overall record 36 - 30 Last year 238 - 287 Obviously development is the most important thing, but learning and getting used to winning is a good thing as well…

It’s like he’s Jerry Seinfeld taking over Newman’s mail route.

Taylor Ward with a touching tribute to the departed Justin Upton…

Based on Morosi’s in depth analysis here, I would put Jose Rojas on the trade block for number 3 starter.

Denny Hocking is filling in for Gubi this week. The plan is to have him as part of a rotating crew in the Jose Mota role.

He’s a guy who is not yet emotionally attached to the farm since he didn’t draft them.

I wouldn’t say my excitement has waned but rather my hope that we will contend has caused me to be less optimistic year after year. Probably two main reasons. First, not addressing our biggest need which have been and continue to be solid to good pitching. We haven’t addressed it in the trade or free agent market and.. Second, a good to excellent farm system is what gives me hope. Truthfully, our farm has been pretty bad the past few years We MAY have a couple of scores with Adell and Marsh, but we haven’t drafted effectively overall and have no real organizational depth. Since we won’t trade Adell, Marsh, Dietmers, or Bachman, we really don’t have much in the way of trade value and that is supposed to be one thing a good farm system is supposed to help with. However, I do like Minasian’s last draft since he directly addressed our biggest issue and, it seems at least from early reports, there is some real promise in last year’s draftees…

Agree with everything you say. What I think will be problematic for the Skaggs is the thought that the Angels should have had their own drug testing policy in place. Mandatory drug testing only happens in select jobs that deal with things such as heavy machinery, transportation, or medicine. It’s not used in office environments. There was nothing to suggest that Kay’s daily work product was a problem. In other words, neither at the time or now is mandatory testing of all employees in all work situations considered a “best” or an effective practice, especially when privacy laws are considered (i.e. you are an office employee and test positive for marijuana, but are in all respects a good employee) and employee moral.

“Failure to have an oversight system, failure to make sure that players are not involved in this opioid pandemic of sorts is something that they’re going to be held to,” Barhoma said. “They have a duty to ensure against this kind of thing. … This is someone who used to work for the (Angels) and was entangled with them for years. Trying to say ‘We didn’t know.’ I don’t know how far that’s going to go.” This is the kind of thing that is 100% “rear view mirror” stuff and pisses me off. I’m not sure that any employer has or could create a viable system without 100% employee testing being part of the program. Everybody has or should have some type of “code of conduct” hotline for these situations and some type of “open door” policy. You just know that players are not going to report teammates so both of these programs aren’t going to help. However, it sure would have been helpful if Skaggs wife and mother had reached out to the club with their concerns…

Save the time and just assume the answer is yes on both counts. Instead of f’n around on an ass covering sham of an investigation, just come up with solutions. Maybe actually be a leader in professional sports. Baseball has always had an issue with substance abuse. First it was alcohol, then steroids, greenies, viagra, and now opioids. It’s probably a very small percentage of players. The issue are probably even worse in the NFL and NHL because of the amount of physical contact in those sports.

So far there seems to be little doubt that Kay did supply some pills to players. What’s not been proven is if Kay supplied pills to Skaggs in Texas. In a larger context, the Angels can’t be the only team with this problem. It’s a national issue. Seems like some player testing should be considered.

Most employees with addiction issues are able to hide it from their employers. If they get fired, it’s usually because of attendance issues. The only way a manager could be fired would be if they discovered the issue and didn’t report it. That’s because employees in California are allowed ONE chance to enter a treatment or rehabilitation program. The sad part is that 99% of them decide to do a short outpatient program and end up getting fired because they can’t stop their addiction.

This goes back a bit, but Willie Mays Aikens. Big left handed hitting first baseman. SI did a cover story on the Angels farm system that said, “The Angels Prospects are Heavenly”. Aikens was on the cover. Aikens spent 2 years with the Angels and then was traded to KC where I believe he was part of a WS Championship. In the 80’s there was no such thing as playing prospects (except for Joyner). Otherwise it was win now for Gene Autry.

And the prosecution has to also show that those pills were distributed in Texas. I don’t know that they have a witness to corroborate that….yet.

According to a LA Times article, Skaggs mother said he developed an addiction to pain killers after his TJ surgery. There is also some information that he tried to go “cold turkey” before he died but it’s from the Daily Mail so I’m not totally sure…