bruin5

Kind of ironic in that his “expertise” was supposed to be finding value in major league talent and that ended up being the area in which he did not do well as GM.

Basically, Eppler has a very small pool of candidates from which to choose. Swanson will probably be in his front office. Oh, by the way, Ausmus was the drizzling shits in both his stints as a manager.

I’d be hanging around Tampa Bay’s front office to be first in line for their table scraps….

I haven’t heard anything about the depositions of 5 players as part of this case. If any of them knew about Skaggs drug use, and maybe even participated, as employees of the Angels then maybe you could make the case that these “employees” should have gone to the organization but they weren’t properly trained, yada, yada. It’s a stretch. Without Mead or Kay it would be harder to establish that link.

No I didn’t. Canning and Rengifo would not have had a big effect on the rankings. Canning would have had physical issues in the minors. Rengifo may have been brought up early but it’s total speculation as to what his prospect ranking would have been had he stayed in the minors. The Angels are his 3rd organization, and he was the PTBNL in the Cron trade to the Rays. PTBNL’s don’t often end up being impact players (and the Rays are pretty good judges of talent). I like Rengifo, and think he should be given a shot at shortstop, but he’s not a sure thing. There was a pretty big hole in terms of minor league pitching talent, which led them to take 19 pitchers out of 20 picks. However, the point isn’t the farm ranking or organization’s position diversity, it was the use of the term “exceptional”. I will stop beating the dead horse now….

Are you saying that if Suarez, Adell, Marsh, and Rengifo stayed at SLC the Angels would have been the number 2 farm system? Rengifo was disqualified 2 years ago due to number of games played (and remember he came via trade). Canning was a college pitcher and is 25 years old and has not shown the durability need to be a SP so I’m not sure how much he would have affected the rankings. Suarez, as he showed this year, was very much ready to make the jump. Adell and Marsh could have stayed in SLC but if they stayed there the team ranking maybe would have moved into the mid to high teens. At the end of the day, Swanson had 5 drafts, and higher end draft picks (not number ones but some in the top 10). One of those first rounders was traded for a rosin bag. . I’m not saying he did a bad job, I’m just saying it’s not “exceptional”. Not sure why that is so hard to accept.

I get regime change. What I don’t agree with is characterizing Swanson’s performance as “exceptional”. He inherited a really bad farm system, had 5 years of drafts, and made incremental and not transformative additions of talent. He was at best average. And, I would characterize Minasian’s trades as him identifying a crucial need in the organization - a dearth of high velocity bullpen candidates.

Wait, you mean Swanson was removed for doing “exceptional” work?

Thanks. Forgot about that.

Didn’t he make $9M last year? So isn’t it really a $5 or $6M additional per year? Maybe I’m not thinking about it correctly.

Scherzer will definitely sign with the Dodgers. I’m sure Dodgers are working right now on voiding Bauer’s contract to free up that money. I’ll take Stroman.

To me this and the other recent moves shows that Minasian has the go ahead to remake the front office and hold the manager and coaches responsible. Minasian should sink or swim with his people in the FO.

It’s the opinion of a couple of members of the Angels that I knew when he had a high level minor league leadership position. Basically, they told me “he is a d!ck”. What exactly is his job?

I remember the tweet from Taylor Blake Ward. However, I thought there was also a comment from Taylor Ward about the help he got from Molina. I can’t find it. The Taylor Blake Ward comment was funny since it said that “if you asked catchers throughout the Angels organization, José Molina would likely come up as the most important man in their career - giant loss for Angels”. Of course he’s the most important person in their career. HE’S THE CATCHING COACH. Pretty sure Molina’s replacement will become the most important man in the career. The stats for Angels catcher’s were pretty poor this past year. I’m sure there are better catching coaches out there.

Gallego is not a favorite within the organization. Should be gone as I don’t see what he actually provides to the team.

Just curious. How do we really know that Butterfield was a great coach? John Heyman says so, but based on what? Oh, wait, he helped Derek Jeter learn to play shortstop and he was a Yankee 20 years ago. Obviously, that makes him elite, not the work that Jeter put into it. Same with Jose Molina. The only comment I saw from a player was Taylor Ward. Of course, Taylor is not playing catcher. Matt Thaiss has yet to be heard from. We don’t know if commentators like Heyman or Timms really have a ranking list of all coaches or if their take is based on personal interactions (which is often is for reporters).

We’re in the bottom third of organizational minor league talent. It’s not like we can’t find someone to leave exposed to the Rule 5 draft. Choosing between Davis and Stefanic, I say Davis, especially if he’s a legitimate option for SS. I’d rather save money at SS and spend on pitching.

Not if your resume includes working with the Angels because, as we all know, the Angels are known for their player development…

It’s not unrealistic that there were conversations at high levels of the organization. You had a player die from an overdose caused by bad street drugs procured by a club employee. I’m not saying that the conversations were bad, and the conversations that involved an attorney would not need to be released, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to ask for that information (at least to me). Whether you get it is up to the judge.

This seems logical to me. The Angels limited the documents to correspondence involving Kay. It seems plausible that there may also have been correspondence between Carpino, Arte, and maybe their HR person. However, it’s also likely that much if not all of that conversation may have included an attorney which would have made it privileged.

Maybe this off-season MIchael should cut down on weightlifting and do more aerobic and stretching exercise. It seems every year he comes into camp a little bigger but certainly not fat.

No, I did more speculating than fact. Not fair to Mead, especially given that plaudits he’s gotten over his career. That doesn’t mean he may not have made a mistake here.

Mead spent, what, 40 plus years with the Angels? Small organization, moved his way up. Got his last position because he was really good at PR, approachable, friendly, etc. Not because he was a great leader. And, people at the VP level and above tended to be the worst offenders because they had little to no fear of negative repercussions. How much crap do you think gets covered up at those levels in many organizations? I do find it possible that the Skaggs family reached out to him. If they did, it’s likely that Mead let HR or Carpino know. He had to at that point and that’s the key. If this went up to Carpino and Arte, and they did nothing, MLB has a MAJOR problem on it’s hands. Of course, it will all have to be proven.

Why not? I’ve seen A LOT of cases where the leader liked the person with the issue, didn’t want them to lose their job, and tried to help them through counseling, etc but never reported it to anyone above them. Not saying that’s what happened, but it’s definitely possible.

I changed my mind. Here you go: https://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/eric-kay-angels-tim-mead-skaggs-drug-use/518497