brianvargo

Go with the retro unis from last weekend

Pujols has arrived

I'm just trying to find the bridge
Has anybody seen the bridge?
Please!
(Have you seen the bridge?)
I ain't seen the bridge!
(Where's that confounded bridge?)

Man I haven't been this pumped on the Angels in a long time. 
The team isn't even firing on all cylinders yet too. 

I have good reason to “hate” Barry Bonds personally because he really was a dick.  But I never ever translate that into who I want in the HOF.
I think we have all missed the mark if we are even remotely considering how the player will FEEL personally in being named as a HOFer.
While it is obvious that the player will feel rewarded or deprived in being in or out, the HOF should be a museum pursuing historical accuracy, not doling out moments of players feeling awarded.  The decision should be rooted in whose career was worthy of being recognized as among the greatest players.  The moment you let the “I don’t want him to FEEL rewarded” into the equation, you have contaminated the process to the detriment of historical accuracy.
My point above has to do with people hating Bonds for being a dick.  He was a dick.  His steroid use is another subject entirely.
Being very specific here, I can respect a writer for not voting for Bonds because of steroid use. I would have no respect for a writer that won’t vote for him because he was a dick and just wants to deprive the dick from the personal satisfaction of being inducted.
 

I'm calling it right now, they'll talk about the draft from the last two years like they do 2009 and 2010 today.
Taylor Ward, Jahmai Jones, Brendon Sanger, Grayson Long and Matt Thaiss, Brandon Marsh, Nonie Williams and more.

Stop Pre

Did no one bother to look up the meaning behind the shirt? Everyone is hating because you do not understand the significance. Back in the day Bill Bowerman, Nike founder and head coach of Oregon track and field, made shoes using a waffle machine. His first sponsored athlete was Steve Prefontaine, who went on to become a distance running legend. In one race, everyone wore shirts that said "Stop Pre." After Pre won the race, he took one of the shirts and wore it himself. The shirt does not mean that we are trying to "Stop Trout," it is a call back to the invincibility of Pre. There's your history lesson for the day!

This will be a telling year for Weave.  If there is something to be figured out, and he's actually hit upon and addressed it, then he could end up being the difference between an Angel team that wins 85-or-so games and an Angel team that makes the post-season.  He might also figure out a way to pitch effectively into his late 30s, hopefully for the Angels.
 
Of course, if it turns out that his decline was irreversible and led to 2016 being his final big league season, at least in an Angels' uniform, then he'll still rightly be remembered as a Halo great who fought until the end and who truly wanted to be here.  There are few players I respect as much, and none I respect more.

This will be a telling year for Weave.  If there is something to be figured out, and he's actually hit upon and addressed it, then he could end up being the difference between an Angel team that wins 85-or-so games and an Angel team that makes the post-season.  He might also figure out a way to pitch effectively into his late 30s, hopefully for the Angels.
 
Of course, if it turns out that his decline was irreversible and led to 2016 being his final big league season, at least in an Angels' uniform, then he'll still rightly be remembered as a Halo great who fought until the end and who truly wanted to be here.  There are few players I respect as much, and none I respect more.

I don't think hiring Mo Vaughn as his off-season conditioning coach was a smart idea.

This will be a telling year for Weave.  If there is something to be figured out, and he's actually hit upon and addressed it, then he could end up being the difference between an Angel team that wins 85-or-so games and an Angel team that makes the post-season.  He might also figure out a way to pitch effectively into his late 30s, hopefully for the Angels.
 
Of course, if it turns out that his decline was irreversible and led to 2016 being his final big league season, at least in an Angels' uniform, then he'll still rightly be remembered as a Halo great who fought until the end and who truly wanted to be here.  There are few players I respect as much, and none I respect more.

This will be a telling year for Weave.  If there is something to be figured out, and he's actually hit upon and addressed it, then he could end up being the difference between an Angel team that wins 85-or-so games and an Angel team that makes the post-season.  He might also figure out a way to pitch effectively into his late 30s, hopefully for the Angels.
 
Of course, if it turns out that his decline was irreversible and led to 2016 being his final big league season, at least in an Angels' uniform, then he'll still rightly be remembered as a Halo great who fought until the end and who truly wanted to be here.  There are few players I respect as much, and none I respect more.

The Angels have not invested half as much money as the Yankees have in scouting and analytics. He came from a better run organization with more tools at his disposal and is putting that together here. The Simmons trade was going to be a Yankees move had Eppler not taken the Angels position. Eppler moved fast and the Yankees took a step down and traded for Starling Castro. You say he sounds arrogant and yet you pontificate all off season about your superior master plan with absolutely no industry experience or access to any of the Angels data.
You can't figure Eppler out because he is working on a level you are not familiar with. Hell, none of us fans are used to a GM that can start the off season with a hard cap and improve the quality of the team without increasing spending. Usually the previous GM's just bought their way out of trouble.
I'm looking forward to what else Eppler can do. So far he has been impressive.

We have Pennington, Cowart and Kubitza behind Escobar. Plenty of 3B depth. What you're really looking at here is Freese vs Giavotella.
Freese at 3B and Escobar at 2B is likely worth 4 wins.
Escobar at 3B and Giavotella at 2B is likely worth 3 wins.
So Freese gets us one more win. Now there's some debate over what a win is worth, but the general consensus is approximately 8 million. So Freese has an 8 million dollar value to the Angels. But they're by most reports, about 4 million under the tax. Then you have to consider what it means to block both Cowart and Kubitza for another year. That might be worth a couple million on its own.
So basically in order to make this worth it for the Angels, Freese has to literally sign for only 3 million, the same that Mat Latos got. Go ahead and offer that, but I doubt Freese gets off the couch for it.
Then we also must consider, are we so close to the playoffs that one win is worth blocking young talent for? We're also taking the risk that either or possibly both Kubitza and Cowart are ready to provide value in the majors immediately, in which case you'd have spent the money on Freese for no reason.
There just is not a fit in Anaheim. At least not logically.

There's literally no excitement surrounding this team other than Mike Trout, who to me, is enough to be excited enough about going into 2016. 
 
Whatever else happens from this point forward, whatever. We've been spoiled by Arte and Dipoto's signings/trades over the last several years. I'm confused about the direction of the team and decided it's best to quit guessing what it is to avoid frustration. 
 
At the end of the day, we're Angels fans .... Through thick and thin. 
 
Back in the old days we would NEVER base our fandom over who was on our roster, so it would behoove us all to appreciate what roster is going into 2016 and continue to be fans, rather than conditional fans. 
 
/The End.

Bonds was a sure fire HOFer regardless of steroid use.  Granted, he may have taken them much earlier than we think, but by all accounts he started ramping them up big time between 1999 and 2000.  Even if he starts to decline after his age 34 season, he had already accumulated 103 WAR, 445hrs and 460sbs with a 163 ops+.  Even then there was still some suspicion he was on before that as he was still an uber monster at the plate for the four years previous.  He probably plays another 5-6 years with a declining hr count and avg yet still gets on base at his usual unbelievable rate.  Perhaps getting to around 600hrs and being a first ballot HOFer and one of the top ten best players in the history of the game.  
 
So he is paying his penance.  He will eventually get in but his aura as  the best player ever will always be tainted.  It a shame really.  
 
My thing about roid use during that era is that it was a very unfortunate part of the game and I wish it didn't occur.  Like racism and syphilis in other eras.  But those things did happen and they were rampant, and it's impossible to truly account for how it affected the game or any one player.  At same time, it's pretty damn obvious and not very subtle where certain players became something they never should have.  
 
Like Bonds age 36-39 yo seasons.  Anyone can instantly see that those numbers are steroid related.  His 54.3 WAR after the age of 35 is almost 20 WAR better than the next closest hitter.  There is precedent for inner circle HOFers still being very good almost to the age of 40, but Bonds good is frankly insulting.  
 
Now how about Clemens?
 
He had a magical career resurgence at the age of 34 where he was equally as good from age 34-44 (yes, age 44) as he was from 21-33.  He was on a pretty standard path with his peak years from age 27-29 and then some back and forth from age 30-33.  Then at 34 he throws 264 innings with a career high 292 strikeouts and a 2.05era.  Clemens was only very good from age 21-33.  At that point he had 192 wins, and a 3.06 era.  Which amounted to a 144 era+ for the time.  If he pitches 5-6 more years and that era+ goes does to 135 due to normal aging trajectory, he's still in the Randy Johnson, Whitey ford, Greg Maddux, Roy Hallady (ironically) range.  
 
He probably gets to about 250-260 wins and is most likely a HOFer, but not 100% because if he declined quickly after the age of 33, he's closer to a Doc Gooden or Bob Welch type.  Both of whom had excellent careers but aren't HOFers.  But I think he gets in just based on the fact that his real career peak was phenomenal and that era+ telling us how difficult it was to pitch in that era.  
 
So just by looking at the numbers, I think Clemens deserves to be in purgatory a bit longer than Bonds.  
 
Just a few other thoughts:
 
The guys who have been vilified the most are the potential inner circle guys whereas the guys who were just excellent yet still had a little bit of steroid stink on them are now getting in like Piazza this year and likely Bagwell next year.  Take home point - if you are gonna take roids, just be really good and not the best.  
 
Next years ballot is gonna be interesting.  I think Bagwell, Raines, Hoffman and Vlad get in.  Manny, no way in hell.  I don't think Bonds or Clemens makes it yet.  The most interesting name on next years list is going to be Pudge.  He is heavily clouded with canseco saying he personally injected him and Pudge himself saying 'only God knows' when asked if he was on the list of players who tested positive before such things were public.  I don't think he gets in next year though.  I think he'll get lumped closer to Bonds and Clemens than he will Bagwell and Piazza.  
 
I don't get the lack of love Edgar, Mussina, Kent and McGriff.   I guess I get the Edgar thing considering that he was a DH, but he gets dinged for that in his total WAR and his OPS+ puts him in the top 50 all time.  I guess because McGriff didn't hit 7 more hrs, he's not getting even though his other numbers are still excellent.  Kent was probably one of the best 2bman of all time but it's a pretty thin position to begin with and he played during the wrong era.  
 
Mussina should get in.  There are no roid allegations that I know of and he pitched during a time when everyone under the sun he was facing was juiced to the max.   So his 82.7 WAR offsets his not so HOF worth era of 3.68 in my opinion.  That's 23rd all time for starting pitchers.  Just about everyone on either side of him is in and he should be as well at some point.  Just like you have to take into context the hitters who may have used, you have to take into context the idea that his numbers would have been better had he played in a different era.  So he's in steroid era limbo but for the opposite reason.  

Probably Ron LeFlore

The last time I saw a rag tag group of players brought in like this, they had Chico's Bail Bonds on the back of their uniforms.

I would smoke a series of meats, chicken, ribs, tri-tip and turkey. Add some mashed potatoes, Bbq beans, veggies (so i don't feel totally bad about myself. Iced Tea. Dark Chocolate Satin pie with berries for dessert followed by a beer or three by the fire while playing a little guitar before a night of fun with a brunette (lights off due to bloating).

What a dick thing to say.

Because some people understand that being human is a social endeavor.