DCAngelsFan

1 minute ago, Tank said:

there's always money in the banana stand.

Loose Seal 

Also, fries with mayo - ketchup is for the uncouth who probably use it on filet mignon, too

I dunno, he *is* pretty upright and doesn't really drive with his legs - I reckon the concern that made him drop is changing his delivery might mess with his strength, that ridiculous movement.

As intriguing a 9th round pick as you're gonna find, I'd say. 

On 12/31/2021 at 3:33 PM, HanfordGuy said:

He started 2 games for Inland Empire. Did anyone get a chance to see his stuff?

The opposing teams had little trouble seeing his stuff, as evidenced by that 10.57 ERA

But "wiffle ball" is a pretty good take - could be an interesting guy to watch.

On 12/23/2021 at 11:07 PM, ten ocho recon scout said:

Yeah. Ive toyed with the idea of getting out of my place, and renting it instead of selling. I have enough of a savings that i could go a handful of months if it wasnt rented out.

But I swear, I cant even begin to estimate the amount of deadbeat renter calls Ive been to in my career. Id say 99 percent of people out there who own a rental have no idea what the laws say. And they call is in desperation, and we're like "please just google this and not call us back, sorry"

Theres obviously a slew of asshole landlords out there. But Ive never been to a call on one... so it doesnt click in my brain.

 

Asshole renters ive been to more times than the rotollo Chevrolet commercials during angel games  

I've heard that California is notoriously pro-tenant but don't really know one way or another.  

But I can't recommend this enough - if you do it, get a seasoned, hardassed property manager, to vet your tenants - an experienced one will run credit, get references, and sniff out the ones who aren't legit - it's absolutely amazing the number of women who'll (secretly) take a lease out for their deadbeat boyfriend who's "just had a little bad luck lately" (under the pretense that she's the renter, 'cause his credit doesn't exist and his mom won't even vouch for him, nor will his PO)  

Make that mistake, 3 months later, the rents not paid since day 1, the neighbors are complaining about the trash and the noise, and the downstairs neighbor calls to tell you there's water coming thru the ceiling.   My property manager would be at the renter's door 2 days late with an eviction notice - he didn't play.  And no one ever was late more than once.   

There are bad ones, but a good property manager can save your ass

Most every bad tenancy story I've heard starts with a sob story "I'm a little short this month ... but as soon as my tax refund comes ..."   

13 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

I have no idea what your rent situation is (house, apartment, etc etc). 

 

That said, theres always another side to the story. For example, the no eviction laws sound great. It helps poor people who lost their job in the pandemic and cant afford rent.

Then theres everyone else. People who know legally theh cant be evicted, and paid zero rent for more than a year. Even with their govt money coming in.

While the owner still has to pay the mortgage and taxes.

Not everyone who goes into business is a corporation. Not everyone can afford a massive loss.

I say this because our calls at work for that exploded during the pandemic. 

Again, i have no idea what your landlords finances are. But its possible they are losing their ass somewhere else

From 2018, " 72.5% of single-unit rental properties are owned by individuals, and 59% of those have debt.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/08/02/as-national-eviction-ban-expires-a-look-at-who-rents-and-who-owns-in-the-u-s/

https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/landlord-statistics-from-the-2018-rental-housing-finance-survey

I had a rental property some years ago, and when rented, yielded a cash flow of around -$100/month (tax advantages still made it a win.)  It was mortgaged, as was my primary residence. 

A year of non-payment would've bankrupted me (at best, some predatory REIT would've bought it up at a discount.)

I got out at a good profit - but probably half the people I know who owned rental property have been burned by bad tenants and lost money, some quite a lot.  

Bear in mind, a lot of these "landlords" around me are military or contractors, who've bought a house, and rent it out while on a overseas billet / assignment - they're not rich, they just want to keep their house.

This might be all you really need to read:

Quote

In a Dec. 2 letter to attorneys for the city and Moreno’s company, California Department of Housing and Community Development Deputy Director Megan Kirkeby cited mutual interest in “potential resolution given the uncertainty of litigation.

In other words, settle, or we'll tie you up in court for years.

The state plays with house money - they have zero problem spending money on the court filings because guess who's money that is?  

6 hours ago, Tank said:

I went thru this when the Rams moved to St. Louis. Had no interest in them or what they did, and when they won the super bowl, it was irritating.

If the halos moved out of state, my loyalty to them would also leave. 

I think that's the nuance missing from the "poll" - if Arte just pulled up stakes and moved the team somewhere for purely personal financial reasons - (and  like Georgia & co, seemingly deliberately ran the team into the ground before they left so they could leave  - for the young 'uns, the owner in the movie Major League was almost certainly based on Georgia Frontiere - them going on to win the SB in St Louis were the peanuts in that shit sandwich - but I digress) - existing fans would probably feel pretty pissed off.  

But I think if ppl thought Arte did everything he could, but that the gov drove him to move the team, people might be more forgiving.  

Then again, like Doc says, the way the franchise is being run has definitely hurt my interest in the team - this Groundhog Day effect where nothing ever changes, because of what looks like a greater commitment to real estate development than player/team development.  

But like St. Louis, and with Trout and Ohtani on the roster, he could move the team anywhere and pack a stadium with new fans, while Angels fans are kinda getting fatigued by the same old...

Ah, it all makes more sense, now - the state saw an opportunity to extort some money from Moreno by monkey-wrenching this - they'll suggest a settlement like "'Donate' $30m to affordable housing (just make the check payable to "cash") and we can make this all go away."

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

What security measures can they take that doesn't set them up for litigation? Security cameras do not prevent loss and most cases not to an arrest. The next level is confrontation where all sorts of scenarios play out. I can see that going upside down quickly if armed rent a cop decides to go OK Corral in aisle 7. 

I remember a Popeye's in SE DC that had a bank-style sheet of ballistic glass, and a turntable for delivering food.  Bars over the (closed) dining room.  

That's where store-front retail is headed.

All this talk makes me want to move back to CA -  booze is expensive, and we actually have to pay for it here ... 

14 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

Agreed. I mean, it makes some sense if it involves a further trade for a Tommy Pham, as someone suggested, or if Adams was on the cusp. But I think people underestimate the value of Marsh and Adell, because they didn't supernova like Trout did. And of course there's the typical kneejerk panic mode: "We didn't sign Scherzer (or Cole or Greinke or Crawford), so panic now!" Well, that leads to Vernon Wells and Josh Hamilton (I'm reasonably confident Rendon won't be Part 3).

Even if such a trade made sense, I just dislike the idea of trading away homegrown top prospects from an ideological and even aesthetic perspective. Even though I was still a kid, when the Angels started developing solid players in the late 80s and early 90s--Joyner, White, McLemore, Howell, Finley, etc--there was something about them being "our guys" that made me feel more connected to the team. Or the 90s crew, with Salmon, Edmonds, Anderson, and then Erstad and Glaus. This is also why Trout is more valuable than even the tally of his WAR.

Or to put it another way, even if something makes some sense on paper, doesn't mean it's the best thing to do. And when it only makes kinda sense--or little sense--then hell, no.

Hopefully, those reactive terrible, awful-at-the-time mistakes were:

• Arte driving the trade or signing 'cause reasons and,
• Arte has learned his lesson, and/or PM would threaten to quit rather than have "author of one of the worst trades/signings in baseball history" on his resume 

PM can't be thinking like a fan.  Trade either of them - who'll play their position?  Upton?   I can't imagine a full-time role for him - his defense costs us games, while his offense costs us wins  

I think Marsh has some recognized value right now, Adell earned some skeptics, but I think we need "both" in 2022, short of a major acquisition. 

And Adams' last season doesn't bode well for seeing him playing a role any time soon, if ... .

If we had to absolutely, positively trade one of Marsh/Adell, I guess I'd keep Marsh right now - we know his defense will play in CF, Trout will face a bit of the Erstad dilemma - he can stay on the field longer if he gives up CF.  The sooner he's good with that, the better the team will be.  

But I wouldn't trade either of them - short of some GM losing their mind in some lopsided trade ("Paging Tony Reagins ...."), there are (or at least "were") less-costly ways to get what we need ..

Ouch - don't think I needed to read this - that write-up makes our talent "pipeline" sound like:

3 hours ago, Lou said:

Stroman lives in L.A.?

Eh, maybe misread that - I just read that he was in LA, and had to dash to LAX to catch the last flight to Chicago - but might've been just visiting - us?

Not sure where he lives (other than an old article that said he bought a house in Florida)

7 hours ago, rafibomb said:

Just curious. Would you guys feel any differently if Syndergaard had signed at least a 2 year deal and Lorenzen as well? For me it’s just the idea that two of our main guys we are “counting on” are technically free agents at the end of next season as well. And if it does work out, we can lose them next season still and we are back at square one.

Exactly - 1 year contracts limit your exposure to a long-term mistake, but also do nothing for us past next season.   

No matter how good Snydergaard is next season, that does nothing for the team in 2023 - and if he's spectacular, it's almost worse, because you either have a giant hole to fill and/or a worse contract.  It only makes sense if it gives your young guys another year to develop.  

And there *is* that - we've got some young pitchers that have some potential coming along.

And it gives us some money to extend Ohtani.  

Whatever - it is what it is - disappointed these pitchers signed contracts we should've been able to compete for - but going forward, I'd like to see us try to sign Rodon - the 6-man rotation should help mitigate any workload-related injury risk, and that rotation has the potential to be really, really good.  

I think the fact we couldn't sign Stroman - an LA resident who signed a below-market deal - tells me we weren't really serious about signing any more large deals, and certainly weren't going to breach the "salary cap" threshold, no matter how much we tried to convince ourselves that Arte would see that "this was the year."   

Deja vu all over again 

And there goes Gray - this is turning out ....

... pretty much like I expected ...

On 11/30/2021 at 3:14 PM, RallyMo said:

https://www.engadget.com/living-robots-self-reproduce-174540921.html

Cool stuff.

Great, we invented cancer 

An underrated pitcher, and by all indications, a really good clubhouse guy.

I don't know where we wind up spending our dollars, so maybe there will prove to be a better place to spend $10m - but I'd have liked to have kept him.

6 hours ago, Dochalo said:

I totally disagree.  I don't know if it's worth qualifying my opinion but I will anyway.  Much of it is based on speculation and hearsay but some of it on inside info.  So take it for what it's worth.  

The direction of this franchise from a leadership standpoint has been broken for a long time.  Stoneman and his influence has been helping to partially hold it together.  

First off, the balance of power within the org isn't 'conventional'.  You need to empower one person to call the shots and that hasn't been the case with any Angel GM during his tenure.  

Secondly, his willingness to spend has entitled him to the above as well to influence baseball decisions he should really not be a part of.  Yes, he owns the team and it's absolutely his right to do whatever the F he wants with it.  But if he's going to be that big of an influence on player personnel decisions, he better be good at it and he's not.  

The distribution of resources is backward relative to what creates sustainability.  There are several very successful orgs out there that are well run mostly because someone has been empowered to guide the org from the top down.  It actually surprises me that so few orgs seem to do it the right way.  So the Angels aren't alone in that regard.  I really do envy teams like the Dogs and A's.  There is no question who is running the baseball ops components of those orgs and how obvious it seems to me as to what works and what doesn't.  

From the word go, Arte has put pretty much every GM in an unwinnable situation.  He completely undid everything that was working well when he first acquired the team.  He's had years to correct the problem yet we keep seeing the same mistakes being made.  

In my opinion, an owner should hand money and responsibility to the right people and then let them do their job.  They create a specific type of culture and environment for success or failure.  

Can we honestly say he's done that?  To me, his biggest weakness is that he doesn't recognize his weaknesses.  That he keeps repeating his mistakes.   And that there isn't a single person in a position to hold him accountable.  That might sound odd considering that he's the owner but true leadership is surrounding yourself with people who can do that.  

Until this franchise starts thinking beyond the major league team they'll continue to run in place.  

Well-said.

We often hear Arte is "cheap" - which seems to be sort of laughable on its face, b/c of his often very-high payrolls.

But he's spending entirely on the major league team, at the expense of everything else (it seems.)

I always wonder what happened with Friedman - I can't help but imagine he turned *us* down, because Arte wouldn't give him the authority he'd need to change the culture.

I just google'd Carpino - a little description of his role as President kind of says it all:

Quote

John Carpino was named the eighth president in Angels' history November 14, 2009. He oversees all areas of business, sales, marketing, finance, and communications. Carpino’s top priority is fan value and experience in all areas of the game including concessions, merchandise, promotions, and ticketing

We measure our GM's on getting us to the playoffs, now - or you're fired.  That's not the environment the club needs to succeed long-term.  The President needs to be focused on baseball operations, top to bottom with a long-term vision - those things I highlighted above?  That should be the job description of VP, Marketing, who reports to the President - not "President"

 Arte has had plenty of time to get better at this. His focus on real estate development around the park the last several years, and not on a winning culture says it all.  IMO, he needs to sell.

Naw, I don't want to be stuck paying him for what he's already done, I'd rather save our money for Ohtani - (assuming he's still great) - a spectacular bullpen, and 1 more solid SP - however we get one.

I'd have taken the Ray contract, though.

At this point, when it comes to FA's, names I'm interested in are Stroman (though he might now be too expensive for what he'd bring) or Rodon (6-man rotation should keep him healthy - but I really want 2 years, and he's gonna get 4), Iglesias and/or Jansen, and Story 

Window's closing ...

3 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

This. If that happens there is very little to complain about.

 

 

That said, in the past 2 hours, it seems like neither of those happen either now

I wouldn't be surprised if Eppler signs Iglesias just to punk the Angels. 

Since the Dodgers lost Scherzer, I gotta think they're gonna make a strong play for Stroman

And when Dipoto signs Correa, I'm gonna just give up baseball and start watching the World Series of Cornhole ...

Stroman probably feeling pretty pleased with himself - he's the last chick at the bar, and it's last call ...

MLB says Scherzer is close to signing with the Mets, and Gausman has a deal with Toronto.

Hope this isn't our big "SP" signing ...

2 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Ill say this. And @Dochalo is likely going to throw a shoe at me and call me an idiot, but it "feels" different this year. In that we may actually finally do something drastic.

I know we all have angels winter hot stove ptsd. And the past several years have sucked for sure.

But I think we forget how bad of a corner we were in in the past several years.

@Inside Pitch had a post a few days ago about the 2016 team. Id actually forgotten a few things, like cj wilson and bad ending weaver being on that team. With pujols, wilson and hamilton costing 80 or so million that year for basically zero return, plus no farm, etc etc.

I think the past few years, its been "lock up trout, cant do much more than that". Everything else was wait till alberts gone.

essentially, i think theyre probably to the point where they want SOME sort of value from trout, before its too late. But more importantly, I think Ohtani just forced their hand. (Like trout in 2012)

I wouldnt be surprised if theres a sense of urgency thats one of "ohtani is only staying if we turn it around, quick", or "ohtani isnt staying, better try and win one with him and trout before we totally waste the oppurtunity"

I havent been too excited over the scherzer rumors, but it almost makes a ton of sense. Him and syndegaard arent here long term, but give us our least commitment but best chance to win quickly...

If the goal is to try and win before shohei leaves (or makes the decision to), its not a bad plan at all.

I dunno about "drastic" - but maybe "necessary"

Management has to see that if we want to keep two likely first-ballot hall-of-famers together for the next several years, we have to give them a path to the World Series.  Ohtani, I think, will be loyal to a fault.  But I'm certain he doesn't want to spend his entire MLB career watching the playoffs from Japan,  no matter how much money we have for him.  He can get money from any team - we need to give him a path to the championship.    

And you know what?  Arte is 75 - his window is closing, too.  It's hard to imagine he'll ever be in a better position than the next 2 or 3 years.  

He's been burned by big free agent signings (trades) before - but his footprints were all over the backs of his gm's in those - he needs to trust his GM, just tell him "By Any Means Necessary" and  sign the checks. 

5 minutes ago, CanadianHalo said:

Albert stopped running gear the second he got paid. He wasn’t doing anything to jeopardize his pay check 

Well, once he signed, his paycheck wasn't threatened. 

But the psychology isn't hard - you work and work to get "paid", to climb that mountain, to get that validation- and once you get paid, your effort has ended.  

Marathoners don't keep running past the finish line* and I've seen it in business, where a fat commission check or bonus or a big raise often has the opposite effect desired - people have often quit or gotten much less productive after these rewards.  

He dialed it back, and only periodically gave full effort.  Once cut, of course, his ego was threatened, and he put effort in again.  

That's the danger with any of the large payout contracts - you need to evaluate the psyche of the guy you're signing - is he gonna get fat and lazy?  Or will be still break his bones to win?

* (an imperfect analogy, since I've heard of many marathoners who've gone for runs a few hours after finishing) 

Maybe not worth it's own thread

Given our other needs, seems too expensive for both (or even one.)

My druthers right now are Iglesias and Stroman - but I can't tell which in which order if I can only have "one."  

With Rodon, shoulder issues always scare me in a pitcher - after signing Thor, I'd prefer someone more reliable like Stroman, even if they lack the stuff of Rodon.

Iglesias might be too expensive, but then, I don't want to give up real prospects for relievers who can have such a short shelf-life.  Don't think Jansen will be any cheaper.  So, need a way to find a high-leverage reliever - maybe we resign Cobb (as was proposed elsewhere) to free up enough cash to sign Iglesias.

After that, Story would be a nice add, but not gonna happen.  

Probably pick up a reliever prospect or three off the junk pile, and maybe hope for a catcher to become available.