DCAngelsFan

Or girth.

I believe you're right. Or rather, I *hope* you're right, that Eppler made the decision to fire. A GM no one else wants may put up with ownership interfering in these matters and undermining his authority -- but good ones won't. Interfering owners leads to hiring incompetent yes-men leads to the Orioles. If Ausmus made the decision without any pressure from Arte, it's got to be a little more than what happened on the field - he would have had to go to Arte to say "I made a mistake - and it's gonna cost you two years of his salary." There's not a manager in history that would've moved the needle much on this bad team. I suspect Eppler talked to some guys - like Trout, Albert, and asked "what do you think?" And the answers he got are reflected in his decision to eat 2 years salary.

I think this is one of those opportunities to remind people that if there's one thing that'll save a heart attack victim's life, it's an AED. The survival rates of cardiac arrests outside the hospital are grim - about 5%. Add CPR, it's much better, but still not good. (Cardiac arrests - the heart has, effectively, stopped - victim is unconscious. Heart attacks are due to blockages, victim is usually awake and in pain - give 'em an aspirin to chew, and call EMS. If they become unconscious, start CPR/AED.) CPR + AED before EMS arrives can triple the chances of survival. If you're the only responder, call 9-1-1, get the AED if you know where it is, and apply it. If there's more than one person, call 9-1-1, start CPR, and send someone to get the AED and prepare it for use. They're 'automated' - duh - they have pictures and will literally tell you what to do - you don't have to be trained (although it's much better if you are.) If you come upon a scene where 9-1-1 has been called, CPR is being delivered, all those gawking bystanders should scatter and find an AED - minutes, even seconds count While I'm at it, another person I know had a stroke last night - learn and understand FAST: Facial Drooping Arm weakness Speech difficulty Time to call EMS

I agree - not really seeing the math on moving him - not if we hope to compete next year, anyway - with 1 year of control, no one is emptying the vault to get him. And it seems it's a bit early to give up on *next* season ... Though looking down the list of recent thread topics - Trout having surgery, Barria being shelled, DEA investigating where Skaggs got fentanyl, etc - this is the only one that isn't overtly negative and depressing, so I'm just gonna hang onto "what a pleasure it is to watch him play" ...

Agree in every particular - just, please, stop saying "baldoquin" - every time I see that name, I get a sharp pain in the balls, and uncontrollably mutter the words "Junior" and "Major effing league ready" like some Tourettes victim ...

Yeah - the dynamics of what *really* happened inside will never be really known, as each person involved has their own version of the truth. It's not like Reagins had some stellar record of accomplishment. But the team did struggle for years to draft / develop any kind of hitters - if you look at 2005-2008, the only players drafted that made any kind of impact was Peter Bourjos and Tyler Chatwood. In 2004, we drafted Weaver and Trumbo - as that was his first year, not sure how much credit to give Bane for those. In 2005, we got Peter Bourjos, in the 10th round. In 2006, we got Hank Conger and Jordan Walden. In 2007, our 50th round pick might've been the best guy who played for us - Efren Navarro - Andrew Romine was the other "big get." In 2008, we got Tyler Chatwood and WIll Smith. Those are the highlights. Draft like that for 5 years, you, too can be a minor-league team. The best picks in that period were guys we didn't sign - Matt Harvey, Kyle Hendricks, Chris Davis, and Buster Posey (Posey was a very late-round flier.) 2009 was a spectacular draft. Pretty much every other one was mediocre, to be kind. Not sure what to make of that. Drafting is bloody hard - outside of the early first-round, most teams have far more misses than hits. Is Bane better or worse than average scouting directors? I dunno - how can you tell? But as I showed, "money" doesn't appear to be the issue, at least in 2010 - we signed guys for more than available players who went on to be far more successful.

Maybe - there were some things that made me skeptical about Bane He once said (paraphrasing) "I go to see a hitter hit, not take a walk. Guy takes a walk, I'm walking back to the parking lot." I can't even count how many ways this is stupid. Also, the 2010 draft. It got him fired. Not without reason: He drafted Cowart ($2.3m), when Yelich was available ($1.7m). He drafted Bedrosian, ($1.116m) when Syndergaard ($600k) was available. Chevy Clarke ($1.089) when Aaron Sanchez ($775k) was available Taylor Lindsey ($873k) when Drew Smyly ($1.1m) was available. Ryan Bolden ($830) when Andrelton Simmons ($532) was available.

Thanks for the reminder that this was a positive and optimistic thread ?

I could see this happening - but if we've still got money to spend on him in February, something else has probably gone terribly wrong.

Pineda's coming off the TJ in early 2018 - he should be at full strength by ST, and probably won't get a QO. And the suspension should keep his cost down. The problem with these top-end starters is they all want long-term contracts - if we sign Cole and can't sign Wheeler, Pineda could be a bargain - probably someone you need to sign early, tho.

That's exactly what he was doing, in a bizarre and creepy way - his point wasn't that the things that killed him are alcohol, fentanyl, oxy - everyone knows that - the point he was making in that hideous drawing was that people - presumably "the team" and/or his family and friends, ignored his use/mis-use of the other three things - that his cause was death was equally those people. Make no mistake, it's an accusation - and it's not about "MLB" or "society at-large" - it's an accusation directed at the people around Skaggs - and it's really offensive without evidence.

I agree - "two" is probably the number - if "Cole" is signed, they might forego a 2nd - but if there's anything the Angels know, "there's no such thing as too much (good) pitching." Ohtani's recovery period will be spot on for the usual "full strength" recovery period - roughly 18 months (or 568 days on average, per https://tht.fangraphs.com/ten-interesting-facts-about-tommy-john-surgery/ ) But there's a lot of things that suggest he's not going to be contributing a lot of innings - 150 on the upper end. And I hate to say it, but Heaney and Canning both look like injury risks. Sandoval and Barria and Pena are all nice for depth. All that said - in the vein of "outlandish predictions", it's not impossible we (try to) sign Cole and Strasburg, (both SoCal natives), (or Ryu or Wheeler) and trade Upton for some salary relief.

Exactly. As for this off-season, we depend on signing someone like Cole - what if Cole dreams of being a Yankee and signs with them? Would that be Eppler's failing? Pitching needs to be built from within - in drafting/signing (internationals), development, and/or trading for them. And unless you have a few top-5 picks, there are no guarantees you'll be able to draft those ace-caliber pitchers. That takes a lot of skill and vast quantities of good luck. It's pretty freakin' hard to outsmart 29 other GM's. And that's the *real* point - the question isn't whether you fire Eppler for failing to build a championship team - it's "can you replace him with someone who's better at the job?" If so, fire him. But be sure you're not hiring DiPoto Pt 2 - we already chose DiPoto over Eppler once, to our regret.

I hope Strasburg opts out, at least - more supply on the market isn't a bad thing. He doesn't get the attention he once got, but he's putting up solid numbers. And if he wanted to return to SoCal, well ... But he's already got 4 years/$100m left on his current deal - I'd have a hard time offering him anything more than that, while I'm sure Boras thinks he's gonna get 6/150 or something insane like that.

Agreed - what I was kind of reacting to was the implication MIddleton needed TJ b/c "mismanagement", and improper warmup and arm care after pitching. Those things sound pretty simplistic (but can't really tell what he meant so.) (fwiw, the one study I briefly looked at - rather old, iirc - was that the weakest correlation was due to "bad mechanics" - which I find doubtful - but an interesting observation.) I don't take *this* guy at his word - but there's enough smoke here that Eppler would be negligent if he didn't order a top-to-bottom review of what they teach and train and whether that's using current best practices. I know they're using Rapsodo and Edgertronic cameras - that's a start. I'd also think the should try to put together some forensic analysis of all of the guys that wound up with TJ - I'm sure they have lots of video, MRI data, coaches notes, etc over the years - what, if anything, was missed? What, if anything, was taught incorrectly? A lot of work, sure - but that list of injuries suggests its needed.

This. And the initial complaint doesn't really make much sense - "He used to be a basketball player - no arm problems - 2 years later, TJ." We drafted him in 2013; he had TJ in 2018. He only pitched more than 100 innings once; 125 in Burlington, when he was still a starting pitcher. He's not thrown very many pitches, relatively speaking. Research suggests that UCL injuries in pitchers are due to repetitive stress. Certain pitches like sliders also create problems, but repetitive use is the single most common problem. Not that the team shouldn't be constantly looking at improving all of this - we invest millions in these arms; makes sense we should devote resources to kinesiology and medical surveillance and proper management including scouting and the development system. I know, for example, that female athletes have a much higher incidence of ACL injuries because for most of them, genetically, the channel in which the ACL lies is narrower than men's. This is addressed by weight training and developing the surrounding muscles to provide more support to that joint. Pitching, of course, puts tremendous stress on the elbow. But maybe there are better ways to prevent, or at least, predict these injuries.

I've reached this weird point where I not only expected them to lose the lead, it almost felt like a relief when they did - sort of like, I dunno, ending the suspense of wondering when/how they'd do it? I really should catch up on my reading ...

Still struggling with that whole "reading comprehension" thing I see ...

Yes, a *lot* of people, made that argument at the time and in subsequent years. I don't agree since the new deal was apparently agreed to (but not announced) before the Pujols signing - If anything, it's backwards - Arte could afford to sign Pujols 'cause he already had that sweet tv deal in his pocket - Pujols signing was enabled by the new tv deal, not vice-versa - but it's a popular argument in some quarters (even if I believe it's a fallacy.)

A lot of people have pointed to the television rights package Arte got after signing Pujols, that he was able to get those numbers by virtue of having Pujols on the roster, and so his contract was more than "paid-for." That it wasn't a "baseball" move, it was a PR move. With Trout's emergence, he might've done just as well or better waiting a year or two. I thought at the time the signs of his decline were obvious - St. Louis knew it - they didn't want to disrespect him but they didn't want a boat anchor contract, either - they should probably send Arte a gift basket every winter meeting for bailing them out of a bad PR situation. I figured we'd get a couple of good years, a couple of 'meh' years, and then 5 years of hating him and his contract more and more. That it was a bad signing unless we made the World Series in those first couple of years. I think most saw it as some variation of the above.

I first thought, well, he's not bright enough to have figured out how to use that then-loophole of self-reporting, that it was probably his agent or someone who gave him that advice. Then I remembered what I've learned about addicts in life - they may have room-temperature IQ's but they're absolutely experts in finding that back door, the loop hole, blame-shifting, *some way* of avoiding personal responsibility. Not that it makes any difference whether he figured it out or someone told him about it - he knowingly did it to avoid punishment, and that speaks to his character - or lack thereof. It was a stupid signing. No matter his history, I just needed to look into his eyes to see he's a sick man and some kind of blow-up was inevitable. Just think, we could've drafted Aaron Judge with the pick we lost signing him...

He definitely threw fewer fastballs with us - but he threw more with SF, and wasn't very good there, either. His biggest problem with us was his command is terrible. Also, we used him as a "starter", PIT uses him as a reliever. His command is definitely better of late - whether that's "on us" or "on him", I can't say. But someone struggling with their command should probably be throwing more fastballs, or so it seems to me.

Sort of related: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/hitter-last-30-day-fly-ball-rate-surgers/

hmm, one thing to look for in Paris is things like the late hours at the Louvre - Wednesday and Friday is open late, ('til 9:45) - less crowded that way. And it's really nice to walk in the plaza after dark. If you're into art, I prefer the d'Orsay to the Louvre - less crowded. Don't know the status of Notre Dame but St Chapelle is nice and fairly uncrowded (it's the stained glass cathedral - will paste a photo.) in The City, not far from Notre Dame. I'd suggest going to Versailles on a night fountains or musical fountains day - I mean, yeah, it's touristy - but it's really pretty. Try to get there at opening and miss the worst of the Chinese tour groups (who may or may not trample you.) Sacre Couer is also nice - a pretty view of the city, and don't forget to go into the little area behind the cathedral where artists work and there are shops and cafes and such, get a crepe, whatevers. Be sure to walk around a lot - the bridges, the Tuilleries, the 6th and 7th. If you're into food, visit le grande' epicerie at bon marche' - it's amazing. Oh, and maybe make a reservation at Angelina Rivoli - https://angelina-paris.fr/en/226-rue-de-rivoli for lunch/tea/pastries and absolutely some hot chocolate after visiting the d'orsay. Oh, and maybe http://www.berthillon.fr/salon-de-the/ for tea and ice cream after visiting St. Chapelle In London, the British Museum is a must, the Imperial War museum, if you're into that kind of the thing, Covent Garden has a lot of little restaurants , and hmm, maybe if something's happening at the Globe. Just a couple of pics - versailles and St Chapelle

Probably everyone knows this - but there's no longer anything special about "#10" - every signing team's highest pick is protected now. In our case, if we sign Cole, we'd (most likely) lose our 2nd pick and $500k in international bonus pool money.