DCAngelsFan

4 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

Barria for Trevor May or Seth Lugo.

Just go for the Ultra Bullpen.

Scherzer scratched from today's start - I still think Barria is better than most are giving him credit for, but if we're gonna DFA him anyway, may as well try to get something useful for him

T-Mobile subscribers have gotten the mlb.tv subs for free for a few years now

So, if you have a friend who has t-mobile and doesn't watch baseball, and know how to use a vpn, that's an option.

To be honest, this makes me a lot happier than I expected.

I was sort of bunkered in, prepared for a long, stupid lockout.

Suddenly, I miss baseball again and am looking forward to the season!

This year, with the lock-out and no Spring Training, I can't muster a lot of enthusiasm for a season that doesn't have a start date and with player movement frozen.

Recent years have definitely been disheartening - the number of years where it seemed even semi-promising seasons turned to ashes before Memorial Day, never mind the ASB.

I could even enjoy a rebuilding process, if the team was being rebuilt into a professional, class-leading organization.

But there's just the same dilettante, good-enough feeling to the way the club is run.

Winning would be a start to getting my interest back - winning consistently, even better.

But one thing at a time.  

10 minutes ago, Angels 1961 said:

The Dodgers have spent as much (some say mush) money as any team in baseball without a WS title since 1988. How many dodger dogs eaten since 1988?

Playoffs are a lottery ticket - the hot team wins - unless you think an 88-win team was the best team in the league last year.

Dodgers have 9 straight playoff appearances, while only the Mariners and the Phillies have gone longer than the Angels without a playoff appearance, despite our spend.  

We live in the glassiest of houses ...

On 3/6/2022 at 3:36 PM, Dochalo said:

just employ the relegation system.  

How about 8 years without making the playoffs, you're forced to sell the team, McCourt-style?  

On 2/23/2022 at 10:12 AM, Dochalo said:

that's truly the question they have asked themselves and I think we have our answer.  Because anything they would provide could only subjectively correlate to an improved yield.  

But...the amount of yield you'd need to make it worthwhile seems pretty low to me.  Let's say it were one player every other draft class.  Wouldn't that offset the couple mil a year spent on creating a more specific program?  

Again, I don't know but I'm a bit surprised none of the teams have even tried.  

"That's the kind of nuanced, long-term thinking we don't tolerate around here - you're fired" - Arte, Probably

Arte needs only look at a team like the Dodgers whose yield probably justifies their spend level, because of the additional revenues being competitive and playing in the post-season.  Where to invest?  It's impossible for us to know - but for the cost of Hamilton or Wells' contracts, he could funded improved scouting and development systems for the next fifty years. 

Find an extra 2-4 WAR player every 2 years, you'd pay for any increased investment and then some.    

So, just to make sure I have this right, the plan is to boycott the games they aren't playing?    

I'm in!  

7 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Skaggs was also part of a union where they collectively bargained a joint drug policy with MLB.  

They will argue that the Angels should have had some sort of policy in place for non player employees.  Which theoretically could have exposed Kay.  He would have been fired or asked to leave or given a reason to go away quietly.  Maybe that happens but it wouldn't have saved Tyler Skaggs from his addiction.  Maybe it saves him from being dead already.  Maybe.  

 

.I seem to recall reading that drug testing for existing employees is prohibited by California law unless there's reasonable suspicion or it's required for the position by federal or state law.  

But yeah, Skaggs' was definitely covered by the jdp and all testing had to be done iaw the CBA.

Rittner's quote makes it pretty clear - they're looking for a settlement, not to go to court (contingency lawyers don't want to bear all those legal expenses either - they could lose)

Having two lawsuits, in two different states, though - that's a complication ... 

44 minutes ago, nate said:

Finally built a new computer.

i9 12900K cooled by a Corsair H150i

Asus ROG Strix Z690-E Motherboard

ASUS TUF 3080 Ti OC

Corsair DDR5 5200 RAM

2x 2tb m.2 SSD

Corsair HX1000 PSU

Corsair 5000X Case

That's a really nice build - but DDR5 + a 3080ti makes my nethers hurt to think about ...

I've been wanting to replace my aging-could-die-any-day-now computer with a more modest i5 12600k build - but can't bring myself to pay for a 3xxx gpu rn - and just not nearly as much fun without a shiny new gpu ...   

5 hours ago, nate said:

No, I got his point. It also isn't his job to watch after the welfare of his file clerk.

And again, this isn't just the file clerk, this is his assistant manager, and his assistant manager dealing to half the office.

In fact, it is more like you dealing drugs to the other INO store managers and having one of the stores burn down because the manager was too high to safely manage the store. If that were the case, you don't think your boss would get fired? INO also has thousands and thousands of employees. Angels have about a hundred who have a significant impact on the outcome of the season that they invest hundreds of millions of dollars on.

You do realize that such supervision is controlled by the terms of the CBA, and is performed under the terms of the JDA by the MLB/JDP?   

That is, the Angels can't test their players for drug use?  

California law also restricts testing of existing employees.  

I mean, what did you want them to do?  Put spyware on their phones and see if they're arranging drug buys?  Hire PD's to follow their players?   Test clubhouse urine on the sly for illegal drugs?

You can't violate people's privacy rights without reason "for their own good" and surveilling players is going to do wonders for player morale.

I have plenty of issues with Angels management, but I haven't seen any evidence that suggests this is on them ..

Just now, Jason said:

Unless evidence shows that they knew this shit was going on 

Well, yeah...

But Kay's family made some pretty serious allegations about Mead early on that seem to have faded away - he was the one strong named link of the Angels front office to Kay's drug dealing.

Removing him as a defendant from the lawsuit could mean a lot of things - but at face-value, anyway, not a promising sign.

Just now, Blarg said:

The liquor was obtained legally by a licensed distributor. Kay and Harvey were dispensing illegality obtained controlled substances. There are no similarities to draw the same liability.

It's a bit of hyperbole on my part - but there's no one on the planet who doesn't know that mixing liquor and any kind of opioid can kill you.

My point - apparently not well-made - is no one forced him to take anything - he knowingly chose to ingest a lethal combination of drugs - he wasn't roofied, and he's not a child. 

It's a shame, and Kay certainly deserves punishment, and possibly Harvey too. 

But as for finding the Angels morally/financially culpable for this - that's pretty thin (other than a sympathy "someone should pay" finding)

14 minutes ago, Lou said:

Yeah, I'm not putting the blame on Harvey.

Hate to say this - but take away any one thing - including the grain alcohol -  and it sounds like a pretty good chance he doesn't die.  

Charging the liquor store that sold him the liquor isn't that far removed from charging Kay or Harvey.  

Mixing liquor and opioids - even straight from the pharmacy - has a distinct "Russian Roulette" aspect to it 

I thought we were locks to sign Beltran (then he had that insane playoff run which probably drove his contract out of sight) - later I realized he preferred being close to PR - but at the time, thought he wanted to play for us and so was really disappointed he didn't sign  

As others have said, Beltre and Johnson were disappointing (really wanted Johnson if only to never have to face him.)    Beltre - to be honest, I wanted him but was skeptical that he'd sustain.  He did   

Teix was a really good fit, but there was something about him I never liked, so was conflicted 

Most of the big names came with high performance risks and cripplingly high contract values, so not too disappointed with most of the recent ones.

Pujols was in that category - I thought we'd like having him for 3 or 4 years, and hate him by the end.   Eh, might've been optimistic

Had high hopes for Kotchman , Wood, Skaggs, Dmac, Newcomb, Adenhart, and Trout

I think his illness took a lot out of Kotchman - whatever it was, I thought he was gonna be a really good hitter, a "doubles-machine" I think I called him.  Yeah, not exactly

Wood, well, the less said, the better - I saw that swing in AAA and thought whoa!  Too bad it never connected with major league pitching 

DMac - I mean, his back - but don't think he was ever really going to do what we hoped.

Skaggs took a long time to get there, it felt like.  

Newcomb - missed badly - I thought TOR potential - uh, nope 

Don't want to talk about Adenhart.

Trout, I think I was right - but time will tell

On the guys I under-estimated?   Trumbo, probably - I thought he'd never be more than a Spring training curiosity, launching balls against bad pitchers, but would never get out of AA.  But man, he was frustrating - when he was hot, he was great - but he couldn't sustain - seemed like he was *that* close to becoming great.  A guy I'd always stop what I was doing to watch him hit.  

Richards - I never thought he'd reach the major leagues based on his college stats - if not for that horrible injury, he was contending for the Cy Young that year (god just thinking about that hurts me - hearing him scream, seeing the agony on his face - that was really, really bad - might've been the worst thing I've seen on a baseball diamond) 

I'm sure there are others - but mostly, our drafting/development has been pretty mediocre in the Arte era.

I doubt any major players want it to "fail" - the state and those bringing the lawsuits just want a sweet payoff to go away.  That's the way these things are done - you have to grease the palms of those the politicians put in place to grift, and they don't like being cut out of their skim.    

lol's at anyone thinking this is about "affordable housing".  

If Arte just says "fine, we'll just keep the current lease" - everyone loses.  

Interesting - what involvement does he have with the Twins?  

Sorry he feels that way -  he was involved with the club post-retirement, but I mean, at this point, I'm not sure what he wants - he retired before most of the current players were born, and other than taking photos with fans in the stadium, I'm not really sure what role he could play.

16 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

throwing out as many darts as possible?

Most likely, we'll soon forget all of their names - but you have to play to win - and for too many years, our international signings were non-existent or disastrous.

The important point, to me, is that we seem to be players again, and we're not signing guys no one's heard of (not you or me, but people who're paid to do this) - I mean, hate to again use Baldoquin as the case study, (feels like beating a dead ox) - but when we signed him, you could get the sense that area scouts were saying "who?!  Suckers!" - he wasn't on BA's prospect list, there were zero scouting reports, no glowing reports of how he performed in international competitions, only some exceedingly mediocre stats from his play on a Cuban club team.  And of course, DiPoto's scouting report 

Brian Downing?  

He was a beast for awhile ...

29 minutes ago, Stradling said:

How many right handed Japanese hitters have we seen.  Seems like the three that have had success were all left handed.  

I can’t imagine we are interested, I mean $12 million a year seems like a good deal for someone that is believe to have a ton of upside.  But unless we have a deal in place to move Marsh or Adell, I just can’t see any reason to pursue him.  

Yes, hard to see this happening - I'm not convinced either Marsh or Adell has enough perceived value now to land the kind of guy we're looking for, a TOR-capable guy with some cost control.   And I like having 2 home-grown, cost-controlled guys - Marsh has a pretty decent floor, and Adell has a great potential ceiling - hard to give up either of them.  

I'd probably rather take my chances on them, and then try to fill our remaining holes (once again, our needs exceed our budget) - but Rodon, Story, Jansen, and Tepera are FA names I'd kick the tires on.  

9 minutes ago, Tank said:

you win. this is a horrible thing to put in your mouth.

Think if it as oily ice cream ...  

nom, nom, nom ... 

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