DCAngelsFan

And I'm hearing there's a possibility that it might snow in hell sometime ... 
Weathermen and hot stove league prognosticators have the easiest jobs - will anyone be impressed if I tweeted "I'm hearing that a decision will certainly be made in the next 2 weeks" ... ?

I'd think a club need only show the August weather forecast and park effects chart - pitching on a 100 degree day with 100% humidity for a guy who played in a dome in a city with an average temp of 72 degrees should do him in.  
And yes, it's an extreme pitchers park - only Coors is worse.  Really seems the worst possible place for him  to pitch, absent the money.  
Then again, I'd have thought AT&T would be a bad place to pitch - once the sun goes down, it's like a mausoleum  - but guess it's easier to keep warm in a cold place than cooling down in a place where the field temps are like 110 ...
 

To be fair, the Baldoquin move was pretty singular in its idiocy - most GM's don't get a chance to do "two" of them.  
With "Angels Management" being an oxymoron for so long, I've been pretty slow to trust Eppler, especially since he was inheriting such an awful mess in the farm, the payroll obligations, and the international limitations.  But given these limitations, I have to say ...
... screw that, I don't have to say anything, I'll just jinx it - so, yeah, he's Reagins 2.0 ...
 

To be fair, the Baldoquin move was pretty singular in its idiocy - most GM's don't get a chance to do "two" of them.  
With "Angels Management" being an oxymoron for so long, I've been pretty slow to trust Eppler, especially since he was inheriting such an awful mess in the farm, the payroll obligations, and the international limitations.  But given these limitations, I have to say ...
... screw that, I don't have to say anything, I'll just jinx it - so, yeah, he's Reagins 2.0 ...
 

My biggest complaint against the organization, and particularly the FO, over the past decade has been our true lack of a presence in Latin America. We've been neglecting too much talent for too long. And, when we went in on Baldwin, we didn't go in on so many others at the time to justify the 2-year ban. I agree with trying to get ahead of the curve in the Bahamas, but not if it comes at the expense of Latin America. For what 1 WAR costs these days, we could have and should have the best scouting AND development staff period. 
 
I agree, when opportunities arise, we have to be ready to capitalize on them. This is one such situation. If Miami is realistic about what they would want in a Stanton trade, again, I'd be ready to capitalize. 

So, basically, you've named China, Vietnam, Korea, and sort-of China again, - for a Japanese baseball player. 
There are a lot of animosities there, between Japan and China and Korea, especially - and is a little like saying a German soccer player is going to be comfortable in a new city because there's a French restaurant, Wee Britain, a Polish pirogi restaurant, and members of the Russian mafia living nearby.
 

So, basically, you've named China, Vietnam, Korea, and sort-of China again, - for a Japanese baseball player. 
There are a lot of animosities there, between Japan and China and Korea, especially - and is a little like saying a German soccer player is going to be comfortable in a new city because there's a French restaurant, Wee Britain, a Polish pirogi restaurant, and members of the Russian mafia living nearby.
 

So, basically, you've named China, Vietnam, Korea, and sort-of China again, - for a Japanese baseball player. 
There are a lot of animosities there, between Japan and China and Korea, especially - and is a little like saying a German soccer player is going to be comfortable in a new city because there's a French restaurant, Wee Britain, a Polish pirogi restaurant, and members of the Russian mafia living nearby.
 

Good lord, he's channeling my high school newspaper "sports reporter" with all the awkward metaphors and hyperbole - Jim Murray and Shirley Povich must be spinning in their graves ...
 

Considering all the talk entering the offseason was that the Angels wouldn't even bother looking at him, I'm just happy to see Eppler is being true to his word and they are looking at every avenue available when looking to acquire talent.   Ohtani's going to be a huge help to whatever team he signs with but you throw him into the mix with Trout, Simmons, an Upton.  bam..  the Angels suddenly have a pretty solid foundation of players...

Time to order Trout a copy of Rosetta Stone - Japanese language ....
Oh, wait, what am I saying?  Mike can do anything, probably already speaks Japanese ...
Angels can make a pretty compelling offer outside of money - and perhaps they can make a quick trade to a team that's been eliminated for more international bonus pool money?  

Cut it out, you're gonna give me blue balls ...
This would probably be greater - Pujols was already on the decline, and Wilson was never better than a #2 - we'd have 2 MVP candidates on the same team - like Mantle & Maris  ...
 

Time to order Trout a copy of Rosetta Stone - Japanese language ....
Oh, wait, what am I saying?  Mike can do anything, probably already speaks Japanese ...
Angels can make a pretty compelling offer outside of money - and perhaps they can make a quick trade to a team that's been eliminated for more international bonus pool money?  

A little nit-pick-y, but there's a difference between such obvious spending line items such as "payroll" and spending on all the nuts-and-bolts that make an organization more effective.
I don't feel like they're "cheap" in terms of payroll, but in those less-glamorous things where  "spending money" can improve your decision-making/yield better results. (better analytics and technology to support scouting and player development, for example, and actually having South American scouting/development, which we failed to have for years,  advanced training facilities for player development,  and so on.) 
If we're still the Angels of old, we won't even post a bid for Otani if he posts, just like we didn't compete for Cespedes, Darvish, Iwakuma,  Maeda, etc.   (I'm thinking we might've at least spoken to Chapman - but whenever some international FA did a showcase in front of 29 times, seemed like you could count on it being the "Angels" that didn't bother showing up.)
And then there's idiocy like blowing all your bonus pool money on a no-name, (I'll stop there) named "Baldoquin" - and then, stopping - the greater sin - other teams that went into penalty (like we did) just kept signing, like the Yankees and Red Sox in 2014  - all it would have cost is "money" -  other teams in that situation loaded up on additional players - we went home, and the only reason I can think of is that we were "cheap."  I could be wrong; but I get the idea that Oakland has spent more on internationals in the last 10 years than the Angels have.  
Spending on payroll just shows how much you're willing to pay for free agents; it's not "impressive", not when you're letting other areas of your organization lag.   
(this is primarily retrospective -- but we're living with the consequences of decisions made years ago now.)
 

A little nit-pick-y, but there's a difference between such obvious spending line items such as "payroll" and spending on all the nuts-and-bolts that make an organization more effective.
I don't feel like they're "cheap" in terms of payroll, but in those less-glamorous things where  "spending money" can improve your decision-making/yield better results. (better analytics and technology to support scouting and player development, for example, and actually having South American scouting/development, which we failed to have for years,  advanced training facilities for player development,  and so on.) 
If we're still the Angels of old, we won't even post a bid for Otani if he posts, just like we didn't compete for Cespedes, Darvish, Iwakuma,  Maeda, etc.   (I'm thinking we might've at least spoken to Chapman - but whenever some international FA did a showcase in front of 29 times, seemed like you could count on it being the "Angels" that didn't bother showing up.)
And then there's idiocy like blowing all your bonus pool money on a no-name, (I'll stop there) named "Baldoquin" - and then, stopping - the greater sin - other teams that went into penalty (like we did) just kept signing, like the Yankees and Red Sox in 2014  - all it would have cost is "money" -  other teams in that situation loaded up on additional players - we went home, and the only reason I can think of is that we were "cheap."  I could be wrong; but I get the idea that Oakland has spent more on internationals in the last 10 years than the Angels have.  
Spending on payroll just shows how much you're willing to pay for free agents; it's not "impressive", not when you're letting other areas of your organization lag.   
(this is primarily retrospective -- but we're living with the consequences of decisions made years ago now.)
 

No idea how this will all work out but Eppler's quotes in Fletcher's article at the OCR are pretty satisfying as a fan.  
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/08/31/angels-add-slugger-justin-upton-in-deadline-deal/
“This team showed a lot of fight over the year,” Eppler said. “What we were starting to see, the punches were stronger. The guys were hitting harder. Their play warranted continued investment in this club.”
Gotta think the players loved to see him say and do what he did....
 
 

I figured that's what you meant - just gave me a chance to raise an issue I always found annoying - the number of AA kids whose athleticism would have let them go far in those "other" sports, but who didn't have the "right" gifts to excel in their preferred sports, still choosing to chase the NBA dream, even though they were never going to be taller than 5'9".
Compared to boxing, however, pretty much every other sport - including "golf" and bowling - offers better opportunities for college.
 

Eh, I have no problem saying I didn't like the trade at the time - in a vacuum, it was a good trade.
But considering it addressed none of our actual needs at the time (2b, LF, etc) and, especially,  considering the lack of pitching depth in the pipeline to fill out our rotation in the coming years, I thought it just wasn't the right move for us at that point in time.
I think the jury's still out - Newcomb finished the season strong - he's young, has plus stuff, lots of strikeouts, and improving control - we may yet regret this trade.

That looks like it was over-designed to a certain extent, with a lot of padding to reduce impact and shock.  In Matt's case, he had an impact focused on a very small area - the spherical shape of the ball puts all of the energy into one very small "point", and it acts as a penetrating object. 
A rigid ballistic plate - based on some composite material, with a small amount of padding could take the energy that was initially all focused in an area that was probably like .10 sq inches, and disperse it over an area 100 times that size.  You could make it almost eggshell thin and it would prevent the most dangerous thing - skull fracture / hematoma - which is what happened to Matt.  Obviously, the more padding, the more protection. 
Baseball should offer a set of technologies to players - from minimal to "bubble boy" - let the players choose - but pitchers, base coaches, must choose at least "minimal". 

That looks like it was over-designed to a certain extent, with a lot of padding to reduce impact and shock.  In Matt's case, he had an impact focused on a very small area - the spherical shape of the ball puts all of the energy into one very small "point", and it acts as a penetrating object. 
A rigid ballistic plate - based on some composite material, with a small amount of padding could take the energy that was initially all focused in an area that was probably like .10 sq inches, and disperse it over an area 100 times that size.  You could make it almost eggshell thin and it would prevent the most dangerous thing - skull fracture / hematoma - which is what happened to Matt.  Obviously, the more padding, the more protection. 
Baseball should offer a set of technologies to players - from minimal to "bubble boy" - let the players choose - but pitchers, base coaches, must choose at least "minimal". 

Actually, our dysfunction in the international market is even worse than they say - sure, signing Baldoquin was a mistake - but that wasn't the only one.  We made the mistake worse by not doing what the Red Sox and Yankees did when they exceeded the bonus pool; since they were going to bonus pool jail, they signed everyone in sight - the smart thing to do.  We didn't.  And the article really doesn't say how useless we've been in other international areas - never signing any top prospects for years, never submitting bids on international free agents and posting candidates - we did *nothing*, for years.
Giving up those comp picks probably had little impact - we'd just have drafted another Chevy Clarke or something.  
And it doesn't seem fair to lump in pitching injuries with bad drafts, bone-headed fa signings, and cheapness in the international market - injuries are random - moronic moves and poor management are not.  
 

Actually, our dysfunction in the international market is even worse than they say - sure, signing Baldoquin was a mistake - but that wasn't the only one.  We made the mistake worse by not doing what the Red Sox and Yankees did when they exceeded the bonus pool; since they were going to bonus pool jail, they signed everyone in sight - the smart thing to do.  We didn't.  And the article really doesn't say how useless we've been in other international areas - never signing any top prospects for years, never submitting bids on international free agents and posting candidates - we did *nothing*, for years.
Giving up those comp picks probably had little impact - we'd just have drafted another Chevy Clarke or something.  
And it doesn't seem fair to lump in pitching injuries with bad drafts, bone-headed fa signings, and cheapness in the international market - injuries are random - moronic moves and poor management are not.  
 

Actually, our dysfunction in the international market is even worse than they say - sure, signing Baldoquin was a mistake - but that wasn't the only one.  We made the mistake worse by not doing what the Red Sox and Yankees did when they exceeded the bonus pool; since they were going to bonus pool jail, they signed everyone in sight - the smart thing to do.  We didn't.  And the article really doesn't say how useless we've been in other international areas - never signing any top prospects for years, never submitting bids on international free agents and posting candidates - we did *nothing*, for years.
Giving up those comp picks probably had little impact - we'd just have drafted another Chevy Clarke or something.  
And it doesn't seem fair to lump in pitching injuries with bad drafts, bone-headed fa signings, and cheapness in the international market - injuries are random - moronic moves and poor management are not.  
 

Actually, our dysfunction in the international market is even worse than they say - sure, signing Baldoquin was a mistake - but that wasn't the only one.  We made the mistake worse by not doing what the Red Sox and Yankees did when they exceeded the bonus pool; since they were going to bonus pool jail, they signed everyone in sight - the smart thing to do.  We didn't.  And the article really doesn't say how useless we've been in other international areas - never signing any top prospects for years, never submitting bids on international free agents and posting candidates - we did *nothing*, for years.
Giving up those comp picks probably had little impact - we'd just have drafted another Chevy Clarke or something.  
And it doesn't seem fair to lump in pitching injuries with bad drafts, bone-headed fa signings, and cheapness in the international market - injuries are random - moronic moves and poor management are not.  
 

Actually, our dysfunction in the international market is even worse than they say - sure, signing Baldoquin was a mistake - but that wasn't the only one.  We made the mistake worse by not doing what the Red Sox and Yankees did when they exceeded the bonus pool; since they were going to bonus pool jail, they signed everyone in sight - the smart thing to do.  We didn't.  And the article really doesn't say how useless we've been in other international areas - never signing any top prospects for years, never submitting bids on international free agents and posting candidates - we did *nothing*, for years.
Giving up those comp picks probably had little impact - we'd just have drafted another Chevy Clarke or something.  
And it doesn't seem fair to lump in pitching injuries with bad drafts, bone-headed fa signings, and cheapness in the international market - injuries are random - moronic moves and poor management are not.