Dtwncbad

Can’t believe Ohtani got a pitch to hit. I expected 4 walks today.

Pedro rambling and not being mentally organized. Sounds stupid.

I have had many conversations about spending and I am not sure which ones you are referencing. But many times I have argued that it is fair for fans to notice equity in the business rather than being only focused on cash flow. Artw can obviously choose to make every spending decision on year over year revenue versus expenses. That is up to him. But it is not unfair to bring up the fact that the team has little or no debt and is worth probably over $2b. There are fairly simple ways to use some of that equity to improve your team now. If you had a house worth $2b and owed nothing on it and you needed new flooring you would use some of the home’s equity. The money is not lost if you put it back into the house to improve the house. That is a very simple analogy but I am just making the point that equity is there. In the big picture for a business like this, year over year cash flow is arguably less important than building the franchise, and sometimes you use equity to build things. Arte just chooses not to. He absolutely “can” spend more to put this team to try to add the pieces that the team seems to need. He doesn’t and that’s up to him. But let’s not be dumb that he doesn’t have a pile of equity in his lap at his disposal.

I will die believing that the Angels should have kept Kendrick for a few more years and just played him at 3B (which was a black hole at that time).

My reaction to the Angels signing a glove first SS would be, “so the Angels signed a guy.”

Fouling off pitches, making contact, not striking out isn’t special, unless you actually produce some offense. Sorry we disagree.

By the way, David Fletcher can absolutely be the regular 2B on a championship team. But it will simply mean he basically “Holds down the fort” at that position while the rest of the team produces at a championship level. You can’t have elite players at every position. It just doesn’t work that way. My comment are more pointed at what seems to be an irrational celebration of his actual value. I think second base is probably a pretty good spot to have your grinder get-by guy, that isn’t very expensive, that allows you to have more talent at other positions. I have no issue with keeping this guy if the Angels build the rest of the roster properly. But my opinion remains. He is not special. He is a guy.

1 line item for K-rate (meaningless in isolation) and then 6 line items for “he can play defense”? Great. A guy that plays defense well that doesn’t strike out much. Beyond that, crickets. If you think that makes him a “special” player, then we will simply agree to disagree.

Bottom line is David Fletcher is nothing special. Nice story. Blue collar hard worker good teammate etc etc. Cool. But how someone actually is as a player is almost always going to drastically override those little warms and fuzzy feeling things. I pull for him and he is easy to pull for. But the sample size is large enough now to be honest. He really is nothing special. I wouldn’t hesitate to include him in a deal (likely with young arms) to get the pitching the Angels need if the other team was enamored with him. Seems like there was a time not too long ago when Angel fans were adamant about Fletcher being untouchable because he was such a great value. Those days are either gone or should be gone.

I think the field manager CAN make a difference but right now who is in that job is way off my radar. Right now, it’s the roster that is the problem. If the team had the right roster and still could not win, then I guess I would care who was managing. Right now the only manager change I would actually be excited about in the absence of having the right roster would be landing Ted Lasso.

Las Vegas sucks in general. Yes I have had some fun in that town but it was because I was with fun people cutting loose. It wasn’t that Las Vegas uniquely offered anything necessary to have fun with friends. I am just saying sometimes a group of friends get a wild itch to cut loose and they go to Las Vegas and have a great time. My opinion is this same group in that kind of mood to cut loose is probably going to have fun going just about anywhere else. It’s not the town. It’s the people and their particular mood. Las Vegas itself sucks.

I feel like over the last 7-8 years the team tried desperately to not be among the teams that build to go for it and then have to sell off players and rebuild. Seems like they had this vision that they would be above that and would patiently build this machine that could compete year in and year out without the drastic moves to “build” and the drastic moves to “sell.” I get why you want to do that, so you don’t ever really have to suffer through any extended losing periods of rebuilding. But it didn’t work. The result is the fans just sat through a stretch of frustrating losing seasons that likely exceeded tue number of seasons they would have had to endure if they had been willing to make bold moves. The team now has some payroll space for a TOR arm, and now also has more tradeable prospect capital than it has had in probably a decade. The long wait has (to me anyway) created a very high level of urgency to compete a high level immediately now. It would be great to pretend that the past is the past and only focus on the present and future. But realistically fans have memories, and key players have certain “windows” of prime performance. I would like to see the team make some major headlines this offseason with moves that look aggressive and committed to winning in 2022. High end pitching. Guys you would be elated to hand the ball to in a postseason game. The offense will be more than adequate without any huge acquisitions (if healthy). Make the Angels Great Again. Now. Please.

Well that makes more sense. I don’t care about saving money and I don’t care about hoarding a quantity of arms instead of landing exactly what the team needs.

The point was simple. You said don’t trade for Castillo if it costs arms. That was the absurd fantasy Strad. So I “accepted” your absurd fantasy by saying “yes let’s get Castillo by trading Ward, etc.” If you want to dig into what was foolish, it was the idea you can trade for Castillo without trading any young pitching. Do you think the Angels are really going to not trade arms after drafting 20 pitchers? Maybe this front office understands that the teams trading a stud starter want upside young arms in return, and has now drafted accordingly.

No reading comprehension issue at all. I made a point and, be honest, you understood exactly what my point was, didn’t you?

Right. Acquire Castillo for Taylor Ward and Scott Schebler. Good plan.

Wouldn’t pushing all your chips in be signing Scherzer AND trading for a Castillo or Marquez? Do both. Have the sack to actually go get what you need.

Seems like California is being pretty stupid when it comes to gambling. How many people drive east to leave California and go to Las Vegas every year? The fact is once they get east of Barstow, that money is going to end up on Nevada. Why isn’t California smart enough to establish like a 5 mile zone on this side of the CA/NV border where casinos can be built? Nevada already has casinos at state line. Doesn’t it seem pretty obvious that CA should allow CA casinos on this side of the border at state line? At least SOME of the Vegas-bound money could stay in California.

Does the organization realize that a good portion of the fan base is so tired of losing that they now always automatically irrationally assume a systemic problem within the organization on literally any subject or anecdotal iota of data? Probably not. Typical dysfunctional Angels.

I prefer this “who cares”

So a repeat of this year will make next year successful. Got it.

Cobb is the exact kind of signing I want to avoid. He isn’t a TOR arm, and the team doesn’t need him for depth with all the other arms in the system. Thank him for his service and say goodbye.

Yes the Angels need to be aggressive in their attempt to sign the right starting pitching. But I hope they are equally willing to acquire what they need through a trade.

You misunderstood. I can hit.

The Dodgers would probably be 24-6 in games I start.