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There is little you could do that would stall improvement more than this. Any free agent player that signs a one year deal is likely a scrub or a player that is easily replaceable. Therefore, they will yield very, very little in a trade at the trade deadline. You are going to get a warm body that maybe someday might be a role player.

If we have learned anything at all in the past week, anny optimism of any kind about this team is crazy talk. Ohtani signed with the Dodgers.

Bitter Blum basically complaining again that the Angels don’t tell him anything.

My best guess is Arte’s personal happiness sits somewhere between the happiest human on earth and so miserable he is suicidal. But that’s just my guess based on what I know of him personally.

How are they “skirting” anything if they are actually charged the actual present value, just like every other contract in baseball? Would you think it is fair to be presently charged MORE than the actual present value?

Come on Angels. Give us something to talk about other than that guy that used to play here.

Stroman scared me. It’s not very analytical, but I just imagine him slipping to being a true #5 guy whose typical line is giving up 4 runs in 5 innings. I don’t really want to pay for that. And yes this is just an unscientific feeling about him.

I didn’t think he “would” re-sign, but I also don’t think it was automatic that he would leave. And that’s because I have no idea what conversations he and the front office/ownership were having. It always remained possible that there was some sort of short and long term plan that he had enough accepted input on to have him be comfortable staying. Clearly we now can assume that wasn’t the case, but I don’t think you could certainly conclude that until you saw what he decided.

A deep pockets owners hellbent on turning this franchise around would be actively trying to make deals where they acquire prospects in exchange for taking on some bad contracts. If the contracts you take on are at least decent players, then the team is respectable immediately, albeit at a significant salary cost. Yeah your salary situation now might stink. But if something has to stink I prefer it to be the salary situation instead of wins and losses and/or a light farm system. Isn’t this what Friedman did immediately when he got to the Dodgers? If cash flow is an issue, then do some contract restructuring to defer some payments. Come on Angels, let’s make some things happen. They don’t have to go this exact route, but I want to see them give us some transactions that indicate some competence, creativity and strategy.

Is the stove really still hot?

The bottom line is performance. If Bauer came here and was disciplined in controlling his image and pitched really well then that’s plenty good enough for me. It sure seems like he was set up, but we also have to live in the real world that sometimes isn’t real. If he came here and sucked and was a big mouth blowhard on social media making him an easy target and a distraction that isn’t a good look for the team, the. It would be a mess. Sometimes it isn’t about guilt or innocence, it is about managing perceptions and how willing you are to take the risk that the sometimes-not-so-real world can damage you. I definitely want his arm on the mound. But I am not clamoring for it because in my heart I don’t think the team is in the right place right now to expose itself to more bad PR so I realistically think they will not pursue him.

I still favor Adell over Ward going forward due to age, years of control, athleticism, etc. If another team is willing to give up pitching for Taylor Ward, I am all about it.

Don’t forget checking cars in the parking lot.

To be honest I will take just not being so damn unlucky.

I can say I honestly have no specific interest in being over .500. To me there are three buckets: 1). Make the postseason 2). Almost make the postseason so the season is exciting 3). not contending (don’t care all at if it’s over or under .500) All I want is to not be in bucket 3.

We are talking about one moment, one singular catch. I will have the courage to say that was one of the greatest catches I have ever seen. GMJ wasn’t a great baseball player. But I give him this one truly great moment/great catch that he deserves. And I don’t diminish it because he didn’t have a great career.

Well then Magic Johnson sure had a lot of “lucky” assists. GMJ quite deliberately put his glove exactly where he accurately tracked the ball to be. I don’t call that luck.

It really was a great catch. I will give him that.

Trying to stay true to the title of the thread “Gut Punch”. . . I do feel a bit gut punched. But the more important thing is if I am winning the fight or losing the fight when I get gut punched. I have felt recently that the team has done a better job drafting, distributing free agent dollars, and showing some good young players on the field. So I felt like things were slightly improving and I was staying optimistic. The gut punch is felt though. The big question now is how many fans will fight through the gut punch or will they metaphorically let this punch make them tap out?

Sidenote: my son was 6 years old in little league when the Angels signed Pujols and he went berzerk over the Angels getting Pujols. I took him to the stadium for the big Pujols event and he sat on my shoulders so he could see, hugging my head in pure little boy joy, telling me he loved me. So I could have voted for Pujols for that alone.

Vladimir by a narrow margin. Rendon was a close second. He was my favorite NL player and an MVP level player. . . and suddenly he was an Angel! That was exciting .

Hope and Thanks. I am very thankful for this place. It is a great place to get the pulse of other fans and get some other perspectives. It’s also sort of starts to feel like home with family members. . . people with opinions you don’t even like but they ARE part of your family so you end up feeling connected to them. I will also say this site gives people a chance to learn a bit about themselves with an opportunity to at least try to make some improvements/grow up, etc. in the context of being functional in this kind of environment. A repeat of thanks to the site. The Angels hopefully have also learned about themselves and are hopefully committed to their own self improvement, for the good of the franchise and hopefully to the benefit of all of us. I hope.

Are the Angels done with transactions for 2024? Of course not. Are the Angels done being able to compete with smarter, better run organizations? Maybe. Are the Angel fans “done” with this owner? Probbaly.

Comprehensive answer: There is nothing wrong with liking Star Wars. Nothing. But it is a darn good bet there is something wrong with many of the people who spend way too much time in Star Wars costumes.