Dtwncbad

I don’t think the Angels have the farm system to be in the position of being “one piece away.” So they have to use some free agency to get some players. I personally reject the idea that you pass on a single player because that one player isn’t the piece that puts them over the top. it is important to put a quality team on the field even if you don’t make the playoffs.

So Snell and Montgomery are sitting out 2024. Blarg, they are signing somewhere. The Angels have the need and the money. It’s not crazy talk. It might not be likely, but CONCLUDING that Angels will not sign either seems like just uncontrolled pessimism.

Yeah he is “in the loop” kinda like the mall Santa Claus at fashion island telling a second grader that a new bike isn’t out of the question.

It’s painful to listen to him. He’s perfect for a 9 year old passionate fan that innocently loves the team, and that’s kind of it. I would compare his purpose and role to like a Mall Santa Claus.

Just for fun, and probably with exactly as much insider insight as Roger Lodge, I predict Snell signs today.

For someone so close to the Angels, and I assume with some “sources”. . . why do all of instincts tell me Lodge just isn’t a good place to get an accurate read on what’s going on?

Conceptually, it wouldn’t be always. For example, if Bellinger mashes next year and opts out, and then the next team suffers in a $200+million contract, then the Cubs win with the opt out.

OK, but you don’t have a feeling that the Yankees will outbid the Angels for Burnes? My point is a “plan” to wait and sign Burnes is only a viable plan if you are prepared to substantially outbid everybody else. I feel like you chase players that can help you and strike when you have an opportunity to land them. The worst outcome is to “pass” on players this year and then miss out on the player or players you waited a year to pursue.

Why is it one or the other? I don’t see how signing Snell or Montgomery would prevent the Angels from going hard after Burnes next year.

Well to be very technical, nobody is ever “found” innocent. You ARE innocent until proven guilty. So Bauer is technically legally innocent.

This isn’t very believable.

I am not saying I am optimistic the Angels will be real WS contenders in any way. But I saw +15000 on one site and +18000 on another site for them to win the WS. I am pretty sure I’m going to throw a few bucks on that.

He said baseball IS a priority. Everyone is getting hung up on him saying baseball isn’t a “top priority.” But then he clearly says the things he considers higher priorities (what do count as his “top” priorities) are his family and his faith. He could have handled all this better to appease fans thirsty to hate him, but what he ACTUALLY said is pretty hard to criticize.

Just show me where he said playing baseball and having a family is “too much.” He didn’t. You have a wonderful imagination.

Your first post back is a predictable Phil Nevin worship post, and you complain that it is met with the same predictable reaction to all of your other four thousand Phil Nevin worship posts?

No more like an honest attempt to understand what has actually happened that could explain his words/behavior. And the “entitled millionaire” comment is just weird. Just sounds like unhealthy money envy to me.

So you didn’t get the point. OK.

Not everything has to be one-sided. Lots of things said about Rendon have been fair to say. But it is also fair to say that being a guy on a Hall of Fame trajectory and then just crushed by a sudden inability to stay on the field, along with a very high level of criticism attached to his contract (what do people expect, for him to not accept the guaranteed money?). . . would very likely create a frustration level in most normal people that would result in them saying stuff out of anger, bitterness, irritation, and self-preservation. I am not asking anybody to love this guy right now or love what he says. But could we at least feather in a bit of honest perspective? How would anyone feel if, almost instantly, out of your control, your entire existence in baseball went from celebrated loved HOF-trajectory, World Series hero to “biggest bust of all time” and “payroll cancer” and “fragile p*ssy”? My guess is that would wear in most normal people and have them get a bit jaded and say stuff that would easily be criticized. Rendon is a big boy and he will have to deal with it. But maybe let’s at the very least acknowledge that it probably hasn’t been a fun ride for him and what has happened to him physically would almost certainly cause most people to get pretty prickly. Yeah, he makes bank. And that is just so easy to focus on to make him the bad guy. But unless you think the guy is faking injury or quitting, hating on this guy because of the money he makes is silly. Baseball contracts are guaranteed. Thats just the way it is. I hope he gets healthy and finds a better place to be physically and mentally. He said some stuff that is annoying. But I bet lots of normal people would too if their whole career reputation turned on a dime out of their control and they were suddenly characterized as THE epitome of failure.

Even in hindsight, I still vote for go for it and try to keep him, knowing the downside is where we sit today. The opposite hindsight of “we were only a 1/2 game out and all we had to do was improve a little to make the playoffs, and that would really help Ohtani want to stay and instead we chickened out, punted and traded away a legend” would have been cemented as the crowning moment for why it is terrible to be an Angel fan.

Perfect

I love how he projects what a good owner should do, but totally fails to see that someone good at his job would get the interview, or at the very least wouldn’t be deliberately avoided.

I agree with you technically. I don’t think anybody can certainly conclude that he has no plan. But he is being somewhat foolish if he fails to see how important it is for him to provide to the fans some sense that he is competent and capable of leading the organization. He doesn’t seem to be doing anything to breed optimism that HE is the right owner going forward.

<Insert Jim Carey dumb and dumber meme here>

I have very often defended Moreno against lots of knee-jerk criticisms. I don’t think he has been a terrible owner forever. To me, he was doing fine for some time historically. But his time has passed and he is no longer somebody I want to continue owning the team. I am very disappointed that he is now saying he is here for the foreseeable future. I am most puzzled by his current inability to craft and deliver a message/vision for the team that fans paying attention can digest and accept. If he must stay as owner, I would at least hope he would be self-aware enough to know that he needs to display something to be significantly different going forward. Instead we basically get “I’m still here and not going anywhere for more of the same.” Fuck.