Troll Daddy

agreed, and not arguing that.
it's how you handle things publicly with others. it's the difference between being diplomatic or being, well, like a trump tweet (crooked hilary, little rocket man, and about ten dozen other examples). 

I'm almost 90% sure Adell will be our starting right fielder for 2020.  Me thinks him playing AFL & USA baseball is all for endurance purposes.  Get him ready for the long haul of an MLB season.
 
 
 

There’s no secrets in baseball ⚾️ we’re in the age of unlimited information on every team.

The Arte and Boras parking lot meeting went well.

Damn straight ... Yankees were so close this season they can taste it. 

I call bullshit
Brian Cashman mentioned on Monday night, there are no monetary bounds for the Yankees this offseason.

I think you are selling Ohtani short. His is going to be 17 months removed from TJ surgery, he should be throwing his whole arsenal when ST starts, hopefully fewer splitters and more curves. I also think that he has been here long enough to pitch every fifth game and not force the other starters to change their routines. Also, his bat is too vital to only DH 3 times a week. 
 
The Cole negotiations are going to last into next year so the Angels have to build the rest of the staff first. I agree with the signing of Maldonado.  I see Wheeler’s negotiations lasting into January also. Eppler has to decide to either sign 2 second tier starters or one and wait for Cole or go all out for Cole and risk having a chance to sign other quality starters. Cole is obviously the number one priority but they need more than Cole to be competitive with Houston and Oakland.

Imagine the options Eppler would have if Trout had offered a hometown discount instead of penning the most lucrative contract in sports history. 
 

You guys will all be standing in line to blow Eppler if he signs Cole....  But it's Arte that will ultimately be responsible .... Is he willing to set the record for a SP after signing the richest contract in pro sports ... I love Epp, but this is Arte's offseason.

Corbin and Eovaldi last year come to mind.

I get that he doesn’t say much and maybe he shouldn’t say anything but if anyone read that and thought “that sounds smart” then please stop commenting on the Angels forever.  The Angels must sign at least one of Cole, Strasburg or Wheeler.  Failure to do so means that Epplers time at the Big A has come to an end.  The Angels have maybe 5 years to do something with Mike Trout.  This isn’t an open ended thing.  There isn’t plenty of time.  Spend what has to be spent and make this shit happen.  Now. 

They offered him a QO last off-season, so they couldn't this year. 

You can also look at this another way. If Ruiz was the Angels prospect ... would you trade him for Marsh? 

The fact is there will be plenty of teams keeping a close eye on Gerrit Cole. Once it gets to stupid money the pretenders will step aside. I wouldn’t rule out the Rangers who are looking for a impact signing going into their new ballpark. 

You can also look at this another way. If Ruiz was the Angels prospect ... would you trade him for Marsh? 

Then they would have to start playing Ramblin' Rose instead of Buttercup.
I'm not sure that I want the Angels to spend the kind of money for a pitcher that is rumored to be the target price for Cole, and I damned sure don't want to get into a bidding war with the Yankees. Give him a seven- or eight-year deal and his arm flames out in year three, then what?
Better to bring in Justin Verlander. At least if he started to suck, we would get lots of shots of Kate Upton in the stands when he was pitching.

That’s a good business practice. 

There’s no rules There’s no guarantees There’s no winners 😂 

There’s no rules There’s no guarantees There’s no winners 😂 

I would trade anyone and everyone if it meant the Angels being in a better position today and in 5 years to get the Angels to the playoffs. I just don't know who that would be, what someone is worth and so on and so forth. 

One one hand DTown makes a good arguement that Cole is a difference maker and the Angels are in need of that kind of pitcher.
Then real world economics come in to play and the same as Trout without a pitching staff is innefective, Cole without a second tier pitcher to support a staff with much lesser talent is only going to impact 30 games. At some point economics of baseball in terms of not only individual player cost but value for that cost comes into effect. What you pay Cole comes out of the budget for the rest of the roster.
So, in terms of getting the most bang for the buck, is Cole's 30 games more valuable on their own over picking up the two of the next tiered pitchers for roughly the same money and having dollars left over to pick up a catcher like Grandel? You have effectively greatly increased the value of three positions over one and a lesser effective pitcher to stay within budget, leaving little money to adress catching.
Tough decision to make. If the Angels had more solid young pitching I would jump on making Cole the one and only focus. Since there is weakness in the core staff I would favor putting as many better arms in the rotation to allow less of the lower end pitching to be placed into the rotation.
So I guess it comes down to how the staff looks better on paper for 162 games as opposed to assuming there will be 7 games in late October to contend with. It would look better with Cole as the ACE but needs a support staff.
 

Andrelton Simmons wins the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award.