ScruffytheJanitor

The pitchers never had any problem with Butcher.  It's all Nagy's fault.

Obviously the problem is Mike Scioscia. Pitchers know that he's going to pull them too early and bring in some human shit tosser to hold their slim lead, so why should they bother working out as hard and taking care of themselves? Smith was on the cusp of being called up so he just got an early start.
The Angels never had this many arm injuries when Maddon was around. 

We had a really long run without serious pitcher arm injuries. Before Skaggs, Kelvim Escobar was the only significant one at the major league level in a really long time. How times change.

If you frame something, anything from a pessimistic standpoint, you can make it sound exactly the way you just did. The reality is, we have a ton of non-projectable pitching depth in AA and AAA. And Wright is non-projectable pitching depth in AA/AAA. There's no way around that.

Yeah, this moves seems odd to me. No upside to this guy.

He still has a viable right elbow.

Someday he'll start a Limo driver company called Ober & make millions.

Street, Bedrock, Bailey, Guerra, Valdez, Alcantara, Middleton, Adams, Paredes, - victory.

Respectable 4.38 ERA over 6 starts with a 1.20 WHIP, averaging a little over 6 innings a start. Basically the ideal #4-5 starter.

What's the Angels record since trading Nava? This could be the "it" thing.

He'll hit 6 home runs against the Angels next year.

I believe so, but at the time of the draft they may have assumed they'd possibly need to go over-slot for someone like Marsh, and therefore went with someone cheaper in Round One with Thaiss. 

Thanks for the responses everyone!
I like this whole, "I ask questions into the ether and get a response" thing. 

Hermosillo and Jones give me hope for that 3rd OF spot down the road.

Hermosillo with another good game 2-4 with a homer and 4 RBI. This month he's hitting .356 with .986 OPS for Inland Empire. I know it's a hitter friendly league but Jesus.....

Normally I'd save this for an article, but I'll go ahead and sum it up.  tDawg is obviously right about Smith, Alcantara and Middleton.  I suspect they'll all be up by July next season.  Smith I think will bounce between the Angels rotation and Salt Lake.  Middleton and Alcantara should break in at a relatively similar time, and they figure to form with Bedrosian, Guerra, Valdez and Morin to form a pretty dynamic young bullpen.  You can probably add Eduardo Paredes to that equation too.  Hard thrower with decent control and lots of movement.  Lots of ways to get batters out.  There's an outside chance at Wesely and Kaelin too. 
I think Meyer and Banuelos will both be up with the Angels in a starting role in 2017.  Chris O'Grady and Kyle McGowin could figure into a starting role as well.  O'Grady's a lefty that can generate ground balls with his low-90's fastball when going right.  Pretty good control too.  McGowin is a righty with similar stuff but a better breaking ball.  
We might also see David Fletcher in some capacity.  Fletch can pick it at 2B, SS and 3B and run a little bit.  He'd be a very ideal utility infielder that should draw comps to Maicer or Eckstein.  

Sure, he's also tall. 6'4"

I honestly could see the Angels scooping up Puig. Moreno would love nothing more than to stick it to the Dodgers and acquiring Puig would be that sort of move. Not just that but Puig is the exact fit the Angels have a need for.
I mean put him on the same team as Pujols, Calhoun and Trout, and Puig's not only not a leader, but he wouldn't even have the opportunity to act like a fool before the other guys put him in his place.
I can see the Angels and Dodgers working out something along the lines of Victor Alcantara and international bonus slots for Puig. The Dodgers save 14 million, get some extra money for Latin American prospects and get a potentially dominant reliever that should be ready soon.

Puig is a cancer in the clubhouse to be sure --
what his contract like?
who would have claimed him?
if you are a contender would you jeopardize your team chemistry by bringing this guy in?
on the other hand, if you are the SF Giants -- how sweet would it be to claim Puig -- put him on the expanded roster for September and have him pinch run in the latter innings against the Dodgers??  Of course, Puig is prone to making really dumb base-running mistakes,,,,,,but he's fast !

If Eppler claimed him and trades Jones and Thaiss for him I'll probably OD on painkillers and slowly drift off into the abyss.

Their delusion has been transferred to Seager.

Remember back in the day when Dodger fans argued that he was superior to Trout! Where are those delusional crack heads now?

Given his MLB contributions here, gumballs might not be a far fetched equivalent exchange.

If this is the legit Cron and not "streaky" Cron, then, if you want to complete in '17, you have to keep him as a part of your offense.  Next year, you are looking at:
 
1)  Escobar 3B - .320 .368 .769 OPS 114 OPS+
2)  Calhoun RF - .270 .352 .770 OPS 113 OPS+
3)  Trout CF - .316 .434 .991 OPS 173 OPS+
4)  Pujols DH - .263 .323 .773 OPS 112 OPS+
5)  Cron 1B - .285 .335 .813 OPS 122 OPS+
as your top 5.
 
That's a solid offensive line-up.  You also have the potential behind them of:
6)  Marte 3B/LF - .254 .295 .776 OPS 110 OPS+
It will curious to see if Marte can continue to develop offensively or if this is his peak.  His number this year are very similar to what Trumo gave us his final year prior to being traded (.234 .295 .747 OPS 109 OPS+) but at cost controlled numbers. Based on power potential, it looks like he has a place in the line-up.
7)  Simmons SS - .272 .308 .641 OPS 78 OPS+
8)  Bandy C - .260 (?) .320 (?) .750 (?)
9)  Cowart 2B - ????
 
Even with the question marks 6-9, that's the line-up of a contender, health permitting.

So basically what Yonder Alonso was supposed to be