Declined

20 hours ago, Dochalo said:

the game offed Arte!!

WTF - they killed off the dude and his son took over.   

They actually made Arte out to be quite the douche actually.  I won the division 5 years in a row and made the playoffs 5 of 7 years.  I got ousted in the first round in all but one year and he kept sending me pm's about how he wasn't happy with my performance.  I traded dip spit and duct tape for Syndergaard and Arte got made because I didn't extend his contract even though he wouldn't talk to me and there was no money in the budget.  lol.  

Arte's son came in as the new owner and extended my contract for 3 years but cut payroll by 50 mil.  lol.  I was already right at my budget limit.  Both of them would massively slash my amateur scouting budget and draft budget too so I'd just spend it on free agents.  now I'm f'd.  I have a huge payroll and a shitty farm system.  

btw, I through 2026 and starting the off season prior to 2027.  I had built a juggernaut.  Adell and Marsh became beasts.  Ohtani jas been very good as well.  I traded kyren paris for Mackenzie Gore and Arol Vera is now my starting SS.  He had an ok rookie year.  

I think I'm going into a rebuild and I've wasted Trout's good years!!!  I moved him to 1b btw because his defensive rating in the OF drop to a 20 on the 80 grade system and he's put up back to back 1.4 WAR seasons.  Rendon put up almost 28 WAR for his 7 years.  

this game is dumb and awesome all at the same time.  

This makes me wanna play this game again. By the way, players take time to learn new positions so if you move trout to left or right, his rating will be bad but just takes some time. Players actually learn positions faster in spring training so you can't move players around  for experience. Sincerely, ex-ootp addict   

1 hour ago, jsnpritchett said:

I finished my season at 85-78 (beating the Red Sox in a one-game "play-in" for the 2nd wild card slot).  Beat the Rays in the wild card, then got annihilated 3-0 by the Astros in the next round.  Trout was far and away the star of the team.  Rendon ended up with over 100 RBI, but no one else stood out in any category.  LaStella did pretty well overall, then tried pushing for a $16M/year, 7 year extension.  I let him walk...

In the off-season, I traded for Aroldis Chapman--who immediately had to have Tommy John surgery and is out for 13 months.  LOL.  I guess that's pretty accurate for the Angels, huh?

You should look for a team trainer who has a excellent or legendary rating in the "prevents arm injuries" category. Probably wouldn't help because well...Angels baseball but still worth a shot.

Also, as someone who's been addicted to this game since about ootp14, I wanna thank you all for letting me live vicariously through your ootp updates since I finally skipped out on getting it this year this game is so immersive & it only gets better as you play more seasons & watch your prospects grow up. 

Last time I heard the phrase "chronic changes to the elbow" was when they were talking about Andrew heaneys issues last year. Ended up being arthritis at the elbow joint & he was able to pitch after some rest. So there's still a small chance Canning won't need to have his arm amputated. 

Taylor Ward in RF? This......should be interesting. Tequila shots everytime he misplays a ball out there. 

1 hour ago, Φαήλος said:

What’s going on over there?

There's a supposed MLB executive burner account on Twitter who's been right about some things & has a lot of good insight (& sometimes wild opinions) who says eppler's been cozying up to SF front office as a safe landing spot in case he's outta a job next year these are waiver moves so Eppler can't control what happens but interesting thought nonetheless.

26 minutes ago, Second Base said:

Not a huge fan, but Andriese makes sense. He does into that 6th starter role where he's a starter twice a month because of Ohtani's schedule, and the rest of the time, he works in extended relief.

Not sure I would've traded Beasley though. He's got a good splitter that's only getting better. It feels like they paid something for a player they probably could've acquired for nothing. 

But I think it goes without saying, this isn't what Angels fans are looking for, nor what the Angels actually need. But then again, Eppler really hasn't focused much on Angels actual needs this off-season as much as he's just focusing on proving to everyone he can unearth value where others can't. 

It's just sort of.... meh.

Agree with this. I feel we do need a good swingman & would have preferred signing someone like Colin McHugh. We need some versatility in the pen. Not sweating losing Beasley but I do hope maderos makes it through waivers. I was surprised they added him to the 40 man last year so he must've not been progressing as well as they hoped he would. 

Do the Astros get to keep the comp pick from Cole signing with the stanks? First reaction was that this seemed kinda light. Losing those picks will hurt. Not just because of the players they would've picked but the $$ allotted to those picks hurts just as much if not more. 

The 5 million is a joke but if that's all Mlb can fine then so be it.

Also....since watching that video of altuve begging his teammates not to rip off his shirt, I was hoping he would get some sort of suspension. But it's harder to punish players so meh. 

Glad we're out on kluber. Rengifo is expendable but Sandoval is someone they should keep. If the velocity jump he had is real, then we definitely got something with him. 
 

I’m definitely hoping for a Keuchel signing. Not sure what his price is, but an extreme groundball pitcher with our infield??

Yeah the new ball definitely hurts him seeing as how he's always been a fly ball pitcher. But this year he's 1.1 war according to fangraphs & that's over 90 innings. So IF he can stay healthy ( yeah yeah impossible, I know), I don't think it's a longshot that he's a serviceable rotation option next year. 

He's shown us flashes of that potential that made him a highly regarded prospect. It's just frustrating watching show that potential for a 2 game stretch & then completely blow up for another stretch. 

I don't think he ever really recovered from TJS but at this point we don't have very many options so I'm sure he'll be back. Was a lot of fun watching him throw that spilt change for a bit. 

One thing I've noticed though & I'm probably looking wayyyy too much into this but when he's pitched I've noticed his hand has this weird discoloration like he's not getting enough oxygen in there. I wonder if he loses feel while pitching. I've heard of players losing "feeling" after TJ. But like I said, I don't know jack lol. 

5 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

They have PLENTY of solid INF prospects, just not many true shortstops.

Maybe so, but Eppler seems like he'll prioritize defense at the premium defensive positions like catcher & shortstop. Personally, I'd rather have a really good defensive shortstop with a weaker bat than a bad shortstop with a decent bat. But we're in a position where we just need value any way we can get it.  

I think his defense is gonna keep him valuable for a few more years but that bat is definitely gonna decline over the next couple of years. If some team offers some near MLB ready pitching, I think you have to listen. 

On the other hand, I don't think Fletcher is a true shortstop & I'm not sold on Rengifo's defense in that spot as well. Obviously, we have a some good outfielders coming up but we are pretty thin in infield prospects. Only one I can think of is Rivas in Advanced A ball. Maybe the Wilson kid we just drafted will be fast tracked by the time Simmons contract is up (shug). 

He's looked really bad behind the plate but I'm still surprised we couldn't get a warm body for him.

On another note, Eppler & Asmus seem pretty quick to cut dead veteran weight. Don't remember this many veterans being cut under Sosh. 

I think Houston did very well here. They didn't even have to give up Whitley & Kyle Tucker who are pretty close to Mlb ready if I remember correctly. 

Unlike the Facebook broadcast, this YouTube stream is actually pretty good. 

12 hours ago, Taylor said:

I haven't watched this yet, but I thought I'd leave it here to watch later.

 

Angels win, Mariners are down 18-4 & this video actually exist. What a time to be alive. 

If Tampa offered Tyler glasnow, I'd might be intrigued. I was impressed when he faced us last year & he's really coming into his own now. He doesn't have a lot of service time which is big. Bauer is too close to free agency so unless you're trying absolutely trying to win now, it wouldn't make too much sense.

Having said that, I wouldn't wanna trade Adell. It's awesome to see players grow through your system. This week has been fun to see renifgo & I'm super excited about watching canning this year. 

Heard on a fangraphs podcast that there was an independent study that said a new ball is being used this year in the majors & triple A. With strikeout rates up & homeruns going up we're getting less ball in play I'd imagine. Personally, I'd like to see the mound pushed back a little. 

I'm hoping that the farther he is from his TJ & thoracic outlet syndrome injuries, the better chance he has of getting closer to his old form. I agree we sort of overpaid for him but we probably had to in order to get him to sign for a year.

& usually I'm not one to get amped over pitching coaches but Doug White legitimately seems to bring out the best in his guys. So if the Dark Knight actually returns then he'll easily be worth it. But I probably have my rose colored glasses on right now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My first reaction to this was hell no but Troy can still be a good player (I think??) when healthy ( which is when?? ). Signing him means Ward & Flech start the year in the minors. 

Would hate to see Fletcher sent down but he won't be there too long. & while Ward wasnt as bad as he looked (.214 babip), we can't risk having holes in the lineup like that. If Troy is still good then this will raise the floor (damn I hate using that term, screw you dipoto) 

Sort of funny & sad that for a while he was our most consistent pitcher  but I enjoyed a lot of his starts because he was very efficient & got to the 6th, 7th inning with like 70 pitches. 

8 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

 

 

He has to get called up right?? Next year he has to be in the mix for the rotation but I wonder if they'll watch his innings since he's at 112 this year & only threw 70 last year. 

8 minutes ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

Mariner's Kyle Lewis would be OK. He's all they have left.

I'd be ecstatic if that ever happened. I think they have like 3 impact prospects after that it's all depth. 

Shit, now that I think about it, they would probably take valbuena over romine who's their utility guy. Someone tweet dipoto. 

1 hour ago, beatlesrule said:

Valbuena is playing to try to increase his trade value. That's the only thing I can think of. I am not daring to try to figure out Scioscia's reasoning though.

Wishful thinking imo but I'd be cool with anybody's top 30 prospect (except the Mariners lol) maybe an NL team would like him as a pinch hitter? His walk rate this year is uncharacteristic for him. 

& he's only playing because a little piece of sosh dies when he benches a vet.

1 hour ago, Dochalo said:

Owlz game on milb.tv

OMart (yeah I did that) watched strikes one and two right down the middle and the on a good curve he lined a ball to the RF corner but got thrown out trying to stretch to a triple.  He's got very good speed.  OFer made a good throw.  

Owlz got an unearned run on an error putting soto on.  soto to 3rd on a Maitan ground out and scores on a comebacker by nonie.  

Soto error at 2b on his on the first play for the owlz.  

How does maitan look at short? I thought he'd be at 3rd by the way he looks.