goldenGlove

I have written it many times, but I always like to see if I can boil it down even better. 
Eppler’s plan
1. The only way to be a consistent long term winner is to have a very good farm system. 
2. The fast way to do that is to trade away your established players for prospects, lose a lot and get high draft picks. Arte doesn’t want to do that, partly because of his nature and his market and partly because he’s got Mike Trout.
3. The slower way to do that is build your farm system just through your own picks, international signings, etc. It means not trading your established players and it means not trading your prospects either. All you have to trade are impending FAs, which means the players you acquire won’t be that good.
4. Finally, you don’t spend big on prominent FAs until you’ve built the farm to the point that the team is close enough for the FAs to make a difference. In the meantime, you pick up short-term band-aid guys who are relatively cheap (and don’t cost draft picks), so you don’t get stuck with a big terrible contract that prevents you from being able to sign a big contract when you’re really ready. 
That’s what he’s doing. It’s not complicated. It’s not a secret. 
Whether it will work remains to be seen, because it’s not over. 

And its not like they drafted those young guys last year, or the year before. 
I assume any regular here follows closer than random fan. Yet Im always surprised how little some pay attention to fine details.

The Dodgers are the ones with the egregious behavior chart for their international employees, right? Maybe the Angels need to get one of those 

I'm sure anyone who is upset about these guys being traded has watched them and/or heard a lot of scouting reports and has reason to not like seeing them go.... But as someone who literally only knows them because of one thread on AW, it seems these guys were our #7 and #8 best OF prospects at best? And we had no depth at catcher at all and nobody close to the majors. And Smith is injury prone and Lucroy is old and Garneau is playing decent but in a small sample size. 
Seems pretty fair to me

When you think back there hasn't been a crop of kids come up and help the club, en mass, like this group and you need only to go back to mid season last year when Fletcher arrived. That's 7 players in a years time that are actually MLB players, not a bunch of guys getting a cup of coffee then fading back into obscurity. 
Adell will join this group in September. That will make 8 players from the minors giving major league production for the bare minimum salary next season and we haven't even factored in JC Ramirez returning. 

You're the only person that seems to think the goal of a farm system is for the purposes of rankings..   At least that's what you posts are saying for you.

As far as your question goes...  Where are the low cost options?  

Fletcher
Rengifo
Canning
Barria
Suarez
Buttrey
It's too early to really include him but...  Thaiss is showing signs of at least being able to hold his own in a very small sample.
None of those guys are finished products but they have all provided positive value for their careers.   
Barria's numbers this year aren't good and yet he's given the team 2.3 bWAR as an Angel. 1.5 using fWAR.  So, using FG's 2018 valuation of 1 win being worth 9 million dollars Barria has given them almost 15 mil of value .vs 500K of salary.    
 

Wasn't the argument from the OP at one point that the Angels couldnt possibly pass those teams up without having some huge breakout seasons? 
Wasn't the counter argument that the Angels would likely leapfrog them simply because they were likely to graduate them and the Angels were likely to see more players added to the back end of the rankings?
Guess what -- neither the A's nor Astros have graduated their big gun prospects and yet the Angels have in fact passed them.   
But narratives
We were?  Only time I can remember the topic being someone having a top 5 farm system was when you posted this .... 
 
... look who brought up Dipoto
BTW -- contrary to your contention that "the plan" hinged on the farm system achieving top 5 status, that's never been the goal.   Having the farm system funnel useful players up to MLB is, was and always should be...  That's actually been happening even though "you" didn't see it coming as quickly as it has.  
Thing is -- if they do it right, they should always be in the middle and up when it comes to these FG future value lists...   The goal shouldn't be to hit a certain number and then call it game over -- the point of a farm system is to keep the talent coming.   That's where Dipoto's turn at GM sunk this team, that's what Eppler had to correct,  that's a huge reason why we are where we are
 

This times 1000
Seriously, how many of you think Grienke would have suddenly moved us ahead? If say we squared off with houston, and they started Cole... 
We win that game... who pitches game 2?
Some of you seriously need to take a break, step back, and look at the big picture. If you read this board every day, youre more aware of whats happening than calls in to the sports lodge guy.
NOBODY here assumed we were winning the WS this year. NOBODY here bough a matt harvey jersey...
Its a transition year. The team is still a ways away... one guy isnt going to change that.
What some of you want is for this team to make the same mistakes that got us here to begin with.
The 2012 team was a lot better than the current one.... how did trading prospects for grienke work out back then?....

Why do you think the Astros had no problem making that trade? They've been stocking up on prospects for 20 years due to sucking. They can afford to lose those guys. 

Things change quickly. In 2009, ESPN had the Angels as the #1 franchise in all of American sports and the Clippers as the worst:
https://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?id=4297569
 
Winning makes everything look better and losing makes everything look way worse. The Angels seem to have addressed a lot of things that have made them fall from #1 to here (getting back into the international market, not drafting horrifically, having an actual organizational philosophy for development and scouting, no crippling contracts the last 5 years). I think that these changes have been made show a degree of self awareness and wouldn't really happen if they were all out dysfunctional. 
Now when we had Dipoto and all the media leaks and the conflict between the manager/GM and rumors of Pujols fighting people or whatever haha. THAT was dysfunction. But I feel like all that set us so far back and we've largely corrected it with having a chance of sustainable functionality (or whatever the opposite of dysfunction is lol)

Things change quickly. In 2009, ESPN had the Angels as the #1 franchise in all of American sports and the Clippers as the worst:
https://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?id=4297569
 
Winning makes everything look better and losing makes everything look way worse. The Angels seem to have addressed a lot of things that have made them fall from #1 to here (getting back into the international market, not drafting horrifically, having an actual organizational philosophy for development and scouting, no crippling contracts the last 5 years). I think that these changes have been made show a degree of self awareness and wouldn't really happen if they were all out dysfunctional. 
Now when we had Dipoto and all the media leaks and the conflict between the manager/GM and rumors of Pujols fighting people or whatever haha. THAT was dysfunction. But I feel like all that set us so far back and we've largely corrected it with having a chance of sustainable functionality (or whatever the opposite of dysfunction is lol)

Well good thing it’s not a close game or we’d have to face the nasty center fielder on the mound again 

Eppler needs to add another pitcher or two. I believe we can make a serious run from what I've seen if we can add either a solid #2 type like Stroman, or a couple Mike Leake types.
Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles....
 

Raider Uceta and Rainier Rivas are clearly our best hitter in Arizona.
Maitan is looking like a new man since the swing adjustment. His hips are opening up sooner, and more deliberately (faster, more violent, quick-twitch), which means he's incorporating his lower half more. This is resulting in greater bat speed, but the part that's impressing me is how long his barrel stays in the zone. Usually when your hips fly open, the bat spends a fraction of a second less in the zone.
His remains there longer (indicative of great hand positioning or a long swing, depending on your school of thought) and his launch angle is spectacular. Back when his hands drifted forward pre-swing, I was worried because guys will do that (bring their hands to their ones before the swing) to generate more power. He needed to do that to compensate for decreased core and leg strength. Now... The swing is more authentic than I've seen from him in a long time and he's getting stronger. It obviously hasn't all come together for him yet, but if it does, Maitan has that Miguel Sano sort of upside you'd love to add to the lineup.
Adrian Rondon is comfortable at the plate and at 2B. I'm thinking Tampa Bay is going to regret that trade. Who knew back in 2014 that the top international prospect in 2014, 2016 and 2018 would all play for the Angels. 
Billy Eppler, man. Billy freaking Eppler.

Off topic but this quote really reminded me of a game probably 10 years ago vs TOR. Aybar gets a double and Hudler says "man I just love the way Aybar plays, always in action!" Physioc says "Wow Hud I think you just came up with a great nickname for him. Action Aybar!"
Hudler- "Hmm I don't know, I think we could come up with something better."
Physioc: "Oh okay. How about....AybAARGGH! He's a pirate!"
*awakward silence*
Hudler- "Uhh I don't think so."
Haha still cracks me up

Off topic but this quote really reminded me of a game probably 10 years ago vs TOR. Aybar gets a double and Hudler says "man I just love the way Aybar plays, always in action!" Physioc says "Wow Hud I think you just came up with a great nickname for him. Action Aybar!"
Hudler- "Hmm I don't know, I think we could come up with something better."
Physioc: "Oh okay. How about....AybAARGGH! He's a pirate!"
*awakward silence*
Hudler- "Uhh I don't think so."
Haha still cracks me up

Off topic but this quote really reminded me of a game probably 10 years ago vs TOR. Aybar gets a double and Hudler says "man I just love the way Aybar plays, always in action!" Physioc says "Wow Hud I think you just came up with a great nickname for him. Action Aybar!"
Hudler- "Hmm I don't know, I think we could come up with something better."
Physioc: "Oh okay. How about....AybAARGGH! He's a pirate!"
*awakward silence*
Hudler- "Uhh I don't think so."
Haha still cracks me up

Wait, Joe Buck is commentating?
 
Hard pass.

This never gets old. Neither does this:
 

Skaggs last 7 starts -- 39.2 IP, 3.63 ERA, .593 OPS allowed 40 Ks, 11 BB.   He had that one shit start .vs Oakland where he walked everyone and their brother but has otherwise turned a corner.   Hopefully they really did find something with Heaney because they aren't going to do diddly unless the clones do well.

Who cares
I have season seats, watch every game of the team, every sharp liner to 3rd this dude hits. If he thinks we’re not the best fans then whatever, I’m not doing all this for him. 
I just want the angels to win

he'd be tied for the 10th highest WAR on the team.  

Who cares
I have season seats, watch every game of the team, every sharp liner to 3rd this dude hits. If he thinks we’re not the best fans then whatever, I’m not doing all this for him. 
I just want the angels to win

That was 3 over after being 10 over. They were trending down, having just lost Richards, Ohtani and Cozart, and with Tyler Skaggs having just developed the groin issue that would sink his second half. 
This is 1 over on the way up, with players coming back from injuries.
This 1-over looks a lot better than last year’s 3-over.