Griffey's Corner

Just letting everybody know what is going to happen. Feel free to take it to the bank. This team reminds me a lot of the 2002 team. 2002.... 2020. Get it! Good Manager Good Offense Good Bullpen Average Starting Pitching Thanks for reading! Bump this in November!

To get even a slight improvement in pitching you would have to trade a substantial piece of the offense away. Laws of supply & demand. In 2002 I seem to remember the Angels having a very good offense. Very good bullpen. Below average starting pitching & winning a WS.

Without reading all the comments on here about how I was proven wrong and Pujol's had a bounce back year. His batting average is the same .245 as it was last year. He has 4 more HR's because he had more games, more at bats, more plate appearances, & the ball seems to be juiced this year. I was expecting or hoping. Wishful thinking that The Angel's would bring in some better talent than Justin Bour. It really is amazing that some posters on here celebrate mediocrity & crap. Pujol's with the Cardinals had seasons of .357 & .359 batting averages. One year is OBP was .462. In 4 of the last 5 seasons Pujol's batting average has been .245 or lower. 9 of the 10 years of Pujol's contract will be a total disaster.... is first year was just bad based on the expectations & money. I remember a lot of posters at the time freaking out. I do not think Pujols should be a first ballot Hall Of Famer is legacy has been completely wrecked. Over half his career will be spent as a has been. A team that wishes they did not have him on the team. The expectation level being so low is a big reason why the Angels are headed for their worst season in 20 years. Same posters that celebrate Pujols might be the same ones that think Eppler has done an amazing job inheriting a team that had 11 winning seasons in the previous 14 years with one world title. And so far he has had 4 straight losing seasons.... with this one being the worst. Until 1 player from the farm pans out don't celebrate that either. He has had plenty to work with. Every year the Angels spend more than almost any team in baseball. You win with pitching.... The pitching is worse now than it ever has been in the history of the entire franchise. You guys keep talking about the team has been hamstrung because of the Pujol's contract. Almost every team has at least 1 bad contract. This is more than made up for Ohtani playing for peanuts and Trout taking a lot less money than he could have received. The Harvey & Cahill signings were moronic.

Just fun facts. The numbers nerd in me is coming out..... & no not out of the closet. I am not gay.... not that there is anything wrong with that. There you go LOU.... a Seinfeld reference.

1. I think Trout would be the first to say he does not deserve the MVP award for 2019. 2. It's not the player who has the highest WAR or even the best player award. It is called the Most Valuable Player. 3. How valuable is Trout to the 2019 Angels when the Angels will finish in 2nd to last place and lose 90 games. If there was no Trout they finish in last place instead. How much value do you place on that? 4. Missing the last month of the season is relative. No matter what spin you put on it for whatever reasons you may have.

It's funny how so many want Kole gone. So far he has hit 33 HR's this year.... Reggie Jackson on his average year hit 32. 4 things to look at.... 1. Defense- Great. Kole is a stud. 2. HR's- Very good. 3. OBP- Average.... League average is .323. Kole .328. 4. Clubhouse- Great So 2 Great. 1 very good. 1 Average. To me that translates into a pretty darn good player. To get that for $14 million for 1 year in MLB is not bad at all. Getting paid $14 million a year is not a bad return at all. Plus the buyout is some money. We are paying Pujols how much next year.?We are paying Upton how much next year? I get it.... the pitching sucks.... but now they will make a weakness in RF. Adell next year will probably not be an upgrade. Put Upton at 1B. Upton is not great in the OF. Part time he can DH. I don't want to see Bour next year. Pujols cannot play 162 at 1b. Ohtani IF healthy will not be the DH for 162. For everyone thinking we need to dump everything into pitching.... everyone is acting like those guys ( Gerrit Cole) have already signed with the Angels and it is a foregone conclusion. The pitching will probably still suck a little bit next year. If the offense is a little bit worse next year....

I might be wrong but on Baseball Reference Pujols is 3199 for 10663.... I do not know if it has been updated for Sunday's game yet? If it has than his average is at .3000093. If on the next at bat he makes an out his average will fall below .300 without the benefit of rounding up. .2999812. Just thought it was interesting to share.

Regular Season & Postseason. Let's keep the symmetry going & get a win!!!!

They were never going to the playoffs this year. The Harvey signing was a total joke. Half of the lineup is a total joke. The starting pitching is bad. the relief pitching is not good. Without Trout they would probably lose 100 games. Ohtani is coming back from injury & surgery with no spring training.... he may have a down season? I hope not. He is fun to watch.

Great lets aspire to be as great as the Royals. You guys seriously overrate the job Eppler has done.... or you have to say nice things because your job requires it. In 2014 Shoemaker went 16-4 with an ERA of 3.04 and was a huge reason the Angels won 99 games. That was a long time ago..... But so was Harvey's last good year. And yet you pay Harvey 11-14 million and let Shoemaker go for peanuts.... nice loyalty. Shoemaker has a better track record in his career than Harvey does. In production and in staying healthy. It's not just "Oh it does not matter, it's only 1 year, we will be done with his contract soon.... it was worth a shot." By signing him you end up playing him and he actually contributes to more losses. It's not worth a shot. Eppler spent a lot of money this off-season on a bunch of crap. Instead go and get one good proven player and fill in the rest with the young guys that everyone here says are so great. It is not just the Harvey signing.... Eppler has been awful at just about every player he has brought in on the big league level. The Angels did nothing but win before Eppler showed up and have done nothing but lose since he got here. Every year the Angels have one of the highest payrolls in baseball but with Eppler they have never even had a .500 season. 75-87 80-82 80-82 8-12. The farm ONLY matters if it helps the ML team win.... no one cares if the single A team wins. Eppler may have done a good job with the farm.... but NO ONE knows yet. Rankings of farm systems do not mean anything. It gives you hope for the future but that is it. And based on how Eppler evaluates ML talent should not give anyone a lot of confidence in the farm until they actually come up here and play good baseball at the highest level.

Just thought it was a interesting statistic. 4450-4438 Regular Season 27-37 Postseason = 4477-4475

If the house is a rental for tax implications it would behoove any owner to take the equity out.

You really think Trout is waiting on those guys to sign an extension? Whether Trout signs an extension or not..... it will not be this off-season. And he certainly will not be waiting on other people to set the bar. They are not even comparable players to Trout.

Joe Blanton 2.0 come on down. ERA last 3 years 5,7, & 5.....All in the NL with no DH. 11-14 million. I have lost faith in Eppler. 4th straight losing season coming up. Eppler may not last past 2020. I know I will be roasted for these comments. But it is a message board.... & I will not see or read the comments anyways.

Why is everyone assuming that Trout wants Pujols in the lineup? Trout has already said winning is the most important thing. Do people on this message board really believe they know more about baseball than Mike Trout? I think he can reach the same conclusion that we all can that Pujols on the team is anti winning. You can treat Pujols with respect and send him upstairs like the Mariners did with Ichiro. Either way Pujols will not see the field much this year with a new manager and new importance on new analytics other than RBI's. Trout has other buddies on the team.... are we going to sign all of his buddies to keep him happy? Richard is gone. Cron is gone. Calhoun might be soon.... they are all good friends of Mike Trout's. More important than Pujols and his feelings is winning some games this year. 3 straight losing seasons already. If the Angels win a lot of games and they pay a lot of money to Mike Trout than most likely he stays. The winning needs to start now. The comparison between Trout and Pujols is apples and oranges. Trout was homegrown and will get a much higher pass when he struggles.... also I think Trout is smart enough to understand that a certain percentage of fans will turn on you no matter where you play.... this is not something that Orange County has an exclusive on. Stop thinking that Trout can not see and understand these things.

So I enjoy making predictions. Pujols proved this last year he cannot stay healthy. He proved that even having a full off-season to train he still would perform no better than he did in 2017. Now he will be a year older. It is obvious the Angels are doubling down on analytics..... not good for Pujols and the Pujols camp that wants to brag about his RBI's. 1B was a disaster last year for the Angels. The greatest rate of improvement would be to improve 3B & 1B. Ohtani will not be benched for Pujols and Ohtani will be the DH. The money spent on Pujols is already gone..... Arte actually made money on the deal anyways. One big way to help Trout and make Trout happy is to have more offense so Trout gets more pitches to hit and has a better chance to knock in runs and score runs. So in conclusion feel free to bump this thread if I am proven right and the impact bat is brought in to 1B. I know the consensus on this board is that this will not happen so it will make it even more interesting.

I am sorry your experience on the message boards went not so smooth. There is some very smart, kind people on the message board. But as with all internet message boards there can be some jerky people.... normally there is a correlation to there knowledge of the subject matter.... or lack thereof. As far as Dipoto goes I do take umbrage. We will have to agree to diasagree. I am definitely not a fan of his. As to your question about the manager. I don't know? The current manager has done okay. He has done a lot more for the franchise than anyone else ever has. it would be weird to not see him in the dugout. One thing that I have done is to just make a point/ post/ thread and than never go back to that particular discussion. That way I get the last word in. I have conviction in what my opinion is so I do not need the opinions from certain posters who have never played the game before..... & normally I am correct so i can either relish in it.... or I guess I could bump the thread.... but that can be construed as a little douchey. This techniques seems to make me feel good and like I said it allows me to get the last word in without getting sucked into all there silliness..... which is probably there main goal anyways. But like I said there is some good, smart people on this board..... even the jerky ones I have to admit are pretty funny. You can laugh with them or at them.... your choice.

You may be trying to do a put down.... but actually if for every thought that flashes in your brain you received 2 cents..... you would be a very rich man very quickly.

Ken Griffey Jr. would also like to say hello.

Just curious. He is 27 now. Has 2 years left on his deal. Personally I would go as high as 6 additional years and go as high as $35 million a year. So 6/210. This would take him up to age 35. I probably would not go above $35 million a year.... maybe $40 million a year if it was just for 1-2 more years on top of his current contract. If you don't pay him enough money than the alternative is you have to trade him for some stud prospects and I suppose use the money saved to go out and hire 2 Justin Upton types. This is not a question of what the Angels will do or what you think will happen.... just a question on if you were the owner what is the maximum you would go too.

If you do a move that is half-ass than it will create more problems. There is only 2 positions that Pujols can possibly play. 1B or DH. Ohtani will be the DH next year. If you bring in a kind of crappy player from outside the organization than you are begging for a repeat of Valbuena.... also anyone watching the games this year saw that Pujols kind of sucked defensively at first..... I have never seen a 1B stretch so little for an incoming ball on a close play. Probably gave 5 extra hits to the opposition this year. All the internal options are not that great. If you bring in a stud 1B than it will create less strife in the clubhouse when Pujols has to sit on the bench. I believe the Angels have reached the end of the road with convincing themselves that Pujols will be a good player going forward. The money is gone anyways.... plus The Angels have most likely recouped all the money they invested on Pujols by the TV deal, extra attendance, milestones, jersey sales, etc.... Who knows if he sits on the bench maybe it will hasten his desire to retire? Adams, Moustakas.... none of them are that great..... think bigger. Remember Trout is going to want to start seeing some help on the offensive side of the ball. This is the area I believe the Angels will spend $..... make Trout happy. There is really no other places to dramatically improve the Offense..... they are not going to bench Cozart. Is there any stud hitting catchers out there that play good to great Defense? The OF is set. DH is set. SS is set. Fletcher appears to have carved out a role.... David that is.

Either by trade or Free Agency the Angels will be bringing in a stud 1B for 2019. Pujols will be on the bench. C- Maldonado? 1B- Stud 2B- Cozart SS- Simmons 3B- Fletcher LF- Upton CF-Trout RF- Calhoun DH- Ohtani They will also bring in a stud closer.

It's funny how 98% of the things I say I have been proven right.... and how so many of you are wrong so often. A couple months ago I said that Cron should have been kept over Valbeuna.... the whole board was up in arms. I said Cron would hit 30 HR's this year and the whole board laughed.... he is on pace for 30. I have said that hitters should use the whole field. I have said that every MLB hitter should know how to bunt. I have said that pitchers in the NL will have a lower ERA because there is no DH.... members would even argue that. I said trade Richards before gets hurt..... he injured himself later that night. I have said bring up Fletcher and the young guys. I have said Pujols is not contributing. I said Marte sucks. I have said that 12 at bats is not enough of a sample size for a player coming up from the minors..... members disagreed. I have said the Angels did not do enough in the off season addressing there BP. I said that the Angels should reacquire Grichuk for cheap.... with 600 at bats he would hit around 40 HR's.... and still be better than Calhoun. in 218 at bats he has 13 HR's. I really believe that some of you have multiple accounts. Also I believe that some of you just enjoy arguing to argue and will take the opposite side no matter what you really believe. I have to believe that because the only other alternative is that some of you are really really stupid. Here is one more prediction.... Ohtani will re-injure his arm if the Angels run him out there again without changing anything. You can respond to this message if you like. But just know I am off to enjoy my day & so you will not have the satisfaction that you are seeking. And in response to Storm.... I said IF he hits .240.... at the rate he is going he may get there or exceed that. Look at the trending numbers.

I think there is a balance. It's important to give players a chance and give them a good fair chance so they are not looking over there shoulder all the time. But at the same time understanding that most prospects fail.... and probably with the position players enjoying the benefits of playing in Salt Lake.... that even a higher percentage of them will fail when they are not playing in such a hitter's park.

It's amazing how often you are wrong. No I am not trolling. I just don't go around and try to pick internet fights like you do. Just ignore me like I do with you. It's a Angels message board. If I want to talk Angels baseball than that is my right. IF Kinsler keeps playing well I would say 70% chance next year he will be an Angel.