Game 6

He should have managed less.

Smart. Let's just get all these shitty topics out the way now.

Here we go 5 run inning. I’m calling it NOW!!

It was?

He's supposed to be a #1 or 2. That's the problem. We have a bunch of #4-5-6 starters.

Exactly. 

We don't know that because they never had the opportunity to take Thaiss because he was already taken lol

Rangers tied 3-3

The only knock on Bauer, and the amin reason i don't feel like he's worth 25-30 mil and more. is the fact, how even his ERA, Fip and xFip are.
Era: 1.73
FIP: 2.87
xFip: 3.25
These are actually really good numbers, But the difference between each is concern. This tells me he's been lucky thru the season, he could easily have an era close to his xfip. Which would still be a solid 2, but not an ace. 
Basically if your going to offer him over 30 mil, its going be over priced and a risk. While 20-25 mil will be where teams might get fair amount of value for the price. 

Houston has definitely come back to earth. You can say it's missing Cole and Missing Verlander, as their pitching staff has given up 1/2 run more per game (vs. 2019) and without those two in the rotation, but they've also hit much worse, in 2020, they've scored 4.6 runs per game, as opposed to 5.67 in 2019, 4.92 in 2018, and 5.53 in 2017.
I wonder what the difference is.
 

Alright, we're getting close to Hot Stove time, so I thought I'd piss @ettin off and kick it off early, stealing a bit of his thunder.
Let's look at the next five years, or 2021-25. It could be six, because that is the "Rendon Window," but five has a nicer ring to it. Mike Trout will be age 29-33 and Anthony Rendon age 31-35. Other important factors are that Albert Pujols' contract expires after 2021 when he'll be paid $30M, and Justin Upton's after 2022, when he'll be paid $28M, after being paid $23M in '21. So that's a lot of money off the books. On the other hand, the Angels' two best starters, Dylan Bundy and Andrew Heaney, are only signed through 2021, so after '22 there are (more) rotation concerns. But we'll get to that in a moment. Furthermore, Shohei Ohtani could get really expensive in 2023, although that depends upon how the next few years go. 
Key:
IMPACT PLAYER/STAR (4+ WAR)
Quality Regular/Good Platoon (2-4 WAR)
Role Player/Bench/Scrub (<2 WAR)
Prospect (unknown value)
Numbers in parentheses are the last year of club-control. Note that values can change; I'm going on recent performance and reasonable expectation going forward. Someone like Luis Rengifo should be able to develop into a quality regular, but we haven't seen it yet so I'm veering on the side of caution.
I'm also intentionally using a small number of categories and not, for instance, differentiating between a superstar (Trout) and a borderline star (David Fletcher), because I figure that once you get to about 4 WAR, it is a threshold--significantly above average--that means a player doesn't need to be replaced. In other words, an impact player is very good and doesn't need upgrading; a quality regular is solid, but could be improved upon; a role player is essentially filler that could do with upgrading. I'm only including prospects who I feel have a chance of being at least quality regulars.
PART ONE: THE LINEUP
C - Stassi (2022)
1B - Pujols (2021), Walsh (2025), Thaiss (2025)
2B - Rengifo (2025), Barreto (2024), Jones (2027?)
SS - FLETCHER (2024), Jackson, Paris, Vera
3B - RENDON (2026)
LF - Upton (2022), Marsh (2027), Knowles
CF - TROUT (2030), Adams, Deveaux
RF - Ward (2025), Adell (2026-27)
DH - Ohtani (2023)
The Angels lineup has a really nice core signed for the next 3+ years in Trout, Rendon, Fletcher and Ohtani. Max Stassi, Jared Walsh and Taylor Ward are strong complementary players, Rengifo and Franklin Barreto show some potential, and they also have three good outfield prospects who all should be ready within the next year or two, and several middle infielders who will take more like 3-4 years, with graduation dates lining up well with the free agency of the Angels' current 2B/SS group. Meaning, players like Kyren Paris and Arol Vera--while very intriguing prospects--are both unknown and don't really factor much into this five-year plan, both being 18-years old. Similarly with outfielders Alexander Ramirez (also 18) and David Calabrese (almost 18).
Strengths: CF, 3B, SS. They're all locked up for the next four or more years, and should be solid. The only possible changes might be positional, if Trout moves to LF or Fletcher back to 2B, if one of the Angels' shortstop prospects matures more quickly than expected.
Weaknesses: 2B, 1B, RF, C. None of these are terrible weaknesses, with players who could make an impact in 2021 and beyond, but all could be improved in a variety of ways. For instance, Stassi seems to be breaking out as a quality regular, but the Angels have no catching depth and could use both a strong back-up or platoon, and prospect depth. At 1B, Walsh has been a revelation, but is still a question mark as far as a full season goes - but I'm optimistic. Thaiss has strangely become the odd-man out among the trio of him, Ward and Walsh, but still should become a serviceable major leaguer, just without a clear path to playing time. At 2B, Rengifo and Barreto both have talent, but neither has shown much at the major league level yet. Long-term there's a ton of depth, with any of the three SS prospects being possible major league second basemen, and Jahmai Jones being a bit of a dark-horse to start earning time as soon as next year. 
RF is only a weakness in the short term, and Ward is showing signs of life with the bat and could be a viable transitional player until Brandon Marsh and/or Jo Adell are ready.
I'm calling LF and DH neither strengths or weaknesses. Upton is still adequate, but streakily diminished from his prime, but has Marsh waiting in the wings, not to mention Adams (probably by 2022-23), Knowles and Deveaux (~2024). Ohtani seemed to have lost his bat this year and not a full-time DH, although the Angels are developing enough offensive depth that DH should be fine.
2021-25 Outlook: Very good, and eventually excellent. As long as Trout and Rendon don't decline early, the Angels already have a strong supporting cast in the lineup, with a bunch of prospects who could become impact players, even a star or two. The Angels are in the enviable position where they may not need to bring in any outside players into the lineup for the next half decade or more, aside from a bench player or two, and possibly a catcher.
Up next, Part 2: the Pitching Staff.

We are wasting money on expenses we do not need.
We do not need a 4th outfielder.  We have Ward.  We do not need another catcher.  Unfortunately I am not confident with Rengifro or Barreto.

I agree that there have been tons of the 'it could be better soon' types of threads over the last 5 years but I haven't seen many 'it's better than you think' types.  This is the first time where our performance doesn't match our record for a while.  Right now, without doing anything, we should be better next year. 
My point is that we haven't had a real semblance that what they've been trying to do was actually working until now.    
And I said this earlier but it's also important that there isn't a 100 win team in our division.  93 wins could take the west next year.  That hasn't happened for awhile.  

Said it a couple weeks ago and ill say it again. The Angels aren't a bad team. 
There are areas that need improvement, but I could easily see them contending for the division title next year.

This may not be everyone's cup of tea.  If you don't have interest in more advanced stats, then look away.  This exercise in only meant to provide a little insight into the future and how things might not be what you think or what you see.  Granted, the outcome of each game is always going to be what's most important because wins and losses are what ultimately what determine whether you make the playoffs.  But sometimes, especially in a 60 game season, the outcomes can be severely impacted by a small sample size and what was 'expected' may not actually align with what happened.  
So with that being said, I give you 'baseruns'.  This has been mentioned in several threads on the board but I thought it might worthy of it's own discussion.  Again, take it for what you think it's worth, but I find it valuable in helping to assess the future.  
Here is a link to how baseruns work:
https://library.fangraphs.com/features/baseruns/
It a nutshell, it's an exercise of what should have happened vs. what we know happened.  
The current AL WEST standings would be as follows if things went as expected.  
Oakland 29-25 .539
Angels 30-26 .528
Astros 27-28 .490
Mariners 22-33 .403
Rangers 20-35 .370
So the Angels and Oakland would be in a dogfight for the division title going into the last 4 games with Houston having and outside shot.  The Angels have 5 less wins than they should and the A's have four more wins than they should.  
The Angels should have scored 5.04 runs per games vs. the 4.96 runs per game they did score.  Not a huge difference.  
They should have allowed 4.75 runs per game and have allowed 5.32.  A big difference and likely related to poor defense as many have mentioned with @Inside Pitch ringing the bell on this very early.  
So what do I think this means?  
To me, it means that we are probably better than we all might think.  Still not great or without needed upgrades but we could improve our record more quickly that it might appear.  What it also means to me is that the A's probably aren't as good as their record shows and that the division is truly wide open for next year.  
We very well could have an opportunity here to open a window of success for the next few years without needing an act of God for it to happen.  
 

I'll be happy with two out of three, to complete a great September of 16-7.

Blarg coming off like the angry father figure.
 

If there was a specific family health related issue, then that could have been said in a very general way without compromising personal confidentiality (if that’s a concern in his side).  But that’s not what he said.  Maybe his statement could have been worded better.  But it comes off as we’re not in the playoffs and I’m a FA - so I’m skipping out in the last week.  

Bauer isn't backloading shit. 

hmm, you don't say.
 

A bit harsh on Canning.  Remember even Weave was real up and down his first couple years.  Canning is still young, I think he will be at least a solid middle of the rotation pitcher for the Angels.

It’s ironic, Eppler’s base he’s built is really starting to look good. The virus and the lack of a minor league season really effed his future here, not that his failures didn’t also play a part, but I think this is easily a .500 team that would just not be starting to sort the question marks on the roster out, and would be gearing up for a strong summer with a bevy of prospects to deal for deadline help. 
Highly doubt Arte can look beyond W/L though. I doubt he’ll care that Stassi has halved his strikeouts and upped his BB% and is looking like a steal, doubt he’ll care Andriese and Pena could be effective relievers now, or that Rengifo and Ward have hints of promise. 
I do like Dombrowski, but there is a part of me that cringes a bit thinking we are rebooting the system again at the wrong time. Right when we are starting to see some of Eppler’s process start to work, we’re changing direction again.

Voluminously? Why not just use the word frequently. What a douchey author.

It sounds like he may be limited at least at the start of spring training but still ready by opening day.