Game 6

Mark Prior had the perfect pitcher's body -- his mechanics were always off and he was known for the inverted W...  Dude became the poster child for it.   The myth of his perfect mechanics was started by Tom House, his pitching coach and a guy who had a vested interest in spreading the story.   Here's a pretty good link regarding the entire deal.. 
http://www.chrisoleary.com/projects/pitchingmechanics101/Essays/MarkPriorPitchingMechanics.html
Here is another https://www.topvelocity.net/mark-prior-pitching-mechanics-ended-career/   
There were many many things written about Prior and how even the most perfect pitcher's body can be undone by poor mechanics.
Edit: Fwiw, I think the second article is a tad heavy handed...  Ultimately the usage and that collision he had probably did more to cause long term damage.  There were also whispers of steroids.   Prior was going to be great, then he broke.

We have $15 million or so to spend now, another $30 does get you an impact bat.  I would say with $45 million left right now you could go get Harper and Lowrie.  Still not sure you are in the wild card, have to be considered a favorite, not that that matters we might have been favorites last year, but it would be one helluva fun balanced offense to watch.  Shit even an extra $10 gets you Lowrie and Ottavino.  Outside of Harper and Machado, unless I am missing someone I have to think Lowrie is the best left.  I would certainly take him over Mous.  

you really think signing Tulo for $550k is going to stop them from pursuing Manny? That's crazy.
 Tulo IS Plan B.  Plan A is Manny. 
 

Look, how about we talk about the subject rather than a constant game of pin the tail on the donkey. 

The Angels won 80 games last year with catastrophic pitching injuries. They've improved their depth considerably without taking on long-term contracts or sacrificing their farm. As much as I'd love Kikuchi or Corbin or Realmuto in the short-term, they're currently an 85-win team on paper and in position to be even better in 2020. That isn't a bad offseason by any means.

This thread feels like it has excellent potential to be bumped in 10 months once the Angels advance to the ALCS on the heels of a 98 win season, an Adell ROY, a Trout MVP, breakout seasons by Skaggs and Ward, and rebounds from Lucroy, Cozart, and Harvey.
Keep it up guys!

David Fletcher is better than Josh Harrison. And younger. And under team control.

Ouch!
I actually was thinking a total of $16M in total salary but typed it wrong, oops!
Embarrassing for me in particular!

There are some who are disappointed with Eppler's relatively modest off-season so far: he didn't sign any big name free agents, whether intentionally or because they simply wanted to play elsewhere. No Corbin, Ramos, Happ, Eovaldi, Morton, Donaldson, Familia, etc - all players that would have significantly improved the team. Instead we got a strange group of players in  Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill, Justin Bour, Jonathan Lucroy, and Kevan Smith--not to mention his usual few clean peanuts.
Now the offseason isn't over. The two biggest fish--Bryce Harper and Manny Machado--remain on the board, as well as the top free agent catcher, Yasmani Grandal, and top reliever, Craig Kimbrel. There are alsoquite a few other interesting options such as David Robertson, Jed Lowrie, Dallas Keuchel, Mike Moustakas, Asdrubal Cabrera, Marwin Gonzalez, DJ Le Mahieu, Brian Dozier, etc. And of course there's Kikuchi.
But the Angels, presumably, only have another $10-15M to spend. That pretty much prices them out of Harper, Machado, and Keuchel. Kimbrel seems unlikely, and if Grandal still expects 4/$60M+, he won't be donning an Angels uniform. Maybe the Angels take a flier on a reliever as well as an infielder, although it is also possible they are basically set with what they have.
Eppler has been known to surprise us (e.g. the Andrelton Simmons trade). But the moves so far tell us quite a bit about what  his plan is. Consider that they are all one-year deals for players mostly coming off down years, who are solid bets to provide decent returns, but also with small chances of being huge bargains if they rediscover former glories. In other words, they aren't the type of players that you acquire if you are dead-set on competing in 2019; they are the type of players you acquire if your focus is on the future and are filling holes in the mean-time, yet also don't want to write off your chances of competing in 2019. In other words, they are the type of players that you can hope will surprise, but probably shoudn't expect to.
If Eppler was focusing on the so-called "Trout Window" of 2019-20, he'd have gone hard after a more reliable starter--if not Corbin, then certainly Keuchel or Happ. He'd have signed at least one elite reliever, and have upgraded the offense in some significant way - either offering more to Ramos or signing Grandal. He also could have traded some of their prospect capital for further upgrades. A few other tweaks and the team could have been a good bet for 90 wins. Yes, it would have pushed the budget up higher, but he could have done so while staying under the salary cap.
But the problem with that approach is that while it makes the team better over the next few years, it lessens the chances of long-term success through tying up funds in more good but non-premium players (Keuchel being a prime example). The Angels already have a near-term salary problem, with $80M owed to three players in 2019 (Trout, Pujols, Upton), $84M to the same three in 2020 (plus another $15M to Simmons, to make it $100M for four), and if we assume that Trout is extended for $40M/year and Simmons for $20M/yr starting in 2021, that's $113M for four players in 2021. That's also the year Tyler Skaggs hits free agency and Shohei Ohtani has his first arbitration year. Thankfully Cozart ($12.67M/yr) comes off the books, so that helps a bit.
In 2022, the Angels will (hopefully) be paying Trout, Simmons, and Upton something like $90M, but then Upton comes off the books, but then you have to factor in extensions for various players, rising arbitration, etc. 
Fielding a competitive baseball team is expensive. Unless you're willing to spend $200M+ a year, you need to be savvy and try to fill as much of your roster with low-cost talent. The best way to do that is through farm development. You focus on growing talent from within, then you extend the best of that talent, and augment the team through free agency and trades. But you protect that farm talent as best you can, because it is the source of your low-cost talent. 
The temptation for many a GM is to trade that talent for "Proven Veterans." Sometimes this is the right thing to do (e.g. Simmons), but sometimes it is devastating, both by leaving the farm barren of talent and requiring more money spent on free agency, and you end up with crippling albatrosses like Wells, Pujols, and Hamilton.
Back to 2019. What I see Eppler doing is focusing on the 2020s. He hopes to be competitive in 2019--that's why he did spend some money, rather than just "playing the kids." But he refuses to dip into the quickly improving--but still delicate--farm system. The Angels, by general consensus, have a farm system ranked somewhere around 10th in the majors. A big trade or two could quickly set them back to around 20th. Continued careful cultivation for another year or two puts them in the top 5. 
Now the farm rankings aren't important - they are rather subjective and conjectural, after all. But what they represent is the point: the quantity and quality of talent. The farm system is getting riper year by year, but isn't quite there yet. In another year or so, it will really start bearing fruit as players like Canning, Suarez, Thaiss, Rengifo, Adell, Marsh, Jones, and Sandoval start contributing on the major league level. Further waves include Soriano, C Rodriguez, Hernandez, Bradish, Jackson, Knowles, Adams, Deveaux, and Maitan.
Last year we saw rookies such as Ohtani, Barria, Anderson, Buttrey, Fletcher, Ward, and Hermosillo. Most of these guys will get better in 2019, when we'll see Canning, Suarez, Rengifo, and probably Thaiss and Adell. In 2020 we'll see Marsh, Jones, Sandoval, and probably others. In other words, each year will see the graduation of promising young talent, with a cumulative effect of both increasing the talent in Anaheim, and also decreasing the need for higher price free agents. 
Eppler knows this, and doesn't want to a) trade this talent away, and b) block the talent with older, more expensive and lower upside players.
Now obviously there's a balance. It is easy to overrate prospects, and probably only a few of the guys I mentioned will become stars, a few more impact players, some quality regulars, and a bunch will be either bench players or minor league flame-outs. But again, that talent pool represents the priceless commodity of "low-cost, high-upside talent" and it has to be protected.
The plan for 2019 is, again, to try to field a wildcard-capable team, but not at the expense of the future. My guess is that Eppler looks at the AL and thinks, "I can either spend big and trade away talent and improve my chances of making a wildcard but not win the division, or spend less, keep the talent, and still have a decent shot at a wildcard." In other words, the Angels almost certainly couldn't seriously compete for the division or be a lock for the playoffs in 2019, and the cost to simply improve wildcard chances in the short term is just too great, and too debilitating to the franchise in the long-term.
2020 will be a further step forward, with more of that young talent graduating and maturing. By 2021 that young talent should be really starting to flourish and be the core of the 25-man roster. In fact, I could see a 2021 team that is comprised mostly of players below age 28, except for a few notable exceptions: Trout, Simmons, possibly Upton, maybe one of Skaggs or Heaney, a few others. 
So the Eppler plan is to continue strengthening the farm, while retooling in the majors in ways that give the team a chance to compete over the next couple years, but with the eye of turning this franchise into a farm-driven powerhouse in the 2020s.
Its a good plan, but requires patience.

I don't understand this. Here is how the Angels payroll ranks in the majors, by year:
2018: 7th
2017: 10th
2016: 7th
2015: 8th
2014: 7th
2013: 6th
2012: 4th
2011: 4th
So they've been in the top one-third in each of the last eight years, and are currently 5th for guaranteed payroll in 2019 and 2nd in 2020. 

If Grandal wanted 4 years, F that. See ya.

Lots of 1 year deals.  Makes me very curious about next off season. Arenado in the crosshairs??

I get that you believe there are free agents out there that will improve the team now without robbing the future and that you think Arte can spend more than he has. But what more do you want, specifically? Eppler has kicked the tires on Corbin, Eovaldi, Happ and Ramos. They all choose to go elsewhere, for whatever reasons. He has plugged a hole with Bour and signed a couple of interesting upside starters in Harvey and Cahill. Presumably he'll get a catcher, whether Grandal or a cheaper option like Lucroy or Wieters. But you keep implying there are all these great free agents who are willing to sign 1-2 year deals that will turn the Angels into insta-contenders, and I just don't see it.
Eppler is looking at the long-term plan: turning the Angels into a perennial contender. He is trying to do so without a complete firesale - meaning, by trying to be wildcard contenders until the farm starts paying dividends.
I think your underlying fear is the one we all share: That Trout won't extend and we'll lose the greatest Angel anyone of us will ever see. If Trout signs an extension in the next few months, we'll all breathe a collective sigh of relief. But let's assume that he holds off on extending until he sees how 2019 goes. I would imagine that Eppler is preparing for both contingencies:
1) The 2019 team, at the very least, remains in the wildcard hunt until the end of the season. Trout is happy, signs an extension. The Angels become a perennial contender by 2020 or 2021.
2) The 2019 team struggles. Trout is unhappy, balks at signing an extension. The Angels risk it and go into 2020 with Trout, hoping to contend. If they're out of it by the deadline, they trade him along with (possibly) Skaggs, Heaney, Upton, etc. Full on firesale. 2021 is bad, but with a young team full of talent, so the turn-around is quick and the Angels are good by 2022 or 2023.
In either case, the future is bright because the Angels have an upswell of young talent. Obviously we'd all prefer 1, but even 2 is preferable to a third option, which is that Eppler over-spends and reduces future flexibility with a bunch of free agent contracts. Regardless of what you say, I just don't see another way to drastically increase the probability of contention in 2019. 
 

Puig = $12.5M (arb est)
Wood = $9.5M (arb est)
Kemp = $21.75M 
Total = $43.75M
Bailey = $23M + $5M buyout in 2020
$7M from Dodgers
Total = $35M
DIFFERENCE = $8.75 MILLION 
 

My god.  You guys are nuts.  There’s no stink on the Angels that’s causing players to not come here.  The Angels aren’t making the offers that will get it done. 
Every player has his interests.  In Ramos case, all things being equal he would prefer the east coast.  Apparently he got 2 equal offers and that’s what settled it.  The Angels would have had to cough up more to bring him here. They didn’t.   Nothing to do with not winning. My god, the Mets ? Really.  Winning is the issue here for Ramos ?
blame people responsible for not doing the job If you aren’t happy.  Don’t make bullshit up. 
The Angels brass is deciding how much they want these guys.  Apparently not that much.  We’ll see how important getting a catcher is to them.  Grandal is their last realistic shot if they don’t want to trade a nice prospect.  We know Grandal is cool on the west coast.  Are they willing to sacrifice international money and and a 2nd round pick ? We’ll see.  It’s a tough call.  

I keep going back to the stats the fifth starter gave us last year.   The improvement there feels like five wins by itself.  

Before these pick ups they were projected to win 83 games.   Also Astros, A’s and Mariners have taken a step back.   We’re literally the only team that’s improved.  

My opinion is you don't make final decisions on the roster based on exact dollars.  Make decisions based on opppotunities, and cost versus benefit.
The trade market and free agent market changes constantly.  Some players are worth changing your budget.

This is a good outcome too.

and a much safer approach.  What you've got at mid year is more likely what you'll get the rest of the year.  Right now, you just don't know at all.  

That's a massive overpay. Better to just sign Grandal and lose the 2nd round pick than just give away so much. In fact it would be better to just pick up two low budget catchers, one a MLB asset and the other a AAA asset, that can hit right-handed pitching and just run cheap platoons out there based on matchups with depth at Salt Lake.

Another thing to think about with Tulo, he's getting paid no matter what, I think being on a winning team where he gets solid amount of playing time will be important to him.  That's great and all if the Giants and Padres are interested, but if a team with a shot in 2019 offers him playing time, you gotta think Tulo would be in on that.  Personally, if I had to guess, I'd say Eppler didn't have anything pressing that day, and the workout was on the West Coast, he thought he'd stroll over with Gallego to check in and see how Tulo's doing.  I doubt Eppler just cancelled and put everything aside for the day in order to attend this workout the way he did with Kevin Maitan. 
Eppler and Gallego's presence definitely means the Angels are interested, but they're interested in everyone that can improve them team. 
I think Tulo ends up going to the Padres.  They're a young team in need of veteran leadership.  Kinsler is taking 2B with Urias at SS.  I bet they'd sign Tulo to play 3B in a heartbeat.  IF it works out, they buy more time for Tatis in AAA, and if it doesn't work out, they can shuffle the infield around and promote Tatis. 
As for the Angels, signing Tulo would merely mean he's the starting 3B, and Cozart moves to 2B, Fletcher moves into a utility role, and Ward and Rengifo kick it in AAA until the inevitable injury comes. 

Catcher
starting pitching
bullpen
1st? 2nd? 3rd?

"In 2018 I'm right there in the room, and no one even acknowledges me.  Now suddenly for 2019, they openly acknowledge me."

What about signing Justin Bour who was non-tendered?  He is a left handed first baseman with some pop.  Kinda like a left handed Cron. 
Have Bour play 1B in games against right handed pitching and have Pujols play 1B in games against left handed pitching.
Limit Pujols this season to one game at DH a week and 1B against left handed pitching only.