HaloCory22

With the amount of training, technology and practice today's players go through there's no doubt, absolutely no doubt they'd destroy the Williams era players. Humans evolve. Records are broken every year in sports. They've had the benefit of having technology available and education on how to be better and train better for their specific sports. 

We all knew it wasn't if but when these guys would start falling apart.

What?

What?

What?

We all knew it wasn't if but when these guys would start falling apart.

We all knew it wasn't if but when these guys would start falling apart.

I really hope we don’t have to play the fucking Preds in the first round if we manage to squeak in.   I’d rather miss the playoffs and have increased odds of Carlyle and Murray getting shit canned.  I don’t give a shit about a 1st round exit. 
Really the only playoffs matchup I’d be interested in is against the Kings or maybe the Sharks because it’s fun to play those teams and against the Kings in particular I think we have solid shot.  Genuinely doubt we have much of a shot against Nashville, LVGK or Winnipeg.  

They did dump the assistant coach that got them to #1 PP in the league two years ago, it is pretty clear.

It's not a joke. 
 

So basically.  The same old story except this year the players are worse. 

There are two major issues on this team right now. The old D getting top tier playing time (minutes and high leverage situations) and the fact this is a 1 line only team. The Rico line has disappeared, the Kesler line is awful, and the 4th line is the 4th line putting together exactly what you'd expect. That's what NSH, DAL, and STL have exposed. This team has zero depth offensively. Silf, Ritchie, Cogs, Kesler etc. are all wastes of space atm. I fully expect Silf and Ritchie to be gone in the off season or at least I fucking hope they are. Kesler needs to be shut down and work on coming back healthy next season 100%.
 
Seeing Beauch and Bieksa on the ice almost the entire 3rd period with the Getzlaf line is a fucking disgrace. NO reason those 2 should be out there when we need goals.

Am i not entitled to that view or something?  

How about we go back to one of the older ones instead of a  new new one, would that be better?  

Of it is just anything i post you have to ding?    We literally agree on nothing it seems 

Most top teams do not have a shutdown D anymore, they are all quick, agile skaters.  Stay at home D men get burned in today's game.

Terry will get NHL time before Steel does. Not even close.

Well if they weren't old before... he sure solved that with the Chimera and Chris Kelly signings!
Sucks for Eaves, how frustrating.

It's not a joke. 
 

I honestly think we should all just pretend Eaves isn’t on the team anymore.  The guy is what 34 ? Or will be ? I definitely don’t want the Ducks to be making plans around that guy.  It wasn’t meant to be with that dude.  All the best to him of course. 
And I think Wagner is actually one of our more valuable assets that we can realistically trade.  Silvferberg being the most valuable probably. 

The 4th line will always be a Grant/Wagner/Scrub type line.  Roy is small so I don't think he works on a shutdown line with Cogs.  He doesn't have Cogs motor.  Kase is bigger and can play two ways.
4th line of Wagner/Grant/Ritchie makes sense.  Third line Roy/Henrique/Perry, Second Cogs/Kes/Kase, and Top line Patches/Getz/Rakell.
If Eaves comes back then bump Patches to the second line and send Roy down, Kase back to the third line.
That is all the dream scenario where the Ducks can flip Silf++ for Patches.

Beauch wasn't at fault though.
You know, with Cogs, at some point you are just unlucky.  I am convinced he is the dude that misses the dart board when playing darts.

Of the 7-8 starters we have I trust 0. We need someone dependable. That anchor that we'll know every 5th day they're going to go out there and give us 6 or more innings and keep us in the ball game. I legit can't say I believe any of our current starters can do that. Ohtani obviously has that potential but we'll see how that goes. I'd be much more comfortable with a veteran arm in the rotation. Doesn't have to be Yu or Jake.

This is the biggest reason for me. I have total faith in the ability of our 7-8 starters, but literally every single one aside from Bridwell and Barria has had major health concerns in the last two years - and with Bridwell's conversion to SP, you never know when that could take a toll (see Ramirez, J.C.). 

I get that every player, especially a pitcher, is a walking injury risk, and that applies to the FAs as well, but...
Richards and Skaggs both seemingly can't go a few starts without something coming up. 
I don't buy that Ohtani's medical records are anything more than typical wear or tear, but no news at all about his UCL would have certainly felt better.
Heaney having shoulder pain late in the year isn't comforting. Hopefully he just rushed back.
Shoemaker, Barria and Bridwell haven't had TJ yet - if I were GM, I'd operate under the assumption that eventually, every SP is going to go through it and have depth just in case.

And, important to remember, these platelet-rich injections that Richards, Ohtani, and Ramirez all had may have helped/healed their UCL issues, but they still weren't replaced like in a TJS. I wouldn't say they're at further risk of it happening, but it's certainly not less risk.

Most of all - there is always some demand for SP on the trade market during the season. Signing a guy like Garcia or Hellickson or Cashner, while redundant, doesn't mean you couldn't flip one to another team in June if everyone's healthy and collect a fringe prospect or a vet reliever or bench player. Or maybe you opt to keep that guy, and flip someone like Bridwell, Tropeano, or Ramirez for a younger, controllable player to fill a need. What if Cozart or Kinsler blows a knee and misses a couple months? Maybe you go back to Philly and do that Skaggs for Hernandez deal.

It's not a bad thing to add to our surplus SP depth. If everyone's healthy, its trade currency we can use to fill needs without moving prospects, and at this points, it looks like you won't be overpaying for any vet SPs, so why not? It's not like that money we'd be spending would be better off on the line-up (which is full) or the bullpen (not much left on the FA RP market) or the bench (those vets will be just as cheap at this point). We can always move starters into the pen too. Maybbe Skaggs becomes the next Andrew Miller or Shoemaker flourishes like Parker did.

The fact that we also already lost two SPs this offseason to season-ending injuries already is a bit ominous too. Hopefully that was the end of the bad run and not a continuation.

He's a Corey Perry clone when Perry is at his worst.

Of the 7-8 starters we have I trust 0. We need someone dependable. That anchor that we'll know every 5th day they're going to go out there and give us 6 or more innings and keep us in the ball game. I legit can't say I believe any of our current starters can do that. Ohtani obviously has that potential but we'll see how that goes. I'd be much more comfortable with a veteran arm in the rotation. Doesn't have to be Yu or Jake.