Halos of Anaheim

He's good, but not great (yet). He needs to stop shying away from pressure packed situations (I haven't seen him come through in important at bats this year, and metrics agree saying he is one of the top 5 least clutchest players in baseball). He's only 21 so he has a lot of time to start cementing himself as a big time player,  but right now he's just the guy who puts up his stats day in and day out.

He's good, but not great (yet). He needs to stop shying away from pressure packed situations (I haven't seen him come through in important at bats this year, and metrics agree saying he is one of the top 5 least clutchest players in baseball). He's only 21 so he has a lot of time to start cementing himself as a big time player,  but right now he's just the guy who puts up his stats day in and day out.

He's good, but not great (yet). He needs to stop shying away from pressure packed situations (I haven't seen him come through in important at bats this year, and metrics agree saying he is one of the top 5 least clutchest players in baseball). He's only 21 so he has a lot of time to start cementing himself as a big time player,  but right now he's just the guy who puts up his stats day in and day out.

Seems that AW is approaching thermonuclear meltdown.  Critical rage right now.  Dis gonna gud.

My feeling is that the misses that really hurt now are Wheeler and Corbin last year.  Those two are potentially real difference makers for us.  With a lot less risk then Ryu.  When we didn’t get Wheeler we were behind the 8 ball in a really tough competition for Cole.  And then missing on Cole, the options just weren’t really very good.  

Especially when the one thing you need in a win-and-you’re-in Wild Card game is an ace.
We’re not winning the division, so acquiring that front-end starter should  have been our main priority. 

I’m gonna say it again.
 
A big LOL at backing up the Brink trucks for a position player but then become penny pinchers when it comes to the one thing we DESPERATELY needed.
 
Un-fucking-believable. You can’t make this shit up.

We can all stop the mental masturbation over FA pitchers... that ship has sailed, lol 

Yeah I’m sure people would love to watch a rotation of Ohtani-Bundy-Heaney-Canning-Teheran in the playoffs

The Angels are the one team outside of Boston or a New York that I believe could captivate an audience. Boston and New York are popular because of brand recognition and history, not because they're particularly exciting. The best part of a Yankees game probably happens before the first pitch is thrown, during BP. Judge and Stanton playing HR Derby basically.
But the Angels.... That would be a HR for MLB, pun intended. They play in the second largest market in the country. If the Dodgers make the playoffs, you've got both LA teams vying for the title, one National, one American, blue vs red, etc...
The Angels have not only the best player in baseball, but probably the greatest to ever play the game, and folks would love to see some heroics from him in October. Trout on the biggest stage has been something they've been without for so long, the build up would be insane.
And then there's the unicorn, Shohei Ohtani. The Angels are the only team with a player if this caliber. He's an elite cleanup hitter and an elite ace starting pitcher. He has the potential to be the best power hitter to come out of Japan, and the best pitcher as well. He's just entering his prime, and no player could get even a fraction of international viewers to tune in, that Shohei would. It would be insane.
And then there's Pujols. Clearly, just a wrinkled shell of what he once was, but this would be marketed as his last hurrah. The greatest Dominican player of all time returning one last time to the biggest stage in baseball, to make some magic happen and say his farewell.
Then you've got Simmons, who is Ozzie Smith with the glove, does things in the infield that no one has ever seen before and for the most part, fans are still unaware of just how special he is. I know I was before the Angels traded for him. 
Do you remember how popular David Eckstein was? We've got another one of him in David Fletcher. 
How about that storyline that the Angels finally have Scioscia's successor, and it's the guy who was supposed to succeed him all along. The most vibrant, marketable manager in baseball, Joe Maddon.
If audiences are looking for an exciting young player that can charismatically be the face of baseball in the 2020's, look no further than Jo Adell. Young, African American, good looking guy, with speed and power. He's even got a white best friend with long hair and a beard that you can market him with in Brandon Marsh, who is just as fast and athletic, assuming Billy doesn't trade him.
And finally there's Anthony Rendon. A playoff hero. One of the smoothest, coolest and best players in the game. No moment is too big for him.
 It would be REALLY beneficial for all parties involved, if the Angels made the playoffs in 2020 and went far.

Lakers also losing by 20

Hey, maybe Rendon can pitch and none of us know about it?

HELL YEAH!!
Two relievers with great strikeout rates for Kinsler. 
I LOVE YOU, Eppy!!! 

Welcome to the Angels Patrick Sandoval.
Tommy John Surgery this way.

The team just isn't very good. Eppler needs to accept this and rebuild as much as possible: shed anything he can: dump Valbuena, try to get something for Kinsler, trade the middle relievers, even field offers for Calhoun and Upton. Then play Fletcher, Fernandez, Thaiss, Rengifo and Ward. Give them some experience. 
I know people want the team to compete during the Trout window, but I'd rather see the focus be on building for long-term success. Trout is more likely to stay if he sees a team on the cusp of being really good and getting better. Floating year to year with crappy patch jobs is just not cutting it. 

Results don’t matter to the Angels.. we all know that. Mike Scisocia has been to the playoffs 1 time since 2009 and leads us year after year to mediocre results. Yet he stays. 
 
Albert Pujols, Luis Valbuena, etc make it to clear to me that winning just isn’t at the forefront. Moreno is chasing money and couldn’t care less about winning a World Series, or even making the playoffs for that matter. They get the best player in baseball and F*ck it up big time, can only get him to the playoffs once. Fire the entire coaching staff, release valbuena, force pujols to the bench. Thats what the RED SOX/YANKEES/CARDS etc. would do... because losing isn’t acceptable. 

Solution to all the injury problems:
Every game a bullpen game, but you also include starters in the mix. 
Nobody throws more than 3 innings, ever. They're lifted no matter how good they're pitching. You go through an order of whoever has been pitching well lately. The guys who get bombed move to the back of the line, work on things, and then move back up.
Ohtani, when he returns (2019, 2020??) no longer pitches. He plays DH and hits every day. He doesn't ever throw a baseball again. Albert plays first base part-time and hopefully retires at some point soon.

“so just us and Houston now?”

FG's scouting reports https://www.fangraphs.com/scoutboard.aspx?draft=2018mlb&type=0&pos=all&team=all
Jordyn Adams
TLDR
Adams is one of the top wide receivers in the country and was a unrefined, middle tier prep prospect until he had a breakout tournament performance in late March. His elite toolset reminds some of Byron Buxton or Royce Lewis, but the track record is very short.
Full Report
Adams was not talked about as a top-3 round prospect in this class before late-March's NHSI tournament in his home town of Cary. Adams wasn't even one of the top dozen prospects at the event when it started, but looked like a sure first day pick by the end of the event. He offers top of the scale athleticism, which you'd expect from one of the top dozen wide receiver prospects in the country. He has 80 speed, a loose swing, plus bat control, projectable raw power and athletic actions. Adams wasn't a top tier baseball prospect entering the spring in part because of limited reps, since he was seen as likely to go to North Carolina to play football, where his father is the defensive line coach. He's now in line for a multi-million dollar bonus offer and is expected to sign. We think he goes in the 10-17 range.
Jeremiah Jackson
TLDR
Bad last summer, Jackson got a pair of glasses and raked all spring. He's hit and should play somewhere on the dirt.
Full Report
Jackson was bad last summer. He was swinging through pitches in the zone at Area Codes and made some defensive mistakes, so while he looked great in the uniform and taking BP, there was skepticism surrounding his on-field ability. This spring, Jackson got glasses and became such a dominant force of nature that he was intentionally walked in 11 of his final 13 high school at-bats. There's some concern that Jackson's spring is fool's gold as he's performed against bad high school pitching. We're buying the corrected vision makes a significant difference and think he'll hit and stay on the dirt. He projects as a good everyday third baseman.
*****************
Angels went lottery pick route with their top two guys....  FG's had them ranked 19th and 31st overall... and had Adams going anywhere between 10-17.  The questions about Jackson's bat due to the quality of competition is eerily similar to the criticism of Jo Adell last year.
Get hyped!

Hopefully Eppler drafts nothing but black dudes.

Before the draft, the experts at Baseball America had Adams going two picks before us to the Texas Rangers. Here's their blurb:
15. Rangers (Kegan) Jordyn Adams, OF, Green Hope HS, Cary, N.C. History suggests that the Rangers are perfectly happy with taking a big hack at a high-risk, high-reward prospect in the draft. Me too. So give me Adams, who might have the highest ceiling of any player in this class. Adams is a two-sport athlete committed to play both football and baseball at North Carolina, and the thought of what he could become once he focuses solely on baseball is extremely enticing once we get outside of the top-10 picks.

Barria won't be a prospect in about 3 more starts. Canning, Adell and Marsh are ahead of him for sure. An argument could definitely be made for Suarez and Jones but definitely not Thaiss or Rodriguez. So at worst, 6th.

It was a 5-game losing streak and a bad week. THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS.  It's over, let it go. Like that show in the early 1960s.