eligrba

The Angels are only competing for a draft position at this point.  F*ck the opener and the fear of "third time through the lineup" and let the kids pitch, let the coaches coach and hopefully someone can figure how to use a 2 strike count to the pitcher's advantage..
Just play some old school baseball for the rest of the year.  I think every pitchers goal should be to learn how to get through the lineup three times because it opens up more opportunities and expands their repertoire.  F*ck the stats......the remaining part of the season should focus on the young pitchers learning how to be successful at the major league level.

gets his own thread.  Outstanding performance tonight.  

For four years (2013-2016) the Yankees finished the season with mediocre records despite having a payroll of over 200 million dollars.  The depth enjoyed today by the Yankees goes back to these lean years when they were rebuilding their farm.  Add in some very favorable trades (i.e. Stanton) and some luck, and you have a team that can withstand injuries.

I think they have already started.

But you are missing the point of what Lou said.   
GRich has only made 28 starts (138.2 innings) in the past nearly 4 seasons, that is UNDER 25% of what a healthy starter will pitch over a 4 year period. 
Let that sink in, UNDER 25%.
Even if he is somehow healthy in 2020, it is best to limit his innings.    That isn't worth $15 million.  Then again, the Padres also gave Machado $300 million, to a guy whose maturity is a big question mark and really has only put together 3 really good seasons in his career. 

Eppler's the best.

The 5 man rotation to start the season.  Obviously one of those losses hurts very badly.  The other 4: Relegated to bp, DFA, IL, DFA.
Replacement starters also spending time injured: Heaney, Tropeano, and Canning.
I am not on the fire Eppler train, I think he deserves more time because he was handed a shit sandwich, but some of this is on him for signing so many oft injured pitchers.  It could be that this was his only option because of limited resources and contract terms.
Combined with all the other injuries in the last few years, I hope the Angels are making big changes to strength and conditioning.  Additionally, could some of this be down to org philosophy?  So many pitchers only going 5 innings, relievers pitching more often, etc.  It can't all be bad luck.

FACE!

Just before the Angels signed Harvey, the Padres signed Richards for $15M on a two year deal but it was actually a one-year deal since he can’t pitch till 2020.

The Angels need that guy from Baltimore who earned the save by shutting down the Angels in that 16 inning affair.

Totally agree with the last statement.  
The next question is why has Billy failed so miserably with the 1-2 year stop gap starting pitching deals since arriving here?
Is there a disconnect between him and the MLB advance scouts in spotting the right ones to bring in?   Are the right ones not wanting to come here so far?
Has it just been rotten luck?   

The yankee comps are funny.  They are good now because they were smart for a period of time between 5 and 8 years ago.  Right around the time that the Angels org was being burnt to the ground.  From 2013 to 2016, the Angels played in more playoff games than the yankees.   They're a different franchise with different resources and a different starting point to where they are now.  As @Inside Pitch mentioned earlier in the thread, if people actually paid attention as to how they got where they are and knew the history behind it, they would look a lot smarter.  
Most people tend to focus on what has gone on in any particular season without understanding the years and years of build up to that point so 2019 is a less than stellar optic for the Halos.  I get it.  Eppler's FA moves have been awful.  In particular for this year.  
But it's hard to deny that where they are as an org at this point is much much better than where they were headed when Billy took over.  Anyone who doesn't see that just isn't looking.  
I don't think anyone is contending that Eppler shouldn't be held accountable.  Just defending that he shouldn't be fired because he's made some recent mistakes.  Mistakes, that while looking pretty ugly on the surface for 2019, have no long term impact to the team other than not supplying a modicum of trade value.  
Take a breath and get a grip on reality.  Take a good hard look at where we are at relative to where we were.  
The entire lineup is set for next year already.  A top ten offense than is actually top 5 when some changes were made (getting Bourjos, Bour, and Cozart out of it).   The farm system is better than it used to be on top of graduating several players.  You can't look at what the farm was last year to this year as the indicator of what assets this org has accumulated.  They went from worst ever.  Ever.  To currently middle of the pack after graduating 10 players in 3 years.  People who follow the farm peripherally only generally understand how it works.  We've already had 2 players from the 2016 and 2017 classes graduate to mlb.  Does anyone know how many players from the 2017 class have graduated to mlb and had positive value outside the top 10?  I am talking the entire draft btw, not just for the Angels.  One player.  And his name is Griffin Canning.  Does anyone know how long it takes for a 16yo international signing to make it to the majors?  How many impactful major league players are there from Eppler's first international class in 2017.  Oh and btw, he was restricted that year because of Baldoquin.  I'll give you the answer.  There are none in the major yet.  Not every prospect is going to be Jo Adell and make a beeline for the majors in 3 years.  Most aren't.  So while we're not the top 5 system that everyone wants us to be or think we unrealistically should be at this point, there's a ton of potential in the lower levels.  Far more than we've had in a long time and so 3 years from now when we're looking for the depth to cover injuries and poor performance, it will actually be there.  If it's not then Eppler didn't do a very good job and they'll figure out what to do next.  But any sort of final judgement on the farm system based on what you see right now is premature.   The bullpen is solid.  Better than it's been in a long time and on the cheap.  It also stands to improve because most of the guys are young enough to still do so.  Eppler will continue to pick his clean peanuts off the waiver wire but we'll also start seeing an influx of players from the minors as he's focused on volume from a pitching standpoint over the last couple years.  Something that may not translate into top of the rotation starters, but will ultimately lead to considerable pen depth.   The rotation has a ways to go but imagine a front line starter, another middle rotation guy and Ohtani on top of what's there.  Maybe that seems a little thin but we've already graduated 3 mid to back rotation arms and I would argue that Canning and Suarez have potential to be more.  You can't conjure pitching out of thin air btw, so the people who are wondering why Eppler didn't plan for injury aren't being realistic once again.  The currency to do so wasn't there.   Eppler has put this franchise in a position where they have way more assets than when he started.  That hasn't translated into wins at the major league level as of yet.  There is an opportunity for that to happen in 2020 and that's where he's got his work cut out for him because that the final frontier.  Translating org value into major league wins without actually taking value away from the franchise as a whole.  Jerry used to focus on wins at the major league level while decreasing value within the org overall.  
This year feels like a step back because of FA failures and the fact that outside of Adell, we didn't find a couple other Adells.  To think that's realistic seems ever more absurd when I write it.  Maybe the org made less progress than in Billy's previous season but it still got better overall.  Not by leaps and bounds like in years past.  Keep in mind, that the better you get, the more difficult it is to get better.  
Maybe it all falls apart and what he's done doesn't translate into playoff appearances but based on the trajectory, that's hard for me to believe.  In the end, the realistic scenario is that it take a year or two longer than expected.  

I agree that they have put a winning product on the field but at a pretty high payroll, because of their revenue stream.  I don't think the Yankee comparison is a fair comparison because of the different economic realities.  I am more frustrated that the majority of free agents that the Angels have signed have been horrific, not just bad but horrifically bad.  Some of them have been so bad that they are no longer playing.  I think that is the one area for Eppler the show the greatest growth.  He needs to be better at free agent signings.  They all do not need to be great, but at least major league average.  If the only measurement for Eppler's job was free agent signings, he should be fired.  In other GM areas I think he has done well enough to earn him some time to improve his free agent signing record.

For four years (2013-2016) the Yankees finished the season with mediocre records despite having a payroll of over 200 million dollars.  The depth enjoyed today by the Yankees goes back to these lean years when they were rebuilding their farm.  Add in some very favorable trades (i.e. Stanton) and some luck, and you have a team that can withstand injuries.

The Yankees comps would make a lot more sense if they were fielding a team similar to the Angels..  They werent.   
The Yankees weren't trying to dig themselves out of a hole created by a near decade of mismanagement.  The Yankees went into the season  with a significantly better/deeper team than the Angels.   It's a testament to the job Cashman had already done.
Three years from now I'm hoping the Angels are as well positioned as the 2019 Yankees were.

If you don’t want to read the many words to follow, skim down to the “TLDR” version. Thanks in advance for the snarky comment(s) about how long this is. You're funny.
IN DEFENSE OF EPPLER
I don’t consider myself an Eppler apologist, but I have been known to make the case that he is, at the least, a solid and smart GM who is building a team that should be in perennial contention in the not too distance future. Yes, there's a sense that this future is not only always receeding into the future, but the imaginary construct of optimists, apologists and nutswingers. But in this case, the details do matter  More specifically, if you look at his four-year tenure, I think his approach has generally been quite reasonable, and for most of those years the team’s struggles were out of his control. Let’s take a look back…
2015: Dipotogate
If you remember, coming off the 98-win 2014 season, 2015 was a bit of a disaster. It started with the Angels trading busted free agent Josh Hamilton to the Rangers. What followed was an escalation of tensions between GM Jerry Dipoto and manager Mike Scioscia, resulting in Dipoto quitting in early July. Despite that, the Angels were in first place into late July, with a season best record of 54-40 on July 22. But they proceeded to go on an 11-26 run and eventually fell to 3rd place, losing a wildcard berth on the final game of the season.
On October 4, the last day of the season, Billy Eppler was announced as the new General Manager. A little over a month later he made a big splash and first of three big signature moments, sending Erick Aybar and top prospect Sean Newcomb to the Braves for defensive whiz Andrelton Simmons, who has overall been better than expected, his recent injury notwithstanding.
2016: The Year of the Busted Arm
 If 2015 was a disaster in one way, 2016 was in another. First of all, the team plummeted a double-digit loss in the win column for the second straight year: from 98 to 85 to 74 wins. This was largely due to almost comically unprecedented injuries to starting pitchers. Tyler Skaggs had Tommy John Surgery in August of 2015 and was out all of 2016; in the first month of the new season, Andrew Heaney went down, eventually needing TJS; staff ace Garrett Richards went down in May and was recommended to have TJS—he opted for plasma injections but ended up getting the surgery two years later; in August Nick Tropeano also had TJS, and finally in September Matt Shoemaker was hit in the head by a line-drive. Furthermore, the decline of Jered Weaver reached the point where he could barely throw 85 mph.
Coupled with the fact that the farm system was in shambles—this was the year that Keith Law called the Angels farm the worst he’d ever seen—and the entire organization was in crisis. The year was about trying to keep the ship afloat as the rotation imploded…not much Eppler could do about it. His task was merely to keep the ship from sinking further, or to mix metaphors, stop the bleeding.
2017: Transition, Part 1
Eppler’s 2016-17 offseason was quite modest, bringing in mediocre players like Ricky Nolasco, Jesse Chavez, Luis Valbuena, Martin Maldonado, Cameron Maybin, and Yusmeiro Petit to plug holes in the roster – no major free agents or trades, no real attempt to push the team into contention. Perhaps after a 74-88 season and a questionable but talented starting rotation, Eppler realized that 2017 could be nothing more or less than a transitional, rebuilding year. And so it was, with the Angels finishing 80-82. The core young rotation that was projected as the “rotation of the future”—Richards, Shoemaker, Skaggs, Heaney, Tropeano—started a mere total of 41 games.
Even Trout got injured, messing up his thumb on a freak accident, sliding into second base. Albert Pujols’ decline continued as he had one of the thirty worst seasons by fWAR over the last 50 years (#26 out of 7,002 qualifying seasons, 1970-2019).
The one bright spot for the year was trading for Justin Upton for virtually nothing, prospect Grayson Long (who has since retired). There were also glimmerings that the farm was starting to improve; the Angels got their best draft pick in years in Jo Adell, thanks to that 74-88 record the previous season.
2018: Back to Conten…I mean, Transition, Part 2
Eppler had his second of three signature moments on December 9, 2017, when he convinced Japanese mega-star, Shohei Ohtani, to sign with the Angels. After the injuries of the previous couple years, it felt like a gift from the gods. Seemingly taking this as a sign that the Angels could be legit contenders in 2018, Eppler bolstered the lineup by trading for Ian Kinsler and signing Zack Cozart, who was coming off a breakthrough year with the bat.
With a lineup centered on Trout and Upton, but with a solid complementary cast of Ohtani, Pujols, Simmons, Kinsler, Cozart, Calhoun, and Maldonado, and a rotation of Ohtani, Richards, Skaggs, Heaney, Shoemaker, and Tropeano all healthy or coming back, the Angels were legitimate contenders entering the season. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, quite a bit. The lineup was a mixed bag, but yielded disappointing seasons from Pujols, Cozart and Calhoun in particular. The rotation, once again, was in shambles. Shoemaker was never really healthy and started only 7 games. Ohtani started having arm issues and was shelved after his June 6 start. He pitched again in September and then reinjured his arm, requiring Tommy John surgery.
Disaster struck in July as Garret Richards went down with “right forearm irritation,” leading to Tommy John Surgery. The pitcher that was meant to inherit the role of Angels ace from Jered Weaver had pitched his last game as an Angel.
Andrew Heaney had a solid, healthy year, and Jaime Barria was a bit of a savior, but overall it was another disappointing year, a second 80-82 record in a row.
2019: Towards a Wildca…I mean, Transition, Part 3
OK, take two. 2018 was supposed to be a resurgence to contention, and so it was with this year, or at least the hope was that if things went right, the Angels could nab a wildcard berth. First of all, we all rejoiced when Eppler had his third signature moment, extending Trout to a 12-year contract. For those bemoaning the recent performance of the team, remember this: We have the best player in the game and the history of the franchise, and one of the best ever, for his entire career. 
There was general optimism entering the season, but it was tempered by both the last few years and the fact that Eppler patched the pitching staff with a series of high-risk, high-reward—but one year—free agents in Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill, Cody Allen, and Luis Garcia. Couple those pitchers with the lineup improvements---a group of role players and fringers starters in Tommy La Stella, Brian Goodwin, Kevan Smith, Jonathan Lucroy, Justin Bour, and Peter Bourjos--and it was clear that 2019 was to be another year like 2017: patching the ship so it doesn't sink, hoping that maybe if everything goes right the Angels earn a wildcard berth, but without the hopes of legit contention that was felt before 2018.
Eppler's moves did yield pleasant surprises in La Stella, Goodwin, and Smith. La Stella was a bonafide star for half the year and Goodwin a solid fill-in while Upton recovered.  Trout has continued being Trout, probably en route to his third MVP season.
But overall the season has been disappointing. Through August 4th they’re once again a game below .500. But unlike 2016-18, this feels at least partially on Eppler. Despite a couple standout acquisitions, Eppler's moves did nothing to improve the team. Consider that the four pitchers mentioned above plus Bourjos, Bour and Lucroy has yielded a -3.0 WAR…for almost $40 million. Add in Cozart and the mediocre cast from 2017, and there's a reason for some concern about Eppler's judgement in free agency.
What to Expect from 2020
Looking at the last four years, the first three of Eppler’s reign were largely out of his control. They were riddled by injury and the organization was recovering from the Dipoto years. 2019 feels like the first year that is Eppler’s, and it hasn’t been pretty.
But given that it has really only been one year, he deserves a chance to course-correct. His free agent signings of the last few years have largely been poor to mediocre, but with a few bright spots. But in that time he’s signed no major free agents, no stars. That should change this offseason, as he looks at Gerrit Cole and other top starters.
This is a very important offseason for Eppler. He had the three post-Dipoto, injury-plagued years; and he’s had the one, “whoops, that didn’t quite work out” year. Now he has a chance to course-correct and take this team to the next level. He needs to be aggressive in player acquisition – in particular, and perhaps only, starting pitching.
In other words, the team is actually pretty good in both the lineup—which should continue to prove as the youth movement continues—and the bullpen, which is the best its been in years, despite struggling to keep up with the failing rotation. But the rotation has just been terrible. This makes things relatively straight-forward this offseason, both in terms of what Eppler needs to do and what we can judge him by.
Gerrit Cole is the big prize and my guess is that Arte will open up the purse strings and give him the 6/$180M or so that he’ll require. But even if they don’t get him, there are quite a few other options. The Angels will sign at least two solid starters of #3 caliber or better. 
Stay tuned.
TLDR Version
2016: Not his fault, injuries
2017: Not his fault, injuries, transition
2018: Mostly not his fault, more injuries, transition
2019: Kind of his fault, but signs of improvement to come
 

I think they have already started.

Well my work here is done

Can someone explain how they simulate the walks and the resulting homeruns?

Canning's injury is the most concerning. I am hoping for the best but it sounds like something all too familiar. 

I think they have already started.

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Peters went deep. We needed that. Hope he can continue to go hard and ah F*ck it this isn't funny.

Dodgers choking in a third straight World Series.