Culverfan

This is when Pujols would hit a solo shot

Not enough choices.  Would have voted for this choice: "Well, sort of confident in an insecure way, but unsure of the uncertainty of the mild confidence I have, while retaining some hope of a positive surprise, but less hope than I would have had in previous years."
The Germans have a word for this, I think it's ungewissehoffnungsvollezuversicht.

Seems pretty clear they punted on raising the ceiling in favor of the floor.  An argument can be made that it makes sense, they have enough star level players but almost zero room for error.
Now they have a ton of room for error, hopefully they didn't "error" in their decision making.

Agreed. I think the best case scenario for both sides is a massive overpay with opt outs after say 2 years 
"We're going to make you as rich as you want, but if you change your mind you can leave."

I'm fine with Thaiss as the backup C for now and the future. If he can catch at the major league level, his offensive potential helps and that he's a lefty hitter. Works for me.
The more I look at it, the MINF is the weakspot in this lineup, and whether thats a SS or a 2B (Josh Harrison?) They need to add someone. Moniak, Adell, and the crew at AAA will be fine for backup OF. Adding a starter helps almost as much as a MINF, as it pushes everyone down and there is less pressure. But they may feel that their depth, plus Canning and C-Rod's return will be enough.
BP needs one more proven arm. I think. Whether that's a closer or an 8th inning guy, they'll add.

i think he's a much better hitter than calhoun. after the shoulder injury he got back to what he was doing before the injury and that was the best hitter on the team level. i think if he's even in that range, then he's much better than calhoun. i'm actually very bullish on him, which is awesome.

what are their plans for barria? you'd have to think that at some point he's pretty frustrated when he only pitches once every three weeks or so.

I agree, but the next question is: How do teams assemble good bullpens? Mediocre to solid pitchers are common enough, but it comes down to high leverage/elite arms - guys who can get batters out without relying upon the defense. There have been teams who have even won the World Series without a good bullpen, like the Nationals in 2019, but they made up for it by having a great rotation (Scherzer, Strasburg and Corbin in peak years, and a solid Anibal Sanchez). But the archetype is having two really good relievers, which traditionally have been the closer and set-up guy. Excellent bullpens might have a third or even fourth guy, but I think GMs in the team-building phase focus on locking down those two, and then cobbling together the rest.
Without researching the matter all that much, I think a fair number of good relievers are former starters who didn't pan out; maybe guys with two good pitches but a mediocre third, sort of like what some feel about Silseth. Actually, Silseth is exactly the type of guy that becomes an elite reliever - as is Bachman. But plenty of top relievers were drafted as such, and just developed well: Craig Kimbrel was drafted in the 3rd round (like Joyce!), and Kenley Jansen was an international signing (those damn Dodgers).
The best Angels bullpen in my memory was the 00s, especially the first half. Key players were Troy Percival, Francisco Rodriguez, Scot Shields, and Brendan Donnelly, plus a rotating cast of guys who had a good year or two like Gregg, Oliver, Weber, Jepsen, Arredondo, etc. But the bullpen's arguably best year, 2004, only had three relievers over 1 WAR: Francisco Rodriguez (ridiculous at 3.7), Scot Shields (2.1), and Kevin Gregg (1.4). Donnelly was also good (0.7), but Percy was in decline but still solid (0.1 WAR due to a 4.88 FIP, but a 2.90 ERA), and the bullpen was filled out with decent guys like Ramon Ortiz filling in and Matt Hensley. But they also only had one truly awful relief performance that year (Ben Weber, -0.5 WAR in 22.1 IP), and perhaps more importantly, the vast majority of their relief innings were pitched by just their best guys: F Rod, Shields, and Gregg pitched about 270 IP between them, more than half of their total relief innings (about 490); add in solid performances from Donnelly, Percy, and Ortiz, that's 80% of relief innings from good or better performers. The rest are just mop-up.
Meaning, you really only need two or three good relievers and two or three solid guys. Or maybe just two really good guys and a bunch of solid guys, and hope that one or more of the solid guys has an excellent season (like Gregg in 2004, at least according to fWAR).
But that was in 2004. Part of the problem is that bullpens have to take on more of a burden now than they did 20 years ago, with starters pitching fewer innings. In 2004, Angels relievers accounted for about one-third (or 33%) of all pitcher innings, whereas last year it was 45%. The difference is over 150 IP, so basically 2-3 relievers.
But even so, my point, again, is that you can get by with just a couple very good relievers for high leverage situations, and a handful solid guys. I think that was Minasian's hope in Iglesias, Loup, and Tepera, but it didn't work out. 
Assuming Minasian doesn't do more than sign depth for the bullpen, the Angels would be entering 2023 without a "guaranteed" top reliever - just a bunch of solid guys, plus a lot of depth in the high minors. Maybe it does make sense to sign one elite guy, but then not only does that kind of negate the Raisel trade, but there isn't exactly a good track record of spending money on relievers. So my guess is that the Angels are going to, at most, sign a clean peanut or two, and try to work with the pieces they have and hope that one or more of the prospects becomes "that guy" by the stretch run.

I'm not sure why the Angels are giving MLB innings to guys like Mayers and Weiss instead of young pitchers in AAA like Daniel, Junk, Warren, Peguero, and Ortega.

Did you copy and paste this from last year or the year before?

He has obviously shown signs of improving both in the field and at the plate the last few weeks. What I can’t figure out is why, after trading Marsh and having Moniak hurt, they are still not playing him every day. Duggar is playing over him. Duggar has 1 hit with the Angels so far. From an organizational standpoint, how does it benefit you to play Duggar over Adell right now? 

If he's another Taylor Ward, then maybe the Angels should give him the Taylor Ward treatment: keep him in the minors until he's ready to contribute at the major league level. Ward's playing time by age and performance:
age 24: 147 PA, -0.4 WAR
age 25: 48 PA, -0.5 WAR
age 26: 102 PA, 0.3 WAR
age 27: 237 PA, 0.7 WAR
Adell:
age 21: 132 PA, -1.4 WAR
age 22: 140 PA, 0.1 WAR
age 23: 174 PA, -0.6 WAR
If I'm in the Angels, I'd give Adell as much playing time as possible for the rest of the year, but unless he shows significant improvement, he should start 2023 in AAA and be told that he's just like any other minor leaguer: he'll get his chances if he performs. It is one thing to give him playing time now, quite another when the year is fresh and the Angels theoretically have a chance to compete.
 

I think their best option is to first improve the team this offseason, then have a talk with him in January or February, and offer a really nice contract - like 8/$320M, with an opt out after two or three years. That is hard money to refuse when you don't have a guaranteed contract (I think he'll get arbitration next year, so what, $15M?) - and he can always opt out if the Angels haven't turned things around.
If he says, "Let's wait and see how the season goes," you have one of two choices: trade him (unlikely) or play out the season and hope for the best, which is likely what would happen. They could still trade him in July, although obviously get a much lesser package. If they don't trade him, well, at least they get a compensatory pick after he refuses a QO.
So that's the worst case scenario: We get one more year of Shohei and compensation draft pick, and of course aren't saddled with another huge contract. I mean, as much as I want Shohei to stay, I'm not a big fan of huge contracts, and it isn't like he's without risk. The Angels would be one bad arm tweak away from play a good DH $40M a year for the next 8+ years.

There Bunch of Idiots! a bunch of Idioit. I'd rather give Mackinon his shot and see what he can do. 

Yeah.  Mentioned that above although I forgot to include the braves.  
And it not just about the big money guys.  I can at least reconcile that in my own head knowing those are just typically bad deals.  It's everything else.  Almost everyone else they've acquired.  Whether via trade or as a low budge or mid budget signing.  
Over the last 7 years who's been decent?  Yunel Escobar?  Tommy La Stella?  A few pen arms from the scrap heap?  The occasional Jefry Marte or Brian Goodwin?  Felix Pena?  Cobb was good but we let him go or maybe he wanted to leave or whatever.  
Simmons and Ohtani of course.  Among a sea of the guys I mentioned plus Iglesias, Eric young jr, Cesar Puello, Mayfield, Geovany Soto, Ben Revere, Monte Harrison, Zack Cozart, Juan Lagares, Danny Espinosa, Drew Butera, Jabari Blash (sorry @ettin), Kean Wong, Adam Eaton, Tyler Wade, Lucroy, Bour, Nick Buss, Luis Valbuena (RIP), Ortega, Kevan Smith, Jarrett Parker, Brandon Phillips, Wifredo Tovar, Chris Young, Francisco Arcia, Phil Gosselin, Andrew Velazquez, Gregorio Petit, Shane Robinson, Johnny G, Jose Fernandez, Cliff Pennington, Anthony Bemboom, Matt Duffy, Rene Rivera.  
Do you know that of all the guys on that bottom list, only one of them accumulated more than 1.0 WAR the entire time they were with the halos.  
Cameron Maybin at 1.2 WAR.  He's the one.  The Neo among the 77 other players on the last from the 7 years.  
Oh shit wait.  I forgot to include a lot of pitchers.  Teheran, Lincecum, Cahill, Allen Deck Mcguire, Luis Garcia...aw f it.  there's just too many.  In fact it 107 guys with a WAR of 1.0 or below.  
Felix Pena actually wins the prize for best pitching acquisition for the last 7 years with 2.6 WAR (aside from Shohei of course).  
Most accumulated pitching WAR after Ohtani from the last seven years?  Heaney and Skaggs rank 2 and 3.  Then Shoemaker.  Cam Bedrosian ranks 6th.  
What in the blue F**K has this franchise been doing?  

To me, a major thing missing is the lack of a true breakthrough from a young player. Good teams that develop talent always have it. Arozarena, Will Smith, Austin Riley, Jeremy Pena, Devers, et al just to name a few--young guys that had major breakouts that vaulted their team to another level. This kind of stuff only happens with good development staffs. The Angels have really been lacking in this department for awhile. But what kind of strikes me about the last two years--and forgive me if this is a milquetoast idea--is that guys experiencing some level of success do not attain prolonged success when they are promoted. Blah blah, fire Reed and Wise. But Adell and Marsh have had a lot of ABs after doing well in AAA. Detmers tore through AA and AAA last year and hit a wall--to be expected, sure, but he struggled again this year. Suarez. Rengifo, until now. Thaiss. Peguero. Marte. Silseth (after his first start). I can't remember a guy getting promoted and breaking out since...? It isn't unrealistic to expect guys to do that. But it can't all fall on the players or the minor league coaches when these guys have a good amount of success in the minors, are promoted, and can't sustain nearly any of that success. This is where I believe the hitting coaches and the pitching coaches do have a direct impact, or at least CAN have a direct impact. I don't blame Reed for Adell and Marsh's struggles; but would a better hitting coach have helped them? I do believe so. Same with Wise and Suarez, Peguero, Marte, Detmers and Silseth. No prolonged success. I will give him whatever credit he is due for Sandoval; but what other pitchers have come up and solidified a role? 

This makes me think that the missed 2020 minor league season had a huge impact. That was the year that Adell and Marsh should have been fine-turning in AAA. Instead, Adell was rushed and Marsh was rushed in 2021. Both could have used a couple uninterrupted seasons in AA/AAA, rather than the piecemeal and up-and-down seasons they got.
But I agree with Doc: send Marsh down for a few weeks to rebuild his confidence, and play Adell everyday to see if things can start clicking for him.

Is it not clear that the Angels development programs rank towards the back half of the pack?
I can not say for certain, but this is what I gather from the small bits we get from the media. It always seems like the Angels are one of the teams trying to skimp on any sort of development. I’m not saying that twin size beds lead to terrible development, but where else are they cutting in terms of trying to get the best out of their players? They clearly are terrible at it. 

this, 100%
 
so why do they keep rolling with the same coaching staff that has proven to be incapable of developing those players?

Well this was the first year with a new scouting director and he just took 18 college kids, so if he’s right about a lot of those guys, their farm system could take a leap. And a handful of last year’s guys look good. Maybe Bachman and Bush are helpful next year. 
 
They need to keep trying different things to unlock the talent of their young/inexperienced players who have shown promise but been inconsistent (Adell, Marsh, Detmers, Suarez, Walsh).
They need to do a better job with the band aid signings. Although it hasn’t worked, it can. Look at the Giants last year. 
 
They need to hope Rendon can stay healthy and be productive because they’re stuck with him. 
 
They need the relievers they spent all that money to simply pitch to their career averages. 
 
All of that would help in the short term while waiting for improved drafting and development to help in the long term. 

Maybe.  Kinda.  I guess.  Sort of.  
I think you can say that's correct if you can also say it wasn't the philosophy until Eppler got here.  
Jerry D didn't embrace that in any way shape or form even though he did immediately when he went to Seattle.  But it was beg, borrow and steal from every last resource he could to improve the major league club.  He even drafted for need.  Which is just a mortal sin in baseball.  But it was high floor college guys who would potentially be quick to the majors and start contributing.  He didn't know Trout was a generational player when he signed Albert or Wilson or traded for Greinke.  So he didn't get to use that excuse.  At the time it was just at all costs.   Maybe by the time he signed Hamilton he had the sense that this team needed to do everything they could on behalf of having Trout and Pujols.  And really the beginning of the end for the farm system.  
Then something catastrophic happened - they won 98 games in 2014.  This gave everyone the sense that what he was doing was actually working.  They had a few young pitchers although Weave was declining rapidly.  And then Jerry quit and maybe, just maybe they started to realize something wasn't right.  
Actually they didn't.  With a bloated payroll, he traded is only minor league asset for a SS.  Traded for a 3bman.  And then mid season when the team was out of it, traded his only asset for Nolasco and Alex Meyer because that's what you do when all you care about is the major league club.  So now we have the worst farm EVER.  Ever.  Seriously.  And still zero financial resources.  
Then Billy is forced to toe the line once he realizes that this org is circling the drain yet has a generational player that you've got to do something around.  Right?  So we then start to replace the Giavotella's and Ortegas and all the injuries to the pitchers with guys like Chacin, Lincecum, Espinosa, Revere, Maybin, Luis Valbuena, Upton, Kinsler, Cozart, Goodwin, Lucroy, Bour, Harvey, Cahill, La Stella, and Bundy, and others.  
And a magical angel from Japanese heaven is sent to the team to make everything better.  Which makes them want to double and triple and quadruple down on making more bad decisions.  
All the while trying to draft well and scrap a few trades together but remember.  All resources must improve the major league team.  
And then they get a little money to spend finally and with 9 kagillion roster spots unsettled, they spend a shit to on a 3bman and then sign Teheran 
So since that guy couldn't walk a tight rope...blindfolded...over a pit of sharks...on fire, they bring in some other sap to try and walk that rope but they add another guy off to the side who's throwing dogshit at him and spraying him with bong water.  And this new sap thinks that the special shoes he paid 60 million dollars for will help him but he's 'a little heavy buddy' (reference please) and the rope just sags into the pool of sharks where he get's one of his legs bitten.  So now he's hopping on one leg.  
TLDR:
The philosophy of 'building from within' may be something they say, but the execution is still to put every last resource into the major league club.  And I get the reasons, but at some point, someone is going to have to realize that what they are trying to do is impossible.  Because they've tried to execute various versions of this plan for over a decade.  Some of the nuances have changed, but it remains the same.  And functionally, nothing has really changed.  
Now, no one has a time machine so you've got to do something to try and salvage a roster that actually has some salvageability.  It's probably 8 or 10 chess moves away but I can squint and see it.  Oh wait.  Maybe that's just my allergies acting up again.  

I know relief pitching is volatile, but when is the last time the Angels brought a young reliever up and he had more than one good season?  Half season?   

That is the problem.  They need to draft develop more of their own talent. 
Jo Adell was basically ranked as high as Julio Rodriguez at one point.  
Brandon Marsh was up there.  
Etc.
I'm not writing them off, but they haven't hit on anyone in a while.    The Sandoval trade was amazing, but other than that....  yikes.    So, when Stassi takes a dive, Rendon is out, Fletcher forgets what made him successful (and is out)....   it's rough.     A lineup with Velazquez, Duffy, and Wade?   
And the bullpen.  They haven't even developed their own good reliever in a while.  What other teams can claim that?

Exactly.
When was the last time the Angels traded away a prospect or young major leaguer that looked promising at all?
If you don’t count Will Wilson (who they essentially sold to get Rendon), it was Sean Newcomb.
That’s because Eppler and Minasian have both acknowledged that they need to build from within and basically horde all the young players they can. 
 
The philosophy is right. The execution is wrong.
 
The guys they’ve drafted have not been good enough, which is a failure of scouting and development. 
 
Marsh, Adell, Adams, Jackson, Paris, Thaiss, Canning, etc. Those guys are supposed to either be helping the big league team or be good enough to be used in trades to help the big league team. But they’re not. It’s been a big nothing burger. 

Yes, agreed - and good point about the "quiet rebuild."
To be fair to those who are frustrated, what you wrote is similar to what I wrote before this year - that the had team of three superstars around which were a talented cast of secondary and younger players. But pretty much everything wasn't what we (I) hoped for:
Secondary players: Fletcher continued to suck, then got injured; Walsh and Stassi regressed; Ward looked like the breakout player of the year, but got injured and hasn't been the same. Oh, also: Suarez also regressed.
Young guys: Marsh and Adell have been busts so far. It ain't over, but that's what their actual production has been. Detmers has been solid. Canning and C Rod have been out all year, and Sam "Ready for the majors" Bachman has managed all of 13.2 IP.
And then we get into the depth problem, and circle back around to that core issue. 
So the disappointing and tragic part is that the youth movement rebuild hasn't worked out - pretty much in any way. It doesn't mean it won't, but Marsh and Adell, in particular, have been really disappointing. A couple years ago they were 60 FV prospects - both top ten at various points, at least according to Fangraphs, and Adell even top 5 and a 65 FV grade at one point. While I think both can still become good players, they're probably more like the equivalent of 50 FV prospects.