Quinlanforthewin

3 minutes ago, Stradling said:

We still love Eppler, bye troll. 

What's not to love right with all his new free agent bats yet again failing miserably and a rotation featuring Chris Stratton and  the 11 million dollar dumpster fire that is Matt Harvey

And enough with the troll talk assholery, I've been on this site since it was an idea on an ESPN message board. I think this team is a train wreck. You don't and it realllly upsets you that people do. This discussion is the reason a message board even exists. 

Doing my monthly check in here, we all still loving ole Billy and everything he does? Carry on

On 4/7/2019 at 1:16 AM, Stradling said:

You are mistaken. 

He hit .125 in September and October.  How's he doing so far this year? Keep on swingin

20 hours ago, ScottT said:

Were you all around for Kole Calhoun's 2018?   Unusually extreme, sure, but a lot of players have bad stretches, then recover.  Bour does this from May through August (or September if the team is out of it) and most don't even notice.  First eight games with a new team.... and it's different?  

Calhoun didn't actually "recover" I think his last two months of the year were worse than his first two. 

5 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Look there are guys that are always miserable on here and they come here just to be miserable.  Own it, because if you don’t you are a god damn hypocrite as well as miserable.  I am not being a super fan, so shut up with that shit.  It’s less than a week in and everyone is being Facking babies around here.  You don’t like my opinion, put me on ignore.  

Lol, you're cute. 

2 minutes ago, Stradling said:

The same people are bitching, so the narratives would be different, but it would still be the same people miserable.  

We're going to be 1-5 to start the season. Bitching is pretty goddamn normal. Why do you feel the need to push the I'm better than you superfan attitude.  

Bourjos has got to be gone soon right? Can they send him down to AAA or does he have to be DFAd

Same question for Cozart, Calhoun, Bour, Smith, Fletcher, and Pujols

2 freaking hits again.  After this game we have to be last in baseball in every offensive category right?

Pretty nuts how many dudes in this lineup consistently try to pull outside pitches

Vicor and Gubi mentioned Albert's career stats...drink

Holy mackerel that's one hell of a lineup

37 minutes ago, Lou said:

Josh Harrison is batting .091 

Well that settles it. Nevermind that he's been a 5.5 WAR player over his past three years whereas La Stella is 1.1 for his career. 

PS Harrison went 0-4 tonight so he's actually hitting .067

8 minutes ago, eligrba said:

Name someone who would have been better.

I never said they were good. 

Than La Stella as our freaking starting second baseman? Cmon man this isn't hard just look at the other team, Tim Beckham would have been a way better acquisition. Josh Harrison got 2 million this past offseason. Clearly him. Hell Derek Dietrich got a minor league deal and would have been way better than La Stella.  You really want me to do this for every disastrous Eppler choice to be a starting baseball player on this team? He's royally screwed up at least six of them in 3 years. I have a six hour flight in a few days, I will get you a list. 

Bour I actually thought was a good get but of course in true Angels fashion he's started horrendously.  Who was the last free agent we brought in that actually didn't have a horrendous offensive start? I guess Ohtani. 

9 minutes ago, eligrba said:

2

The number of combined hits for Bour and LaStella this season.

No one better than them available this past offseason right

4 minutes ago, eligrba said:

I can wait.....

And I'm the troll...

The point is there were better options available nearly every offseason than Nava, Gentry, Soto, Espinosa, Kinsler, Valbuena, etc etc etc..

This has been argued ad nauseam.  Most love Eppler.  Some think it's okay to point out he's made some bad decisions.  It's okay that we disagree.  

1 minute ago, eligrba said:

Who was available that Eppler did not sign that would have been better?

That was my point.

You're asking me to list every player for the past three years that signed for more than 500k that was better than awful? May take me awhile

2 hours ago, eligrba said:

In all honesty, Eppler has not had many free agent options. It's hard to hold him accountable when the selection has been bad.

No it's not.  He's missed on the majority of the players he's chosen.  I'm not expecting above average production from these cheap signings, but if he's going to sign a guy to be a starter, they need to at least be average-below average.  So many of the guys he signed were just awful for us. 

7 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

While I remain very optimistic regarding the teams outlook moving forward(not so much this season), I will say that thus far during his tenure, Eppler hasn't really done well when it comes to evaluating hitters. Granted, he's mostly been dumpster diving in that regard as well, but I can't recall any of his FA bats working out or providing much of anything to the team. At least he's hitting on his trades for hitters(Simba and Upton)

I said this four days ago, albeit in a slightly harsher tone, and was labeled an edgy troll.  All I'm saying is it's time to place some of the blame for the losing on Eppler.  He's been far from perfect

How is Bourjos our 4th OF? He was awful last year.  

Eppler totally knows what he's doing though

It's these small acquisitions that he has constantly fucked up since he's been here that have cost us games

Cozart sucks

I just can't get enough of Victor and Gubi reciting Albert's career stats, I need more! moreeee!

When is this organization going to realize Kole Calhoun should not be a starting MLB player, much less leading off and hitting in front of Trout.  79 RBIs on 40 HRs last year for Trout should have gotten Kole DFA'd

Is Tommy La Stella seriously our starting second baseman? My god. 

19 hours ago, Stradling said:

Ok, the Angels not making the playoffs is really not on Eppler, despite what you think.  Bottom line is the cupboard was so bare, that they had to fill way too many holes through free agency.  They haven’t had players that could come up and produce.  He took over a farm where they didn’t have the pieces to promote or to trade for other talent.  He took over a team with a bloated payroll with players on it that were no longer producing up to their contracts, guys like Weaver, Wilson, Street, Albert and Hamilton’s contract.  So now you have no one to promote to fill holes on the roster.  You have no one to trade to acquire those players needed to fill the holes.  You also have limited payroll to fill those holes.  Yep, this isn’t on Eppler, sorry.  He hasn’t saddled the team with long term expensive contracts.  He hasn’t overpaid for players on long term deals because “they were the best available”.  Sure he screwed up with Valbuena (for two years) and Cozart.  The rest of those guys you mention were one year deals and none of them hamstring the team going forward.  The team has been able to promote one minor leaguer to be a position player for this coming year, in Fletcher.  He is the first position player they promoted from their minor leagues to help with this problem.  That is one in three years, two if you count Ward.  They promoted one starting pitcher in Barría.  Think about that.  Of the current bullpen possibly two are from our farm, Bedrosian and Anderson.  And you are trying to blame Eppler.  It is such brutal nonsense, which is why everyone is giving you a hard time about being the edgy guy.  So if you are keeping track here is the list of guys on the current roster that were with the organization prior to Eppler:

Albert, Trout, Kole, Fletcher, Anderson, Bedrosian, Skaggs, Heaney, Barría.  I think that is about it.  The rest he had to acquire without a farm and without much money to spend.  To blame him is idiotic.  

I understand what you're saying, I'm not saying Eppler is awful and every move he's made is a disaster. I'm simply saying he deserves some criticism after three years of the team being  under .500. I'll try to simplify my gripe with Eppler.  The vast majority of players he has brought in to be a part of the major league roster have not just been below average, they have been completely awful.  I get that they're all one year deals and their contracts haven't hamstrung the franchise going forward, but I would have expected someone he signs to perform at a below average to average level.  These guys have been so atrocious that it likely cost us the playoffs at least once. I don't see it changing this year, I dislike pretty much everyone he signed yet again (Harvey, Cahill, Lucroy, Bour, La Stella). It's more of the same and absolutely hilarious to me that they're acting like this team is going to compete for a playoff spot. 

14 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

The move puzzled me, but these guys spend a lot more time analyzing these decisions than you or I do. I wouldn't worry about it having a huge impact because you're talking about one out of every 5 games and in a small sample it's probably not going to make a lot of difference. 

8.1 H/9, 3.3 BB/9, 6.8 K/9, WHIP 1.268, FIP 4.58, xwOBA .327

9.5 H/9, 3.4 BB/9, 7.0 K/9, WHIP 1.428, FIP 4.48, xwOBA .356

8.4 H/9, 2.7 BB/9, 8.3 K/9, WHIP 1.241, FIP 4.05, xwOBA .305

These are Stratton, Pena and Barria. (I won't tell you which is which.) They are pretty much interchangeable, except one of them has no options and two of them have options.

the middle one seems to be clearly the worst of the group and yet after checking his stats, that's Stratton...makes no sense.  1.42 WHIP...good lord. And that's actually the lowest WHIP of his career.