ettin

Come to my warm, loving embrace!

I agree an argument could be made that adding Greinke certainly didn't bring us "close enough" to securing a berth in the playoffs and, as it turned out, it didn't even give us the extra punch we needed at the time. The counter to this argument, of course, is that you have to take risks and go for it and that is what Dipoto did. The energy was good on the offensive side at that time with Trout banging the ball and I don't think you can overly fault the FO for trying but I get the gist of what you are getting at AO.

I have whiplash AJ.....

Pitching coughed it up. Wilson said his Head & Shoulders weren't in alignment causing him to have a damned ruff outing making him look like a flake.

Although I am not happy with his outing last night AO, you also have to consider how well the $140 million Dodgers pitcher did last night? The starting pitcher market was fairly dry when we signed Wilson and I think, unfortunately, it was a necessary move at the time to bring in what we believed was a reliable arm. Considering how much player salaries are skyrocketing the Wilson signing may not be as horrible as it feels. Look at some of the pitchers doing worse than C.J.'s 3.95 ERA right now: C.C. Sabathia: 3.96 Brandon McCarthy: 4.36 Cole Hamels: 4.43 Ryan Dempster: 4.69 Tim Lincecum: 4.75 R.A. Dickey 4.85 Matt Cain: 5.00 David Price: 5.24 Tim Hudson: 5.37 Dan Haren: 5.43 Considering the fact we pay him $15 million per year he looks like a bargain compared to some of the names above. I'm not excusing his poor performance but I guess what I'm trying to say is it is not quite as bad as it appears.

A mathematical article on the odds of hitting for the cycle: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-odds-of-hitting-for-the-cycle/ However, my favorite line is this: "Since triples are the hardest part of hitting for the cycle, we have to wonder how easy it will be for a bulky Trout to leg out a triple as he advances in age." Made me laugh.

Awesomely done. Moreno is a master of branding after all! Get it done!

It is a game of inches.

-.-

Nicely done.

This I would agree with for the most part. Segura probably wouldn't have hurt us so much if our cupboard wasn't so bare already. I really believe in Dipoto's plan (I'm talking his strategic long term plan in building the farm) but only time and patience will reveal how well we really do in player development and drafting. Dipoto is correct in trying to build a "moving window of contention" where we constantly have a nucleus of good players who can compete that are supplemented by a good farm system. We are on the first steps heading towards that goal and I think this year's draft will help supplement the 2015-2017 nucleus. The only fly in the ointment is how well the nucleus performs year-to-year. Unfortunately we have hit a severe road bump.

Yes that is what I said at the end of my first post. Like you, I disagree with the idea that you use money to buy free agents to build a nucleus in principle. However some teams can afford to do that very thing and the Angels happen to be one of them. I would love to see the Angels redevelop their farm system and I think Jerry is working on that issue as we speak (Draft is on June 6th right?). I think it is part of his long term goals for the club and I think a big part of the reason he went to free agency the last two years is that last years draft, this years draft and next years draft are overall very weak on talent. I recently read from one article that this years draft was given a 45 on the 20-80 scouting scale in terms of talent. I think Dipoto looked at the opportunity to sign free agents and give extensions to core players to build a contending team now and for the next 2-4 years while we rebuild the farm system slowly last year and this year and then start to accelerate those efforts as we move forward. His idea, and I am paraphrasing Dipoto, was to have the "moving window of contention" that would allow us to field a team that has the potential to compete each and every year.

I fully agree with this and I would go even further and offer him a record-breaking money contract that covers the rest of his career and keep him an Angel for the rest of his playing days. There is no denying his athletic ability and talent and I don't think the Angels would regret it (could of course be totally wrong). $400 million/15 year contract? Plus option years? Don't give him the opportunity to possibly go into the Hall of Fame wearing another team's cap. This really is an opportunity for the Angels to give him the most massive contract in history and lock up what appears to be a perennial HOF talent. If you are a gambler this is about as sure a bet as they come in terms of baseball talent. I don't mind waiting another year or even two but this should get done two years before he hits free agency if not sooner.

This idea has been exhaustively discussed on different sites. It is simply a result of higher free agency prices and the recoginition that controllable, homegrown talent can be given long-term extensions that generally have a much better chance of being more value-added for their team. Those teams that can run higher payrolls will have a slight advantage in that they can still use the free agent market to acquire areas of need but the trend is moving back to using free agency as a supplement to build your team not to create the nucleus of it (unless you are the Dodgers, Yankees, Angels, etc.).

Yeah he's definitely killing it. Unfortunately he is about the only one who is really destroying the ball. Cron and Grichuk are starting to pick it up (Lindsey too) as Scott reported on but a lot of our other position prospects are not doing that hot right now.

No but you will have to play right field and hit 9th.

AO, I don't think the big performance comment is fair since you, yourself, advocated that the Angels get a "feared hitter". I do think that the decision to give Pujols the contract was motivated in some small part by the opportunity to bring a franchise name to Anaheim which, in turn, allowed Arte to execute his new FOX deal. I think they also hoped that Pujols would perform like traditional Pujols but alas....

Great updates Scott!

Well, frankly, buying these free agents was the better route to go at the time those decisions were made. Last year's First Year Player Draft and this year's draft were considered very shallow in terms of high-end talent. Was it smarter to spend the money on free agents and extensions to put in place a contending team for the next 3-5 years or was it better to keep the draft picks and take the lesser talented prospects in the players pools last year and this year? I think Dipoto made the best decisions he could at the time and I don't regret that. Next year's draft is also projected to be poorer than average. We have a good nucleus but you are correct that something is not "clicking".

Oh wow! I like 2 game win streaks! It means we might win a series if they don't overlap!

With all due respect Shane, the offense has sucked too. The only waste going on is by the players.

Totally disagree with this statement. There is a very large outfield out there and this defense is designed to cover a large part of it. By having two exceptional defenders in LF and CF you can shift Trout towards CF, shift Bourjos towards RF and allow Hamilton/Trumbo to move closer to the RF line. It provides more comprehensive line drive and flyball coverage which increases run prevention. Even if you had 3 CF's playing the OF it still would have some value as even the most elite outfielder has some limit to their range and even 3 elite defenders couldn't cover the entire OF (although in that scenario they would probably come close). In the end two elite defensive CF's add value and run prevention. Three CF's would still add value, although probably marginally so.

Well this has been discussed to death AO, but, in the end, it is about winning championships and at the time Greinke was someone who could give us that opportunity potentially. You have to give to get. I liked Segura but the reality was that the FO preferred Aybar over Jean and I didn't mind the attempt to win.

I'm not totally disagreeing with you IP but there are shades of grey to a lot of what you said that we are not privy too. I think Dipoto's design for the pitching staff was a reasonable idea in principle since we decided to go the Hamilton route (and lets not forget that the Hamilton signing was also made to weaken the Rangers.... oops?) and create a "powerful" offense. Both have failed unfortunately.

I would disagree with that statement IP. FIP measures the things that a pitcher CAN control which are home runs, walks, and strikeouts. It is not theoretical at all, it measures real world results for each individual pitcher. The 'even' part of the sentence is a bit misleading as each individual pitcher has a talent level that varies some from other pitchers, such as Felix Hernandez vs. Luke Hochevar, for instance.