Jeremiah

Great find! I miss getting physical tickets. They were always a kind of built in souvenir of the game.

That’s a definite. A lot of that goes back to his appointment of Reagins and the subsequent choice of Reagins over Eddie Bane in that particular personality struggle. Firing Bane was a huge error that has probably cost us a lot in terms of the prospect quality. Arte has since then brought in inexperienced GMs who have variously had power struggles with field management, or the owner, and could never get on the same page to create a vision and a culture. That is an organizational disaster. Similarly to his predecessors, Perry cannot get Arte to get out of his own way. Perry doesn’t have the experience or the reputation to tell Arte when to butt out, so you have the multiple failures to move Ohtani after failing to put a quality team around him and Trout, the subsequent trades that gutted an already meh farm system in order entice Ohtani to stay, and an apparent lack of a vision for the long-term future of this organization. You can say that maybe that’s changed this year, but has it? $33M to a middle reliever never made sense. The lack of IF depth is a bit concerning. Wash is a great manager that a lot of people here used to clown regularly, but he’s also 72. How long does he want to rebuild an MLB club? I think there are still way more questions than answers. The team has always played things close to the vest, and that’s their prerogative. With that, however, will come questions about what the organization is doing. When HOU, CHC, and TB we’re losing with a purpose, they were up front about it. If the Angels are now in a similar phase, don’t tell us you’re, “Running the AL West down.” So, yeah, Perry isn’t very good yet. Arte likely won’t stick with him long enough to become a good GM here.

Read it again. I never claimed you said that; just that you could have without invalidating your point. As for the list of players: yeah, that was me, again generally supporting your point of view without insulting anyone while doing so. Judging by your last sentence, it sounds like you’ll just look to insult certain posters regardless of the validity of their points. That wouldn’t make it easy or even worthwhile to engage with you.

You were making a reasonable point about a discussion on changing Adell’s position in the field. I wouldn’t want to try it just yet, but it’s not unreasonable. Then you are asked for examples of successful players who did it. Instead of doing that, or saying you can’t immediately think of any, you just cut and run, lobbing some personal insults as you flee the scene. I generally agree with your point, even threw out some names to support it. All without personally insulting the guy who disagreed with you. If you’ve got stuff to add to the topic? Cool. Ad hominems aren’t it.

Actually, I can think of several, but it isn’t nearly as simple as some folks are making it out to be. If it is done, it’s usually in the minors, or during ST. It takes a lot of practice and adjustments. It’s not usually done midseason unless there is an immediate need. off the top of my head: Robin Yount, Craig Biggio, BJ Surhoff, Albert Pujols, Rick Ankiel, Kevin Mitchell, Troy Percival, Darin Erstad, Jack Clark, Mookie Betts, Fernando Tatis, Jr.

They coughed up a lead, but they didn’t collapse in OT. I’m glad they got a nice road win there.

I think it’s somewhat by design the Perry doesn’t. I think Arte hires inexperienced FO executives so that they run the baseball ops the way Arte wants it run. That’s certainly his right, but it may not be the best way to construct a winning baseball team. I may be incorrect, but I feel like more accomplished GMs would not be willing to operate with those kinds of restrictions or interference.

I see what you’re saying here, and I generally agree. This is where a president of baseball ops with a track record of success would be helpful. Sometimes the owner needs to be saved from himself. Arte keeps bringing in first-time GMs, people who don’t yet have the experience to tell Arte that he’s incorrect. Yes, they should have traded Ohtani two years ago. They also shouldn’t have compounded that error by trading Edgar Quero for the husk of Lucas Giolito. They did, and that was likely 100% ownership thinking only of butts in seats instead of the future. And here we are with a weak farm system and a weak MLB club that seems like it’s trying to thread the needle between competing and rebuilding.

I agree with this 100%. I don’t think the team has the organizational depth, strength or structure that allows a team to just rebuild on the fly. They need to go through a lengthy, genuine rebuild. That will involve some lean years where they let the kids play and go through their growing pains. The team needs to amass good draft prospects to restock the farm, and hopefully get the right baseball ops and player development structures in place.

First time at AW? You’ll see that kind of rhetoric is a frequent occurrence around here.

I will agree that bunting there doesn’t make sense. A team only gets 27 outs. They should not give any of them away intentionally.

I get what you’re saying, but changing batters mid-at bat is extremely rare, and usually done because the batter cannot continue the at bat for whatever reason. It would put Drury at a disadvantage to do that. By that point, Adrianza was it.

No one is crying. The fact is Jo Adell has no MiLB options left. They can’t send him to SLC. This is the year the Angels need to fish or cut bait with him. So it makes no sense to play Hicks ahead of Adell, since Hicks is not part of the team’s future plans. Now is when we have to find out if Adell has what it takes to be an everyday player.

Today’s the day. Go Kings Go! LFG!

I think the case can be made the Perry may be, though that would seem odd for a GM in his walk year. As AJ noted in this thread, he didn’t make any big ticket signings beyond the odd deal for Stephenson. It can be argued that all of the bullpen depth was meant to support the young starters. I agree on Washington, though. He’s over reliant on Hicks and Sano, leaving Adell sitting. If the team is rebuilding then the team should see what they really have with him. Then again, perhaps that’s exactly the approach the FO and Wash agreed upon, hence the seeming lack of a direction or vision.

I always figured this year, and possibly next, would time for rebuilding and seeing what they have in terms of players in the system. I never understood the the vets on one-year deals unless they were there to fill in when the younger players needed a game or two off. Some folks keep saying, “trade value,” but what are you realistically going to get for any of those guys? You may get a lottery ticket or two, but nothing of any consequence from any other org. So that argument makes no sense. I don’t mind if they need to stink for a few seasons if they have a clear plan to rebuild. My biggest issue with the team is just that it seems like this team lacks any clear direction or prospect depth, with no sense that they will set a course and stay with it.

Fletch likely doesn’t write the headlines, typically editors do that. It’s also pointing out that poor defense from Rengifo has been a big factor in the last two losses. That’s kind of a big part of how the weekend went for the team.

Okay. And the rest of my post? Does the world or MLB owe Bauer a living? If so, why?

I don’t understand the fascination with Bauer. He’s made, according to Spotrac, over $100M in career earnings. That includes $23M last year when he didn’t even play. He’s not suffering. I imagine many of the people championing Bauer’s cause would agree that the world doesn’t owe you a living, right? They would also likely agree that a private employer can contract (or not) with whomever they choose, right? MLB and its member clubs have decided they don’t want to work with him any longer. It would seem they are well within their rights to do so. Otherwise the MLBPA and his agent would have filed a grievance ages ago.

It’s okay. We get EDM again, and that’s the chance to get that monkey off of our backs. Every team in the playoffs is going to be a challenge. NHL playoffs are the best playoffs. Go Kings Go!

Serious question (and @cals may know better): would the league need to settle with Bauer? As far as I understand it, MLB and its clubs are private employers. They don’t have to employ anyone just because he can throw or hit a baseball well.

He was the Angels GM for a couple of seasons, as I recall.

Whatever to the optics. This is obviously a case of recency bias. The stats do not support the idea that Trout stinks when the game is on the line.

I get what you’re saying, but it’s early and he’s been getting more hits of late. Leadoff hitters get fewer RBI chances than anyone else as well. He needs the bottom of the order to get on base more so that he has those opportunities to drive them in.