TEvans

He has a finger in your ass there, doesn't he

He just got the boot off last week. I am not sure what he was doing to keep in shape during the previous month. 
He’s not even eligible to come off the DL till May 27-ish, so there’s not much to say. 
I’ll try to check in with him during this series since I won’t see him for two weeks after. 

I love it when you loom  

Literally opened this, caught that, knew someone else would, and that it was too late
 
Now the play it off.
 
"Dude, you never loom? Hey guys, this guy never looms!"

Welcome to AW @Rollinghard - now go back and read all 1,065 pages and let us know when you come across the thread(s) where this was already discussed.  See you in September.

I know I am an asshole, but watching Lou do this is one of my favorite things about this board.  To all the guys Lou bumps it really isn’t that difficult to not get bumped, don’t say stupid outlandish shit.  I am sure I am going to get bumped just for saying this but oh well it is funny regardless.

Skaggs, Heaney, Barría, Peña, Canning, Suarez, Tropeano, JC Ramirez are all signed beyond 2019. 
If you just mean “free agents” then the Astro’s also don’t have one signed beyond 2019. 

I vaguely remember posting something on this near or at the end of last season, but here goes.
One of the marks of Trout's greatness is the 9 WAR season (I will be using Fangraphs version). For context, Fangraphs considers anything over about 6 WAR to be MVP caliber. An 8 WAR season is truly great - only one or two players reach that mark in a given year. 9 WAR is another level: in some years there are no 9 WAR players. In 118 years of two-league MLB, there have been 136 position players seasons of 9 WAR. In other words, 9 WAR is a good measure of "best player in baseball."
Let's look at 9 WAR, by the numbers, for position players only:
Total number of 9 WAR seasons (1871-2018): 139 (136 from 1901, the first year of two leagues, to present)
Total number of players with at least one 9 WAR season: 57
So 57 players produced 139 9-WAR seasons. 
Now let's talk about Mike Trout.
Let's break those 139 seasons down by player:
10: Ruth
8: Hornsby, Bonds
7: Mays
6: Wagner, Williams, Rodriguez
5: Cobb, Gehrig, Trout
4: Collins, Mantle
3: Musial, Morgan, Schmidt
2: J Jackson, Speaker, Lajoie, Foxx, DiMaggio, J Robinson, Yastrzemski, Ripken, Henderson, Griffey
1: Bunch o' Guys
There's Trout, with as many or more 9 WAR seasons as all but seven players in major league history: Only Honus Wagner, Ted Williams, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Mays, Rogers Hornsby, Barry Bonds, and Babe Ruth have more.
But here's where Trout separates himself from even that pack. Consider....
Of the nine players with five or more 9 WAR seasons, here is the age they had their fifth 9 WAR season:
Age 36: Bonds
Age 34: Wagner
Age 32: Mays
Age 29: Ruth, Rodriguez
Age 28: Hornsby
Age 27: Williams
Age 26: Trout
In other words, Trout reached the five 9-WAR season level faster than anyone in major league history. This, of course, goes along with his already well known feat of having the most WAR of any player through age 26.
As to how many such seasons Trout will end up with, its all speculation. I would suggest a conservative projection would be 2 more, with 3 being a good over/under number. In other words, there's about a 50-50 chance that he'll be at least tied with Hornsby and Bonds for second most, behind only Ruth.
But there's also a chance he'll equal or surpass Ruth. He's halfway there, and entering his age 27 season. If he stays healthy, he could enter his 30s tied for second most and only two behind Ruth - at 30 years old!
 

If this is true.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/angels-have-considered-offering-10-years-350mm-to-mike-trout.html
 
That shit won't get it done.

The $182M in the story is their actual major league payroll. It is not the figure used to calculate tax. That is a whole different thing. 
As I've stated many many many many many times, the Angels budget is not based on the luxury tax.
The only reason people even talk about he luxury tax is that for a few years the numbers were close to the same. Now they're not.
The Angels budget is based on what the Angels want to spend, which is based on their revenue and other expenses. I don't know exactly what any of those other numbers are and neither do any of you.
Here's what I can tell you: Their current payroll is higher than it was last year or any of the previous several years. It is in the top quarter of major league teams.

you answered your own question.
keep clicking away . . . 

Agree mostly, don't they though need one rock solid veteran to lead the way?   If you are in the post-season, or battling in September, who is going to break through in this pen to lead the way? 

when you have 5 starting pitchers that can't throw a heck of a lot of innings, you need about a dozen bullpen arms you can shuffle between Anaheim and Salt Lake. Cheap, hard throwing and options are what Eppler needs out of his pen. 

Bill Stoneman and Mike Scioscia return.
AW explodes and Chuck moves to Canada.

is she your ex because you brought in a closer?

All things being equal, same situation, the same number of pitches in the at bat, etc... a ball in play could be misplayed or find a hole or other things that a walk cannot.  a single can move a runner from first to third, a walk cannot.  they are fringe things you cant necessarily count on, but they exist.
Is it always better, no of course not, but it always has the potential to be better     

He didn't come out
 
"pussy"

"I'm going to light him up with ALL of this 83" 

Weav was a guest on the Starting 9 podcast today and talked about the time he hit Seager for taking too long in the box(language warning FYI)
 

Scott Spiezio in Game 6 vs. SF 2002

I hadn't changed it in a while, and I wanted to have a username that reflected everyone's favorite thing. Boobs.

Somewhere Scotty has a very confusing erection.

Paxton would be nice. They are saying he isn't on the table, but Haniger would also be nice.
I feel like I already support any and all trades we may end up making here. No way Dipoto gets the better of Eppler in a trade.

Per Jeff Passan:
 
 

Arte should have no say in baseball decisions anymore after his Pujols and Hamilton debacles. He needs to listen to the baseball experts. Arte is the reason were in this volcano of hell with Pujols.
And the experts need to go Pujols and present him with a paper showing him his OPS (.700), his OBP (under .300), and his WAR (under 0). Better yet, make it a power point with some nice graphics.
Pujols is dog shit and we're trying to win here and him being in the line up at 38 years old isn't helping the team anymore....at all. 
Old yeller has rabies and we're still trying to keep him in the f*cking living room.