kevinb

13 minutes ago, aznhockeyguy said:

So the Angels fire Eppler, but who's going to come in that's better?  With Arte's meddling, why would any top tier GM candidate want to work for him?

Money and there’s only 30 GM jobs available. If he offers an unemployed GM or someone else a higher position than they have now they’ll take it of course they will. It’s not that hard. 

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Bitching about those pitching moves when this team was saddled with the previous GMs signings of Josh and Albert is pretty funny.  

As for whether or not it is the right move, hell, I don’t know.  I 100% get why the move was made.  Do I think the next guy will be better?  Maybe.  I do believe the next guy will be better at acquiring pitching.  But much like Stoneman won a bunch of games with players that were in the organization when he arrived, I think that will more than likely be the case with the next GM.  Someone in another thread said something along the lines of, Eppler took over a really shitty situation and he laid the foundation for it to move forward, and I completely agree with that sentiment.  

You mean how Eppler won games just not enough with guys like Trout Calhoun Walsh Ward Fletcher ... ya every guy wins with people previous regimes signed. It happens. Fact is Epplers finger print is all over the Angels roster the last 4 plus years and it has amounted to not good enough. 

Yes and also it doesn’t matter it’s happened. There’s no do overs. Time to Move forward. 

He did some nice things. But never had a winning record and Arte spent a lot of money. The cupboard isn’t as bare as when he got here but he needed to do more. 5 straight losing seasons with the best player in baseball is plain unacceptable. Time for someone new. Hopefully they hire a president of baseball and GM but I don’t think that’s happening. 

8 hours ago, Stradling said:

Cool

Bye bye Eppler

7 hours ago, DCAngelsFan said:

I'd say Mike was speaking to Arte with those comments ...

I mean, there's nothing menacing - Trout has a contract, he won't tank or foment dissension.

But if I were Arte, I'd talk to a lot of people - including Trout - about how to take this team forward, and who are the people that can do it best.  

So what you’d keep Eppler roll Trout leaves or retires? It’s not like Eppler will be the only guy Trout will like. Doesn’t make sense. 

10 hours ago, Stradling said:

“Billy was a big reason why I signed back here”

-Mike Trout on Billy Eppler

That’s awesome. Hopefully he has a good relationship with the next GM. Fact is Trout signed his contract and opted for a no trade clause. Eppler has been here 5 years and does not have a winning record in any of those years. Eppler can be Mike Trouts best friend, best man and father it still doesn’t change the fact that Arte is the one making the decisions for the Angels and Trout isn’t going anywhere. I like some of Epplers moves I thought this team would be better this year. They simply weren’t. I don’t know if Eppler should be re signed or not I’m perplexed with it. But Trout having a relationship or no relationship with Eppler should have no bearing on the next move. Trouts signed he can’t renegotiate it’s not like he’s going to ask for a trade because Arte hired a new general manager. It’s time for the Angels to start making the playoffs again. 

15 hours ago, Second Base said:

The thing I like about Eppler, is that he isn't arrogant, not insistent that it's his way and he's always right. Dipoto needed that, and Billy has it. 

He's smart enough to understand that he messed up, not chasing pitching harder in FA, not drafting it earlier. Jo Adell, Brandon Marsh, Jordyn Adams and Jeremiah Jackson have the potential to be elite, impact players and Billy doesn't regret drafting them. But if we're being real, this team's future would be better off if two of them were swapped out for a Detmers or Canning type of starting pitcher. 

The Angels have plenty of arms. You know that. But that depth is of the Naughton, Suarez, Sandoval, Barria variety. Even Chris Rodriguez and Jose Soriano aren't at the level we need. The Angels would be well suited if they had a couple top 100 prospects on the mound in AA and AAA right now. 

Adams, Jones and Thaiss won't land them that. But I do think they'd be enough for 2 years of a solid #3 starter. You throw that in the mix with a healthy Ohtani, Bundy, developing Canning, Sandoval, Barria and Detmers, Heaney.... And you might just have enough to get back to the playoffs.

Maybe theres a possibility. Eppler stays as GM but Dombroski comes in as President of baseball operations. I doubt that's how it works but it could. 

There is as close to 0% as you can possibly get that this guy isn't going to sign the biggest deal he possibly could. He is not signing a year year deal or a 3 year deal. Why would he throw away over a hundred million dollars. No one is signing him as a free agent at 33 or 34 to a 30 milion dollar contract. Get all the money and all the years you can now. This is your payday kid you've earned it. 

11 minutes ago, Blarg said:

I'm going to make a not so bold prediction that Trevor Bauer is not signing with the Angels but from now until he does sign with another team there will be 3 dozen threads started about him.

3 dozen seems low 

He’s gonna get so paid this off season

20 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Fuck that -- Simmons said MLB empowered played to be able to do this, he said point blank that this was best for him and his family.  Sources are saying he's concerned with vulnerable members of his family.   We know his wife went through a transplant in 2015 or 2016.  It could be her, it could be someone else.  Point is the man made his intention to opt out and his reasons why pretty clear.   But Im guessing people want details because, reasons.
 

You must be new to how our society is working of late. We want details to everything and reasons for everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s the fires in California, police, athletes or the president of the United States. We live in an era that not only do we expect it. We demand it. 

46 minutes ago, Junkballer said:

1) Opting out for COVID concerns is fully endorsed by MLB & the players union.  There doesn't need to be a threshold of explanation to satisfy fans.  2)  We haven't and will probably never know the intimate details of the how's and why's that are hidden within the family dynamic.  3)  The timing is truly irrelevant, unless you disregard 1 & 2.   Every person on this board has changed their minds/position due to living out what they thought they could struggle through.  4) Insinuating that it is a free agency spurred decision speaks more to a person who is justifying their disdain for a league sanctioned personal decision because it goes against their own hopes and allegiance.

I said at the beginning that I’d be annoyed or whatever the word was I used if someone opted out of the season due to covid and this was at the beginning of Covid. So I guess I stayed true to my word then.

48 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

I can't answer for why he did or didn't do anything, not really going to offer any opinion other than the questions I have already put out there.. 

But allow me to appeal to your logical side.  Do you think that as a pending FA, and knowing full well how this could be viewed by both the Angels, and prospective future employers he would just say fuck it and quit for the sake of quitting?  Do you think he's stupid?  Or do you think his opting out is just a charade and he's trying to avoid injury/protect his FA?  

I lived through Troy Glaus sitting himself out to protect his FA.  That one pissed me off, this one is just very meh to me.

 

Honestly I have no clue logically you’d think someone wouldn’t quit with 5 games left to save for free agency. But also I guess what’s 5 games or 5 days in the scheme of anything. I can give up a lot of things for 5 days. None of it made sense to me. Which is why the only thing I could think of was free agency and or annoyed at Angels? Stranger things have happened. I wasn’t the only one who thought that way either. Multiple people on here backed my presumption and people either felt like I did or was completely ok with it. 

1 hour ago, Inside Pitch said:

No idea.  May just be she's considered at risk and he's not willing to do it

 

Which then why did he play the season if this was the case and only now when there's 5 games left he decided to leave? I guess it just doesn't make sense. Maybe it was all this quarantine thing if these teams made the postseason and he didn't want to put his family through it. 

48 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Looks like you assume wrong.

I am ok with admitting my assumptions were wrong. It happens 

1 hour ago, Inside Pitch said:

Apparently Simmons' wife is a kidney transplant recipient...  Doing this to avoid the quarantine.

I am confused when did she get a kidney transplant? 

45 minutes ago, Game 6 said:

Why did he opt out with five games left to play?

I don't know but my assumptions are that he's ready for free agency.

2 minutes ago, eligrba said:

No.

Agreed. Just merely asking the question. 

17 minutes ago, Stradling said:

What?  So in the last several months your comfort level has been exactly the same?  Also, like was reported he was now going to be asked to be quarantined.  So that is different than it was before.  

For me my comfort level with Covid started out not great, but the more and more information that we've gotten I have been more at ease with what's going on. I feel the risk on myself and the people around me is lower than what originally came out about this covid. The average age death is somewhere around 75. Has your comfort level been exactly the same or has it worsened?

12 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

To answer the question it has to be the coaching staff. They've turned Stassi around, helped Upton snap out of his funk and some others. 

 

Then would you say you would have blamed the coaching staff for Upton's start to the season?

5 minutes ago, True Grich said:

At the end if the day the Angels success or lack of falls at Artre's feet.

The team started to go sour when they began to lose their identity. That identity was cultivated by Mike Scioscia and Bill Stoneman. They instilled a culture and as the team began to move away from that culture and identity the failures began.

There has been a vacuum of leadership for some time now. Eppler has done the best he can within that vacuum, but Arte has to be the one who establishes the organizational culture or give the right person the autonomy to do so.  He's made a mess of it, IMO.

I don't know how or if this can be corrected. He's sort of like Jerry Jones. The Cowboys were great when they let Jimmy Johnson instill the culture and identity and they started to fail when Jones took over that process.

I don't question Arte's desire to win. I question the culture he has created.

Like when Arte Signed Colon Vlad Hunter etc. That culture? Arte can be blamed sure, but we wouldn't have Trout locked up or Rendon locked up if it wasn't for Arte. He has done more good than harm to this organization. We wouldn't be near the top in the league of spending if it wasn't for Arte. We sure weren't with the previous owners. 

Can't it be all three. Dipoto drafted them so he obviously thought they had talent. Eppler kept them in the system so he obviously thought they had talent. The players worked their asses off to become what they are right now so they deserve credit. The coaches and training staff for helping them get there as well. If anyone deserves more credit it's probably the players themselves. But I would praise all parties involved. I didn't think they had it in them. 

36 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Uh huh.  Ok. 

4 minutes ago, Tank said:

well i'm glad you know every part of his situation so that you can conclude this. I'm sure there are no other extenuating details for the rest of us to know. 

you've assumed it's ONLY option A while there could be options B, C, or D of which he hasn't told the public. That's what I object to here.

sure everyone is making assumptions on everything. No one has inside information until that information comes out. With the information we do have the assumption I’m making is because of free agency. Youre taking the opposite approach and making an assumption it could be something else. Now go watch Winnie the Pooh so you know who Eeyore is. 

42 minutes ago, The_Outrunner said:

since he made 15mill this season, do you think the Angels are going to offer him the QO? 

Nope