kevinb

As far as the mythology of Maddon, those that claim he was the mastermind of the 2002 Angels forget he was on that bench for the most disasterous seasons of the Angels. The collapse of 1995 and the complete meltdown of the coaching staff in 1999. All of the losing seasons 7 years before Scioscia took over, Maddon was there and yet somehow survived several coaching purges. He is an expert politician. 

The first sentence was indeed hyperbole, but its not that far removed from the truth and I'm sorry but believing he played a pivotal role in anything relating to Theo's reputation is a massive reach for me.  IMO that's right up there with the belief he was the mastermind of the 2002 Angels.  
I don't hate Maddon, I get what he is...what I don't quite get is the mythology that seems to follow him but I have always paid greater attention to a person's actions than I do his words...  It was the same with Jerry Dipoto.
Maddon will be fine, the Angels will be fine, but there is little question Maddon and Theo disagree on how a MLB team should be managed, and they have both said as much .... it was seeing it that led to that divide...  If you think that's me making it up, here you go....  
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28681493/cubs-theo-epstein-acknowledges-differences-joe-maddon

This would be like Chuck banning Doc. 
It's not going to happen.

Maddon only has two more years on his contract and Epstein has a lot of work to do. I don't think one would hinder the other. 

Ditto.  Only the Angels are owned by the president of the Joe Maddon fan club.

If he becomes available if I was Arte I’d do everything in my power to get him to Anaheim. He’s one of the top 2-3 baseball people around. 

I like this idea. Dangle whatever carrots in front of him and get him to Anaheim.

Pujols is a hall of famer, despite the fact that in 9 seasons with the Angels he is Jeff Mathis with worse defense.

Yeah.  I think, though, the Phillies are probably "on par" with us - several big, long-term deals, but some payroll space to operate and a decent farm system.  Might come down to whether the candidate prefers the east coast or west coast.
Still - every offseason, there are multiple spots available, and this will be no different.  I still feel strongly Arte needs to find someone from TB/LA/OAK.  The TOR guy, LaCava, sounds like a decent option too, although I'd still prefer someone who has worked closely from the Friedman tree.
All you need to do is look at the Giants and see what Zaidi has done in 2 years there.  The Giants were basically in the same position we were in around 2015 when Eppler took over - absolutely NO farm system, several monstrous contracts, etc.  In the 2 years Zaidi has been there, he has avoided adding bloated contracts, significantly revitalized their farm system, and has found several random really good players (Yazstremski, Solano) for nothing.  We need someone like that in charge.

I find myself having a hard time caring much if at all who the next GM will be if it's just going to be more of the same or a shift away from process driven team building.  Also, I know it's Arte's team and his money but..   You hire Maddon, give him a three year contract then can the GM the following year.   So once again, we have a GM coming in unable to pick his own manager.   Effing stupid.

That's pretty cool. 

The problem I see in a 6 man rotation is that you are paying guys like they are pitching in a 5 man rotation. Players wont want to be paid less for pitching less. Players want to be paid more. So you are essentially paying players more for less. Doesn't make sense. Ohtani needs to either figure out how to pitch in a 5 man rotation and stay healthy or move him to the bullpen where he can bat daily and pitch when they need him to, or we can just scrap either the pitching or the hitting all together. He is a unique talent, but we can't bend our team every which way just to maybe make it work. 

If the six man rotation is to pander to Ohtani only pitching once a week then it needs to be scrapped. By this time he has to either adapt to pitching in a major league rotation to create consistency for the rest of staff or consider playing the field. 
His once every Sunday schedule did nothing to prevent injury, it did put the Angels in the uncomfortable position of the Salt Lake shuffle to accommodate him. It's time for him to put on an MLB uniform and shed his Japanese ways. Be a true member of the team and not just his team. This us not an unreasonable demand. 

Did you guys read this? Pretty great.
https://www.mlb.com/news/babe-ruth-called-shot-confirmed-lou-gehrig-audio-clip

Yeah - I think Byrnes and Neander would be my favorites, given their involvement with Friedman and TB.  Byrnes might be preferred because he has GM experience in the past, but either one would be excellent.
In truth, we probably need to somewhat "operate" like TB moving forward, in that we already have significant money tied up to several players (Trout, Rendon, Pujols/Upton for the next few years, then Ohtani's arbitration years, etc etc).  We need our new GM/President to be creative and find value to complement the core we have.

I’m pretty sure they still hate each other. At least Cole hates Bauer. I would be shocked if the Yankees signed Bauer. 

It looks like they are open to the idea of a couple people being hired maybe a president of baseball operations and a gm. Looks like they are doing a lot of soul searching. Hopefully we get the right guy/gal this next go around. I am looking forward to the future of Angels baseball. 

Bauer is the free agent to get. He’s young and you don’t have to vibe up talent to get him. It’s time to find the right guy to make the pitch to sign him. 

Calf injury
Dude has been injury prone since 2017, aside from 2019.
Rendon is 4 years younger and durable, definitely the better choice.

And Reagins was the GM when Wells was traded for but people blame Arte for that too. Also read what you write before you write it I don’t know what 9n or mame means. 

How bout trading your first round pick to get rid of Cozart. 

My hopes for the postseason. Every series is a sweep and the offseason gets here fast. I honestly don’t care who wins and won’t watch a single postseason game. Go Angels hire a President of baseball operations and hire a GM. It’s time you join the ranks of the other successful teams in the sport. 

The Angels just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about GM culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in business where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw your GM over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the GM public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to join the Angels, nor will any big FAs sign with them. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Arte has alienated an entire market with this move.

Arte Moreno, publicly apologize and cancel the Billy Eppler firing or you can kiss your business goodbye.