Junkballer

Immediately thought of tdawgs avatar.

He is morally owed what was implied during negotiations for the extension. I doubt if it was anything more than a general committment to improve the organization as a whole, and Trout had to evaluate Artes integrity in that regard. Now should Arte sell the team or pass away, he is owed his contract and nothing more.

Ah, reverse psychology.

Its a Boy Named Sue kind of thing. May be why he became an ace.

Daves piece has some valid points regarding the overall health of the MLB. They have serious issues regarding competitive balance that do affect the future of the league and the fact that the Dodgers did operate within the rules of the current system doesnt mitigate that. I think some AWers are reacting more to the tone of the piece than the actual content. While I dont necessarily agree with all his premises and solutions, I absolutely agree that competitive balance and the role of the commissioner needs to be addressed.

Have you looked up the projections on Fangraphs? If the best of those (4.87 ERA, 1.3 War, ZIPS) comes true, he will be our fifth starter. The other 4 projections have him from 5.0 to 5.4 ERA. I just dont see it happening because Minasian needs more assured production for a starter. He still has a lot of cheaper options available to pick up a 5 ERA pitcher and Bumgarner is signed through 2024.

The best reason to bring back Shoe would be to compile a staff that has been concussed by comebackers (Cobb) and of course that is ridiculous.

"We don't have a specified closer. We have two guys we use interchangeably in high leverage situations and to close out games. They will be used in accordance with the situation." or something along those lines.

Eppler but with tastier clean peanuts.

That's the thing with Canning, his elbow issue that he termed as "things rubbing around in there" was addressed by PRP, which has a spotty record for providing long-term solutions as far as I know. Hopefully he is managed well and Ohtani regains his pitching mojo.

That's the thing with Canning, his elbow issue that he termed as "things rubbing around in there" was addressed by PRP, which has a spotty record for providing long-term solutions as far as I know. Hopefully he is managed well and Ohtani regains his pitching mojo.

I say neigh.

Yes they would at some point. Lagares is cheap insurance for the first half of the season.

And release chickens to train for comebackers.

Good point re: CF insurance. Some of Minasian's moves have been ones that create alternatives in areas where they don't have quality depth; not making huge qualitative improvements but creating competition within the position, insurance and options for the manager. As we are getting the sense that Maddon has more input into the GMs strategies, no doubt he has been discussing the dearth of palatable options when faced with underperformance and inevitable injuries. It is apparent that he knows that the team is on the ragged edge of competing for the playoffs and resilience in the face of unfortuitous positional deficiencies is something he can address cheaply now as he surely prefers to reserve in-season trades for taking advantage of opportunities to become appreciably better as opposed to scrambling to fill holes to remain in the playoff hunt.

If you really spend so much time in Japan you'd know it is called L&L.

The problem is that his only understanding of spin rate is (#beers/hour-meals) X tequila shots.

I would have gone with is all over batters like white on rice, but returns like Godzilla nice and concise.

AJ, very salient points. I dont get the sense that he is punting 2021 as some have said but wisely making this an evaluation year all the while being able to take advantage of the upside of his assets in-season, with the likelihood that they will be still contending come trade deadline. And should significant injuries and/or key underperformances occur, he is a better position to divest pieces that are not in long term plans in order for the future. Also it buffers him from labor uncertainties that will surely come after this season. Our fanbase largely suffers from a fill in the blank_____ syndrome whereby it sees the present through the eyes of the past disappointments and abuses and has a hard time seeing that they are in a different situation (relationship) with a different person. The fact that Arte is the common denominator between past and present clouds the perception. We really dont know how much Arte is stepping back, but I get the sense that he didnt know exactly what he wanted in terms of changing the ways the front office worked when he hired Eppler; he wanted a more analytics driven view but didnt know how to create a balance. I believe that he is more comfortable with Minasians balanced approach and is giving him the wherewithal to build the organization within the structure of a certain budget and is giving him significant autonomy. Minasian has a window to show improvement, just as Eppler did, but contrary to the Facebook fans, that window is 3-4 years, not 2021. He is wise to not cut corners with evaluating and setting the foundation, and being conservative in year 1.

Not to mention that 8 of those 11 starts came against tepid offenses.

Rex, though not good, had some redeeming qualities such as the where the hell did that come from factor, and sheer enthusiasm. Phyzz had zero.

Right. With Kershaw and Jansen's contracts coming off after this season to the tune of 51m (tax salary) they can sign Turner on a 1 year deal, blow waay past the tax threshold this year and be back under by next season. They have no problems going ballistic for short term. Just look at 2014-15.

We Kings/Angels fans know the meaning of longsuffering. Here's hoping that Minasian can do what Dean Lombardi did, transform the culture and build the foundation for a championship through the draft; spending more but not before they are on the cusp. Who knows who the Angels Justin Williams/Mike Richards will be?

This^^. And I would tie this thought to the need for our 1st year GM to further evaluate position player prospects in that some of those pieces will return greater value in trades for pitching than they do currently as their MiLB season progresses. Given that the Braves have been much more active under AA in in-season trading than the Angels have been, I'm inclined to believe there will be in-season rotation tweaking and perhaps significantly so.

UCLA girls are quite hygiene conscious.