Junkballer

Angel, I survived the Lee era. I tried to comprehend the labyrinthian mental morass that was Lee. I put Lee on ignore. You sir, are no Lee. You probably would have enjoyed many mutually satisfying, deep conversations with him though, among other things.

This ^^. And his rumblings about a one year contract are the sort that comes from a guy that shoots from the hip and shoots again when the wind changes direction, which I think is the case here.

Interesting that LaRussa is also part of that group. Probably a couple years off though, especially considering the pandemic financial uncertainty.

A caveat to Dombrowski is that Boston had an upper tier farm system, I wanna say like top-5, when he came on board, and now they are bottom-5. I think it is a mistake to see the Angels as a comparison to Boston that would benefit his all-in, high-risk/reward approach. Also, the RSox wallet far more open than what he would have to deal with here. At the end of the day, the Angels tradeable big-league and farm assets are fairly limited, needing careful cultivating and before starting an all-in push and Arte still claims to firmly tie payroll to revenue. Dombrowski's not the right guy at the right time with the right operational balance, and Arte doesn't need someone in his ear telling him that they are one or two big moves away from winning it all. Also, I still don't know what his level of involvement with their cheating was. He brought in Cora and is ultimately where the buck stops. I thought this article was useful in looking at his Boston tenure: https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/08/11/dave-dombrowskis-best-and-worst-moves-with-the-red-sox/

Quite respectable considering some of the worst moves were impacted by injury.: Cozart, Harvey, and possibly even Teheran (the 'Rona). Not to mention that he had to use the first three years of his tenure essentially raising the farm from the dead which made him a pauper bidding at Sotheby's in the trade market.

Link? Not that it doesn't make a certain amount of sense (distance from in-laws, lower media scrutiny), but I've never seen anything that supports that to the extent that it would make the negotiations a slam-dunk.

Oh that's right. Then he can add piss-drunk to the aforementioned rival attributes.

This is why I think Eppler should be retained unless ownership adopts new operations priorities Barring them coming to understanding that a winning culture has less to do with the star-value of players than excellence in scouting/development so that the GM has the budget and trade-chip wherewithal to bring in the right player(s) at the right time, a FNG will be more of the same and possibly another Dipoto debacle. Unless they are ready to step back, invest far more heavily in the lower-level personnel infrastructure and take a long-term approach, Eppler may be the best option they have.

Living where you do, you don't have the advantage of living and working amidst a sea of front-running, often baseball-ignorant, entitled, sometimes degenerate, vocal rival fanbase. You can always count on some loudmouth in blue gear to snap me out of my doldrums and hoping that the Angels will prevail or at the least, they will be blowing up Dodger talk with inane recriminations about how their destiny slipped through their fingers. But I certainly get it. The Angels have so many advantages that they've not capitalized on, and seem doomed to the same because of lack of vision. Nevertheless, I'll be interested in this season as long as I have a team to root against and next year I'll look for signs of life on the hot stove and spring training BSOHL propaganda.

Flashbacks can come at the most inopportune moments.

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.

INO just told me that isn't on the secret menu.

Or did you mean the crying Sicilian?

Considering its unlikelihood I'm guessing you're being facetious. Particularly considering the 10-year personal services contract that Arte had inserted, presumably to appropriate some of the glory after he is enshrined in the HOF with a Cards cap. I suppose Arte thinks its worth a mil a year for 10 years to constrain AP to wearing only Angels gear in public, assumedly other than the actual induction ceremony. Alternatively, perhaps he was in denial that AP would be inducted as a Card at the time of the signing.

Bauer has a fledgling agent, Rachel Luba. Who knows if that benefits the Angels at all but hopefully it opens doors for creative discussion and persuasion. https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2019/11/25/20977770/conversation-with-trevor-bauers-new-agent-rachel-luba

+1 for Zero Tolerance. I carry the 560. Benchmade are meh to very good depending on the model, of which there are dozens.

For utility use only right? It won't deploy under pressure situations.

If they keep it they need to reduce number of regular season games as well. Get it down to ~140.

This is AngelsWin, not TroutWin. It's not a travesty, its unfortunate, but unfortunate for the TEAM. You should really ask Trout why he re-signed with the Angels. He says he believes in the ability of the leadership to build a contender. If that's not good enough, then you can disparage him directly. At the end of his career, if the Angels don't get him a ring, it is as much on Trout as Moreno, because, you know, personal responsibility for choices.

It's a tough question because the big unknown is always "how much did ownership tie the GM's hands, or, step in to make executive decisions on FA acquisitions?". I don't know a lot about GM's prior to Stoneman but Buzzie Bavasi's teams made 1st place in the division twice (both went to ALCS), 2nd twice, and 5/6th four times, so a mixed bag that should not be judged on the Ryan situation. Reagins was the head of player development under Stoneman and had the benefit of Stoneman's prospect hoarding, so at least he had a concept of whole organizational success. He was also handcuffed by a very active owner with an extremely undiscerning eye for talent (think Vernon Wells signing which was on Arte). I'd say Jedi was the worst mainly because how he didn't have a good draft philosophy along with a scorched earth farm/player development policy.

Pics or GTFO

Guessing that this sticks in your memory because ASU beat SC for their only loss that year.

Curious about what sparked your connection to Alabama football. The two Bruin wins over them in 2000 & 2001 are among my favorite out of conference, regular season memories.

1A) UCLA Football/Basketball 1B) Angels 2) Pac12 Football 3A) NCAA Football 3B) LA Kings