Junkballer

I see Sosh checks his Facebook feed before talking to the media.

First three paragraphs were just a brutal read.  I couldn't make it any farther.
I feel like reading that story is what it must be like to listen to Lifetime do standup comedy.

I love when a guy we drafted comes up, develops before our eyes, and succeeds.  There is nothing more satisfying besides perhaps picking up some scrub off the scrap heap and watching them kill it for us while another team scratches their head.  
For that reason, seeing them get rid of Jett before he has a chance to realize his potential is a bit disappointing.  
That said, upon seeing Bandy's swing and approach, he was never going to be what we wanted him to.  If his deficiencies to come are that obvious to me, I can only imagine how obvious they were to people who do this for a living.  
They got a strong look at him.  They saw how he handled the staff.  His pitch calling.  His framing.  His defense otherwise.  His approach.  The holes in his swing.  His work ethic.  His potential.  And they traded him for a more established guy.  That tells me something.  Even though I was interested in seeing him develop, I had my concerns about how far that was going to go after seeing him play.  
Eppler is betting on the fact that the teams same reservations weren't growing pains but a lack of projectable talent.  
Most of all, it's just not that big of a deal.  

Ervin Santana is going to have a more difficult time getting boners now

I find those Stand Up To Cancer signs to be very offensive to people in wheelchairs.

I'm happy and excited about this deal!!!
Like I said previously,
Great kid, Outstanding Family, local kid = Santa Ana, Mater Dei and LBST, Fantastic defensively (makes us arguably one of the best up the middle in the MLB), Cannon arm, tough as nails isn't afraid to lean into one (19 times in 2011), switch hitter with pop and has had two 3 home run games in his career and 2 in one game in his rookie season (more on this in a bit), outstanding and smart base runner (will steal bases very quick and smart will take the extra base solid knowledge of the game and base running) You will not see a stupid Aybar base running moment with Danny out there, Originally a RH hitter started switch hitting in travel ball a little bit his jr/senior high school seasons and went full time at LBST. He had torn the labrum on his right shoulder in 2012 (diving for a ball in the hole and landed awkwardly on it) which took away from his left handed swing he played through it (kid is tough as nails) had surgery during the post season and missed all but 33 games in 2013. Another issue with the Nationals I will say that their hitting coaches and philosophy of hitting changes through out the Organization and from minors to majors (a bit of lack of continuity there). His best seasons hitting were under the tutelage of (Rick Eckstein) YES, that Eckstein!!! or David's brother.....So, after coming back from the labrum tear 2014 was his rehab season. batting #'s came back in 2015 up to .240/.311/.409... 2016 season his hitting stats all dropped (as he was told to focus purely on playing GG defense at a new position SS) which he had only played when Desmond was out previously. Though he was drafted as a slick fielding SS with a cannon arm from LBST and played SS in the minors. he was switched to 2B when he came up to the BIGS. There was some issues with the hitting philosophy and Schu was not renewed when they let Matt Williams go then Baker brought him back though there was a rumble throughout the clubhouse about it..... (the Young Star and future FA also didn't like it)....
New father last year (there were some issues in the middle of the season which weighed on him and his family)! So, being close to home and his young and growing family (Home cooking) will help him immensely! 
http://www.federalbaseball.com/2016/3/15/11241012/nationals-shortstop-danny-espinosa-gets-tmz-treatment-after-gender
http://www.longbeachstate.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/espinosa_danny01.html
 
Like I said before, He is a great kid and outstanding young man and our community will end up loving this kid. Our defense up the middle has just went to the top 3-5 in the MLB. If he can get to the .230-.250 with 20 bombs, 60-70 rbi, 15-20 SB's, and .989-.995 fielding %.... WE are golden!
** Forgot to add** prior to last year he had made 13 errors at 2B in 4 years.....With a high of 6 in 2012.... 

Being quite the bearded fellow myself, I read up on Espinosa's facial hair fables as he has also had a ridiculously awesome mustache in the past. 
Turns out, his plan is to grow some unwieldy facial hair over the offseason and wear it through picture day in spring training, then shaving it all off, so all year long his scoreboard and profile pics have crazy facial hair that doesn't match his on-field appearance. The Nats apparently did not like this and drummed up clean-shaven photos instead, feeling Espinosa was making a mockery of it all.

Charlie "Eppler" Brown
 

It's not losing hope.  it's boredom.  
It's also the franchise value of 1.34 billion, zero debt, revenue of 312 mil (7th) and 41.7mil in operating income yet the proclamation that we're up against the wall with a payroll of $152 mil.  
 

My pocket of course
 
 

Looks like the cast of " The White Shadow"

If the Angels call him up in September for a cup of coffee his nickname could be the Expressso.

Squat vs Squatch

Squat vs Squatch

I think my patio table wants me.

Squat vs Squatch

See Texas Rangers' Hazing thread..........
 

You bring up some good points that no one here has ever had the balls to say. (JD vs. Epp, Scioscia being stubborn, trading Trout)
I have to say, I am not yet prepared to respond because these issues are ones that I never considered.
I do agree with you putting all your stock in how the Angels performed against one team over two seasons as a true indicator of overall long term success.

Identify the future Hall of Famer.

So I am not a fan of bunting unless...
you need one run and it's late and the guy at the plate is a crappy hitter.  
one thing that hasn't been brought up in this discussion is that bunting for a hit counts as a sacrifice attempt if the runner is moved over and the batter is out or if the batter makes an out.  
In addition, the calcs being used assume an increase or decrease in # of runs scored as opposed to the odds that a single run will be scored.  This changes the paradigm.  For example, run expectancy with 0 outs and a runner on first is 0.859 and with 1 out and a runner on second it's 0.664.  
However, the odds of ONE run scoring with a runner on first and 0 out is 0.416 and with 1 out and a runner on second it's 0.397.  
with runners on 1st and 2nd for expectancy its 1.437 with no out and with 2nd and 3rd and one out it's 1.376.  But the odds of one runs scoring with 0 out and runners on 1st and 2nd it's 0.610 and with 2nd and 3rd 1 out, it's 0.660.  So the odds of scoring one run actually improve by bunting the runners over.  
none of the expectancy charts account for the ability of the guy at the plate or the pitcher on the mound.  So the net result of all those situations as a decrease in WPA by 0.5 only factors the odds before and after without considering that of the 49 'sacrifice' attempts, probably about 10-15 of those were actual attempts to bunt for a hit.  Like Ortega vs. Jimmy Nelson in the first inning and a guy on 2nd or Todd Cunningham with a guy on first in the 2nd inning and a 4 run lead.  
So looking at the situations a little more closely:
there were 4 with a runner on 3rd.  3 of which ended up with the runner scoring.  1 of which the runner was thrown out.  In these situations, we were down by a run in 2, tied in 1, and ahead by a run in 1.  
Can we assume that being ahead or down by more than 3 runs renders the situation irrelevant?  
Here is a list of who sacrificed:
17 Batters Carlos Perez 10 Johnny Giavotella 7 Cliff Pennington 4 Andrelton Simmons 4 Jett Bandy 3 Shane Robinson 3 Rafael Ortega 3 Yunel Escobar 3 Geovany Soto 2 Nick Buss 2 Show more Gregorio Petit 2 Brendan Ryan 1 Juan Graterol 1 Craig Gentry 1 Kaleb Cowart 1 Ji-Man Choi 1 Todd Cunningham 1 Not exactly a bunch of guys we'd expect to get hits otherwise.  BTW, Simmons' occurred in the 6th, 5th, 3rd and 2nd meaning those were attempts to get a hit.  Escobar had 2 in the 3rd and 1 in the 8th.  Ortega's were in the 1st, 4th, and 4th.  
There are probably 4 or 5 that were legit sacrifices which happened in the 6th or earlier (of the 26).  Most of which were courtesy of Carlos Perez.  While I am not a fan of doing this, it's hard to say that it truly affected our odds of scoring considering how bad Carlos is at the plate.
of the 23 left, 4 of those were mentioned as squeeze plays.  4 others had run differentials of +3, +4, -4 and +5.  Those were probably batter driven.  3 more of those were with runners on 1st and 2nd so it actually improved our odds of scoring 1 run.  
In total there were probably about 15-20 true sacrifices.  Most of which had a run margin of 1 or less.  So while bunting with a guy on first and 0 out slightly decreases your odds of scoring one run in a vacuum, I can't imagine that being the case when you factor in the guys who were at the plate as above.  
The net result of bunting was probably inconsequential to overall number of wins we had.  
As an aside, playing for one run and trying to win close games only works when you have a bullpen to support you so to me, that becomes part of the argument.  In games where we sacrificed where the score was tied, we ended up going 2-6 when bunting in the 6th or later.  You want to justify a scenario where 1 run is important then you better have the pitching to back that up.