mulwin444

Well, it is January 28th so, you know...

Nobody is doing that...seriously, quit being such a fucking knob all the time. Can't you give us a winter break from your relentless nonsense and pick up in spring training like the players? You know, stretch out a bit with some slight Pujols digs - "Whoa-ho, I bet you didn't know the aging player we signed 8 years ago to a 10 year contract...still has two years left!!!1! Can you believe that?!" And then follow up with some wind sprints - "You guys said something positive about Dipoto once! Remember!! REMEMBER!!!" And then maybe play some interquad games before throwing down some real knowledge bombs like "The Angels got outbid by the Yankees for Gerrit Cole...I thought Arte was going 'all in'?!" and "Trout hasn't been to playoffs since 2014, Whah!!!!" and "Yacht fUeL!!!" I'm just saying pace yourself...in order to be a sustainable troll you have to pick and choose your moments otherwise you won't have the energy to complain about what we didn't get after trading deadline.

I certainly think that this is Eppler's thought process. There are not many starting pitchers that are under 28, have two years of control, have averaged close to 170 innings over the past 3 seasons, and has some upside that won't cost someone like Marsh or Canning. Eppler saw an opportunity and snag him for some speculative Rondons.

Read an article last season about Bundy I thought was interesting: https://www.pitcherlist.com/going-deep-dylan-bundy-should-make-a-few-simple-changes/ "Bundy bumped his sinker usage up significantly for three games, and then for the rest of the year, it hovered around 10%, which he had only done in one game prior in 2019. This alone is encouraging, but the results were too. First, let’s see how it affected his strikeouts and walks, as well as ground-ball and fly-ball tendencies: The strikeouts went down some, and the walks went up some. That’s not a good combination, but his HR/FB and HR/9 both came down to earth, and he started inducing a lot of ground balls. Right now, our top priority is to get Bundy’s home run numbers to come down from where they are, since they are so drastically bloated. This change seems to have achieved that, at least temporarily. Next, let’s take a look at his ERA and ERA estimators: Across the board, this looks really good. The sample size isn’t huge, but this is more than a month of pitching (47.1 innings pitched), and there’s a substantive change that we can point to." It goes on from there but it brings up some good points about how, if he mixes up his current repertoire, there could be noticeable improvement. I wonder if it wasn't something along these lines that prompted Eppler to snag Bundy.

I can see HR concerns for Bundy but it certainly will help him moving out of the AL East. He's also been pretty steady with 9.0+ K/9 over the past two seasons so he's still capable of missing bats and HR totals actually went down from 41 allowed in 2018 to 29 last season in about the same amount of innings in a season that saw record HR totals. I guess I look at Gibson and see a guy who also gives a lot of hits, some HRs, same walk totals as Bundy but strikes out less people, and I am not seeing what separates them.

Gibson would have been fine as a value play but don't you think his acquisition becomes a little redundant after the Bundy trade? He's getting $5 mil and will be arbitration eligible next season as well. To me, trading Rondons for Bundy and his two controllable years seems like the value play as opposed signing Gibson to a 3 year commitment. They seem similar so what am I missing in regards to Gibson? Again, in regards to Pineda and the timing of his signing, I'm not sure other teams were really being considered beyond the Twins. I mean, I heard zero rumors about his agent saying he's available despite reports that a number of teams were interested in signing him. Everything came together really fast...

I mean, I guess anything is possible with Gibson, like any pitcher with a modicum of talent but this a 32 year old who has had two good seasons (2015, 2018), was 4.84 ERA 95 ERA+ 1.444 WHIP last season, and 4.52 ERA 94 ERA+ 1.411 WHIP lifetime in 7 total seasons who also gives up a lot of hits and a decent amount of HRs going to Texas...so, yeah. Maybe he becomes a solid 3 starter or something but you can see why Eppler didn't commit $30 mil to him when you basically traded for a younger, cheaper version in Bundy (4.67 ERA 95 ERA+ 1.330 WHIP lifetime). Pineda was really good in 2019 after missing a season and a half due to injury, and it sounds like his PED issue was was questionable enough that the MLB knocked it down from 80 to 60 games on appeal, but, without knowing anything around the negotiations, I can't say if ANY team had a shot at Pineda outside the Twins as he signed Dec 5th, 3 days before the Winter Meetings. In regards to Cole, the money was never going to be equal. The Yankees were willing to offer 9 years to a starting pitcher...only the Yankees (maybe the Dodgers) can reasonably absorb $300+ million in guaranteed money and keep chugging along if things go south. So, Angels match 9 years, here come the Yankees - 10 years, more AAV, you matching that still? Corbin only entertained offers from the Phillies, Yankees and Nationals...and he only went with the Nationals as they were the only team willing to offer a 6th year.

Look at Cahill and Harvey's few seasons before signing in 2019...now look at Teheren and Bundy. Not even comparable...

Gibson is 5 starter and we already got those...Pineda has spent half his career on the DL and just got popped for PEDs...so, no. Both Wheeler and Corbin were East-coast bound so how much money are you outbidding the Nats and Phillies for those two? As for Ryu, couldn't have laid it out better than Fletcher.

Ok, so, knowing you had zero chance at Cole and Strasburg and very little chance to compel Wheeler to come out West, who do we sign/trade for? You're good with a Marsh-centered package for Kluber? Going 6 years $100+ mil on Bumgarner? Want to match 4 years on Ryu? Is your less embarrassing scenario committing 4 years to Keuchel as opposed to 1 year to Teheren despite essentially being the same pitcher at this point?

Not sure if it's "tricky" yet so stay tuned...

I get Eppler is harshing some people's buzzes around here with the thoughts that we could have conceivably bought a pitching staff in the offseason or that a wayward GM would trade a frontline starting pitcher for a handful of Rondons but the reality is he competing against other highly competitive teams, some with deeper pockets or farms, that are trying to win as well. Fact is, we got better, all around, he did his job without sacrificing the immediate or longterm future and still has financial flexibility to make an impact move.

Dude, this is nonsense but keep spinning it if it makes you feel some righteous anger or something... Again, let's revisit what happened this season: - Strasburg - 31/32 years old in 2020, signed a 7 year deal with the team who drafted him and he just won a World Series with that previous season. We going 8 years on him to pay him $35 mil into age 40? - Cole - Angels offered him 8 years and were outbid by the Yankees who offered 9 years. Do we offer 10 years guaranteed to a pitcher? - Wheeler - Took less money and years to stay on the East Coast near New Jersey. If he won't go for 6 years, do you offer 7? Do you up it $25+ million per season? - Bumgarner - Took less money to play in AZ to be near his horse ranch. Are we offering a 6th year, $120 mil? - Keuchel - Do you go 4 to 5 years, close to $20 mil guaranteed to take him away from the White Sox? All that for maybe a 3 starter? - Ryu - A pitcher so desired on the market that his own team didn't make an effort to keep him and ended up signing with a basement dwelling Blue Jays. - Kluber - I'm guessing you give up Marsh and Sandoval for him, right? "Waited out", come on... You guys keep waiting for him to make his "Vernon Wells" panic trade and he hasn't because he knows the ability to acquire players doesn't end today or next week or in Spring Training or April...he can acquire players to impact this season up until July 31st, that's his timeline.

Yes

"..tampering with a new load..."

Zack No!-zart

I think they were already a sub-100 win team just based on losing the pieces they have to this point but some other things they may contribute: - AL West is going to be competitive. A's have put up back-to-back 97 win seasons and a lot of the same people are returning, the Rangers's offense and bullpen are not great but they have a solid rotation, and Angels have obviously added some pieces to announce their intention to contend. Depending on who stays healthy, the AL West, 1st and 2nd Wild Card will be tight. - The Astros rotation is Verlander and Greinke (both over 36), McCullers coming off Tommy John Surgery, and some mix and match options and the bullpen lost Rondon and Harris. - With sign stealing exposed, does Altuve continue to bat near .300 .900 OPS? Will Bregman continue to be a 8+ WAR player? Does Yordan Alvarez continue to post a 1.000+ OPS as a 23 year old? Lots of questions as to if they will maintain their more recent offensive output. - They have a target on their back...not just in the AL West but around the league. They should expect no quarter from the the opposing team or fans in general

The new one is awesome but can be difficult...especially against the Valkyries

Yep, the reboot is fantastic

Madero was DFA'd after a AA which saw him produce 5.72 ERA 1.572 WHIP 11.7 H/9 7.5 K/9 in 89.2 IP...Beasley was pretty "meh" as well between AA/AAA. Maybe one or both turn into a decent reliever at some point but they need depth now and got somebody who can produce at the MLB level with potential for some upside. Pretty close to nothing...

He's 4.50 ERA 90+ ERA+ former starter that can pitch multiple innings, can produce groundballs and had a 10.1 K/9 last season. He's MLB level depth

(Eppler makes minor trade for cheap, relatively effective, multi-inning pitcher with options for nothing) Angelswin: "That's it, Eppler?! You're obviously done now that you did something and it's January 14th and you obviously can't make any more moves obviously! What the hell! I can't believe this is the only move you're going to make to address the pitching the rest of this offseason...presumably!"

And you aren't guaranteed to get clearly better spending $4 mil on Wood either. This is a guy who couldn't pitch beyond 7 starts due to a back injury. Maybe he comes back and pitches like he did in 2017-2018 but, if your ambitions are the playoffs, you want something more predicable. Again, Eppler could have totally dropped the ball here but his focus is guys with a history of durability.