mulwin444

Haven't scanned the transactions since end of 2015 but this one was pretty good:
December 9, 2017
Signed Shohei Ohtani as a free agent.

Haven't scanned the transactions since end of 2015 but this one was pretty good:
December 9, 2017
Signed Shohei Ohtani as a free agent.

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

Yeah, that's essentially it, they were in it until the last day in 2015, with a huge comeback the day before:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TEX/TEX201510030.shtml
With a rotation of Garrett Richards (3.65 ERA 1.04 ERA+ 1.240 WHIP in 207.1 IP), Hector Santiago (3.59 ERA 1.05 ERA+ 1.256 WHIP in 180.2 IP), Andrew Heaney (3.49 ERA 108 ERA+ 1.202 WHIP in 18 GS 105.2 IP), Matt Shoemaker (4.46 ERA 85 ERA+ 1.256 WHIP in 135.1 IP), and Jered Weaver (4.64 ERA 81 ERA+ 1.233 WHIP in 159 IP) you are expecting to compete in 2016.  Eppler coming in to 2016 must have felt pretty good about his chances in a Division where Texas were AL West champs with 88 wins and the Astros barely squeaked in the Wild Card with 86 wins.

How about you just type that about 10 more times to get it out of your system?  

"surprisingly" remains without a job...

Ohtani sounds like he won't be in the mix until mid-May and Canning is a "?" so first month and a half is likely Teheran, Heaney, Bundy, and some combination of Andriese, Sandoval, Barria, Suarez, and Peters which, with this offense, should be enough to keep them in it until Ohtani returns and the rotational hierarchy becomes clearer.

"surprisingly" remains without a job...

5.0 oWAR in 210 games as a DH...I'll trust he can find his way.

teams coming off of 85 win seasons don't suddenly sell off all of their main talent and then tank.  
even still, there just wasn't a ton to move in exchange for prospects aside from maybe 2 or 3 missed opportunities (at max).  
Eppler could have done a better job of wasting Arte's money in retrospect.  For example, instead of opting for guys like Giavotella, Ortega, Nava, Gentry, Revere, Espinosa, Maybin, Chavez, and scrap heap starters/pen guys, they could have expanded payroll and taken on better, more expensive stop gap players who could have had some trade deadline value.  Even that would have been a crapshoot and unlikely to have yielded a significant amount of talent.  
the biggest reason this team has seemed directionally challenged over the last few years is a lack of pitching health.  

I get you're asking a hypothetical question but, the reality is you stated the reason why it was never an option.   Arte.   More importantly -- the typical rebuild is basically built on the sell off of assets.   
All of our assets were either crappy, or hurt.    All the pitchers were coming off injuries and would have been sell low types.   The only position player of any sort of value besides Trout was Calhoun and possibly Cron -- this is of course assuming we had never traded for Simmons.     
Cron was DFA'd twice after we traded him for Rengifo which at this point has to be viewed as a win for us.
The best catcher on hand when Eppler got here was Carlos Perez.  He's been DFA'd how many times now by how many teams?
The best 2B on hand was Giovatella -- dude got DFAd and nobody gave him anything other than a minor league deal.
We had Aybar on a one year deal
No 3B under contract.  
No LF under contract.
Trout
Calhoun.

The RP was LOL.
Eppler basically DID do a complete rebuild.     

What is it YOU would have done differently.  How would you have been able to turn what we had into actual assets?

@mulwin444 said it well. Hindsight, and all. The Angels had a nice, young rotation and had the worst possible luck. No way to account for that.

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

He'd be lower-to-mid rotation depth with 2 years left of control but, based on his last few seasons, not sure how much of a difference maker he is:

He's teased with talent at times but I'm not sure I'd give up a lot more than Rengifo for him.

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

He'd be lower-to-mid rotation depth with 2 years left of control but, based on his last few seasons, not sure how much of a difference maker he is:

He's teased with talent at times but I'm not sure I'd give up a lot more than Rengifo for him.

Well, he doesn't have options so he either makes the roster or they have to release him.  Considering he put up 3.23 ERA 141 ERA+ 1.141 WHIP 9.4 K/9 last season as a back-end bullpen option, I doubt he's going anywhere but staying on the 25 man roster.

Well, he doesn't have options so he either makes the roster or they have to release him.  Considering he put up 3.23 ERA 141 ERA+ 1.141 WHIP 9.4 K/9 last season as a back-end bullpen option, I doubt he's going anywhere but staying on the 25 man roster.

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

Going 2016, you had the beginning of a solid staff - Richards coming off a 200+ IP season, Santiago 105 ERA+ in 180 IP, Heaney putting up 108 ERA+ in 105 IP through 18 starts, and a back of the rotation of Shoemaker, Weaver (last season of his contract), and Tropeano with Skaggs coming back at some point. 
Then, Richards, Heaney, and Tropeano all went down to elbow injuries, Skaggs only could contribute 10 starts, Weaver fell completely off a cliff...it got desperate...so desperate in fact that we actually had Lincecum in the rotation.  The bullpen was hit as well with Street complete decline and a promising season by Bedrosian but short by a groin injury.
By the time 2017 rolled around, who were Angels tradeable assets that would bring something consequential back? Trout, Simmons (who they just traded for that winter),...maybe Calhoun and Cron.
Fact was they didn't have much to trade...either from a 30th ranked minor league system to improve the team or from the MLB team to replenish the minor leagues.
Just look at that 2017 team...how did they win 80 games? 
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/LAA/2017.shtml
Add to that two more SP injuries in Meyer (with shoulder injury he'd retire from) and Shoemaker (with a forearm injury that knocked him out for 2 seasons), and Skaggs shoulder inflammation.  
Again, the only guy able to bring back anything was Trout.  
So, if you tank, maybe Trout doesn't re-sign with the Angels, maybe Shohei doesn't sign either, maybe the draft position change means they select someone different than Jo Adell and...what if, what if...
For what it's worth, this is a "devil we know" in terms of possible outcomes with no guarantee it could have gotten better if they gutted the roster on purpose. 
 
 

you troll for responses a ton and it's annoying as hell.  everything you post circles back to your own agenda regardless of the topic.  you either know it's annoying and you do it on purpose (most likely) or you don't realize you're doing it (very unlikely).  
here's what I see the most.  you don't act like an Angel fan.  negative or positive, it's easy to tell for most around here.  From what I see, you post for the next response and not your actual opinion.  To me, that's trolling.  Posting something just to see how people respond.  
people will continue to respond as will I, but you do you if that's what you think works.  
but hey.  that's just my opinion.  

GRich had a partial tear of the ligament (grade 2) and tried treating it with PRP injections and rehab even though Tommy John surgery was recommended.  Different scenario here since Canning has no year (per his MRI and Fletcher).  That can change but, again, that's most pitchers throwing overhand.

Maybe?  I think it's probably a good idea to focus on throwing fastballs for strikes first and then maybe introducing a cutter for something different since it doesn't stress the arm any differently...you just change the grip.  Then, work on a change up.
After that, yes, only pitch during the baseball season and play other sports but also continue to build arm strength with long toss...also limit the pitches thrown.  
All these seem reasonable and good suggestions but I have no idea if they would actually accomplish anything.