Pancake Bear

Nagy sucks.

Based on what I'm seeing, Grandal appears to be top of the line defensively and in pitch framing (dunno how he calls a game). His hitting is meh, but he is a catcher. His on base ability, though, is outstanding.

Would still be strange to hire a guy the Angels literally just fired.

Yes, that’s the point. Fletch said Arte cares primarily about the payroll, not the luxury tax.

I find it hard to believe Butcher would be coming back. He was the first guy gone when Eppler signed on. I seem to remember rumors that it wasn't Eppler's move, but someone above him that didn't want Butcher back. If, for instance, it was Arte who didn't like Butch, I don't see how that has changed a few years down the road. Dunno where Mike Di got the rumor from, but this just seems strange and difficult to believe.

This is silly. He has a no trade clause. No one is moving him. He had a bad year fueled by injuries and lack of a real preseason. Never really got his timing. This nonsense about being a problem is just dumb.

DH 3 days a week? Lol. Yeah, no. I don't think so.

Wells, Pujols, Hamilton. He allowed Dipoto to go all in and decimate the farm. JD couldn’t do all that without approval. Arte didn’t even fire that sob. My issue isn’t with Arte. It’s his team, he can do whatever he wants. My point is that Dipoto nuked this franchise with Arte holding his hand. That takes a long time to fix, especially with the paraders that Arte set for the rebuild. 3 years is a joke for what Eppler was supposed to accomplish. Also, injuries - not Eppler’s fault. Heck, a lot of those were happening before Billy even got here. If he’s impatient with Eppler, he’s an idiot. If he feels Eppler shouldn’t have total autonomy, that’s maybe not a bad idea. But being impatient? No.

I don’t remember if it was specified. Wasn’t the impression I got, but it’s possible, I suppose.

Considering Arte fucked up, there’s no reason he should fire Eppler for fixing his goofs.

The impression I got was the players were all at one point on the Angels. But they were not all necessarily at the same time. They may have been separate names at different times over that couple year period.

The five names were guys Skaggs told Kay he wanted Kay to get drugs for. Skaggs was acting as a go between for those guys. If I understood correctly, Kay said he didn’t have direct contact with those five.

Most teams weren’t as bad off as the Angels. They had the worst farm system in modern history (by multiple accounts), Arte was unwilling to tank, and we had little to nothing that we could or would sell, and we were hamstrung with multiple bad contracts. That isn’t a standard 3 year fix. Thats not even accounting for the Astros being one of the best teams in recent memory this season. They are literally stacked from top to bottom. Blaming Eppler for any of that is ludicrous. Dombrowski got canned because, championship aside, their future outlook is really bad. Their farm isn’t great, they have bad contracts, they’re about to lose their good players like Betts and JD, and the owner is talking about reducing their budget. He went all in and effed them over.

They both pre-date the earliest point that Skaggs and Kay did business, per Kay’s testimony.

My point was he shouldn’t feel like the team owed him another year. Most teams would’ve kicked him to the curb years earlier.

Then Arte clearly wouldn’t be pissed at the loss since he’s not a high value contract. Ergo, it wasn’t a major error.

Here’s your upgrade: Play Pujols as a bench bat.

Interesting thought. Hamels is from SoCal and pitched in Chicago the last season and a half with Maddon, and improved drastically from Arlington. Obviously the money would have to be equal, but he might be open to coming here.

He’s been in the NL. He probably remembers Cozart’s last year in Cincinnati. He’s been focusing on the interview. I doubt he knows all that much about the roster.

You guys are being way too conservative.

It’s that kind of thinking (if true) that proves he had to go. He got complacent and satisfied with having a guaranteed job. He took it for granted. Managers should not be comfortable. It makes them worse at their job.

2 WAR is technically league average. 0 is well below league average.

Honestly, 19 years is a freaking long time. Most managers don’t get 1/3 of that. The team sucked for the last few years. There’s nothing special about 20 years. It’s meaningless. If he really felt slighted by not reaching an arbitrary point, my respect for him goes down. That’s absurdly petty.

It was time for him to leave. He’d been here too long. He was a good manager, but it’s hard to stay effective for that many years in the same place.

The only reason I could see him not opting out is the 25m next season with a massive drop off after. (Or - God forbid - he got injured).