Pancake Bear

What an dumbshit and narcissistic comment!  It's not pretending....those who play the game knows more about the game than those who only watch the game.  And I dont give a shit what advance statistic you throw out.  
 

I’ll grant that Andujar is probably a safe bet for #2 in AL RotY, but it isn’t particularly close. Ohtani should be an easy first pick whether it’s AL only or all of MLB. His season was historic.
As for JD? LOL. He’s at best 3rd (comfortably below Trout and Betts) if we limit it to batting. Add in everything else, and...well, let’s just say he probably shouldn’t even be top 5.
That’s not just AL, btw - the players voted him ‘player of the year’. He’s closer to outside the top 20 if we include pitchers than to #1 in that category. 
This is what happens when you think two-dimensionally about baseball. There’s more to the game than homers, and RBI’s are a lot less meaningful to player analysis than the prevailing wisdom of a few decades back once believed. 

Player of the Year (not MVP): Martinez (Trout wasn’t a finalist)
Rookie of the Year: Andujar
Can we quit pretending that playing the game somehow gives players wisdom that the rest of us lack? Players...are *really* bad at analysis in general. We complain about the writers, but at least the bad analysts are becoming a minority. 

I’ll grant that Andujar is probably a safe bet for #2 in AL RotY, but it isn’t particularly close. Ohtani should be an easy first pick whether it’s AL only or all of MLB. His season was historic.
As for JD? LOL. He’s at best 3rd (comfortably below Trout and Betts) if we limit it to batting. Add in everything else, and...well, let’s just say he probably shouldn’t even be top 5.
That’s not just AL, btw - the players voted him ‘player of the year’. He’s closer to outside the top 20 if we include pitchers than to #1 in that category. 
This is what happens when you think two-dimensionally about baseball. There’s more to the game than homers, and RBI’s are a lot less meaningful to player analysis than the prevailing wisdom of a few decades back once believed. 

Player of the Year (not MVP): Martinez (Trout wasn’t a finalist)
Rookie of the Year: Andujar
Can we quit pretending that playing the game somehow gives players wisdom that the rest of us lack? Players...are *really* bad at analysis in general. We complain about the writers, but at least the bad analysts are becoming a minority. 

Ohtani the pitcher is here?  Ohtani the hitter is in Japan?

Geography is that wonderful argument that is great when it fits our preferred narrative but ‘insignificant’ when it doesn’t. The reality is we have no clue how much it actually matters to each individual player. Too much of a variable from one guy to the next. 

The Phillies are just driving up the price for the Yankees.

Back on the Trout extension, I would offer 10 years/$400 million (starting it in 2021 since he's getting $34 million/season as of now) with a player opt out after 3 years, and be done with it.    Win win, because he's guaranteed 12 full seasons here (2012-2023) through age 31/32 season. 

That’d be a first. 

That’d be a first. 

Ask me again after ST. ?

I also like 5 guys. But when buying a burger, fries, drink combo there costs twice as much as INO. Makes it hard to pull that money out of my pocket when at 5 guys.

Look at his numbers - he’s gotten worse since he broke in to the league. In other words, he probably isn’t very good. We have 3-4 guys already who are better options. 

Fletcher and Cozart both look plainly better. Too early to say on these two, but I’d easily rather give a shot to Rengifo or Ward between 2b/3b than bring in a random player who had a minor breakout and then never even got back to that point again. It’s one thing if we’re grabbing an actual impact player, but people suggesting players like Spangenberg? I just don’t get it at all. 
The dude has played several seasons and has gotten worse. Fletcher has actually showed something, Cozart wasn’t great in 2018, but you don’t have to squint hard to imagine him being better than Spangenberg. If we’re already counting out Rengifo and Ward, to me that’s as silly as telling 2011 Mike Trout that he’s not a big leaguer because his obp was sub .300 (obviously I don’t expect them to be anything like Trout, just pointing out we haven’t even given either a real shot yet). 

Arte can afford Trout at any cost.  What we think we have learned is it is about annual pay out instead of the luxury tax number.  So if Trout goes to $40 million a season that is only $6 million more than he is currently getting paid, or basically it is what the Angels paid for Trout and Jim Johnson last year.  If he costs $45 million a year (which he won’t), that is basically what he paid for Kinsler and Trout last year.  So if he wants to pay him $40 million he replaces Johnson with Buttrey (they have already done this) and if he has to pay him $45 million then he can replace Kinsler with Fletcher (he has already done this as well).  If he has to pay him $50 million (he won’t have to) he would have to pay him what he paid Trout, Valbuena and Johnson and replace Valbuena with Ward, which if you have been paying attention, he has already done this as well.  He won’t be leaving for money.  Arte will budget Trout above anything else.  

Basing decisions in the here and now off of where Trout might choose to  go in 2021 would be brain dead moronic. 
If Eppler/Moreno think like that, the Angels are doomed to at least another half decade of nothing. 

Flop if playing close to home matters then we should be fine with Harper on the Angels, Arrenado on the Angels, Moustakas on the Angels, Kelly on the Angels.  Also Suzuki would be an Angel if this was a big factor for players.  We also are just a couple years away from signing Gerrit Cole, since he’s a Newport Beach guy  
The difference between Jason Stark and guys on here is he spews this speculation because he gets paid to get clicks.  Where guys on here are panicking based on their perception of the team which isn’t always unbiased.  
The best was the tweet immediately after Starks tweet was someone saying The Angels could have Harper and Trout by Christmas.  

His elbow was damaged goods. Everyone knew it. Only the Angels were dumb enough to take him. 
Or something. 
At least, that’s what everyone was claiming for ages. 
“Bullet dodged” ?

His elbow was damaged goods. Everyone knew it. Only the Angels were dumb enough to take him. 
Or something. 
At least, that’s what everyone was claiming for ages. 
“Bullet dodged” ?

His elbow was damaged goods. Everyone knew it. Only the Angels were dumb enough to take him. 
Or something. 
At least, that’s what everyone was claiming for ages. 
“Bullet dodged” ?

https://www.mlb.com/news/scouting-top-contenders-to-sign-shohei-ohtani/c-262478194
http://larrybrownsports.com/baseball/yankees-seen-favorites-shohei-otani/409825
https://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2017/11/mlb_free_agency_rumors_yankees_supreme_favorite_fo.html
And there's a lot more where that came from, and also just as entertaining, the hurt other teams endured in their failure....
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/12/shohei-ohtani-mlb-los-angeles-angels-decision-sign-mariners-stunned-sad-fan-reaction
And the there was the reaction to his Spring Training....
https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/news/mlb/shohei-ohtani-baseballs-biggest-bust/
I post these as a reminder for all of us. Shohei Ohtani is an Angel, and didn't even give the Yanks a chance. Then he led the Mariners on to trade actual prospect us for international money, only to leave them high and dry. 
The truth is, NONE OF US know who will sign where or how good or bad they'll be. Not Jon Paul Morosi, not Tim Brown, not Andy Behrens, not Ken Rosenthal. A year ago, the Angels weren't even a dark horse candidate for Ohtani. Then after they landed him, it was only because he's not as good as everyone thinks.
His rookie year was a campaign to shut everyone, including the experts....the heck up. And I'm grateful for it. 
 

One last time. I don't know if you don't follow the Ducks closely or else you just are slow, but here it is: Eric Stephens has made clear on multiple occasions that Bob Murray had permission to spend up to the cap if necessary when they were in their window. I haven't checked the exact numbers, so I'll assume you're correct on that. Basically, this isn't a jigsaw puzzle where you can simply max out against the cap. It doesn't work that way.
Part of the spending involved was related to the trade deadline. In a couple of seasons, Murray balked at the prices in trades (he tends to be cheap on the trade market). One year, as another example, he tried to trade for Kesler but was unsuccessful at the deadline before finally trading for him in the off-season. Failed trades doesn't mean the pocketbook isn't open - that's what you're missing. 
Where you argued against yourself: You admitted that the payroll fluctuated - exactly what I said - which shows that they spent more when competitive, and less when they weren't. You also seem to miss the difference between a hard and a soft cap - generally speaking, you need to leave some wiggle room when you're up against a hard cap. Murray also was managing based on which young players required imminent extensions. 
The evidence is clear that Samueli opened the purse strings, you just miss it because it's not what you expect to see. If you account for multiple factors, though, the evidence is actually what you should expect to see.

It's up to Arte how he wants to treat this team.  Is it a business that he expects to cash flow every year or is it an investment where he builds wealth through building equity?
The reality is, at this point for Arte, there really is almost no level of payroll on over the next 5-7 years that wpuld REALLY change his lifestyle or the lifestyle of his kids and grandkids in the future.
He could sign Harper, Machado and Corbin and also extend Trout and he would still pass a net worth of billions to his heirs.
Obviously nobody expects him to do that.  My point is the true answer to the question is Arte could support a $275 million payroll. . .if he wanted to.
The team would "lose" money at about the same rate the value of the franchise increases.
But the functional answer is it appears that part of Arte's ego is to win in a way that isn't categorized as him simply buying a championship.  So he wants to be disciplined in how he spends on payroll.
I have no issue with him choosing this.  Its his team and his legacy.  But I do get frustrated when I hear fans say he can't afford a particular player because "he can't just keep losing money every year". . .
When you have a perfect vintage Ferrari, your expenses to maintain it on paper make it look like you are losing money on it but every year the value goes up in multiples of your expenses.  You are not losing money.
 

Historically? George Herman Ruth has better career numbers.
But, given the game has developed? Many of those guys wouldn’t be nearly as dominant today. Trout is the best player today by a considerable margin, which probably means he’s better than any player ever. Debatable, certainly, but not an unreasonable position.