Pancake Bear

Mike Cameron had a 50 WAR career.  He's in the top 5% of players all time.  That would rank as the second best Angel position player.  
Sometimes @Kevinb you write stuff that makes you look uninformed.  You cite recency bias yet you don't even take two seconds to look up how good Mike Cameron was.  
He actually outperformed Griffey jr by 22 WAR from the time they were traded through the end of their careers.  
Simmons is being discussed here as the greatest defensive SS of all time.  Not the greatest SS.  Pay attention.  There's gonna be a test.  He's on an appropriate trajectory for that.  He'll be in the top 3 in about 5 or 6 years.  He's already outpaced Ozzie on number of games and if you go by chances, Simmons is way ahead.  Remember, hitter used to hit the ball on the ground.  Simmons avg is about 4.5 chances per game.  Ozzie avg'd 5.7 chances over a similar time period.  Which means Simmons has had fewer opportunities.  

Simmons is essentially Ozzie Smith, a HOFer, with better hitting and less speed.   

I think teams are going to be a little more proactive at turning over their expiring assets regardless of where they were in the standings the previous years.  Especially when those assets still have value and are on the wrong side of 30.  
It could just be market forces as well in that the NL has some parity and there are several young teams that are going to try to open a window soon.   
On top of that, I think a lot of teams are much more confident in their player evaluations due to advanced metrics so there is less (abeit still a fair amount) in turning over someone like Kluber who is entering his age 33 season with some control left but he's showing subtle signs that he's not the juggernaut he used to be.  If you could get Forrest Whitley and Kyle Tucker/Yordan Alvarez, that could be hard to pass on.  
I agree that other teams are seeing what it's going to take to beat the top tier teams.  
Cleveland probably also sees that their path to the division title probably doesn't become that much more difficult without Kluber although not sure that's the right approach imo.  

His near 5 FIP in 2017 and his 5 k's per 9 in 2017.  He is a smoke and mirrors guy.  Was I a little harsh, sure, I could see giving him a D (gross), but I just don't trust him.  I hope he proves me wrong.  He and Trop are simply not good.  

The 8th guy should be a guy who isn’t missing a pitching shoulder. The issue isn’t just that you think the pitching is no big deal or that you think the offense is somehow a serious problem, it’s that you’ve repeatedly stuck to that view regardless of how many people or how much evidence is put out there to refute it. 
Could the offense improve? Sure. It’s not at the level of Boston, NY, or Houston. No question. 
But the rotation is abysmal. Even relatively mediocre guys would improve it significantly. Depth doesn’t mean jack if they’re all guys who can’t make it through 4 innings in Angel f’ing Stadium. Meyer may have more skill potential than some of those guys, but until he actually shows his shoulder is remotely reliable, he shouldn’t be factored into depth discussions at all. 

The 8th guy should be a guy who isn’t missing a pitching shoulder. The issue isn’t just that you think the pitching is no big deal or that you think the offense is somehow a serious problem, it’s that you’ve repeatedly stuck to that view regardless of how many people or how much evidence is put out there to refute it. 
Could the offense improve? Sure. It’s not at the level of Boston, NY, or Houston. No question. 
But the rotation is abysmal. Even relatively mediocre guys would improve it significantly. Depth doesn’t mean jack if they’re all guys who can’t make it through 4 innings in Angel f’ing Stadium. Meyer may have more skill potential than some of those guys, but until he actually shows his shoulder is remotely reliable, he shouldn’t be factored into depth discussions at all. 

the pretty much the only thing he fits in.  

My preferred answer to people who say Trade Trout: You want Trout to be in the playoffs? Okay, tell Dipoto to trade the Angels Paxton, Segura, and Diaz for Jewell and Hermosillo. That'll be a good start. Why should the Angels trade Trout for peanuts? Tell other teams to trade the Angels good players for underwhelming returns instead.
The implicit point in these stupid trade articles isn't really about Trout in the playoffs - it's about Trout in the playoffs for some team not named the Angels. 

I think the Angels need to land two starters, so both. 
You cannot go into the season with an inconsistent Heaney, oft-inuried and inconsistent Skaggs, plus a sophomore in Barria and a bunch of what IF's. The Angels need some quality innings of starters that can go deep into games. Would really like Corbin, but I think he wants to sign in New York. 

My preferred answer to people who say Trade Trout: You want Trout to be in the playoffs? Okay, tell Dipoto to trade the Angels Paxton, Segura, and Diaz for Jewell and Hermosillo. That'll be a good start. Why should the Angels trade Trout for peanuts? Tell other teams to trade the Angels good players for underwhelming returns instead.
The implicit point in these stupid trade articles isn't really about Trout in the playoffs - it's about Trout in the playoffs for some team not named the Angels. 

My preferred answer to people who say Trade Trout: You want Trout to be in the playoffs? Okay, tell Dipoto to trade the Angels Paxton, Segura, and Diaz for Jewell and Hermosillo. That'll be a good start. Why should the Angels trade Trout for peanuts? Tell other teams to trade the Angels good players for underwhelming returns instead.
The implicit point in these stupid trade articles isn't really about Trout in the playoffs - it's about Trout in the playoffs for some team not named the Angels. 

Twitter is derived from the Sanskrit word "twit" which literally means "pointless ramblings of morons"

Chapman is a likely better than Arenado elite defender at 3B and will probably receive a decent amount of MVP votes. He's a name you should probably know

The 3rd man in is an idiot.
It's just hard to trade Trout. You have to get a package of prospects and young players that would equate more than 10 wins a year over their current replacements, which would be hard to do because our prospects aren't bad right now. Think about it, if the Marlins are turning down Realmuto - Robles, why would the Angels accept that crap offer from the Phils? 
The easiest way to get the 10 wins above whoever our replacements are, are to focus on the Angels short comings.
As an example, if the Padres offered Fernando Tatis (he'd be our 3B), Francisco Mejia (catcher), Luis Urias at 2B, Arian Morejon and Chris Paddack, that'd probably be enough to get it done if the Padres were competing AND the Angels were selling, neither of which are the case.

The Internet makes everyone a published author.

Don't believe everything you read. Maybe there's a GM out there desperate enough to do a deal like that, but I think most will say no thanks at this point. 30 million till they're around 40? That's a lot for guys who already have issues - Machado's defense has already shown signs of problems and he doesn't hustle. Harper had major problems with the shift last year despite his OBP. I'd max out at 12yr, 30aav for 360 at either. That's the absolute most I could see them going for, and I wouldn't pay it. 8-10 years at 30 million aav would be more palatable, and I think they both get that much. Whether they get more depends on how dumb the GM's with money are. 
EDIT: The MLBTR numbers in general seem high to me. Strange as it is to say this, I think Heyman's predictions a day or so ago, which are a bit more on the conservative side, are closer to what I'd expect to see (although it's possible I'm being overly reactionary based on last year's free agency results).

But in all seriousness... wtf... Have you guys not been paying attention to the ways this team has gone about acquiring pitching the last several years? There is literally like one pitcher on this staff who isn't a cast off from another team. Teams are not just letting go of quality major league pitching.

If I were a Sox fan i'd be a little annoyed.
I'd also kill myself because i'm a Sox fan.

I'd rather make it to the World Series every year and lose than make it only once in fifty-something years and only win one. 
Seriously, the Dodger hate is as stupid as the Dodgers calling Ohtani's pursuit a waste of time.  

Their audio guy needs to cue lines from GOTG using Rockets lines. 
For the National Anthem: Well now I'm standing. Happy? We're all standing now.
When the pitching coach goes to the mound: You've got a plan? Okay, first of all, you're copying me from when I said I had a plan. And secondly, I don't think you even have a plan.
When the umpire calls strike three on a Trash Panda: You just wanna suck the joy out of everything.
When a Trash Panda strikes out a batter: Oh yeah!
When the manager goes out to pull the pitcher: YOU'RE... MAKING... ME... BEAT... UP... GRASS!
When announcing the Mascott: Ain't no thing like me, except me!
When a Trash Panda pitcher gets an 0-2 count: Put him in the bag. Put him in the bag!

The gold glove has always been sort of a BS thing.  The best was when they were giving Jeter gold gloves. 

Agreed to the general thought but what if the computer tells you that Justin Verlander has struck out Ohtani every time they have appeared against one another (let us assume the sample size here is sufficient) but that Pujols has multiple hits over several at-bat's against him? One player is seeing Verlander's stuff a lot better than another for instance?
In principle I don't disagree with what you said I am just pointing out that the data could potentially point to a more probable outcome that may not be easily visible by the coaches, players, and manager on the field.
One of the first applications of data mining discovered that male shoppers at the market who bought baby diapers also bought a consistently large quantity of beer. At first thought you'd think oh that's weird but the data showed the correlation. Babies tend to drive one to drink isn't that wild a notion. Again data properly parsed and conditioned with good correlation tells you things you should consider and listen to in the decision process. It is not perfect but it can be valuable.

Cozart needs to step up in 2019, case closed.  Kole needs to stop being Cold too many months, case closed.  Pujols, already discussed up and down, just retire a year from now.  

I wouldn't mind seeing Ebel stay on at 3B - seems like he's been better than the other options we had there and he was helpful with Trout's defense this season.

I wouldn't mind seeing Ebel stay on at 3B - seems like he's been better than the other options we had there and he was helpful with Trout's defense this season.