NSFW: Ramon Laureano while mic’d up for an in-game interview… F Bombs Away! In keeping with the F Bombs Away theme, Joey Votto also dropped one in an interview, but he was bleeped out. Finally, here is a “Lets get back to baseball.” sort of Bombs Away! I have also seen the Luis Robert home run estimated at 473 feet in one box score. The consensus measurement, however, is 487 feet. In any event, it was way out of there.
Concerning Thursday’s Wild Card Round games, we have some results. The Braves have swept the Reds to advance to round 2. The Yankees swept Cleveland and also advance. A televised Yankees game cuts unexpectedly to law enforcement escorting a couple of intruding fans out of the stadium. There was no wanton brutality; just business as usual. Tommy La Stella scored a couple of the runs for the Athletics who beat the White Sox two games to one to advance to the ALDS. Game 2 of the Marlins-Cubs series was postponed until Friday due to rain.
Random GM Related News
Jeff Luhnow will be an interviewee on an upcoming podcast called “The Edge.” It will be interesting to see, in a kind of a slow motion train wreck sort of a way, how far he has evolved from his “I am not a cheater.” stance of last year. Jerry DiPoto will be competing with the Angels mystery GM for relief pitching this winter. The Kansas City Royals GM, Dayton Moore, will probably also seek to “supplement” their bullpen.
Angels Related Opinion Pieces
Would Mike Trout trade his career with that of Reggie Jackson or Derek Jeter because they have bunch of World Series rings? This article estimates the best landing spot for each of the top 20 free agents. Spoiler alert: The Angels might find a certain wild and crazy guy under the Christmas tree this year.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
So it looks like the Cubs are just about done with Epstein. Should we capitalize on that? Put him back with Joe or is that not a good idea?
I’d take Epstein in a heartbeat.
But will he take Arte’s and Carpino?
Choices abound and there are experienced GM’s in the mix too. The aforementioned Epstein, Klentak, Dombrowski are just the start. Bringing in experience is something that I have been advocating for a couple of weeks and still believe in. Learning from mistakes is a very good way to make better decisions in the future. At the time mistakes are made it throws a different color on things, even putting somethings on the hot plate. In new surroundings that same hot plate experience can become a cool plate the second time around Theo though will want Carpino locked in a closet and Arte locked away in his office. Epstein will appoint a GM (one not from or connected to, Houston) but his availability is not known just yet. But don’t knock hiring someone with a poor past record as that guy will have learned from the bad decisions.
Epstein is still under contract for another year and Middleton said that Klentak has been reassigned (stepped down, not fired)
If Arte is serious about “firing himself” and recognizing his limitations, then Epstein a year from now, along with removing front office flotsam would be fine. I don’t need a name so much as a plan… and skill. In the meantime you need a GM or equivalent.
Sooooo….. does anyone want to continue on with their earlier bold comments on HH circa 2016-18 regarding how the Phillies are miles ahead of the Angels and will be big winners for years to come because (insert constant wank here) while Phillies (insert what you want to happen that you project onto the Phillies here). Followed by, at the time, some defeatist blubbering about how you’d go to Philly if you were Trout.
Those are some fans over there that had realistic expectations that keep pooping themselves to death. They are pissed…..
What is this HH thing you speak of?
Well, this is what I said about the Phillies at the time, so I feel pretty safe with it. 🙂
To add more depth, I felt like the Phillies were one of the most confounding teams in baseball in terms of “what would I do if I were their GM” (at that time). They had been through a real rebuild, their prospects were emerging, and they had a lot of money to spend. And yet, it was extremely tough to tell who you could really count on and who you couldn’t. Guys you had been counting on may just not have it, but it was kind of too early to just give up on them at the same time.
In my opinion it was legitimately hard to do anything other at that point cross your fingers and hope for the best because the alternative is to give up on what you’ve just spent years building.
I didn’t follow them closely enough this year to further develop my viewpoint, but my opinion was they may turn out to be an example of how you can go through a rebuild and NOT come out looking great on the other side of it. I’m guessing you think 2020 is showing that to be the case?
Maybe that’s DD’s next stop.
They have money but i don’t know about their farm system however. Besides former Jedi henchman ( Matt Klentak ) could be on thin ice there.
Also think NY Mets and Atlanta Braves. Doubtful he’ll wanna come here ( no farm system and Arte’s miserly ways, especially when it comes to pitching, and scouting and player development.). 🤔
Honestly I think the Phillies will be competitive soon. They had a lot break wrong for them these past years. It’s just funny to see how badly they have panned out thus far given that so many people around here were so sure of their being so much better than us a couple years ago.
But rebuilds do indeed fail. Theirs may not, primarily because, as you said, they have the money to patch up failings. But when is a rebuild not a rebuild anymore? The White Sox are good now, kind of. The Padres too. But how many years did they suck? Same with the current Twins team. I like the Pirates and the Reds…. they seem to rebuild for near decades though. The Rangers tried a farm fresh reboot and it totally bombed. Arizona….?
When I think rebuild I think of what the Rays and A’s always pull off. Maybe suck for a year or two, but then they are back in the thick of it. Trade a single roster of veterans for prospects, draft high twice maybe, then win some more. We tend to focus on Atlantas, when there are plenty of Pirates, Tigers, Mariners and Royals out there. Hell, I’d say if a “rebuild” is really a 3 years or less turn around, most rebuilds fail. After a couple of years you are just a middling franchise trying to reestablish winning.
Fly Eagles Fly.
Theo Epstein, anyone?
Doubtful a guy like him would want to deal with Arte interfering. Still, fun to dream.
I’d take him over Dumbo probably.
RIP Bob Gibson. Was fortunate to see him pitch in person.
Wow. Lucky you.
I didn’t see him pitch, but of course he’s been a prominent baseball personality for decades. RIP.
There’s a pitcher who would not have been appreciated by most fans today. Pretty much Karen’s toxic masculine nightmare, but man he was a beast.
Toxic masculinity is bad!
Buying into one direction of discourse is that we need to build now while Trouty is in his prime. The other way is to build within the team system (that probably doesn’t even exist) and focus on basically rebuilding or building a system that can produce. Either direction or a combination of will cost more than Arte wants to spend. Cutting corners should start with cutting the deadweight of upper management and advisors. But in truth the team has a stream of income that did not used to be available in the Cable TV windfall money. For those that do not think chasing Bauer is the direction to follow then who are our dependable pitchers to rely on?
Hindsight as we all know is 20/20 and that we should have gone into rebuild in 2016 is acknowledged, but we did not and so here we are. The other thing that hindsight gives us is we all look like we have answers because we can come up with solutions. But it is the same solution as it was 5 years ago, rebuild. But rebuild is difficult simply because of Albert, Trouty, Upton and Rendon. To much money for 4 players and if we do not spend money on pitching because there is none then just which hole do we plug with a small investment?
You might have this hole in mind 😎 😣
Do you guys think Bundy will be as good next year? I keep thinking we are going to see “regression to the mean”, which in his case isn’t all that great.
I didn’t watch enough of this season to get a real feel of his performance this year was a sustainable improvement or s fluke.
I don’t know if he’ll by a Cy contender again, but I think he’ll be good. He’s still young and looks to have turned a corner, especially in terms of confidence and “mound presence” if we’re still using that term.
I absolutely believe in Bundy. His change in pitch usage has been well documented. His slider was literally one of the best pitches in baseball and his command of the zone was a thing of beauty. Watching him on the mound was the first time I’ve been supremely confident in a Halo starter in a very long time. He was truly pitching, mixing speed, break, and location with ease. Even in his rough outings he seemed to be comfortable, knowing it was caused by a combination of poor luck and a lapse in execution. TBH I don’t remember him getting barreled very often. The guy was an artist this year and I see no reason why he’d forget how to be good.
Yeah. I’d seen him pitch a few times in the past and thought he was meh but both his slider and change up got WAY nastier this year. Movement like that doesn’t stop being potent, so he should be fairly good unless he loses those pitches.
If we bring Bauer in then I think Bundy will be superb as the 2 compete with one another and there pushing each other then canning and Sandoval will in turn see their games improve.
I caught the end of sports center waiting for the game tonight.
Guess what was the #2 worst play in sports they just showed? Adell losing a ball over the wall.
I hadn’t even actually seen the video. It was terrible.
which one? there are 2 =)
Sad.
Last year I was calling for us to get Bauer and I was told he’s too much of a jerk. Look, I think he’s an ass sometimes, he is a loose cannon (think John Rocker) and I disagree with his politics. I don’t know how he fits in a quiet locker room. But he can pitch. And he brings attitude which we don’t have. Rendon thrived behind Soto being bar flippy so maybe he could use the fire. Trout has one bow and arrow moment with Pujols. I think the team could use Bauer’s personality. It could turn off Ohtani but Shohei needs to man up a bit. Hopefully he goes back to Japan this offseason and recaptures his own mojo. He’s not a kid anymore.
They still need a bullpen though. Bauer and Bundy through a whole season only is as good as our bullpen and probably another stable starting pitcher. They need to build a 90- win team
These are all good points. I’m starting to wonder if we should just start thinking of Ohtani as a position player. He seems to be having trouble staying healthy as a pitcher. Not saying I know for sure obviously. They don’t tell us everything medically.
No. Because one, he can pitch. Two, we need pitchers. Three, it’s not that weird for post TJ pitchers with no ST to suck. Four, we need pitchers. Five, what makes you think he can play the field, other than a handful of NPB games, in addition to remembering how to hit while learning a new spot? Six, we really need pitchers.
7. ???
8. Profit?
So, we need pitching?
I’m no Billy Beane, but my baseball IQ tells me yes, we need pitching. I’m pretty sure.
Hard to disagree with that logic, actually.
Bauer’s a douche, but he’s not horrible. It’s not like he’s ever done anything where I’d be unhappy having to root for him. It would be like when we signed Wilson…. he’d be our chode now.
But with more fire, higher potential, and not likely to get distracted by flashy cars or something. Bauer is focused.
As someone who’s flipped a few bars in my day, I support this message.
I love you all ❤️, but I just don’t get the optimism about signing Bauer, even though I’m a big fan of the idea.
This team hasn’t signed a big name free agent pitcher in, well, longer than I can remember. Wilson 9 years ago?
Whether it’s Arte or something else, we just don’t appear to be willing to outbid the other bidders. I even kind of get why, but I don’t expect it to change.
My big hope is that we get a GM that understands that we have that limitation and drafts, develops, and/or trades for it. That will still take years to develop a pipeline, but if we don’t start now, it won’t happen on its own.
I’m amused by him, but he is a loose cannon with stuff like the drone injury. It would suck to sign the guy and then he gets a finger cut off his pitching hand by another drone.
Agreed. Every year it’s “Strasburg” or “Cole” or “Corbin” and instead we get…well, you know. Bundy is the exception. Meanwhile the really good teams keep bringing up the best pitchers from their systems. It seems obvious.
And we need a continuous stream because, as in the case of Corbin, free agent signings might work…or not and we don’t know for how long.
I can get a continuous stream if I drink too much coffee, followed by lotsa water.
The system is totally key. We are the ultimate example of this. Pitchers play where they want to now. Corbin wanted and got the East Coast. Cole wanted and got NY. Wheeler wanted and got South Jersey. Morton wanted and got to be near Clearwater. Eovaldi wanted Boston or Houston and got Boston. Even MadBum wanted and got Arizona.
So what? You bet big on Yu Darvish a couple years ago? Michael Pineda? Jake Arietta? Keuchel this year. People seem to forget the toss up was Ryu, Keuchel or Madbum. How much do you love the contract long odds there? Want to get even more depressed, read an article from 2016-17 about the “huge” pitching class coming available in 2017-18. By the time that class of FAs rolled around the tree was pretty bare and the results from those FAs isn’t great. Counting on being able to sign pitching even if you want to spend the money is just not practical.
The Angels should take a chunk of change and focus on scouting, drafting and developing huge amounts of pitchers. You just can’t buy them anymore so we need to buy the ability to build them.
I’m with you almost down the line here.
As you may recall, I don’t entirely buy into the “play where they want” line. I’ll believe that more when I see pitchers not taking the biggest contract they are offered. That said, for these purposes, it doesn’t really matter.
Your main point is that you really just can’t buy pitching anymore…at least not without taking on seemingly reckless amounts of risk. And I agree with that.
Even if all the guys you mentioned were open to simply the biggest contract available (and maybe they aren’t), I wouldn’t have paid them what they got. So, I get not wanting to shell out franchise altering money for a really long time for players whose arms are as likely as not to fall off.
I think your final quote, “The Angels should take a chunk of change and focus on scouting, drafting and developing huge amounts of pitchers. You just can’t buy them anymore so we need to buy the ability to build them.” is exactly my perspective.
My only concern there really is that that takes time and even that wouldn’t bother me except I wanted to be more competitive while Trout was younger and unambiguously in his prime.
Oh well, done is done.
I think everyone on this site is disappointed with the deprioritizing of scouting, the Latin American talent pipeline, the underpaying of support staff, the seemingly inability to pay training personnel that keep the players healthy.
There certainly needs to be money spent there. It doesn’t fit into the cap, and isn’t part of the visible payroll, so the only hurdle for spending in this area is Arte.
I think it’s time we get a new mantra around here.
Fuck Mike Trout’s prime.
Really. Who gives a shit? Is Trout even close to being the first great player who GASP! didn’t win a title before age 30!?! No. Is there some extra bonus for the franchise if we win a title when he’s 29 instead of 32? He can’t go anywhere now. We’ll all be happy to win a title no matter when it happens. Even if it happens when Trout’s older, that fact on it’s own has no actual value at all. Really, no one around here actually has any tangible reason to tie themselves up in knots about winning a title before Trouts hits age 33 or what ever.
I’ll take a system that turns out 2 or 3 good starters every three years and wins us a couple titles every few years over hyperventilating our way to a WS in 2022 just because we NEED it while Trout still has a Fauxhawk. The guy’s signed for life basically, we can proceed accordingly.
I personally am more into seeing this team win the WS before I die than worrying about Trouts prime, I’m not getting any younger
Consistent contending makes a happy fan, more than lowering the price of beer. If Trouty waived his no-trade clause to win a title somewhere else, wouldn’t blame him. Dont blame Cole for taking the MFA offer either, the bastard.
Cole got a Master of Fine Arts AND 300+ million! Screw that guy.
I can’t tell an A from a Y, aye?
Come to think of it, 300+ million would get him a Master of Free Agency. It would also buy me a why.
I’m sure someone as clever as yourself could find a few other uses for “MFA”.
Ohtani wanted the West coast. We scored there.
But yeah, we should have been developing pitching because, apparently, you can sign FA sluggers more readily than ace pitchers. Dipoto did a lot of trading for younger pitchers, but there was a five year gap between Newcombe (2014) and Detmers (2020) in drafting pitchers in the first round. That didn’t help at all.
Tigers are looking at both Hinch and Cora, so are we saying that Ludnow was responsible for the cheating in Houston and Boston
that’s the Tigers problem
The Festrunk brothers are free agents this year?
They need to do something to attract the foxes.
If Ohtani will be given a chance to start again next year, that could be attractive to Bauer. Instead of adding a 6th pitcher to the rotation to make sure Ohtani gets his extra rest day, Bauer could sometimes slot in a day early.
I was going to say, Ohtani needs to be showing plenty of dedication to his off season work so Bauer can see it won’t be just him and Bundy carrying the team. Heaney should also do what he can to look like he aims to come strong in to spring training.
Edit: Bauer obviously pays attention to social media and if he hears things from his agent I am sure he does a little side research.
Contract years for both Bundy and Heaney
I have wondered this. We already have an unorthodox rotation, maybe Bauer’s into that?
Will Mike Fiers accidentally hit an Astro?
Oh, I hope so!
Big day in sports today, so enjoy. Doc Rivers was Unemployed for all od 10 minutes. You go Doc! Angels under qualified VP says the team is in new hurry to obtain a new GM? Huh? Why did you cut your previous GM Billy Eppler if he was under contract then? No iron in the fire may amount to bad management at worse if players are signed by others because we were not in the hunt. It would seem that after reading what the team put out that Arte has no thoughts of stepping back, he believes that he is necessary. Yikes.
I actually think there’s a good chance we land Bauer. His desire for short term deals should appeal to many, especially Arte. Something like 3/$90M would probably make both Bauer and the Angels happy and give us about the length of production we need to build up more talent in the system.
I also think Arte won’t really mind Bauer’s public persona. As we’ve seen lately, Arte’s not shy about what he thinks either, and it’s not like Bauer’s publicity revolves around drugs or child abuse or anything that’s a true negative/offensive to Arte’s family brand.
Plus someone on this team needs to be an asshole when necessary. Lackey and Hunter filled that role admirably, but it’s been a while since we’ve had anyone similar.
He can do the asshole thing, as proved by him heaving the ball over the center field fence that one time. With a little more maturity maybe he can pick his spots more accurately and light a fire under some under performer’s butt..
He can’t keep wearing number 27, though.
I understand what you are saying about team chemistry and agree; but I would not call Torii the “asshole” type. He was a vocal leader but not really an a-hole. Lackey on the other hand did have that in him, in a good way.
After two Marathon Baseball Dayz I am taking a break from today and look forward to Monday.Unique situation having that many games in 2 days and it was fun, but a bit much when 3 games where all at once and my favorites were losing. For a time I thought the Padres were finished and then KA-BOOM. Cards are still shaking their heads and mumbling “What happened?”
NIce to see the Padres turn back into the freaking hydrogen bomb Padres. So keep it going, guys!
If the Padres don’t start G-Rich today, they’re dumb. Either way, I hope they win. They’re an exciting team while the Cardinals are boring, annoying, and overrated as hell.
Also, I really wish one of those salary dump trades for Wil Myers I speculated about back in the Old World would have happened. Could have been us knocking off the Twins while Altuve sat at home thinking about being bigger. Le sigh.
Steve Martin is more likely to be under the tree than Trevor (Justin) Bauer.
Cole was predicted to be a Halo last year, but alas, he too wants to win.
Long Winter coming up so let’s keeps thinking everyone wants to play with Trouty amd Rendon. Maybe we trade for Cole? lol
One thing to remember, last year Cole wasn’t looking at pitching for a team that had Trout AND Rendon. The Angel’s offense looks more attractive for run support than it did last year.
If Bauer decides he’s 4-wins better than Julio Teheran, that puts the Angels at .500, enough for the playoffs this year (but not enough for the wild card in a normal playoff format). The Angels need to get a bullpen piece early (pretty tough without a GM) and I think that would make them look more attractive to a pitcher that wants to win.
The Dodgers eliminated the Brewers while the Padres won to stay alive in their series.
SoCal still alive! Padres game was great as they smacked the Manfred Ball over the fences like they were Superballs from the sixth on. Meyers and Tatis 2 each and Manny Machado tie the game up with one in the sixth.
Happy the Padres at least extended it. They had too great a season to fizzle out in a 2 game sweep.