Opening Day Post Game

I think what’s frustrating is that this season really wasn’t a foregone conclusion – it wasn’t “flushable” as halofansince1978 puts it below.

If you believe in a youth movement, the team could certainly have embraced that – letting Neto, O’Hoppe and Schanuel play – and still have built a deep, competitive rotation that could get them across the .500 line with a decent shot at contention. The prices were soooo low, and teams with a solid 3 or 4 arms can exceed expectations, even with a middling offense.

Most of the Angels’ current rotation is not young. They’re not the base an eventual Angels champion will be built on. Anderson and Canning are gone in two years, Sandoval in three. Given what was available this March, bringing in two studs on short term contracts would have had little to no long-term impact on the Angels future, but significant impact to the Angels’ present. The only guys you’d really like to see develop are Detmers and Silseth, with an outside bet on Soriano – and why not give them two mentors with recent postseason experience?

Meanwhile, the early overpay on a high-volatility set-up man with a thin track record was bizarre.

It’s just maddening that they could have picked up both Snell and Montgomery – a true #1 and #2 – for relative peanuts, stayed under the LT line, and even losing one pick, would go into the draft with 20 picks in 20 rounds.

I truly think this team could have contended with a rotation led by Snell, Montgomery and Detmers. But even if that bet was bad, you could flip the both of them for 4-6 pitching prospects with long-term control at the deadline. A decent GM could vault this system from the bottom to the middle of the talent rankings in one year flat with that excess value.