Can you imagine if...

[Chuck]

We didn't sign that turd Josh Hamilton and used the $$ to sign two of Fowler/Cespedes for LF and either Zobrist/Murphy for 2B? 

Baseball is a game of inches and the FA market is a game of timing. What a great offseason it was of talent, yet Dipoto and Arte F'd the team into its current state where we're trotting a lite-hitting 2B to bat 5th and the likes of Robinson/Ortega/Gentry/Nava out in LF. The problem is magnified because our former first round pick manning 1B and DH looks soft at the plate and clumsy on the field.

The only chance this team has at acquiring talent is if at least two of Heaney/Skaggs/Richards come back sooner than later, Shoemaker and Tropeano continue to pitch well, Santiago also, then C.J. Wilson has an amazing 6 week stretch so we can get a decent prospect. There's Lincecum and Chacin too.

We can then trade some pitching to fill some voids on the offensive side, particularly LF and perhaps 1B. McGowin and N. Smith provide some depth in AAA

/end rant

[Docwaukee]

19 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

We didn't sign that turd Josh Hamilton and used the $$ to sign two of Fowler/Cespedes for LF and either Zobrist/Murphy for 2B? 

Baseball is a game of inches and the FA market is a game of timing. What a great offseason it was of talent, yet Dipoto and Arte F'd the team into its current state where we're trotting a lite-hitting 2B to bat 5th and the likes of Robinson/Ortega/Gentry/Nava out in LF. The problem is magnified because our former first round pick manning 1B and DH looks soft at the plate and clumsy on the field.

The only chance this team has at acquiring talent is if at least two of Heaney/Skaggs/Richards come back sooner than later, Shoemaker and Tropeano continue to pitch well, Santiago also, then C.J. Wilson has an amazing 6 week stretch so we can get a decent prospect. There's Lincecum and Chacin too.

We can then trade some pitching to fill some voids on the offensive side, particularly LF and perhaps 1B. McGowin and N. Smith provide some depth in AAA

/end rant

and Skaggs.  

Watching Mazara tonight made me a bit jealous.  

Cron isn't as bad as your'e making him out to be.  He is what he is.  A way streaky defensive liability who can actually carry the team offensively for short periods.  He has no value in trade so you might as well let him try to figure it out.  He's basically the Santiago of our offense.  A lot of jacking around ugly but some good to great and enough of the latter to keep them around.  

It's more about the lack of a farm system than anything right now.  The injuries, of course are basically insurmountable, coupled with the lack of replacements and we are gonna have a fair complement of replacement level talent at the major league level.  We are gonna hover around .500 this year with the Chacin and Lincecum additions which actually speak volumes to the fact that we'd probably be a lot better if healthy, but it doesn't bode well for 3-4 years from now unless eppler has some rabbits in his hat.  

On offense though, we really are two players short and that could have been remedied via free agency.  But because sons bear the sins of their father, Arte is running the team with PTSD.  The bottom line is that we'd still be piecing things together even if the offense were better.  I have my doubts about both the pen and starting staff being able to sustain success.  So it's a lost year.  And likely the same in 2017.  

Maybe it's lesson learned but I really think it's we have just bookmarked the page we would normally try to turn and we will be back to doing what we've done in the near future.  Our best chance is that Arte has handed over the reigns and butts in the seats isn't the end game.  

Whoever was responsible for our current state is irrelevant as long as mistakes have been recognized without fear of going forward.   

[Blarg]

Can you imagine how it would have changed the Angels roster if Josh Hamilton's father had used a condom.

They would probably would have picked up Nick Swisher.

@Chuckster70none of the guys you posted were available in the 2012 free agent market. So it is unlikely that the Hamilton money sits in a vault waiting three years to be spent. Maybe Dipoto isn't still wasting $26 million on Blanton, Burnett and Hanson. But he could have blown more money on Ryan Dempster like was planned or worse Annibal Sanchez. But the money was going to be spent.

[nando714]

What if we pulled the trigger on Miguel Caberera?

[Blarg]

The Angels did, the Marlins didn't. In the end they got less value than what the Angels offered.

[nando714]

2 minutes ago, Blarg said:

The Angels did, the Marlins didn't. In the end they got less value than what the Angels offered.

Nvm I thought it was the other way around. Doh!

[Chuck]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

The Angels did, the Marlins didn't. In the end they got less value than what the Angels offered.

You got it backwards @Blarg

We offered one of Aybar or Kendrick + Santana  and Mathis. They wanted Brandon Wood too and Arte said fuck off to the Marlins. 

[Chuck]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

Can you imagine how it would have changed the Angels roster if Josh Hamilton's father had used a condom.

They would probably would have picked up Nick Swisher.

@Chuckster70none of the guys you posted were available in the 2012 free agent market. So it is unlikely that the Hamilton money sits in a vault waiting three years to be spent. Maybe Dipoto isn't still wasting $26 million on Blanton, Burnett and Hanson. But he could have blown more money on Ryan Dempster like was planned or worse Annibal Sanchez. But the money was going to be spent.

Blarg that's $126 million saved to do a shopping this past offseason. 

Plus Arte isn't butthurt about shelling out serious $$$ to deadbeats, like Hamilton.

[DMVol]

There was a simple solution to the Hamilton fiasco.....Sign Torii Hunter for 2 years....Hindsight sure but it would have been the best move we could have made....

[Blarg]

@Chuckster70No that is money not spent on Hamilton that season but that was 3 years ago. The Angels would have found other players, other free agents and the money would have been spent.

In 2012 Free Agents

BJ Upton signed 5 years $75 million.

Anibal Sanchez 5 years $80 million

There is Hamilton's money up in smoke.

Don't like them? Following year 2013 was the year of spending money, bigger money.

Cano 10/$240, Tanaka 7/$155, Ellsbury 7/$153, Choo 7/$130, Pence 5/$90, McCann 5/$85, Abreu 6/$68, Granderson 4/$60, Garza 4/$50, Ubaldo 4/$50, the list goes on and on. Someone in that 2014 class would have sucked up some dollars and some would have sucked.

2014 was Scherzer, Lester, Sandoval, Ramirez, Martin, Shields, Thomas, Cruz, Santana, Headley, McCarthy, almost half duds and all multiyear big money contracts.

2015 would have been the same thing as this season, the money would have been spent. The team should have been better after three years of picking someone else than Hamilton but it doesn't mean they would have had the cap space or a position open for your fantasy picks.

Imagine of they had kept Nolan Ryan. That is a doable fantasy, the Angels had the money and Nolan ready to sign and it would have definitely changed the franchise.

But there really is no going back to set things right.

 

 

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

Wasn't Maraza a Rule V guy? Or, maybe I'm thinking of someone else somewhere who is having a blow out season offensively as a RuleV guy?..... Help! I'm too lazy to look it up~ 

 

I think it was Goeddell who started out hot! Now he's hitting about .265 And then I see Hopsumchoi sliding Round #2......

Edited May 25, 2016 by SlappyUtilityMIF

[Chuck]

9 minutes ago, SlappyUtilityMIF said:

Wasn't Maraza a Rule V guy? Or, maybe I'm thinking of someone else somewhere who is having a blow out season offensively as a RuleV guy?..... Help! I'm too lazy to look it up~ 

 

I think it was Goeddell who started out hot! Now he's hitting about .265 And then I see Hopsumchoi sliding Round #2......

No, he was their top prospect brought up through their system. 

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, SlappyUtilityMIF said:

Wasn't Maraza a Rule V guy? Or, maybe I'm thinking of someone else somewhere who is having a blow out season offensively as a RuleV guy?..... Help! I'm too lazy to look it up~ 

 

I think it was Goeddell who started out hot! Now he's hitting about .265 And then I see Hopsumchoi sliding Round #2......

Nomar Mazara?   The Rangers set the record for money paid to a 16 year old when they signed him as a FA....

[Chuck]

2 hours ago, DMVol said:

There was a simple solution to the Hamilton fiasco.....Sign Torii Hunter for 2 years....Hindsight sure but it would have been the best move we could have made....

yep.... and he totally wanted to re-sign here. Torii outproduced Hamilton in one season than all of the games the turd played for the Angels. 

[Lou]

3 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

You got it backwards @Blarg

We offered one of Aybar or Kendrick + Santana  and Mathis. They wanted Brandon Wood too and Arte said fuck off to the Marlins. 

I remember it as us offering Kendrick, Mathis and one of Santana/Adenhart and Florida coming back later saying they wanted both pitchers. 

[Lou]

Plus, they wanted to dump Dontrelle Willis' contract on someone else,too, without taking any significant money back. 

[Blarg]

Eventually the Angels did get Dontrelle so it all worked out.

By worked out, he never pitched for the Angels in the majors.

[Angel Oracle]

4 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

You got it backwards @Blarg

We offered one of Aybar or Kendrick + Santana  and Mathis. They wanted Brandon Wood too and Arte said fuck off to the Marlins. 

Good example of why Arte needs to let his scouts do the thinking, and he just sign off on transactions.

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

3 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

No, he was their top prospect brought up through their system. 

 

2 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Nomar Mazara?   The Rangers set the record for money paid to a 16 year old when they signed him as a FA....

I added that it was Goeddell on the Rays guys~ Thanks though!

[Tank]

all i've learned from this thread is that we should've signed Jack Cust when we had the chance.

[Angel Oracle]

19 minutes ago, Tank said:

all i've learned from this thread is that we should've signed Jack Cust  Randy Winn when we had the chance.

Fixed.

[Docwaukee]

trading for Cabrera means no Tex trade which means no Trout.  

[Angel Oracle]

1 minute ago, Dochalo said:

trading for Cabrera means no Tex trade which means no Trout.  

That would depend.    If they had just the one first round pick in 2009, were they going to take Trout or Grichuk?    If Trout, then no worries

[Tank]

18 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Fixed.

in my heart i know there was room in anaheim for both wynn and cust.

and you know it, too.

[Erstad Grit]

13 hours ago, calscuf said:

How about imagine that Arte wasn't a cheap-ass and Reagins wasn't incompetent and Beltre was our third baseman these past 5 years...

If Arte is a cheap ass then why do we have the 5th highest payroll?