Inside Pitch

My post wasn't directed at any one person but rather the larger narrative that "it's now or never" which is often attached to the "Trout window" talk. The Angels don't need concern themselves with anything other than building a better team, one that's capable of winning beyond 2018. He's under contract through 2020, by most accounts he likes SoCal, he's likes his relationship with the team and it's fans... If he walks away from a team capable of winning it all in years 2021 and on then whatever... It can't be controlled. They have a farm system on the cusp of producing talent, they have contracts that will expire and even their worst case financial drain will be gone by 2021.. The Angels don't lack for money. Paying Trout 40 mil a year for ten years would be as easy as cutting Valbuena's current salary and applying it to Trout, other teams looking to do that are going to need to have the open payroll, so believe it or not the Angels have a slight edge there, but ultimately money may not have anything to do with it... Likewise, winning now won't mean a hill of beans in 2020 when the Angels will actually be in danger of losing Trout .... Again, I view the Angels window as currently opening -- not closing.. Now if the argument is just win now... that's a different discussion. Build a team capable of long term success and hope for the best with Trout. The easiest way to win him over imo -- make him trust the process. Lastly... on a personal level... IF the Angels' decision making puts any weight on public opinion again then they will have learned nothing from the Albert Pujols fiasco.

I prefer he not act out of desperation.

This is it in a nutshell. The Angels shouldn't promote any of them unless they are willing to tie themselves to it and sink or swim with them. Stoneman had to make this decision with Washburn, Ortiz and Schoeneweis, Eppler is going to have to do it with Thaiss and Ward.

It means people will talk about getting younger/better but refuse to suffer through the actual process. It means they want to rail against what's already happened but feel the need to repeat it because "what about now." To take a page out of Clod's book, Trout will do whatever the hell is best for him when that time comes.... the Trout window talk is stupid. The Angels need to do what's best for the franchise too and Trout is smart enough to figure out if that's happening or not. If that means they take their lumps this year and bring guys up or trade away Richards, so be it. The ultimate goal should be fixing this team long term, not appeasing someone who by most accounts has a pretty solid grasp on things and seems relatively well grounded. Is there any scenario where this team is better without Trout than with him? NO.. But they need to focus on what they can control and Trout's decision making isn't one of those things . When it's all said and done, nothing is likely to score more points with Trout that looking at this team and thinking it can be a winner for a long time... Does anyone think he's holding on to 2014 as he looks at the next 10 years? Would setting 2020-2023 back to win in 2018 make the Angels any more attractive to Trout or any other player? Go look at the Astros salary/contract situation the next few years... They have some hard choices to make, the Angels window is opening, not closing. Canning, Thaiss, Ward.. all of them could be a part of the "now" as soon as this year and definitely will be by opening day of next year. Obliterating the farm system because "what about now" would IMO be a pyrrhic victory at best. If they are concerned about making Trout believe they really want to win -- well. A certain yachtsman has more than enough money to do so, and there will at least two players coming available soon who check more boxes on the "right guy" list than anyone that's been available during his ownership. Think big.. think beyond "now".

Thanks for the kind words but..... JohnSmith -- dude is the king of the draft.

Dude thats just it.. they have CLEARLY been on guys very early and letting their intentions be known to them. Makes you wonder how long they knew about the kid throwing 98 MPH in Miami...

You get WAAAY more fired up on Twitter than you ever do on here -- it's pretty funny most of the time. Also the Archie updates are pretty awesome.

So ..;.. You have to scroll a ways down to where the header is - THE SURPRISE -- but it's a pretty great read on this kid. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/high-school/2018/05/04/bryce-bush-mississippi-state-john-malcolm-vanderbilt-william-english-tennessee/574544002/ “It depends on the teams and what they’re talking about in negotiations,” English said. “Some teams want me to pitch, for sure, and some want me to hit and some want me to do both.” One of the teams talking about him doing both is the Los Angeles Angels, who now feature Japanese rookie sensation Shohei Ohtani, who pitches and has hit four home runs. “I swear,” English said, “that’s going to be me some day.”

Seems they really wanted English. Happy for this kid -- 700K goes a long ways when you come from where he does.

Am I the only that gets a huge kick out of Chuck when he goes on his twitter rampages? LOL...

I can't really speak for anyone other than myself but I'm pleased with how our draft went... They seemingly went into this valuing select position player ability over what was generally viewed as a glut of safer college pitching with their top two picks. I'm okay with that. I'm a big opponent of taking the highest possible upside regardless of position.... BPA or bust! There is no such thing as drafting for need in a MLB draft IMO, particularly not after the first few overall picks. In all but a tiny fraction of cases it will be years before guys are ready and as we have seen recently ... a team's needs can change dramatically from one year to the next... What I do know is I had some pretty well placed people in other organizations talk Adams up and go on record prior to the draft that the Angels were seemingly all over him despite what they themselves believed were signability issues. As we have come to find out... the Angels had done their research on that end as well. It's also worth noting that some of the pitchers that did drop are long term projection types.... people get caught up in the hype and buy into what they hear the finished product might be while ignoring how long it may take for them to get there. For instance Matt Libatore's best long term comp according to most prospect hounds is Tyler Skaggs.... that's not a slam but he is a guy that many people here were ready to punt on before this year... That speaks volumes as it relates to upsides and expectations... Post draft there has been a lot of talk about Adams projecting as high as a 1-1 talent had he only been focused on baseball. Like Adell, Adams is a supreme athlete, a guy with a great family, and someone who's work ethic and makeup aren't questioned... The interesting thing is that there have seemingly been less questions about the bat and the level of competition with Adams than there were last year with Adell. When it's all said and done regardless of what people here wanted or thought going into the draft, this team only stands to benefit if Adams comes close to being what Adell already is. If there is any disappointment from me it's with the decision to target RPs, simply because history has shown there is almost zero fallback for them. I believe in doing so (focusing on RPs), that it's the closest the Angels have come to drafting for need while under Eppler's direction. That being said, I'm choosing to trust the process. The Angels recent track record suggests they use picks 6-10 to free up cash to use on higher upside talent and if history repeats itself there then I'll be happier with their choices/decision making. Looking forward to Adams and Jackson taking the field and watching them push each other in Rookie ball.

He's still not getting around on FBs very well -- but veteran hitters find ways to make it work. Like AJ and Doc said, this is why you go case by case. Kinsler missed a little time, was coming back from an injury, he'd done enough in his career to where you had to wait him out a little. Young.. No so much. Glad to see a better version of Kinsler -- hopefully he keeps it up.

So.. about Maitan thickening up... Anyone remember Miguel Sano when he signed? Seriously..... it's become a tad overkill IMO.. Part of why these guys are hyped when they are 16 is because they are expected to put on weight and gain strength.... you'd like to see them put on good weight but sometimes they get chubby before they get ripped. I'm not the biggest Maitan fan, he'd be a trade chip for me over guys like Marsh et al. But really the only thing that will ultimately matter is whether or not he hits. If he does people will look at him as a future corner guy and call it a day. Fix all that silly movement of his, get him to square balls and all anyone will talk about is how he hits the ball pretty well for a chubster...

I remember his screename was something with Michigan then something with his name in it

I remember him from the Grandstand Boards -- I dunno about the chat rooms. He was another very approachable guy. There used to be a sportswriter from Seattle, Larry LaRue -- biggest douchebag this side of Stephen Smith. Assumed everyone was an idiot or a liar.. You'd scoop a story and he would chime in to tell you that you were making it up. An hour later when it was announced he would say you made it up and got lucky. Was a massive stat hater too unless it was HRs or anything that made Griffey look like the greatest ever.

How do you even do that? I don't like laughing at someone's injuries but it reads hilariously...

John Smith doing John Smith stuff.... As always thank you for the work you do this time of year.....

Like it was his fault her giant sloth friend couldn't bend over to pick up a ball.... guilt tripping a kid is weak.

That was bullshit....

Late, uneven, up, down.. Slow, early.. it's just stupid.

I say "it is what it is" because ... it is. I don't think the record in one run games is a byproduct of the talent they have on hand and it would be really really hard for someone to explain their record when compared to that of the Astros who are better at pretty much every facet of the game we would want to point towards to try to explain their success. The truth is that what I do believe isn't really something that can be proven .. Mostly, there is a lot of randomness in 1 run games -- good teams tend to win them more often than not (particularly as the sample size increases), but there is no accounting for some of the randomness.... so, as you put it -- there is a lot of "luck" there. Trying to explain luck would be futile for either of us -- so instead I'd rather just go with "it is what it is".

His body isn't really that different from that of Vlad Jrs.. Time for people to stop obsessing over his build and for the Angels to start playing him someplace where it won't be a factor.

Wayyyyyy too much movement .. in and out with his hands. Dude's not setting his hands.. just ugly.

Always this...