Inside Pitch

I must have missed it because as last year closed you were saying they were at least 5 years away from being competitive... Somehow I never saw when where you were enthusiastic about the Angels chances. So when does "never" come? Between Winter and Spring?

That the Angels are "goodwill" contenders or some other narrative.

Boras indicated that Moustakas would not accept one even before FA started... It's all moot.. but someone wanting to return to his former team doesn't wait until two weeks into ST... and they don't turn down a QO when it's offered...

And the winner of the 2018 MLB offseason's most bullshit comment goes to.. Mike Bullshitalkas.... Look at this pile of steaming hot crap.. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22716892/after-slow-free-agent-market-mike-moustakas-re-signs-kansas-city-royals ""It feels like I never left," he said. "It feels great to be back home. I'm excited to be back with the organization I grew up with. I got to see some familiar faces. It's always great to come into a clubhouse and everybody give you a hug. To have an opportunity to come back to Kansas City and play baseball again, it was a no-doubter, a no-brainer for me." It's rare to see such brazen BS outside of the political sphere...

Passan is Jedi's boy... Hes been a twat since he was run out of town....

Dunno if I'd go the length you would, truth is I'd have a hard time offering 6 years to a pitcher with a perfect health record.. But if they haven't at least looked into a three year deal they may be shooting themselves in the foot. I can see Philly throwing a lot of money at him next year -- Klentak is familiar with spin rates, knows Richards well, and likely views him as a good first step towards other possible future acquisitions.

In 6 starts. That 1.1bWAR is why there will be a market for Richards - it only took him 6 starts to get to there. It's the same reason Rich Harden never had any trouble finding a paycheck, the potential upside is there. Cliff Lee was the reigning AL Cy Young in 2009 -- he made 6 mil. Andy Pettite had reeled off four straight seasons of 200 IP and he earned 5.5 mil. Rich Harden had made 13 starts the previous two years and he got 7 Mil as a FA... That 7 mil put him in the top 30 for SP salaries. The game is obviously changing, but guys with Richards' stuff and upside are still very rare.

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/971894149329731585 Video of the new boards ... pretty nifty..

The market didn't buy into the juiced ball inflated power enough to look beyond his out-making tendencies on offense. Posting a career worst walk rate in your walk year doesn't really instill confidence about your future among saber inclined organizations.. Outside of SF, all the big money teams are pretty heavily into advance metrics. He would have made cake in the 80/90s...

The issue with Moustakas was as much about the loss of international and draft monies as it was anything he would have cost. Eppler seems pretty committed to making the team better, just not at the expense of adding to the player development going on. That may change after three drafts, but it seemed highly unlikely going into the offseason and even less so now.

Yep.... Seems pretty innocuous to me too...

Not deceiving so much as they are just shaped differently... The Petco one is taller -- Angels one is wider... So while there may not be a huge difference in the overall square footage, it's just a case of it being spread out differently. At the end of the day -- you're right, it likely won't make a difference.

I don't think they are trying to say that the Angels will be -- but rather that even if they DID put in a shit ass pitcher he would still benefit from the Defense. Seems more like a figure of speech than an actual statement about the Angels intentions.

Looking at those pics -- the Petco board could fit in the middle section of the Angels new one... Its nowhere near as big...

Please share the link where Mike Trout responded to the same question asked of Upton with what you just posted. Surely it actually happened...

So what he actually said... No. At the end of the day, I ended up in the place that I should have been: Detroit. Detroit came in and told me how much I could help their team. OK, cool, let’s figure something out. Teams want to call and downgrade you as much as they possibly can to sign you for cheaper. That’s not what free agency is about. Free agency is about finding a team that matches you. It’s weird. I remember, when my brother was a free agent, he went and visited teams. This was before ’13, three seasons before I was a free agent. He met with teams at their stadiums. They put him on their scoreboard. They were courting players. Now, all of the sudden, you’re telling players how bad they are and how little money you’re gonna give them. It’s not right. He was being asked to contrast FA in previous years to what's happening now -- he gave examples, both from his FA and of his brother's... who everyone would agree was a much lesser player.. His point is and always has been -- the process has changed as analytics has gained a greater following.. But, keep on not demonizing him..

Here is what Moura had to say about this FA period... It is alarming and weird that it’s taken this long for so many players to find suitors, no doubt. But if the guys get the deals that are pretty close to expectations, just later than they expected, that’s not so bad, right? What’s so bad is when guys settle for deals way lower. Lorenzo Cain signed in late January, but he signed for $80 million. But some of these first basemen settled for one year after a predicted three or four. And here is Moura's opinion of Upton's response, all of which you are choosing you ignore because you're only interested in creating a false narrative.. The courting process is going away, you’re saying. It’s hard to come up with an argument against that being the case. And then there is this comment from Moura that perfectly sums you up... Again, it’s difficult to argue against that. But if you tell that to a lot of fans, they will say, ‘Well, you guys are paid handsomely to account for that. Lastly -- while you will no doubt continue to try to demonize him for no real reason other than you're a hater... THIS is what he said about his situation with the Angels... "I was fortunate enough to be with a team I enjoyed playing for and checked a lot of things off my list. If I had to become a free agent, I would be in the same boat as these guys, standing side by side with the (Mike) Moustakases and guys that don’t have a job." Go ahead and spin his calling himself fortunate as anything other than a guy fully aware he was in a good situation, or what some might call "lucky" to be where he is. Of course he hasn't seen the actual interview.... he doesn't need to. He's not interested in what he actually had to say or what it was in response to -- just how he could spin it to make him look bad. Upton used 941 words in his responses to Moura's comments/questions regarding the state of FA this season.. Claude is choosing to ignore 935 of them to focus on the 6 that serve his purpose. But hey -- he's totally not trying to demonize him.

AZ.... curves and the sort tend to not break and stay up. The fact that he's shown as much movement as he has there is kinda surprising.

This might be your most spot on scouting report.. ever....

Jerry showed up and fired all the people responsible for drafting and player development because he was the smartest man in the room. As proof he personally scouted and signed Baldoquin... All he needed was some at bats... He was totally ready.

Said Eppler growing up in SoCal witness the Angels wave of talent with Salmon and company ... then again with all the international guys and the Stoneman wave... Says the Angels during their golden age were known as a development powerhouse and that when he interviewed for the job he talked up the need to become that sort of a franchise again. They talked about the quality of the top 5, and how it drops off after number 11 but that it's only year two. He says that it's possible by year four we could be talking about a team on the verge of busting out.... Also mentions how in previous years the trades for Upton and Kinsler would have destroyed the farm system but there was so much talent in place now that they were able to move second tier guys and not hurt their overall prospect cache... The even shorter version is...... ANGELS!!!! F@#& YEAH!!!!!!

So.. When a reporter asks for an opinion and he says no comment -- then what? All that does is open the door for them to be portrayed as surly or as a malcontent for the Clod's of the world. Instead of creating a narrative that he's been disgruntled in the past, the narrative would be that he's bitter he didn't get his way. Has anyone actually read the article? The dude gave an honest opinion about how the game is changing, particularly the FA process in responding to a direct question -- there was nothing remotely rancorous in his statements but I guess because he makes more money than Joe fan he needs to STFU -- is that really how the world works now? The entire article is really pretty good because it's remarkably candid -- typical of the stuff being put out by The Athletic. Meanwhile Joe Fan talks shit and tears the guy down as he pleases because well... reasons.. And no, I don't believe you are guilty of that in the least... but others are. To be perfectly honest I'm 100% on board with not wanting to hear them whine.. He just wasn't whining. This isn't Patrick Ewing complaining that yeah he makes a lot of money but Ferraris cost a lot of money too.

"I'm not racist, I even have a black friend".

Narrative Buliding 101... By Clod. Step 1 -- get your message out.... Narrative #1 -- His actions are bad because I say so and I want to portray them in a poor light. Narrative #2 -- He's been on five teams so he must be as bad a guy as I am trying to paint him as. Step 2 -- repeat narratives ad nauseam... Tell us again how you're not trying to demonize the guy.

Horseshit... You're doing what you always do. You took what I think anyone paying attention would view as pretty innocuous comments and tried to paint them with the same narratives as always ..."It appears that he thought he would get more offers and more money when he tested the market. The market obviously didn’t agree with his assessment" Talk about spin... The rest of your post is just more of you trying to push a narrative... I mean -- wtf does the tripe about 5 owners have to do with anything he said? It's just your new "Cameron Maybin's been on five teams" BS.. Seriously, stop pissing on our legs and telling us its raining -- nobody is that stupid. Lastly -- let me quote you a couple more times... How about you listen to your own advice?