Inside Pitch

@96 Jo Adell http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2017-midseason-top-100-prospects-july-7/#K8ikUTwi6WxZfBEj.97 Try not to be mad at who is @2 and the sad reality the Angels pissed that opportunity away.

He won't get another start between now and the ASB. The Angels have been doing some pretty epic roster manipulation in the first half -- this is more of that.. basically they found a way to have an extra RP for a week.

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/list/mlb-worst-contracts-war-value-2017-matt-wieters-albert-pujols-adrian-gonzalez-danny-espinosa/10lgu7p7dcbaz1a0uyklgyx04t/slide/10

Chris Rodriguez went 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K last night... Hes now gone 10 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 Ks over his last two starts after a brutal open to the season. Leo Rivas is still raking .393/.507/.607 -- 12 BB 8K so far. His career numbers to date .288/.419/.402... Maybe we can dream of a leadoff 2B in the future.

He's been willing to do it before, and more than once. I don't think he would hesitate to do it again, but it's not gonna happen this year or even next.

You are trying to make it seem like the Yankees saw a problem and removed it.. They didn't -- they watched as he put up an OPS+ of 114 between his age 35-37 seaons -- a period of time that saw him hit 41 HRs and drive in 138 runs COMBINED despite playing in offense happy park.. They caught a break when he was suspended for a year then waited until his OPS dropped below.600 his second year after the suspension then bought him out of the final year of his contract. Don't look now but the Angels are treating AP EXACTLY the same way the Yanks did Arod.. If they were to take your advice and follow the Yank's lead then I guess he'll be given until 2020 then get bought out... He still got paid, he just got a year's paid vacation.

....... not that there is anything wrong with that.....

Those winds ... ooooh boy... When the Cajon Pass is blowing, basically all of those parks see their tendencies get all borked...

They spent over slot and signed lots of international players. Neither team can do that any longer -- everyone is locked into their signing bonus money.. Moving forward it's really going to come down to how well teams scout..... both tools and metrics. If 4 years from now the Angels are being talked about as a top 5 system, then an argument could be made that Eppler outperformed every other GM in the team's history. Stoneman's teams spent first round money on guys in the teens (Trumbo, Adenhart), they had several Draft and Follow signings, they were able to bid whatever they wanted on guys like Ervin, Morales, etc etc... Say what you will, Weaver was considered a signability guy that the Angels rolled the dice on, and then signed. They wouldn't be able to do any of those things anymore, it's simply not allowed. The next few years are going to be really interesting from a development POV for us and everyone else.

Bro -- I hate to cut away your entire post cause you were making a solid point -- but "Our Injured 5" sounds like the name of a emo boy band or something. Made me laugh.

The strength of that farm system wasnt it's top end guys but it's sheer depth... Behind Kotch there was Morales Behind Wood there was Aybar Behind Mathis there was Napoli Behind Kendrick there was Callaspo, Alexi, Casillas, and the kid we sent to SD for Frieri. Callaspo started life as a SS but was moved over to 2b because of Aybar.. 3B is where the system crapped out.. When D-Mac's back went bust there wasn't anyone behind him to step up -- Wood moved over from SS and we know what happened there.. Morales, Aybar, Naps, Kendrick, and Callaspo all went on to have solid MLB careers... People will argue that none became stars but, that's a lot of MLB regulars along with Weaver, Santana, Saunders, Krod, etc... Few teams of that era can say they saw as much talent come out of their farm at the time.

Re-read what I said.. I said hitters park --- the article called it a PITCHER'S paradise.... but.... Yes.. people have. I'd go find the posts that say as much if I felt it was worth it but I do not. I can however tell you it chaps me every time I see it said. The Cal League was a notoriously hitter happy park for decades -- that's changed in recent years and with High Desert and Bakersfield gone an argument can be made it's a pitcher's league now. Of the 8 remaining franchises 5 of them have played like pitcher's parks over the last three seasons. Still for many the perception that it's a hitter league seems to remain.

Well, no idea what information your basing your opinion on but I can tell you that the information at StatsInc has it as a hitters park in all but one season the last 12 years, same as the data at Statcorner dating back to 2007. It's tended to play closer to neutral for lefties, but as whole all the data out there shows it's one of Low A's better hitters parks. This recent baseball america article pretty much mirrors what the other sources say -- http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/new-way-think-ballpark-factors/#fVUxJ3AC65i8TYZw.97 it's 113 run index is the highest in the Midwest league. Also worth noting that it lists Inland Empire as a Pitchers paradise. So people can stop calling it a hitter's park too.

Pitcher's park? http://www.statcorner.com/team/420/2017/Burlington Bees PARK FACTORS (LHB / RHB) K: 92 96 nB: 103 101 gbH: 101 96 ofH: 94 102 1B: 97 94 GB: 100 99 2/3B: 97 125 FB: 114 110 HR: 150 111 LD: 90 90 Runs: 108 109 IF: 107 111

Sherm has a history of posting stupidly low BABIP for stretches -- he's like the anti-Ichiro in that regard. Always came across as an oddity to me.

I don't recall, but I really hate having that place as our low-A team. For me, it's hard to get a real gauge on how well or poorly a guy is doing because while I can see the weather in the Midwest impacting performances the park itself it really kinda hitter friendly. Hate that park.

Nice to see -- but he's back in AA... I'm pretty excited to see Jahmai Jones triple slash line where it is currently... Both Hermosillo and Jones have rebounded nicely from awful awful starts...

Jam Jomes

Ha! if Puka Shells are gonna help us, may as well hire CJ Wilson to be director of Puka Shelling.

I like this thread very much and would like to wish Glen all the best in his coupling with Selma Hayek.

The Angels were ranked 30th by BBA in 1999 -- they were then ranked number one overall in 2005 -- two years after Disney had sold but they deserve the credit for giving Stoneman the assets to turn it all around. They weren't ranked 30th again until 2014 -- they were in fact ranked as high as 16th as late as 2012 ... 9 years is not a short period of time in MLB... More importantly... you seem to be arguing that they aren't in the process of attempting a similar rebuild. A person has to stick their head really deeply into a hole to pretend there hasn't been a dramatic change of course in how this team operates, particularly in the minor leagues. Eppler has a harder road ahead of him than Stoneman did. There are limits as to what teams can spend both internationally and in the draft. There are penalties in place that didn't exist -- there are no more draft and follow picks. But there is no denying the farm is being rebuilt. You're putting the sins of the previous regimes on Eppler while simultaneously ignoring the work he's done to right the ship. It's not going to get fixed overnight.

Letting Vargas go was fine -- they were concerned about his health and didnt want to go the extra year KC was willing to go. Their fears were proven correct -- he failed to pitch 200 innings his first season in KC and then only 55 innings combined the last two seasons. Santana was a pretty clear mistake -- his level of suckage was always overstated by Angels fans. bWAR 2008 - 5.0 219 IP, a better WAR total than any pitcher since. 2009 - (-0.2) People always seem to forget he was injured to start the season -- he didn't make his first start til the middle of May and then was shut down again in June. After a horrible 40 innings in the first half where he posted a ERA of 7.71, he gave the Angels 99 innings of 3.90 ERA the second half of the season. Second best total IP and lowest ERA among SP to Lackey. Weaver came in at 4.47 the second half. 2010 - 3.0 222.2 IP 2011 - 3.0 228.2 IP 2012 - (-1.3) He was awful. He basically had one bad season in his last five and an injury riddled first half of 2009. Angels pitchers have combined for as many 200 IP seasons the last five years as they got out of Santana over his last 5. That's 25 rotation spots, for a total of 3, 200 IP seasons .vs 3 out of 5 from Ervin in his last five seasons as an Angel. Hell, his 178 innings in that awful 2012 would have ranked first in 2016, third 2015 (2 behind Santiago), 2nd in 2014, and 2nd in 2013. Santana for all his warts could be counted on to take the mound and pitch.. he was underappreciated by Angels fans IMO. Like Howie Kendrick, he was ripped more for what he wasn't than accepted for what he was. Not saying he was as good as Howie - but they both took heat for having failed to live up to whatever expectations people may have placed on them. Ervin gave up HRs.... Howie hit into DPs.. A lot of people focused on those things and not the rest of what they brought to the table.

Basically -- the indexes argue rather loudly that the park in IE has played like much more of a severe pitcher's park than even Angel Stadium. Thaiss has been better than the raw numbers indicate, if you click on his name, and then look at the rates, mouse over the numbers and you'll see the league averages.... He's been very quietly having a solid season masked by a tough park to hit in -- and he's been a tad unlucky if you compare his BaBIP to the league average. But mostly what the data is arguing is that the guys we want to see do well, are doing better than what the raw numbers tell us. There is reason for hope there.

I find I always try to counter arguments from people talking about how some of our guys in High A are tanking based on the mythology that the Cal League is still an offense first league.... I figured I'd just post this here, let people see the actual indexes for Inland Empire and just how well some of our supposed failures are actually doing. http://www.statcorner.com/team/401/2017/Inland Empire 66ers Green is good.. Red is bad.

Yeah... of the 12 top fWAR players on the current roster,10 are Eppler additions. It's going to take a little time to undo the damage done by the Reagins/Dipoto front offices.