Inside Pitch

It would be disappointing if they pass on a better player to try to get someone who "might" contribute sooner. The flip side is whoever they end up drafting stands a good chance of becoming a useful player. TY for starting and pinning this thread BTW...

AL West was a monster that year -- 103, 99, 93 wins for the top three teams. Seattle and Bosox both win 93 games and ended up 6 games back of a playoff spot...

It's Stoney's fault. He sould have taken the big raise Arte offered him and spared us the trouble...

Grow a fucking set will you? You asked a question that essentially made it clear you didn't have a clue what you were responding to.. Rephrasing it to save face and whining about rudeness is weak.. So... you spare me the rude talk and I'll not call you stupid.

We don't -- that's the point. Reading is fundamental.

Fan fiction is a fluid thing. Speaking of the fans -- the golden boy FA to get that winter was Crawford. He's earned 42 mil combined in 2016 and 17.... When it's all said and done he compiled 3.5 WAR over the lifetime of his 142 million dollar contract. Hamilton will have earned 2.9 for his 125 mil. Talk about grenades...

Imagine if he had not given Dipoto GM powers.. They wouldn't have fired the entire scouting staff and we might actually have a farm system, a LFer, a SS hitting over .350.

The National TV deal is worth 1.6 Billion -- split 30 ways. Last year MLBAM topped 1.3 -- again, split 30 ways and that money is expected to go through the roof now that MLB is supplying streaming services for a bunch of people... That's money in their pockets before taking the local TV deals into consideration and then the gate money and concessions. MLBAM may be MLBs biggest source of income before long -- MLB's owners turned their 1 mil a year (each) contribution into a massive case cow...

You'd be a Jenner?

Either way -- he's fat....

Honestly, he's not made me reconsider anything -- failed starters and niche pitchers to the pen is as old as squatting to take a dump. Eppler is just better at combining scouting and sabermetric principles than his predecessor.

The more you push the human body to it's extremes, the more likely you'll see an injury. Athletes today are far more maxed out than they were 20 years ago -- I think it's only natural that injuries are up. The crackdown on PEDs is likely also at play -- some of those guys weren't using to get bigger, but rather to overcome fatigue -- and as it's been written about countless times -- fatigue is the most common factor that leads to injuries. The Angels pitching woes are IMO, just bad luck.... An extreme reversal of what they saw the previous ten years.

No, I think you have it right -- he WAS frustrating, in part because we saw what he could be when he was right. But he was a pretty much a lock for 200 innings at a league average ERA -- when you consider that is always brought down by RPs -- he was in reality an above average SP for the most part. He was undervalued/underrated because people wanted him to be more than he was. When it's all been said and done he's in the top 15 for IP, and Ks the last 10 years.. Ranks 32nd for pitcher WAR over that span -- he has very quietly had himself a very solid, respectable career. In some ways he's been John Lackey minus the WS wins the last ten years. But yeah -- as a fan he was frustrating.

He's got "show hair", Baby.... I gotta admit, I lol everything he cocks his head backwards to force it off then whips his hair around after he's come to a stop... He's got a bit of that A-Rod poser thing going on -- legit super star, but he likes to play up for the cameras like A-Rod used to do. With A-Rod it was always a wince and a shrug like he had just banged himself up diving/sliding etc etc... You could set your watch by it.

Santana was more consistent than people gave him credit for -- that 5.03 season in 2009 saw him open the season the DL with a UCL injury -- at the time it was thought he might need TJ surgery and be out for 18 months... instead he rehabbed then gutted it out.. His first half ERA that year was over 6.00... He posted an ERA under 3.90 the second half which was right in line with what he had done the previous year at 3.42 and the next two seasons 3.92 and and 3.38. His last season in Anaheim he was legitimately awful -- but his final 5 seasons in Anaheim saw him pitch 998 innings of 100 ERA+ baseball. FTR... His season with the Royals he posted a WAR of 2.5... the season after that he was actually better at 2.9 WAR. He got popped with a suspension in 2015 but if you project his WAR over a full slate of games started he would have again come in at 2.8 -- last year it was 3.2. He's been a bit more consistent/valuable than it might seem. Ervin Santana has put up 106 ERA and pitched 1700 innings since turning 25 (11th best total in MLB since 2008). His ERA over that span a pretty clean 3.80. By most standards he's been a bit underrated.

Profar needs to go to AAA and prove he can hit for more than 100 at bats in any one stretch.. The hype surrounding him was always about what he projected to be based on his age 19 season in AA. Someone his age doing that well in a league where everyone was 4-5 years older than him seemed primed for super-stardom Problem is he's not actually progressed at all since then. The injuries and missed time hurt for sure -- but his game just stopped getting better. Experience hasn't seen him improve his game and his physical tools today are no better and some might argue are worse today than when he was 20. He had an absolutely blazing hot month last year but he's failed to hit even .175 since the break last year.. Personally, I don't think the Rangers did him any favors by keeping him on the MLB roster last year after basically missing 2-3 seasons. He needs to play everyday and actually try to develop his game a little. One scout I know comps him to Corey Patterson, and not in a positive way, but rather as someone that for all his tools he just never got better.

The tear he's on right now -- even teams that weren't considering him are going to look his way. I dont think anyone in the draft gets to the ball or through the zone as well as Adell does.

Wonder if Snuffy handed out a gift basket to his dates too...

Somewhere Brian is giggling his ass off thinking. "FINALLY!!!!"

Strawberry Farms...

There is no question they have drafted well but among the 5 you mentioned none were taken later than the 9th pick. That makes "drafting intelligently" a lot easier.. BTW -- the Cubs had two other first round picks since taking Baez in 2011, both in 2012.... the 43rd overall pick Pierce Johnson and the 56th pick Paul Blackburn -- both are in AAA. Johnson appears to have washed out as a SP and is now working out of the pen where he's got an BB/9 over 7, and Blackburn has been traded twice first to Seattle, then Oakland. I'd say Blackburn was a pretty astute pick as well, even if he hasn't yet been up to MLB. The Angels BTW haven't had a draft pick inside the top 10 in 20 years... but when they did, they seemingly drafted intelligently.. Troy Glaus. Before him, it was Darin Erstad.

Full season stats .vs 6 weeks... Brilliant!!!! I know you think you made a point, but you didn't..

Given the number of HRs allowed by our pitching staff the Angels should consider having Nagy talk to the hitters...

This here was worth reading this thread...

You're thinking of Marsala.... something like that -- anytime Howie got a hit or did anything right he would refer to the pitcher as the worst pitcher in MLB. I think you're probably right and that some of the GA hate grew to be more satirical over the years but he was the target of real and constant criticism, particularly from the Disar/Estad fan club types. Angel fans love their red asses.