Neither Eppler or Dipoto are GM of the Angels anymore and people are still debating them lol.
Adell is probably getting his bags packed for when Dombrowski takes over and trades him away.
I like proper history, not rhetorical history. That way we have an accurate comparison. As you notice, people are still not accepting what is as an excuse. You beat wrong speech with correct speech. After year 2 of Eppler, I've been proven correct year after year once you accept Eppler's pattern and production. Accurate history helps to have accurate comparison. This can also help with comparable parallels.
This segues into Adell, one of Eppler's first round draft picks. Eppler drafted position players in his first four drafts and, finally, a pitcher in the fifth draft season of first round picks. Now add the context that Eppler has been trading pitching for positional players (2014 Rd 1 P Newcomb and Rd 3 P Ellis for SS Simmons; 2015 Rd 3 P Long + for OF Upton) and spent a lot of money on FA positional players such as 3B Cozart 3 years for $38 mil, OF Upton 5 years for $106 mil, and 3B Rendon 7-years for $245 mil, to name a few.
We can use this example with the Ducks going into this year's draft. We have NHL defensemen signed for quite a few years with a #1 Lindholm (age 26) and #3 Fowler (age 28). We have our top-5 out of 7 NHL defensive roster set with some 2nd pairing potential prospects in our farm system. The NHL club is missing goal scoring and has been missing it for the past three seasons. Do the Ducks draft a defenseman with the #6 overall or address that black hole lack of talent at forward to induce more goal scoring (we don't necessarily need a goal scorer only forward)?
The Angels did not need to draft four position players from 2016 - 2019. They could have sprinkled in some pitchers and still draft Adell. For example, in 2016 MLB draft, Eppler took the hitter Matt Thaiss, knowing he won't be a catcher at the MLB level, at pick 16. If Eppler wanted a more advanced pitcher to get to the MLB level sooner, then college RHP Justin Dunn. That's the same Dunn that the Mariners' GM Dipoto traded for in Dec of 2018. Two years later, Dunn is looking like an MLB mainstay this past year. The Angels could have had Dunn available to the Angels this year, looking good for the Angels future with Canning's ascension.
As the trade deadline neared, Adell was often in theoretical trades for a starting pitcher. Do we still need to trade away Adell this winter? I dunno.
Starters going into next season
Bundy
Canning
Heaney
Barria
XXX
Ohtani
We have a top-3 with Bundy, Canning, and Heaney. Do the Angels need an ace or #3-6 guy(s)? If we need an ace, then we trade away Adell because we can't afford an ace with Arte not willing to go over the luxury tax with a FA ace. Then we're looking for a young pitcher that's cost controlled. If we need #3-6 type pitchers, then we can keep Adell. We do have some #3-6 guys in Sandoval and Andriese. 2020 1st rd pick Detmers is still years away.
If we look at our pitching ERA, then we notice our bullpen was beyond terrible. And that's where I'd like the Angels to address this off-season. We do have some positional prospects besides Adell we can dangle such as Ward and Walsh in case we don't want to get into a bidding war for relief pitchers and a closer.
Pitchers who may jump back to form:
Starting pitcher Ohtani (age 26... 1st year return from TJS)
Starting pitcher Suarez (age 22)
Relief pitcher Middleton (age 27)
Relief pitcher Robles (age 30)
These pitchers had a good track record before this year. Both Ohtani and Middleton had injuries last season that ended their season. Suarez had injury problems this season.
The Angels have a powerful offense (despite Upton's massive drought this year), but that pitching group needs addressing. I think we got an ace with Bundy and the possibility of Ohtani returning to form. Heaney looks to be a very good #2. We need more starting pitching depth, but our dire need is at improving our relief pitchers.
We don't need our pitching to hold under 700 runs allowed because our runs scored have been at least 769 runs scored for the past two seasons. We just need to reduce the runs allowed from 860's to somewhere between 710 - 725 runs allowed. How can we drop 140 runs allowed? It looks daunting, but over 162 games, that's 0.83 runs allowed per game that the Angels need to find.
I'm gonna try to think out of the box on this and say that we might need to sign a top-end catcher this offseason. We may not re-sign SS Simmons, thereby opening up $15 mil. The projected AAV for catcher TJ Realmuto is $18 mil. Realmuto and Stassi can give our pitchers more confidence with their
pitch framing, where TJ saved 3 runs and Stassi 1 run as well as both having over 50% called strike rates. We can slide Fletcher to be the full time SS, which does leave an opening at 2B. Prospect Jahmai Jones will be thrusted into the lineup at 2B. (Both guys drafted in 2015, Dipoto.)
Arte will love this signing because TJ can hit, but I like his pitch framing aspect far more beneficial for our pitching staff. That's an indirect way of improving pitching. We need better relief pitchers and some luck with health issues for Ohtani, Suarez, and Middleton.
Wow. We really did have some back luck due to health and our pitching staff. Then again, Eppler never really tried to address the pitching core enough because we don't have talent on the horizon to weather the storm. Comparing this situation with the Ducks, the Ducks have talent coming, but they're still too young. So there's that.
