The Angels are an absolute disaster

[MMC]

I’m an Angels fan, and I’m making this thread both as a rant because as a fan I’m disgusted with the way things have gone down lately, and also because I don’t think this gets enough talk and I’m curious to see what all of HF feels about the state of the team.

We were recently eliminated from playoff contention which means we are about to go this whole decade without winning any playoff games, and having only one appearance where we were swept in the ALDS. This is despite having Mike Trout, the consensus best player in the league, in his prime for 8 of these years. With the injuries we have suffered, and the toughness of our schedule to end the season, it is very likely that we will finish with our worst record of this millennium.

Every attempt we have made to surround Trout with some high level talent has seemingly ended in disaster. We have handed out multiple large contracts to talented players, C.J. Wilson, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, and Justin Upton, and Zack Cozart, to name a few, and all of these players have absolutely fallen off a cliff after becoming Angels. We have also tried to add players through trades to help us compete, Huston Street, Zack Greinke, Vernon Wells, and Andrelton Simmons, and only Simmons has made a lasting impact on this team. The reason for many of these trades and signings, also is because been unable to develop any type of homegrown talent to help us win, with the exception of Kole Calhoun who has not consistently been a productive player and will likely be lost in free agency, and David Fletcher who is looking like he might become a productive infielder for us.

While we have holes pretty much everywhere in the lineup, 3B, 2B (Fletcher hopefully fills in for one of these), 1B, C, and bullpen, our biggest, most glaring hole which has been the team’s biggest since Trout has been with us, is in the starting rotation. Our rotation is currently comprised of:

Andrew Heaney (former top prospect who has struggled with injuries since being in the majors but has been productive when healthy)

Jaime Barria (meh prospect of us for awhile, showed promise last season)

Jose Suarez (good prospect who does not look MLB ready in the slightest.)

Patrick Sandoval (same deal as Suarez)

Dillon Peters (meh AAAA player who is just here because we have no one else)

zero of our these pitchers were in our rotation to start the season which was

Trevor Cahill (terrible, moved to the bullpen where he hasn’t been any better)

Matt Harvey (terrible, DFA’d)

Felix Pena (out for the year with torn ACL, not good anyways)

Chris Stratton (terrible, traded to the Pirates where he became an ok reliever)

Tyler Skaggs (RIP)

Our rotation, as currently constructed is nowhere close to being good enough to make a serious run at the postseason, let alone a championship. The other starters I have not mentioned are Griffin Canning (our best pitching prospect to enter the season, looked ok before getting shut down, ideally a #4 starter) and Shohei Ohtani who will surely be on an innings limit next season as he will be coming back from TJS. We have made multiple attempts to patch the rotation over the years, with trading for several starters such as Skaggs, Heaney, Hector Santiago, Stratton, Felix Pena, Ricky Nolasco, and Alex Meyer and J.C. Ramirez, and made multiple signings such as Harvey, Cahill, Wilson and Lincecum, and to this day, still have one of, if not the worst rotation in the entire league.

It cannot be stated enough how much players we have signed have underperformed. Upton and Pujols have negative fWARs this season, and both have multiple years left on their contracts. Josh Hamilton was a complete bust and was only here for 2 years before being traded after relapsing. Recently, we have given out similar overpayments to Lucroy, Cahill, Harvey, Bour, and Allen who have combined for a -2.4 fWAR.

A lot of Angels fans praise our GM for having built up a decent farm system, but it has yet to produce any results. Only Canning has made an impact at the MLB level, and it was only as a decent #4 starter for 3 months of the season. We have one of the best prospects in the league in Adell, but it remains to be seen if him and our other top prospects can become the supporting cast Trout needs.

Off the field, our personnel decisions have left a lot to be desired. We kept Scioscia around for 18 years until he resigned, which is absolutely insane considering how long we went during his tenure without accomplishing anything. After that, we hired an awful manager in Ausmus who hasn’t inspired any confidence at all that he can be the guy to take us to the postseason.

In addition to all of this, we also have suffered the Skaggs tragedy, are currently under investigation over said tragedy, and have an owner who wants to relocate the team to Long Beach.

The Angels are an absolute disaster, and it doesn’t look like it will change any time soon.

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[AdmiralsFan24]

A lot of Angels fans praise our GM for having built up a decent farm system, but it has yet to produce any results.

Yeah, it takes time when you start from nothing. And he was saddled with the Pujols contract.

 

[MMC]

Yeah, it takes time when you start from nothing. And he was saddled with the Pujols contract.

That definitely hurt things, but he also had a lot of money freed up from when Wilson, Weaver, and Hamilton’s contracts ended and did nothing to improve the team with that money.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

That definitely hurt things, but he also had a lot of money freed up from when Wilson, Weaver, and Hamilton’s contracts ended and did nothing to improve the team with that money.

He tried to with short term signings that didn't work out. Once the farm system starts producing he'll probably start making bigger signings. Might start this year by trying to get Cole or something.

 

[Cassano]

He tried to with short term signings that didn't work out. Once the farm system starts producing he'll probably start making bigger signings. Might start this year by trying to get Cole or something.

Cole will be a Yankee next season

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Cole will be a Yankee next season

Cool

 

[robert terwilliger]

this is just a longer post of the many you've made wrt eppler and the angels. i've explained this to you a number of times.

eppler's job is to make the team better. he was told by his boss (moreno) to keep the team competitive, not sell everything not nailed down but to try to win. eppler built a good defense to try to prop up a bad pitching staff and set about doing it that way while he rebuilt the farm system.

he's done that. they're not a great farm system now, i've read around 12th, but they were arguably the worst when he took over an old team with no farm system in 2016. to see that marked improvement in such a short period of time is pretty good, man.

for all the long beach stuff, it's a pro sports team owner trying to leverage getting a city to pay for something that he doesn't want to pay for. it's posturing.

 

[TNT87]

At least you aren't a Pirate fan.

 

[MMC]

this is just a longer post of the many you've made wrt eppler and the angels. i've explained this to you a number of times.

eppler's job is to make the team better. he was told by his boss (moreno) to keep the team competitive, not sell everything not nailed down but to try to win. eppler built a good defense to try to prop up a bad pitching staff and set about doing it that way while he rebuilt the farm system.

he's done that. they're not a great farm system now, i've read around 12th, but they were arguably the worst when he took over an old team with no farm system in 2016. to see that marked improvement in such a short period of time is pretty good, man.

for all the long beach stuff, it's a pro sports team owner trying to leverage getting a city to pay for something that he doesn't want to pay for. it's posturing.

I know my team, so there's no need for you to be condescending. It's great that he's improved the farm, but it doesn't excuse the fact that all of his teams (both MLB and in the minors), free agent signings, and hirings have been complete shit since he took over.

 

[robert terwilliger]

yeah, that's what happens when you essentially skip a giant crop of players by your predecessors drafting poorly. we've known for years that teams relying on free agency to fill holes often perform poorly. eppler was given the wallet by moreno and spent on defensive players and pitching where he could, patching the best he could with what was available.

i really don't know if anyone else could have done better. you could have had a more aggressive gm in there, wheeling and dealing, depotoing as it were, and wind up in even worse shape than you started, relying on ripping off stupider gm's for their talent...but how sustainable is that? or how can you rely on "welp, someone else is gonna f*** up and we'll take advantage"

team building is difficult and very often boring. the idea that you can hand eppler the keys to an old team with no farm and no help coming and expect to be world series contenders within, what, three years? how? he's had the three albatrosses eating his payroll and baseball at large coming to the realization that keeping their talent locked up and away from free agency is a winning idea. he's watched the cubs and astros sully the "rebuild" waters because they were allowed to strip down and rebuild carefully, through the draft and international pool. eppler wasn't given the same ability, he's three years into his rebuild and has gotten the farm system back and has had them hovering at .500 for his boss at the same time. he's a really good gm.

 

[MMC]

yeah, that's what happens when you essentially skip a giant crop of players by your predecessors drafting poorly. we've known for years that teams relying on free agency to fill holes often perform poorly. eppler was given the wallet by moreno and spent on defensive players and pitching where he could, patching the best he could with what was available.

i really don't know if anyone else could have done better. you could have had a more aggressive gm in there, wheeling and dealing, depotoing as it were, and wind up in even worse shape than you started, relying on ripping off stupider gm's for their talent...but how sustainable is that? or how can you rely on "welp, someone else is gonna **** up and we'll take advantage"

team building is difficult and very often boring. the idea that you can hand eppler the keys to an old team with no farm and no help coming and expect to be world series contenders within, what, three years? how? he's had the three albatrosses eating his payroll and baseball at large coming to the realization that keeping their talent locked up and away from free agency is a winning idea. he's watched the cubs and astros sully the "rebuild" waters because they were allowed to strip down and rebuild carefully, through the draft and international pool. eppler wasn't given the same ability, he's three years into his rebuild and has gotten the farm system back and has had them hovering at .500 for his boss at the same time. he's a really good gm.

He made Harvey and Cahill the two highest paid starters on one year deals. He made Allen the highest paid reliever on a one year deal. He thought it was a good idea to give Cozart and Upton the long term deals he gave them. Several of his moves have cost us the shot at having a winning record in all of his seasons of his tenure. You speak of him as if he has made no mistakes. He has made many.

 

[NJDevs26]

Yeah I almost didn't think there was any such thing as bad one-year contracts till I saw the Angels' offseason, my goodness.

It's almost unprecedented that the best player in a given sport is on such a nondescript team with no chance of winning, though it's close to becoming that in Edmonton with Connor McDavid. But it just doesn't happen in sports in general...Mario, Gretzky, Crosby and Ovi were never on losers in their prime other than one or two years at the start of their careers. It really can't happen in the NBA cause one player is so much of the thing. Franchise QB's in football can make their team at least semi-relevant. Baseball the best player has little impact on their team compared to other sports but it hasn't even happened there much until Trout. Ernie Banks was a HOF'er but not even close to the best player in baseball at that time.

 

[tony d]

It's true. Shame too because they have Trout there. Guy is the best player in baseball right now and his team gives him almost nothing to work with. He could be a guy that retires as a top 15-20 player all time and no World Series ring.

 

[robert terwilliger]

He made Harvey and Cahill the two highest paid starters on one year deals. He made Allen the highest paid reliever on a one year deal. He thought it was a good idea to give Cozart and Upton the long term deals he gave them. Several of his moves have cost us the shot at having a winning record in all of his seasons of his tenure. You speak of him as if he has made no mistakes. He has made many.

those are one year deal mistakes. i broke those down in the other thread this broke out in.

he signed veteran players to one year show me deals because he didn't have the ability to go out and get a good starter. look who was available on the free agent market. according to mlbtr's top 50:

corbin was all but guaranteed to the east coast. keuchel waited and waited and kind of played himself. eovaldi (lmao they can have him). happ wanted to stay in the east, same with morton. ryu accepted a qo from the dodgers and i'd be surprised if he ever pitches as well as he has again.

we're now to the anibal sanchez, gio gonzalez area, oddly mlbtr had them rated above harvey, and they both signed elsewhere. i'd agree that lance lynn would be a great fit for the angels...he picked the rangers. bud norris lmao. derek holland. wade miley, yeah sure. he's been great for houston. let's count the number of people who saw that coming. i bet we only need one hand. they let garrett richards walk. they were into sabathia but he stayed. ervin santana and pomeranz round out the pitchers in the top 50 free agents. i think that speaks for itself.

everyone wants to act like eppler was walking by all of these trees bearing fruit. there were a few interesting players (harvey and cahill i thought were two of them) and he signed a few of them. it didn't work out. are we now going to castigate him for not finding better players...where there were none available and teams seemingly boarded up for the winter?

cosart was a good idea. he got hurt. it happens. i'm reasonably sure that ownership was behind that upton extension.​

i do not understand wanting to hang a gm based on one year deals that haven't worked out. they run for one year and cost money...am i missing something? he tried to capture lightning in a bottle and it didn't work.​

 

[Voight]

Lucky for them Trout will be there for a very long time. Maybe now they'll try to build a team around him instead of free agency stop gaps.

 

[darko]

He made Harvey and Cahill the two highest paid starters on one year deals. He made Allen the highest paid reliever on a one year deal. He thought it was a good idea to give Cozart and Upton the long term deals he gave them. Several of his moves have cost us the shot at having a winning record in all of his seasons of his tenure. You speak of him as if he has made no mistakes. He has made many.

You know who else thought it was a good idea to extend Upton? You.

(As did I).

 

[MMC]

You know who else thought it was a good idea to extend Upton? You.

(As did I).

I was never too happy about the term and money, but I definitely did want to extend him at the time just because we were desperate for another respectable bat.

 

[darko]

I was never too happy about the term and money, but I definitely did want to extend him at the time just because we were desperate for another respectable bat.

Yes you were.

Signing(s): - Justin Upton signs 5 year/106 M extension with Angels

 

[MMC]

Yes you were.

Signing(s): - Justin Upton signs 5 year/106 M extension with Angels

I never said in that thread that I was happy with the term or the money. I was happy we kept him, never said I was a fan of the contract

 

[darko]

I never said in that thread that I was happy with the term or the money. I was happy we kept him, never said I was a fan of the contract

Last post in that thread is by you and it says you were happy lol.

 

[MMC]

Last post in that thread is by you and it says you were happy lol.

Yes, happy we kept the player, not that I was a fan of the contract...

 

[darko]

Yes, happy we kept the player, not that I was a fan of the contract...

Yeah ok lol.

 

[MMC]

Yeah ok lol.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Kids, don't make me pull over.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

Lucky for them Trout will be there for a very long time. Maybe now they'll try to build a team around him instead of free agency stop gaps.

Trouts prime will however not be there for a very long time. Their window with Trout is maybe a couple more years.