caulfield12

Why would now be the right time for Mike Scioscia to walk away? He’s human, after all. We all need to take a step back from time to time, take a breath and assess our future. For Scioscia, who’s in the final year of a 10-year, $50 million contract and turns 60 in November, there would be no time like the present. Rosenthal adds that Scioscia’s decision to not pursue a new contract would be his own. The Angels have reportedly put no pressure on Scioscia to make a decision one way or the other. For what it’s worth, Scioscia tells ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez that his status hasn’t changed. For now anyway, we won’t get a clearer picture of Scioscia’s future beyond Rosenthal’s report. Who could be managerial options for the Angels in 2019? Rosenthal threw out several possibilities in his report in the event Scioscia does move on. Among them were three internal candidates. Most notably, former Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus was mentioned. He currently serves as a special assistant to general manager Billy Eppler. Former major leaguers Eric Chavez, who’s another Eppler assistant, and Josh Paul, Scioscia’s current bench coach, were also listed. Former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi will find himself atop the wishlist of every team seeking a manager this season. He’s already seen as a candidate for the St. Louis Cardinals opening. This will be Billy Eppler’s first time in charge of hiring a manager. That makes it difficult to predict how the process will go or which direction he’ll look. https://sports.yahoo.com/report-angels-manager-mike-scioscia-step-following-2018-season-032841616.html Still younger than Maddon, would be interesting to have mentor and protege back together in one town...Maddon talks about 2002 WS Angels’ team like it was “his” in interviews.

We already tried this a month ago, at the ASB.

How many Astros came from sign and dump guys? They probably had more going out...due to roster backlogs. Too many good poisition players at each level to hold onto all of them. Just imagine if they had Bryant AND JD Martinez added to that monster team. Grossman, Domingo Santana, Preston Tucker, Singleton, all would have had homes with this year’s White Sox team. Same with the Cubs in 2011-13...who else did they trade that still held ANY value, besides Starling Castro?

Gary Sheffield? Fun to dream, I guess...

https://www.milb.com/milb/news/chicago-white-sox-prospect-dylan-cease-extends-scoreless-streak/c-288901754 Cease hype train continues...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/americans-buying-rabid-pro-trump-conspiracy-theories-120653906.html More QAnon conspiracies...

Only 1.5 up on the Padres now...

First time they got two wins/road win in a couple months... Narvaez, Jesus Christo, you have to stop that ball from getting through. Vieira’s first career save? 94-98 mph, probably averaged 95.5...and Rodon somehow survived with an 89-92 mph fastball right out of the shoot and gutted through it.

Strike out swinging....what baserunner just got hit by the ball, Leury or Moncada? Guess it was Hulka.

That bunt would have overthrown a government. Farmer with a Benetti-ism. Madrigal two hits tonight now. And a walk. Pitching around Moncada again? Hmmm....

Anderson managed to reach down and find two extra gears tonight... Still have so many players with terrible bunting fundamentals, stabbing at it will never work except to pop up, but third time’s a charm I guess?

Who was the one who moved Eaton to RF and Sale out of the bullpen?

One thing is certain...having four lower budget teams (with Ilitch passing) makes Hahn’s ultimate task of returning to the postseason far easier to pull off than in any other division in baseball. We don’t have to worry about being outspent or compete with another ascending team (see Braves/Phillies together in NL East). You would say downright impossible to fail until you study the complete history of the franchise...but even that mindset can be broken (Maddon/Epstein).

That’s the big IF (the 3rd would be an elite closer or praying for Burdi)....those are three $50-150 million dollar acquisitions right there off the bat that many expected would come THIS offseason. Let’s just say $250-300 million in new spending. Will JR commit? What happens when either Arenado or Rendon extend with their current teams? We always say it should be easy to find someone for this position or that, but it absolutely hasn’t been a piece of cake since 2006 onwards to make those slam dunk acquisitions.

You can really stretch and argue Tyler Flowers (second time with Braves), Devenski, Semien, Escobar, Montas (more progress this year), Junior Guerra, Bassitt...with the leftovers like the Big 3 core and a healthy Rodon...could have been close to competing, but it still feels like an 82-85 win team. Quintana was better his first four big league seasons than recently, so they were fortunate to get the overpay from Epstein...Sale’s value was similar back then, maybe bumped up a notch for each healthy season he accumulated. The common thread throughout it all...terrible free agency moves and major developmental disappointments from Beckham and Viciedo. You have to be right at least 40% of the time on those headline acquisitions. Missing on Benintendi by one spot or Burger perhaps never being the same...it’s from that same “one key injury” line of thinking with Jared Mitchell, non performance from Hawkins, the constant string of disappointments that can’t easily be overcome by a mid tier payroll and revenue producing organization. Even Rodon has been a mild disappointment, although he looks really good again, at least for now.

Well argued. In the end, though...the “brilliance/armed robbery” of Rizzo has shifted from the most-loved to most concerning of the three moves (a lot depends on Dunning’s health moving forward), the concerns about Moncada and Kopech fulfilling their promise, etc. The Quintana trade looks brilliant for the moment, unless Cease blows out his elbow again. That said, even Kimenez for Q looks like a huge steal. So we should all give him credit for being patient and maximizing his return despite one of Q’s shakiest seasons. And making the right determination to deal Kahnle at peak value, that was smart and a lot of us questioned it as well as Rutherford’s potential. Balta rightfully says he gets at least another year, if not until mid-season 2020. That’s more than fair, and he also can’t control the slate of injuries to our Top 30 prospects, either. Nevertheless, GM’s are always going to be judged by the W-L record on the backs of their theoretical baseball cards, not what ifs, theoreticals or what SHOULD have happened.

The single biggest danger is that Hahn realizes his future is in jeopardy and does something idiotic like signing Donaldson for 4 years, Adam Jones for three and somehow ending up with an “elite closer” acquisition blowing up in his face. This has been one of the biggest problems in this age of Sox baseball...mitigating risk by spreading it around a basket of players instead of signing just one or two huge deals, then crying poor when those aging vets produce below average results which hamstring the team’s payroll and lead to deals like the one we made for Shields coming off 10 runs surrended in Seattle, a classic pitcher’s park. http://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/id/360531112 He had only given up 9 runs that month, but it was already patently obvious SD was trying to dump him...he had mouthed off in the press and it’s still almost inconceivable that we assumed almost half of his contract, and then threw in one of the (future) top prospects in baseball for the heck of it. Let’s not forget Royals’ fans already were questioning if James Shields was “broken” nearly two years prior to that start for the Padres. http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/15884407/san-diego-padres-executive-chairman-ron-fowler-blasts-team-poor-play It’s almost illogical why any team would have bailed out the Padres and their owner (see article) without asking for more concessions...like additional talent coming over from SD.

The Tigers had a LONG run of success under DD, just no World Series title. Avila? A wash? Marlins produced Yelich, Realmuto, Stanton, Jose Fernandez, Ozuna...they blow lots of teams away in terms of development. DBacks weathered the LaRussa/Stewart fiasco quite well. Almost nobody in baseball would choose Hahn over Preller in terms of talent evaluation. So that gives you the Orioles...but 80% of that gets dumped into the lap of Angelos and Showalter...and they made the playoffs in a much tougher decision at least twice if I recall correctly. Maybe the Twins? Well, they earned a WC and had the top ranked system 2-3 years ago. Would enjoy seeing Beane with at least $150 million to spend in Chicago...but doubt he ever leaves Cali.

Luckily, Hahn has the Mariners struggling down the stretch or it would only be the Padres with a longer streak missing the playoffs. Seattle has gone Gillick, Bavaria, Jack Z and now Dipoto. Padres have gone Towers, Hoyer, Byrnes, Preller in that time span, so we’re already two behind. From 2013 until today, there’s really only been one decent stretch that got your hopes up, the first 6 weeks of the 2016, before the dreaded James Shields Hail Mary call. That’s six years now of nothing but Abreu’s rookie year and Avi in 2017, unless you count LaRoche and Son Gate, Sale Jersey Massacre Gate and Dunn Historical Ineptitude 2011 Gate. Two totally busted free agent groups in 2011 and 2014 (LaRoche, Cabrera, Robertson, Bonifacio, Beckham, Geo Soto). Oh, forgot to include the JB Shuck Era in there, too. Pythagorean of -3 total from 2013 through today. 91 Games under .500 in 5 2/3rd’s seasons. That will average out to about 16-18 games under per season for more than half a decade. That’s the definition of Baseball Purgatory for fans.

Complicit and complacent both could work equally as well here...

You mean he would have gotten another GM job with a relatively unblemished reputation...? I wonder where SoxTalk would rank him as of today as a GM? 15-20? 21-25? It’s hard to imagine Bottom 5, but there’s not much compelling evidence he has been “objectively better than his peers” either, unless you count puff piece articles. The Indians definitely have done the best job in the division...and that coincided with bringing Francona into the fold. Moore got KC into consecutive World Series. Judging by wins per payroll dollar allocated, the results would be pretty darned abysmal. Finally, who is really choosing our managers? That’s yet another big issue for the Sox since 2011.

And that’s why I question Hahn more than Williams...KW gets the blame for all the bad moves, but none of the credit for Abreu, Eaton, Quintana, Sale, etc. That’s pretty convenient. So we are left to ponder how any reasonable GM’s could think Shields would put them over the top...or value the money/subsidy coming back from the Padres more than having a handle on his own farm system that he could be outscouted by Preller so badly. We simply can’t afford those types of mistakes that the Cubs, Astros, Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers can get away with. It’s also impossible for me to imagine if their colors were reversed that “black Hahn” would be nearly as universally-lauded as he is today. So yeah, the timidity to question Hahn more than KW underscores how fragile this rebuild really is if we just overlook at the “bad” moves and blame all those judgments on KW or Reinsdorf.

He might not test off the charts on the SAT or beat everyone in Jeopardy or Millionaire, but high EQ is even more important now...he understands people, isn’t afraid to express his opinion, knows his brand (another reason for going back to CLE/Akron), is quite comfortable with his place in the world. Trump still can’t tell the difference from UK, Britain and England...even though his mom’s from Scotland or Wales...yet Koby Bryant can speak something like 8 languages. Too bad they can’t have a nationally televised debate, like the Tiger/Mickelson Thanksgiving Challenge. Family Feud would be even more entertaining.

Fortunately they have Cease, Robert and Madrigal to give them a bit of cushion...not to mention four more talented outfielders in Basabe, Adolfo, Rutherford and Gonzalez. And, finally, the possibility of Burdi getting back on track. The biggest question is how much they’re willing to open up the checkbook on FA after getting burned over and over again the last decade.

But the Cardinals are (soon to be) rebuilding and the Brewers have proven to be unwilling to take that huge “over the top” move to pull even with the Cubs (like Sabathia or Greinke). Where are Pirates now, with the curious Archer/Kela moves after dumping Cutch and Cole and pissing off their fanbase? Their attendance is close to ours even with that recent hot streak. And I’m pretty think sure had at least one midweek crowd of just 20000ish in the heart of the summer vs. the Cubs last week. In the end, they still have 3 if not 4 years of that window wide open. The only thing that can truly derail it would be major injuries to Bryant, Baez or Contreras. Now the starting pitching is THE issue if you’re matching up with the four best AL teams, but the Dodgers are the only other NL team right now with a bigger budget.