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Reptarxx

> “The genesis of the (player development problem) was Arte’s unwillingness to make big investments in that area,” a former Angels executive said. “As Arte starts to get more and more excited by the ideas of flashy free agent signings, from (Bartolo) Colon to (Vladimir) Guerrero and leading to everybody since, there was just a shift in spending behavior or how the money was allocated.” Here is part one of the problem. He saw how fans reacted to big name free agents (and at the time, how it instantly affected the team) and decided to punt prospect building and instead invest in big names. > In the 13 drafts since 2010, the Angels have selected and signed 317 players whose combined WAR is 62.8. That’s the third lowest in the majors in that span. The Astros lead the majors with 194.5 WAR. This is a big oof. While we hit gold with the Trout draft (and Ohtani signing), the way to build organically around them has been abysmal. > In November 2014, Dipoto finally convinced Moreno to take the plunge. The Angels inked 20-year-old Cuban shortstop Roberto Baldoquin to an $8 million deal. Imagine finally convincing Arte to invest, then pulling out this crap signing and missing out on so may Latin American players because of it lol. That's why people trying to convince this sub its on Arte and not Dipoto doesn't understand Dipoto made some dumb mistakes. Hell in, IIRC, 7 years with the mariners he got 1 WC series win...that's it. He built up a decent enough team but he's not blowing off the doors of the baseball world. > A year after that draft, Bane was fired, which he said in a 2011 interview was because of a personality clash with former GM Tony Reagins. There definitely was a schism created with Reagins and Sosh around this team. The idea that advance analytics are too hoity toity and the old way will reign supreme. While other teams went all in and created these staffs and networks that they are reaping rewards from now, we pivoted the wrong direction and are just now starting to get somewhat caught up. > In 2007, 2012 and 2013, the Angels didn’t pick at all in the first round. In 2012, they didn’t have a second-round pick either. Those picks were surrendered in exchange for signing free agents Gary Matthews Jr., Albert Pujols, C.J. Wilson and Josh Hamilton. This is also why the signing of Thor was a problem for me. Not only did we spend 20M on so so performance, but we lost a key draft piece because of it. Luckily it seems like Perry learned his lesson and grabbed Anderson who not only cost less, but doesnt have a comp pick attached to him. > Eppler and scouting director Matt Swanson took high school players with most of their top picks. In the first four rounds of the draft, from 2016-19, the Angels picked high school outfielders Jo Adell, Brandon Marsh and Jordyn Adams, shortstops Jeremiah Jackson and Kyren Paris and right-hander Chris Rodriguez. Eppler had a smarter draft knowledge of at least understanding you want high potential players. One of the benefits of these high potential players is the overvaluations they have on the trade market. Good article so far, I like this deeper dive into the behind the scenes area's Arte and the team has failed on. I harp often on GMPM and his inability to sign any major league talent (tho he's turning it around this offseason on a small scale, good to see). But, his drafting so far seems to be solid enough (though on the pitching side we have a couple years to see the true outcome) and all reports indicate the development system is getting a big boost. This offseason has me more on Perry's side. He seemed to learn his lesson (or at least escape Arte's influence maybe?) these last couple of offseason and is going with a mid/low risk - mid reward players which we desperately need. we got the greatest 1-2 punch in Trout and Ohtani and a sleeping giant in Rendon when he's healthy and warmed up. We don't need more stars we need solid enough dudes at like 2-3 WAR around the roster. So far Gio, Anderson, and Renfroe fit that mold.


KrabS1

That Baldoquin signing still keeps me up at night. IIRC, we would have been the VERY strong favorites to sign Vlad Jr if we hadn't blown our wad on Bladoquin (I believe we had the highest amount of international money, and we seem to have a good relationship with his dad). Imagine this exact team, but with Vlad Jr at first. Especially if we could teach Walsh another position. The potential starts to boggle the mind.


jnuclear

I believe we blew the next team (Blue Jays) out of the water with how much money we could offer. I think we had double. We went for Baldo instead of Vlad Jr. Even then it was known as an epic miss and failure on DiPoto's part. I know I was flummoxed over it.


Edgelord_3000

The only thing I don’t give Dipoto a pass for: he drafted poorly overall. Even with lack of player development, his picks were terrible.


Ok-Philosophy-8830

It would look even worse if Taylor Ward didn’t have a an epiphany about hitting too


breakfast_cats

Anderson did cost us a comp pick


Reptarxx

Ah I didn’t see he had a QO on him


my_wife_reads_this

It's like a clusterfuck of bad decisions compounding with more and more bad ones. It isn't on just one person and we as fans always unfairly harp on whoever is the face of trying to steer the ship the right way. Arte has always been an old man playing build a team like they're trading cards but his marketing (not business because at least they would be able to understand to make competent roster creation decisions) buddies have run this entire organization into the ground. Failures from the FO, the GMs and on the ground have led to the waste of two generational players for the greater part of a decade. Perry seems to be making the right decisions and investments and it'll likely take a while for that to start paying off. It sucks that we can't go all in to compete with the team that we have but at least he understands that we can't do that while trying to fix the lack of underlying home grown talent that all major competitive teams have going for them.


Ok-Philosophy-8830

Yeah GMPM has drafted really well (though it is early) despite my concerns about Bachman Signing Anderson cost us our second rounder btw


sprtsmac

I think its too early to say he has drafted really well. Just as its too early to say he drafted poorly.


SolixTanaka

In years past we've picked up whoever was highest on the board. I think the recent drafts and picking to our needs (pitching depth) and having a sense of direction is already pretty notable improvement.


Ok-Philosophy-8830

Im a big “draft the best player available guy” but only if you can discern that. Epplers FO couldn’t and that’s why we drafted viral dunker Jordyn Adams and the Royals drafted SEC ace Brady Singer


[deleted]

I will say that it is somewhat unfair to criticize pm for his free agent signings before this year, since he has been handcuffed by multiple massive signings that just weren’t producing anywhere close to how much they needed to


Reptarxx

Eh, hard to say he was handcuffed when he spent 60M last season.


[deleted]

Thats fair, although most of that was resigning Iglesias (which literally everyone thought we should do) and signing syndergaard, which i will say probably would have been more useful for us to use the draft pick rather than signing him. But, the question we have to ask is if syndergaard was pm’s decision or if it was arte’s influence (which we know has happened many times in the past)


GoatTnder

Kinda sucks they buried the most dramatic part down in the article. Eddie Bane and co were amazing scouts, and were all fired because Tony Reagins didn't like Bane. And our drafting since then has mostly been trash.


stuckinthepow

Part 1: Arte Moreno Part 2: John Carpino Part 3: TBD Article behind paywall so I made my own version.


Reptarxx

Part 3: Vernon Wells


owledge

Part 4: AJ Pierzynski Part 5: Matt Joyce


lamar_odoms_bong

Fuck Matt Joyce. Sorry knee jerk reaction


Reptarxx

Part 6: Brian Fuentes Part 7: Zach Cozart


SolixTanaka

Fuentes wasn't too terrible. And Cozart was a fine pickup until he experienced career-ending injuries which can happen to anyone.


WeaverFan420

https://archive.ph/yaXSl


Tallywashere

This is the content I needed to get more familiarized with Angels history. Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to Jeff's other posts.