LA Angels GM Billy Eppler one of the best in the business

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It’s been a rough few days for LA Angels fans after watching the team go from competing to-to-toe with the Dodgers, and winning, to losing in embarrassing fashion to the worst team in baseball multiple days in a row.

The LA Angels have stunted their own Wild Card chase and with the difficult schedule ahead loaded with Astros, A’s, Boston, and Yankee games it seems as if these lost opportunities are going to hurt the Angels badly. People are already looking for a scapegoat, even after just two games, and have landed on Angels GM Billy Eppler for failing to shore up the starting pitching staff.

The Angels starting pitching has been decimated this season as most of the starting pitching staff are having a “worst case scenario” type season. Matt Harvey was booted off the roster just after the All-Star Break, Cody Allen was DFA’ed rather promptly after multiple poor late-inning outings, and Trevor Cahill is cruising through the season with a 6.50 ERA in 73.1 IP.

Los Angeles Angels

It isn’t all bad since we did hit gold with Tommy La Stella, we even saw Eppler snag another diamond in the rough (thank god) with Brain Goodwin off the waivers . The vast majority of our free agent lands are looking rather awful, especially with starting pitching, but if you’re looking for someone to point a finger at it isn’t Billy Eppler.

I feel like I have to write this article over and over every couple of years and every year more and more evidence surfaces to add to the fact that Arte Moreno is the reason why the Angels blow it in free agency time and time again. I’m not here to offer a scapegoat with Moreno either because he does try to land big time pieces when they’re available, he just does it at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.

Remember when Moreno allowed Zack Greinke to slip away after two months when the Angels desperately needed front-line starters, as they still do now (what a coincidence) so that they could land a “big-splash” with a last-minute Josh Hamilton signing for 5 year 125 million dollar contract? Remember how the Angels let beloved leader and RF’er Torii Hunter leave in free agency to the Tigers for a 2 year deal worth 26 million that same year?

There is a genuine effort from Arte, don’t get me wrong, but many times does that effort show to be misdirected. Even before the aforementioned scenario Moreno already had a history of dropping the checkbook on the wrong players; back in 2011 the Angels secured Albert Pujols in free agency with a 10 year $254 mil contract even though they had Mike Napoli manning first base in 68 games through 2010 while hitting 26 HRs at the age of 28.

The nightmarish Napoli trade is a whole other discussion entirely, but they shipped off a young 1B capable athlete who was only making a few million for an older first baseman who was already showing signs of decline to a decade long deal.

Working around ownership

After years of bad signings Arte has refused to open up the checkbook to the point that just this past offseason Billy Eppler had ask Arte Moreno if he could stretch the checkbook for Cody Allen, a 30-year-old reliever who posted a 4.70 ERA a season prior to his signing.

The fact that Eppler had to ask for extra money to sign Allen to a 8.5 million dollar deal is bad all around because it answers the question as to why the Angels missed out on prime free agents like Patrick Corbin. The only way to secure prime free agents in this climate is to overspend in big ways and thats something Moreno will not do anymore.

The reason the Angels have been struggling to compete for years goes far outside of free agency as well. Before Billy Eppler came along there was virtually no international presence from the organization and the team was as far down in the cellar as you can go regarding their farm system.

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Constant mis-drafts and inability to develop prospects tanked the Angels chances to compete long-term in big ways and the inability to secure prime free agents put the Angels in the worst position an organization could possibly be in. That all changed with Eppler and it changed pretty fast, as soon as he came into the system he swung a big trade for Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons.

Maybe that trade wasn’t a big deal to him because he had no attachment to the prospects he sent off at the time, but he immediately showed the ability to make dynamic moves and that hasn’t changed.

The only difference now is his dynamic moves happen on a more subtle basis, such as the C.J Cron for the then fringe prospect and now MLB middle infielder Luis Rengifo or his waiver wire pickups of guys like Hansel Robles or Brian Goodwin.

The fact of the matter is most GMs have to learn how to work both with and around team owners, and in Epplers case he knows that he can only stretch the checkbook far enough to attain average free agent talent and to make the Angels a World Series contender it would have to be through shrewd trades, drafts, and low-cost signings.

The only reason why his “bust” signings seem so bad is because free agency is under a far less forgiving microscope than draft busts unless that draftee that busted happened to be a “future cornerstone” (which us Angel fans have plenty of past experience from).

Success outside of Free Agency

When Eppler is allowed to work the way he wants to his success is second-to-one. His success with working the trade market is already notable as I mentioned before and his eye for valuable waiver wire pieces stands at the top of the game. His ability to build a prominent and talented farm and promote a progressive developmental system saved the Angels long-term outlook in quite a number of ways.

Building the farm went far beyond securing the future in terms of prospects, it also secured the future of Mike Trout because of the fact that he loved the outlook of the promising farm system that he could play with for more than a decade to come. The value of prospects such as Brandon Marsh, Griffin Canning and the future superstar Jo Adell go far beyond their own personal value because they kept Mike Trout wanting to stay in Anaheim.

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In fact you could make the argument that the last few years of drafting have been the most successful in the history of the team because those drafts secured Mike Trout.

The Eppler magic doesn’t end there; not only did he draft with a level of competency we haven’t seen with the Angels in a long time (if ever), not only did he entice Mike Trout to stay here for life, but he also attracted one of the most intriguing free agents in a long time in Shohei Ohtani.

It’s not often you get to cover multiple spots with one player at an All-Star level unless it’s a multi-positional player, yet being able to secure All-Star starting pitching and an All-Star bat in one player. That’s bigger than a “once in a lifetime” signing, that’s a “once in a century” type signing. People may complain that he can’t secure prime starting pitching, but he literally did that last year by snagging the youngest, cheapest, and most talented pitcher on the market.

Let’s not forget the foresight Eppler had in preparing for Scioscia’s departure by hiring Brad Ausmus to work inside the organization as a special assistant to the GM and become acclimated with the system for a full year become putting on the manager uniform.

Eppler is the type of GM that prepares for today, tomorrow, and tomorrows tomorrow, this organization hasn’t had talent or intellgence with their GMs on this level in ever possibly. The fact that the Angels are still competing for a 2nd Wild Card spot with the starting pitching in such shambles is a testament to the leadership, patience, and his skills in developing deep player-manager relationships.

This Angels team being spear-headed by Eppler and Ausmus offers the such strong promise that you could argue this team can is more promising than the 2002 Angels squad, all we need is a couple of ace pitchers and we already have one on his way back in Shohei Ohtani.

No Pain No Gain

I know Angel fans are frustrated with the struggles of this season weighing so heavily on starting pitching when everything else with this team is at such a high level regarding talent and production.

The fact is, there are a thousand reasons as to why this ballclub is light years better with Eppler on board, many of which I just named. Without Eppler’s ability to work the trade phones and discover serious talent on the waiver wires has put this team in a position where all we have to complain about is not having a couple of good starters.

I don’t mean to make the issue smaller than it is, but the fact we aren’t stressing about having a trash bullpen like we did in the Scioscia years (thanks to Epplers waiver wire/trade magic) is a huge win already.

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I know everyone is disappointed because this team is far more talented than what they show on the field a lot of the time, but even when Eppler discussed his long-term plans he said that we 2019 is when we’d start to see things come together.

We’ve been seeing a ridiculous amount of higher level prospects making their way to the MLB level than compared to years past, and these are prospects who are going to be the glue of the team for years to come.

Everything is going according to schedule as he stated himself; at this rate things aren’t going badly, they’re going right according to schedule. I know it’s frustrating that this isn’t happening all at once, but in baseball thats how things go.

Eppler didn’t come into the organization until 2015, that’s when this system began growing. This is just a four-year old system we’re looking at here and, surprise surprise, four years is about the time it takes for a rebuild to come around as long as things are moving smoothly.

Angels Roundtable Discussion: Trade Deadline Edition. Next

We’re right at the end of one cycle and about to hit the beginning of a fresh new cycle, a winning cycle that doesn’t end with a World Series, but can begin with one if the Angels lock down some serious starting pitching talent in the upcoming trade deadline as well the offseason that’s just around the corner.

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