[Fangraphs] Angels Can’t Help Falling In Love With Yusei Kikuchi
November 26, 2024
[Fangraphs] Angels Can’t Help Falling In Love With Yusei Kikuchi
3 comments
Don’t feel good about this one TBH. None of our pitching FA signings have really panned out as stellar signings in a long time.
I like this pickup. He can be a decent #2 and bring some knowledge to the team
For myself, it’s not that I think Kikuchi is a bad pitcher, its the fact that at this point in time we shouldn’t be locking ourselves into another loaded contract for an older pitcher who saw flashes of success in a career of middling performance.
As we have proven time and time again, we are not a pitching developmental team. It sounds like Kikuchi benefitted from a team that has invested over years in that department. There is a reason why so many pitchers find success after leaving us, and it is partly due to or lack of developmental understanding.
So, we are now taking a 33 year old pitcher with a career 4.6 ERA that has shown only flashes of great pitching, has never fully put it together over a whole season, who benefited from a team that can develop (similar to TA for us), to lead our whole rotation that we just shed a ton of what this fanbase was calling a young core of pitching not too long ago.
We have, in reality, 1 prospect that is years out from the rotation in Dana.
I just think the salaries we are loading ourselves up with under Perry is keeping us in this 70-75 win window with a top 8 salary in the league we’ve been stuck in for a decade. On top of this, Perry keeps DEPLETING our farm by calling up guys clearly not developed enough to the main roster, either flaming them out or completely tanking their value early on.
All this to say: Perry is continuing on the same path that Eppler and Dipoto set: High salary free agents that aren’t the worst signings, lack of farm depth, and never addressing core issues. They all have followed the path that never sets a good foundation for this team.
But for some reason Perry’s attempt at the Eppler and DiPoto style team build is being celebrated.
Like literally squint your eyes, this offseason had followed what we criticized in the past: Aging pitcher on a short term high value deal to hopefully provide stability in a broken rotation, aging sluggers to hopefully make up for a lack of power, hopes that a young player can break through, and hoping Trout can carry the rest of the team because we don’t have a deep farm. Rinse and repeat.
3 comments
Don’t feel good about this one TBH. None of our pitching FA signings have really panned out as stellar signings in a long time.
I like this pickup. He can be a decent #2 and bring some knowledge to the team
For myself, it’s not that I think Kikuchi is a bad pitcher, its the fact that at this point in time we shouldn’t be locking ourselves into another loaded contract for an older pitcher who saw flashes of success in a career of middling performance.
As we have proven time and time again, we are not a pitching developmental team. It sounds like Kikuchi benefitted from a team that has invested over years in that department. There is a reason why so many pitchers find success after leaving us, and it is partly due to or lack of developmental understanding.
So, we are now taking a 33 year old pitcher with a career 4.6 ERA that has shown only flashes of great pitching, has never fully put it together over a whole season, who benefited from a team that can develop (similar to TA for us), to lead our whole rotation that we just shed a ton of what this fanbase was calling a young core of pitching not too long ago.
We have, in reality, 1 prospect that is years out from the rotation in Dana.
I just think the salaries we are loading ourselves up with under Perry is keeping us in this 70-75 win window with a top 8 salary in the league we’ve been stuck in for a decade. On top of this, Perry keeps DEPLETING our farm by calling up guys clearly not developed enough to the main roster, either flaming them out or completely tanking their value early on.
All this to say: Perry is continuing on the same path that Eppler and Dipoto set: High salary free agents that aren’t the worst signings, lack of farm depth, and never addressing core issues. They all have followed the path that never sets a good foundation for this team.
But for some reason Perry’s attempt at the Eppler and DiPoto style team build is being celebrated.
Like literally squint your eyes, this offseason had followed what we criticized in the past: Aging pitcher on a short term high value deal to hopefully provide stability in a broken rotation, aging sluggers to hopefully make up for a lack of power, hopes that a young player can break through, and hoping Trout can carry the rest of the team because we don’t have a deep farm. Rinse and repeat.