This was wallis' opinion and he was venting.  Poor fellow is one of the Stoneman haters.

It's amazing what a division rival will ask for.  What did the A's want for Piazza, Wood and Adenhart?

Because of course, Stoneman didn't sign Vladimir Guerrero.

He didn't sign Bartolo Colon.

He didn't sign Kelvim Escobar, or RE-sign him to a contract extension at about 50% of his FMV.

He didn't trade malcontent Jose Guillen for Juan Rivera and Maicer Izturis.

He didn't sign Justin Speier, or re-sign Scot Shields.

He didn't trade Moo Vaughn for 14-game winner Kevin Appier.

He didn't sign Aaron Sele.

Oh wait, you mean he did do all of those things?

OOPS!

I will always wonder whether they made any inquiries about Piazza, and maybe they should have.

One can also wonder whether Stoneman has accurately assessed the team's strengths and weaknesses, particularly in regards to what upgrades might be available.

But look around the league.  Boston made a nice move in acquiring Gagne.  With Speier's return to health, though, the bullpen really wasn't a concern.

No starting pitchers of consequence changed teams.

And as I look around, I don't see anyone position players who changed hands (with the exception of Teixiera) who are better than the ones the Angels have at those positions.

There are 30 teams, and only one of them really improved its offense.  To the extent that Stoneman failed, so did 28 other GMs.

Boston was the only team to upgrade "defensively," in that it added a good reliever.  That said, I don't think Okajima/Gagne/Papelbon is necessarily better than Speier/Shields/Rodriguez.

Actually, on second thought, Atlanta added Dotel too, so now they technically have a closer besides Bob Wickman.  Yawn.

Clearly, you have no concept of logic or reasoned argument.

disregard when he signed Vlad and the rest of good acquisitions.

Disregard the facts when they're inconvenient to your argument?  Talk about intellectual dishonesty.

with the amount of financial backing from Arte he should've delivered a big bat don't you think???

FYI, there were no "big bats" available as free agents in the offseason last year.  Please explain how a team can sign free agents that don't exist.

In the 2005 offseason, the Angels offered Paul Konerko over 60 million dollars.  He took the same money from the White Sox instead.  In this country, you cannot legally force someone to work for you.  In other words, Paul Konerko had the right to say no to the Angels, which he did.  That is not Bill Stoneman's fault.  He could not force Konerko to accept the Angels' offer.  This might be difficult for someone with your obiviously limited brain capacity to handle, but you'll just have to trust me on this.

from 2004 and on when they started letting go of some the guys with pop (i.e., Glaus, Guillen, Molina)this team started struggling greatly (remember the last two years and especially playoffs of 05?)

I remember the playoffs of 2005.  The Angels made it to the ALCS, after beating the Yankees (a team loaded with sluggers) in five games.  Only one other team made it to the ALCS.  I didn't realize that being one of the final four teams constitutes "struggling," but OK.

Incidentally, you mention losing Guillen, while conveniently ignorning the fact that he was replaced by Juan Rivera.  From 2005-2006, Juan Rivera out-homered Guillen 38-33.  The only reason Guillen has caught up is because Juan Rivera broke his leg in December and hasn't played all year.  Don't you think the Halos' lineup would look a lot different with the 12-15 additional HR that Rivera would have provided this year if that hadn't occurred?

How many more wins would you say you could chalk up to Escobars career since he signed if he had signed with say the Red Sox or Yankees??? He'd probably have been voted for CY Young award the last two

Cy Young in 2005?  Really?  When he pitched only 59 2/3 innings?

In the future, before going off on a rant like this, you might want to make sure that your arguments actually are supported by these things called facts.  It's hardly a novel concept; try looking into it.

Once again, you completely ignore the numerous factual flaws in your previous post.  Unable to come to grips with that, you resort to insults, change the subject, and ignore the issues.

pick up a god damn newspaper you clueless dude...what's the word on what the Angels' need/weakness is????

I can pick up a newspaper.  Unlike you, I'm actually capable of not only reading it, but understanding it.

More to the point, what do newpspaper writers have to do with anything?

Who cares what a newspaper writer has to say about the team's strengths and weaknesses?

If your point is that other people think the team needs another slugger, so what?  That wasn't your original point, and it was not a point with which I ever took issue.  I suggest that you return to elementary school and work on your reading comprehension.

If you recall (and apparently you don't), you accused Bill Stoneman of not making any offseason moves to improve the ball club.  I pointed out how wrong you were.

You then argued that he made no attempt to address the team's lack of power through free agency.  I pointed out that this was factually incorrect, because they offered a contract to Paul Konerko.  I then pointed out that no other significant power hitters have come on the market as free agents since then.  You ignored this fact.  Rather, you attempted to disprove this fact through insults.  How mature.

Sure they have great pitching...sure stoneman picked up escobar, vlad, OC, GMJ, traded for Rivera...AAAAAAND???? Does that mean we're a complete team bird brain

Show me where I said they were.  You're trying to refute argments never made.  How clever.

And as for the teams you mentioned that made it to the big show (cards, stros, tigers), heres some advice...lay off the crack!!!..those teams all had atleast TWO SLUGGERS in their lineup

First, I wasn't the one who mentioned those teams; someone else beat me to it.

Moreover, you asserted as a fact that those teams had more than one guy with 35+ HR.  Your statement was false.  You try to dodge this fact by claiming that you only wrote that they had more than one undefined "slugger."  Go back and read the words you wrote.  You wrote that those teams had at least two players with 35+ HR.  Your statement was, and always will be, untrue.  You were proven wrong.  Once again, you can assert all day that 2+2=5, but it will never be true.

please focus on the lack of pop this team has had ONLYYYYYYY FROM 2004-present. So what if in 2005 we beat the yanks??? look at their horrible pitching!! Did you thikn they would have made it past the sox, clev, cards???

What do you mean by "focus on"?  What's your point?  You cannot escape that you made a series of statements, purporting to be facts, that are simply untrue.  I never said the Angels couldn't use another power bat.  That isn't the issue.  Rather, the issue (which you either don't understand or are choosing to ignore) is that you keep claiming that the Angels should have signed a power-hitting free agent, yet you fail to grasp the fact that a team cannot sign players that simply don't exist.  Who were these free agent hitters?  Was Stoneman supposed to go to steal some DNA from Albert Pujols or A-Rod, and go to some mad scientist and have them cloned?  How was he supposed to create that which does not exist?

Ff you can name someone besides Paul Konerko who was available in 2005, I'd love to know who it was.

In the 2006 off season, the Angels went after Alfonso Soriano.  They offered him over $100 million.  The Cubs gave him even more than that.  He was the only guy available.  How much more were they supposed to offer?

They did sign GMJr., who has provided 12 HR thus far (a lot more than the Angels got out of their CF last year, mind you).

There were rumors that the team wanted Aramis Ramirez.  Unfortunately, he never really became a free agent.  He re-signed with the Cubs.

I don't know who else they were supposed to try to sign.

Apparently, though, you do concede that these supposed players didn't actually exist, since you have been heretofore unable to name them.

But I'll keep checking here to see if you can actually come up with a name.