The reason the team was in the position it was for the last 4 years was because of Dipoto. Sort of like how the Ducks cap situation was ****ed for years after Burke left.
The recent Angels teams were a result of Dipoto's team building, or lack thereof... sort of how the '07 Ducks were largely built by Brian Murray, with Burke putting on the finishing touches. The difference between Burke and Dipoto was Burke got us a championship.
That's a very distorted revisionist history.
Under Dipoto, Arte made two moves that hurt the Angels in two consecutive seasons. 1. He signed FA 1B Pujols. 2. He FA OF Hamilton. Both of players cost the Angels first round picks because those were the rules at the time. DiPoto only had two first round picks under his tenure. Today, you don't lose first round picks in signing particular FA's. DiPoto traded for P Greinke in 2012 for a lot of capital. DiPoto's intent was to re-sign Greinke as opposed to trying to acquire a FA pitcher that would cost him a first round pick. But Arte is the owner and Arte gets what he wants - which is partly why DiPoto left the organization.
Teams need first round picks for their system to be healthy.
Now, let's look at the construction under DiPoto. He went after pitchers under his tenure. He would trade position players for pitchers. The only year the Runs Allowed hit over 700 was when Arte wanted to spend money on OF Hamilton instead of P Greinke in the 2013 off-season. (I still shiver from the four FA pitchers we got and "hoped" would work out.) The Angels had a setup man in Smith and a closer in Huston Street. DiPoto's trade brought in pitchers Skaggs, Heaney, Tropeano, and Santiago.
DiPoto had a winning team when he quite halfway through the 2015 season b/c the organization went through mgr Sosh to owner Arte to GM DiPoto. That's not how it's supposed to work.
Eppler comes in and starts trading away pitchers for positional players. The more notable ones were to acquire Simba and J-Up. Between 2015 and 2016, there were four changes in the position players at 3B, LF, C, and SS (which was a trade for Simba). Eppler didn't want to retain C Ianetta. Eppler's 2016 team was a better hitting team. The problem was he didn't address the pitching as much. You can view the chart I provided above. He didn't retain setup man Smith.
What Burke did is completely different from DiPoto. Do you know why? DiPoto left a lot of talent behind along with prospects. Eppler used the pitching prospects for positional players. Eppler relied a lot on the pitchers DiPoto acquired without trying to restock the system, which also includes P Middleton and P Suarez.
Eppler is working with the same budget DiPoto was working with, but this time the front office organization goes from GM to mgr and owner. It's four years now. The team was able to afford Simba, the posting and acquisition of Ohtani, paying for Cozart along with J-up. Last year, Eppler spent millions on Cahill and Harvey. The excuse you're giving is shameful. The Angels used their 2019 first round pick as a trade incentive package to salary dump 3B Cozart, neither was a DiPoto transaction.
Now, DiPoto took over a bad situation in Seattle with a weak system. How did Dipoto make that team have a record over .500 twice in his first three years there? He saw the makeup of the system and decided to do something completely different - he revamped his MLB team. It was a tank year for the Mariners last year, but they finished 4 games behind the Angels. They boast a top farm system with a couple of prospects on the verge of MLB status.
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As for the Championship part, maybe you forgot that owner Arte didn't want Greinke as much as he wanted Hamilton. Also, mgr Sosh inserted Hamilton onto the playoff roster despite not playing most of the season as opposed to utilizing a fast utility player. Hamilton went 0 for 0 in the playoffs.
My, my, my, what terrible history you possess.