LOS ANGELES _ Two months ago, on the day after his team wrapped its third straight losing season, Los Angeles Angels general manager Billy Eppler sat on the dais in the Angel Stadium interview room and announced his commitment to bolstering a pitching staff that has combusted often during his tenure.
He has honored that promise, but the pitching moves Eppler has made since October have appeared from a surface-level to be lateral. They have not been so transcendent as to require formal ceremonies, like the signing that took place last week in Washington, D.C., when the Nationals introduced former Angels farmhand Patrick Corbin as the newest addition to one of baseball's staunchest rotations.
So as the Angels' contingent joins the baseball industry at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for the annual winter meetings beginning Monday, expect Eppler to remain active in the same sector on which he declared his intentions earlier in the offseason. He'll also continue to look at catchers, as the Angels haven't solved that conundrum in the wake of releasing Francisco Arcia in November.
