OC Register: Joe Maddon to interview with Angels this week

[Stradling]

7 minutes ago, True Grich said:

Don't worry... you'll get plenty of entertainment from the "Joe Maddon is the real GM" narrative that's coming...

This is perfect.  

[Lou]

 how can you not trust a guy named Mo Money? 

[tomsred]

20 minutes ago, Lou said:

 how can you not trust a guy named Mo Money? 

[failos]

30 minutes ago, Lou said:

 how can you not trust a guy named Mo Money? 

Racist

[Angel Dog and Beer]

30 minutes ago, Lou said:

 how can you not trust a guy named Mo Money? 

...who lives in West Virginia and reports on Boston sports. 

[Lou]

4 minutes ago, Angel Dog and Beer said:

...who lives in West Virginia and reports on Boston sports. 

he scooped Fletch 

[Dtwncbad]

3 minutes ago, RBM said:

I don't think this is Eppler's choice/decision. Do you?

I think Arte is driving this. Don't you?

Why do you think that?

I think it could be just the owner or it could be a 100% consensus that prefers Maddon enough to move on from Ausmus.

It’s just not that complicated.

Maddon has 31 years with the Angels.  Ausmus a couple.  Maddon has taken two teams to the World Series and has a ring.  Ausmus has done almost nothing with two teams.

What on earth is so unbelievable about the organization, top to bottom, being aligned on chasing Maddon?

 

[Duren, Duren]

Just to add another nuance, what about age? 

There are factors pertaining to managers in their mid sixties not necessarily applicable to younger ones.

Bochy and Yost were the closest to Maddon starting the season.Snitker, Black, Hurdle next, along with Gardenhire and Francona, five years younger than Maddon. 

Health, motivation, communication, adaptability, willingness to incorporate new data sources are potential issues. Also career/retirement plans. Easier to not care about youth movements and long term goals when the end of the career is immanent. 

Way back after the end of the 1960 season the Yankees invented a team rule forcing mandatory retirement at age 70. An excuse to fire Casey Stengel, who had just lost game 7 of the World Series. I don't believe any other team had such a rule, and today it would be a legal issue. 

Essentially I think the Angels can't just sit back indefinitely if they hire Maddon. He will be a short term manager, possibly extended a bit more. He didn't stay in Chicago as long as many had expected. And criticism will be loud if the next phase of the Trout era isn't succesful. 

The Angels have to keep their eyes open for younger managerial potential and groom them within the system. I would love to see Maddon change the culture, turn the team around and become a playoff threat every year, but you never know how long his term will be.

[Stradling]

5 minutes ago, RBM said:

Ausmus was Eppler’s hand picked choice less than a year ago. I don’t think it was his choice to fire him or Paul and White. I think it was Arte’s decision. And I think you piling on @Calzone 2 is BS  

Speculation? Yes, it’s the oxygen of this forum. But I think my speculation is much more likely than what you are speculating. You think Eppler went to Arte and said “Hey Boss, you know that guy I spent every game with last year and then convinced you to hire? Yeah Ausmus. Well, we need to fire him now. My bad.”

It’s much more likely Arte gave Eppler an offer he couldn’t refuse - fire Ausmus or I fire you both.

 

Or they came to a mutual agreement after seeing what transpired.  Once again, people admit mistakes all the time.  

[eligrba]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

 how can you not trust a guy named Mo Money? 

Why does someone follow a guy named Mo Money?

[Lou]

4 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Or they came to a mutual agreement after seeing what transpired.  Once again, people admit mistakes all the time.  

you must be new here

[Claude]

26 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

Why do you think that?

I think it could be just the owner or it could be a 100% consensus that prefers Maddon enough to move on from Ausmus.

It’s just not that complicated.

Maddon has 31 years with the Angels.  Ausmus a couple.  Maddon has taken two teams to the World Series and has a ring.  Ausmus has done almost nothing with two teams.

What on earth is so unbelievable about the organization, top to bottom, being aligned on chasing Maddon?

 

I think it’s an integrity issue. Arte most likely wanted Maddon but it required Eppler to eat crow and fire his personally picked manager.  I don’t think at any point Eppler was looking to hire a new manager after the disastrous season ended. 

 

Eppler had high praise for Ausmus coming in. I don’t think that changed. Maddon became available and I believe Arte made the call. Ausmus was Eppler’s guy.

 

“Brad’s balance of connectivity, communication and leadership skills as well as his understanding of evolving strategies and probabilistic approach to decision-making, led us to him,” Angels general manager Billy Eppler said in a statement. “We believe his knowledge, drive and growth mind-set will allow him to integrate seamlessly with our players and will be pivotal in advancing our culture and moving us toward our goals as an organization.”

[Jay]

Just now, Calzone 2 said:

Eppler had high praise for Ausmus coming in. I don’t think that changed. Maddon became available and I believe Arte made the call. Ausmus was Eppler’s guy.

I believe this is probably the case.

 

[Lou]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

I believe this is probably the case.

yep. it's amazing that some people can't figure this out. 

[Dick Enberg]

Maddon brings a personality to the manager position. People be looking forward to his post game interviews and more. Boring Brad was just that. Flat and boring. Arte wants Hollywood!

[Stradling]

Of course Eppler was the one tasked to fire him.  Why would the owner be expected to fire someone when he hired a guy to do the hiring and firing?  

[tdawg87]

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

Of course Eppler was the one tasked to fire him.  Why would the owner be expected to fire someone when he hired a guy to do the hiring and firing?  

The owner told Eppler to fire him.

[eligrba]

Why is the firing of Ausmus still a topic? It is time to build a bridge to the next manager and get over it.

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

The owner told Eppler to fire him.

Sure.  

[tdawg87]

Just now, Stradling said:

Sure.  

Don't give me attitude. I have a source.

[Fish Oil]

31 minutes ago, RBM said:

Ausmus was Eppler’s hand picked choice less than a year ago.

 

To be fair, Eppler also hand picked Bour, Cahill, Harvey, and Allen. He doesn't hesitate to get rid of underperformers once they become obvious. Ausmus was just next in line.

[AngelsLakersFan]

16 hours ago, Dochalo said:

It used to drive me nuts when MS would bring in Salas or some other scrub when the Halos were down by a run in the 7th.  That 1 run deficit would turn into a 2-3 run deficit way more often that I would have liked.  But after some time I realized that MS was just consulting his handy leverage charts and frankly, he was right to do what he did as painful as it was.  

With no runners on, no outs in the top of the 7th and down by a run, the leverage is 1.0.  

It was one of the main reasons why I felt like Scioscia needed strong bullpens.  Because he'd go to that 5th guy for those spots.  Ausmus seemed to routinely used his 2nd or 3rd best guy in those spots and over the course of 162 games, those guys were burnt.  And it wasn't just the number of innings.  I think MS just had a better idea of the long term play.  

This is my take exactly.

[Claude]

44 minutes ago, RBM said:

 

“It’s much more likely Arte gave Eppler an offer he couldn’t refuse - fire Ausmus or I fire you both.”

 

Without making it more than it is, I think this is probably what happened. Arte didn’t like the direction it was going and compounded by years of fail prior to Ausmus he wanted a faster path to fix it. He believes Maddon is the answer to get that done. 

[Stradling]

What world do you guys live in where there is virtually no respect for employer and employee?  So let me get this straight, Eppler wouldn’t move on from a guy he hired last year and was forced to fire him, but Arte would fire a guy that he has worked with for 4 years, and just picked up his option?  There couldn’t be an adult conversation between Arte and Eppler that didn’t end with, “fire him or your fired?”  Sorry but that really isn’t how the world works, if it was then good luck getting a quality GM next time.  Now if Eppler refused Arte could have fired him, but hell he can fire him today for no reason.  

[Dtwncbad]

13 minutes ago, Calzone 2 said:

Without making it more than it is, I think this is probably what happened. Arte didn’t like the direction it was going and compounded by years of fail prior to Ausmus he wanted a faster path to fix it. He believes Maddon is the answer to get that done. 

Why NOT make it a little more, like Eppler was waterboarded and pistol whipped?