Angels minor leaguers blast Arte Moreno for terrible living conditions

[m0nkey]

Face!

[m0nkey]

Dammit

[Lou]

LOL

FACE!

[Lou]

Dammit!

[Make Angels Great Again]

2 hours ago, Lou said:

Not going to lie, I rather enjoyed the "Breedlove"

Ha. Breedlove, lovegrove. They're all the same right?

[Jay]

Great day today on the board. Luckily I got to play this morning with the Cleveland Indians name change but I completely missed out on this one, too busy.

 

[Angel Oracle]

Arturo Moreno is a pathetic owner.

Only cares about long ball hitters.

Played the antithesis song (Buttercup) for baseball for several years during the 7th inning.

Pretends to be a owner who has principles, but a) signs a relapsing drug user (Hackilton), b) has a FO guy contribute to a player’s death, c) can’t ever hire a decent GM, d) allows a second rate farm system, and e) has a big addiction to signing other teams’ big money long ball guys.

Folks, meet Peter Angelos’ clone!

Edited July 24, 2021 by Angel Oracle

[NrM]

Shane Kelso -- who spent part of the 2021 season with the Low-A Inland Empire 66ers, another Angels affiliate, before retiring due to the living conditions for players -- said four teammates bunked in a camper van in a trailer park while others lived out of cars.
"It's gotten to the point now where there are guys who are in a serious mental health crisis because of how stressful money is here,"

 

Fuck Arte Moreno. All my homies hate Arte Moreno.

[Angel Oracle]

[REDneck]

7 hours ago, jsnpritchett said:

"Lovegrove said he witnessed the bodies of teammates break down because of the lack of healthy food options available, with many defaulting to fast food like McDonald's or Taco Bell.

"They were not receiving enough nutrition to maintain muscle mass," Lovegrove said. "We had guys lose 5 pounds in two weeks."

Lovegrove said that the living conditions for minor leaguers show that Angels owner Arte Moreno "really doesn't give a s--- about the winning side" of running a baseball team because of its failure to develop the next generation of baseball players.

"It's frustrating when you're sitting in the pen and you're hearing guys just harp about how bad the ownership is and how bad the organization is because you don't want guys to be somewhere that they are unhappy," Lovegrove said. "Is Moreno completely out of touch with the reality of what it's like to be a player? Probably. I don't see that really changing because I don't know that he really does care about the quality of the organization so much as the amount of money it produces."

Moreno did not respond to ESPN after request for comment."

Oh lord...not good

[JustATroutFan]

34 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Arturo Moreno is a pathetic owner.

Only cares about long ball hitters.

Played the antithesis song (Buttercup) for baseball for several years during the 7th inning.

Pretends to be a owner who has principles, but a) signs a relapsing drug user (Hackilton), b) has a FO guy contribute to a player’s death, c) can’t ever hire a decent GM, d) allows a second rate farm system, and e) has a big addiction to signing other teams’ big money long ball guys.

Folks, meet Peter Angelos’ clone!

Still can't believe that he would support someone who labeled people from his own country the "r" word, which ends with the letter "s". And he thinks the Angels play in the city of Los Angeles. Dumb dumb! 

[REDneck]

Beer isn't even cheap anymore is it?

What is this guy doing for this organization?

[ukyah]

4 hours ago, Make Angels Great Again said:

Can Arte afford to pay the minor leaguers more? Of course.

 

My CEO can also afford to pay off my car but I won't curse him because he chooses not to. I'll do what I have to do because whining won't fix anything.

since when is an employee voicing his displeasure the equivalent of "whining"? do they not have the right to stand up for their own self interests as you are applauding arte or the ceo at your job for?

there's this weird thinking in america that if you don't just tough it out and take what they give you, then you're a malcontent.

[ten ocho recon scout]

In Torii Hunters goodbye piece he wrote (you can google it), he talks about sleeping in his car and having to shower at the stadium. I dont think this is just an Angels thing.

On the one hand, Id say if Im the owner, Id like to invest in my product. I personally would make sure they had the best facilities and nutrition I could afford.

I wish Arte would do the same.

At the same time, I have no idea who this guy is, but what level in the minors did he get to? A 400K signing bonus should have been enough to own a home, somewhere. If it was 10 years ago (and hes from OC) he could have easily paid cash for a home in Corona (the horror!). Or a condo in OC, where he would have made double back at this point. 

As far as the living conditions, with several players splitting rent on a pad.... dont most of us do that when we're young? 

Ill spare everyone any of my own stories. But as a late teen, early 20s guy, I too had roomates. We slept in a barracks.... about 40 guys shared 3 toilets and 5 shower heads. Made about 1800 a month. Ate cafeteria food.

I lived.

But I got out after a few years and went on to a better paying job. A guy who spent 9 years in the minors might want to think about doing the same thing....

I have a few friends who never made it out of the minors. They accepted reality and got real jobs. And own houses in corona, and condos in OC from their signing bonus....

 

[Inside Pitch]

5 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

In Torii Hunters goodbye piece he wrote (you can google it), he talks about sleeping in his car and having to shower at the stadium. I dont think this is just an Angels thing.

On the one hand, Id say if Im the owner, Id like to invest in my product. I personally would make sure they had the best facilities and nutrition I could afford.

I wish Arte would do the same.

At the same time, I have no idea who this guy is, but what level in the minors did he get to? A 400K signing bonus should have been enough to own a home, somewhere. If it was 10 years ago (and hes from OC) he could have easily paid cash for a home in Corona (the horror!). Or a condo in OC, where he would have made double back at this point. 

As far as the living conditions, with several players splitting rent on a pad.... dont most of us do that when we're young? 

Ill spare everyone any of my own stories. But as a late teen, early 20s guy, I too had roomates. We slept in a barracks.... about 40 guys shared 3 toilets and 5 shower heads. Made about 1800 a month. Ate cafeteria food.

I lived.

But I got out after a few years and went on to a better paying job. A guy who spent 9 years in the minors might want to think about doing the same thing....

I have a few friends who never made it out of the minors. They accepted reality and got real jobs. And own houses in corona, and condos in OC from their signing bonus....

 

It's not just the Angels it's pretty much baseball history.  People have always been ignorant of what these guys go through to get to where they are, it's even worse for the kids from Latin America.  People have just always glossed over it or don't realize that players have no other options while under team control, they can't just up and take their act elsewhere, their only options are quit and move on or make it work.

Look no further than what teams are doing with draft bonuses even now.  You have guys being drafted and then being signed for 1k because of team control.  Meanwhile they'd be able to shop themselves to the highest bidder had they not been drafted.  It's kind of twisted but while everyone will focus their ire on owners it's not like the players at the highest level are free of blame.  They all went through it, they also have never done anything to make it better for those guys -- it's just always been viewed as part of the gig, the price you pay to make millions later.

It's good to see that a lot of the forward thinking teams have changed how the do business, it's crazy that a team known for penny pinching like Cleveland is among those willing to spend more but it makes the most sense -- they are investing in their future by trying to maximize their chances, it's really annoying to see the Angels failing here.

The easiest route would be to establish minimum living standards across baseball.  Something like that might actually serve to level the playing field to a degree, but it's unlikely it happens without outside pressure.  This is particularly true after MLB's takeover of minor league baseball.

This was a pretty good piece on the subject https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28702734/mlb-raising-minimum-salary-minor-leaguers-2021

[tdawg87]

2 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

It's not just the Angels it's pretty much baseball history.  People have always been ignorant of what these guys go through to get to where they are, it's even worse for the kids from Latin America.  People have just always glossed over it or don't realize that players have no other options while under team control, they can't just up and take their act elsewhere, their only options are quit and move on or make it work.

Look no further than what teams are doing with draft bonuses even now.  You have guys being drafted and then being signed for 1k because of team control.  Meanwhile they'd be able to shop themselves to the highest bidder had they not been drafted.  Its kind of twisted but while everyone will focus their ire on owners its not like the players at the highest level are free of blame.  They all went through it, they also have never done anything to make it better for those guys -- it's just always been viewed as part of the gig, the price you pay to make millions later.

It's good to see that a lot of the forward thinking teams have changed how the do business, it's crazy that a team known for penny pinching like Cleveland is among those willing to spend more but it makes the most sense -- they are investing in their future by trying to maximize their chances, it's really annoying to see the Angels failing here.

The easiest route would be to establish minimum living standards across baseball.  Something like that might actually serve to level the playing field to a degree, but it's unlikely it happens without outside pressure.  This is particularly true after MLB's takeover of minor league baseball.

This was a pretty good piece on the subject https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28702734/mlb-raising-minimum-salary-minor-leaguers-2021

I hadn't even considered the kids coming over from Latin America. Typical white lib.

[Lou]

6 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

In Torii Hunters goodbye piece he wrote (you can google it), he talks about sleeping in his car and having to shower at the stadium. I dont think this is just an Angels thing.

On the one hand, Id say if Im the owner, Id like to invest in my product. I personally would make sure they had the best facilities and nutrition I could afford.

I wish Arte would do the same.

At the same time, I have no idea who this guy is, but what level in the minors did he get to? A 400K signing bonus should have been enough to own a home, somewhere. If it was 10 years ago (and hes from OC) he could have easily paid cash for a home in Corona (the horror!). Or a condo in OC, where he would have made double back at this point. 

As far as the living conditions, with several players splitting rent on a pad.... dont most of us do that when we're young? 

Ill spare everyone any of my own stories. But as a late teen, early 20s guy, I too had roomates. We slept in a barracks.... about 40 guys shared 3 toilets and 5 shower heads. Made about 1800 a month. Ate cafeteria food.

I lived.

But I got out after a few years and went on to a better paying job. A guy who spent 9 years in the minors might want to think about doing the same thing....

I have a few friends who never made it out of the minors. They accepted reality and got real jobs. And own houses in corona, and condos in OC from their signing bonus....

 

You and your friends sound like adults. 

[T.G.]

A lot of these guys are drafted into baseball right out of high school. I'm guessing the overwhelming majority of them have no idea how to manage their finances or set and adhere to a budget. I don't know if baseball teams provide that kind of training, but I doubt it.

That being said...

If you're a baseball player who has been toiling around the minor leagues for several years, you should probably re-evaluate your career choice.  Giving up on a dream is hard for some, but that's what adults have to do some times.

That being said - I don't necessarily fault guys who don't quit and speak up in an effort to make things better.  It's easy to say, if you don't like it - quit.  It's another thing to say - if you don't like it, speak up and try to do something to make things better.  There's lots of examples of people not quitting to try and make things better throughout history.

Like IP said, it's funny how a team like Cleveland is investing in its future and a team like the Angels doesn't appear to be.  Why wouldn't a team want to do everything it can to help its players reach their full potential?

Also - I thought minor league teams had families that hosted players during the season to help them out.  They don't do that any more? (Edit: just read the OC Register article said that stopped because of the pandemic)>

I'm curious to see what comes of this, if anything.  Minasian said this was "unacceptable."  Well, we'll see.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by True Grich

[Lou]

Cleveland hasn't won a World Series in 73 years.

It's not working.

[T.G.]

3 minutes ago, Lou said:

Cleveland hasn't won a World Series in 73 years.

It's not working.

True they haven't won in 73 years.  All the more reason to change their past practices and invest in their young players now.

[yk9001]

14 hours ago, eligrba said:

Compounding interest over 9 yrs would be pretty sweet…I wish I had that kind of a problem.

 

I swear i feel like some board members are stuck in a 1987 time warp.

Do you know what savings interest rates - compounded - have been in the last 10 years?

[yk9001]

14 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

We all lived like that in college.

The difference is we weren’t trying to excel in a sport, where conditioning is important.

The guy even said that the other 4 orgs he’s been in were a lot better at it.

It doesn’t matter what bonus the player gets, if the conditioning, nutrition, and living conditions aren’t sufficient.   College athletes don’t sleep 6 to a room.

Jesus man, when @Angel Oracle needs to come in here and be the voice of reason, it shows how ridiculous some of you are.

Nobody cares about how some of you walked uphill in the snow to and from school, and you had two jobs, grandpas.

Its about (as AO is the first to point out) this organization doesn't set up its players to succeed. Training, nutrition, sleep.  Good organizations set their players up to succeed by providing the right things.

[yk9001]

14 hours ago, Dtwncbad said:

Sold flowers on the street corner.

Worked as a dishwasher.

Waited tables.

Did janitorial work at night.

Worked as a painter.

Sanded boat bottoms by hand (fuck that was hard).

Drove a shuttle to the airport for $1 tips.

Shoveled rocks and dirt for cash.

Delivered pizza.

I could go on.

None of these jobs paid a “living wage” but I certainly lived.

And it all works out if you decide to take care of yourself and work hard and quit whining that somebody else owes you something.

Oh for fuck's sake.

[eligrba]

4 minutes ago, yk9001 said:

I swear i feel like some board members are stuck in a 1987 time warp.

Do you know what savings interest rates - compounded - have been in the last 10 years?

No.  What has it been?

[yk9001]

14 hours ago, Lou said:

My mom cooked every day and there were 7 of us in our house. 

I doubt any of those guys are sleeping in the oven.

Oh for fuck's sake.