As Angels Tumble, Arte defends his Turf

[stormngt]

 

Write this season off guys. This team this season is cursed. Just enjoy the team you root for with expectations of a loss, but viewing interest in Trout, Bourjos and some others on the team that they will make something awesome happen before your eyes.

 

I agree with you on this.  This season is cursed, what could go wrong HAS!  I still watch and see what Trout, Bourjos and Trumbo do.  I still have hope that Pujols and Hamilton will have some decent seasons.  I hope someone in the minors pitching staff becomes a surprise and rises to the opportunity!

 

What ever happened to that left who did a spot start early in the season.  He was less than a year out of college, I thought he did decent for an appearance or two?

[Mark68]

I have to respect Arte.  He has made  every effort to make this team better.  Has the moves been successful?  No, but he has tried.  As a long time Angel fan I can tell you with frustration how it seemed like our ownership was content in just having us lose?  Or we could have an Owner like the Marlins who blows the team up at will, or how about an owner like the Royals who con't care if they win or not and just stay put!

 

He is right, the Angel management was ridiculed for being cheap when he passed on Crawford and Tiex.  Then he goes out and signs the two best hitters in the next two free agent class.  You can say they are bad moves, but the man is trying to win and he is trying to win right now!

 

That said, anyone who says they believe Pujols was going to struggle as much as he has in year one and two of his contract are just lying!  Yes, many felt it was a bad contract, but their complaints would be on the later stages of the contract would be a disaster, not now!

 

Also, anyone who felt that the five time all star and former MVP Hamilton would all a sudden bat 210 is also lying.  The critics of the contract was that it was too long for a guy who is injury prone.  Guess what????? it hasn't been injuries!

 

Finally, there is a lot of criticism that these contracts will paralyze the Angels for the next five years.  Well that is really to be determined!  I have heard countless times that the GMJ contract would kill the Angels ability to  make moves.  Or that the Wells contract would do that...or that Pujols contract will do that.  Well despite the loss money down the drain Moreno has not stop trying to improve the team.  He is one of the best owners in the game and we are lucky he owns the Angels!

That's cuz it's not your money!!!

[EDinTUSTIN]

Great little article.  I am glad someone got some quotes from him.

 

One thing:

"You look at Albert's numbers,'' Moreno says, "and for the chance to bring that quality of player to Southern California, for our fans to get to see one of the greatest players today, to play in our ballpark every day. You kidding me? That's a treat.

 

Nobody here cares about Albert's St. Louis numbers, Arte.  Except perhaps you and Gubi.  You'd think a marketing genius would understand that.

 

 

Later in the article, talking about Carl Crawford.... It is CLEAR Arte has rabbit ears when he was called cheap for not getting Crawford.  Then he proceeds to overspend the next two years on failures (Hamilton) and relative failures (Pujols).

 

Again, I blame the Angelswin crowd.  They needed their damn Christmas presents under the tree... and Arte listened to them.

I agree with the first two paragraphs of your response. Nobody cares at all about his Cardinal numbers as they don't put victories in the win column for the Angels.

 

The last paragraph, well, hmmm......LOL! I am quite sure that Arte doesn't read Angelswin, and even if he does I doubt seriously he takes his advice from us.

[2002_halos_II]

I never asked for Hamilton.

[tdawg87]

Arte is the best owner this team has ever had. I think he needs to sit back and let Dipoto do what he can to fix this mess though. No more 125 million dollar bandaids.

[Angel Oracle]

lol at Scioscia anchoring the speedsters on the bases. That is so wrong in many ways!

Something is cutting back the SB attempts from a year ago.

[Angel Oracle]

I agree with you on this.  This season is cursed, what could go wrong HAS!  I still watch and see what Trout, Bourjos and Trumbo do.  I still have hope that Pujols and Hamilton will have some decent seasons.  I hope someone in the minors pitching staff becomes a surprise and rises to the opportunity!

 

What ever happened to that left who did a spot start early in the season.  He was less than a year out of college, I thought he did decent for an appearance or two?

Michael Roth?

[tomsred]

Roth (ERA 9.00/14.0 innings), Lowe (ERA 9.26/11.2 innings), and Enright (ERA 12.96/8.1 innings).  Roth is not ready, but has time.  Lowe and Enright may be done.

[Ohtaniland]

I never asked for Hamilton.

 

Signing Josh Hamilton is the equivalent of signing Jason Giambi in his prime but ending up with Jeremy Giambi instead. 

[tomsred]

Or maybe he's an Adam Dunn with good wheels, and a glove.

[Angelsjunky]

Jeremy Giambi was actually a pretty good hitter - he had a career line of .263/.377/.430. I don't know why he retired when he did at age 28.

 

Signing Josh Hamilton was like signing Vernon Wells c. 2006 and getting Vernon Wells c. 2011.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

For all the people screaming for Dipoto's head after one season and three months of a second (after following the disastrous Reagins regime), I'm glad that Moreno isn't among them. People who believed that this was going to be fixed in a couple of off-seasons weren't realistic about the state of the club, IMO. I'm glad that he is inclined to see what JeDi can do, and not cut him loose because we had a couple of bad seasons. He seems less committed on the topic of Scioscia, just saying that he wasn't going to fire him during the season.

[YouthofToday]

Arte is called worse on other Angel websites.

[Hoops McCann]

I love baseball.  It is a complex, beautiful game played by men who get paid great sums to play a kids game.  I never get tired of watching it, discussing it and reveling in its details.

 

However, if you take it so seriously that you need to berate the owner personally, while he's eating breakfast, I would suggest another hobby.

 

If fans want to berate ownership, this is what message boards and forums like this are for.  Let the man eat his breakfast in peace...I think he's at least entitled to that.

[Ohtaniland]

I have mixed feelings about Arte and Dipoto but not in a hateful way. I believe Arte has great intentions to build a winner. But there's something fundamentally wrong with the organizational structure. Who's in charge, Arte, Dipoto or Scioscia? Did Dipoto really want to rebuild the Angels with big contracts or promote more managable flexible deals? He was touted as a brilliant young baseball mind but some of his decisions are WTF?????? I'm led to believe that Dipoto has had to make some knee-jerk reactionary moves because of circumstances beyond his control. Somewhere between Arte's passion to win now, and Dipoto's plan to rebuild the team, they each have a vision to win but with a different blueprint to get there. That's why Arte kinda put the blame on himself. The other issue is the clubhouse chemistry. Too many new faces, too fast with no time to jell. The departure of Torii Hunter was a business decision reality check for the clubhouse. So who's the new leader? Pujols the highly paid veteran or the kid that makes Albert look like he's standing still. Is there any clubhouse divide? Pujols and Aybar doing their hand slap dance after a solo homerun while sitting in 4th place is just stupid. Albert also really liked Lucho so it makes me wonder about other issues but I won't go there. Did Albert really like Torii or did the Angels fan favorite get in his way.

[Lifetime]

this is great, you don't know the answers to those questions or what the clubhouse chemistry is like therefore there is something fundamentally wrong with the organization.

 

ya how stupid that players would celebrate a homerun when they are in 4th place. Seriously Hamiltown?!?

 

you make a lot of assumptions and your criteria is based on things you don't have answers to. 

[Ohtaniland]

Lifetime, you're right I don't have all the answers. When you put 25 men in a clubhouse together chemistry is important and its never a perfect science. You have overpaid players mixed with underpaid players. You have some of Reagins players adjusting to Dipoto's vision. There's been a lot of changes since Reagins stepped down. In fact 67% of the roster has been flipped. That's a lot of changes in a short period of time.

[Angel Oracle]

Then, the question becomes "Why have so many acquisitions blown up in this org's face for the past few years?"

Just one of those periods?

Bad scouting/projecting of those acquisitions, and of the non-acquisitions and traded aways (Beltre and Puig especially in the non-acquisition side and Segura, Corbin, and Torres especially on the traded away side)?

Some of both?   

[Lifetime]

that doesn't mean there is a chemistry problem

[Lifetime]

Then, the question becomes "Why have so many acquisitions blown up in this org's face for the past few years?"

Just one of those periods?

Bad scouting/projecting of those acquisitions, and of the non-acquisitions and traded aways (Beltre and Puig especially in the non-acquisition side and Segura, Corbin, and Torres especially on the traded away side)?

Some of both?   

just like every other organization AO. There are a lot of factors. There is no exact science to it so mistakes happen and players fail. This isn't unique to the Angels by any means.

[Angel Oracle]

That I get, it has gotten pretty extensive though over these past few years, and has contributed to the state of the team in 2013.

Maybe it is just one of those periods.    If so, I sure hope it ends soon. 

[Ohtaniland]

just like every other organization AO. There are a lot of factors. There is no exact science to it so mistakes happen and players fail. This isn't unique to the Angels by any means.

The mistakes were made by who Lifetime? Arte, Dipoto, Scioscia, the players or is this team just a bad mix?

[Lifetime]

it's a cyclical thing. When an organization goes through a long period of success as the Angels have, they are sure to also go through periods of struggle when the organization is thin with lower level talent. It becomes more difficult to maintain competitiveness without going out into the FA market to fill gaps. If those FA's fail to produce as expected/needed, then winning becomes a struggle. It is going to take a while to build the system back up. They did a good job in the draft this year and that's a start. This team needs to try to stay competitive in the process. They have big contracts and some very talent young players and some holes to fill but they cannot go into fire sale mode, abandon the goal of competing every year, and go through a major rebuild process, losing a tremendous gain in fan base that has accumulated over the past few years. They need to do everything they can to stay competitive now and rebuild the farm over the next few years at the same time. It's going to cost more money and at some point we'll probably lose some of our young talent in order to fill needs. But a massive overhaul just ain't gonna happen.

[Lifetime]

The mistakes were made by who Lifetime? Arte, Dipoto, Scioscia, the players or is this team just a bad mix?

why does it matter? why is it necessary as fans to point directly at any one person as the one who made a mistake. They've all made mistakes and we've debated them to death already. Like I said, there's no perfect science to this game. Mistakes happen, players fail, judgment errors are made, etc. It's inherent is the game and every organization has to deal with them. Sometimes it's worse than others.

[stormngt]

That's cuz it's not your money!!!

Your right, its not my money.  It is his.  And he keeps spending trying to make this team a winner.  You can critique if his moves are not wise, but he is trying.