Tom Verducci Exclusive Interview with Arte Moreno

[BTH]

40 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Verducci didn't want to talk about the minors leagues, thickhead. The rest of baseball doesn't care about the Angels minor leagues, they want to know why Moreno backed out of selling the Angels. This is a national audience story. 

 

The rest of baseball cares about the Angels (namely Trout and Ohtani) not making the playoffs, and the state of their minor leagues has been a major reason why they haven’t made the playoffs.

[Blarg]

58 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Yet some of the ghouls here think Sam Blum is an a-hole for reporting that Arte refuses to talk with Angels beat reporters.

I don't believe that's why some think Blum is an A-hole. 

[Blarg]

25 minutes ago, Trendon said:

The rest of baseball cares about the Angels (namely Trout and Ohtani) not making the playoffs, and the state of their minor leagues has been a major reason why they haven’t made the playoffs.

You are still being a thickhead. The rest of baseball readers don't care about Trout and Ohtani not making the playoffs because of the minor leagues. It's a non story outside of the Angels fanbase because every other market has their own playoff drought they focus on.

But an owner shrugging off 3 multi-billion dollar offers has a national appeal. Verducci writes for national audiences. 

[Stradling]

The fact this has to be explained is very dumb. 

[ettin]

9 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

 

I am not sure how much I  buy the quote, about, "You mean you need more than just Turner?"

For someone who has been to intimately involved in baseball operations, it seems quite odd that he would make that statement to Minasian, knowing that they need more than just another highly-paid superstar to the roster, particularly in light of the fact that he knows that if they want to extend Ohtani, they need to pay him way more than Trea Turner got paid. Seems quite disingenuous of Arte, that guy knows what is going on and what the team needs. It is almost as if the quote was designed to make it look like Moreno is not that engaged in baseball operations and that Minasian is the only one running the show and I don't buy it. 

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, ettin said:

It is almost as if the quote was designed to make it look like Moreno is not that engaged in baseball operations and that Minasian is the only one running the show and I don't buy it. 

Or that Arte wanted the fans to know he was willing to go after Trea Turner 

[Pancake Bear]

4 hours ago, ettin said:

I am not sure how much I  buy the quote, about, "You mean you need more than just Turner?"

For someone who has been to intimately involved in baseball operations, it seems quite odd that he would make that statement to Minasian, knowing that they need more than just another highly-paid superstar to the roster, particularly in light of the fact that he knows that if they want to extend Ohtani, they need to pay him way more than Trea Turner got paid. Seems quite disingenuous of Arte, that guy knows what is going on and what the team needs. It is almost as if the quote was designed to make it look like Moreno is not that engaged in baseball operations and that Minasian is the only one running the show and I don't buy it. 

I think it's indicative of the fact that Arte's mindset is that the way to build a team is to buy a star player. I genuinely believe that he doesn't fully grasp why depth is a big deal. He thinks Turner would be the best way to improve the team (and probably sell more tickets than Anderson, Drury, Renfroe, Urshela, Estevez, and Moore). 

It's also probably a form of preemptive damage control if Minasian's strategy doesn't result in a playoff berth. "I was ready to go all in on Trea Turner, but my front office said not to. I'm doing everything I can to build a winner!" I think Minasian is gone if they don't make the playoffs this year. 

[DMVol]

5 hours ago, Pancake Bear said:

…. I think Minasian is gone if they don't make the playoffs this year. 

You’re probably right….but not a good way to run a franchise…wash, rinse, repeat…

[Jeff Fletcher]

20 hours ago, jsnpritchett said:

He has a fair point, though.  It is weird that Moreno hasn't talked to any local/beat reporters in years. 

It is weird because Moreno used to talk to the media once a year, and then he stopped. But I think a large number of owners never talk to the media at all, so in that sense it’s not weird. 

20 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Why is it that it's just Sam crying about this though? You don’t see Fletcher, Digi, Shaikin or any of the MLB beat writers for the Angels outraged about this. 

He doesn’t owe reporters a thing IMO. Just let your GM cook and give him the resources to do his job well like he did this past offseason.

Maybe it’s just me but Blum comes across as someone who likes to stir things up on Twitter with a generally young Angels fanbase that seemingly always have sand in their vaginas. 

My policy is I continually ask to talk to Arte and if he doesn’t want to that’s his choice. It’s easy for me to say it’s bad business for him to not talk but we all know it could go either way, so it’s his choice. I am more interested in what he does than what he says anyway. 
 

It’s not like we’re going to get all the answers we want even if he does talk. He’ll give us his spin on things (just like he’s done with Verducci and Heyman) and on other things he’ll just refuse to answer. We’re not going to strap him in a chair and shock him until he tells us what we want to know. 

[beatlesrule]

Shows you how clueless Moreno still is. "You mean we need more than just 1 player?" Our owner everybody.

[Angel Oracle]

59 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

Shows you how clueless Moreno still is. "You mean we need more than just 1 player?" Our owner everybody.

Hence my gloss from years back:

Starry-eyed Arte 

And why I also said to hope to never again have an advertising guy own your team.

[BTH]

2 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

It is weird because Moreno used to talk to the media once a year, and then he stopped. But I think a large number of owners never talk to the media at all, so in that sense it’s not weird. 

Maybe it’s because there are more uncomfortable subjects out there for reporters to ask him about?

Since he last spoke to local reporters in 2020, there’s been:

- the pandemic, where he furloughed employees and didn’t pay minor leaguers.

- the collapsed stadium deal.

- lawsuits by international players.

That’s on top of the lawsuits by the Skaggs family and Bubba Harkins. And I’m sure I’m missing more off the top of my head.

[BTH]

2 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

I am more interested in what he does than what he says anyway. 

And that’s why we appreciate your reporting, like when you reported the Angels increased the pay of minor league staff under Minasian.

I hope we hear more about changes like that, but obviously:

a. Those changes to need to happen.

b. You have to do some digging to find out about it.

[Revad]

2 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

It is weird because Moreno used to talk to the media once a year, and then he stopped. But I think a large number of owners never talk to the media at all, so in that sense it’s not weird. 

My policy is I continually ask to talk to Arte and if he doesn’t want to that’s his choice. It’s easy for me to say it’s bad business for him to not talk but we all know it could go either way, so it’s his choice. I am more interested in what he does than what he says anyway. 
 

It’s not like we’re going to get all the answers we want even if he does talk. He’ll give us his spin on things (just like he’s done with Verducci and Heyman) and on other things he’ll just refuse to answer. We’re not going to strap him in a chair and shock him until he tells us what we want to know. 

Maybe my ex-wife should ask the questions.

[Swordsman78]

22 hours ago, jsnpritchett said:

 

 

Arte Moreno: We take our responsibilities to our minor league players very seriously, and we are committed to providing them with the resources and support they need to succeed. We have made significant investments in our minor league facilities and infrastructure, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve. We believe that we have one of the best player development systems in baseball, and we will continue to invest in it and improve it. We want to provide our minor league players with the best possible opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential.

Why does Arte sound like Biden's press secretary?  LOL

[Docwaukee]

The local media is going to be more in tune with the granular detail about why the franchise has been kind of a mess the last near decade.   when he says 'we have to be better' to the national media there's no follow up question about how.  

It's actually pretty smart.  He's gonna put up a winning season and then the questions can be about that.  

[Revad]

1 minute ago, Docwaukee said:

The local media is going to be more in tune with the granular detail about why the franchise has been kind of a mess the last near decade.   when he says 'we have to be better' to the national media there's no follow up question about how.  

It's actually pretty smart.  He's gonna put up a winning season and then the questions can be about that.  

Arte is clever.  That being said, while I believe this is a playoff team, if Ohtani walks the questions will be about that as well.

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Revad said:

Arte is clever.  That being said, while I believe this is a playoff team, if Ohtani walks the questions will be about that as well.

"We did our best"

[angelsnationtalk]

On 3/11/2023 at 10:24 AM, Chuckster70 said:

Why is it that it's just Sam crying about this though? You don’t see Fletcher, Digi, Shaikin or any of the MLB beat writers for the Angels outraged about this. 

He doesn’t owe reporters a thing IMO. Just let your GM cook and give him the resources to do his job well like he did this past offseason.

Maybe it’s just me but Blum comes across as someone who likes to stir things up on Twitter with a generally young Angels fanbase that seemingly always have sand in their vaginas. 

To be honest I like how Sam isn't afraid to call it as it is. It may not come off as PC or professional, but Sam does have a good point. He's saying out loud what we've all been trying to say for years.

[angelsnationtalk]

Spreading the money around is fine as long as it's for impactful players. 
In terms of Free Agents we signed Drury, Moore, Anderson, Estevez and Phillips. 
Trades included Renfroe and Urshela

I just worry about how much of an impact they will make at the end of the day. 
Would have been nice for Arte to get all this + Turner.
Or - Anderson, Drury, Renfroe and Turner. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

14 hours ago, Docwaukee said:

Or that Arte wanted the fans to know he was willing to go after Trea Turner 

Especially after he signed somewhere else months ago.

 

"We ALMOST offered him a deal" (winks and clicks tongue, hopes that makes him look like we almost got someone cool)

[ten ocho recon scout]

Reference the Turner comment. Sure, he's a stud and that would have been great to add someone like that.

But it stinks of the basic problem the past several years...

Arte seems to continue to adore big name guys but ignores the pieces to complement them with.

[Jeff Fletcher]

2 hours ago, Trendon said:

Maybe it’s because there are more uncomfortable subjects out there for reporters to ask him about?

Yeah. Obviously. It makes perfect sense that he wouldn't want to talk if he's going to be asked about that stuff.

[Pancake Bear]

14 minutes ago, angelsnationtalk said:

Would have been nice for Arte to get all this + Turner.
Or - Anderson, Drury, Renfroe and Turner. 

Yes, it would've been nice. But it's pretty obvious from Arte's comments in the article that he seems philosophically opposed to being the top spender because he feels it's unfair to the teams that don't or can't spend as much. He's fine being top ten, but both because he wants to make money (which he undersells, but it's obviously a huge factor) and, to some degree, because he doesn't believe in spending that much comparatively, he won't ever be at the forefront on spending. That's just reality. 

So, grabbing everything we did plus Turner and another good starter and reliever would've been great, but we can't all be the Mets, apparently. And, ultimately, spending the most doesn't guarantee anything. At the end of the day, it comes down to having a smart front office. A dumb GM with all the money in the world will make a lot of bad decisions in spending. A smart GM with very limited money can still go all the way. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

I've been an Arte fan over the years. 

But a few things stand out here that don't give me the warm and fuzzies..

When he says he had several offers that were huge. But decided not to sell. Just because. The whole thing is weird... and seems stupid, honestly. Not just to back out. But essentially indecisive and short sighted... like a lot of the moves over recent years.

Piggyback that with "we aren't trading Ohtani". Seems sort of the same problem... not going with the smart move. Almost like a hoarder, who keeps stuff for sentiment, when everyone around is pointing out reality.

When me mentions people telling their grandkids they saw Ohtani play. Yeah, sure I guess. Plenty of Mariner fans saw Jr and Arod play together. I doubt that replaces winning... and this goes back to his priorities. He doesn't understand this isn't a circus show.... as cool as Ohtani is, winning is FAR more important. We've all seen Trout dominate baseball for a decade.... personally I'd trade Trout for the 2000s teams any day. Trouts been amazing, but this losing stretch isn't any less because you get to see an historic player. 

Lastly, it's kind of silly to mention the beer prices.... yes, we all love beer, Arte. And the cliche "beer and hot dogs taste better at the ballpark" line. Again.... I could go to a bar and catch the game on TV for better prices... I want to go to the game and be entertained... and that means watching a good team, not one or two guys who are amazing bat 4 times over 3 hours.

 

And most important, along the beer part. You buy a round of beers for 18 bucks and  tip 2? What a cheap ass.