Is 2023 The Most Dysfunctional Year in Angel History?

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

The hits keep coming.  Ohtani has quit on the team.  
 

The Angels have had plagued years in the past.  The bus crash year was bad, but it was not due to inept management.  
 

Letting Ryan go after the 79 season in the infamous Bavasi (replace him with 8-7) pitchers was bad. You wonder what 82 and 86 would have been like with Ryan there.  

Is 2023 the worst?  What year do you think was horrendous?

 

[fan_since79]

The 1995 extended, torturous collapse was the worst for me. The image of Langston sprawled across home plate in Seattle with Luis Sojo celebrating in the background. All-time low.

But dysfunctional? No. This year might take the prize. Arte changing his mind and not selling has poisoned this franchise. Then Rendon and the crazy number of injuries, some freakish.

[Taylor]

At least nobody died.

[jsnpritchett]

5 minutes ago, Taylor said:

At least nobody died.

Yet.

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

58 minutes ago, Taylor said:

At least nobody died.

I totally forgot about the angels drug dealing scandal.  It’s too bad MLB didn’t force sale after that.   

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

The 79 Bavasi comments were done after the season during Free Agency. We'll just sign two 8-7 pitchers... Yes, we would had been better in 82 & 86 with the Express!

The Bus Crash and Death's of Bostock & Skaggs were the worst in season events that had a negative impact on those teams.

 

[Stradling]

26 minutes ago, The Ghost of Bob Starr said:

I totally forgot about the angels drug dealing scandal.  It’s too bad MLB didn’t force sale after that.   

I still think calling it a drug dealing scandal is silly. It’s two guys who did drugs together. One was a major league pitcher who paid for the drugs, the other worked for the team and would be the guy that went and got the drugs. It’s the drug equivalent of you fly I’ll buy.  

[Taylor]

36 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I still think calling it a drug dealing scandal is silly. It’s two guys who did drugs together. One was a major league pitcher who paid for the drugs, the other worked for the team and would be the guy that went and got the drugs. It’s the drug equivalent of you fly I’ll buy.  

Regardless of your definition of scandal, a major league baseball player died of a drug overdose from drugs he received from an employee of the organization. 

[Stradling]

21 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Regardless of your definition of scandal, a major league baseball player died of a drug overdose from drugs he received from an employee of the organization. 

No shit.  Employees die every often doing drugs given to them by people they work with.  

[Angel Oracle]

This season and 1971

Some had them as the AL West favorites in 1971, after an 86 win season and adding a few players including Tony Conigliaro.    Alas, they fell to 76-86. Tony C. retired mid-season, pitching aside from Messersmith struggled, Alex Johnson was suspended, Chico Ruiz pulled a gun in the locker room, etc.

[Inside Pitch]

2015

When your GM goes into the clubhouse only to have the 250 million dollar addition he crowed about three years previously tell him to STFU and go home, and he does...  lol..

Yeah..  That was bad.

2022

Manager goes rogue, gets fired, owner quits ... manager writes a tell all... lol..

Mayhem was bad.

2023

The rotation regresses, bunch of injuries, and a whiny reporter spends the season caring more about HOW a guy answers than WHAT he actually says isn't dysfunction, it's sideshow level stupid.  Fans were invested and players were all hyped up as recently as July 31st..  I mean the guy that everyone is upset may be leaving publicly asked NOT to be traded.

I'd say either 2015 or 2022 were worse and it's not really close.

 

 

[Taylor]

28 minutes ago, Stradling said:

No shit.  Employees die every often doing drugs given to them by people they work with.  

This is such a dumb narrative. You are a corporate shill through and through.

[BTH]

36 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

2015

When your GM goes into the clubhouse only to have the 250 million dollar addition he crowed about three years previously tell him to STFU and go home, and he does...  lol..

Pujols told him that?

For some reason, I don’t remember that.

[Inside Pitch]

6 minutes ago, BTH said:

Pujols told him that?

For some reason, I don’t remember that.

He told him to STFU, that the coaching staff was fine (the players didn't need to hear from him), and the reason they were having issues was there was less talent on the team.

[DowningRules]

I don't know about dysfunctional.  To that, I would say "no."  However, if we were to a compare the fortunes of this season with any other Angel season, I would say this is the "winner."

1. Injuries. 

2. Moreno sale flip/flop to start the season.

3. Tremendous mis- or lack of communication from the players to manager to front office to reporters to fans.

4. Ohtani end of season (I can't help but think Moreno was telling everyone to delay telling fans Ohtani is done just to keep drawing ticket sales and sell more Ohtani crap...I sat next to a couple of Japanese fans who purchased tix for the entire home stand in hopes of seeing Ohtani.  I hope they can at least see Cabbage!).

5. Deadline trades/non-trade of Ohtani. 

6. And these are just sitting here typing away without thinking about what else... Feel free to add your ingredient to the feces show.

[stormngt]

5 hours ago, SlappyUtilityMIF said:

The 79 Bavasi comments were done after the season during Free Agency. We'll just sign two 8-7 pitchers... Yes, we would had been better in 82 & 86 with the Express!

The Bus Crash and Death's of Bostock & Skaggs were the worst in season events that had a negative impact on those teams.

 

Dont forget Adenhart

[stormngt]

Most dysfunctional:  an argument can easily be made yes.

Most frustrating:  definitely 

Most disappointing: probably.

[Blarg]

4 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

2015

When your GM goes into the clubhouse only to have the 250 million dollar addition he crowed about three years previously tell him to STFU and go home, and he does...  lol..

Yeah..  That was bad.

2022

Manager goes rogue, gets fired, owner quits ... manager writes a tell all... lol..

Mayhem was bad.

2023

The rotation regresses, bunch of injuries, and a whiny reporter spends the season caring more about HOW a guy answers than WHAT he actually says isn't dysfunction, it's sideshow level stupid.  Fans were invested and players were all hyped up as recently as July 31st..  I mean the guy that everyone is upset may be leaving publicly asked NOT to be traded.

I'd say either 2015 or 2022 were worse and it's not really close.

 

 

1999 enters the chat. 

[Erstad Grit]

Guillen getting suspended right when the playoffs was starting was bad. Didn't GA have pink eye too or was that a different year.

 

Sigh, remember the playoffs? 

[Stradling]

3 hours ago, Taylor said:

This is such a dumb narrative. You are a corporate shill through and through.

Or I’m telling the truth. 

[Slegnaac]

Speaking of misfortunes, the Wally Joyner staphyl infection.

Morales Grand Slam walkoff.

Lyman Bostock tragedy.

But this year takes the dysfunctional award.

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

5 hours ago, Stradling said:

I still think calling it a drug dealing scandal is silly. It’s two guys who did drugs together. One was a major league pitcher who paid for the drugs, the other worked for the team and would be the guy that went and got the drugs. It’s the drug equivalent of you fly I’ll buy.  

If the world discovered a burger flipper at the Tustin district location was serving horse meat double doubles, it would be an organizational problem, not just a guy who decided to serve horse.   

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

44 minutes ago, stormngt said:

Most dysfunctional:  an argument can easily be made yes.

Most frustrating:  definitely 

Most disappointing: probably.

Not even close to disappointing. 86 and 95 were two that were disappointing beyond this. 79 with Bostock and the playoff team, awful. 

[Stradling]

14 minutes ago, The Ghost of Bob Starr said:

If the world discovered a burger flipper at the Tustin district location was serving horse meat double doubles, it would be an organizational problem, not just a guy who decided to serve horse.   

Ok. But that has nothing to do with what you are talking about. 

[fan_since79]

My brother and I were stuck in traffic on the way to Game 4 of the 1986 ALCS when we heard the news that Joyner was out with a staph infection. We looked at each other and said "Uh-oh".

Angels won that night in extra innings. The nightmare began the next day.