Sam Blum interviewed Minasian

[jsnpritchett]

It's a lengthy interview. Read the whole thing if you can.  A couple of excerpts:

"When the offseason started, you said two things. One, that you guys would be aggressive. And two, that you’d heard from agents that their clients wanted to play in Anaheim. But at the end of the day, payroll is $41 million lower. How does that square?

Fair question. We were aggressive, especially in the trade market. There were players we liked in the trade market that we felt like could really help the club. But what we were losing, we couldn’t stomach. Some of the players that were on this roster, we really, really like. Some of the players that are in our minor leagues, regardless of what publications say, we feel like have a chance to be pretty impactful young players going forward. So we made the decision we made.

I’ve been with teams where we’ve won the offseason. We’ve made big splashes and were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And we traded for this guy and we signed that guy. I’ve been on those teams. And it didn’t work.

So the biggest thing for me is, and we’ve talked about it before as a group, is to block out all the noise. Worry about the room and do whatever we can that day to win a game. That’s the mantra. Wash has basically brought that from day one. And I think it’s really carried over and resonated with the guys, and we’ll see what happens."

...

"When you talk to Arte Moreno, do you feel like there’s a desire to make this a competitive team? And if it is, why are some of these moves not being made?

I just go back, there’s no guarantees because you make one or two moves. There’s no guarantees on anything. We have, in our eyes, we have significant upside in the current roster that we have. Now we need things to go right. We need some of our young players to continue to develop. We need some of our older players to play. There are no secrets.

If those things happen, I think we’ll be in a place where our play does our talking. I’m in constant contact with (Moreno). We’re on the same page. More than willing to dive in and, for us, this offseason, with what was out there and what we talked about and some of the concepts that were thrown at us, we felt like this was the right way to go.

Do you think he’s ever going to want to sign a big free agent again?

That would be a question for him."

[UndertheHalo]

Just got to let it play out and hope for the best.  But whatever the front office says.  No organization that has any kind of notoriety for functioning well has ever behaved how the Angels behave.  It’s the Arte show.  He’ll get lucky or he won’t.  He probably won’t.  

 

 

[angelsnationtalk]

This just sounds like a sales rep selling their product no matter how good or bad it is. And rightfully so for Perry. That's his job. 

But at the end of all this I still feel like this organization is blind. They've got to look at who they are competing against and realize they're a 4'3" person entering a tall person convention. 

Time will tell with the season but there are MAJOR questions i'm monitoring:
Will Trout stay healthy?
Will Rendon actually play?
Can this be Rendon's last season?
Is the rotation strong enough?
Can the beefed up bullpen actually support the rotation?
The hell happens with Adell?

[Dave Saltzer]

Chuck should be posting an article I just finished on my take feom Perry. It's on my take-aways from Perry's Chalk Talk. 

 

See what you hink. 

[Stradling]

4 minutes ago, angelsnationtalk said:

This just sounds like a sales rep selling their product no matter how good or bad it is. And rightfully so for Perry. That's his job. 

But at the end of all this I still feel like this organization is blind. They've got to look at who they are competing against and realize they're a 4'3" person entering a tall person convention. 

Time will tell with the season but there are MAJOR questions i'm monitoring:
Will Trout stay healthy?
Will Rendon actually play?
Can this be Rendon's last season?
Is the rotation strong enough?
Can the beefed up bullpen actually support the rotation?
The hell happens with Adell?

If the answer to the Trout question is no, then it doesn’t matter what you add in free agency. If this rotation isn’t strong enough to get them to the deadline then I doubt adding one guy like Snell would have made much of a difference. 
This team needs two things, one, health, two, internal growth. Without those two things free agency doesn’t really matter. 
When Eppler traded for Upton he said in the moment that the team played well enough that it deserved to be upgraded (or something to that affect). This team needs to play well enough to deserve the same thing. If not then trade Drury and all the pen arms at the deadline. 
I wanted a starter added, but I’m not going to pretend it’ll make a difference without health or Development. 

[Angelsjunky]

This is actually pretty encouraging. Glad they're (finally) taking this route.

[DMVol]

9 minutes ago, Stradling said:

If the answer to the Trout question is no, then it doesn’t matter what you add in free agency. If this rotation isn’t strong enough to get them to the deadline then I doubt adding one guy like Snell would have made much of a difference. 
This team needs two things, one, health, two, internal growth. Without those two things free agency doesn’t really matter. 
When Eppler traded for Upton he said in the moment that the team played well enough that it deserved to be upgraded (or something to that affect). This team needs to play well enough to deserve the same thing. If not then trade Drury and all the pen arms at the deadline. 
I wanted a starter added, but I’m not going to pretend it’ll make a difference without health or Development. 

Fair points and well thought out....but it was frustrating to see the market flatten out late and not take advantage of it, with lots of money to spend under the luxury tax.  On the other hand, not sure what might have been a good fit.  Snell was short term deal and would have cost a draft pick, Montgomery was short term and may not have wanted to play for the Angels.  Martinez was a short term deal and maybe not a great fit.  And, as you say, short term deals probably didn't fit where we are.  Still frustrating though, particularly after so many bad FA signings to have seen the opportunity pass us by. 

[Jay]

It's time for Trout and Rendon to step up and lead this group of youngsters.

 

[cals]

[angelsnationtalk]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

If the answer to the Trout question is no, then it doesn’t matter what you add in free agency. If this rotation isn’t strong enough to get them to the deadline then I doubt adding one guy like Snell would have made much of a difference. 
This team needs two things, one, health, two, internal growth. Without those two things free agency doesn’t really matter. 
When Eppler traded for Upton he said in the moment that the team played well enough that it deserved to be upgraded (or something to that affect). This team needs to play well enough to deserve the same thing. If not then trade Drury and all the pen arms at the deadline. 
I wanted a starter added, but I’m not going to pretend it’ll make a difference without health or Development. 

Very fair points. 

If this team can stay healthy and play the way they're supposed to then maybe we aren't far off the a WC spot. We were "close" last year.
If Trout and Rendon stay healthy then maybe come deadline time they warrant that upgrade.

[UndertheHalo]

It’s funny that this article comes out and the main thrust of Perry’s comments is that this is a year for the young guys to get their shot! 
 

Within hours of the article coming out : Aaron Hicks in! Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak bench! 
 

lol. 

[bloodbrother]

2 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

This is actually pretty encouraging. Glad they're (finally) taking this route.

Agreed. Very glad they didn't throw more money at 30+ year old sunk cost contracts just to win 74 games again. Give the innings and AB's to the young guys with this new coaching staff in place and see how they develop as the season goes on and go from there as an org. Properly build your core from within

 

[ThisismineScios]

Yeah I actually believe him on a lot of this. Not 100%, because as GM I’m sure he wants to improve the roster any way possible. But it sounds like they didn’t want to give up draft picks lightly, and that they preferred giving the young guys a look over signing a veteran to replace them (Teoscar for example). 

He does mention “guys with option”, which makes the Hicks move a little inconsistent with that. Maybe him at the minimum was just too good to pass on. 

[aznhockeyguy]

Perry is saying what he has to say.  Arte wasn't going to spend money. 

[BTH]

IMO, I thought this was actually pretty revealing.

Based on what he said, and reading between the lines, it seems like the plan is to “retool” or whatever word you want to use.

They wanted to keep their draft picks, keep the payroll clean, and give young players a chance to prove themselves.

One thing that gives me some trepidation, though, is that he’s in the last year of his deal (as far as we know). So that may be the plan, but is he gonna be the one overseeing it?

[The Ghost of Bob Starr]

Company man. 

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

On 3/28/2024 at 11:20 PM, BTH said:

IMO, I thought this was actually pretty revealing.

Based on what he said, and reading between the lines, it seems like the plan is to “retool” or whatever word you want to use.

They wanted to keep their draft picks, keep the payroll clean, and give young players a chance to prove themselves.

One thing that gives me some trepidation, though, is that he’s in the last year of his deal (as far as we know). So that may be the plan, but is he gonna be the one overseeing it?

It's all this ^^^^^^

[tdawg87]

Why did we go "all-in" at the deadline and then do a complete 180 in the offseason? 

Arte needs to fuck off. And don't get me wrong, I'm ultimately fine with not overspending and keeping the draft picks. But why are we suddenly all about developing players after trading our best prospect and 6 pitchers at the deadline? Does Arte make decisions based on a magic 8 ball? 

Hindsight can suck my ass. They should have traded Ohtani and Minasian was evidently willing to do just that. But nah. We might not be able to sign him if we trade him.