Jikkle

Seems like people might have missed this part of the article

Following that team meeting last August, the Angels finished the season on a 27-14 roll that nearly carried them into the playoffs in spite of everything. From the raw emotions came highly constructive results, one source calling it one of the best team meetings he's ever been a part of.

Among those constructive changes, sources say, was that Pujols, who had trouble accepting early last year that some of the Angels' veterans didn't need his guidance, was a terrific teammate the rest of the season.

So despite the near fight it was a positive for the team as they were able to blow off some steam and come to a better understanding of each other.  It doesn't sound like Pujols was a bad clubhouse but just had trouble fitting in at first.

The reason why it's hard to place blame because almost everyone has a share in the blame.

Arte has his share of the blame because while I love the fact he truly wants to win he meddles too much and doesn't make the right moves to win.

Reagins is to blame not just for the Wells trade but because under his watch the farm system turned to complete garbage.

Scioscia is to blame because this team doesn't seem to have any fire and is poorly coached.  He's refused to fire any one on his staff even when it's clear they aren't effectively doing their jobs or the team needs a fresh perspective and a new voice.

Dipoto I'll give the biggest pass since he's got an owner that meddles and a manager that's not his that he doesn't see eye to eye with along with having a depleted farm system.  He has some share of the blame because most of the moves he's made haven't exactly panned out but on the flipside he's had to make those moves because there isn't anything in the farm.

Ultimately I place most of the blame on Reagins and Arte.  Arte is the head and in charge of getting the right people to do the job and Reagins because I feel the biggest thing killing the team right now is the lack of a strong farm system to bring up talent.  I say Scioscia needs to go or he at least needs to clean house with his staff and get people that are good at their jobs not guys he's buddies with.

The only thing I disagree with is the angle that Scioscia is somehow the victim because we don't have the style of players he wants.

He's not managing the games and team effectively like he did years ago and the coaching staff isn't anywhere near as strong as it once was.

I personally think he's stubbornness and he's unwillingness to fire anyone on his staff even if it's apparent they aren't doing their job or the team needs a voice with a different angle will be his downfall.

I don't blame it completely on Scioscia but he's part of the problem not part of the solution.

This isn't the first time the team has had a bad April or underperformed and this has been an ongoing problem.

When you have a team that's bad on every level you have to put some of that on the manager and coaching staff.  It's their job to get the most of these guys and when is the last time anyone on the team has performed better than expected?

And again it's not all on him but we're not so bad we should be in a dog fight to beat out the Astros for last place.

We all know if he was wearing an Angels uniform he wouldn't be doing that.

Putting on that Angels means first pitch swinging and 3-4 pitch strike outs.

This team will not make the playoffs.

Couldn't resist.

Scioscia didn't build this  team and at the end of the day it's the players who have to perform. I'm sure this has been brought up a lot but he has a WS ring and 5 division championships in 10 years. I'll continue to take my chances with him.

 

In many instances I would jump on the "fire the manager bandwagon" if you can see it in the players that they don't have confidence in their leadership. I don't think that could be further from the truth with Scioscia. If you start to hear noise and controversy coming out of the clubhouse then you know there are issues but you never hear that from a scioscia managed team. Players believe in him and vice versa.

 

This team has to gel and hopefully they will start to do that soon. Once they do that they will be fine. If I can blame anyone for the slow start I would blame Dipoto. This team does not look like a playoff contender when you look at the pitching staff but somehow they will have to figure it out like we did in 2002.

 

I have confidence we will figure it out. this team is very capable of going on a long winning streak.

Players will always have the back of a player friendly coach/manager.

I know it's the NFL but everyone had Andy Reid's back last season as the Eagles went up in complete flames.  So just because the team still has his back doesn't mean he doesn't need or shouldn't be fired.  If they love him so much they better go out and start playing much better baseball then.

In fact just typing that made me realize that Scioscia has become the Andy Reid of Baseball.  Has the team just good enough to think that their "so close" every year and cons everyone to think next season but time and time again can't get his team to deliver.

Terry said this on Angel Talk: "This team has some shortcomings right now, and I don't think it's the manager."  He blamed "injuries and lack of production in some areas."

 

Langston said "darts will start to fly" on Scioscia and Butcher even though he believes it's not Scioscia's fault, he said it's the fault of the players not performing.  He was talking about how managers tend to get fired for underperforming teams.

 

Terry did add if we keep losing "something will happen, whether it's the manager, or the pitching coach, or trades, or the general manager."  Langston agreed, saying the way the team is playing is unacceptable.

I never agreed with the whole blame everything on the players argument.

To me it's up to the coaches to coach these guys up and get them to perform at a high level and maximize their talents by teaching them and identifying and finding solutions to problems. 

If it was completely up to the players to perform than why have coaches in the first place?  Save your money and just have a manager or a player/manager and let them do their thing since it's up to them anyways right?

And I completely agree with Carlota in that why is it once these guys put on an Angel uniform they underperform?  How many guys have we brought in that actually did better than expected?

Yes it's not all Scioscia and magically firing him and the staff isn't going to fix everything but he's part of the problem not helping it and since you can't fire the players you should at least fix the problems you are able too.