Inside Pitch

Bill Bavasi left of his own accord.... The friction was over Tavares' demands that he trade the roster after the mutiny... Tavares was pro-Collings (as was Bavasi), and he thought what the players did was an act of treason. Bavasi wanted no part of tearing the team apart and rather than do as he was told he chose to resign. Sorry, but Preston Gomez was actually a part of that front office.. he had always been very close to both Bill his brother Peter, and their father Buzzie.. You'll have to forgive me if I choose to believe the things he said. But by all means -- keep believing what you want. It's not wrong -- we are talking about different signings. Salmon had signed his initial long term contract in 1996 prior to Disney coming on board -- you are likely thinking about his 4 year 40 million dollar deal he signed in 2001. Edmonds (who I mentioned) signed a 5 year deal in 1995, Anderson a four year deal in 1996. I didnt mention Erstad -- he was definitely a Disney signing. You can likely look this up at BB-R.com So, while Disney DID re-sign them, they had all been under club control to team friendly contracts when they acquired the franchise.. BTW -- Mo Vaughn.... He was a perfect example of a team willing to make a deal because of the initial depreciation.

Aren't you the guy still crying about Nolan Ryan leaving the Rangers organization over at the Newberg Report. "Flounder"? You might want to keep from telling others how to act when you have yet to get over your own "boyfriend" dumping you.

Pretty sure I already answered you then.. Most of us remember their hardline limits on payroll and their eyes towards keeping the shareholders happy. I don't think you understand what I'm saying, I'm not at all trying to be condescending but, go pick up a copy of Baseball and Billions by Andrew Zimbalist or any other book that focuses on the creative way MLB teams try to hide their revenue -- you'll get a better understanding of how funny the numbers games are with MLB teams.. Yes the Angels make more money via TV, and if Disney were still the owners they would find a way to mask those profits. Doesn't make them dicks, it's just how teams operate... so the shareholders would always look at the team as a bit of a money pit. The other accounting practice you are completely glossing over or just unaware of is the initial depreciation. It's highly unlikely Disney spends to bring in players the way Arte did in 04, they wouldn't have been able to take the one time depreciation. This is the same reason the Dodgers front office has been willing to spend so freely early on -- they gotta take advantage of that while they can. Now, consider this.... rather than asking me what I think Disney may have done with the added revenue, maybe you should be asking yourself if they would have taken the steps to become a large revenue monster in the first place -- because they were they were quite content being a small market team. Sorry, but you seem to be completely glossing over the efforts Arte has made to make the Angels "big market".... minus him, I doubt it happens. If your argument is that they would have spent that money more wisely.... What are you basing that on? They didn't exactly have a very good track record with FA. And it's hard to give them credit for doing more with a smaller payroll given they inherited most of that team and the contracts were already in place. Salmon, Edmonds, etc etc... they had all signed long term contracts for much less money than they likely would have been able to get had they been allowed to reach FA...

I like how Fletcher will show up.... dickslaps the conspiracy theories and then bolts...

Pretty sure even with the resignation Moreno would have to let him take that job... Otherwise there would be nothing to keep front office people from resigning to take a better position elsewhere.

Doesnt matter -- baseball accounting will always be designed to show minimal profits -- it's how they do it.. The shareholders would always bitch because the book numbers will always look ugly. Disney discovered this only after entering the sports world. Have you ever asked yourself why most baseball teams are broken up into several different entities? Its so they can play with the bottom line and make it seem they aren't making money. "The Lords of the Realm" know how to play with the numbers.

Scioscia should stick around right up until they hire a new GM at which point that new hire should have the CHOICE to bring in his own staff.. If the new guy wants to keep him, fine... If he wants to bring in someone else.. Thanks Mike, nothing personal, but I'm trusting the GM to do right....

I think most of us remember Disney's hard spending limits on payroll and eye towards keeping shareholders happy... So, yeah...

LOL, I think Lux is more annoyed with his choice of beers.... Whatever you think of what he says about baseball the guy is like the unofficial beer critic of MLB.. He's got dozens of posts about beer, the options and the costs ... Im not even trying to be a prick -- Lux clearly likes his beer. and hearing about a billionaire choosing to drink Coors has to leave a bad taste in his mouth. Pretty funny IMO

You like how they handled something that never happened? Bill Bavasi resigned.... Disney didn't ride him about Collins BTW, Disney (Tony Tavares), wanted the entire team traded away.. Bavasi disagreed but where he caved and quit, accepting a job as a special assistant ala Reagins, Bill Stoneman told Tavares to STFU and the rest is history. It was the players that went apeshit about Collins, the mutiny happened when news broke that the team was contemplating an extension -- Tony Tavares was anti player because he was pro Collins... Thus the famous WHY CANT YOU TRADE THEM ALL quote. Jim Edmonds didn't delay any surgery -- he hurt his labrum in April of 1999 lifting weights, and had his surgery on April 19th. He made it back that August and played out the end of that season -- you are right Mo Vaughn did pop off, he questioned Edmonds after Mike DiGiovanna quoted Edmonds as saying he had felt pain in the shoulder for years... Vaughn FWIW later acknowledged he wasn't at all aware of Edmonds situation and that he was simply reacting/responding to the quote from DiGiovanna.. Edmonds FWIW reportedly threatened to kick DiGiovanna's ass for the incident. As far as Disney FA signings go.... How many AL MVPs or Cy Youngs did they sign? I guess Tim Belcher and Jack McDowell both came close to winning the Cy... I know Ill never forget Jim Leyritz MVP season.

Arthur Blank of Home Depot fame and owner of the Atlanta Falcons is the same way, the guy drinks Pabst Blue Ribbon. I don't know if they are doing it to be cheap or because it was their first beer.... They were both self made millionaires, so maybe they started drinking that swill when they didn't have money and it stuck... Still trips me out.

He reminds me of Beaky Buzzard from the Bugs Bunny cartoons..

Chuck Finley was a hero!!!!

Matt Klentak

Self depreciating comments was pretty much par for the course with Stoneman. Even when people were trying to give him credit for crap, he preferred to pass it around. Why are people acting like the Angels just brought back Mike Port or Bavasi?

Man -- Spiro Angnew..... Every so often this site digs up some smart stuff.... Well Played Sir.

This Angels situation is a hot topic, the Angels ARE in fact a mess right now so everyone will pen a story pointing to that same conclusion. That doesn't make the media evil, they have a job to do and an audience they need to reach. You can't get mad at them but you can fact check their story to see how much of it is real .vs perception.

Its not extreme really, but it's kinda of leading in the way it puts the information forward. He claims they had him move away from his FB -- which was true, but he fails to mention that opponents went from hitting .154 in 12, to .187 in 13, to .257 in 14 off his FB -- he didn't really start throwing the slider until they started hitting his FB -- also, opponents batting average against his slider in 2013 was .000 I'm getting this is from the same link he supplied in his story -- http://www.brooksbaseball.net/outcome.php?player=457117&b_hand=-1&gFilt=&pFilt=FA%7CSI%7CFC%7CCU%7CSL%7CCS%7CKN%7CCH%7CFS%7CSB&time=year&minmax=ci&var=baa&s_type=2&startDate=03/30/2007&endDate=07/01/2015 Also, if you look at his pitch values, http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5178&position=P#pitchvalues his FB was less effective than his slider, that year. The other thing that's somewhat leading is the talk about the shift in draft focus... I'm not sure Dipoto is really responsible for shifting away from HS guys in the draft as much as it was a case of the situation calling for players who were further along...

Oh I agree people didn't know much about him but that didn't keep some of them from dismissing him before he had the chance to even do anything... Do you recall the way they condemned him even harder when he chose not to sign Steve Traschel?? Steve effing Traschel.... A lot of the local beat writers were all over Traschel given he was a local kid (Troy HS, Long Beach State), and because the rotation at the time consisted of Ken Hill, Tim Belcher and nobody else.... When Stoneman argued the Angels could get buy with the guys they had in the system they took it as confirmation he was there simply to reduce the payroll. BTW, the Scioscia hiring was initially met with claims it was just a "cheap" hire and another in a long line of moves by the Angels hoping to ride the coattails of the team up the freeway. People have seriously forgotten how bad the situation was in Anaheim when Stoneman took over...

I remember the first time Stoneman was hired and he was written off by some of the local hacks as a company yes man brought in to reduce the payroll. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

It's not something that's ever been printed anywhere, but it was something we knew on the AOL board and privately talked about. SuperDave that used to post here got it directly from Hudler over a game of golf -- when he told the rest of us I hit up Preston, who first asked me how the hell I had heard and then confirmed it had in fact happened. Tank, Brian, a few others from those days will likely all remember those conversations. FTR, trading wasn't Bill Stoneman's strong point, the criticism is fair. He got his Masters degree from OK in finance, he is extremely risk averse by nature. So people concerned that no trade is coming are likely right. Personally, I don't really care. I'd much rather the team spend the next 3 months getting it's act together and putting an end to the chaos. Let whoever is chosen to be the next GM have everything at his disposal when he takes over. My hope is really pretty simple... I'm crossing my fingers that the guy that told the Disney Co and Tony Tavares to STFU can somehow tell Arte he needs to let whoever he chooses to run this team have the same power and control over everything that he (Stoneman) had been given when he was hired... Minus the power to act, Bill Stoneman would have been a failure. I'd argue the same will be true of anyone who replaces Jerry Dipoto. Like Doc and others have said -- it shouldn't have come to this.

Moreno has painted himself into a corner IMO -- he's going to have to take a blind leap of faith moving forward.. If you're an up and coming GM or a talented young front officer type with ambition.. do you choose a GM job where you have full autonomy, or one where you have to worry about being overruled by the GM and possibly your manager? I don't care if MS leads this team on a run that ultimately ends up with them winning the WS... Whoever Moreno signs must be given full control of this team and if that means allowing him to remove MS in favor of his own guy then so be it. Is there a chance MS could go somewhere else, do well and make the Angels look foolish -- sure.. But, will it make them look any dumber than they have this season? Nope.

Or something he's been thinking about for a while.

Pretty sure Mike LaCassa is JD's guy. JD completely gutted the ML system's scouts and management when he took over -- including firing the guy that found Trout.

A trade forced on him by Disney during ST after Jim Edmonds injured himself falling out of a bed while performing sexual gymnastics with someone who wasn't his wife. The Anaheim Angels were owned by the Walt Disney Company so a guy cheating on his wife with three young daughters wasn't part of their family first image.... "Jimmy" had to go. But since you mentioned his trades.. Brian Cooper for Brad Fullmer was alright. Kimera Bartee for Chone Figgins seemed to work out. Jose Guillen for Juan Rivera and Mighty Maicer was about as good a value as he could have received given the situation. His dumpster dives for David Eckstein, Brenda Donnelley, and Goggles, worked out pretty well too. Oh yeah -- he also signed Eddie Bane....