T.G.

http://athleteswag.lockerdome.com/articles/110022581 Vintage Leyland...

Don Baylor Fun Fact: he was hit 267 in his career.

This give's the coaching staff an enforcer in those dugout clearing incidents that result in pseudo fights... Oh and I like the hire a great deal!

YOUR NAME HERE or... Scioscially Acceptable

I appreciate any fan who goes the extra mile to show his support for the team and Claude has certainly done that! I hope he keeps up the great work!

Yes

LT - Frankly, those are stupid questions. Of course I don't know the answers to those specific questions. I'm not inside the Angels organization. The writers got their information from sources either in the Angels organization or close to each specific situation. That's good enough for me. It's reasonable to believe what they have said about Arte. I'm now officially done with this topic.

LT - we just differ on whether or not it's speculation. By definition: Speculation is the forming of a theory without firm evidence. The writers have firm evidence in the testimony of those close to the situations within the Angels organization. You dispute that as evidence. You want a confession or a video or something that's not available and since it's not available - what they say isn't good enough for you. Some of us don't think that way. It's time to move on.

LT doesn't believe it when writers quote anonymous sources or come to conclusions based on the discussions they have with anonymous sources (at least in this the case of Arte Moreno) Okay... so be it. That's his prerogative. The issues for some is that LT takes issue with us accepting this information as factual and then using it as fact in our discussions. This all started when LT made the following statement: "I love the way speculation about Arte strong arming acquisitions has now turned into fact of the matter in these discussions." In hindsight - we should have just ignored his displeasure and continued on with the discussion rather than trying to convince him that the statements are fact. Neither side is budging... so, it's pointless. It's really okay that he thinks it's all speculation. We shouldn't care that much about what he thinks in this case. It just deters us from the original discussion. Just saying.

If you really want to think outside the box... how about someone like Frank Thomas. Or the now retired Todd Helton as an assistant hitting coach.

I believe scouts were saying he was the best pure power hitting prospect, not the best hitter.

I like that Victor really gave all of this a lot of thought and shared it with us. Rather than assume anything, the guy did his homework.

The more I think about it the more I like what I've read... that Scioscia and Dipoto met several times to figure this thing out. I'm buying the united front and I'm encouraged that these two are making the effort to work together. We can complain all we want - but the reality is they're coming back whether we like it or not. I love the idea that they've found some common ground.

Rojas breaks down the season with some interesting observations: http://therojasspoils.wordpress.com/

FYI... Nagy is a former Bees pitching coach...

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/angels/la-sp-angels-coaches-20131009,0,159895.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fsports%2Fbaseball%2Fmlb%2Fangels+%28L.A.+Times+-+Angels%29#axzz2hB2FqzBr In addition to the third base and hitting coach jobs, Dipoto said the team probably will add two new coaches, at least one of whom is likely to assist the hitting coach. Among the candidates for the third base job are double-A manager Tim Bogar, a former Boston third base coach, and roving infield instructor Omar Vizquel. Former Dodgers slugger Reggie Smith and former Angels first baseman Wally Joyner could be candidates for hitting coach. Former Angels closer Troy Percival and Charles Nagy, who was fired as Arizona's pitching coach Tuesday, could be candidates for pitching-related jobs.

I listened to an interview with Leo Mazzone yesterday on mlb radio... and he was open to returning to baseball as a pitching coach somewhere... possibly Arizona to work with their young staff.

Maybe we'll Bengie Molina as one of he hitting coaches...

I'm buying into the united front that Scioscia and Dipoto are presenting. For better or worse. I'm anxious to see what can be accomplished this off season.

LT - do you feel that Butcher has any accountability in how pitchers perform?

The reports about all the hamburgers he was eating in the off-season that sent the board into a tizzy.

Both writers site sources inside and outside the organization...they don't name their sources - but it's clearly not speculation. they're not "guessing" this stuff happened - they're basing it on what those familiar with the situations are telling them.

Links to the articles I mentioned: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/scott-miller/23286878/broken-angels-tense-atmosphere-nearly-included-pujols-hunter-fight-in-2012 http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/jon-heyman/23287160/while-dipoto-or-scioscia-will-lose-angels-blame-game-owner-is-far-from-clean

Short of a public announcement by Arte Moreno - all we have to go on is what we've read and heard... recent pieces by Jon Heyman and Scott Miller were enough to convince me. To me that's more than speculation. I doubt these well respected writers pulled information out of thin air.

My worst nightmare is a Dodgers/Red Sox WS or a Dodgers/A's WS. I have a question... I often hear people say that the Dodgers playing well and winning is good for baseball. How is it good for baseball? I'm not being sarcastic... I'd really like someone to explain it.