In conjunction with the Angels’ offseason outlook, Anthony Franco held an Angels-centric chat. Click here to view the transcript.
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I will try to save everyone some time and cover many of the typical Angels comments:
Arte sucks
Perry sucks
Nevin sucked
Rengifo sucks
Rendon sucks
Should have traded Ohtani
Trade Trout
Tear down and rebuild
5-10 yrs before Angels compete
If I missed any, please feel free to add on as necessary.
As an aside, great chat. Thanks.
Other than the obligatory what to do with Adell questions, think you nailed it.
Give Adell a chance rather than signing another dud Perry is bound to sign or trade for.
She O’Hoppe on my Schanuel till I Neto
AYYO
They don’t know how to build, much less re-build. Without a farm system with a solid structure in place, the Angels will never be a dynasty. I think Arte thinks that a safety net is not needed, buying and trading is his thing. That’s why he’s a bad owner. I feel for Mike, but Shohei has to move on to be on a winning team.
Rengifo doesn’t suck, he’s just over used.
I think Rengifo filling in for Rendon and both splitting time at DH might be a good spot for them.
I just don’t want Rengifo as plan B at short or second.
I’m guessing Rengifo will be plan B at 2B,3B and DH and plan C at SS, LF and RF. He will be in the lineup most nights as the Angels super utility guy. He was one of the best hitters in MLB over the last 2+ months of his season with a .950ish OPS so I expect the Angels will regularly include him in the mix.
And he was one of the worst hitters the first three months. And he was one of the worst hitters in baseball for the vast majority of 2022. And very very good for about 4 weeks in 2022.
He’s consistently inconsistent.
I don’t understand why Moreno, who allegedly is going to try to sign Ohtani, didn’t offer him an extension during the last three years while he was still under team control. I thought Moreno did a good job adding five good players at the deadline even though they didn’t pan out, but if he’d at least tried to extend Ohtani he might not be losing him which he probably will do because I don’t think Ohtani wants to return to the Angels.
You nailed it. Because Moreno has never been serious about resigning him. Why? Because his payroll is fixed to right below the luxury tax threshold. Thus a higher percentage of payroll to one player takes away from spending on other needs.
So Angels fans should expect Lorenzen / Gibson type signings rather than Montgomery / Nola. eeek
That would be the same model from the last 7-8 years. It doesn’t work.
I’m glad people are taking a closer look at the Angels organization. For years it was “Why can’t they win with Trout?” which changed to Ohtani.
Arte’s tenure has featured all the free agent spending in the world and basically no talent development once he crew was in charge (Trout was drafted by the folks Arte inherited).
I’d love a rebuild year. I just don’t think Arte can stomach it. Every year we wait will just make it harder on the next owner, who hopefully builds the team from the farm up.
I’m starting to think that Arte wants a high-class Rockies team. Not so bad that he loses fans, but not so expensive to compete.
Nor am I sure he can do anything about that right now. Spending another $50M might not move the needle in that division.
Arte’s background is in marketing. He sold a billboard company to buy the Angels. His college buddies who run the team also worked at the billboard company.
Arte wants to sell 3 million tickets. Having a shiny star like Ohtani or Trout has done that for him. Why do anything else?
Do you guys think that if Arte can’t sign Ohtani that he may go for another big name in order to keep butts in the seats?? I think Arte might be addicted to the brightest shiniest objects…maybe the Angels could be a low-key Juan Soto destination ?
Yeah, Minasian said they will compete. Signing one-half of Ohtani is a start, like an ace SP. But like Gerrit Cole, getting them here is difficult.
Yes. A couple of stars and no depth is the Arte Angels way.
I’d like to see the Angels trade Carlos Estevez for a couple of prospects while his stock is high right now. He had a strong first half, but atrocious second half. I have little confidence in Estevez who was always shaky in his outings.
He had a 8.78 ERA in Aug/Sept. No one will trade for him to be a closer. You’d be better off holding until the next trade deadline.
The team will never get better until Arte sells the team. It doesn.t matter who the GM is if Arte is the owner. The GM will always be handicapped by Arte meddling or lack of support.
If you look at the teams that teams that continually get it right in recent years, i.e. Rays, Dodgers, and Astros. They all have built strong farm systems. The Angels have had a bad farm system for over 10 years now. Much of it can be traced back to Arte Moreno. There has been countless reports of how cheap Arte is when it comes to spending on anything other than big ticket free agents. It was reported Angels have a scouting team of 12 people, which is ridiculous for a large market team. It has also been reported that minor league players were sharing 5-6 to a room. Make no mistake, the Angels have a cultivated a culture of losing and Arte is the main culprit. Nothing will change until ownership changes.. Arte will always have final approval on any FA signing or trade.
I was pro-Perry up until recently. I thought the Angels were making steps in the right direction by making some significant signings in the international market and drafting pitching. Unfortunately, they Angels traded much of the recent acquired talent for mediocre return in hopes of patching up the huge influx of injuries at mid season. . I don;t know how much of it was Perry and how much of it was Arte trying to keep his golden goose in Ohtani, but if I had money on it, I know where my money would go. It is on the one guy that has been the one constant throughout all these losing seasons.
Change the owner, change the culture.
Go Halos.
Trout is toast unless he loses 20-30 pounds. In the absence of that his contract will ultimately rival that of Albert Pujols. With that weight his eventual injuries will continue to lower his playing time and his value to the team. Trade him now so that when the rebuild comes — its inevitable — and get something in return. Sure, like Moreno will allow Perry to make a sane move.
Sad thing is, that still wouldn’t be the least productive bloated contract on the team (i.e. Rendon).
I see two options only for 2024. One is spend ungodly stupid money I’m talking like the Mets spending and we all even saw how that worked out for them. That’s the only way to contention without even a single top 100 prospect. They’d probably need much better luck on injuries especially from Trout who’s still great and maybe even Rendon rising from the dead. The second and what I would do even though I despise it that’s tear what you can down. Bring in as much controllable talent you can that fits your window. If Trout would agree you deal his best years with some cash to a team in win now mode for a host of young talent. If Trout sees the playoffs with the Angels it’ll be when he’s trending downward he has to see that. He tried to be loyal hats off to him but the Angels always tried but allocated funds and the farm system for the wrong guys at the wrong times. Simply put this team has been mismanaged I’m not in their exec meetings but public rumblings lead me to believe Moreno should shoulder the blame for a lot of that. Seemed to me for years they needed pitching but ended up piecing together a bunch of guys needing to rebuild themselves while spending big on bats. Flashy but didn’t build winners. If they resign Ohtani it’ll be for marketing/ticket sales. You weren’t good with him at 30m, your ace most of the year(can’t be in 2024), and you have many upgrades to make to truly compete. I don’t hate them trying a run in 23 but it sure hurts now especially after falling so flat. Trout with cash is their only true jump start to a complete rebuild although they have some controllable major leaguers that would help some that don’t fit their window. I don’t know the exact year but let’s say it’s at least three. Maybe not until you are rid of Rendons deal. He’s one of those guys so overpaid you don’t trade him with cash it would basically amount to a release. You pay him and you play him praying he finds it again. It’s the signing of Rendon that’s made the resigning of Ohtani unmanageable to win with that’s just bad baseball.