Amid all the problems the Los Angeles Angels have with their Major League roster, things are far, far worse at the minor league levels.
On Thursday, a Twitter account called “Advocates for Minor Leaguers,” which has worked to connect the stories of minor leaguers to the general public, tweeted an explosive account of the minor league experience in the Angels system this season.
Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Joon Lee released a story detailing the conditions of those in the organization.
Kieran Lovegrove, an active pitcher for the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas, said he is living with six other teammates in a three-bedroom apartment, sleeping on a twin mattress, with one person sleeping in the kitchen and two others in the living room. Others like Shane Kelso — who spent part of the 2021 season with the low-A Inland Empire 66ers, another Angels affiliate, before retiring due to the living conditions for players — said four teammates bunked in a camper van in a trailer park while others lived out of cars.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31870740/some-players-say-los-angeles-angels-failing-treatment-minor-league-level-gm-vows-address-it
Detailed are complaints about housing, about nutrition, and just about general welfare, including mental health.
Perhaps the most unexpected part of the article was when Kieran Lovegrove recounted that other organizations had much better systems and provided much more for their minor leaguers than the Angels do. The mistreatment of minor leaguers has been well-documented, but there had been a general blanket assumption that all Major League parent organizations had more or less the same type of operating system. This is not the case.
Lovegrove previously played in the Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations. He said that there was a large gap between how he was treated previously versus in the Angels’ farm system.
“Cleveland redid their entire weight room, providing three meals a day. They were flying guys out,” Lovegrove said. “They were giving a lot of players, not just their top prospects, the opportunity to seriously improve themselves under the eye of the organization, and in doing so, I think they produced significantly better players than they would have had their system operated like the Angels.”
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31870740/some-players-say-los-angeles-angels-failing-treatment-minor-league-level-gm-vows-address-it
It won’t change what has happened in the past, but hopefully Moreno and the Angels do something to rectify this situation—quickly.
I don’t like You Know Who so this is as mean as I can get about this on this blog.
Not that he would give a damm. 💩 👎
Helps wash out the prima donnas. Builds character. Someone like Manny couldn’t hack it. Kids are too spoiled these days.
Please explain
Especially for a lot of them, they will never make it to MLB, it’s better for them to toughen up before being let loose in the real world.
Also, no crying in baseball. They should be glad they even have a car to sleep in.
You are a sad person, and I disagree with your thoughts 100%
I suspect this post is a delta variant of the SARScasm virus.
Only two comments to Rex’s name, so he’s batting one thousand that he believes this train of thought.
First off, the “Real World” isn’t THAT tough…. we don’t live in f***ing Chechnya. But more importantly, it doesn’t have to be about sympathy for these grown men who want to play a game. The farm system as a whole is an investment, even the cannon fodder players contribute to the development of our better prospects, and some of them become prospects. If the cost of maximizing the value of the entire system is as low as a Fitness 19 membership, 200 dollars of groceries per month and 2 guys to a bedroom in an apartment then it is a smart investment and Arte should make it. Take all the morality noise out of it, the small outlay and huge benefits that can be reaped make this a shortcoming that should be fixed.
It’s crazy to think that this isn’t even the most egregious behavior by Arte and the rest of the rotten bunch at the top.
I really hope the Skaggs family takes them for every penny they’re demanding because based on all the information out there, they were certainly aware and complicit in that drug supplying scandal.
I also hope the Anaheim city council overturns that shady land sale that Arte and his mafia cronies engineered over the course of the last decade.
And I hope every low-level Angels employee that’s been mistreated by the organization comes out to air out even more of Arte’s dirty laundry.
It’s time to turn on the pressure on the organization and run this giant piece of shit out of town.
No settlement, let’s have full disclosure.
And what information out there is that? Did Tylers wife know he was an addict? How about his mom or brother? And certainly what about his teammates? they spent more time with him than his family.
With all of Arte’s faults the Skaggs death is not one of them. Arte’s history is anti drug. He’s told me that much to my face. If you really think that after the Coke head debacle he would knowingly promote that culture, you’re delusional
Well, aren’t you just the little corporate boot-licker.
The information that was out there is Eric Kay’s testimony that he gave under oath and specifically named members of the Angels organization, most notably, Tim Mead as requesting he supply opioids to them. This is a matter that both Californian and Texan courts will now look into in the pending criminal case.
But, what’s that you say? YOU, Cowboy26, spoke to Arte yourself? Well, no reason to look any further with this kind of testimony on his behalf. Let’s just toss this whole thing out then. I’m sure Skagg’s widow and family will understand that there is no one more anti-drug and upstanding as Arturo Moreno. I hope he also gave you a firm handshake and a few Angels coupons to show you he was being sincere.
Corporate bootlicker? ha ha ha ha . I have no allegiance to the Angels organization or anyone else that you seem to be harboring a lot of anger towards. Unfortunately, now you have resorted to name calling because I had a conversation with Arte years ago about a tangentially related matter. I maybe naive but I think you can learn a lot about people just by talking to them and hearing them espouse their opinions. I also talked to Tim Mead a couple of times over the years. I found him to engaging. he seems to genuinely care about others including everyone he worked with. Does that mean he’s not guilty of criminal behavior ? So far no one in law enforcement thinks so. Based upon my interactions with him, he doesn’t seem like someone who would be so cold hearted that he would intentionally participate in someones death. But I guess in your book that makes me akin to a mass murderer.
If you want to stew in your own anger, go for it. I fail to see how lashing out at me reinforces any of your stated opinions.
BTW, What criminal case is there against Arte or the Angels baseball organization? After 2 years of investigations I fail to see any charges being filed. Your opinion is solely based upon Kays testimony who consistently and habitually supplied Skaggs with opiates and what would appear to be the lethal dose of tainted drugs he ingested. Kay is the only one facing criminal charges that I’m aware of so obviously he’s motivated to stay out of jail.
The cases against the Angels are solely civil cases that will target the deep pockets of a major League baseball corporation. It would be negligent by the attorneys if they didn’t encourage the family and the estate of Skaggs to pursue Civil claims against the Angels. I sympathize with Skaggs family . They will never get Tyler back and despite their efforts they will probably never achieve any closure.
Fair Enough. I’m sorry about the name calling, that was unfair. I was a bit charged up about the various shitty things this team has done over the past few years.
And you’re correct in saying that this is a civil case rather than a criminal one.
However, I still believe the organization is going to end up being complicit in the whole thing or, at the very least, liable for a lot the shady stuff that surrounded his death. Your personal, anecdotal stories about their character don’t really reveal anything about their roles in the events leading up to his death.
We do instead have a growing body of work being written about the awful behavior that Arte and his cronies have been engaging in for some time. Only time will tell what comes out of all this.
I’ve read this and the ESPN article twice and it’s really stuck in my hide.
Clearly, the Angels’s owner (a losing team) and top MLB slumlord, Arturo Moreno, needs to be shamed.
Into…something better.
And no, Arte per-caps: lowering your $14 beers to “only” $12 will not make it all go away. So if you were thinking of trying it, think again.
Here’s an idea: you’ve proven you BLOW as an owner. Why not, I dunno…SELL THE TEAM??? Now that would help your rapidly declining image, ya damned slumlord.
Arte selling the team would be a dream come true. I find it hard to be an Angels fan sometimes because I despise the owner so much.
The system has so many people trained to compare your shitty situation to somebody else’s and then if they both suck, accept it as part of the rules.
Umm no. I don’t care that Oakland minor leaguers have crappy sandwiches. At the end of the day, it’s the Angels who can’t produce talent, recruit free agents and win. Make your team better. Make your conditions better. Maybe Oakland players have shitty sandwiches, but perhaps they motivate their players with good player development, winning culture and the real promise of making it to the bigs. If the Angels have no pipeline to success, at least pay them off. Arte is only useful for signing checks, then do that.
See this is a clear example of going overboard on the slimeyness. This is about not wanting to see your organization succeed if it means bucking to somebody else’s desires.
It’s evident in this and all other facets of the organization. It makes sense why free agents don’t come here. They all have friends and former teammates at all levels. They’ll hear that they suck at MILB and also they can see it at the majors. It’s also why this org hardly turns up a diamond in the rough, why so many of our guys are injured or constantly unhealthy, and nobody gets better.
So are you saying that MLB (as well as MLBPA to an extent) is complicit in their collusion to save money at the minor league level even if it means foregoing a competitive advantage for individual teams?
Wonder what this does timing wise to signing the most recent draft picks.
Not if they want to play. Next year might be too late for some.
So far so good. I guess word didn’t get out to Murphy in time that McArte will be having him eat dumpster scraps and sleep with rats. The Over slot signing pool just took another hit of $220K .
https://twitter.com/jimcallisMLB/status/1419035560111398912
If i squint hard enough I can look past the housing. That one can be argued. What I can’t justify is the lack of training and nutrition, just seems idiotic to not provide that to the players.
I do not think the accusations are wrong, but I think that the Angels as a team was singled out. I don’t think Arte is the only guilty owner here. True they mentioned about 5 good teams but there are 30 teams with about 120 Minor league teams. The author only interviewed a couple of players from one team and failed to investigate how widespread the issue is. Also the problem with MiLB players pay has been well documented through the years with challenges to MLB and MiLB antitrust exemption along with players attempt to unionize
I’m trying to put this into perspective of the past few seasons, this season, last night’s game. Had we won last night would we feel quite the same about this?
But we lost last night, and have been losing for the past several years, because of this weird neglect. The result on the field comes from being cheap in specific certain areas. It seems to us that it can be fixed, in a general way (spend less on hitting, more on pitching) but ownership acts like it just can’t see it. Apparently it’s an organization-wide thing, where “Arte” (in quotes to represent front office thinking) will spend a lot of money on the big club but doesn’t realize that our minor league clubs *are* the Angels. It’s not just the 26 guys on the active roster, or the 40 guys, it’s SLC, RC, Tri-C, IE and the rookie teams. It’s all one thing. How hard is it to understand that?
Anyway, we lost last night and it seems to fit together.
I would still feel the same as I did before this came out into the open, for the umpteenth time.
We could have won our 10th in a row last night, and I would still feel the exact same way I felt when I read the article. Mad and sad…smad…I guess, to coin a word. This just sucks, especially from MY team. The team I support despite all the crap I get from Dodger fans who are ubiquitous around me, since I live in South Pasadena, ten minutes from Chavez Ravine. All my snappy comebacks will feel pretty lame now.
No difference to me if the big club is winning. Doing the right thing is different than doing the winning thing.
I’m shocked its even a thing. I always assumed the teams provided room and board along with a salary.
I as well. Would have thought the teams provided a conduit to host families for some of these guys are who new to the country and or on their own for the first time. My ignorance.
I think host families are out because of COVID, which probably exacerbated the issue.
They get paid, this is not a socialist game the owners play. The players need to fend for themselves, get grit, the owners did.
I thought that too. I’m trying to research that with regard to other teams to get some context. I think the article lacked that perspective
Really? Taking advantage of human life, just to succeed, that is okay for you?
Monday, walk into your boss’ office and demand a pay cut for the success of the company.
You misunderstood what I wrote. My comment is that winning would make no difference to my opinion as to how bad I feel about the poor treatment of the minor leaguers. I thought that is what I wrote but maybe I wasn’t totally clear.
I am just responding to how it reads, but the “doing” has me confused. I mean no offense with my comment.
Well, we will see if this is addressed in the new labor agreement.
Why? Why would players in the MLB share with anyone that didn’t make it?
The old divide and conquer. If enough players voting have had multiple trips being sent down then maybe they will push for something. They should have run out of limo rides and large locker areas requests by now.
This is the salvation for a ownership model
The Packers are the only publicly owned franchise in the NFL.[1] Rather than being the property of an individual, partnership, or corporate entity, they are held as of 2016 by 360,760 stockholders. No one is allowed to hold more than 200,000 shares,[2] which represents approximately four percent of the 5,011,558 shares currently outstanding.[3] It is this broad-based community support and non-profit structure[4] which has kept the team in Green Bay for over a century in spite of being the smallest market in all of North American professional sports.
Wikipedia
Yes. LFG!!!
NFL also has a salary cap, non guaranteed contracts and revenue sharing which would never fly in the MLB and therefore IMO preclude this model from working in baseball. I doubt the stated goal of a public traded sports franchise would be to maximize field performance than it would be to maximize profits.
The pack has been mediocre and/or irrelevant since 2011 and is well on its way of alienating one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks of all time to becoming a full time game show host so I’m not sure this is a model franchise.
No thank you. Theres no way I would want to be part of an ownership group that would have to deal with crazy over zealous fans/owners all the time. We can’t even vote in viable politicians in this state, you really think we would get the governance of our sports franchise right?
Nope. They are all evil at the core.
As a part-owner of this franchise, I resemble that remark.
Green Bay and Angels fan, something something cowinkidink
You have no say on personnel decisions, and won’t get any kind of profit. But you do get a certificate and can sit in on a shareholder meeting.
A friend of mine has a certificate, had to buy it long ago to settle a bet, he’s a Bears fan. Not a whole lot different then buying a brick in front of the stadium, or naming a star after someone as a gift. Cool idea, few perks, but in most instances it’s sports memorabilia.
The crazy thing is that this is just bad business. The key to profitable and successful baseball ownership is to develop a solid minor league system where you bring up players who succeed and get paid 1/25th of what they might earn later in their MLB career. Arte should be investing his money in building the best minor league system possible because each one of those players that make it to MLB provide essentially free services for years.
Arte’s focusing his dollars on expensive and disappointing free agents is an extremely poor and inefficient use of his resources. One of those contracts (for example Rendon) could provide decent food and living (and training and facilities) for hundreds of minor leaguers. If only 2% of those make it the bigs, that would be 5 or so players on the roster playing for several years at the minor league minimum.
So this is not only inhumane, it’s short-sighted and bad business.
Good to know another book from this shit show series should be released by the end of the year, in the form of the criminal trial involving the death of Tyler Skaggs.
Honestly, what if we organized a fan buyout against this second-rate Bond villain?
Who’s got crypto on it???
I thought Michael Milken is the second rate bond villian. No wonder why him and Arte are buddies.
I always thought the baseball world considered minor league players apprentices learning a trade and not employees, which is how it justified the lack of financial support. Also, are there not host families anymore that let MiLB players live in their homes?
Host families have been banned by Manfred because of COVID protocols.
I suspect Manfred is behind this hit piece. It seems for some reason probably dating back to his appointment, Manfred and Arte have never gotten along Arte isn’t the only owner treating the minor leaguers like shit. And if the MLBPA really gave a crap about the treatment of the minor leaguers why wouldn’t they negotiate minimum standards in the Collective Bargaining Agreement ? This is more than just TrAdition.
To me, in general, it never made good business sense to provide substandard housing, wages and living conditions to a teams minor league players even if it is legal to do so. I get the “rite of passage” philosophy but If the goal is to win and your team is trying to gain a competitive advantage why wouldn’t you provide top of the line training facilities, transportation, quality nutritional plans and subsidized housing? Many of these “kids” are coming out of high school and are out on their own for the first time. Providing them better conditions is an added way of controlling and maximizing their development.
Not sure how this negativity of this article article will impact the signing of our draft picks, but in the long run, this hit piece maybe a blessing in disguise. Arte (and many other teams that I care much less about) will either need to cleanup their programs or sell to an Owner who will.
Mostly the players are cheap labor that is employed to help the few that the franchise is trying to develop into a major league caliber player. This cheap labor comes from an almost endless stream of talent from all over the world to try to fulfill, at any cost, the dream of making the big leagues.
Minasian’s response:
“What is reported is unacceptable, and we will examine it and fix it”
My question- how did he and the Organization not know about this? The answer is easy – there is no head of Baseball Operations. The team is being run by a bunch of marketing people like Carpino and Kuhl. What do they know about a successful minor league system?
Yes, because the guy in the company who is above the guy who didn’t know is the guy who will know. We see this all the time.
My answer is this: They *did* know but now that it’s public they’ll act like they didn’t.
Most players are in the “it is what it is, I have a dream” crowd. They grew up playing travel ball not much different than this, and are now getting paid to play, with “free food”.
A few have found an ear that will listen. I hope they have a fallback in life, you never seem to remember your dream after you awaken.
They are full of it, that’s how.
Perry Minasian? Mr. “Born in a Baseball Dugout?” He certainly is aware of the ‘hard’ road in the minors and what is customary across all major league teams. Now, is he acutely aware of this players complaint? Maybe, maybe not but he is certainly aware how minor leaguers need to sacrifice with the little pay they make. Should not be a surprise to him. It is to me, but he should be aware.
Seriously?
Bubba Harkins
Eric Kay
Mickey Calloway
I’m surprised someone in the suites & tickets client services department hasn’t been indicted in a pay for play scheme or that law enforcement hasn’t cracked a human trafficking ring being run through the grounds crew.
Funny, human trafficking with Pujols on this team. How was he making money off of that?
I do not hate Arte Moreno but I have no respect for him and his hand chosen dunderheads he surrounds himself with. How did he get this far in business, especially in MLB Ownership? To knowingly treat people in your organization like they are sub human is just unfathomable.
Already mentioned but worth repeating is how do other teams compare? How do the Dodgers take care of their MiLB players? How about the Yankees and Mets from the top revenue teams to Tampa Bay and Oakland and Kansas City? Maybe it is an industry wide issue? Medical, nutrition, equipment, coaching, conditioning all play apart including Housing, transportation and food.
I need more info, info from how my Team to all MLB takes care of their employees. How are these people taken care of. Who is responsible from the MLB Offices to the Team themselves to the MiLB teams and ownership to the Business’s who are hired to take care of operations.
I need more input and info. Is this just the tip of the Iceberg?
Nah, I hate him. People like Arte run and ruin the world simultaneously and mistake inhaling their own flatulence for wisdom.
He drives a Prius?
Probably worse: a Tesla.
Does arte get alot of hate because he’s a trump supporter?
Yes. But he also pretty much sticks his chin out there and says “punch me” with the shitshow that surrounds him.
I think he’s been a good owner when it comes to spending on his team.
The top 1%, maybe.
Possibly, but even if he wasn’t, he would have been exposed for his poorly ran organization.
Pretty sure Donald Sterling was a leftist and he got caught for his pooer ownership and dropping the gamer word.
Arte get’s what he deserves
Nah, that was a given.
LOL…take a guess
Since Opening Day 1961 I have been an Angels Fan, and I have been very ignorant about how any team has in the past taken care of their players. Frankly I have been remiss in paying attention as I would have thought prior to now that all 30 teams made sure the players would have had the proper nutrition and facilities to keep the players in peak performance levels that would benefit the progression to make it to the top.
Now I ask myself do any of these accusations surprise me? The answer is not really. If the Angels organization cannot or will not staff themselves with the proper assets and resources to be at the top of the Baseball world what would have made me think that Moreno and Carpino and Kuhl and even Perry now are all in the cross hairs of the team fans who purchase tickets, watch the team on TV and listen on radio and purchase the shirts and merchandise.
When comes the time that we are done and finished and rear up and take our interest somewhere else, Arte will feel it. I am embarrassed that I never saw this as something to consider prior to now, the taking care of business of the MiLB Players under Arte’s watch. But when added to the Tyler Skaggs story and those involved to a Clubhouse man selling stickum to other team’s player’s, to Arte not having a full front office staff to not having better coaching organizationally wide, to just flat out being a poor owner and an embarrassment to his fans, well, it’s TIME TO SELL THE TEAM!
Another day, another controversy. This team and organization are absolute 💩
Time to find a new team
Nothing wrong with that. You’re supposed to ENJOY sports. If the Angels just become a joyless death march, thanks to the internet, you can root for any old team. Heck, take a look at a team like the Tigers…. owner cares about Detroit, storied history, lots of cool young prospects, not the Red Sox, Yankees or Dodgers. We all have options.
I wish my brain worked like that.
Your brain works, don’t sweat it.
It would be interesting to discover how Oakland treats it’s minor league players. They don’t have two sticks to rub together, compared to the big money clubs, but they are consistent winners, and are seemingly well run. Billy Beane is the reason for a lot of that, I’m sure, but it would be interesting to see how ownership there operates on the minor league level.
I have been a fan of the Angels since the late 80’s when I moved to LA from NYC, but it just gets harder and harder to stick with it. Being bad a baseball is one thing, that I can deal with, but treating people poorly is another entirely.
True. If Cleveland, Tampa and Oakland can do it, and more importantly succeed with it, you’d think Arte would want to rip it off, especially because it fits being “cheap”.
Don’t forget
To some extent, they are all the same. They have to be, or the system would fail.
Maiten says hello
The pic on the left is the same one I saw on Ty Buttrey’s IG page (and I mentioned in a previous post a couple of days ago when this topic first came up).
Doesn’t that sandwhich look delicious ? Yum!
If I was on a desert island and facing starvation I might go ahead with that route rather than eating that shit. Chemical bread, and American cheese.
No thank you please.
It’s like someone took all the best tomatoes home
Ha ha. Yeah, that tomato is pretty weak; it is more white than red !
Oakland is a culprit as well. Google it.
Don’t single any team out, they are all knowledgeable of this.