Hi all. Long-time HH / CTPG reader (as in nightly) and lifetime (born 1959) Angel fan here. My favorite memory is of watching (on TV) Nolan Ryan throwing one of his first no-hitters (either #1 or #2 in 73) and running out of the house, down our cul-de-sac street in Cypress towards a friend’s house yelling over and over “RYAN JUST THREW A NO-HITTER”. So yes, mark me an Angel’s geek. This is my first post, please be kind to the novice.
Fast forward to last Saturday night, as I excitedly bought three tickets to Sunday’s game, so that my son (25) , daughter (22) and myself could hopefully witness Shohei Ohtani gain win #10, stolen base #25, and run-scored #100 (and just maybe a no-hitter.) Simply stated, I wanted my kids to be able to say decades from now that they saw Ohtani-san (wa ichiban des) play.
Then this morning, a great friend and fellow Angel devotee, sent me Dylan Hernandez’s article titled “Ohtani makes it clear – Improve Angels or He’s Gone.” Column: Shohei Ohtani makes it clear — improve Angels or he’s gone – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) To which I wrote the below; please note that I wrote such adhering to the CTPG expectation of ~ don’t just bitch, include a way forward, AND as a proof (and tribute to the Rev’s prescient ability.)
My response was: Thank-you! Hadn’t seen this. On Saturday night, Chad, Naomi, and I decided to go see Ohtani pitch on Sunday afternoon. We found good seats in the MVP Loge. And then watched Shohei dominate over seven innings, save one mistake to Kelenic (who hit a HR.) The stadium was BUZZING, until Ohtani left … and no surprise the Angel’s bullpen coughed-up the game immediately thereafter.
Gotta say it… Ohtani is the clear cut AL MVP.
Back to the article: It validates Victor Rojas’ sentiment (in The Athletic), and strengthens’ Trout’s polite ask of Angel’s executive management (i.e., Kuhl and Carpino) to go all-in on pursuing a championship. Angels Front Office Executives | Los Angeles Angels (mlb.com) (note: remind me some day to recount my chance encounter with Kuhl at a Huntington Beach CoC lunch)
I discussed this with Chad, and came-up with an outrageous “if I was Trout” scenario. Jumping off the Ben Simmon’s debacle over at the Philadelphia 76’s (Simmon’s has decided not to report to training camp) … I imagined, perhaps two years from now (and two more non-playoff seasons) Trout ending his polite / noble approach, and DEMANDING to be traded (i.e., no-trade clause be damned.) (Laughing) Out of fear of what I’d just imagined, I immediately smashed the scenario as one that will never happen (mostly because it is antithetical to Trout’s character.)
However, the Hernandez article suggests that the Angel’s players are increasingly fed-up with the lack of a championship culture at the top of Angel’s executive management. The article also amplifies Maddon’s recent remarks (as a player’s manager he KNOWS the whispers within the clubhouse.)
I am now resonating with: “Moreno might as well sell the team to someone who can (Win).” So the “clock is ticking” remark is so very, very true.
I’ll end with this. Rev Halofan foretold of this over a decade ago. Here is proof: Dennis Kuhl Kicked Upstairs as Angels Media Sleeps – Halos Heaven
The fix is progressively thus: 1) Angel’s exec-mgmt must confess they’ve f—– it up for too long, and then go all-in on win-now (or) 2) Replace Carpino and Kuhl (or) 3) Moreno needs to Sell the Team.
Ok… there is my rant, and hat-tip to the Rev. And I suppose that I’ve used up my f-bomb allocation on day 1. CloneRyanNow is both a tribute to Mr Ryan, and an AMEN! to all of you CTPGers, who for years have suggested fixes to the Angel’s Achilles Heal.
Long live the CTPG.
I too was a young Cypress Angels fan, though you have me by a year. I can still remember being in my friends backyard, playing with Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars in the dirt while listening to the Angels game.
I also grew up in Cypress as an Angel fan
Read the comments from the old HH article. Wonder why Stirrups is not around anymore?
Maybe I’m just running up to kick Lucy’s football one more time, but I really do think if (IF) Arte will spend some money on a couple of non-dumpster pitchers, a shortstop and a decent catcher, this team could contend. A lot of times this season when I have been ready to dump baseball completely and go full Buddhist monk, some kid from the low minors comes up and looks pretty good. I really do feel if we are healthy, with some additions, we can actually be a contender.
There is no way this team could have contended the injuries they sustained. I agree they must spend on pitching this off season. I also think they need to change up their training department. We need quality people there.
Thanks for the nod, I live and breathe this team too and the goonsquad running the show and ignoring the pillpushers (among dozens of egregious miscues) is MUCH more frustrating than the on-field product to anyone who gives it any thought mixed with their feeling.
here’s a pitch to Arte about building a strong farm system.
if we had more homegrown talent you’d pay less in salaries. That means more profit for you. With more homegrown talent we’d win more games and fans would come out the way you want. And buy more gear and stuff. More profit for you.
If you still think you need to sign players like Rendon, to big contracts, the money will be there. And fans will come out to the park and buy even more gear and you’ll have a bigger profit.
I agree but it’s not just drafting players. It’s paying for scouts both domestic and international, investing in player development and strength and conditioning. Arte does not believe those things ‘sell’ or put butts in seats – so when he cuts, that is where he starts. It would require a complete shift in philosophy and ii just don’t see Arte as that kind of guy.
More winning and more success means probably a extra $50M in generated revenue off of advertisers.. What do I know, I’m a idiot.
OUT………..
It was true back then still true now, you reap what you sow. No matter how much money you have, the choices and trade offs you make, always, follow you.
Arte owns the ultimate toy: a professional sports team, and he loves the control. He’s not letting go until he takes the “big sleep”.
Cool. Another pathetic “The bosses need to confess they screwed up” post. Here, let me quote the inner dialog of every boss ever as regards this theme…
“Go fuck yourself.”
And honestly, I don’t need Arte, Carpino and Kuhl to hold a presser where they tearfully ask my forgiveness. We don’t deserve or have a right to anything like that. They can suck. We can go root for the Padres. That’s the deal.
What I really do hope for is that, with or without an apology performance that will never happen, they make changes. Those changes will likely be driven by a desire to make money and win games, but that’s fine with me. Just build a farm system for Gah sake. And please, baby Jesus in the sky with a baseball hat on, let some fairly good pitchers come here (I am already confident Arte’s willing to pay them) and let them not instantly get hurt or suck.
And wake up baseball fans. Arte’s not selling the team unless his real estate deal collapses.
I wouldn’t root for the Padres right now. What a major collapse that team had.
Cheer for the AZ D-Backs because they won one world series like we did and the Oakland A’s and Mariners suck because they haven’t won one either ever or since we won ours……yeah yeah dammitt I’m hip I’m Hippp. Which means the Royals, Cubs and the Phillies are still awesome since they both won theirs more recently than us. Back to listening to Carly Rae Jepson and The New Radicals……..
Yeah. I’m still trying to figure out how they can have THAT farm system, then acquire Musgrove, Darvish and Snell to add to an already play off caliber pitching staff and yet somehow, even though they are 95 miles away and owned by completely different people, I am pretty sure Arte Moreno found a way to reach out with his evil evil hands and cause the Padres to suck.
I can’t actually confirm this or explain it, but when has that mattered? Arte totally messed up the Padres out of spite because the Padres did everything we wish the Angels would do and there’s no way that could have failed unless Arte and his puppet GM screwed it up. Padre fans should call Moreno out.
If we end up trying to rehabilitate the reputation of Musgrove, Darvish or Snell ….
Manager is gone for sure and maybe the GM. Clubhouse was not good place from the reports. Good bounce back candidate.
Of course it’s time but how do you propose to convince him to sell? No laws are being broken by being inept. Boycott won’t work cuz as soon as you give up your dugout season tickets, someone else will pick them up. Lowers beer prices and I’m there.
The ONLY way I see him selling if he goes the Donald Sterling route and does something very egregious. Where the commissioner and other owners throw him out but Arte is not warped like Donald. And no, Arte is not to blame for Tyler.
…egregious like shrugging off a pillpushing operation he (willfully or unwillfully) subsidized or egregious like endrunnin California low-income housing law to buy property at a discount? Cause there has been egregious stuff leaking out… imagine then what doens’ leak out that may be worse…
We’ll see how all that plays out. The drug thing seems like a huge leap. Drugs are everywhere and confident nothing will come of it in criminal case and the commissioner and owners won’t vot him cuz of that. If anything, he’ll get slapped because, “he should have known” and pay the Skaggs fast milt some serious coin in a civil case.
The stadium thing, again, don’t think he would get banned for that. City Councilmen fostered that deal and might have skirted the process. Now if Arte paid them off…different.
MVP= Ohtani
Soul crushing home run possible today unless They are too scared to pitch to him. They look scared.
Does the Skaggs lawsuit stay with the team or does it follow Arte? I’m sure that would be factored into the sale price. And what about that land development thing Arte has going on? He’s doing it through a separate business entity as I recall, so Arte wouldn’t be completely gone. He could still be a real pain in the ass.
I would assume it stays with the team, right?
Probably, unless the sale contract contains some sort of indemnification clause about that. I can’t see Arte agreeing to such a thing.
Good Fanpost. Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Of your solutions, only one is viable. Arte will not sell the team – it’s a central part of his building Arte-ville and provides him leverage with the City. That leads to Kuhl-Carpino (tweedle dee and tweedle dum) going nowhere as they are Arte’s homeboys.
The only one of your solutions that might actually occur is Arte opening up the full wallet to $200-plus million in payroll.
What would be great is if Arte finally recognized the need for a true Baseball Organization separate from marketing. That way Kuhl and Carpino could focus only on marketing and baseball could be left to people who actually knew baseball. But that is unlikely to happen as well.
By the way – from the title of the article I thought you were going to espouse trading (selling) key players in the off-season and rebuilding.
‘Promote’ Carpino and Kuhl to head Arte-Ville, the stadium and the billboard empire and hire baseball ops to run the little side gig of the baseball team. Win win?
If Arte would shift his, Carpino and Kuhn’s focus to the business of Arte-Ville while turning the keys to the baseball franchise over to real baseball people it would be a huge win-win. As I have said before, I don’t care if Arte owns the Angels. He just needs to build and populate separate Baseball Ops (which would include scouting, player development, strength and conditioning, analytics) and let that have autonomy.
Again, I think it’s a pipe dream.