LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: Need to go 3-2

Competitive vs Win it all?

My opinion only. Years ago, I decided to watch rebuilds for fun and enjoyment, I started with the Astros. Luhnow was (and is) a first class jerk but he did a very successful rebuild. #1. He traded or sold off all of his talent that were veterans. (Oswalt, Berkman, Lee, Pence, etc. #2. When he did that, he guaranteed 2-5 years of losses. #3. He restructured the FO to data driven. #4. He actually did a fairly poor job at drafting with a couple outstanding examples (Correa. Bregman, etc). #5. He did the waiver wire thing UNTIL he was mid pack and mostly QUIT. #6. He placed his best teaching coaches in the low minors. #7. When he had constructed a decent team, he then signed free agents to fill in where his draft/player development failed.

The reason he succeeded where others failed is A. he didn’t show preference to his draftees. If you can’t cut it, you can’t stay. B. He made some very bold moves. Some worked out and others bombed but he kept being “different.”

And finally, about 2016 or 2017, the local sports guy interviewed him. He did GM speak and said nothing except he was asked about data driven vs old baseball guys. He and Sig Mejdal made the data so simple. He showed one example. There was a reliever, Jose Mesa in rehab in the minors, on his computer for everyone to see, he typed in “Jose Mesa” and punched enter. The screen turned GREEN. It was designed if the old baseball guy just wanted to know what the data department thought of a player, just enter his name and it would show “ready to promote.” So trade everyone and buy out Trout, or you can’t do a rebuild and hold on to your veterans. If you aren’t going to do that, then accept a 2-3 year improvement but probably no World Series victory. Again, just an opinion.

But miracles can happen.