The sweet, soulful voice of Etta James proclaimed my feelings this week best when she belted out “At Last.” In that song, James’ true love comes around and it remains to be seen if Angels fans ultimately love Kroenke, but his ownership credentials can not be questioned. In the last half decade or so the Rams, Nuggets, Avalanche, and Arsenal have all won a title.
The man, the myth, the godfather of the HH and CtPG forum Rev dusted off his keyboard to break the news here.
Not going to say I called anything, but reading my very first piece for SI “Is Arte Moreno Poised to Sell the Angels?” with a little hindsight shows I was definitely onto something. At that time the Skaggs settlement had just been made and the team had no TV contract. With payroll falling off a cliff it looked like a good time for a new owner to come in, land their own TV deal, and restart talks with the City.
The only problem is Arte could not have gotten top dollar for a franchise in such a state. But he can now. Which makes me wonder.
Did Kroenke orchestrate the Angels front office makeover before he owned the team? Read that piece, then take a look back at the first one, and let me know what you think. The Angels have not been acting like the Angels lately, after all.
John did a great write up on the ownership tenure of Moreno. If you missed it, read it. There was a time we were happy he was the team’s owner. Arte did have some hits (Vlad, Torii, Bartolo) but also some misses. His perceived nemesis Scott Boras had a very practical take on Moreno’s tenure.
Mark Trumbo, however, had a pretty blunt take down.
It took me a day to soak it all in. Tuesday was the day the chants came true and Angels fans could dream again. Covering so many day to day things, it felt great to sit back, let some emotions flow, and write that piece. I hope you enjoy it.
And now we wait for the next chapter to unfold. Several key questions now need to be answered.
In the midst of all this joy, however, there was some bad news this week. Friend of the site, and a guy I consider a friend, Victor Rojas announced he has prostate cancer.
Rojas is a great guy as anybody who knows him will attest. I’ll always remember him holding and playing with my son in the booth between innings. His friendship with Mark Gubicza is as genuine as it gets and Gubi sent a heartfelt message to his good friend.
And there was actual baseball played. On Monday night Walbert Urena outdueled the Yankees highly touted prospect Elmer Rodriguez in a 10-1 beatdown of the MFY.
I had a credential for that game and spoke with several Angels staffers and nobody had an inkling of the impending sale.
Urena and Reid Detmers both pitched well against NY and Grayson Rodriguez did OK after a tough first inning. Overall, the rotation is looking better than we’ve seen in years.
But if you want some real fun, watch the Trash Pandas games. Since adding Cozart and Nimmala at the deadline Rocket City is killing it and offers the best reasons for hope for the future.
I’m starting to really like this kid:
Keep in mind Cozart was drafted largely due to his complete game behind the dish. The hope was that he could hit enough, and he did hit for power, to move up the ladder. If he is a potent bat and a solid receiver, the Angels could have something special.
Speaking of potentially special, the OC kid Gavin Grahovac is trying to make the big league club already. The kid has 8 bombs in 23 games and is just killing A level pitching.
It is tough to pick a Nimmala highlight. He’s hit in 18 of his 19 games in the Angels organization. He’s hit multiple home runs this week. But he absolutely destroyed this one.
Meanwhile Tyler Bremner is turning it around and Austin Gordon is looking more like a legitimate starter. Add in a top 5 bullpen in all of the minor leagues, and the Trash Pandas have talent all over the board.
There’s so much I missed but this is a great week. Link what you wanted me to cover and enjoy your holiday weekend if you get it. I finally have a weekend with almost no work to just enjoy being a dad. Arte is gone, AA is stacked, let’s look towards the future.
