Angels owner Arte Moreno spoke to GQ's Nathaniel Penn about a number of the team's recent moves (and non-moves) in this Q&A piece…
- Moreno isn't worried that he'll be paying Albert Pujols $30MM per season after he turns 40. “If he's healthy enough and he's playing for us, then I'm gonna just say, ‘Merry Christmas to all baseball fans,' because we get to see one of the best players of our generation coming to bat," Moreno said. The owner also noted that his wife played a role in the Pujols negotiations, as both she and Pujols' wife have ties to the Kansas City area.
- The Angels didn't investigate rumors that Pujols is older than his listed age. "Somebody starts checking on your age you start wondering, 'Do we really want to have a relationship like this?'", Moreno said.
- The Angels never bid on Carl Crawford during the 2010-11 offseason. Moreno stood by his criticism of Crawford's seven-year/$142MM contract with Boston since "I don't think anybody…was in the vicinity of that offer." In Pujols' case, however, the team felt comfortable signing him to a massive contract since the Halos had lots of new funds coming in via their new TV deal.
- "Still, I don't think in a perfect world we really thought Albert was going to be available," Moreno said. "They just won a championship in St. Louis, he had been there eleven years, and you think they're gonna make a deal."
- Moreno wasn't keen to discuss the firing of former GM Tony Reagins, saying "I just think what happens is over a period of time you don't think you're going in the direction you want to go." Moreno did hint that Reagins was fired due to the combination of the Halos missing the playoffs for the last two seasons and the thus-far disasterous results of team's deal for Vernon Wells.
- Speaking of that deal, Moreno said his team's baseball staff felt Mike Napoli's throwing arm wouldn't hold up for an entire season of catching and he was about to get too expensive for the team's liking through arbitration. Moreno praised Rangers manager Ron Washington's handling of Napoli and also noted "the book's not closed on Vernon, you know."
- The Angels didn't bid on Yu Darvish and Moreno said was never approached by his baseball staff about the Japanese right-hander, guessing it was due to the size of the required posting bid.
Speaking of that deal, Moreno said his team’s baseball staff felt Mike Napoli’s
throwing arm wouldn’t hold up for an entire season of catching and he
was about to get too expensive for the team’s liking through
arbitration. Moreno praised Rangers manager Ron Washington’s handling
of Napoli and also noted “the book’s not closed on Vernon, you know.”
Just say the Angels screwed up and Jeff Mathis is not good.
“Somebody starts checking on your age you start wondering, ‘Do we really want to have a relationship like this?'”, Moreno said.
Ignorance is bliss.
Paranoia is not.
Speaking of that deal, Moreno said his team’s baseball staff felt Mike Napoli’s throwing arm wouldn’t hold up for an entire season of catching and he
was about to get too expensive for the team’s liking through
arbitration. Moreno praised Rangers manager Ron Washington’s handling
of Napoli and also noted “the book’s not closed on Vernon, you know.”
Just say the Angels made a mistake and Jeff Mathis is bad.
Was anybody besides the Angels surprised at the power Napoli had? Sure, the average last year was not expected but his big year in Texas was not all that shocking. Bad move Angels.
*Bad move by Regains
Napoli also went to a far more friendly offensive stadium and didn’t have to platoon with another offensive black hole in Mathis either.
All GM’s make mistakes. Fans should move on with that one IMO.
Be that as it may, the Rangers ballpark effects homeruns…not AVG, OBP, etc…
I’m not disagreeing with you, but home runs also affect AVG and OBP.
Yes Angel fans…Rangers ball park is the only reason our offense is good and the only reason Napoli did well last year. There’s no other reason for the success.
No Angels fan here. Try again.
Do you make a habit of putting words into peoples’ mouths? That is not even close to what he said.
But unless you hit a ridiculous number of home run, it’s not going to jump those stats up by a crazy amount.
Case and point: Mark Reynolds
Just look at the team splits.
LOL wat? the OBP difference is like 30 points from road to home
The difference between between road AVG and home AVG is almost 30 points
The slug percentage is almost at 100 points.
Except Mike Napoli’s road numbers were actually BETTER than his home numbers last season, except for RBI.
Look at Texas’ home and road splits and tell us again that the ballpark only effects homeruns. The only one not really affected by it last season was Napoli.
“All GM’s make mistakes. Fans should move on with that one IMO.” One word: Vernon
Vague. You could be referring to Principal Richard Vernon from The Breakfast Club.
im pretty sure moreno didnt have his crystal ball with him when they chose to trade napoli …sports is all about risk taking, sometimes you end up on a good note most times you dont
Except that he got half the PA a full time catcher would get every year and would still put up 20+ hr. The guy was obviously an offensive beast and should have been treated as such. The only risk the Angels took was if their team could handle the blackhole in Mathis half of the year.
I would consider taking on Vernon Wells’ contract a pretty large risk is well. I mean that is the tradgedy here. He says Napoli was about to get too expensive through arbitration. What is Wells a bargain. You can’t jump on the Sox about The Carl Crawford signing when you go ahead and bring in Vernon Wells.
The guy wasn’t an offensive beast, actually, not until last year. He was streaky as hell before that. Let’s not pretend like anyone can predict the future. Texas took a risk and it payed off in spades.
Scioscia, for whatever his reasons are, never felt confident enough with Napoli to play him regularly, which is one of his bigger mistakes in my opinion. The guy gets so much praise for being a managerial genius, and as an Angels fan I’m glad we have him around. But the way he has dealt with the catching situation the past few years has been questionable at best. If you have the next Johnny Bench defensively then yeah, you can give up some offense for that. But Mathis has barely been above average defensively according to pretty much every metric over his career (aside from the BS intangibles like pitcher-catcher relationship and “being a hard worker”).
If Dipoto didn’t take his little buddy away from him, I’m sure we’d see Mathis right back in the lineup again this year 70% of the time while batting .190 and putting up a sub .400 OPS.
welcome to mlbtr mister hendry
I find his claim re: Carl Crawford not particularly credible.
Pffft. Let others find out Pujols’s true age. I’m guessing he’s over 40 already.
Yea that’s realistic.
And I’m guessing that you’re a serial killer. Isn’t making random accusations without any evidence fun?!?!
Where is the proof that Pujols is older than 32? Sorry, I don’t take Internet rumors too seriously. Is there any proof, or are we just assuming?
His name is not Albert Pujols, it’s Enrique Cardinales, and he is actually 35. lol