10:00pm: Dipoto weighed in with his sentiments on Sunday regarding Moreno's decision to retain him for a second season, writes Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. The former Diamondbacks executive expressed that Saturday "was a nice day to get behind us and move forward from, to continue getting better as a group and play for this season, 2013 and beyond." The team enters Monday's play two and a half games behind the Athletics for the second Wild Card with only nine games remaining on the schedule.
SUNDAY, 3:52pm: A day after owner Arte Moreno said Scioscia will return as manager, the Angels skipper told Lyle Spencer of MLB.com, "I have a commitment here. I love it here. I have a passion for it. I'm happy Arte feels the same way. We need to keep moving forward, getting better. There have been a lot of things floating around that weren't accurate. Now we can just concentrate on playing baseball."
Scioscia even addressed his relationship with Dipoto, "A lot of things being portrayed were inaccurate. The media can portray things any way you see them. You can portray a conversation as friction or two opinions. There's not a manager in baseball that doesn't have candid conversations with the general manager. Some people tried to portray my relationship with Jerry as something that's not accurate."
SATURDAY, 7:35pm: Moreno flatly told MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez that both Scioscia and Dipoto will be back next season. "These reports, wherever they're coming from, are [false]," he added.
12:19pm: The Angels ensured themselves of a winning season with last night's victory over the White Sox, but they remain 7.5 games back of the Rangers in the division race and 3.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. Earlier this week we heard that manager Mike Scioscia is "likely" to be the scapegoat if the club fails to make the postseason for a third straight year, and Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports has more on the situation today…
- Things between Scioscia and GM Jerry Dipoto are quite contentious. Communication between the two is strained, and the skipper briefly considered stepping down after long-time hitting coach Mickey Hatcher was fired in May.
- At one point in August, Scioscia suggested to Dipoto that he should fire him if he was not satisfied with his job performance. Some in the organization believe it would be easiest if the manager simply left for another team.
- Dipoto has more power than his predecessor (Tony Reagins) while Scioscia's pull within the organization has waned. The two disagree specifically about assistant GM Scott Servais, who Dipoto hired, and the team's recent emphasis on statistical analysis, among other things.
- Scioscia is under contract through 2018 thanks to the ten-year, $50MM contract he signed prior to the 2009 season. He'll earn $6MM annually from 2016-2018.
- Jeff Miller of The Orange County Register wrote more about the strain between Dipoto and Scioscia, though he believes the manager will be given one more year to turn things around.
- Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com says that owner Arte Moreno is not pleased with the job either Scioscia or Dipoto have done this season and is "expressing unhappiness behind the scenes."
Edward Creech and Daniel Seco contributed to this post.
No offense to Angels fans intended, but ever giving a manager a 10Y deal is just?? I can’t think of any manager in the history of the game, or that i remember at least other than maybe Earl Weaver and Leo Durocher that ever could have gotten a 10 year contract based on abilities.
Edit:
Add Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda to those other 2, but no more.
Sparky Anderson? Tony LaRussa? Joe Torre? Bobby Cox? That’s just in recent history. There’s Casey Stengle, John McGraw, Connie Mack…
But I hear what you’re saying–10 years is an awful long time and an awfully big risk for a team to take.
Yes, I forgot about Sparky Anderson..
I posted above: “or that i remember at least”
While am old enough to remember leo Durocher and Alston quite well.. I don’t recall Stengal very much.. Except his years with the Mets. His glory days with the NYY was a tad young 🙁
With due respect, davbee, Mack owned part of the team. Firing himself would have been awkward.
True, but he was only a part owner, meaning majority ownership could have relieved him of his duties at any time.
Mack ran the team lock, stock n barrell.
he was called “mr Mack” by his players and wore a suit, tie and dress hat to every game he managed, up until the end when no other person on the field was allowed.
Could post a lot more about him, but much can probably be googled, or read from classic books if anyone has the interest.. Durocher, Veeck.. so many classic men from the game give glimpses into the past that are priceless.
Sparky was almost an Angels manager. 1997 the Angels were in flux as far as managers go, and the long term plan upper management had included Sparky Anderson as a manager for 2 years (’97 and ’98), and then they would promote Joe Maddon to finally be there long term skipper.
Angels president Tony Tavares apparently was skeptical and the team went with Terry Collins, which provided a boost and helped Troy Percival and Darin Erstad push the clubhouse to not be so laid back.
It backfired as players like Jim Edmonds just showed a cavalier attitude, especially after his choice to not have shoulder surgery in the offseason between ’98 and ’99 pretty much sealed his future as the top trade candidate in the clubhouse.
Sparky would not have allowed any of this chaos.
Mike Scioscia was brought in to right the ship, otherwise Joe Maddon would be the Angels skipper to this day.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this, except to say that the decision to hire Terry Collins over Sparky Anderson created a big rift that swayed the organization’s path from Joe Maddon to Mike Scioscia.
It’s too bad the Angels didn’t make Joe Maddon their manager. He’s done a great job the last few years with the Rays. Such a low payroll. He knows how to get the most out of his players. Scioscia gets so much credit for the 2002 team but really that was the work of the whole coaching staff.
For any manager why would you give them a 10 year deal. You don’t need a long contract unless they are in demand. I don’t see anyone else giving anywhere close to 10 years, so why would you even consider that.
Am in agreement. Francona (example) brought 2 WS to Boston in 3 seasons after they hadn’t won one inover half a century, yet he was working on 3 years deals.
Well, Scioscia is considered one of the best at what he does. He is also young enough to warrant a contract of that length. The only problem is that no one involved knew a new gm from an outside organization would need to be brought in. So the new gm and the manager he inherited don’t get along. I think it’s time to let Scioscia go and bring in a new voice. I believe Dipoto was a scout with the Red Sox in 2004. Possibly Francona?
Not really considered one of the best. You don’t need to commit more than another team will commit to a manager. Most teams are going on 2-3 maybe 4 years. 5 Years would one up the competition if you want to keep him around. Alot changes in 10 years, no need to guarantee $20M to a manager.
He is consistently mentioned as a top five manager. He was THE top manager when he signed. So why not give a young manager with his credentials a long contract? I would even go as far to say that he was the face of the organization when he signed. The Angels were probably thinking more Bobby Cox than Bobby Valentine.
He is not attacking Scosia and none of us here (so far that have posted) yet. it is questioning why anyone would ever go 10Y on a manager when teams almost never give that to players, except in extremely rare cases and even those are looked at as bad deals.
Age is not really a determining factor in the length of contract given to a manager unless you’re talking about someone like Leyland who has been managing since dinosaurs walked the earth. Lots of things can change from one year to the next, let alone over a ten year period, so giving someone a contract like that only hamstrings the organization. Usually 3-5 year stints for managers are best because if the team is very good, you’re likely to lose key front office people, which may result in a change in the support system for an incumbent manager. Not to mention, as the makeup of the team changes, the willingness of the players to accept and respond to his message changes.
Why would that offend Angels’ fans? We didn’t give it to Scioscia, Arte did. That was right after Scioscia ruined their chances in the 2008 playoffs too. I thought he might get fired that winter. I didn’t like hearing about that ten year extension.
Honestly I think this is a huge overreaction by Angels upper-management. Lets remember they’re 13 games over .500, which is impressive when you take into account their early season struggles when they were still figuring out who to play and where. These are not Ozzie’s Marlins who have absolutely tanked compared to preseason hopes. Arte thinks they have “under preformed” but part of me thinks he thought an aging Pujols was going to lead them to 162-0. Scioscia led them back from April failures to compete in one of the toughest divisions in baseball. Just my two cents
I hope Scioscia Stays ……. But I would like to see us find a better pitching coach. I feel Butcher is not getting the job done, we have great pitchers that have struggled most of the year. Just my thought of some of the issue!
I’m one of the few Angels fans who actually have included Jerry Dipoto in the mix as far as grading the Angels season as a disappointment to this point.
Dipoto may have signed the top two free agents, but he also gave Mike Scioscia a thin bullpen, and never really did much during the season to bridge the gap between Jerome Wiliams, Jason Isringhausen, LaTroy Hawkins, and the back end of the pen.
With Nick Maronde and a much improved Kevin Jepsen, Dipoto — only in the past month — found some kind of bridge there.
Luis Ayala, Mike Gonzales, Jose Mijares, Rafael Betancourt are just a handful of relievers Dipoto could’ve brought in at one time or another — the first two ended up on the Orioles.
So, while Mike Scioscia has received a lot of criticism (obviously), centering around his management of the bullpen, Dipoto never gave Mike a deep enough bullpen to manage properly in the first place!
If Arte Moreno is unhappy about both Dipoto and Scioscia’s performance, then that tells me Scioscia’s job is safe by default, because Arte will be taking both men into his office after the season ends to express his frustration, and to lay down the law for both of them going into what should be an offseason centered around fixing a broken bullpen.
Fixing that problem properly, would’ve saved a lot of this drama, and will likely save future conflicts among them in 2013.
I can’t see Mike Scioscia leaving. There are far better solutions to this problem, mainly on-the-field, and it would be a major step back for the Angels if this tension forces Scioscia out.
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Seems to me that Arte Moreno and a lot of Angels fans are falling into the trap that many of my Yankees brethren have fallen into as well. After years of winning easily, they’re shocked when it gets tougher, thinking that it’s their birth right to have an outstanding team year after year. The Yanks and the Angels are currently in the play-off hunt, which is all a fan can realistically ask for. It appears that Moreno and many fans as well have dismissed the fact that other teams have improved and both teams are no longer going to cruise through their divisions as they’ve done in the past.
I hope Dipoto comes back to Dbacks as minor league coordinator if Moreno fires him. Dipoto builds good minor league systems.
Do you really think a new GM can just come in and clean up a bullpen that’s as bad as the 2011 Angels’ bullpen was? They let Rodney leave and look at what he did for Joe Maddon. That should make you think about what’s really going on. For years no matter who pitches for the Angels in their bullpen they just aren’t as good as they used to be. Scioscia never seems to trust most of his relievers even.
Angels are right in line where most experts believed they would be. The expectations of them winning the division were unfounded, pujols + wilson wasnt enough
I knew that going with Takahashi, Walden, and Thompson in middle relief to start the season was a bad sign. Pujols and Wilson were great signings for my team to have. But I still kept asking: “What about the bullpen???” Even Frieri wasn’t enough.
remember when you told me before the season that vernon wells was going to have a good year because of line up protection?
fun times
Vernon Wells wouldn’t have a good season hitting in the middle of the 1927 Yankees’ lineup.
Wells was hitting pretty good and then got hurt. Who knows if he would have done much but back early in the season he was one of the few Angels who was actually hitting.
It also didn’t take into account Greinke or an MVP version of Mike Trout.
players on the rangers improved too though. and they made deadline deals. so thats a wash
Given who has the longer contract, I see Scioscia as staying unless he resigns. If he doesn’t resign, I think that Jerry Dipoto is going for failing to address the bullpen.
This isn’t totally related to this article, but its something I keep hearing. Maybe its just me being a naive Orioles fan, but I don’t understand how being within 4 games of the wild card and having an 82 win (so far) season is a failure. People keep bashing the Angels and its preposterous.
Competing in September, having the ROY and potential MVP, and being a dangerous team for years to come is not being a failure!
$252 million to Pujols and similarly ridiculous money to Wilson makes this a failure. It’s not preposterous at all.
They weren’t one year contracts.
And here I thought they were.
Those contracts go far more to Moreno than Dipoto. Moreno was looking at the TV deal before they signed and knew no matter the $$$ thrown into those 2 contracts he was still making cash. This mess lies on him not the GM or manager. As was stated here before the bullpen has been a mess for a few years now. It cost the Angels close to 30 games last season and this season is much the same. Cut half that out the Angels are in first. Moreno needs to just look in a mirror and know he failed himself. Regins started this with the horrid Nap/Wells trade but Moreno added fuel by tossing money at 2 guys and not looking at the team as a whole. Just remember Dipoto approached the Pujols camp at Moreno’s instigation.
Ultimately it comes down to what Albert Pujols wants. Has he been consulted?
Any chance we can get more reliable sources than Rosenthal, Heyman, and Jeff Miller?
Moreno needs to learn that “buying championships ” does not work. How well has it worked for the Yankees? How many WS have they won this decade?
Where did all of the Angels fans referring to Dipoto as “JeDi” (gagmewithaspoon) go? And that was, like, a month and a half ago. This season was a failure in some respects, but that’s mostly due to all of the money spent on Pujols and Wilson. Expectations were high, and rightfully so, however this is not a bad baseball team, and they’ll be right back in the mix next year.