1:55pm: Today’s news conference was canceled, but Eppler will speak to the media on a conference call tomorrow, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Bollinger adds that Eppler himself will be retained.
1:10pm: The Angels have formally announced that Ausmus will not manage the team in 2020.
12:52pm: The Angels have decided to fire Brad Ausmus less than a year after naming him manager, ESPN’s Buster Olney reports (via Twitter). The report comes just one day after MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that the Angels were “contemplating” Ausmus’ job status. The Angels have a press conference scheduled for this afternoon.
Given the sudden nature of the move and the fact that the Cubs parted ways with Joe Maddon over the weekend, speculation will surely abound that Maddon is now the Angels’ top target. The 65-year-old Maddon spent more than a decade as a coach on the Angels’ Major League staff and even served as interim manager for the Halos in two different seasons, totaling 51 games at the helm.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets that “a number of sources” believe Maddon will land with the Angels, although he adds that it is not yet set in stone. Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times also suggests that clearing way for Maddon would be one of the only reasons the Angels would make the move at this time (Twitter link).
It’s a brutal blow for Ausmus, whose tenure in the dugout will last only one season despite signing a three-year contract just 49 weeks ago. The former All-Star catcher and three-time Gold Glove winner previously spent four seasons managing the Tigers and spent a year between managerial stints as a special assistant to Angels general manager Billy Eppler. At the time, it seemed possible that Ausmus was being groomed as an heir-apparent to manager Mike Scioscia, and whether that was actually the case, matters played out in exactly that fashion. Now, if Maddon lands with the Angels as many anticipate, Ausmus will meet the same fate as Rick Renteria — a first-year manager who is ousted with multiple years remaining on his contract because of Maddon’s sudden availability.
The Angels certainly didn’t produce the results they hoped in 2019, finishing out the season with a 72-90 record. But Ausmus was at the helm for one of what was surely one of the most tumultuous and difficult seasons in franchise history, guiding the team through the tragic loss of perhaps the heart of its clubhouse: left-hander Tyler Skaggs. Indeed, Eppler said in a statement announcing the move that Ausmus “navigated this franchise through one of its most difficult seasons with class and professionalism.”
The Angels were also plagued by additional injuries up and down the roster (again), as Mike Trout, Andrelton Simmons, Justin Upton, Andrew Heaney, Shohei Ohtani, Tommy La Stella and others were absent for significant stretches of time. That’s not to say that Ausmus had no hand in the team’s lackluster performance, but it’s difficult to see how any manager could’ve found success with the hand he was dealt.
If there’s a silver lining for Ausmus, perhaps it’s that there appears to be a perhaps record level of managerial openings for him to explore around the league — assuming he wants to continue managing. The Padres (Andy Green) and Pirates (Clint Hurdle) have already fired their managers, and the Cubs, of course, aren’t bringing back Maddon. The Royals (Ned Yost) and Giants (Bruce Bochy) have both seen their longtime skippers retire, and it’s also possible that the Mets (Mickey Callaway) and/or the Phillies (Gabe Kapler) elect to move on from their current managers. Ausmus presumably wouldn’t be a candidate for all of those clubs, but he’ll surely garner some interviews if he seeks out another opportunity.
oof.
I agree. Fire a top tier manager, for a chance at a manager who had some success but is on the decline
Top tier is a bit of a stretch.
Huge stretch.
Monumental stretch.
Stretch Armstrong stretch.
Lance Armstrong’s stretch pants
Heck, the only person to call Ausmus top-tier is his mom, and that may be a stretch if she is a baseball fan
“on the decline”
Sure, whatever.
1.Managers aren’t Players ,they don’t decline!
2.Maddon is good for Rebuilding not a good Tactician,Veterans get tired of his act.
3.Rather have Ausmus and Money to Spend other than Trout
09 – to your number 3, I don’t think the manager’s salary affects the player’s salary budget. Let me know if I’m wrong on that. By all reports, Ausmus took a promising Tigers team and lost with them. He has a losing record as a manager. Maddon is the final piece to a solid run in 2020 in my opinion.
Due are you high or just dum
Managers salaries do not count for the luxury tax on players salaries
There’s a b in dumb…
Maddon is the final piece to a 2020 run? Yeeesh, I was thinking 3 starting pitchers. A catcher and another outfielder were the final pieces……
I mentioned the need for pitching in a different post.
There’s also a second “d” in dude.
Top Tier? Ausmus is horrible. He should be at the end of his rope, as a manager. He was bad when he was with Detroit, surprised he got the Angels gig.
Yeetus – Top tier manager? Ausmus has a career 314-332 record as a manager. Scioscia is at 1,650–1,428 and Maddon is at 754-705. That’s what we need.
Maddon 1252-1068 as manager overall. Countless +90W seasons with Rays and Cubs, 2x CS, 1x WSC
3x Manager of the year. Not including his role as Angels Bench coach in 2002 WSC
You’re delusional if you think Ausmus was a top tier manager.
Firing Ausmus was a total scapegoat move! Same old yearly prospect hype so name another Angel first rounder who has panned out since Trout and Richards? Zippo!
If Ausmus after one season goes out the door how do you keep Eppler after 4 years? He is the worst at signing free agents that produce!
The second half our rotation was basically a 4th starter and a bunch of minor leaguers If Adell flops next year then Eppler needs to go too!
But at least, he is still a handsome man.
He’s a very smart man too
Just ask him.
Obviously, he was not a math major at Dartmouth.
He keeps forgetting how many players are on his bench.
Truthfully, he is a dipshit, as far as baseball matters are concerned. He would overuse his bullpen when pitchers were dealing. He would continually use pujols at the top end of the line up. He used old school righty/ lefty match ups to sub out the hottest man in your line up.
La Stella should have gotten 100 more at bats, but didn’t cause he wanted to use a right handed batter. La Stella, fletcher, and Goodwin were only used more cause it was so obvious.
He looks so confused, almost like he is learning how to manage from a book on the passenger seat of his Prius.
Ausmus reminds me on Montgomery Burns, from the Simpsons. taking out Darryl Strawberry in the 9th inning to put in Homer Simpson cause of the righty- lefty matchup.
Mark Langston on numerous occasions would comment on the idiocy of Ausmus moves.
Ausmus, is a smart guy.
Yes he has dreaming blue guys.
Yes he is / was the worst manger in the majors.
Some people just aren’t good at their jobs.
see ya later bub
Enter Maddon stage right.
Or Joe Girardi.
They would have hired Girardi already. Passed on him once didn’t they? The timing of this suggests Joe Maddon 100%.
Same could’ve been said for Eppler hire, they hired dipoto over Eppler then hired Eppler.
Dipoto is another guy, he loves to trade but is a horrible scout on players.
No one talks about clevinger for pesanto trade. Pestano was on gd waivers. Just wait a week dipoto, he will be at the Local watering home soon enough.
clevinger for pesanto trade happened after dipoto left the team. Stoneman made that trade.
Here comes Joe Maddon
Enter Joe Maddon
Maybe. Not sure Angels are an attractive situation.
Do you realize that Maddon spent well over a decade with the Angels and he has already managed them.
It’s Maddon.
Maddon spent 31 years in the Angel organization.
I knew it was a long time, I was going to say decades, but I really didn’t want to look it up.
Thanks for the exact number.
I don’t think Ausmus gets fired unless the Angels or specifically Arte wants to go all- in on Maddon and you don’t just go all-in on Maddon if you don’t plan to open the checkbook for some elite SP.
How do you figure? Ohtani, Trout, Simmonds and Adell. Tons of money coming off the books and a top flight GM. Seems better than any situation excpet maybe the Padres. The knock on the Padres would be although they have a FIRE farm, the team doesnt have any history of holding significant payroll.
top flight GM who can’t find pitching to save his life.
Enter kris Bryant as 3rd baseman in two years as well.
Arte will get the band back together in 2022.
Some good points but Eppler a top flight GM? And the organization’s main source of stability over the years has been its mediocrity.
Again, I’m not an expert on the Angels I’m just saying that the situation might not be as attractive as first glance suggests.
So holding eppler accountable for dipotos blunders is the correct approach? While they have mediocre at best the past 2/3 years he was operating under a small crawl space in cap due to commitments to pujols, josh hamilton and jered weaver to name a few. He has rebuilt the farm whilst still fielding a competitive team. He also got trout to resign and signed a generational talent in ohtani and giving up next to nothing for upton. He has also drafted well, see canning, adel, and fletcher. Still has a ways to go but get maddon would be a step towards winning.
This is simple.
1. Hire Maddon
2. Sign Cole.
3. Trade Adell for Bryant and Chatwood
4. Win Division or W/C 2020
The Angels are not trading Adell. Take your meds or ease up on them
Why would the Cubs trade Bryant? Will all that make them that better that they will take the division over the Astros after finishing ‘19 35 GB? Even if the Astros lose Cole, they seem to be in great position to have another monster year.
He’s going to Philadelphia him and Harper said they were going to be teammates for several years together
“He has rebuilt the farm whilst still fielding a competitive team.”
The Angels have arguably the best player in the history of baseball, and they haven’t been a .500 team since 2015. They’ve been a 4th place team 3 of the last 4 years, and the only year they weren’t, they finished 2nd with a record of 80-82 (which was 21 games behind the Astros…). You can blame it on whatever you want, but they have been fielding a “competitive team” is a stretch at best.
Ohtani means relatively little until he can stay healthy. He has to prove that first.
“Trade Adell for Bryant and Chatwood”…holy moly, that is some seriously terrible thinking.
Has to prove he can stay on the field? He played most of this season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. No player in the history of the game can say that.
……Only realistic in Baseball Cards
Agreed, They don’t have a lot outside Trout. Pujols is aging, Upton stays hurt, and they don’t have good starting pitching. Trout is going to be playing in purgatory and his contract is too big of a albatross, to trade him.
Is contract is only a albatross if Arte let’s it. SMH
There are plenty of teams that would take Trout and that contract in a second.
Who wouldn’t want to manage a team with Mike Trout on it? If not Maddon, then someone else with more experience than Ausmus.
You can say that again. Be well Joe but you’ll never succeed with that pitching staff without spending a ton of dough.. Pujols sucks out enough to afford 3 starters.
Now getting paid millions to not even work…. I’d take it?
anothaaaa one
It looks like that more than one team will be interested in Maddon.
Will be interesting to see if Joe Maddon is hired, and if anyone from this year’s Cubs roster including coaching staff ends up in Anaheim.
Somebody tell Arte that Josh Hamilton is a free agent again.
I wonder if gabe is next to get the ax.
48 hours. I guess the over/under on Kapler is 3 days.
They only can Gabe if they know they have a shot at Maddon, which doesn’t look like it. Philly needs all their starters to show up.
Nah.. they can now replace Gabe with Brad. Why wait?
Wooooow! I can’t imagine who they’re targeting other than Joe Maddon. I guess Bruce Bochy could be another option?
By no means was Brad Asmus a great manager, but I do feel for him. He was handed a God awful rotation and a bunch of injured every day players.
I actually didn’t mind what he did with the lineup and rotation. He worked with what he had and it just didn’t pan out for him or the team.
It was an emotionally tumultuous season without question. Even before Tyler Skaggs’ death, it appeared to me that the team lacked the “fire” that some other clubs seem to summon at will.
I wish Ausmus the best, though. Definitely no ill will. Like you said, it just didn’t pan out.
I think you’re confusing fire with talent
Sure, talent was lacking but it was, what appeared to me, as a lack of effort.
I thought he looked quite competent and in control of things (in a good way) but I don’t watch the club daily. I’m wondering if any reasonable Halos fans can weigh in with an assessment on his performance this year…
My biggest gripe was how Angel pitchers attacked the zone ahead of the count. When the Angels got ahead 0-2, the hitters had the Angels right where they wanted them. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Also, I have no idea why they didn’t just let Fletcher play second base. I’m surprised he turned out to be such a good hitter, but the guy plays gold glove defense. He’s a great defensive secondbaseman.
Angels gave up 89 hits on 0-2 counts, three more than the league average of 86. baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2019-pitches-pi…
I think Halo fans can agree that this was far from a normal season. I think Ausmus handled the Skaggs situation about as good as can be expected. I think the firing has more to do with who is available (Maddon) than Ausmus’ performance. Maddon brings a culture that will help the org hit the “reset” button on 2019.
The firing has EVERYTHING to do with Maddon being available.. I’d be shocked if Arte hasn’t already talked to him.
No one forced him to take the job. He knew what he was getting into
You heard it here first, it made no sense the way Ausmus was managing, Arte had to be sitting up there like what the heck is my manager doing… I’ve never seen a more incompetent manager. Maddon is on His Way back Mark my words, it just makes perfect sense.
There are people in Chicago who will say the exact same thing about Maddon.
Perhaps you can substantiate your assessment????
Cost Detroit their best chance since 1984 at a WS win. What is it with him?
He seems to check every box on the managerial resume but his teams do not respond to him in the expected fashion. Arrogant? Uninspiring? Disrespected?
Something else?
no fire, and is laid-back attitude, someone to build a fire and Madden is the man.
maddon is extremly laid back… cooler than the other side of the pillow however
How do you get swept when your rotation is Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, David Price, Rick Porcello and Anibal Sanchez (who won the ERA title in 2013)?
Easy, by not having them healthy at the same time. Plus his use of the bullpen was terrible.
Tigers had a playoff run that lasted 2011-2014. They had way better chances before Ausmus took over. They had no bullpen in 2014. No depth. They didn’t close the deal in 2011-2013, and their window was closing.
I dont understand why tons of Cubs fans are calling for David Ross to be the next manager who has zero managing/coaching experience. I know Boone had none either but the Yankees are just stacked top to bottom with studs, so the manager wouldnt really matter over there tbh. yeah yeah i know the manager is important, but put a 10 year old in pinstripes and they would still be a 100 win team.
Agree with you regarding David Ross….maybe he’s bringing his extensive Dancing with the Starts experience with him…..more than likely another emotional outburst from fans pining about their hero from past days!
I do disagree though that Yankee fans did not call for Boone to be hired… they had no idea he was even in the mix until it was virtually a lock….it has worked out well but even with the “studs” on the team, a manager still needs to pull the right strings for everything to work to expectations. Maybe Ross would be good, but the Cubs would be taking as big a chance on him as the Yankees did on Boone.
I don’t get it either, I have NO IDEA why Ross is such a big deal. Lousy player who had one big hit in his career
Jon Lester disagrees with you.
Yet Billy Eppler was the guy who’s in charge of personnel and front office politics with Arte Moreno still has job. Not Ausmus’ fault that they haven’t by contended in some time. Should both be fired for single handedly wasting Trouts prime years.
What’s the definition of contention? What’s the definition of some time?
I see contention as a team being in the pennant race after the All-Star Break. So by that definition, after their ‘02-‘09 playoff run ended, they’ve contended in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019, while completely collapsing in 2019. So they’ve been in it almost every year, they just didn’t quite have the depth they needed over time, with neglecting their farm system earlier in the decade being the top factor.
Trout wasted his career signing long term with these idiots.
Harper wasted his career signing long term with those idiots.
Stop
Machado wasted his career signing long term with those idiots.
I thought it them
FYI, Eppler’s priority has been rebuilding the farm system and locking up Trout. Part of the reason Trout signed his extension was the commitment he saw in Eppler investing in the organization’s future. The Angels have not been expected to contend since 2015. Trout has plenty of years ahead of him to be the center piece of a winning franchise.
Too bad they aren’t going to win anything until after Trout is gone
Finally someone who gets it
I suspect they chatted with Madden prior to making this decision.
So, are there league minimums for managers? will his new team only pay the prorated value? or does he just get the contravt money paid and can get a whole new deal?
Ausmus was garbage.
I don’t think it’s a given Maddon goes there but I do think there is a good chance. He would be a good fit for them. They have been slow to come around to the analytic side but bringing him over would help with them because he does use that in his managing. I still think Dusty Baker or Bruce Bochy could end up their manager though. But it’s not hard to wonder if they’ve reached out to Maddon and he told them he was interested so they pulled the trigger in letting Ausmus go. I feel bad for that guy, he’s had to manage some bad teams and he’s taken the blame for it. The Angels are not good, they need pitching bad and that’s not the managers fault.
When Ausmus took over in Detroit they were World Series ready. Don’t feel bad for him. He’s an uppity clown.
No they weren’t. They had one of the worst bullpens in baseball and no depth.
They had one of the worst bullpens because of how Ausmus used them. Didn’t pay much attention to the Angels this year. Hopefully he learned from his mistakes with the Tiggers.
Yea I don’t think they were World Series ready at all. I guess that depends on who you ask. Every fan thinks their team is close than they really are. The Tigers being bad wasn’t all on Ausmus. Not saying he’s a great manager but I do feel bad for him. That’s my opinion
Eppler and DiPoto were big analytics guys. So was Ausmus.
One year or analytics? Are you trying to correct me over have one year of a manager who was into analytics. Do you guys that sit around looking to correct people ever get sick of it? Lol. DiPoto maybe was but Mike Socia wasn’t and he was the manager. If they get Maddon he will really implement analytics big time. Way more than they’ve ever been. They are slow to coming around to it.
Yep, it’s the Monday after the end of the season!
Prior to the season, I predicted that 2 of the 3 managers of the Nats, Mets, and Phillies will be fired after the season is over and I stated that Don Mattingly might be the best manager in the NL East alongside Brian Snitker. Mattingly was extended.
Will sometime this week I’ll have a good prediction by the Phils and Mets being next on letting go of their managers in Kapler and Callaway?
“Black Monday”
Andrew Friedman is next
this afternoon there will be a press conference to introduce Joe Madden….
He would be a great breath of fresh air.
Where did you read that?
Eppler is the king of striking FAST, trying to beat the market.
It’s not Eppler, it’s Arte. Which is why I’ve heard that Cole is unlikely to be an Angel.
They want him, they’ll make him a great offer, but Boras is likely to play the long game. The only way Cole is an Angel is if he overrides Boras. Does anyone think that’s likely?
Given Boras’ last couple off-seasons maybe Boras changes his tune. I mean, he eventually got good money for his guys but it was a giant headache for everyone when they probably couldve signed for a similar amount much earlier
Isn’t Cole from that area? I know he pitched at UCLA. If he is and wanting to go back home then I think the angels have a great chance
Cole will have to sign early if he wants to be an Angel. I don’t think that’s going to happen.
And I heard that Arte thought long and hard about brining in Maddon five and half years ago when Maddon was available.
How many managers will be fired due to the poor performance of the players? Like Anthony Rizzo stated after the Cubs fired Maddon. “I feel like we could have played better”. That encompasses the entirety of sports. It’s the players who are paid millions, that need to perform to earn those pay days. Managers, coaches, trainers and the front office executives only have a marginal part. They put the teams together and oversee them, but the players have to produce wins.
There’s no crying in baseball. Managers and players all get paid with guaranteed contracts and their performance generally dictates how long they will remain with an organization. Managers are hired to get fired while players can be traded, released or opt for free agency when eligible.
The Angels took my advice and ran with it! Now they can pursue Joe Maddon in a more classful manner while getting a head start on the Mets and Phillies who still have their own managers under contract.
Padres future > angels future
Hmm
You cannot win if you spend no money on pitching.
they wouldn’t even need to if they could keep their current starters healthy, but they cant even do that.
I still see Bruce Bochy as the Padres #1 choice if he chooses to continue managing while commuting from his home in nearby Poway, California. Bochy has his MLB roots with the Padres while Maddon has his with the Angels. If Bochy decides to retire then Maddon would also be an obvious choice to manage the Padres, along with the Mets or Phillies. I don’t see him as a fit with the Giants.
Maddon said that managing again would require the front office leadership sharing the same philosophy for winning. So far Eppler has not been willing to spend money on improving the roster. With the exception of Trout, Upton and Pujols, the rest are stop gaps and prospects brought in from AA and AAA before they were ready. The farm system is depleted. So what could Maddon do with that? He would immediately deal with years of losing seasons.
His philosophy was to build the farm system. He’s not willing to spend money?
I don’t know where you people come up with this stuff?
baseballamerica.com/stories/mlb-farm-system-rankin…
The Angels farm system is currently ranked at 14, as of last year. So his approach may be to improve it, but there is still a long way to go for it to even become a top ten.
And that’s a fair argument. Canning is a good pitcher. Ohtani is a recent graduate, not that the Angels developed him. Adell is there. Fletcher can really play. He’s a ball player.
Cozart/LaStella will man 3rd. I say that as a side note, because 3rd is a hole. So is first, but there is nothing they can do about Pujols.
The Angels need two pitchers. An ace and someone to take Skaggs’s spot. With Adell and Canning, (it is OK that you’re not high on Canning, the Angels are) they’ll spend. Don’t expect them to settle for a Cahill or Harvey. Which were just Band-Aids last year.
They went from dead last and without a heartbeat to 14th in 3 drafts. That is incredible. Thanks for pumping up Angels fans by showing just how awesome Eppler has been.
Do you think Trout would commit to long term if he thought the Angels weren’t headed in the right direction?
He is the richest player in MLB. So yes, I think anyone would commit when guaranteed millions over the span of a decade. That’s why Pujols left a consistent contender in the Cards. Why Chris Davis signed long term with the O’s. Why Mookie Betts will either stay with the Red Sox or look elsewhere for a pay day. It’s all about money for athletes.
Arinyc – Eppler isn’t the owner. He can only use the money he is given from Moreno. Moreno hasn’t increased player payroll in several years. Eppler has done a great job building depth with the financial restraints he was handed by Moreno. Only when Morenon decides to spend the money to build a winning pitching staff will Eppler be able to build one.
The Oakland A’s blow your theory to pieces! 87M payroll and they have tons of young high quality starting pitchers! Other than doing well on the waver wire. Billy is a complete flop at signing free agents and not devoting enough of our payroll to pitching! Other than Harvey at 11 million the highest paid starter we had during his 4 years is Garret Richards at 6.4 million! If Adell flops next season then Eppler needs to go too! 5 years is plenty of time to draft, sign and trade for talent!
I hope your consulting fee was rewarding, otherwise they are getting away with highway robbery!
That was stupid. There is your one scapegoat. Next time, next season when they fail… you’ll be on your way out the door mr gm
Arte Moreno loves Maddon. I know that for a fact. It’s not speculation.
Maddon still has a house in Long Beach from when he was Anaheim’s bench coach under Scioscia. A winter of hiring Maddon, signing G. Cole (Angel Stadium is 10 minutes from his hgh school), and promoting Adell to replace Calhoun is a good start.
no one could have won with that team – caught between Maddon and a hard place.
After what happened last year, you are right, no one would have won this that team.
They need more pitching. They need more health. Pujols is a hole. I do like Heaney, Ohtani and Canning. I do like Simmons and Fletcher. I think everyone likes Adell. You could do a lot worse than Upton and their 3rd base of LaStella and Cozart platoon. And their bullpen look promising.
The Angels need and ace and a solid rotation piece. That doesn’t mean they are going to compete with the Astros, but if they do that, they’ll be better than OK.
Not sure anyone else could have done much better with awful Halo talent and death pall over the team.
LOL who ever thought it was a good move to hire him?
Maddon made his rep as the Rays manager having a winning record with a low payroll. However, Kevin Cash has done even better. Renteria would have probably won with the Cubs given the talent they had. With a lot of talent, Maddon wasn’t able to repeat. Bottom line….Maddon is overrated and the Angels are making a mistake if they pay him a lot. Money would be better spent on players.
Yikes – Kinda did Ausmus wrong here. Let him land with the Royals, a job that more suits him.
Hire Maddon and Sign Cole…it’ll happen!
Maddon. Then Epstein. Then Cole. One more good starter makes them contenders.
They don’t have a catcher or 3B and their rotation is awful.
tommy lastella is the third baseman.
Maddon is so overated he won 2 titles with really good teams. Is not like he ever did anything else in tanpa with with a good team. He wont win with this angels team either. And the writer of this article saying who would win with all those injuries hhhhmmmm the yankees won 102 games with way more injuries than that to way better players than that. And please neither the manager or the GM or top ppl at their jobs what has either of them won.
He won 1 title.
How great will be when Maddon goes to SanDIego???
And returns from vacation to manage the Angels.
Maddon coming to LAA. Who wouldn’t want the chance to manage Trout??
And like all the rest, then have to explain why they didn’t win.
Happy New Year
That was quick for Ausmus regardless of how you feel about his management of the 2019 season.
How many $millions is he owed by the Angels owner Moreno to Not manage his team?
And you wonder why this organization isn’t winning? Not with this type of management!
Lol because they Yankees and Dodgers haven’t had any dead weight money on their payroll.
Where’s Billy Martin when we could use him? Or some one like him?
He’s 6 feet under giving Steinbrenner fits. When God made Billy Martin— he broke the mold
Well if it’s indeed Maddon who gets the job,he’ll soon find out that that team goes nowhere until the albatross a/k/a Albert Pujols retires
Pujols will be released before the start of next season.
You don’t release a HOFamer.
You don’t release someone who has 93 RBIs who is under contract for two more years. That’s not to say he’s any good. But it’s not going to happen.
His WAR was .4 his OPS+ 94. He is bringing the team down. Let Thaiss take over.
No he won’t, but he might be traded.
It would not be a popular move, but the Angels could eat $40-45 million and send him to a team in need of a franchise face.
That gives them a $15-20 million savings. You can replace the 88 OPS+ and -0.9 WAR Pujols has produced the last 3 seasons for less than 2/$15mm. Get younger and save money.
While an injury filled 2019 was a disaster for Bour, from 2017-2019 he produced 114 OPS+ and 2.6 WAR. Just that level of production in 2020 would be a significant improvement over Pujols.
Please explain the action of any team that trades for Pujols!
Bottom feeding teams that want to keep fans in the stands would trade for an automatic HOFer to be the face of the franchise for 2 years if the price was low enough.
$15 million for 2 years of Pujols putting behinds in the seats as he chases even more milestones is cheap if the intent is not necessarily winning.
Bart – that’s ridiculous.
That’s a poor excuse. The Yankees are paying Stanton to sit on the bench hurt and are still a 100 win team. Why? Because they did what the Angels are doing now: rebuilding their farm system.
They won’t be competing any time soon. Nowhere near the level of the Astros
No, they are not. The Astros are about as good as it gets. Any team in the AL West is going to have to wait for the Astros pitching come back to earth. That may happen soon, it may not happen for years.
Verlander and/or Greinke can regress at anytime due to their ages. Houstons window is shutting quickly. They will also regret the Altuve extension.
I wouldn’t say quickly
After what I’ve seen on their young talent, I wouldn’t say early either. Six months ago I wasn’t so sure. But now, I think their window covers at least three years.
Good. Get Maddon, get rid of Eppler and get Dombrowski.
Eppler is one of the reason Ohtani signed.
mike trout was. he’s ohtani’s favorite baseball player.
More importantly, Eppler was primarily responsible for getting Trout to re-up.
His best move, by a long shot.
Yep, I’m sure it was a herculean effort to get Trout to take $430 million to stay out of the spotlight and continue to hide in Anaheim.
Eppler is definitely a genius.
I’m not saying Trout had nothing to do with it. But Eppler was very prepared.
Unlike other fans, I don’t have an issue with Eppler. Unlike many, I think a staff with Canning, Ohtana and Heaney will be a very good staff if they ever sign an ace.
I don’t know what this team is or isn’t because they never stay healthy.
Maddon is going to have to pit several teams against one another to drive his salary up. Old Joe is going to have to move fast and feign interest in several jobs while they are still unoccupied. Get yours Joe.
This only makes sense if they believe Maddon is coming. Eppler is a lame-duck GM; one year remaining on his deal. THere’s ZERO chance Arte would let him hire a Manager unless Arte knows (and likes) who that Manager is….
This brings up the question of how much will Arte Moreno open up the purse strings in order to acquire the pitching talent needed to compete?
The team is not firing Ausmus out of a desire to tank and the current pitching staff is not capable of competing with the Astros in the West and the better staffs in the AL.
The Angels core on offense is good. Trout, Simmons, Ohtani, Upton, Fletcher, Goodwin, Pujols. Only minor additions are needed. Cozart will return in 2020 but he has been entirely ineffective on offense for the Angels. Bour is arb eligible for the 3rd and final time, but a non tender candidate.
If they do not pick up Calhoun’s option, the Angels will have $182 million on the books for 2020. $26 million below the CBT tax threshold. Is that enough to sign Cole?
Joe Maddon to Anaheim
When does TMZ and ESPN do a report live from Trouts house with Maddons R.V parked in the driveway ?
The only thing attractive about the Angels job is managing Trout. That’s it! The payroll;; is bloated,, the farm system is bare and the fan base is weak.
If he went to SD, he would managing a up and coming team. Ownership is committed to winning and he would run the show. Plus San Diego is a better town. Angel fans are going to get stuck with a 3rd tier manager and continue to pile more manure around Mike Trout.
To Ray Espinoza
The fan base is weak—3 MILLION .fans
The farm system Was bare.
The payroll is bloated,–So are the other 29 teams
Have they contacted you about an interview?
Exactly. 3 million for the 17th straight year. Always top 3 in AL. And for those wondering about Cole coming to the Angels, he said in an interview that Anaheim is his favorite park to pitch in. He grew up going to games there and his parents can watch him pitch there.
Maddon makes way more sense in San Diego, then all of the young star power can make him look much better than he actually is tactician-wise like he had in his first couple of years in Chicago. Sign him to a two year deal with an option for a third, then dump him before he gets exposed again.
As Brad so often said, “That’s Baseball!”.
Ausmus was a bad pick from the beginning. Do little with a great club in Detroit. Now Eppler should be the next to go. Bad decisions made daily by him.
Name a bad decision made by Eppler today, or yesterday, or this season.
1)Trevor Cahill
2)Matt Harvey
3)Cody Allen
4)Justin Bour
5)Max Stassi
There’s 5 for ya.
You talk as though Eppler had all the money he needed at his disposal and chose to make those acquisitions with it. Those were decisions based on an owner who won’t give the GM the money he needs to build a solid rotation. They were reasonable risks with no long term commitment that didn’t work out, which I believe were good decisions considering the circumstances. Cahill, Harvey, Allen, and probably Calhoun all come off the books this winter. That will free up a lot of money. Let’s see what Eppler does with it.
Don’t be mistaken, Eppler had money to spend. It is just that he and his team had established their price to pay for certain pitchers. The Nats, for example, went the extra year on Corbin to secure his deal.
But the Angels also swung and missed on Eovaldi and Happ. How different would the season have been if there was a 4 year deal for Eovaldi, and he flamed out every bit as disappointingly as Harvey—only, with 3 more years of the deal? Eovaldi in 2019 cost almost as much as Harvey AND Cahill, and will also each of the next three seasons.
The odds of both Harvey and Cahill failing were low—one or the other signing should have paid off—but of course neither was a success. But those signings were the result of losing out on Eovaldi and Happ, either of whom would have been a more expensive, long-term fail than either Harvey or Cahill. The fact that they were 1-year deals helped the team.
Likewise, the team had a value in mind for Keuchel which wasn’t shared by the player, so he wasn’t signed, either. But that wasn’t because Moreno didn’t allow spending, it was because the analysis by the front office dictated what the max price would be.
Bahahaha are you SERIOUS? That was easy
Trout the Earring on the Pig! Good Luck!
The Angels must want Maddon pretty bad.