The Angels are making a change at scouting director, as Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register reports that Matt Swanson has lost his job after five-plus years with the team. Swanson’s replacement has yet to be named.
Originally hired in August 2016 by former Angels GM Billy Eppler, Swanson was tasked with rebuilding a minor league pipeline that was almost completely bereft of premium talent. (In February 2016, Keith Law described the Angels’ collection of minor leaguers as “by far the worst system I’ve ever seen” in what was then Law’s eighth year of ranking the farm systems of all 30 teams.) While there may have been basically nowhere to go but up, the Angels did upgrade their prospect depth through five years of Swanson’s drafts, highlighted by such names as Jo Adell, and current MLB.com top-100 prospects Reid Detmers and Sam Bachman.
Overall, however, Los Angeles has to get much improvement from its farm system. Law’s preseason organization ranking from this year placed the Angels 23rd, and Baseball America’s midseason organizational ranking slotted them 25th (though Adell, Detmers, and Brandon Marsh all moving to the majors lowered the ranking). To date, the Angels have had nine players from the 2017-21 drafts appear on the big league roster, though that low number isn’t necessarily unusual considering how recent these drafts were, how long it usually takes even blue-chip prospects to hone their skills for the majors, and the pandemic’s impact on the last two minor league seasons.
Given all these factors, it is perhaps unfair to point the finger squarely at Swanson for the Angels’ lack of young impact players in recent years (and, the highly-touted Adell could certainly still blossom). It could be that general manager Perry Minasian wants his own hire in place as scouting director, or it might stem from an overall change in direction in how the organization has been drafting. As Law noted in his 2021 organizational rankings, “if we were just ranking systems by tools…the Angels would be in the top half, maybe the top 10. They love athletes, targeting them in the draft and on the international market, but developing those guys when their baseball skill level starts out low is a huge challenge for any organization.”
The 39-year-old Swanson is himself a former player, who pitched in the Pirates’ farm system from 2005-07 before joining the Cardinals as a scout and crosschecker for the Midwest region from 2008-16.
who is firing these people? if it is either moreno or minasian, they, themselves, damaged the team more than anyone!
This is correct
Sadly can’t fire an owner though, and the most recently GM into the revolving door hasn’t been here long enough to have reached scapegoat status as of yet.
Perry Minasian has only been here a year.
in one offseason, he bungled signing and trading for pitchers worthy to be in a team other than iglesias. and he hasn’t done anything to replace team’s physical training staffs which are known to be the culprit of so many pitcher injuries. this is, obviously, arte’s team but he should have improved the team where he could.
what’s more, since trout and ohtani both talked about the team needing to be in postseason, minasian has to sign a top f/a starting pitcher and bullpen. a tall order since so many other teams are in it to improve both areas considering what he has shown as a talent evaluator last offseason.
he brought in Iglesias and Cobb (who pitched pretty well).. Bullpens are always random, but again he has not even been here a year. Wait until next offseason and see what happens.
This off-season he has $50 million to spend. That’s if the payroll stays the same as last year. He already fired bad coaches. I agree he has to get rid of most of the training staff. He also added many FO positions that we didn’t have. He has a ton of work to do still.
@visionaire: perry has been the gm one whole season, chill. He inherited 4 massive contracts in trout, rendon, upton and puljos. When your payroll has that many guys taking up most of the space you can only do with what you have to work with. The angels have had horrible pitching for years. Also can’t rebuild a farm system in a season. This all goes without saying the simple fact of most teams had no idea what to expect with this season and covid, most teams cut payroll before the season not knowing how this one would even go. Your putting way too much blame on the guy who walked into this mess.
Agree with Bravesiowafan. Vizionaire is missing the big picture: Perry’s short- and long-term plans. #1: everyone he picked up in trade last off-season was on an expiring contract. That was on purpose and clearly part of a strategic plan. Give Perry some time.
He won’t be able to this off-season. Have you seen the guys available after Scherzer? Angels won’t be able to sign their way out of bad pitching. They need to develop their own, they haven’t, which is why they fired Swanson
From the look of the Astros in the playoffs and the departures of Verlander, Correa, and pitching coach Brett Storm (this year or next), they appear to be at a tipping point. Greinke and Brantley are aging. Dusty is an odd fit to be managing a team so reliant on analytics – he’s no AJ Hinch in adding value to the process….but he did right the ship for a few years,
Add in that the A’s have reached the point in their 5-6 year cycle whereby their veteran players are up for large contracts that they can’t afford to pay – so it’s rebuild time again; and the Rangers seem to be in an endless rebuild.
This will open the door for the Mariners and Angels in the AL West over the next few years.
I know little about Perry Minasianm but a lot about Artie Moreno. Artie needs to stay out of it and away from giving a good percentage of the budget to veterans such as Anthony Rendon. The Angels need to get some young talent on that roster ASAP, and their coaching staff needs to develop those players at the ML level. They need to stay away from the Yankees – Mets – Cardinals – Padres way of doing business – i.e. overpaying name FA’s and trading a package of youngsters for name players whose teams are dumping their salaries. They may win the offseason and sell tickets for the next year, but IF they make the playoffs they won’t get anywhere. The Angels need a roster with players whose arrow is pointing up, not down.
hes backkkkkk!
I blame Dipoto he sucked in LAA or whatever they are this year and has done the same in Seattle. For those that don’t know the Mariners are the team that plays in Seattle. Look at the damage he has done in Seattle.
Seems Dipoto has done great when he doesn’t have an owner looking over his shoulder and making the decisions for him. Didn’t Arte sign Pujlso behind the GMs back? I seem to remember something like that. Anyway the Angels are not close to talent the Mariners have. If Ohtania would have made the smart move he would have probably been in the playoffs this year and definitely next year. Can you Angel fans truly make that call? The answer to help you out is no because you have him and we’re not close to the playoffs. Next year will be the same. You forecast the demise of the Astros that is so you can think you might be the second best team in the ALW. I don’t see that coming anytime soon.
The only damage that JD has done is give the final piece to the Astros needed to make the WS. He gave up Graveman for nothing. Dipoto is the perfect GM for the Mariners. They never been to the WS and never will with Dipoto at the helm. The give up more runs than they score. They are not as good as you think they are. I know sometimes its better to be lucky than good, but luck only get you as far as the Mariners.
“Anyway the Angels are not close to talent the Mariners have.” LOL. The Angels have Mike Trout, Rendon, and Ohtani. The Ms have who? Bad lineup, bad starting rotation, and good bullpen. Good luck on hanging your hat on that moving forward. The Ms have had some of the greatest players in history, Griffy, A-Rod, Edgar Martinez, and Randy Johnson and never did anything. You think this current team of nobodies is going to do something? Their only contribution will be being a farm system.
The Mariners still haven’t been to the playoffs in 20 years. Dipoto has been with the team for 6 years and still hasn’t made the playoffs so hard to say he has the poster child for brilliant rebuilding GMs.
You poor CA fans. Really you need to bring those hats back. We were a couple games from the WC game. Our pitching will get a couple new faces from the minors and or FA signing.
You have had Trout how many years and went to the playoffs was it once off the top of my head? You have had him and Ohtania how many years and sniffed a WC birth 0 times. Then Rendon what has he done but cost a ton of money.
I have said numerous times why we have sucked for so long. New ownership and FO whole new attitude. This owner has said if we need a piece to make a strong run we will get it. So the race to the playoffs we will beat you no doubt about it.
Man you guys are salty about Dipoto. Always on our posts putting him down. Our last 2 GMs were worse. Bavasi trading Adam Jones for a P that was never healthy for Balt and never healthy here. I also believe he brought in Zisk and a couple other one year wonders and paid them way too much. Drawing a blank on Z but he should have been gone way before he was.
Dipoto is not one of my favorites, but he did well dispatching Cano, and the Graveman trade will most likely work in his favor as well. In Toro, he has a solid 3B to replace Seager, a player with the chance to grow into his power (he will be 25 next year), while utilizing other bullpen options for closer.
Graveman, on the other hand, will be 31 and a free agent. Since the Mariners’ plan for 2021 wasn’t to be in the race, Dipoto worked his plan, instead of throwing caution to the wind and blowing it up for the unlikely chance at the postseason and success beyond a WC game.
Also, before he got pissed and left the Angels, he did set them up with a rotation of Richards, Heaney, Skaggs, and Shoemaker. Granted, each of them was an episode of General Hospital, but that is being ridiculously unlucky to have all of them go out for extended periods. He did the work to build a cheap, young, talented core for the SP, which is how it is done today.
It’s fine put all your faith in Dipoto. Bet your house on him. He makes the dumbest trades. He traded Mike Clevinger for Vinnie Pestano. He has no clue when it come to evaluating talent. The Angels were the worst farm system in the league when Dipoto left. We were perennial division winners before he got here. Eventually, you will see the only Mariners making the WS are players he trades away for nothing like Graveman.
Again, I have my complaints about Dipoto, but the Clevenger example is the laziest of tropes. Clevenger in the Angels organization was nothing special (he was 23-yo low-A at the time of the trade Aug 2014), and Pestano was a pitcher who could help the team in the moment.
It wasn’t until 3 seasons after the trade that Clevenger blossomed, which is due to the tremendous pitching development program Cleveland has had for years. There is no indication the Angels’ minors program would have had that same ability to unlock Clevenger’s talents.
How is it Minasian’s fault? He wants to bring in his own guys and run things his way, not Eppler’s way. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
Hopefully, Swanson will go back to making frozen dinners, loved those hungry man selections
HUH? Minnassian hasn’t even been with the organization a year. He needed time to evaluate all the personnel and the prospect talent pool. He is now settled and bringing in the rest of his people. The Angels drafting has been atrocious, and it is largely responsible for where they are right now. Minnassian knows talent and he’s bringing in someone who is respected– guaranteed.
if minasian really knows talent why did he bring in so many un-talented players even if he had enough money to aquire better players? arte moreno signs gm’s because they won’t oppose moves he makes not because they are baseball smart. if he wanted smart ones he would have picked the ones in the rays!
it was pretty smart to bring in guys that were all on one year deals and evaluate the current roster. What should they have done differently? Signed guys to long term deals that maybe would have helped us get to ,500?
Minasian is an AA disciple, and has been part of some good organizations that have developed good players. Lets give him more than 11 months before we evaluate him.
Do you follow the team? Their payroll restraints? They only had one pitcher as a holdover in the bullpen and their ace pitcher was Dylan Bundy? They also needed a shortstop and catcher and a right fielder, plus bench players. Take a look at the transactions and Minnassian’s draft and the man had impressive first season. Look further down I list all his deals.
angels ranked 24th in bullpen era rankings. other stat rankings are right around there. and that is the bullpen perry built he hasn’t proven his worth other than being arte’s dog.
Because the pen was horrible at allowing inherited runners to score, it was worse than that.
Yay
Tough business and way to make a living. Baseball opps employees must fear every approaching October.
It would be nice if we could develop a system that would see issues in players and fix them as Dodger and Giants seem to do. Put some dollars in the value of the behind the scenes people.
Y’all need a GM like Jerry Dipoto to help you build an organization from the ground up. Oops!
Jerry Dipoto had his chance and ruined the farm.
Agreed. It wasn’t the signings that were his fault but he never developed or drafted well. He’s done a much better job in Seattle.
Arte is obviously the real cancer so any GM that takes the job is going their work cut out for them.
I don’t know about ruining the farm since he was hamstrung by the owner signing players like Hamilton and Pujols costing the team their 1st round picks. A likely directive by said owner to win at any costs which meant trading away pieces of their farm. You either rebuild or try to be competitive, it is nearly impossible to do both.
DiPoto was a total disaster he blew $8 million Signing some kid from Cuba out of the Dominican Roberto Baldoquin Blew all our international money on one player that never made it We were strapped for years no international money left
DiPoto is Monty Hall of baseball A game show Host that was on TV
let’s make a deal
Yep. He could have signed Vladdy Jr but signed Boldoquin
That would of been pretty amazing since VG Jr was signed after DiPoto was fired by the Angels. And at the time I do not believe signing players out of Cuba counted against the international pool $.
baseballamerica.com/stories/2015-international-spe…
and that was done intentionally to hurt the team because arte sided with scoscia. a totally irresponsible and corrupt person!
LOL.. Sure that would be career suicide to sabotage a team because of hurt feelings. You don’t actually believe what you post do you?
@marinersblue96 The money spent on Baldoquin was certainly counted as International money. The Angels were penalized for 2 years after signing Baldoquin. They were limited to $350k signings. One of the years they were penalized was the year Vlad jr, Tatis Jr, and Juan Soto were signed, so they pretty much missed out on any chance of signing them because of Dipoto.
Maybe the Angels might have signed Vladito, Soto, etc. Maybe not. It is one of those sliding doors things fans love to fantasize about.
What is not debatable is that Baldoquin was an unbelievable misread of talent, a comical overpay for the ROI. Dipoto had to know this signing would penalize the Angels for a couple of years, but the excitement in the signing you’d think Baldoquin was the Cuban Mike Trout.
Only Mariner fans can pop off about not making the playoffs for 20-straight years. Yes, DiPoto is a genius. He gave us 10-years of Pujols, then Hamilton, Wilson, and of course all those great drafts that produced our talent filled minor league system. Enjoy 4th place next year as you go for year 21 of no playoffs.
Neither Pujols nor Hamilton were DiPoto signings, he did not want to sign either. That was all Moreno. But M’s are much more likely to make the playoffs than Anaheim of LA of California. How sad is that when the ALAofC has two generational talents on their roster, have fun fighting off the Rangers for the cellar.
Oh STFU with the Jerry Dipoto led fantasies he wasn’t involved. The camera mugging egomaniac had a feature story done on his pursuit of Albert Pujols and all the cloak and dagger stuff he did with his agent including using freight elevators to avoid other teams being tipped off.. His face and the story was all over ESPN the Mag with him patting himself on the back for being so clever. He went into great detail how the final piece was to bring in Arte to close the deal.. It wasn’t until his BS started to backfire all over that it suddenly became “Arte did it”. Jerry Dipoto personally set the Angels back 10 years.. It’s great he’s not been a train wreck in Seattle but, no amount of revisionist history and finger pointing to save face will change that. Likewise CJ Wilson (Who was also a big part of that feature story). The guy was handed Skaggs and Adam Eaton for a hitter he made redundant and being the super genius he was, he sent him to Chicago for a LHP who couldnt find the plater. He could have solved the LF hole that had existed since GA went poof… That would have made it so there had never been a Hamilton deal but nope — the smartest guy in the room pinned his hopes on Hector Santiago instead.. I do believe Arte drove the Hamilton thing… But, AP, the utter failure to draft well, the ridiculous 16 mil they blew on Baldoquin and then the two years of purgatory are on him..
Are you high? He was the GM proudly signing and smiling. He certainly didn’t pushback against Moreno. It was on his watch. What is sad is you thinking a team that finished out of the money yet again, and whose metrics show they finished with a negative run differential is going to magically jump up and win.
He has said multiple times he that the signing of both Hamilton and Pujos were done against his wishes and that Moreno and his legal team were the ones who hashed out the contract details.
And that team with the negative run differential actually did jump up and win to the tune of 90-72. They also have the #2 farm in MLB and over $50 million to spend on FA next season So yeah they are much better positioned to win next year and the next 5 years than ALAofC.
that dog will say anything to get by.
CA Hevia you are completely delusional.. What is he supposed to do when the owner goes and signs two players he did not want to sign. This has been reported multiple times by numerous outlets. Moreno wanted the shiny new toy regardless of what any GM told him. He tried to bring in analytics to ALAof C but any and all attempts were blown off by Mike Scioscia and Moreno sided with the manager not the GM.
All he has done in Seattle is trade away the bad contracts and built the #2 farm in MLB. Has be had bad trades? Of course, Chris Taylor and Freddy Peralta being prime examples. But he has many more hits than misses.
And how did he build that farm system? signing high upside relatively cheap international prospect position players and drafting college arms for their top picks exactly the opposite of what he did in Anaheim trading away young pitching and prospects for aging vets… Freddy peralta is a pretty good pitcher huh nester Cortez has done well Pablo Lopez as well and that guy Chris Taylor is pretty clutch. You guys would’ve already been in the playoffs if he didn’t trade those young controllable pitchers. You Mariners fans act like he is the messiah when he’s a gambler.
I’m not delusioinal, I’m better informed. The article in ESPN the Mag was up for years. He was center stage taken credit for all of it right up until it went sideways..
All you’re doing is repeating the JD talking points like a good little shill. Dude was famous for “leaking” things to the press while he was in Anaheim, something even the local beat writers have admitted to. Something that never used to happen prior to his arrival or after his departure. But every one of those stories was the same.
Look, you’re happy with him. Good for you, but you know absolutely nothing about what happened in Anaheim and your ignorance of the AP signing is proof of that.
Ms fans have been talking crap for years. But my favorite baseball dig of all time was “116 wins, so what!”
Seattle hasn’t been to the playoffs in a few years but I bet they get there years before the Angels do. You might even make a run for 21 years. Seattle bad managed one of the best players ever and also one of the best Japanese players. The owner only cared that it made money because Nintendo was struggling. The GMs they hired has made Jerry look like the best GM in the game. Might not be but has done a lot more good then bad. I also don’t understand how you can blame Arte for most of the bad moves other GMs have made then blame Dipoto for moves made. Ohtanai should have been smart and signed in Seattle.
You guys would’ve already been in the playoffs if that gambler wouldn’t have traded peralta,Lopez,and Cortes that’s not even counting the Tyler O’Neill trade even though you did get Marco and Chris Taylor trade that’s a ton of talent traded away for aging vets that’s the typical Dipoto way lmaooo
Let’s take a look at the players you cherry picked to make your weak point.
Peralta had played one year of rookie ball and was not even on the top 100 list. He developed into a better player. Really tough to use a guy that young as a neg trading wise.
Lopez was a head scratcher to be sure. That was around when I finally started to watch the minor league players.
Cortes was not traded he was outrighted after coming off the IL (need to use the PC acceptable words to not upset disabled people which I happen to be) I would imagine it was a gamble to get him off the 40 man roster so he could go to the minors and work his way back. He had enough time and elected FA so not a trade a gamble for a guy coming back from an injury.
Tyler O’Neill was stupid I can’t even defend that. I would rather have him over Marco. Really not a huge Marco fan he will not be the #1 starter this year I would imagine.
Taylor was doing nothing here. He played all the positions and was decent his BA was .240. The trade was hardly a blip on the Dodgers radar.
So you cherry pick a few transactions because they were not trades and forget about the good ones. Dipoto’s first 3 years was to get the team to the playoffs and he was close. Then the team was finally sold and he and the new owner decided to reimagine the team. He built a bad minor league system into a top 5 system after his first year doing it. That seems to me to be pretty successful.
You Angel fans can’t or won’t listen to logic. He might have been bad there but how much was the owner and even Scocia messing with him and doing stuff behind his back. We will never know the truth. Here it is obvious he has done a great job rebuilding the team. You guys can’t all be serious or truthful if you think with the talent he has put together the team will still be avg. You guys have many more holes to fill and a ton of money tied up in 3 great players but that isn’t enough. How much more will Arte spend this off season? How big will he let the salary be? I guess we will find out and we will still make the playoffs before you.
Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan. Of course he is distancing himself from either of those deals, but you can bet if Pujols had helped lead the team to the postseason after Dipoto left he would be taking credit for that deal.
we love perry minasian – H
come and get him!
This move had to be made. Where are the successes from drafting? Where are the lower picks blossoming? I don’t know how much was Swanson or was the direction Eppler wanted to go, but this system is in the bottom 10– and that is not good. Minnassian knows talent and he’s going to bring in someone who does as well. 20 picks and all taken were pitchers– with 19 of them being college players was at Minnassian’s direction.
Right because spending 8 million on Roberto Baldoquin was so great for our organization wow instead of possibly signing Juan Soto, Vlad Jr, Fernando Tatis in 2015 and Yordan Alvarez, Randy Arozarena in 2016 we sure dodged a bullet on those busts. Wow Dipoto makes the best moves signing Blanton was genius, trading grichuk for freese that sure helped our outfield depth and didn’t leave a whole in left for years. Same as the segura trade lmao. No doubt some of those bigger signings were a crutch on dipoto but he made his own bad choices that crushed the angels in the long term. I’ll give him some credit for drafting Walsh and Ward but that’s about it.
*hole
Like I posted above Baldoquin did not count against the international pool $. The ALAofC spent $660k on international signings for 2015. You really need better information, but for your sake a new owner would be the best for ALAofC.
Literally read your article it literally says the angels couldn’t spend more than 300k on a single player in the 2015-2016 signing period because of baldoquin lmao
Theyve been the LA Angels for like 10 years. That joke is less funny than you think it is. Also all the comments are right, JeDi was a gambler and your Mariners run differential was MUCH closer to the Angels than a .500 team. Id tone down the optimism, you guys are far from the thing you think you are.
Further proof you haven’t a clue what he did in Anaheim….. The best part is the arrogant tone in which you are telling others they are wrong despite having the info completely backwards.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Boldoquin just about emptied the Angels ability to spend on minor league players. You made a clueless claim.
Goggle it.
Ummm I think you meant international money not minor league money. Who am I to judge though. Just because players were out there doesn’t mean the Angels had a chance to sign them. Seattle had a chance too I guess and missed out. You cherry pick the best international players out there to use to down talk JD you aren’t the Yankees but are acting like them. You don’t have first right of refusal on every player or think you can trade for any player for peanuts. I wish you would go back to the CA hats those were my favorite especially when you donned them the year after the Ms overtook you in the last couple weeks of the season to win the ALW. Choke Artist was a good look on you. Bring em back.
Where are you getting your information? The $8million at the time crippled them moving forward to sign any other international players– they blew their wad on Balaoquin– and he was horrible. What were the good moves that DiPoto made with the Angels? The great draft picks, the great trades, international signings? There weren’t any. He was in charge. And the conflict was that Scioscia didn’t like who they were signing and trading for and drafting. Moreno sided with Scioscia over DiPoto.
Halo fan said right above my post it crippled the team signing minor league players. They couldn’t sign any big name international players had zip to do with minor league players. Reading is fundamental. Go ahead say something about my wife again.
I think it’s more than reasonable to not judge Perry based on one bad off-season, but he did have a bad off-season.
He did not have a bad off-season. Your insistence is dumbfounding. He got rid of Pujols and allowed Walsh to play full-time and become an all-star– that took baseBALLS. He stole Iglesias away from Cincy as a premium closer. He signed Gosselin who was a very successful as our utility man and who will be our utility guy moving forward. He cemented Fletcher at second where he should be. He kept Adell in the minors where he belonged. He got Watson and Cishek for literally nothing. He brought in support personnel and orchestrated a draft where he selected 20 pitchers, 19 of which were college arms. Bachman turned out to be the enlightened choice over Rocker. Is it really your position that signing Suzuki to backup, and trading for Iglesias at shortstop did not come out of necessity and availability? The man was working under severe payroll restrictions and was trying to fill holes all over the place. He started with only one bullpen arm (Mayer), the rest were let go– that’s how bad they were. The Angels were not in position to offer the right money to free agent starting pitchers, or major relievers, so he took a chance on Quintana and that didn’t work out– so what? Bundy wasn’t his acquisition. And he is directly responsible for allowing Ohtani to play everyday, a choice Epller did not agree with. And because of that choice Ohtani will be MVP. Also important is that he allowed so many young arms to pitch consistent innings and develop– the young arms evolved dramatically this year under Minnassian. That is very big moving forward for depth. He also made some nice trades dumping Heaney for Junk and another arm, and he added two potential solid bullpen arms for Watson. This team was going absolutely nowhere fast, so I don’t know what you expected from the man? There is not a single team that has all its moves workout. This year Minnassian has much more flexibility and is much more familiar with the personnel.
@carl Completely agree. Arte open up his tiny coin purse and gave Perry 2 shiny nickels to work with. A lot of people blame Perry for this year, but I don’t see how you can blame him. Injuries had more to do with the failed season more than anything. Trout, Rendon, Upton, and Pujols were missing from the lineup for most of the year. That is 2/3rds or $120+ million missing from the payroll. Basically, the Angels have $180M payroll, but only a roster of less than $60M They are basically the same as Orioles/Pirates at that point. The Angels do not have a deep/strong farm system to support such missing pieces, which can hardly be blamed on Perry at this point.
Perry’s best moves were Raisel Iglesias and Cobb. Iglesia’s was one of the better closers in the game. Cobb was our 2nd best starters. However, not all of his moves turned out to be gold. He got Dexter Fowler on the cheap which was needed in order to give Marsh / Adell more time in the minors, but he ended up getting injured in the first couple weeks. It wasnt a move that worked out, but it made sense at least. Quintana was also bad, but again working with limited resources. The bullpen was a disaster, but he did trade for Hunter Strickland to try to improve a faltering bullpen, but for whatever reason Strickland did not pitch well for the Angels. He pitched well for the Rays before he got here and also pitched well for the Brewers after he left here. You can’t expect every move to be golden when given only 2 shiny nickels to work with.
This off season he does not have the excuse of limited resources. He walked into a nightmare situation, but this year is the situations GMs dream of. There are plenty of SP And RP options available and he has money to spend. This is the year for Minasian to earn his medal.
Paragraphs are your friend.
“He did not have a bad off-season. Your insistence is dumbfounding. He got rid of Pujols and allowed Walsh to play full-time and become an all-star”
He did that during the off-season? Maybe that’s your problem, you don’t know off-season from in-season.
And by they way, the Angels could not convince Pujols to be a part time player..
Walsh against LH pitchers 170, 208, 357
I don’t blame anyone for not being able to convince Pujols to be a platoon firstbaseman, but you are delusional if you think we were a better team because we couldn’t.
Dude, the Angels make the playoffs if you take 60% of Trout, Rendon, Sando WAR they lost from being injured. Its not even some weird arguement. We started taylor ward of mike Trout and Jack Mayfield over Anthony Rendon
I like eight of the starting nine. What’s more, these players are the kind of people fans should be rooting for.
The starting rotation has an interesting mix with some talent.
The bullpen is pathetic with very little talent.
What kind of logic is this? You’re going to cherry pick a negative stat on Walsh to prove what? Was he or was he not an All-Star? His .277 BA, .340 OB, and 29HR and his 98 RBI and much better defense, and many more runs scored wasn’t light years better than Pujols?
Pujols hit .236 with a .284OB. Walsh was among the best hitting first basemen in the game. And he was hitting in a lineup where they were pitching around him the entire second half. You’re right, not great numbers against lefties, but Pujols is bad against both sides of the plate.
Is it really your position that Pujols refused to be part time with the Angels, so he could be part-time for the Dodgers? There was nowhere for him to play with Walsh at first and Ohtani at DH, so he was DFAd– it’s not complicated. And they knew they were headed this way before the season. Come on, man– you’re so wildly off-base. There, i gave you your paragraphs, so maybe that will make it easier for you to understand.
Wow. This is very well put Carllafong.
If only he understood the definition of off-season. The draft took place in the off-season? Who knew?
I wonder if you know the definition of off-season?
Perry had a bad off-season.
You got rid of a bad contract by cutting him. Seattle got rid of a bad contract by bundling it up and trading it. Ours made us better by adding some great talent. Yours maybe helped by subtraction it didn’t improve your team long term.
Explain how? You’re one stubborn guy. If you’re not single you will be soon.
you don’t like him because the bullpen wasn’t good, we know.
and that was the bullpen he assembled. 24th in pen era.
I can typically understand why GMs make certain moves.
Signing Claudio and Guerra, were two of the dumbest moves in recent memory. They were obviously bad moves as soon as he made them.
I have no idea why I took so much flack for being one of the few who could tell they were bad moves. And those that couldn’t tell immediately they were bad moves, don’t know enough about this team that I should care what they think.
They weren’t dumb, they were what was available to him under his budget restraints. You don’t think that Minnassian wanted to go sign some premium guys? Sure, he preferred Claudio and Guerra to the stud arms available. Sober up, dude. He had little choice. Why do you think he signed Watson and Cishek the day before the season started when they were released from their teams? It was the best he could do under the circumstances. And those two players are not the reason another season tanked.
I didn’t like his performance last year because it was imbecilic to build the pen the way he did. Iglesias the shortstop was also a bust, but at least I understood the move.
I love the fact he did not trade Adell or Marsh.
Many people don’t like Adell because of his terrible first year.
We’ll see what each do in the future. But I don’t dislike anyone based on one bad rookie season.
If Perry doesn’t improve, then I wont like him.
Wait.. so you’re saying the Angels had a scouting director?
Not sure if Swanson was great or horrible. I do know he had a much smaller scouting department than most teams so he was fighting an uphill battle.
What I want, really, is a cohesive developmental plan and commitment. The Angels have drafted guys like Thaiss then immediately implemented a ton of swing changes. Dude was scouted as the best swing in the draft. Same with Jam Jones. He’d tear up the AFL then be met with a swing change and bad results the following year..
I think the Eppler days of exclusively drafting raw athletes is over, but if every coach wants to tweak a guy’s game we still won’t be able to produce good players.
Logan White please! Give hime whatever he wants and put him in charge.
Angels need to part ways with Arte Moreno, dude is trash. Ruined the team and refuses to take any personal responsibility for it
How do you part ways with the owner? Maybe catch him in bed with a transgender prostitute and having him make gay and racial comments and jokes?
Seattle had a bad owner for many years after being a good one. Then when he died the team went to the US Nintendo Co. You all of course know Mather he was one of the building blocks of those real bad years. Also the hiring of some of the worst GMs in MLB history.
I have said this before but in those years the team was run like a business. One guy joked about the 116 wins and out of the playoffs. Lou knew he needed another good starter but the guys in charge said no. It was better to know for sure they would turn a profit than take a chance and not lose money. That is the reason Lou left. The fun thing with owners is you ride them out and hope that the next one is better.
Halo fan you have quit the big opinion of yourself. If you know more than the GMs you should get the job. If you see people failing before they play an inning you would be a great asset to the team. You can use me as a reference when you apply.
The way owners part ways with teams is usually through selling the team, or if they pass away. Compassrose you seem so wise and have such a good perspective on life I thought you’d know something as simple as how teams part ways with owners. Pity.
As for the GM position, no need for your reference. I’m getting hired next week
Swenson, Swanson….SAMSONITE! I was way off!!!
Like so many have alluded to… Its not the scouting director, third base coach, bullpen coach, GM, video replay guy, bat boy, score board dudes fault this team is in such a bad spot. All the failures of this franchise go back to Moreno. Its honestly impressive how he somehow got Trout to sign a lifetime deal and Ohtani to come here in the first place. As a fan I am sad this franchise let them down so horrendously. Arte needs to own up to his mistakes and invest in the franchise (the actual development of players) or sell it.
I know he won’t sell any time soon cause of how much he is making off the team so I am stuck rooting for a team that has the best player in baseball end up with a .480 winning percentage every year. Cheers to my other fans out there who just feel numb about this team now.
Right on!
Artie needs to sack up and be a man, owning up to his mistakes ( contracts ) and increase payroll to 200 million plus! Their payroll ceiling has remained the same for years while the payroll tax threshold has increased. If we did not have so much dead weight I would be fine keeping the same budget but for years it has been an anchor keeping the team down.
Minasian is credited with building Atlanta’s pitching staff, specifically the BP. Atlanta is now reeping the benefits by showing up the Dodgers in the NLCS. I believe Minasian knows what to do and if Moreno lets him do his job, we will have what we need to compete in 2022.
In ’22, I believe the Angels will continue to transition to a BP made primarily of cost controlled, home grown/recently acquired arms.
Assuming Bachman starts the season as a SP in AA, but makes his MLB debut in the BP, by mid-season, I can see a BP that includes some combination of Mayer, Rodriguez, Warren, Bachman, Barria, Quijada and Marte. Yan or Pina could be converted to RP and wind up in the BP, as well.
This will not be a popular opinion, but I just don’t see the Angels paying up for a FA closer and a high leverage guy given the top heavy payroll and recent emphasis on acquiring arms.
ANLW – I believe Minasian will try to do what he did in Atlanta to build a pitching staff here. If it plays out like you say, it will be Moreno driving it by not allowing Minasian to spend money on pitching. I can hear Moreno saying words to the effect of, “You drafted 20 pitchers. Find a pitching staff among them.” Then he will pay too much and too long for a short stop.
I’m not really sure how you guys here know what Moreno is saying. Moreno has tried to spend big on pitching and gets out bid. As far as relief pitching, I have no idea what his thoughts are. But it could not have possibly been his idea to sign Claudio and Guerra so early in the off-season.
Alex Anthopoulos in ATL appears make his big moves early in the off-season. I’m anxious to see if Perry attempts to do the same now that he runs his own shop. And by big, early moves, I’m not suggesting Guerra or Claudio type signings.
I don’t believe they actually do try to sign pitching like that, you’re just giving the talking points they feed fans
Sure they always claim they are in on the very pinnacle pitching names, but then say they got outbid so they signed some fielder to a huge multi year contract instead. If they were truly trying to fix the pitching problem and failed on their top target, they should end up with secondary option targets instead. Who are those second targets? It’s always some named reclamation project on a 1 year deal, a collection of waiver wire claims, and cheapo trade options. Everything is always bargain bin options and a fingers crossed we got someone useful gameplan
This years Mets make a good example here, they were after the very top targets and ended up eventually giving multi year deals to Walker & May when the first options went elsewhere. But do we need to go back to guys like CJ Wilson and Houston Street to find the last multi year contracts given to a FA pitcher by Angels?
If it’s approaching 10 years since you’ve given any Free Agent pitcher a multi year deal, have you really, truly been trying to get pitching?
I don’t recite talking points. But sure, it’s possible they do what the Cardinals did with Albert Pujols and trail the negations every inch of the way and then claim they tried to sign him, but I don’t think so. That would make the Angels smarter than the Cardinals because it’s much much less obvious.
Moreno seems to actually try to sign pitching.
I’m not a fan of signing SPs to long term, high dollar contracts coming off career years. For example, I did not encourage the Angels to sign Cole to the contract he received from the Yankees. Before his issues, I would have signed Bauer at 2/80 (glad we didn’t).
Regarding this years crop of FA SPs, even on short deals, I would steer clear of Scherzer, Verlander and Grienke for various reasons. All will get paid, but the risk/reward is skewed in the wrong direction for me. I would look to Gausman, Ray or Stroman on the shortest contract possible (Im sure Im forgetting someone). Alas, they will all return to their current team or get 4+ years and more money than I would be willing to offer.
You claim they try to sign pitchers
The evidence that they’ve tried to address the nearly decades long pitching problem by trying to sign pitchers? …that’s what they’ve told us they tried to do
Every other team that says their goal is to get pitchers actually end up with at least some kind of pitcher on a 2 or more year deal. The Angels though? Well yearly they tell us they’re going to do that, claim they went after one big name, then quickly sign another multi million, multi year deal to another new fielder while not bothering to come away with any pitcher above scrapheap availability
Over and over, every single year, same exact thing
According to this site, the last Starting Pitcher the Angels signed to a 2+ year deal was Joe Blanton in Dec 2012. And I do believe Street is the last reliever back in 2014. That’s the only results of the Angels supposedly “trying to sign pitchers” every year
So either they continually have the worst contract negotiators in the game, or they aren’t actually trying to sign pitching like they claim. The continuous lack of any results at all screams what they say they’re doing isn’t actually what they’re doing
Actually dawned on me …we traded for Street, not signed him. So he’s not even the last Free Agent RP on a 2+ deal
Removing him might then make the 2012 deal to Blanton the last 2+ year contract we’ve given to any FA pitcher of any role
I keep writing…….
MLB teams have to develop players at the ML level if they are to be sustainable contenders for a number of years. And of those players, Pitchers ae the most important.
Look at the teardown / dump rebuilds of the Astros and Cubs. Both won WS. To sustain winning the Cubs traded their quality prospects for highly paid veterans; spent big money of FA’s coming off of good years, and were forever paying for pitching and firing pitching coaches (same thing Theo did in Boston). The Astros – the team that was winning first – developed their pitchers. They traded for former star Pitchers in Verlander and Cole that were getting worse by the year and looked like their next stop might be set-up relief pitching. The Astros quickly revamped their individual games, gave them a direction and worked with them. Both turned back into aces as good and better than they’d ever been.
The Astros are contenders for a WS in 2021 with their payroll currently under control (although some large salaries are going to have to go in the near future). The Cubs have been garbage for years, and Epstein resigned to baste in the image that he’s a master FO guy – and the sheep move the narrative that the Cubs problem is that the owner didn’t continue to give him more payroll money to waste.
The Angels GM has to work with others to totally revamp the way they teach and coach pitching. No team buys or trades for a quality pitching staff that works for long……if ever. Look at the pitching staff the Padres had on paper going into 2021.
P.S.
And a team must have at least 2 (and maybe 3) Catchers that work with the staff, call a game, and block balls in the dirt. It doesn’t matter if they hit .o35 with an .041 and no power.
No team wins in MLB without a deep pitching staff. And those Pitchers need Catchers that are with them on every pitch.
Samuel, I agree. Teams need to scout, draft and develop cost controllable talent to sustain long term success… especially pitching. I think the Angels finally figured this out albeit a few years after many of their fans.
As a side note, it also takes a 40 man roster to survive a 162 game season and long playoff run.
I would love to see the angels land either Gausman or Ray. I personally like Gausman better (under the assumption that Ray is about to get PAID). People don’t realize how much more competitive this team would be with just one more competent SP
11 – I don’t know what Moreno is saying. I was being speculative.
We haven’t had a decent pitching staff in a decade with a few individual exceptions. Moreno is the only constant over that time so it’s reasonable to deduce he is the reason why our pitching still stinks today. I don’t fall for the mantra “we were in on XXXXX but he wanted to play elsewhere”. And I don’t think we need to spend huge on FA pitchers to make a difference. We continue to sign pitchers looking to bounce back to a once mediocre career. If we sign a few middle tier arms who can keep us in games and a decent defensive SS, we can be in business. We already have the bats.
Totally agree 61. As I said here already and many times before, the “we were in on him but he wanted to play elsewhere” nonsense is old and tired. Moreno has been the only constant over the last ten years of suckage. Based on history, which is the best indicator of future behavior, I believe Moreno prefers the big bat because it has more exciting marketing appeal.
We don’t need a ridiculous FA pitching contract. We need a few middle tier guys who will keep us in games to allow our potent line up to do their part.
The only thing we are consistent at is inconsistency.
I would hope that they pick up pitchers like mad max, Greinke,Gausman,Stroman type pitchers that don’t take away a second round pick like picking up Verlander,Ray,Rodon,Kershaw, or Syndergaard will most likely have attached to them. But i wouldn’t be apposed to getting them if they can’t get any deals done with those pitchers that have already had a qualifying offer.
I would assume that Stroman and Guasman want to stay with their current clubs for the right amount of money. That could definitely change of course but I’m not that sure about Mad Max wanting to stay with his current team.
You should accept the statement that some players will prefer East Coast teams. Having been an Angels fan who lived on the East Coast for many years, there is a perception among fans that West Coast games don’t happen because the weekday games don’t start until 10pm ET and don’t appear in the morning line scores for the newspapers. Some players feel this may hurt their visibility, which relates to endorsement opportunities.
Teams in the East and Central divisions also travel fewer air miles per season, which means more time at home for the player and generally less wear and tear from traveling (I think the Mariners log the most miles per season for any team). Wheeler famously chose the Phillies because (A) they made a big offer, and (B) they are located close to his wife’s family—many players make choices regarding proximity to family. Upton signed his extension with the Angels because it offered him a NTC (which the Tigers deal didn’t have) and that locked him in to playing on SoCal, while his wife and kids are in the PHX metro area.
The popular view of the players is they auction themselves off to the highest bidder, but it is not uncommon for a player to reject a higher offer if the team doesn’t feel like the fit the player wants. The White Sox apparently outbid the Phillies for the ultimate deal Wheeler signed, but when the “losing” bid is still tens of millions of $$$, it is easy to take the second-best bid if everything else is what the player wants.