The October 11th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Angels fire long-time scout in unceremonious fashion, Mathis to play for MLB in exhibition series in Taiwan, Arte Moreno breaks his silence on the organizational changes and much more…
The Story: The Angels fired 68-year old scout Rich Schlenker in a “30-second phone call.”
The Monkey Says: The Great Purge clearly isn’t limited to the top. This is an unceremonious way to treat a guy who has served the Angels for so long, but it isn’t the first time that the Halos have been accused of being somewhat insensitive when it comes to cutting an employee or player loose. The question now is why are the Angels already firing scouts and not just executives? It could be that they want to totally clear the deck for a new GM, even this feels like a bit much to accomplish that, unless they already have someone lined up (which I doubt). In their defense, it is also entirely possible that Schlenker just wasn’t good enough at his job anymore.
The Monkey Says: Geez, Bud Selig, what did Taiwan ever do to you that you would subject them to that kind of torture? I feel like this borders on being a hate crime.
The Story: Arte Moreno might be losing some of his personal wealth.
The Monkey Says: That statement is predicated on him barely being in the Forbes Top 400 richest Americans list the last two years and falling just barely off the list this year. This seems like a pretty flimsy assumption to me. Last year, Moreno was supposedly worth $1 billion. Now, the 400th person on the list is worth $1.05 billion. That means Moreno could still be worth a billion or even a tiny bit more, so I think he is probably doing just fine if he is considered to be a “near-miss” on the list.
The Story: Arte Moreno says he isn’t being impulsive, he is just hoping for change.
The Monkey Says: The most interesting tidbit here is the mention of him being impressed by younger, analytical voices within the organization. I still don’t think they are going to promote from within, but I am starting to re-think my stance on the Angels not being interested in a young, unproven sabermetric-driven GM candidate. Moreno also at one point corrects himself when talking about candidates to make sure he says not just “good baseball man” but “women” too. That obviously seems to be an allusion to Kim Ng. It probably doesn’t mean much other than he is obviously aware of Ng’s status as a viable GM candidate.
The Story: Several Angel bloggers (myself included) attempt to where top free agents will sign this off-season.
The Monkey Says: This is a contest of sorts, so I’m hoping I do well, but history suggets that I will be terrible. Then again, most people are terrible at such predictions. I remember a few years ago, ESPN had former GM (and current moron) Steve Phillips predict which teams each of the top 50 free agents would land and he got almost none of them right.