It looks like the "Fire Scioscia" crowd is going to have to put down their torches and pitchforks for awhile. Angels owner Arte Moreno broke his silence earlier today via comments to Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com and made it very clear that he has no plans to fire Mike Scioscia amidst the Halos current struggles.
Moreno spoke to FOXSports.com outside Major League Baseball’s headquarters in New York, where he is attending this week’s owners’ meetings. He said the chances of an in-season managerial change are “right now, zero.”
“Mike has zero problems, OK?” Moreno said. “This is his 14th year. Mike goes beyond what he does on the field. He’s a good person. He’s a good person in the community, a very good baseball guy. You don’t have to ask me. You just ask other managers, other baseball people.
“Look at 14 years’ worth of productivity. Look at his record. He has two World Series rings with the Dodgers. He has one with the Angels. We’ve been to the playoffs.”
According to Moreno, not only is Scioscia safe, but he claims that he and GM Jerry Dipoto haven't even discussed the topic or anything that pertains to major structural changes within the organization. He also went on to back the Josh Hamilton signing and generally suggest that he is nowhere near panicky or angry.
As much as certain trolls at the LA Times might want you to believe that there is this angry, rampaging version of Moreno who has been stomping around with steam coming out of his ears, Arte comes off quite the opposite here. He is definitely defensive of Scioscia, but not in a belligerent way. It is almost like he is a smart, savvy, level-headed business man who has made over a billion dollars in his lifetime and knows that rash, emotional decisions are almost always bad decisions.
The only chink in his armor here is that he used the phrase “right now, zero.” As definitive as his statements were, he definitely left himself an out to move on from Scioscia down the line. To me, that suggests it is something that he would consider after the season, but certainly not anytime soon.
So, there you have it. Scioscialism is here to stay for at least a few more months. We can all shut up about it until at least August now. Thanks, I appreciate it.
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