What a terrible day to be an Angels fan. It has been widely reported that Jerry Dipoto has resigned from his position as General Manager effective immediately amidst the fallout of a power struggle with manager Mike Scioscia. Jerry has packed up his belongings, cleared out his office and peeled out of Anaheim just like that.
There is so much to say about what this means for the Angels going forward. But the truth is this situation is far more about the Angels heading backward than it is them heading in any other direction.
Mike Scioscia is a baseball lifer with an old school approach to both managing and player development. He is as stubborn and set in his ways as anyone in the game of baseball. He has had a respectable amount of success doing what he does the way he does it, and that is without question how he will continue to do things well into the future. He has proven that time and again. Mike isn’t ever changing who he is or what he does. We should all bet on that.
Jerry Dipoto is a former big leaguer himself who has morphed into a baseball front office executive firmly married to the idea of incorporating the science of analytics into the preparation and assembly of an organization. His beliefs in these new-age modes of saber metric thought combined with his past on-field major league experience are why he was brought into the Angel family. Dipoto was hired to make a cultural change and bring the Angels into the new era of sport while still tying them loosely to the past methodology of operating a professional baseball club.
That is exactly what he was doing, and he was doing a great job of it and that is why seeing him go now is nothing short of a travesty for the future of the Angels.
Say what you will about this year’s Angels roster. Is it thin? You bet. Does it need an infusion of hitters to push through he dog days of summer? It certainly does. But is it broken to a point of dysfunction?
No, not even close. Take a look at the record, four games over .500 and in the midst of a four-game winning streak despite the distractions in the front office. This team is just a half game out of a playoff spot as of today and only four games back of the division leading Houston Astros who happen to have the best record in all of the American League.
Dipoto is undoubtedly getting unfairly criticized for the current 2015 roster. Is he the GM? Well, he was until last night. Is it the GM’s responsibility to construct the roster and then either receive praise or take the heat for the performance of the team he or she built? It sure is.
But let’s be fair to the situation here. Whose idea was signing Josh Hamilton? Better yet, whose idea was trading for Zack Greinke? The truth is the debacle that was the Hamilton signing was Arte’s call, and that has been publicly recognized by Arte himself. Dipoto both aggressively traded for and wanted to retain Greinke in 2012, the season prior to the Hamilton signing for roughly the same amount of money per year that Josh is still being paid by the Angels today to play for their division rival Texas Rangers.
Why else would Dipoto trade away the bundle of prospects he shipped to Milwaukee if his ultimate plan was not to keep Greinke in Anaheim? By the way, who would you rather be on the Halo payroll today, Greinke or Hamilton? Arte chose to let Greinke walk and then subsequently chose to sign Josh, nobody else made the ultimate call to see that through but Arte himself.
The Greinke/Hamilton model is just one of many scenarios with this same graffiti covered shell. Remember how much flack Dipoto caught for the Blanton, Madson, Burnett signings? Sure, he deserved some heat for that, but let’s be honest here. He signed who he could afford to sign after Arte ate up all their available monies on prior free agents in previous years. Kind of like they always say, you can’t buy a Mercedes on a junk car budget and you pretty much always get what you pay for. So even in Dipoto’s darkest hours on the job with the Angels, the shadow was being cast by Arte Moreno.
Right now the Howie Kendrick trade seems to be the focal point of the media grilling Dipoto. They are flat out killing Jerry for trading Howie. Everyone seems to forget that ONE year of Howie’s services at second base were traded for SIX years of former first round draft pick Andrew Heaney’s. By the way, have you seen what Andrew Heaney has done in his first two major league starts with the Angels? If you haven’t, let me sum it up for you. Heaney has been nothing short of absolutely TERRIFIC. And is Howie’s second base position really the problem with the 2015 Angels? It sure doesn’t seem so. The KC Royals throw-away found off the scrap heap by Jerry Dipoto and his staff known to Angel fans as Johnny G has been more than adequate at second base all season long. He is fully capable of being a one year stop gap to incorporate six more years of Heaney. Acquiring the lefty hurler from the Dodgers for Howie Kendrick was a steal. Dipoto should be commended for that trade, not ridiculed.
So where is the big problem in the Angels lineup? I think we all know to look no further than left field. We already went over the Hamilton situation and we know whose call that was. Certainly not Jerry Dipoto’s; how was he to know Arte would order the Hamilton ousting for his drug relapse and leave a hole in left field? Or how would he know that his last minute replacement Matt Joyce would have a hole in his bat? Please. That is on Arte. That is not Jerry’s misdoing, it is once again Moreno’s meddling that caused this.
Now think about it. What would it take to bolster the Angels 2015 lineup? It is simple. They need a bat or two. Preferably a lefty bat to DH and play left field. So how do you get those? Well you trade for them. And guess what, the Angels have positioned themselves perfectly to do exactly that. Jerry Dipoto and his staff including Scott Servais have deepened the Angels farm system to a level not seen in over a decade in Halo-land. They have everything it takes in their farm system to get a player that can help them this year and Dipoto and his staff are precisely the reason why.
Dipoto and Servais have acquired low cost pitching talent that is spread throughout the minor leagues via both stealthy trades and the MLB draft. This team has arms like Nick Tropeano (whom Dipoto stole from the Astros for next to nothing), the aforementioned Andrew Heaney (another steal), Sean Newcomb, Tyler Skaggs, and Hector Santiago just to name a few that are fully capable of landing the Angels the bat or bats they so desperately need.
How did they get these arms they’re now able to trade if necessary? Look no further than Dipoto and his staff. They discovered them, acquired them, developed them and are now ready to deploy them in whatever manner is best suited for the Angels. That could either be via trade or playing for the Angels big league club themselves.
I can’t understand how Jerry Dipoto is the fall guy for anything here? The truth is that Mike Scioscia’s unwillingness to be flexible with new age information and Arte Moreno’s undying allegiance to Scioscia are what truly ails the Angels both in 2015 and beyond.
In addition to that, this recent power coup that has just unfolded is a complete disaster in terms of future hires.
Think of it this way. Would you ever take a management position with a company knowing full well before you were hired that a direct subordinate of yours was more powerful and had more pull within the organization than you did before you even started? Why would anyone do that? Outside of a “yes man” or a person just looking to collect a check, what individual would mindfully and willingly agree to such an arrangement? That is precisely the corner the Angels have now painted themselves into.
The Angels only options now are to hire a “yes man” as their new GM or make Mike Scioscia the west coast version of Dan Jennings. Who the hell wants a “yes man” leading their team or company? Especially when that company is a multi-billion dollar operation at the forefront of the entertainment world? That is ludicrous.
Look we all know it’s been rumored for years that Mike Scioscia wears the pants in the Manager / GM hierarchy within the Halo organization. That is fine to fodder over. But to actually see it play out, plain as day for the entire team and public to see is nothing short of an embarrassment for the Angels themselves and their fans. Arte should be ashamed of himself and Scioscia the same.
Who could possibly blame Jerry Dipoto for issuing an ultimatum to Moreno that someone has to go, either Scioscia or himself in this instance? This is about structure, protocol, and chain of command. Look at the position title. Dipoto’s says GENERAL MANAGER. Scioscia’s just reads manager. So when Jerry or any other Angels GM for that matter issues a direct order or request to the field manager he damn sure better do it. It is the managers’ job to take orders from the GM. Not the other way around and if Scioscia doesn’t want to do what his boss tells him, well then he should be reprimanded or worse, fired. Just like the rest of us in this world would be.
Jerry wasn’t ever given that authority over Scioscia and that is a shame. His track record has proven he is capable of hiring the right people into the right positions at the right time. Jerry Dipoto or any professional GM for that matter should have the authority to make the call on who is their subordinate manager. Harmony from a philosophical managerial likeness is a key ingredient to fluidity between the front office and the on-field personnel. What does that bring? It brings success!
It didn’t happen that way, and it isn’t going to happen that way until Scioscia’s powers are lessened or removed altogether. And based on what we see here, Scioscia isn’t going to lose any power anytime soon. In fact he has been further empowered by this grotesque mismanagement at the hands of the Angels owner.
It is not even a question that Arte Moreno should have backed Jerry Dipoto in this power struggle. Insubordination is unacceptable at any level and that is exactly what Scioscia practiced here. Mike didn’t like the order he was given by Dipoto to incorporate more statistical analysis into both defensive positioning and pitch calling so he went nuclear AND he went public to get his way. That is disgraceful.
So now what, Arte? You think all is well with Mike and he is content and under your authoritative control? Fat chance! In fact that outlook is beginning to look nothing short of laughable.
The far more likely scenario is that with this recent show of empowerment Mike Scioscia ratchets up the power play to yet another level. Guess who has an opt-out clause in his contract at the end of this season? Yep, good old Mike has the organization by the short and curlies AGAIN. It would be idiotic to think he won’t just opt-out after this season and force Arte to either hire an all new front office AND an all new on-field managerial staff or just force Arte into giving him a raise. You don’t think that is the next step? Why wouldn’t it be? Mike is going to get paid MORE for this. Just the thought of that is both unfathomable and reprehensible to me.
Frankly, today is one of the worst days I can remember in all of my years of being an Angels fan. This organization has potentially been set back a decade or more in terms of thought by the departure of Jerry Dipoto and the unwillingness of owner Arte Moreno to stand up to his own obstinate manager.
The quickest and simplest analogy I can come up with is let us all collectively forget about the idea of iPads and superior technology or advanced schools of thought. We still have a typewriter in the office that works, so why even consider using something new? Isn’t that right Mike? It is just fine around here, no need to consider or strive for improvements.
Which brings me to my final thought on this matter, if that was the case, why the hell was Jerry Dipoto ever hired in the first place? After all, the only thing he ever did was exactly what he set out to do. And he did a helluva job of it in a short amount of time amidst the unfair challenges set forth from a distorted upper management model. At what point does the mirror finally show Arte and Mike as being the real problems in Anaheim?
Good luck sorting this one out Mr. Moreno. You made the bed, and now we all have to uncomfortably lie in it. And we know Mike Scioscia won’t scoot over even a bit to give us any room, he’ll be taking up far more of the space than just his fair share. After all, that is just how Mike Scioscia works.
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