Can we trust Bill Stoneman as GM?

Old news: Jerry Dipoto is gone, there’s a problem with the organizational hierarchy and Bill Stoneman is now (again) the Angels General Manager. New News: the Angels should probably start looking for someone else to make the decisions soon, because as it turns out, Bill Stoneman was actually an awful General Manager.

You see the thing is, most people remember past times more fondly than they actually were. Sort of like the 60-something that fondly recalls the freedom and light-heartedness of the 1950’s and 1960’s, completely overlooking social, racial and gender inequalities, riots, assassinations, the Korean War and the fact that there was no such thing as the internet. People got notice that Bill Stoneman was back in the General Manager’s chair for the Angels and there was a general reaction of, “oh, well ok then, he’s fine.”

But he’s not fine. Bill Stoneman wasn’t fine at all.

Stoneman was mostly known for being the General Manager that ushered in an era of unprecedented success for the Angels, and while that’s partly true, we now have the benefit of hindsight and hindsight currently suggests that Bill Stoneman did a lot more damage to this organization than he did good. Notoriously reluctant to trade any prospects, Stoneman is largely responsible for Miguel Cabrera not currently suiting up as the Angels starting first baseman.

Just before stepping down as the Angels GM and giving way to Tony Reagins, Bill Stoneman’s last act as GM was to put to halt a trade of magnitude the Angels haven’t ever seen before. The then Florida Marlins were looking to get the best available return for an increasingly expensive Cabrera and at the same time, off-load Dontrelle Willis’ $7 million he was making the next year. The proposal was Joe Saunders, Ervin Santana, Brandon Wood, Reggie Willits and Jeff Mathis for Miguel Cabrera (on the agreement that he signs an extension which he was eager to do) and Dontrelle Willis. Stoneman advised owner Arte Moreno not to make this trade, reportedly because of the fact that the Angels had to take on Dontrelle Willis’ contract.

The rest is history of course, Cabrera went to the Tigers, collected MVP trophies, put up ridiculous numbers and the Angels in the mean time ended up having a rotating 1B position manned by Kendrys Morales, Casey Kotchman, Mark Teixeira and eventually, the incredibly expensive Albert Pujols. Saunders went on to be a #5 starter, Santana more of a #4 starter, Wood – one of the biggest busts of all time, Willits was briefly a fourth outfielder and Mathis, a backup catcher. Needless to say, Stoneman’s decision had ramifications that lasted for well over a decade. Nice going.

But while it ended there, the series of trades and non-trades before that were just as crucial. Let’s focus on Bill Stoneman’s performance at the trade deadline when leading a team that was “buying” (the position the Angels are in this year)as opposed to selling.

July 13^th 2002 – Angels trade Zac Roper in return for Bradon Warriax. Career minor leaguer for career minor leaguer. No impact at the major league level at all.

July 31^st 2002 – Angels trade Jorge Fabragas to the Brewers for Alex Ochoa and Sal Fasano. Fabregas continued a backup catching role for the Brewers while Ochoa was a 5^th OF for the Angels and Fasano logged only one AB. Almost no impact at all.

July 5^th 2006 – Angels trade Jeff Weaver for Terry Evans. Oddly enough, instead of buying at the deadline, Stoneman chose to sell Weaver, who was just plain awful for the Angels and in return, he got a career AAA OF, depth fodder. No impact on this one either.

July 21^st 2007 – Angels trade Jose Molina for Jeff Kennard. Molina was a clubhouse leader and solid defensive catcher. Kennard never made it to the major leagues. A considerable loss for the Angels and Stoneman.

So maybe Stoneman’s bad at the trade deadline, maybe he’s better in the offseason, when he isn’t under as much pressure to improve the team immediately.

December 27^th 2001 – Angels trade Mo Vaughn and acquire Kevin Appier. Vaughn was a very solid hitter for the Angels, but his off the field antics made it necessary that he be gone, which is understandable. Appier in the meanwhile, was a back-of-the-rotation starter at best, and was out of the major leagues shortly thereafter. The Angels certainly lost in terms of production here, but we’ll give Stoneman a pass. It was his first deal.

Rather than boring you with the gory details of the rest of Stoneman’s fails in terms of offseason trading, we’ll just fast-forward to the part where we tell you about the best trade he ever made. He acquired backup OF Juan Rivera and utility infielder Maicer Izturis for the disgruntled Jose Guillen. Not bad!

But still, we see a picture of what Stoneman was as a GM. Either unwilling to trade when it came to prospects, or simply terrible at trading when it came to the major leagues.

But what about Stoneman is free agency? To be honest, he actually wasn’t bad when it came to not trading away players but instead only spending money. Vlad Guerrero is one of the greatest Angels of all time and Stoneman was largely responsible for bringing him in. He also managed to bring in Bartolo Colon, who won a Cy Young with the Angels, but was also largely awful after that. Stoneman also managed to bring in David Eckstein who immediately became a fan favorite.

The one thing you can’t really debate that Stoneman did well was build a robust farm system. The had a top farm system during most of Stoneman’s reign and he hoarded those prospects accordingly. Of course, that clear and obvious strength is of no use to him now that he is only going to be on the job for half a season.

Having said that, Stoneman had his failures too.

Kelvim Escobar was signed to an extension and ended up being quite a hindrance on the Angels ability to spend money for a few years. He let Troy Percival , Jarrod Washburn, Bengie Molina and Troy Glaus go without so much as an attempt at re-signing them. He handed out ill-advised contracts to Paul Byrd, Esteban Yan, Steve Finley, Gary Matthews Jr. and Shea Hillenbrand. He also notably whiffed on major free agents Alfonso Soriano (a good thing), Paul Konerko (a bad thing), and Carlos Beltran (a very bad thing at the time).

Overall, it seems that Bill Stoneman was a tragically inept GM for the Angels, only to be replaced by an even worse one in Tony Reagins. The fact that Dipoto was even half way decent made him look like the best GM in the world when compared to what came before him.

For the Angels, they better hope that Stoneman isn’t in any position to say yes or no to any trades, and that he’s simply a figurehead for now. Because if he’s given any real power, history suggests the Angels should likely brace themselves for either a disaster, or nothing at all, which in this case would be a colossal failure given the sate of the offense.