3,250 days. That’s how long it’s been since the angels have been in a playoff game. It’s been 5,059 days since their last playoff win. Quite frankly… that’s a lot of time. Too much time. Nobody other than the tigers has had a longer drought than the Los Angeles Angels. They simply have a problem. And that problem is named Arte Moreno. There’s no better way to put it, Arte Moreno is a money hungry problem. He doesn’t care about baseball or a winning team, he cares about his bottom line. Look at today for instance, Arte and general manager Perry Minasian have waived 5 players to POTENTIALLY save 7.3 million dollars. 7.3 million. Not a dollar more and not a dollar less. You can argue all day about the Angels move to go all in this playoff race, but what high buying team trades away their rank two and three prospects only to waive their compensation a few months after? The Angels. The likelihood of a playoff race is exponentially low… but at the end of the day it’s still not impossible. What’s the thinking here? Why give up all these guys to save 7.3 million dollars?
Because Arte Moreno is a cheap fuck. He showed fans his caring side for a moment, gave us hope that we haven’t felt since 2009… only to rip it away the second this race seemed out of reach. Arte Moreno has always been about his bottom dollar. He has two of the best players in baseball and has been unable to give them what’s needed to win. He doesn’t employ coaches, trainers, or pay for a successful farm system. Arte knows he’s in a good position, settled only a few miles outside of Anaheim. He easily attracts tourists with his cheap tickets and easy (yet extremely difficult for fans) to watch sports. He also attracts his loyal angels fanbase with their two superstar talents of Ohtani and Trout, two men capable of bringing massive crowds even on the worst of days. And of course, Arte has his big money deal with Bally Sports. Making baseball hard to watch pays Arte in more ways than one. Why pay a little more money to have a winning ball club when you’ll make even LESS money in revenue in the end? He wouldn’t. He’s a businessman and a crook, and because of it he won’t pay to win.
Arte had his chance to go over the luxary tax. He employed pieces capable of winning. He and Perry aren’t idiots, but they aren’t smart either. To have a winning team you need a good manager. Why did the Angels hemorrhage their future on an unproven interim manager? To have a winning team you need a decent farm. Why did the Angels gut the farm for low upside players only to throw them out onto waivers? To have a winning team you need a training staff. The Angels didn’t even have a weight room until 2014! What makes you think they’ll do more than the bare minimum to protect the players? Shohei and Trout are cash cows who Arte will milk dry until they’re out of money to give him. Then when they’re gone, the Angels will sign a few more well known players, someone popular enough for the moderate fans to get hope and interest with. This is the Angels method and the Arte Moreno problem. It’s happened so many times since Pujols and it’ll only keep happening again and again.
To Arte, we are nothing but a bottom line that lines his wallet. We serve no purpose than to get the man richer and richer. Normal owners don’t think this way, but the angels don’t have a normal owner. We have a problem child named Arte Moreno who will bleed us dry due to our love for this team. I know that I’ll bleed Halo Blood till the day I die, but for now I’m tired of all of this. I’m tired of the pisspoor coaching, development, and staff. I’m sick of the uncomfortable seats, mediocre stadium, and obviously the atrocious ownership. As fans the only way we can win this war is to stop showing up and paying this man. Force a sale. Don’t show up. Don’t buy merch. Don’t buy food or drink. Make this as unprofitable as you can for the man. If he sells maybe we have a chance. Until then though? Hope you like living in the past, cause that’s the 2002 trophy is the only one we’re getting for a long while.
