Ohtani going to the Dodgers isn’t really what bothers me because of all the reasons that have already been discussed (crippling contract, 2 TJ surgeries, etc.). Man is getting paid, good for him, hope he does well.
No, what really makes me feel broken is knowing the season was over before it even started. It was over the minute I saw that the Angels basically didn’t have any Analytics department. Wait, what? What does that have to do with anything? It has to do with everything, just not so direct.
I remember a few years ago someone pointed this out to me. Look up the staff directory of several teams: Dodgers, Giants, Padres, Red Sox.
1) https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/team/front-office
2) https://www.mlb.com/giants/team/front-office
3) https://www.mlb.com/padres/team/front-office
4) https://www.mlb.com/redsox/team/front-office
They all have varying degrees of staff with titles like Senior Data Engineer, Analyst Baseball R&D, Performance Science, Baseball Analytics, etc.
Then you go to the Angels staffing page: https://www.mlb.com/angels/team/front-office
It’s like, corporate partnerships, marketing. Where the hell is the Baseball Operations guy? Oh wait there’s none. Oh. OHHHHHH. It was then in that moment I realized, I had fucked up. I had chosen to root for a baseball team that wasn’t a baseball team. I was rooting for something that was masquerading as a baseball team.
You see, people would point out that Arte wants to win because he spends a lot of money on big agents and has a top 10 payroll. That shows a commitment to winning right? Look a little closer. CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS. MARKETING. I mean think about why the Angels dropped the Anaheim name and went to “Los Angeles.” The Angels are a baseball team, but they’re not a “baseball” team.
The big agent signings and the payroll is basically just IP. It’s “content.” In the entertainment business, this is akin to getting a big name Hollywood star in your movie. You pay lots of money for BRAD PITT and then cast a bunch of small name actors in support. All your budget goes to TOM CRUISE and LEONARDO DICAPRIO. And in the film world, it makes a lot of sense. Big stars means big box office. Lots of revenue. Do you think people give a shit if your film has a 50% RT score? VIN DIESEL and 10 Fast and Furious movies say fuck no. Okay do you see what I’m getting at? The more and more I thought about it, I realized the Angels were run like a film studio. Arte prioritizes signing stars because they attract viewers and prioritizes trying to make “entertaining content.” Notice I never used the word “winning a World Series.” Winning has nothing to do with anything. Winning doesn’t boost your bottom line significantly just like how winning an Oscar for Best Picture doesn’t suddenly catapult you in box office and make your film profitable (ask literally any indie/arthouse film studio).
If you happen to win, cool, that’s cool. But at the end of the day, money. We make money. And that’s the Angels’ business strategy. It’s not a baseball team. It’s a live sports content organization whose goal is just to be “entertaining” and make money. Winning is not important. It’s nice, but it’s not important. It’s not the goal. The Los Angeles Angels are ironically more Hollywood than you think and for that, it’s kind of a fitting name.
