Monday, October 31, 2011 |
Frank, MLB Near Accord To Sell The Team
After a two-year battle to keep the Dodgers through a bruising divorce and a bankruptcy filing, owner Frank McCourt appears close to agreement with Major League Baseball on a bankruptcy settlement in which he would agree to sell the team.Frank won't sell? Or what?McCourt would get some control over the sale, people familiar with the negotiations said Monday. The purchase probably would include Dodger Stadium and the surrounding parking lots in a package that could command a record price of $1 billion or more.
The negotiations are fluid, and settlement talks could fall apart at any time, said the people, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidential discussions. McCourt has not reached any final decision to sell, another person cautioned.
Sunday, October 30, 2011 |
Words That Might Make Angels Fans Weep Tears Of Joy
He's a firm believer in on-base percentage (OBP) and plate discipline. "If you're not OB, you're not going to win many games," he said. He thinks "count control," from the pitching and hitting sides, is important. He loves aggressive baserunning.I cannot stress enough how vital it is to hear this after years of attachment to a statistic that does not correlate well with offenses that actually score runs. It may yet prove ephemeral or a case of glib public relations, but at this exact moment it represents a much needed return to sanity in an organization that has lacked that on offense for a very long time.
Labels: angels, front office, sabermetrics
Saturday, October 29, 2011 |
Jerry Dipoto Named Angels GM
Upon his selection in the leadership role, Dipoto was active prior to the trading deadline, making four trades for Arizona that would eventually play a key role in the success of the 2011 Western Division Champion Diamondbacks. He acquired All-Star left-hander Joe Saunders and three other pitchers from the Angels in exchange for right-hander Dan Haren on July 25th, then later exchanged right-hander Edwin Jackson to the Chicago White Sox for rookie pitcher Daniel Hudson along with another pitcher on July 30th. Hudson would go on to secure a spot in Arizona's rotation, posting a 7-1 record with a 1.69 ERA, while recording 70 strikeouts in 79.2 innings during his final 11 starts. He returned this season registering a 16-12 mark and a 3.49 ERA with a 169 strikeouts.The Haren trade, widely ridiculed for the Diamondbacks at the time, has turned out far more even. I'm cautiously optimistic, with the hope that Dipoto has the independence of mind needed to do his job.Also included in the transactions were left-handed pitching prospects Tyler Skaggs and Patrick Corbin, both top draft selections by the Angels in 2009, and left-hander David Holmberg, ranked by Baseball Americas as the eighth-best prospect in the White Sox organization. He also moved Chris Snyder to Pittsburgh in a five-player trade and Chad Qualls to Tampa Bay for minor-league pitcher Matt Gorgen on July 31.
Labels: angels, front office
Thursday, October 27, 2011 |
Craptacular: Cardinals 10, Rangers 9
Forget all that.
Tonight might have been Texas' best shot at a title. The last team to win a World Series as an away team in Game 7 was the 1979 Pirates. And it slipped away from them, multiple times, with the Cards twice tying two-run deficits to force bonus baseball.
Damn, it's moments like this that I just love this game.
Update: Nice article at Yahoo's Big League Stew about the fan who grabbed Freese's walkoff homer.
Labels: cardinals, rangers, recaps
Frank's Attorneys Somehow Manage To Make Him Even Viler
"You're saying to the jury, 'They (the Stow family) are saying we're 100 percent liable. But does that mean (Marvin) Norwood and (Louis) Sanchez, who beat this guy up, have no liability? And, does it mean Mr. Stow himself has no liability?'"...
"I've been doing these cases for 23 years and I have never seen one yet in which it didn't take at least two people to tango," he said, referring to the notion that jurors could decide Stow bears some liability in the attack. "So stay tuned and stand by."
Labels: bryan stow, dodgers, mccourts, scumbags
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 |
And, Oh Yeah, Tonight's World Series Game Is Off
Labels: postseason
Angels Narrow GM Field, To Speak With Rangers AGM Thad Levine
Labels: angels, front office
Mark Trumbo Named Sporting News AL Rookie Of The Year
Update: Craig Kimbrel got the nod in the NL for his work as Atlanta's closer.
I should add this is the Sporting News award. The BBWAA award — the one that counts — is yet to be announced.
Labels: angels, awards, braves
Dodgers Bankruptcy Case Postponed Until Nov. 29, Fans Haz A Sad
Labels: dodgers, hot stove, mccourts
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 |
Plaschke Interviews Scioscia On The Napoli Trade
"If you say our organization didn't value Mike Napoli, it's absolutely wrong," he said. "The hindsight of this trade is 20/20 vision, and right now, obviously in the playoffs, that vision carries lot of weight. But I still think there is a lot of upside of what our team can become with Vernon."This is delusional. Vernon Wells, 2010 road slash line: .224/.299/.400. 2011 regular season: .218/.248/.412. Nobody could have predicted the levees would fail. Scioscia has learned nothing, and while I get that as an employee of the Angels he has to maintain a certain face about bad news, this becomes more and more obviously duplicitous. Yes, it is true that Scioscia actually played Napoli more than the Rangers did this year, but at the same time, it's hard to avoid the "bad hands" comment he made in an interview with the Dallas Morning News earlier this year:
"I always felt like I was looking over my shoulder to see if I was doing things right," Napoli said. "I had 'bad hands.' I was so worried about my setup and the mechanics all the time. I learned a lot. I learned a lot of what I do there, but playing there just wasn't much fun."Scioscia has been thus far pleased to throw both Arte Moreno and Tony Reagins under the bus for the Napoli trade ("some decisions were made by Tony and Arte", as though he had nothing to do with them). I re-upped my season tickets, but I don't know if that was a good idea, still.
Labels: angels, stupid ideas, trades
Dodgers (Read: Frank) Ask For More Time
Major League Baseball has asked Gross to terminate the Dodgers' exclusivity so the league can propose a reorganization plan of its own — that is, to get the team sold this winter. Gross wrote last month that he intended "a prompt disposition of the key issues" so that the Dodgers could "utilize the approaching off season to prepare for the 2012 season."That does not sound like the judge favors an extension.
Shaikin's Twitter feed this morning is full of what appears to be an interesting story about today's hearing. In the meantime, he's got another piece up about how MLB calculated Frank "looting" $189M from the Dodgers. Bryan Stow's family are now listed as creditors of the team.
Gross has ruled that Dodger Stadium security is a valid issue in the bankruptcy proceedings, as he determines the condition of the Dodgers. Stow's attorney, Thomas Girardi, has said his client's medical bills could exceed $50 million.It takes a special kind of self-absorbed arrogance to make this comment:
"[Selig] set about fabricating the public misimpression that security at Dodger Stadium was somehow inadequate," the Dodgers' filing read. "This is, by far, the most unforgivable action taken by the commissioner during this entire saga, and has caused enorrmous and irreparable harm to the Dodgers, Mr. McCourt and the game of baseball."And, OMG, this:
The Dodgers also charge Selig with bad faith in declaring he would reject any television contract proposed by McCourt. The league claims any deal would necessarily require McCourt to divert some team revenue for personal use, including a $130-million divorce settlement.So Frank tells Jamie's attorney she gets $130M in the settlement, while the only possible way to get that money is by selling TV rights he is not entitled to auction until after the 2012 season is finished. Insane.That claim, the Dodgers said, is "simply make believe."
Labels: bryan stow, dodgers, mccourts
Monday, October 24, 2011 |
Creditors: TV Rights Sale Too Risky, We Want The Dodgers Sold
From the day he took the Dodgers into bankruptcy, owner Frank McCourt has said that selling the team's television rights would enable him to put the Dodgers on solid financial ground, including full payment for all creditors.On Monday, the creditors disagreed. The official creditors' committee asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross to deny the Dodgers their proposed television rights auction, arguing that the prospect of a lawsuit from Fox Sports and opposition from Major League Baseball could jeopardize the money available to repay creditors.
"The committee cannot gamble the 100% recoveries of its constituents on such a risky proposition," lawyers for the committee wrote in a court filing.
Sunday, October 23, 2011 |
Angels Talking To Omar Minaya, Fans Consider Suicide
Labels: angels, front office, rumors
Thursday, October 20, 2011 |
Mark Saxon: Angels, Hire Kim Ng
Ng might be able to protect the Angels from themselves, to convince them not to make the one bad financial decision that could set the franchise back for years to come. If only they’d hired her earlier, maybe they wouldn’t have played last season under the crushing weight of more than $50 million in bad contract obligations.It's my considered opinion that whoever ends up in the GM chair will have as their first order of business a staking of territory. Scioscia may have an umpty-year deal with the team, but he's not king, and a fresh set of eyes can only help. Ken Rosenthal tweeted earlier in the day that Andrew Friedman is the Angels' top choice, but one can hold out hope that Ng will make it in as a GM, if not for the Angels, then for another team.
Labels: angels, front office, rumors
Angels Pursuing Rays GM Andrew Friedman
If that happens, it would be the third GM ganked this year from that chair and into another one, as Bleed Cubbie Blue reports Jed Hoyer will leave the Padres to become the Cubs' GM. How this happened I have no idea, but it seems ridiculous to me that the smaller market teams are letting bigger market teams just yank their GMs like that. (I assume the Rays gave the Angels permission to speak with Friedman. If not, it could be considered interference.)
Labels: angels, cubs, padres, rays, red sox, rumors
Monday, October 17, 2011 |
Frank And Jamie McCourt Reportedly Reach Settlement
Last week, Bill Shaikin wrote that Frank could be utterly ruined if MLB forced a Dodgers sale, mainly thanks to the debtor-in-possession financing lately acquired.
Update: Bill Shaikin again is on top of it, asking a question I saw posted on Facebook earlier today, namely, how will Frank pay Jamie if he's completely without cash? He has a deadline to achieve the $130M:
If the court orders the Dodgers sold, Jamie would get the first $130 million of net proceeds. The debt load and tax liability in such a sale could be so high that the net proceeds do not exceed $130 million. That could leave Frank with nothing from the sale.Best Case Scenarios Dep't ...
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 |
Joe Posnanski On The Cubs And Theo Epstein
See, this is not about how the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908. Everybody talks about that, but it’s deceiving. Between 1909 and 1945 the Cubs won seven pennants. They were a dominant team in the National League. It just so happened that they kept losing World Series. That was a different kind of pain.
No, the streak we’re talking about here is 66 years of not even reaching a World Series. It is the longest such streak in the history of baseball. Every single team except the Cubs that was in existence in 1946 has been to at least two World Series since — and the only team with only two pennants since World War II is the Chicago White Sox, who have probably had something rub off. The Pittsburgh Pirates have been to three. The Cleveland Indians have been to four. The Baltimore Orioles — formerly the St. Louis Browns — have been to six. Even before Theo’s so-called-jinxed Boston Red Sox had won in 2004 and 2007, they had been to four World Series since World War II. They just hadn’t won any of them.
Labels: cubs, front office
A Review Of Bud Black As Padres Manager
Via Geoff Young on Twitter; some days ago, Geoff officially hung 'em up at Ducksnorts, one of the best-named blogs I know of. Geoff says he'll keep writing for BPro, and that's a good thing.“Bud Black can manage this club as long as he wants to,” Padres CEO Jeff Moorad said Wednesday. “He’s a perfect skipper for the Padres in the near term as well as the long term.”And, while it might be speculation on his part, Tim Sullivan revealed what he believed is Black’s greatest strength – his silence:
With two years remaining on his Padres’ contract, and two more years of club options thereafter, Black already has more job security than most major league managers. Though his hiring predates both Moorad’s and Hoyer’s arrivals at PETCO Park, Black is not some holdover desperate to hang on, but a low-maintenance leader who never complains about payroll, ballpark dimensions or decisions made by his bosses.
Labels: angels, front office, padres, rumors
Linky, Link, Link
- T.J. Simers unloads on the McCourts, which these days is shooting fish in a barrel, but they deserves it.
- MLB withdrew a bid to have the McCourts' attorneys disqualified from bankruptcy proceedings.
- The Dodgers and MLB traded charges at yesterday's bankruptcy proceedings, the Dodgers hauling out their "MLB forced us into bankruptcy, boo hoo" schtick again, while Fox threatened not to air the last two years of Dodgers games they were contractually required to do if the Dodgers rebid their TV rights including the final year of the contract and in advance of the negotiating window.
Under the MLB Constitution, the league cannot strip an owner of his team without providing him a list of charges in writing, extending an opportunity for a hearing and securing the vote of three-fourths of other owners.
His lies are getting bigger and bolder over time:"The commissioner does not have the authority to force an owner to sell," the Dodgers' filing read.
Instead, the team claims, Selig responded to the "enormous negative publicity" of last year's divorce trial by refusing to let the Dodgers sign a new television contract with Fox, take a loan from Fox or tap into the MLB credit line.
The Dodgers said it was "unlikely that Fox Sports can assert any meaningful damages" for an early sale of the television rights. In turn, Fox threatened a damages claim so high it would threaten McCourt's promise to repay all creditors in full and "render meaningless" his financial projections.
- Bryan Stow is out of the hospital for good now. Godspeed to him, and I hope Frank pays and pays for that man's misery.
- In Boston and Cubs news, it appears that Theo Epstein has a 5-year/$15M deal with the Cubs, per a report from WEEI, the Red Sox' radio broadcaster.
Labels: bryan stow, cubs, dodgers, front office, mccourts, red sox
Monday, October 10, 2011 |
Angels Fire Longtime Scout Rich Schlenker
Update: Bill Plunkett has more in the Register, mostly being an interview with Arte Moreno on background about the exit.
"I think you want a good baseball man – or I should say baseball person because there are some qualified women out there – because you want to be able to evaluate talent," Moreno said. "You also want him to be able to manage a (minor-league) system so you have to look at someone who can evaluate how we're drafting and developing players. And you also want someone with good communication skills.Kim Ng?
Labels: angels, firings, front office
Saturday, October 08, 2011 |
Angels Fire Abe Flores
Labels: angels, firings, front office
Wednesday, October 05, 2011 |
Tony Reagins Burn From Josh Hamilton
Whoever is the Angels' GM needs to be his own man, by which I mean the Angels better not pick a flunky to ratify Mike Scioscia's frequently fatuous player assessments, something T.J. Simers wrote about yesterday. The ugly throw-the-front-office-under-the-bus quote about the Vernon Wells trade by Scioscia probably hasn't helped cohesiveness, or made that long-term deal any more comfortable:
"We needed to get better in the outfield," Scioscia told reporters, "so some decisions were made by Tony and Arte as to what the team would look like."That quote stunned some people in the Angels' front office. A manager who takes great care not to publicly criticize his players appeared to be pointing a public finger at his bosses.
Judge Gross To Frank: No Discovery
- No discovery of how MLB has treated the other 29 teams in the past. This is huge, not only because it reiterates the decision from last week (Frank's and Dodgers attorney Sid Levinson kept returning to ways to get discovery without actually using that word), but because it will speed matters along.
- Judge Gross also set an Oct. 12 date to possibly disqualify Frank's legal team because they represent both Frank and the Dodgers. The judge was very skeptical about the merits of this move.
- Finally, the big show will happen on Oct. 31 — yup, Halloween — in which the meat of the case will be considered.
Monday, October 03, 2011 |
Angels Continue Housecleaning, Fire AGM Ken Forsch, Gary Sutherland
Bill Dwyre on Friday recapped the consequences of the Reagins ouster. My own feeling is that they're going to bring in someone from outside, though the popular choices are not likely, i.e. Pat Gillick.
Labels: angels, firings, front office
Well, That Didn't Last Long: Dodgers Moving To 570 AM Fox Sports LA
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