Los Angeles Angels: Mike Scioscia Expected Back in 2017
By Ron Juckett
A down season in Orange County will not cost Los Angeles Angels Manager Mike Scioscia his job. The veteran skipper should return in 2017.
Los Angeles Angels Manager Mike Scioscia will keep his job next season. Recent conversations with owner Arte Moreno and general manager Billy Eppler with the press do not lay blame on Scioscia for the team’s poor record.
At 52-72, the Angels are dead last in the American League West. Trailing the Texas Rangers by 20.5 games, the Halos are going nowhere fast.
After a successful July, when they went 15-11 with a plus-50 run differential, August turned into a nightmare. At 5-14, Los Angeles’ 109 runs allowed this month is already higher than July’s 102. While the offense scored 152 last month, the ledger shows only 65 on the board for August.
Yet, the blame does not fall on Scioscia’s shoulders. Yes, the team resembles a MASH unit. Injuries to Nick Tropeano, Huston Street and Cam Bedrosian have hurt, although Street 6.45 ERA was not helping things before. The Tim Lincecum experiment was a flop and who knows where the offense would be without Mike Trout and Albert Pujols.
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A total of 48 players have donned an Angels uniform this year. Without cohesiveness, it is hard to build good momentum and a winner.
If this was only a one-year bump in the road, then no one would bat an eye on Scioscia’s performance. Yet, the Angels have not won a playoff game since 2009, getting swept by the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 AL Divisional Series. In the last seven years, the Halos finished third four times. The days of six playoff appearances are over. No Scioscia team has lost more than 87 games in a season, the 2001 version. With 38 games left this year, they are on pace to drop 94.
You can give credit to Moreno for understanding Scioscia’s legacy with the team. He is the only manager to win an AL pennant and World Series with the Angels. An old-school manager, a protégé of Los Angeles Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda, Scioscia brings a fire and passion from the dugout along with a heavy dose of tough love. For years, it worked.
Scioscia survived a recent power struggle, generating headlines all over Southern California. He wanted more control and then-general manager Jerry Dipoto pushed back. Dipoto now runs the show with the division-rival Seattle Mariners.
As the Angels dance with Anaheim for stadium funding, and as they battle the Dodgers, Rams, UCLA, USC and the Lakers as the top sports attraction, fans have to wonder if Scioscia is the right man to transition through a rebuild and new era.
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With $18 million and two years left on his current deal, you can guess he will have every opportunity to earn that contract.