{"id":307962,"date":"2026-05-09T18:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307962\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T18:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:01:35","slug":"angels-gm-says-team-is-very-competitive-but-are-fans-fed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/307962\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels GM says team is ‘very competitive’ but are fans fed up?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I walked around a street fair in Irvine over the weekend, checking out the crowd while waiting for my daughter\u2019s dance team to perform. We were a few short miles from Angel Stadium<\/a>, but you wouldn\u2019t have known it: lots of people wearing Dodgers caps, someone wearing a Shohei Ohtani<\/a> cap, someone else wearing an Ohtani jersey, someone else wearing a Clayton Kershaw<\/a> jersey, a dog wearing a Dodgers bandana, and people repping the Padres, Giants, Athletics and Yankees.<\/p>\n

After 25 minutes, someone walked by in an Angels cap.<\/p>\n

If the passion wanes, apathy can set in. I wondered if that is where the Angels might find themselves now, with a slice of their fan base finding a more enjoyable way to spend its summers than watching one losing season after another, and with the shadow of baseball\u2019s best team extending ever more securely into Orange County.<\/p>\n

Something else happened over the weekend that made me wonder. On the heels of a winless road trip, and on the day before the Angels would claim the worst record in the major leagues, Angels general manager Perry Minasian said this<\/a> to reporters: \u201cOur best baseball is in front of us. There\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt?<\/p>\n

\"Angels <\/p>\n

Angels general manager Perry Minasian declined to predict in the team would make the playoffs this season.<\/p>\n

(Elsa Garrison \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

On the Angels\u2019 broadcast the previous night, reporter Erica Weston presented play-by-play announcer Wayne Randazzo<\/a> with a birthday gift: a figurine of Grogu<\/a>, a character in the Star Wars family. Randazzo said he would keep Grogu in the broadcast booth, as a good luck charm for the Angels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly could use one,\u201d Randazzo said.<\/p>\n

Minasian, the sixth-year general manager, has yet to deliver a team that finished better than 17 games out of first place. On Wednesday, I asked him to explain why he was so confident in saying he had \u201cno doubt\u201d the team\u2019s best days were ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very competitive,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cOur wins and losses aren\u2019t where we want them to be, but we have lost a lot of one-run games, a lot of tough games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Angels have lost six one-run games. So have the Yankees, the team with the best record in the American League.<\/p>\n

The Angels\u2019 run differential is minus-14. They are four games behind in the AL West, where the first-place Athletics have a .500 record and a minus-21 run differential. You never know.<\/p>\n

So far, however, the Angels\u2019 offense is all about the three true outcomes: They strike out the most of any major league team and rank among the top six in walks and home runs, but they do not rank among the top 10 in runs. Only five teams have given up more runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to the bullpen has been a harbinger of danger for the Angels,\u201d Randazzo told viewers. The Angels\u2019 bullpen entered Wednesday with a 5.35 earned-run average, the highest in the AL.<\/p>\n

Owner Arte Moreno cut payroll this year, amid the implosion of the FanDuel regional sports networks. Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> was not walking through the bullpen door.<\/p>\n

\"Arte <\/p>\n

Angels owner Arte Moreno.<\/p>\n

(Ashley Landis \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

But the Dodgers find solid bullpen arms in ways beyond buying them: Evan Phillips was cast off by the Baltimore Orioles during a 110-loss season; Alex Vesia<\/a> was acquired from the Miami Marlins after putting up an 18.69 ERA in his first five major league games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had guys like that,\u201d Minasian said.<\/p>\n

He cited Brock Burke, a waiver claim who gave the Angels two solid seasons in middle relief. Minasian traded him last winter for outfielder Josh Lowe, and any general manager would trade a middle reliever for a middle-of-the-order bat. To this point, Lowe has a .198 on-base percentage and a .287 slugging percentage.<\/p>\n

Lowe is but a data point in illustrating this primary point: Minasian\u2019s margin for error is smaller than it otherwise would have been if Moreno had not withdrawn from the market for top-tier free agents or had approved trading Ohtani for elite prospects that would have accelerated rebuilding. Smaller, but other teams do more with less.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be able to develop our own players,\u201d Minasian said.<\/p>\n

On the day Minasian said he had \u201cno doubt\u201d better days were ahead for his team, the Angels, their triple-A affiliate and their double-A affiliate all were in last place. <\/p>\n

Analysts perennially rank the Angels\u2019 farm system among baseball\u2019s worst. Minasian said he\u2019ll put his faith in four homegrown starters: Jos\u00e9 Soriano<\/a>, Reid Detmers<\/a>, Jack Kochanowicz<\/a> and Walbert Ure\u00f1a<\/a>. Their combined ERA so far: 2.99.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at good teams and sustainable winners, they build rotations, whether that\u2019s through trades or free agency or your own,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it with our own. You can\u2019t microwave that overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t make fans wait forever for October either. Angels fans have heard enough about building a competitive team and needing patience.<\/p>\n

They have not seen their team in a playoff game in 12 years. When are they going to see that?<\/p>\n

\"Angels <\/p>\n

Angels pitcher Walbert Ure\u00f1a delivers against the New York Mets at Angel Stadium on May 1.<\/p>\n

(Luke Hales \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in the prediction business,\u201d said Minasian, whose contract expires after this season. \u201cThey\u2019re going to see a team that plays hard every day. They\u2019re going to see young, talented players day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fine, but when are they going to see a winning team?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proof will be in the pudding,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what I say. I could say all these things. At the end of the day, we\u2019re going to go play 162 games. We\u2019ll see where we end up and who\u2019s done what, and we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Angels won a series for the first time since April 12. They\u2019re 3-2 with Grogu in the broadcast booth.<\/p>\n

The schedule gets more challenging: a trip to Toronto and Cleveland, then back to the Big A to play the Dodgers. The same distant Angel Stadium seat available on the resale market for Wednesday\u2019s game for $5 (fees included) is available for $103 for the opener of the Dodgers series.<\/p>\n

Orange County loves a winner. There was a long line at that Irvine street fair to collect souvenirs from one booth \u2014 the one for the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I walked around a street fair in Irvine over the weekend, checking out the crowd while waiting for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1426,30942,2135,129445,5885,217,129443,11154,423,68307,1741,14501,129444,427,316],"class_list":["post-307962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-angels","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-broadcast-booth","tag-bullpen","tag-day","tag-dodgers-cap","tag-fan","tag-game","tag-grogu","tag-lot","tag-perry-minasian","tag-randazzo","tag-team","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}