Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 24, 2007
Sustainable Winning

The Angels celebrate 6-4-2's birthday:

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9.23.07; Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitchers with Scot Shields in the center celebrate after the Angels defeated the Seattle Mariners to clinch the Western Division Championship at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Photo: John Cordes/Icon SMI


Rob later discusses the Angels future:

Something I forgot to mention yesterday: with the victory yesterday, the Mariners have a winning season for the first time in four years. That's an important thing for their franchise, but what it also reminds me is that the 2002 Angels team came out of a division that had an improbable three 90-game winners. The Angels then were better prepared for their postseason run, perhaps; not that this M's squad is a bunch of patsies (or why a split at home?), but when the Angels' nearest competition is just a few games over .500, it doesn't speak well of the division. I suspect the M's will muddle along, though they're starting to get whispers of better prospects coming through their system, albeit at the lower levels. Next year, Oakland will be better, too, at least, that's what I suspect.

But now, and maybe for a few more years, the Angels are the ones to beat in this division. If only Autry could see it.

Finally: there's a sense of magic I'm missing about this, about how lucky and amazing it all is to see a division winner, year after (mostly) year. I don't mean to let this rarity go unnoticed or unremarked upon. Thanks to Arte Moreno, Bill Stoneman, Mike Scioscia, and everyone on the field and off who made this possible.

Gene Autry could have seen this. He had the money and he owned the team at a time when things weren't as crazy. But Autry insisted on bringing in star power instead of developing great players, and most of the stars were on the downside of their careers. His front office never combined intelligent free-agent signings with a good farm system. It turns out winning would have drawn just as well if not better than a team full of fading stars.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:37 AM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)
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