The Angels front office doesn't get the respect they deserve | Angels Fan group's Blog

They get called thrifty and timid, but that's not always a bad thing.

A perfect example was this past off-season.

They lose Tex and K-Rod and everyone is freaking out, some even went as far to say that the Angels would have a losing record without the pair.

So what does Tony Reagins, Arte Moreno, and Mike Scioscia do? They go out and Sign Bobby Abreu for 5 million, Brian Fuentes for 8.5 million and move Kendry Morales into the starting 1st base spot at 1.1 million. Add that all up and you get 14.6 million, and for K-Rod/Tex it would have been over 29.8 millions. They saved themselves 15.2 million dollars, which in this economy is fantastic.

What did they get out of it?

Well, currently Kendry Morales is doing this:

HR- 8
RBI- 26
BA- .280
2B-12
SLG-.533
OBP-.329
OPS-.863
TB-80

Brian Fuentes has 12 saves, tied with K-Rod for league lead.

And Bobby Abreu has:

BA-.298

HR-0

RBI-16

2b- 7

Steals- 15

Caught stealing-0

OBP-.398

SLG-.362

OPS-.759

TB-51

So they got 3 players performing very well at this point of the season. Kendry Morales to this point has been near Tex's production (and Bobby Abreu helps make up the difference) and Brian Fuentes has as many saves as K-Rod (although, a higher ERA but still same amount of saves), and like I said they got this for 15.2 million less.

That 15.2 million dollars makes a huge difference. This upcoming off season, these players will be hitting the market:

Vladimir Guererro

John Lackey

Chone Figgins

Bobby Abreu

Mike NaPoli

Joe Saunders

Howie Kendrick

Jered Weaver

Erick Aybar

Jose Arredondo

Now these are just the players that I feel are key to the Angels future success, that 15.2 million dollars is looking awfully important now isn't it. You're looking at 3/5 of the starting rotation, and several key position players. Now that they don't have 29 million dollars tied up in 2 players, they have more than enough money to sign most if not all of these players to decent contracts.

The Angels are thrifty, but it's for a good reason.