The Launch Angle

so the Arte Moreno quote that has angels fans (and mlbpa) upset is:

“The number one thing fans want is affordability. They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top five.”

He said he had data and surveys to back that up. I don’t doubt it. Part of me even believes it given how out of hand prices have gotten, specifically for sporting events. 

But what’s Moreno’s incentive to sell the team? I bet it’s still making money hand over fist even if the team is bad. In fact, I’d wager that one of the more profitable ways to run an MLB team isn’t to do so in a way that makes it likely to be a top winning team.

My guess is that billionaires aren’t really affected by what shirtless protestors think and don’t care. They live in their own world where they can do or have anything because money is no object to them.

Sucks for Angels fans (and I do feel bad for them), but I can’t see MLB forcing him to sell for any of this. They’re essentially just gonna have to wait until Moreno gets bored of having a baseball team.

The other thing is that it’s not like Moreno has been super cheap. He just doesn’t get any value out of anything he spends his money on. Sign Pujols, a massive star to a huge contract and then…. get 12 WAR from him in 10 years. Go after Gerritt Cole, who picks the Yankees instead (which is understandable),so he signs Rendon instead who was an MVP candidate and just won the world series to a massive deal… and then get 3.5 WAR for it.

He’s just bad at running a baseball team. Being bad at your job is usually something that gets you fired in the real world, but not if you’re the owner.