Angels Owner Arte Moreno on Friday reiterated the team's decision to "not chase one of the premier free-agent bats they desperately needed did not stem from a refusal to exceed" the $189M luxury-tax threshold, according to Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. Moreno said, "It has never been about that. It has never been with the threshold." Gonzalez noted the Angels "enter the season with a projected Opening Day payroll" of about $165M, a club record that is roughly $20M "ahead of where they began last season." Moreno said that his operating budget "is supposed to sit" somewhere in the $140-150M range. Moreno: "We have a budget. And every year, I've overspent our budget." Gonzalez noted the biggest issue with the threshold "is the escalating penalty," at 30% for second-time offenders, 40% for third-time offenders and 50% for those who "exceeded the mark at least four consecutive years." Moreno: "The reality is it's a business. And right now the economics don't add up for us to go invest that kind of money." Moreno did not "go into specifics on the Angels' revenue streams, simply suggesting that the team is barely avoiding debt -- despite drawing more than 3 million fans for 13 straight years" and signing a reported 20-year, $3B media-rights deal with FS West in '11 (MLB.com, 2/19).
COME TOGETHER: In California, Elliott Teaford wrote new Angels GM Billy Eppler and manager Mike Scioscia "see eye-to-eye, which was not the case" when Jerry Dipoto was GM. Eppler said Scioscia is "an information savant." That means Eppler and Scioscia are "on something resembling the same page." Eppler is a "proponent of the analytics that Dipoto claimed Scioscia wouldn't share with his players." With the hiring of Quantitative Analysis Dir Jonathan Luman, Eppler "established the first analytics department in Angels history." Scioscia "is on board." He said Luman's staff is "freakin' really, really bright" (Torrance DAILY BREEZE, 2/22).
