Since 2000, Mike Scioscia has been the manager of the Angels. He has compiled a record of 1156-928, good for a 55.4% win rate (an average record of 89-73). In his 14 seasons, the Angels have only had 3 seasons where they finished sub .500. Only one of which has come since 2003.

Under Scioscia's tutelage, Angel fans have been spoiled. Angel fans have become adjusted to the Angels playing October playoff baseball, being one of the elite teams in the American League, and expect a level of excellence most teams can only dream of achieving. Just ask the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals. They have had a combined two, yes two, winning seasons during Scioscia's tenure. However, there is now doubt about Sciosia's ability as a manager because the Angels have missed the playoffs for three straight seasons.

Have the last three seasons really been Scioscia's fault? The 2010 Angels never really had a chance. They attempted to replace the departure of the face of the franchise, Vladimir Guerrero, with Hideki Matsui. Outside of a great September he was an absolute bust that doomed the Angels with his inability to hit with runners on base. The 2011 season was the season of the infamous Vernon Wells trade. Who can forget that the Angels shipped out two middle of the order bats in Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli to have Wells be the new 4th hitter? Wells is one of the classiest athletes both on and off the field, but it was borderline insanity to expect him to be a competent 4th hitter. It is possible that these two years can be chalked up to terrible executive decisions, as evidenced by Tony Reagins "resigning".

The 2012 season falls squarely Scioscia's shoulders. Owner Arte Moreno and new General Manager Jerry DiPoto refused to accept another mediocre season. Their response? Giving the Angels roster an infusion of talent by signing Albert Pujols, C.J. Wilson, Latroy Hawkins, and Jason Isringhausen. Dipoto attempted to address the bullpen, line-up, and pitching staff all in one offseason. Despite the influx of talent, the Angels only managed 3rd place in the AL West as they played themselves to an 89-63 record. Although the Angels, especially Albert Pujols, got off to an awful start, even a Scioscia apologist cannot overlook Scioscia's ineffective management of the roster. He consistently relied too heavily on ancient veterans Isringhausen, Hawkins, and Scott Downs. This resulted in the Angel's bullpen blowing lead after lead after lead after lead after lead, well you get my point. As a result, Angel fans were left with a disappointing taste in their mouths as the World-Series bound Angels missed the playoffs for the third straight year.

This last series in Texas reminded me of something: Angel fans no longer have anyone to boo! Just look at all the fun those Texas fans had booing Josh Hamilton. Down by five runs? Texas Ranger fan don't care, just boo Josh Hamilton. And let's face it, with the way things are going for the team right now, we really need someone to boo, if only to blow off some steam.

Of course, Halo fans used to have a player to boo pretty much whenever they felt like in the form of Vernon Wells. Before him there Fernando Rodney and before him Scott Kazmir. And, of course, there was always Jeff Mathis. Let's face it, every incarnation of the Angel roster needs to have a goat. Not because we Angels fans are mean-spirited creeps, but rather because, like most fan bases, we have free floating anger that needs to be directed somewhere for the sake of our own mental health. It is essentially just a safety release valve and some poor sucker now needs to fill the role that Vernon vacated when he made his escape to New York.

But who will it be? This current Angels roster is, dare I say, pretty dang likeable. There is no obvious jerk, chump or underperformer on the roster (yet). We could sit back and wait for the a subject of scorn to emerge organically, but who has the patience for that? Let's just get down to it and pick a new public enemy #1 to be the target for all our misplaced angst:

Erick Aybar - Aybar certainly has his fans, but he also has plenty of detractors. It seems like Erick can't go more than a week with committing some sort of mental gaffe in the field, on the bases or at the plate. That certainly is annoying, but annoying enough for the fans to turn on an otherwise pretty solid player, I'm not so sure?

Howie Kendrick - I say Howie, you say GIDP! HOWIE! GIDP! HOWIE! GIDP! Yeah, that's what Howie is known for now, being terribly unclutch and finding ways to hit into double plays even with nobody on base. The real kicker for him though might be that we all had unbridled prospect love for him when he was being touted as a future batting champion and it is now painfully obvious that day will never come. Heck, I'm not even sure he is going to give hit over .300 again.

Sean Burnett - He's new so he has a clean slate, but he also has a crooked hat. We don't think too kindly 'bout crooked hats 'round these parts (spits into a spitoon). Maybe ya best put that hat on straight or get back in yer car and skeedaddle on outta here, boy.

With the Angel season off to an all too familiar and disappointing start, there was little doubt that the finger-pointing would soon follow. What we didn't expect was that the opening salvo in the Blame Game would come from a former Angel via Twitter.

Feel really bad for the old squad, I'll tell ya what, it's not the guys on the field. Better check the big (catorce)

— Trevor Bell (@TrevBe22) April 11, 2013

That tweet comes from Trevor Bell, who was released by the Angels last season after receiving spurts of playing time with the franchise from 2009 throyugh 2011. And his declaration that we check "the big (catorce)" is a not very cleverly veiled allusion to Mike Scioscia as catorce, for those of you that don't hable the espanol, is Spanish for the number fourteen, which is, of course Scioscia's number.

The immediate impulse here is to read too much into Bell's tweet. He obviously spent a fair amount of time under Scioscia's tutelage and is undoubtedly friends with many current Angels, especially the younger ones. Perhaps he is just giving us his opinion on Scioscia's managerial skill which has definitely come into question this week. But perhaps he is pulling back the curtain and giving us some real insight to what his former teammates have passed along to him as what they feel like is behind their early struggles.

Or maybe Bell is just a disgruntled former employee who wants to throw some shade on a former boss he didn't like. Let's face it, Bell was with the team for a few years but was used sporadically and sparingly. He might hold a grudge against Scioscia for never giving him a fair shake. It is worth noting that Bell was released at the end of spring by the Tigers, so it would seem that he is currently unemployed, so maybe there is something to the "disgruntled former employee with an ax to grind" angle.

Nonetheless, that this is even out there goes to show the state of the team and Scioscia's job security. If things don't turn around fast, this certainly won't be the last or the most high profile person to point the finger at The Big Catorce.

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The April 11th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including losing Weaver could be a blessing, Madson making progress and much more...

The Story: Jered Weaver's injury could be a blessing in disguise.

The Monkey Says: I like the optimism, but I think it is grasping at straws. There is a notion out there that Weaver is dealing with some sort of issue in his throwing arm and that a month off could help it heal. I suppose that is possible, but he had the whole off-season off and it didn't help his velocity at all.

The Story: Ryan Madson took a step forward in his rehab program.

The Monkey Says: Which surely means that tomorrow we'll hear that he is being shutdown with elbow tightness again.

I think we all expected the Angels pitching staff to be the brunt of our jokes this year. This was a starting rotation only mothers and sabermetric GM's could love. I must have stared at the rotation for about three days trying to convince myself this would work out. Jason Vargas can be decent at times. Tommy Hansen has the stuff if he can stay healthy. Weaver and Wilson are certainly paid to be top flight pitchers. The one weak link in all this was Joe Blanton. There is never going to be a single person who will ever convince me he should be a major league starting pitcher. Tonight's performance did nothing to dissuade that thought. Good thing we didn't sign him to a multi year contract. (wait, they did what? How much you say? I will now drink a gallon of lighter fluid.

Angels 5 A's 11

It looks like things are off to a terribly slow start in Anaheim once again; fortunately all us Angel fans are more than acquainted with slow starts from this team. The experience from last year just means the Angels fan base has the experience to know that we CAN furiously push on the panic this early. 

Whoopie!!!

Now I do understand that things are off to a more unfortunate start than a slow start if anything with Weaver out for 4-6 weeks and Aybar being pulled out of last night’s game, but aside from that there's absolutely no reason to be pushing the panic button already. Oh, you mean we went 2-4 to start the season, on the road, against playoff contenders. The Angels weren't fighting tooth and nail against Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to pull together pathetic victories; they went up against some of the best teams in baseball in the Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers. The fact that they lost the home opener to a red-hot playoff contender AND division rival doesn't do much to inspire panic in me, especially when the finishing blow was delivered by a notoriously unreliable reliever. As a matter of fact, I actually think that a lot of this bad streak to start the season is good for the Angels. Aside from losing Weaver and Aybar most of everything that's been going on for the Angels has been good for the team. Why?

For starters, this is the kind of bad streak that weeds out the "haves" from the "have not’s" on this team. Most importantly, we have been able to establish very early on the Scott Downs and Kevin Jepsen are relievers not to be trusted with close games. Jepsen has been notorious throughout his whole career with the Angels for being wildly unreliable; he's a guy who may show up with good enough stuff to get through an inning, but he is also just as likely to turn up with a jerry can full of gasoline ready to "light this baby up". Allowing Jepsen to come into close games consistently is just asking for serious trouble, and it's not like the Angels don't have better options in the 'pen this time around. The only time Jepsen should be allowed to pitch in a game is with a lead greater or equal to 3, anything less is putting the team in a risky situation. Jepsen isn't the kind of reliever who will fall apart for an inning but will only give up a few hits and a run or two. No, Jepsen is a guy who will let the team break the game completely open (which is exactly what we saw in the Angels home opener). Just like his appearance last night, in which he gave up 4 runs off two homers in 0.1 inning, Jepsen will make himself prone to the home-run ball and the big hit. 

Scott Downs, on the other hand, used to be incredibly reliable until the last half of 2012. Unfortunately it seems his age and fragile nature have caught up with him and made him go from being a wildly popular reliever to someone who should be stuck in the back of the 'pen. As shown in the home opener Downs couldn't come into the game without automatically turning it into a crapfest. Nothing can be considered "safe" with these two, especially a 1 run game against a crazy hot division rival. The good thing about these 2 relievers is that they've established their inability to pitch in close games early enough that Scioscia can effectively remove them from their duties and entrust other relievers with their roles. Sean Burnett may have been brought in as a lefty-heavy specialist, but he can get right-handed hitters out at a FAR better pace than Downs. Downs can't even get lefties out anymore, his job needs to be given to someone who has at least hasn't proven to be terribly unreliable. The key this year is Scioscia's ability to recognize these inefficiencies and replace them instead of letting the issues drag itself out as far as it possibly can until people start questioning his job. Fortunately I do not see that happening as Scioscia has had to have learned that his stubbornness does not work anymore. This bad streak is good for the Angels in that it has highlighted enough of our biggest problems that the management should be able to swiftly move in and fix everything up in an instant. 

The Angels just can't buy good press of late. Injuries are piling up. The slow start is causing unrest in the fanbase (again). And now, to top it all off, some rogue usher at the home opener last night decided to go on a crusade against fans who are actually positive and enthusiastic by kicking out a group of Angel fans who had the audacity to stand and cheer for their team. How dare they!

Unfortunately for our power-tripping usher, the fans he chose to pick on included Sarah Colonna who is a comedian and writer/panelist/actress on Chelseas Lately  and After Lately. Oops! Suffice it to say, she was none too pleased with her treatement and took to the ol' internets to share her side of the story.

 Here comes Trumbo...my friends and I continue to stand and cheer, as do some around us. The people behind us don't say anything, at this point everyone is getting along and wants the Angels to score. An usher comes over and tells us to sit down, which we're confused by. We sit, but my friend Tara, who is a long time fan and a season ticket holder, asks the usher why. She says "nobody is complaining, the bases are loaded, why can't I stand and cheer?"

....

At the top of the 7th inning, security comes over and asks the 3 of us to get up. We are so confused; we haven't even stood up, except to go to the bathroom, or get food or a drink, since the usher incident. But they insist we get up and everyone in the section boos security, several people yelled "they haven't even done anything." One guy yelled "these are $165 seats, are you seriously asking them to leave? They didn't so anything."

Damned celebrity and her entitled behavior! Thinking she can politely root for her favorite team and enjoy herself without bothering anybody. Who does she think she is?!?!

To here credit, Sarah isn't holding a grudge against he organization, but someone from the club would be well-advised to reach out and smooth things over. The last thing this team needs amidst this slow start, not to mention the dramatic rise in ticket prices at the Big A, is to start alienating ardent, high profile fans. At least wait until Josh Hamilton starts hitting before doing that.

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