As per annual tradition in Major League Baseball, each team ends the season by having each player conduct an exit interview with his manager.  Never ones to buck tradition, the Angels have already gone through the same process.  After such a rollercoaster ride of a season, the Angel players surely had some interesting thinks to talk about with the respected manager, Mike Scioscia.  Lucky for you, as always, Monkey With a Halo had secret cameras on hand in Scioscia's office to record those exit interviews so that we could present you with some of the most interesting excerpts from those interviews.  Let's see what everyone had to say:

Step on into Scioscia's office for a little chat, won't you?

The October 5th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Josh Hamilton slams the Angels, Lyle Spencer has another Mathis lovefest on Twitter, T.J. Simers takes some shots at Mike Scioscia and much more...

The Story: When asked about Mike Napoli, Josh Hamilton said, ”I think we’re going to look at who we can get from the Angels next year.”

The Monkey Says: Ex-Angels have been pretty good for the Rangers the last few year, so Hamilton's slam is a pretty good one.  But with Joel Pineiro, Fernando Rodney, Russell Branyan and (hopefully) Jeff Mathis, I dare Hamilton to put his money where his mouth is and sign one or more of those guys.

The Story: Lyle Spencer uses Hamilton's quote as a jumping off point for another Jeff Mathis lovefest.

The Monkey Says: I saw that Twitter exchange and thought Spencer was joking until the last one about Mathis fixing his stroke.  Really, Lyle, it is time to give up the ghost.

When it comes to finding a new general manager for the Angels, I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I have some special insider information on the specific names they might be targeting.  What I can do though, is evaluate the types of GM candidates they might go after and why.  Some options are more realistic than others and some of the more realistic ones might make you want to pull your hair out.  Let's break it down and figure who is who and what is what.

Raise your hand if you a potential general manager candidate for the Angels.  Not so fast, Moneyball Boy!

The October 4th, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including Forsch and Sutherland ousted, DiSarcina a possible candidate for the GM job, sources are uncertain if the Angels will show interest in Theo Epstein and much more...

The Story: The Angels have ousted assistant GM Ken Forsch and special assistant Gary Sutherland, both long-time members of the Angel front office.

The Monkey Says: Heads continue to roll in the front office and this is as good a sign as any that Arte Moreno is serious about bringing in a new leader for the front office and not just making a public spectacle to curry favor with the fans before installing another figurehead to take Reagins' place.  Of course, we can't rule it out completely because of this next story...

The Story: Gary DiSarcina and Tory Hernandez could be in-house candidates to be promoted to general manager.

The Monkey Says: DiSar would no doubt be popular amongst the fans, but he is still a guy that has been in part of the front office for a few years now and is thus infected by the Reagins stink.

Unless you happen to be talking to Tony Reagins' mother, you won't find a single person who doesn't think the Angels did the right thing by parting ways with their embattled general manager.  What you will get differing opinions on is exactly why it is Reagins was fired.

We all know how catastrophic his trades for Vernon Wells and Scott Kazmir were.  His negotiations with big name free agents are the subject of punchlines across the league.  The contracts he did actually work out mostly blew up in his face.  Even a die-hard Reagins apologist would have a hard time disputing those claims, so it is safe to say that Arte Moreno definitely had cause to kick Tony to the curb.  That's not the question here.  Ridding himself of Reagins is merely a means to an end for Moreno, we just don't know what that end is.

The October 3rd, 2011 edition of daily news for the LA Angels including all kinds of reaction to the firing of Tony Reagins, speculation on candidates to be the new GM, Callaspo involved in paternity dispute and much more...

The Story: Did Tony Reagins gets fired or did he resign?

The Monkey Says: The big quote that keeps getting putting out there was the quote from team president John Carpino that "this wasn't a plan."  I don't know how much I really buy that, though it certainly was curious that Reagins just the day before was making the rounds in the media talking about plans for the off-season.  I have a hard time believing he wasn't fired or, at a minimum, given several ultimatums that he had to operate under if he wanted to keep the job that he might've ultimately decided it wasn't worth it.

The Story: Reagins last words about his supposed plans before he got fired.

The Monkey Says: This is the talk in the media I was talking about.  The obvious quotes that catch attention are the ones about getting more creative and aggressive.  That those adjectives were the focal point of the discussion that precipitated Reagins getting let go should tell you all you need to know about what the organization thought about his ability to lead the front office in such a manner.

This just in, Tony Reagins has "resigned" as GM of the Angels, which is a fancy way of saying he was fired.  Here's the story via Hardball Talk:

If the Angels are indeed going to be “creative and aggressive” this offseason they’ll do so with a new general manager, as Tony Reagins announced his resignation.

Angels owner Arte Moreno issued a statement saying that “in moving forward, we felt a change was needed.”

Clearly huge news.  This is an announcement that Angel fans had been praying for since the disastrous 2011 off-season.  I have to say, I am slightly shocked since the Angels aren't always a reactive management team, so I did think Reagins had a shot at being give this off-season to try and save his job, but clearly Arte Moreno has seen enough.  This change at the top will have a major fallout on the entire off-season plan for the Angels, so seeing not just who, but the kind of GM they select to take over at general manager will be crucial.  Will they move to embrace statistics more?  Will they hire a big name?  Will they follow the trend of hiring a young up-and-comer?  Will they send an apology fruit basket to Eddie Bane?

I'll have more on this later today or tomorrow, but for now, just know that we are finally free of Tony Reagins era of hit-or-miss (more miss than hit) maneuvers.