The 100 Greatest Angels - #69, Jason Thompson

Originally drafted by the Dodgers, the Tigers redrafted him after playing for CSU Northridge; he came up with them in 1976 at the tender age of 21. The next two seasons, he made the All Star team, a fact that was no doubt influenced by the fact that he hit 15 and 17 homers in the first three months of the 1977 and 1978 seasons.

The 1979 Angels squad was both injury-plagued and lacking in power. Injuries to Don Baylor and Brian Downing, which had forced a trade of Al Cowans the year before, were multiplied by injuries to Joe Rudi and Dan Ford.  It was also a trade of one disappointing player for another; Thompson hadn't hit anything like the 31 homers he clubbed in his sophomore season for the Tigers, and Cowans hadn't done much of note since his atypical 1977 season, when he hit 23 homers (he was in single digits all other years).  Buzzie Bavasi justified the trade at the time by saying, "... we made the deal not only for this year, but for the future as well."

It was, of course, self-delusion, as the Angels of that era found it impossible to settle on a strategy to build the club, a situation made worse by the ALCS loss to the Orioles.  With pitching now becoming the thing missing at the moment, Bavasi traded Thompson to the Pirates for catcher Ed Ott, who was to play only one more year in the majors, and swingman Mickey Mahler, who pitched a grand total of 14.1 innings over two seasons with the Angels.  Upon hearing of his trade, Thompson said he thought the Angels had panicked about the pitching situation; it turned out he was right.