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Top 10 Reasons to Fire Scioscia

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Hey Halos Heaven, I'm a new poster and longtime Angels fan who has not had much to say with how they've run the team through the years. Until now. Let's be honest for a minute as a fanbase: 2015 has really sucked. From a weak FA draw, to execs admitting to the world that the front office sucks, to the complete mediocrity of this team, we all just want 2015 over with. Rehiring Stoneman as the interim GM was a good start, and seemingly no GM can stop the train wreck of an ownership known as Arturo Moreno, but there is one thing we can still do to fix the problems at hand. Bye, Bye Lasagna Mike!

Firing the manager can seem like a brash move, but what follows are ten good reasons to clean house and start again.

1. Let's Get the Record Straight

Soth as we all know has a .547 win percentage in the regular season and .438 in the postseason. He's finished above .500 11 of the 15 years (which is not bad) and had one spectacular 100 win season (2008). But in postseason series since '02 we've only won a painful 2 of 8 times (not great) and had no other pennants since the lone WS. There is not much to be said about a manager that can't get it done in the big games.

2. Speaking of '02...

Look at the coaching staff who backed him up and tell me that you don't think they had more to do with it than him:

Pitching Coach: Bud Black: Manger, San Diego Padres (2007-2015) 649-713 with no budget for hitting + Petco Park

Hitting Coach: Mickey Hatcher, a.k.a Scioscia's lapdog

Manager: Lasagna Mike, see rest of article

1st Base: Alfredo Griffin, longtime base coach for the Angels

3rd Base: Ron Roenicke: Manager, Milwakee Brewers (2010-2015) 342-331 and winning the most games in a season in Brewers history (96 win 2010)

Bench: Joe Maddon: Manager, Tampa Bay Rays (2006-2014) 754-755 AND Chicago Cubs (2015) sitting pretty at 44-36 geared to make a wild card berth.

3. The plethora of other managers available

Besides the clear ex-'02 coaches that have recently become available, there are dozens of great managers not currently running teams. Joe Torre, Ron Gardenhire, Tony La Russa, Dusty Baker, Ozzie Gullien, Bo Porter, Willie Randolph, and Ron Washington are all guys who should be on the list of managers to kick the tires on at least. And if none of them will do it, we can always promote up Baylor, right?

4. Always. Leaving. A. Pitcher. In. One. Goddamn. Inning. Too. Long! Raaaahhhhhh!

No contest that one of the most infuriating things as an Angels fan is to see the team give up a half dozen runs when a starter or reliever is left out there just one inning too long. We need a manager who is an effective communicator and should be able to talk to his pitchers about when they are getting too tired to continue. A coach should know just when a guy has had too much (and no that is not after he gets his tits lit for 7ER after 6IP).

5. His appearance of utter complacency and lack of interest during the games.

Scioscia only appears to be thinking about one thing during Angels games: his next donut. Honestly, I could not picture a manager looking more bored than when his team is on the field. I want the Angels to have someone at the helm with some passion for baseball (Maybe it rubs off on the fans at the game who don't cheer until there's a goddamn monkey on the screen). A more electric manager will fire up the players, and thus the crowd, to give us all something to root for and bond over as fans.

6. The DiPoto problem

As an Angels fan, I was excited to get DiPoto as a GM. A young, fresh GM who loves the stats and wants to continue winning and push the Angels back to the WS. Sounds great. Although he had his share of bad signings both pushed upon him (Pujols, Hamilton) and of his own (Blanton. Dear God Why?), he ultimately had to quit because Lasagna Mike wouldn't follow basic scouting reports of Hot/Cold zones, defensive shifts, and spray charts. Forget advanced analytics like some teams are using now. How can a manager (even one as entrenched as Soth) ignore these basic attempts at increasing his team's success. Did he realize that DiPoto, despite his misses, has the same ultimate goal of a ring and a pennant? Scioscia's consistent demand for following "feel" has left us with a season of Chris Ianetta batting 8th/9th during his peak offensive year and continuous failed attempts of Aybar in the leadoff spot. Not to mention that Pujols and Trout should be split so that Trout can steal freely (as we know that Pujols hates having people steal in front of him). How many games have we lost simply to lineup construction? I have no problem with experimenting, except that he keeps going back to the same experiments. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me hundreds of times over a decade and a half, call me the longest tenured manager in the MLB. It's time for Scioscia to read one or two of those newfangled "scouting reports".

7. Our savior Mike Trout, praise be unto his Troutiness

When you have the best hitter in the game, there is only one goal that matters: set him up to be successful more often than not. However, Trout's continued success seems to be in spite of Soth, not because of him.He could have more RBI if there were higher OBP players (Aybar, Giovatella) hitting in front or steal more bases if separated more from Pujols. But the problem is that Pujols seems to be the cornerstone of the lineup, not Trout. When the best player in baseball gets a marquee lineup centered around his talents, the Angels' lineup won't suck so hard. Period.

8. Longest Tenured Manager. For Now...

So we've had Soth for 15 seasons now. The longest tenured managers behind him are Bochy, who was hired in 2006 (but has 3 WS titles), and Girardi (2007/ 1 WS). At a certain point, a new and refreshing point of view is good for an organization. Sometimes a renewed hope lies only as far as a new captain at the helm of the ship (maybe one who likes to play nice with the first mate/GM). I hope that Moreno soon enough wants a new manager that he can call his own, instead of a Disney era holdover.

9. This quote by his former manager, the great Tommy Lasorda.

"If he raced his pregnant wife, he'd finish third".

Mediocrity in your playing career doesn't make you a great manager or leader. Plus, while on the tangent of Tommy Lasorda quotes, who doesn't love Scioscia's consistently bland and dull postgame interviews. Give us something quotable once in a while Soth! It's not like you're going anywhere (unless we at HH have anything to say about personnel choices.

10. A quote that sums up Scioscia's whole coaching philosophy

Oh my lord...

A style of play that clearly doesn't work anymore. Who's with me?

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