The Dumpster of LA Baseball

The Los Angeles Angels are a dumpster fire of a team and haven't been a contender in the last 12 years. Reports of minor league farm systems failing and many other things make it one of the worst teams in baseball. Not the absolute worst, but still filled with huge mediocrity. I'm willing to bet they didn't want the Feds involved. This is two years in the making since the passing of the team's pitcher, Tyler Skaggs. Skaggs passed away from a drug overdose in July of 2019. Prosecution is now trying to pin the death on ex-employee Eric Kay.

Supposedly and according to articles from sites like CBS 2 and KCAL 9, Kay was also handing out drugs to a handful of other players. I'm assuming Angel players and that handful are looking to testify in court if they haven't already. Kay was indicted last year and trying to get the trail in motion has had times of delay. One of the drugs that was allegedly supplied was oxycodone along with fentanyl. Oxycodone is legal and can be used as a prescription. I don't know what prices are for it, but not going the legal method is a very serious matter.

I'm no legal expert, but the testimonies of those players I think will land Kay in jail for a very long time. This is no slap on the wrist with it being a federal thing. You add in those guys and Skaggs' death, he's not seeing freedom for the rest of his life if found guilty. This is a slap in the face for the team, who got a no-hitter on Skaggs' birthday not too long after the passing. I'm sure there are other teams that do this sort of stuff and not just baseball. For baseball, they've had to deal with steroids for the last 15 plus years. With all sports, there have been big name players who got caught and suspended hugely.

Fentanyl is very, very lethal. I just heard of a story in my neck of the woods of it being laced into other drugs, killing a couple of people. There has to be a way to get this stuff off the streets as best as law enforcement can do. This is not going to look pretty on Kay. It's part of a huge black eye for Major League Baseball, the Angels, and Los Angeles. I hope Skaggs' death can be used as a lesson to keep kids from doing drugs. Staying clean is worth living a full life.

Angels With Filthy Meds

When Len Bias died in 1986, an initiative was made to stop narcotics no matter what and bring punishing sentences for anyone involved. That death was because of cocaine. The latest news involving the late Tyler Skaggs, who passed away two months ago, might have bad consequences for the LA Angels. His cause of death has been revealed to be from alcohol and opioids. Opioids are legal if it is a prescribed medication. The stories from sites like the LA Times have said about the pitcher having fentanyl and oxycodone.

The big kicker could be someone within the Angel organization giving him those opioids illegally. If that's the case, someone is going to jail. But as I said, it's legal if it's prescribed. It could have been an accidental death on his part and if it was someone that gave it to him, I do think that person will still be in trouble. When you have drugs or medication combined with alcohol, it messes you up really bad. You hear these stories, whether it's the local person or someone famous, of their fatal cocktail before they succumbed to what they just had.

Sports and drugs have been an issue for sports leagues. I'm still trying to figure out how fertility sex drugs can be a performance enhancer. Obviously, steroids are bad. Anything like weed and pot is a huge concern. I'm not sure if there is anything the Skaggs family can do other than their attorney looking into the investigation, which is in Texas where Tyler passed as the Angels were preparing for a couple series in that state. Obviously, the Angels have their own attorneys looking into this. It's sad, because that no-hitter hours before his birthday on July 12th may not mean anything to some players. This story is going to grow more and I don't think there is a conclusion that will come any time soon. All you can hope for is some closure and maybe justice if someone gave Skaggs the opioids illegally. 

Is 430 Million Too Much?

As the years have gone on, I think baseball has gotten more greedier and greedier. We're starting to see a handful of players getting paid more than 30 million a year to play 162 games. In the wake of this week's signing, I have no clue what the LA Angels are doing.

The teams main attraction is Mike Trout. He is one of the big faces for California baseball, California sports, and the MLB. Now, he possesses one of the biggest deals ever. It is a 12 year contract extension that is worth 430 million all together. That means Trout is with the Angels until 2030. Similar to Bryce Harper, he is set to play some of his prime years. It makes a lot of sense because he is one of the very few examples of a five tool player. An example of a good average, power, speed, arm strength, and fielding.

That being said, the Angels may not be learning from their mistake in 2012 when they signed Albert Pujols. But even with that, they got Pujols around the end of his prime and fresh off playing 11 years with St. Louis. Who knows what could happen to Trout. For all we know, he could keep putting up monster numbers. But that's all a guess. And a guess I'll have is how do they handle the contract and try and get players to Los Angeles to turn them into contenders. It makes sense to keep him around until his career ends. But can the Angels change their losing ways?

The big teams in California baseball have been the LA Dodgers and San Francisco. Oakland has slowly the last five years surprised the league with their success. If the Angels can look at the blueprints of those teams, then they can be smart with their decisions and piece together a team for Trout. If not, this will be a huge waste of talent with great stats but on a garbage team.