When Orange County Angels scouting director Eddie Bane was fired last winter, observers couldn't help wondering why. The Angels had been the American League West's best franchise for roughly a decade, and solid drafting had played a big role.
Fired Angels Scouting Director Cries Foul
Well, yesterday Bane talked to Bill Shaikin and didn’t pull any punches:
Eddie Bane ... was fired last winter by General Manager Tony Reagins. The Angels did not publicly explain the decision.
Bane said he does not accept the reason Reagins gave him - that the Angels’ recent drafts were poor.
“Tony and I don’t like each other,” Bane said Tuesday. “I don’t think that’s a reason to get fired. Personality clashes are never any fun. I don’t blame him for thinking I’m not the greatest guy in the world. He’s not a guy I would want to hang out with. I’m sure he feels the same way about me.
“He told me, ‘I’m not happy with the last three drafts.’ That’s ludicrous.”
As Shaikin points out, the 2008 draft produced Tyler Chatwood (who's been decent this season, at best) but not much else (yet). The 2009 draft produced super-prospect Mike Trout and pitcher Garrett Richards, who debuts against the Yankees tonight. It's too early to say much about the 2010 draft. Bane had been the scouting director since 2004, though; taken as a whole, I suspect he would look pretty good.
Which doesn’t mean that Reagins wasn’t being sincere about the last three drafts. Maybe the Angels just weren’t drafting his sorts of players.
Bane says he and Reagins don’t like each other, though. Considering that Bane was the scouting director and Reagins the director of player development for years, both presumably considered themselves candidates to replace Bill Stoneman as general manager when Stoneman retired. There might have been a rivalry there, which presumably didn’t disappear when Reagins got the nod as Stoneman’s replacement after the 2007 season.
In fact, the only surprise here is that Bane lasted as long as he did, three more years.
I'm not a big fan of Tony Reagins' recent work. Torii Hunter's contract now looks pretty bad. Vernon Wells' looks a lot worse. Reagins blew a bunch of money on Scott Kazmir, and essentially gave Mike Napoli away. But the Angels have won since Reagins took over, and it seems unrealistic to expect him to continue working with a scouting director when the two of them had an apparently irreconcilable personality clash.
I’ve spent some time with Eddie Bane, and I liked him. But there are plenty of people who don’t like me, and if one of them were my boss I wouldn’t expect him to work with me for long.
See More:
