How the Los Angeles Angels have become the Colorado Rockies of the American League

The Colorado Rockies have long been an organization that is been one that is poorly run. Rumblings of that claim have been around for the better part of a decade but become very apparent in the last few years. One team that has become increasingly similar to the Colorado Rockies in many ways is the Los Angeles Angels.

There’s a reason why neither team has been a serious playoff contender or threat in over a decade, despite making the playoffs a combined three times since 2010.

The Los Angeles Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies have too many similarities in how poorly run they are.

Both the Los Angeles Angels and the Colorado Rockies have many things in common.

One thing that is going well for both teams is their managers. Colorado manager Bud Black and Angels manager Joe Maddon both coached together on the Angels from 2000 through 2005, when Maddon left the Angels to become the manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. One year later, Black got his owner managerial gig with the Padres.

Since then, Maddon has managed over 2,500 MLB games with the Rays, Cubs, and Angels, Black over 2,000 with the Padres and Rockies, and both still are great friends.

Black, who Maddon calls “Pepe” and “Mr. Freeze,” doesn’t have quite the winning pedigree that Maddon has as a manager (Maddon has made it to the postseason in eight of his 16 seasons as a full-time MLB manager including a World Series title with the Cubs in 2016 and Black has made it to the postseason just twice in 14 seasons as a manager) but Maddon has had a lot more talent on his teams than Black.

But after those two, things start to fall apart for each franchise.