LA Angels: Where Are The Angels Now 2002 Edition

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

The Coaches

Players make good seasons. Coaches turn those good seasons into great ones. The coaching staff for the 2002 Angels churned out 3 future big league managers. Mike Scioscia was able to keep the Angels competitive for the next decade, even with the talent from the 2002 team leaving fairly quickly.

Scioscia would lead the team to five American League West titles in the next six years. While the past two years have been dreadful, Scioscia has kept the Angels competitive for most of his tenure. His future may be in doubt, but two years of bad baseball does not mean Scioscia does not deserve his due diligence.

Pitching coach Bud Black would continue being one of the best in the league at his job. He stayed with the Angels until 2006. Then, in 2006, Black was one of the top candidates for head coaching positions around the league.

He interviewed with the Giants, but would eventually end up signing with the San Diego Padres. He spent eight seasons with the Padres before being fired 65 games into the 2015 season. His peak as a manager was in 2010, when he won the National League Manager of the Year Award. Black now works as a special assistant to Angels’ general manager Billy Eppler.

Ron Roenicke served as the Angels’ third base coach from 2000-2006. He would stay with the team as a base coach and bench coach until 2010, when he accepted the manager job from the Milwaukee Brewers.

His first season was an amazing success, as he lead the Brewers to a 96-66 record along with the NL Central title, their first in 29 years. His success would not last though, as the club went downhill over the next two years. After starting the season 7-18, Roenicke was released. He was signed as the Dodgers’ third base coach later in 2015, but would end up back in Anaheim as the third base coach in 2016.

Bench coach Joe Maddon has undoubtedly been the most successful of the crew. He has led the Chicago Cubs to their first World Series in nearly seventy years, and is on the cusp of winning their first since 1908.  He spent 31 years in the Angels’ organization as a player and coach. In 2006, he landed his first manager job in 2006, when he accepted an offer from the Tampa Bay Rays.

With a manager always selling top players for top prospects, Maddon had a 754-705 record. After leaving Tampa Bay in 2014, he signed on with the young, promising Chicago Cubs. World Series favorites each of the past two years, he has finally capitalized and reached his first World Series. The Cubs are young and arguably have the best manager in the game, so a Maddon dynasty could be in the making.