Fans absolutely eviscerate the LA Angels in latest Sam Blum survey

Angels fans are no strangers to complaining about their team, and they absolutely should. When The Athletic's Sam Blum announced he was conducting his yearly Angels fan survey, fan blowback was more than expected. The fans' favorite team just emerged from their organizational nadir, and have not made the playoffs in ten years yet are farther away from the playoffs than ever. The fans need to cope with the once-great Angels' failures, at least the ones that have not jumped ship. Blum hammered home the notion that the franchise is losing fans, which is exemplified by the record low responses on his survey.

The most interesting facets of Blum's survey were the fans answers to the first two questions: How confident are you in the Angels’ direction? How would you rate Arte Moreno’s work as owner?

On the confidence in direction, Blum wrote: "We now have four years of data from fans on this important question. In 2022, 42.8 percent of respondents said they were either somewhat or very confident. In 2023, that dipped to 30.1. In 2024, it fell to 8.4 percent. This year, it’s roughly the same, at 9.7 percent."

On Moreno's leadership as the owner: "Nearly everyone who took this poll rated Moreno poorly, with 94.9 percent of respondents saying he was either below average or poor. That’s worse than the 90.1 percent of respondents from last year, the 87.4 percent from 2023, and 76.1 percent in 2022."

The team's strategy, communication, and leadership are seemingly always lacking compared to the standards other organizations have set. Moreno needs to go, and once he does these responses will skyrocket. Perry Minasian, Ron Washington, and co. will not get completely admonished while Moreno hangs around.

Now, the future of the Angels does look more rosy looking towards 2025 than it did last year -- when the team was about to enter their first season without rostering Shohei Ohtani since 2018. The fans certainly are entitled to rip the team after what they saw last season, but there are myriad reasons to believe they will not see that product they saw in 2024 replicated moving forward.

The Angels have assembled a promising, young, talented core group of players that are more battle-tested in the form of Zach Neto, Logan O'Hoppe, José Soriano, Caden Dana, Christian Moore, and Ben Joyce. Their second tier core group of players is solid in its own right: Nolan Schanuel, Jack Kochanowicz, Reid Detmers, Jo Adell, Ryan Zeferjahn, and Chase Silseth. They have the no. 2 pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, which could easily become a franchise cornerstone. Whether they pick Ethan Holliday, Jace LaViolette, or the best pitcher available, in a matter of months the fans will have another promising youngster to throw their full weight of fandom behind, as well as great value picks at the top of every subsequent round (the Angels did not lose their compensatory second round draft pick as they did not sign a player with an attached qualifying offer).

Then obviously there's Mike Trout, who is under contract for another six seasons. The entire baseball world is clamoring to see him on the field yet again, and will root for his health and well-being the rest of his career. Angels fans do not have a lot, but they have their homegrown future Hall of Famer if nothing else.

Yusei Kikuchi pitched like a demon for the Astros last season, and the Angels locked him up for the next three seasons. He wants to be in Anaheim, which feels great. Taylor Ward is putting together a solid career for the Halos. Jorge Soler has the talent to put a good amount of balls in seats at the Big A. Travis d'Arnaud could spearhead a shift in pitching philosophy and develop O'Hoppe the next two years.

Power rankings will not be kind to the Angels anytime soon. However, the group that is in place can do damage if they can actually stay healthy. Or at least healthier than other American League teams. The team vowed to compete in 2025, but the team is more set up to make a run in 2026. MLB fans are always going to find things to complain about, and Angels fans perhaps have the best case to be perpetually aggrieved. However, the more the franchise gets removed from Ohtani's departure, the better things will feel. Just hang in there, everybody.

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