Angels rumors: Manager unhappy with Josh Hamilton
By Bryan Rose
When the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim decided to sigh Josh Hamilton to a five-year, $125 million dollar contract, many questioned the move.
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There’s no doubt that Josh Hamilton has always been talented as evidenced during his time with the Texas Rangers, but he wasn’t your prototypical situation either. Making such an investment was rather questionable and now the Angels, currently in the midst of that albatross deal, are unhappy with the results.
One person who is specifically fed up is Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who recently fired some shots at Josh Hamilton,
“Josh is not the same that we saw when we were looking at the other dugout,” Scioscia said. “He’s not in the batter’s box with the confidence we know he has. He’s not attacking the ball like he can. He’s working hard to try to find it …but we need him to do what he’s capable of doing, or close to that.”
Hamilton, who is the second year of his five-year deal hasn’t been awful by any stretch, but when you’re paying somebody such a large salary you expect MVP like numbers. The outfielder hasn’t been able to produce such as he’s hitting just .266 with with 8 home runs and 35 RBI in 72 games this season.
Sadly, those numbers look pretty good in comparison to his first season in Southern California where he struggled to achieve a .250 average.
It seems as if Scioscia is attempting to light a fire under Josh Hamilton, though it remains to be seen if such will actually work and yield positive results.