Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno's impetuosity is renowned in baseball -- from his sudden, frantic pursuit of then-free agents Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, copious front-office changes and near-constant zigzagging of organizational priorities. So at first glance, yes: His team's 12-game losing streak looks like the perfect trigger for a volcanic boss to oust a manager.
But the team's decision to fire Joe Maddon and replace him with interim skipper Phil Nevin goes beyond Moreno -- and its roots run much deeper than the past two weeks of bad baseball.
For months, evaluators around the league had been reporting unhappiness over Maddon's day-to-day decisions, a sentiment leaking more and more frequently out of the Angels organization.