It seems like every week a baseball team loses a World Series architect. First it was Walt Jocketty, who stepped down/was pushed out in St. Louis; then it was John Schuerholz, who relinquished general manager duties for the Braves to take on the role of team president. Today, it's Angels GM Bill Stoneman, whose expected to announce today that he's stepping down to become a team consultant. Tony Reagins, the team's current director of player development, is expected to replace him. Stoneman had his share of successes and failures with the Angels, with the high-point clearly being the World Series win over the Giants in 2002. The team has remained competitive since then, and as FanHouse colleague Larry Brown details off-site, Stoneman's work to stock the minor league system leaves the Angels with a solid foundation of young talent for next several years with only one bad contract (Gary Matthews) to contend with.
Clearly, Reagins is stepping into an excellent situation, especially with the support of owner Arte Moreno, who's proven that he's willing to spend to make the team a winner. Also, there may come a day when this is no longer notable, but it's worth pointing out that Reagins is African-American. As the LA Times points out, he'll join Ken Williams of the White Sox and Omar Minaya of the Mets as the only minority general managers in the major leagues.
