Arte Moreno shows baseball who's boss

December, 10, 2011

12/10/11

3:32

PM ET

By Jim Bowden | ESPN.com

After years of watching his team be outbid in the free-agent market, Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno took matters into his own hands this past week by signing the best player in baseball, Albert Pujols, and the best pitcher on the free-agent market, C.J. Wilson.

While Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto was lauded for the Angels’ bold moves at the winter meetings, he deflected any credit for signing All-Star first baseman Albert Pujols.

“That was all Arte Moreno and his family,” Dipoto said.

Indeed, the list of free agents the Angels have missed out on reads like a future Hall of Fame ballot: Mark Teixeira, Carl Crawford, Cliff Lee, Adrian Beltre, among others. However, upon examining a flat market with typical big spenders such as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies already equipped with All-Star first basemen and thus sitting out the bidding for Pujols and Fielder, Moreno saw that the time to strike was now.

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ABOUT THIS BLOG

Jim Bowden

Bowden, who served as the senior vice president and GM for the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals, is an analyst for ESPN.com. In 1992, Bowden became the youngest GM in MLB history when the Reds hired him at age 31. The Reds finished in first place twice during his 10 years as GM, and he was named MLB Executive of the Year by Baseball America in 1999. After working for ESPN in 2004, Bowden became the first GM of the Washington Nationals when the franchise relocated from Montreal to Washington, D.C., in 2005, working in that role until the 2009 season. Bowden co-hosts the "Inside Pitch" radio show on Sirius XM satellite radio. Follow on Twitter: @JimBowdenESPNxm.