O. C. Register: Dipoto not ready to call Angels a disappointment

Keep pulling, Fitzcarraldo…keep pulling!

“At this point, I won’t qualify it as a disappointment. We have 18 games left and we’re in a position at the end to control our own destiny,” Dipoto said before Friday’s game.

The prevailing belief, though, is that the Angels should not be in this predicament – on the outskirts of the wild-card chase while less-heralded (and much less expensive) teams like the A’s and Orioles run away from them. Dipoto disagrees, pointing to baseball’s propensity for occasionally failing to follow expected form.

“What I would say to someone who says we shouldn’t be in this position is – they probably haven’t watched a lot of baseball. It’s got a funny way of working out sometimes,” Dipoto said. “And we have 18 games to prove what we’re capable of. We have had streaks of it throughout the season, up to and including anything prior to the past three days (against the A’s). We were gangbusters going into it.”

...“There are quite a few teams being outplayed by Oakland and Baltimore,” Dipoto said. “The Baltimore Orioles are a great story that periodically happens in baseball – and that could include the 2002 version of the Angels.

“At the end of the day, you’re going to have to compare it (payrolls). That’s part of the story. In this particular instance, if you’re an Oakland A’s or Baltimore Orioles supporter – it’s a great story. If you’re the rest of us who are sitting here looking at their back sides and trying to figure out how to catch them, it’s not so much fun. But they are not pretend teams. They’re good.”