Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / ANGELS MAILBAG (Part 2): Could Albert Pujols or Torii Hunter be a good fit for next Halos manager?

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ANGELS MAILBAG (Part 2): Could Albert Pujols or Torii Hunter be a good fit for next Halos manager? · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Well, hey Angel fans in welcome back to Halo territory.
0:09
Speaker 2: I am Mike D.
0:09
Speaker 1: Givanna, former Early Times Baseball writer and host of the show,
0:13
Speaker 1: and joining us as always Mark Strumble, the former Angel
0:17
Speaker 1: slugger and HT co host Mark, How you doing today?
0:21
Speaker 1: We got part two of the Angel's mail Bag. We
0:23
Speaker 1: got so many good questions we just didn't we didn't
0:27
Speaker 1: want to squeeze them into one mail bag. So hey,
0:29
Speaker 1: thanks again all our HT followers and loyal listeners. We
0:34
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. We're going to start out with a
0:35
Speaker 1: pretty interesting one from sc Halo. What's it going to
0:39
Speaker 1: take to bring some fire that was a fire emoji
0:44
Speaker 1: back to this organization? All this losing the past decade
0:47
Speaker 1: plus has become acceptable and no one seems to care.
0:51
Speaker 2: Who's going to bring accountability back? Well?
0:54
Speaker 1: I don't know that no one seems to care. There
0:56
Speaker 1: are people who care sc Halo. As far as bringing
1:00
Speaker 1: accountability back, I think it starts with the manager. We've
1:05
Speaker 1: talked about it on the show before. Neither Mark nor
1:08
Speaker 1: I are convinced that Kurt Suzuki is the guy to
1:14
Speaker 1: guide the ship moving forward. Just don't feel like he
1:18
Speaker 1: had his stern a hand on some of the you know,
1:22
Speaker 1: some of the things that happened earlier in the season,
1:24
Speaker 1: some of the pretty obvious lack of hustle on some players' parts,
1:29
Speaker 1: just you know, And if you want to say a
1:32
Speaker 1: lack of fire, yeah, you could call it that.
1:34
Speaker 2: It's funny.
1:34
Speaker 1: I started on the Angels beat in nineteen ninety five
1:37
Speaker 1: and Marcel Lashman, they you know, pitching coach by trade,
1:42
Speaker 1: was the manager, and they competed in ninety five. They
1:45
Speaker 1: blew that big ten or eleven game division lead. Ninety
1:49
Speaker 1: six was a bit of a mess. They just collapsed
1:51
Speaker 1: mid season and they weren't in it and last stepped
1:55
Speaker 1: down in August, August or September that year. And I
1:59
Speaker 1: remember at that time very distinctly that it was said
2:04
Speaker 1: that the Angels lacked fire much like this team, and
2:07
Speaker 1: they needed somebody to They needed somebody who was super
2:09
Speaker 1: intense to fire this team up. So they went to
2:13
Speaker 1: They went to Terry Collins route and Mark I don't
2:16
Speaker 1: know if we ever crossed path with Terry Collins, but
2:18
Speaker 1: he was on the smallest side, smallest side, and did
2:22
Speaker 1: not act like it. He was as fiery, as intense
2:26
Speaker 1: as they come. I remember a game in Baltimore ninety seven.
2:30
Speaker 1: I want to say, when Garrett Anderson did not hustle
2:33
Speaker 1: the first base on a ball back to the mound
2:36
Speaker 1: and he pulled them right in the middle of that
2:37
Speaker 1: game to send a message to Garrett Anderson. So a
2:41
Speaker 1: lot of intensity, a lot of fire, a lot of
2:44
Speaker 1: screaming matches. They competed in ninety seven and ninety eight,
2:48
Speaker 1: pretty good teams in it until you know, toward the
2:52
Speaker 1: end ninety nine full collapse team Many picked to win
2:55
Speaker 1: the division and they lost ninety something games place and
3:02
Speaker 1: Terry steps down in August. What happens then? We need
3:06
Speaker 1: we need a guy who's more stable, We need a
3:08
Speaker 1: more a guy who's more calm. They bring in Socia
3:12
Speaker 1: and look what happened there. So I don't know, Mark,
3:14
Speaker 1: You've played for a lot of Skippers over your career.
3:18
Speaker 1: Can I change in the and the manager's chair really
3:21
Speaker 1: do something to fire up a team? Or is today's
3:25
Speaker 1: game just uh, you know, are we beyond that point
3:28
Speaker 1: in today's game where motivation just has to come from within.
3:34
Speaker 3: I'd like to think a manager matters, at least from
3:38
Speaker 3: a strategic point of view. They absolutely matter. Lineup construction
3:44
Speaker 3: that's usually part front office, part manager, but in game decisions,
3:49
Speaker 3: pitching decisions. Many have been talked about this year. They've
3:53
Speaker 3: come up, some have worked, the majority maybe not so much,
3:58
Speaker 3: especially Well. You can just look at the number of
4:02
Speaker 3: games saved by this Angels club and it hasn't been many.
4:07
Speaker 3: But I mean, when I'm thinking about this, who's next, Well,
4:10
Speaker 3: I don't know if you want to go by who's
4:14
Speaker 3: in charge? Well, already is in charge, but John Mozelic
4:19
Speaker 3: and who does he know? Well, a notable angel, ex
4:23
Speaker 3: angel headed for the Hall of Fame, also a cardinal player.
4:28
Speaker 3: Is that set in stone? Not by any means.
4:31
Speaker 2: I have no clue.
4:32
Speaker 3: But what I do know is the Angels in the
4:34
Speaker 3: last handful of years have had all sorts of managers
4:38
Speaker 3: and very accomplished managers.
4:42
Speaker 2: You know, Phil Nevin.
4:42
Speaker 3: Doesn't get a lot of mentioned or appreciation, but he
4:47
Speaker 3: is a I think he did a very nice job.
4:50
Speaker 3: He's going to be overshadowed bigger names, you know, Joe Madden,
4:55
Speaker 3: Wash guys like that. But I think I think Phil
4:58
Speaker 3: did a nice job. And uh, I will say he
5:01
Speaker 3: demands players play hard. When he was with the Yankees
5:04
Speaker 3: coaching third I know he was the one that would
5:08
Speaker 3: pull guys to the side. I think maybe Volpe and
5:10
Speaker 3: some others Clabor Torres. Maybe it wasn't Vulpay. Maybe it
5:14
Speaker 3: was more tours, but some lack of hustle and it
5:17
Speaker 3: was addressed and in a you know, direct manner, wash
5:21
Speaker 3: and the cell phones. He'd let it rip, call guys out,
5:27
Speaker 3: and you know, you had all these these types of
5:30
Speaker 3: guys that they do command respect, and the teams have
5:33
Speaker 3: played like they have, so I'd say sometimes it's just
5:38
Speaker 3: a lack of talent on the field.
5:41
Speaker 2: It's no, I mean that's the reality. Uh yeah, not
5:45
Speaker 2: not everywhere.
5:46
Speaker 3: But but just not as much as the next team
5:48
Speaker 3: that may be doing bigger things.
5:50
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:51
Speaker 1: This sort of leads right into our next question from
5:53
Speaker 1: Jason Jones. You've talked a lot about how the clubhouse
5:56
Speaker 1: was with Soosha, Mike's Sosha. Is there a manager out
5:59
Speaker 1: there that can bring discipline back to the organization or
6:03
Speaker 1: does the front office now control that aspect of the organization? Now,
6:07
Speaker 1: good question from Jason. If any of you guys don't know,
6:11
Speaker 1: Mark was alluding to the one and only Albert Poolhosts,
6:15
Speaker 1: who apparently was a candidate for the job when they
6:19
Speaker 1: hired Kurt Suzuki.
6:21
Speaker 2: From what I've heard, from what.
6:23
Speaker 1: I know, I don't want to say Albert had a
6:27
Speaker 1: lot of demands, but I think he had more demands
6:29
Speaker 1: than Kurtzuzuki had, And especially in terms of accepting a
6:32
Speaker 1: one year contract, I think Albert would probably prefer a
6:36
Speaker 1: lot more control over the makeup, not just the coaching staff,
6:40
Speaker 1: but maybe some of the developmental staff and the player's
6:43
Speaker 1: operations staff. But you know what, talk about a guy
6:47
Speaker 1: with some gravitas, you know, say what you want about Albert.
6:52
Speaker 1: He could be a little prickly at times in the clubhouse.
6:54
Speaker 1: I actually would look forward to seeing how he handles
6:59
Speaker 1: the media every day and having to deal with us
7:02
Speaker 1: all the time. And we were always a thorn in
7:04
Speaker 1: his side. But we didn't have to talk to him
7:06
Speaker 1: every day while he was here, but he would as
7:09
Speaker 1: a manager have to address the media usually twice a day.
7:13
Speaker 2: That would be interesting.
7:14
Speaker 1: But I just think Albert was, for all of his
7:17
Speaker 1: amazing ability, one of the greatest right handed hitters in
7:19
Speaker 1: the game. He was very disciplined when it came to
7:23
Speaker 1: the fundamentals. He you know, nothing slid by with that guy.
7:28
Speaker 1: You know, he was one of the slowest runners in
7:30
Speaker 1: the game. He would steal bases off pitchers who weren't
7:33
Speaker 1: paying attention to him. He would take extra bases. He
7:36
Speaker 1: wasn't the most nimble of fielders, but he you know,
7:40
Speaker 1: he played himself into becoming a very adequate first baseman,
7:43
Speaker 1: could move over to third basement in an emergency.
7:47
Speaker 2: I mean, and the.
7:48
Speaker 1: Guy just would command I don't know you played with him, Mark,
7:51
Speaker 1: I think he would command respect in the clubhouse. I
7:54
Speaker 1: don't I'm not going to say you're never going to
7:56
Speaker 1: see some of the shenanigans we've seen this year with
8:00
Speaker 1: certain players who we won't name right here, but I
8:02
Speaker 1: think we all know who they are. You know, we
8:04
Speaker 1: saw Ron Washington address some of those last year with
8:07
Speaker 1: the shortstop. I just think a lot of that would
8:10
Speaker 1: be eliminated. And I also think they would be eliminated
8:13
Speaker 1: with the guy like Tory Hunter at the Helm too.
8:16
Speaker 1: I just think these are really different personalities than Kurt Suzuki.
8:20
Speaker 1: It's not not trying to knock Kurt. I really respect
8:24
Speaker 1: the career he had. I respect him for walking into
8:28
Speaker 1: a situation that really was a no end situation on
8:31
Speaker 1: a one year contract, nobe less. I mean, how many
8:34
Speaker 1: first time managers sign a one year deal. So credit
8:37
Speaker 1: to him for that, but it just doesn't seem like
8:40
Speaker 1: a great fit. What do you got on this summer?
8:43
Speaker 3: I think Kurt's done the best hepe possibly can and
8:49
Speaker 3: that's you know, that's not a joke. I hope Kurt,
8:52
Speaker 3: if he wants to stand the game, is put in
8:54
Speaker 3: a much better position in a future role. You know what.
8:59
Speaker 3: He could very well stay on his manager, but I think,
9:02
Speaker 3: you know, mentored by Manasian and really no on field
9:08
Speaker 3: managerial experience. People joke about coaching the youth ball, but
9:14
Speaker 3: Kurt knows. I think he's probably a bit handcuffed at times,
9:19
Speaker 3: just maybe the lack of experience. He darn well knows
9:22
Speaker 3: what it's like to play. He knows what the stuff
9:26
Speaker 3: from pitchers looks like, the timing and some of those things.
9:30
Speaker 3: But there's so many other things that go into managing.
9:32
Speaker 3: A guy like Buck Showalter has it all surrounded. I
9:36
Speaker 3: mean he, for instance, when I was rehabbing towards the
9:40
Speaker 3: end of my career and the big league team is
9:42
Speaker 3: off in whatever city I'm in, Sarasota, Florida, he's watching
9:46
Speaker 3: like a hawk through the remote cameras. But he had
9:51
Speaker 3: had so much he knew how to manage those things.
9:54
Speaker 3: In the first year, Skipper is going to have to.
9:57
Speaker 3: I mean, Kurt is still probably learning how to deal
10:00
Speaker 3: with the media a little bit and all these other
10:03
Speaker 3: things that might come very naturally to someone with more experience.
10:07
Speaker 3: And I'll say this about Albert, I mean, he was
10:11
Speaker 3: a great teammate. He posted, he took the field even
10:14
Speaker 3: when he was rarely even close to one hundred percent.
10:18
Speaker 3: I mean, I oftentimes it looked closer to fifty. But
10:21
Speaker 3: he went out there, he gave the best effort he had.
10:24
Speaker 3: I mean, if some of the things he what the
10:26
Speaker 3: freak are you doing out there? Is what I imagine he
10:30
Speaker 3: would say. He always preferred that adjective over the other one.
10:35
Speaker 3: And you know, it's commendable, it's you know, principled. But
10:40
Speaker 3: he as his cage routine extremely regimented, do not disturb
10:45
Speaker 3: when he's in there working, And I think that's how
10:48
Speaker 3: he treats everything. It's it's serious and these are the
10:51
Speaker 3: things that it takes to win. And you know he
10:53
Speaker 3: came up with the Cardinal way.
10:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can take a quick break for a word
10:58
Speaker 1: from responses and we come back. We'll lot more angels
11:00
Speaker 1: mailbag and a question about the new Catcher moball and
11:04
Speaker 1: we'll be right back.
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12:07
Speaker 1: And Welcome back to Halo Territory with Mark Trumboll and
12:11
Speaker 1: Mike D. G Giovanna and part two of the Angels Mailbag.
12:15
Speaker 1: Question from John Meirs can Moises Bia Steros aka Moballer
12:20
Speaker 1: and prove enough to be an everyday catcher?
12:22
Speaker 2: If so, how I only.
12:25
Speaker 1: Caught one mirror one year in my life and my
12:28
Speaker 1: first year of Baby Ruth League ball. Mark, I'm not
12:30
Speaker 1: even going to attempt to answer this question. Well, I
12:33
Speaker 1: was sort of curious if you knew of any catchers
12:37
Speaker 1: at sort of similar stages of their career in their
12:40
Speaker 1: early twenties, maybe in their first year in the big leagues,
12:45
Speaker 1: maybe had some challenges physically to overcome. How would you
12:50
Speaker 1: sort of answer this question? Because I see some ability.
12:53
Speaker 1: It's a very short, very small sample size, of course,
12:57
Speaker 1: but we've seen the throwing arms looks decent, we've seen
13:00
Speaker 1: the hands, we've seen some of the athletics athleticism back
13:03
Speaker 1: there behind the plate, and I like what I've seen
13:06
Speaker 1: from the bats so far, which you know is obviously
13:09
Speaker 1: the other side of the ball. But from a defensive standpoint, Mark,
13:12
Speaker 1: where would the where would Moballer look to improve this offseason.
13:17
Speaker 1: What does he need to do to be, you know,
13:19
Speaker 1: a sixty, seventy eighty or more game catcher in the
13:22
Speaker 1: big leagues.
13:24
Speaker 3: What did you mean by physical limitations?
13:27
Speaker 1: I don't mean limitations. I mean he is a very
13:30
Speaker 1: short and very sturdy young fellow. Will just put it
13:34
Speaker 1: at that. And you know, we talked about it last week.
13:37
Speaker 1: Benji Molina was not the most athletically spelt catcher, and
13:42
Speaker 1: he did just he did more than fine. He had
13:45
Speaker 1: a great big league career. But yeah, I don't know.
13:50
Speaker 1: It's a tough one for me.
13:51
Speaker 3: I was, I was joking, but he looks like I mean,
13:54
Speaker 3: he looks like a very like muscular guy. At the
13:56
Speaker 3: same time, I'm not seeing now. If you were to
13:59
Speaker 3: look at the Rancho Cucamonga team, they have a guy
14:03
Speaker 3: that's a great candidate to you know, shed forty to
14:07
Speaker 3: fifty plus, nice bat. But Davilolos, who I'm talking about,
14:13
Speaker 3: He's going to need to dial it in and get
14:14
Speaker 3: into shape. Moballer, I mean, this is the thing I
14:20
Speaker 3: haven't seen enough. I won't pretend I have to lie
14:24
Speaker 3: or label him as a defensive liability. What I've seen
14:27
Speaker 3: is pretty decent, pretty decent. The wild pitch. That was
14:31
Speaker 3: a wild pitch with Grayson. I don't know how many
14:35
Speaker 3: Maybe Heineman, you know, is able to block it. I
14:38
Speaker 3: doubt it, though I saw it was, you know, Grayson thrower.
14:43
Speaker 3: I believe it was a slider. He really shorted it
14:46
Speaker 3: far in front of the plate, and even the best catcher,
14:49
Speaker 3: you know, it's a It's a total luck play if
14:50
Speaker 3: you're able.
14:51
Speaker 2: To knock it down.
14:52
Speaker 3: But you know, he's kind of got some infielder type
14:55
Speaker 3: instincts too, with a glow flip and the strong arm.
14:59
Speaker 3: I you know what, I'll ask around. I get some
15:04
Speaker 3: friends with the Cubs and try and get just a
15:06
Speaker 3: more detailed idea of what exactly are the limitations with
15:10
Speaker 3: the catching, because I haven't seen anything that really stands out.
15:13
Speaker 3: And this is the thing. If he swings the bat
15:16
Speaker 3: like he's capable of and he's twenty two years old,
15:19
Speaker 3: remember you'll definitely take it. Sure you want an elite catcher,
15:25
Speaker 3: but how many are able to do both? It's very tough.
15:28
Speaker 3: As long as it's not a huge glaring hindrance. If
15:33
Speaker 3: he kind of rates his average, I'm fine with that.
15:36
Speaker 3: If the bat plays because they need the left handed pop.
15:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:39
Speaker 1: I want to clarify when I say limitations, I don't
15:42
Speaker 1: necessarily mean he's limited in the quality of defensive catcher
15:46
Speaker 1: he can be. I mean with his physical you know,
15:50
Speaker 1: with his physique and his body type, he might be
15:52
Speaker 1: limited in terms of how many games you can catch because,
15:56
Speaker 1: as you know, the more weight you're.
15:57
Speaker 2: Carrying, the harder it is on your body.
15:59
Speaker 1: And that crouch the most physically demanded demanding position, maybe
16:04
Speaker 1: in all sports. I don't know, but it's pretty darn demanding.
16:07
Speaker 1: And I just think, you know, maybe if he did,
16:10
Speaker 1: if they, if the Angels feel like him, maybe dropping
16:12
Speaker 1: a few pounds is going to let him catch or
16:14
Speaker 1: allow him to catch one hundred games a year as
16:18
Speaker 1: opposed to fifty. I think it's worth pursuing. But I
16:20
Speaker 1: agree with Mark. I think from what we've seen, just
16:23
Speaker 1: from an instinct and some of his his abilities, and
16:27
Speaker 1: he does appear to be a pretty pretty he has
16:30
Speaker 1: the makings of a pretty decent catcher.
16:32
Speaker 2: All right.
16:33
Speaker 1: Question from Ryan, why is Nolan Shanawell still the starting
16:38
Speaker 1: first baseman for the Angels? There might be less than
16:42
Speaker 1: five big league teams he would be a starter for
16:46
Speaker 1: Shanawell has reached his ceiling. Wow, there's been a topic
16:51
Speaker 1: and not a not a heavy topic on the show,
16:55
Speaker 1: But I've made my feelings on Nolan pretty clear. I
16:59
Speaker 1: think he would be a really fine number seven hitter
17:03
Speaker 1: and a really a decent team that didn't have a
17:05
Speaker 1: first base. Then maybe he'd be a leadoff hitter with
17:09
Speaker 1: more speed. I don't think that's gonna happen. He does
17:12
Speaker 1: appear to be a very pure hitter when it comes
17:16
Speaker 1: to back to the ball skills. He has probably some
17:20
Speaker 1: of the better plate discipline we've seen on the team.
17:23
Speaker 1: But let's be honest, I mean, you have to be
17:27
Speaker 1: just not hitting for the power I think the Angels
17:29
Speaker 1: projected when they drafted him out of college. He has
17:33
Speaker 1: not shown much power in the big leagues. He did
17:36
Speaker 1: not really have any time in the minor leagues to
17:38
Speaker 1: develop that power. I'm not sure. I don't want to
17:43
Speaker 1: say the Nolan Seanawall we're seeing now is all we're
17:45
Speaker 1: going to get, because if that's the case, yeah, I
17:47
Speaker 1: think you're going to have to move on from him
17:49
Speaker 1: pretty darn quickly.
17:51
Speaker 2: What do you got on this one?
17:52
Speaker 4: Mark?
17:56
Speaker 3: This one is a challenge. The perfect world, Nolan would
18:01
Speaker 3: get quite a bit faster and play a nice left
18:07
Speaker 3: field and he'd be talked about and probably revered or
18:12
Speaker 3: the good version of Stephen Kwan type thing. He's not
18:16
Speaker 3: going to hit quite at the level of Ariahs, I
18:18
Speaker 3: don't think, but that is, you know, those are the
18:20
Speaker 3: comps that you'll gravitate towards, at least you know on
18:23
Speaker 3: the broadcast they'll kind of paint the picture of or
18:27
Speaker 3: maybe Zeke said that contests for a batting title. And
18:32
Speaker 3: when you throw that around, I think why why you're
18:35
Speaker 3: giving those types of comments is because you know that
18:37
Speaker 3: he's not gonna challenge Kurts for the power side of it,
18:42
Speaker 3: and it's not a fair comparison.
18:44
Speaker 2: And I think Kurt's.
18:44
Speaker 3: Currently on the aisle. But you know, he's a beast,
18:47
Speaker 3: he's a monster. So you've got to find another way
18:49
Speaker 3: to kind of market your player and paint him in
18:53
Speaker 3: a good light. For the most part, the defense has
18:55
Speaker 3: improved some, but to really provide the value, he needs
18:59
Speaker 3: to play not just a good first base, an excellent
19:03
Speaker 3: first base to bring the overall package make it more attractive.
19:07
Speaker 3: Below average runner and the power. I you know, nobody
19:12
Speaker 3: needs to hear any more talks about the power. Even
19:15
Speaker 3: if he was to hit three one hundred, three fifteen,
19:18
Speaker 3: it doesn't really change what he does. I think the
19:22
Speaker 3: Sam's comment is would move the needle a lot. The
19:26
Speaker 3: on base has got to get to some of those
19:29
Speaker 3: numbers that you know, for me, I'm like, you know,
19:31
Speaker 3: four hundred is a huge number, that's the vodos, that's
19:36
Speaker 3: you know, Trout's in his younger years, Ben Golfs and
19:43
Speaker 3: some of those types just unattainable for the majority. But
19:48
Speaker 3: fortunately I don't have to solve this problem. We can
19:50
Speaker 3: just sit here and speculate and is it a problem.
19:53
Speaker 2: I don't know.
19:53
Speaker 3: Nolan right now is contributing. He's hitting third for the
19:57
Speaker 3: Los Angeles Angels, and somebody else can and figure out
20:01
Speaker 3: the answer to Ryan's question, although I believe he kind
20:04
Speaker 3: of answered it and has reached his ceilings declared to me,
20:10
Speaker 3: all right.
20:10
Speaker 1: We're gonna take one more break for a word from
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20:14
Speaker 1: second half of our Angels smailbag.
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21:19
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back to Halo's Territory with Mark Trumbo and
21:22
Speaker 1: Mike D. Giovanna and are part two of Angels mailbeg
21:25
Speaker 1: question from c Hutch did the Angels make a mistake
21:29
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five drafting Tyler Bremner over Kate Henderson.
21:34
Speaker 1: I'd hate to label anything like this a mistake when
21:38
Speaker 1: when Tyler Bremner hasn't even touched the big leagues. But
21:41
Speaker 1: we seem, you know, what kind of Kate Anderson is
21:45
Speaker 1: being called? What the best right handed pitching prospect and
21:48
Speaker 1: all of baseball right now? We're not hearing oh, I'm sorry,
21:52
Speaker 1: left handed. What I'm recalling is the Mariners have, like,
21:55
Speaker 1: what the best right handed and left handed prospect in
21:58
Speaker 1: baseball right now?
21:59
Speaker 3: Yes, they have the other one, and seth Rnandez is
22:01
Speaker 3: the other one that will be locked down. He is
22:04
Speaker 3: right handed for the Pirates, and he's a high school
22:07
Speaker 3: player though so a little a little bit behind. But
22:10
Speaker 3: Kate Anderson is rocketed through and Bremner is last out
22:14
Speaker 3: and Double A has not traded him. So well, so
22:17
Speaker 3: I'll let you finish. But that was just to clarify, Well, I.
22:19
Speaker 1: Was just going to say, I mean, we're not hearing
22:22
Speaker 1: these similar you know, labels attached to Tyler Bremner.
22:29
Speaker 2: I was skeptical of a pick when they made it.
22:32
Speaker 1: Didn't know who Kate Anderson was at the time, but
22:34
Speaker 1: I just feel like they drafted for assignability and went
22:39
Speaker 1: way underslot on this guy. I feel like when you
22:42
Speaker 1: have the number one, when you have the number two, three,
22:45
Speaker 1: top four or five pick in all of baseball, especially
22:48
Speaker 1: in the draft, where some of the talent really drops off,
22:51
Speaker 1: even in the first you know, after the first five
22:53
Speaker 1: to ten picks, like we saw. I think we saw
22:56
Speaker 1: with this last draft, you have to go for the
22:58
Speaker 1: best and what it takes. So that was a bit
23:02
Speaker 1: of a putoff for me. And then yeah, you look
23:04
Speaker 1: at what Anderson's done with the Mariners. I'm sure we're
23:06
Speaker 1: going to see him in the big leagues pretty soon. Mark,
23:08
Speaker 1: you know a little bit about both of these a
23:10
Speaker 1: little bit more, probably a lot more than I do.
23:12
Speaker 2: About both of these guys. So I'll let you finish
23:15
Speaker 2: up the answer.
23:17
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. This is one of those questions the
23:21
Speaker 3: best answered in the future down the line, if you
23:25
Speaker 3: want to me the answer it currently, I think that
23:28
Speaker 3: they did not make the correct choice, just judging off
23:32
Speaker 3: of the statistics alone, if you let them tell the story.
23:37
Speaker 3: One is absolutely mowed down the competition all season. Seattle's
23:42
Speaker 3: just so crowded that they haven't quite called him up,
23:46
Speaker 3: although it could be any minute now that they do.
23:48
Speaker 3: I don't think he's got anything left to prove at
23:51
Speaker 3: the lower levels, and Bremner seems like he has ways
23:54
Speaker 3: to go. I wasn't going deep into games to beginning
23:58
Speaker 3: this year. He reached five innings. He's probably done it
24:01
Speaker 3: a couple of times. Had a very rough July in
24:04
Speaker 3: High A ball. I think the year was north of seven.
24:08
Speaker 3: I still don't see enough of a well rounded pitcher
24:10
Speaker 3: in the videos that I've seen. I know, well a
24:14
Speaker 3: certain account that's all things Angels Minor League's extremely positive guy,
24:21
Speaker 3: grainy video of you know, he's seeing something that I
24:24
Speaker 3: don't know if I'm always seeing, but hopefully that The
24:29
Speaker 3: thing with Bremner is he he does have some nice stuff.
24:32
Speaker 3: He needs to expand it. He needs to pound the
24:34
Speaker 3: zone a little more and we'll see how it works out.
24:38
Speaker 3: The real way to judge this is going to be
24:41
Speaker 3: why did they choose Bremner to save the money on
24:43
Speaker 3: Slowinsky and maybe a couple others, but I think really
24:46
Speaker 3: Slewinsky and if both of those guys contribute high at
24:49
Speaker 3: the major league level, you know it would be two
24:52
Speaker 3: versus one and if Anderson makes every All Star team
24:55
Speaker 3: for X amount of years, it's gonna be tough. But
25:00
Speaker 3: I think that that had Mo been here, I think
25:03
Speaker 3: Kate Anderson would be with the Angels.
25:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right from Allen f I believe the Angels
25:09
Speaker 1: are missing a golden opportunity of playing Denser Guzman. It's
25:12
Speaker 1: shortstop to see if that's a future option. We know
25:16
Speaker 1: what Netto has to offer. I think it's time to
25:18
Speaker 1: give Guzman a shot, especially for going to shot Netto
25:21
Speaker 1: after this season. Your thoughts?
25:24
Speaker 2: What do you got?
25:24
Speaker 4: Mark?
25:27
Speaker 3: Thank you Allan for that. Where does Zach netdo play now?
25:33
Speaker 3: Short stop?
25:35
Speaker 2: Well?
25:39
Speaker 3: Moving towards up, Yeah, where do you? How do you
25:41
Speaker 3: have I was going to have that conversation Alan, you
25:45
Speaker 3: I I I get what you're saying. As they're both
25:50
Speaker 3: on the same team, Zach Nedo will be the shortstop.
25:53
Speaker 3: If he was to be traded, then you would see
25:55
Speaker 3: that they did acquire a highly rated prospect. And as
26:02
Speaker 3: Jim Palmer said, I really liked the way he phrased it,
26:06
Speaker 3: once you get to the major leagues you have to
26:07
Speaker 3: prove it again. Yeah, so it's you can't just annoint anyone.
26:13
Speaker 3: It seems like the very easy to do and project.
26:17
Speaker 3: This guy's going to be this. You got to do it.
26:18
Speaker 3: You got to do it, man, And the big League
26:20
Speaker 3: is tough, and it's good to have options. If there's
26:24
Speaker 3: depth in this organization, it's probably going to be at
26:26
Speaker 3: shortstop and up the middle. They have some good young
26:28
Speaker 3: rookie ball ish players up there too. So while I
26:32
Speaker 3: understand conceptually Alan I there's no real reason this would happen.
26:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
26:37
Speaker 1: The acquisition of Namala from Toronto and the Soriano deal
26:41
Speaker 1: certainly changes the calculus of this. You have netto obviously,
26:45
Speaker 1: and in netto, as we said, it is a fine shortstop.
26:48
Speaker 1: Not sure where you'd move him now. I guess you
26:51
Speaker 1: can move into third base, see if he could play that.
26:54
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think when Theamala in house, you have
26:58
Speaker 1: a current shortstop and a shortstop the future were very good,
27:01
Speaker 1: so you probably better off just keeping Denser at third base.
27:03
Speaker 3: One one thing too, is Denser's bat. You know, the
27:07
Speaker 3: league has adjusted to him, and I'm just going to
27:10
Speaker 3: say it like that because that's what people say, and
27:14
Speaker 3: the adjustment back hasn't quite happened. He has gone quite cold,
27:18
Speaker 3: and unfortunately these Salt Lake numbers. They just don't translate everyone.
27:24
Speaker 3: You know, nine in excess of nine, then the fans
27:28
Speaker 3: want to see him. Look at this guy, he's lighting
27:29
Speaker 3: the world on fire. Well, yeah, half the lineup's got
27:31
Speaker 3: that so very tough, and that if I didn't mention
27:35
Speaker 3: it before, Salt Lakes record is in the dumps.
27:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, question from M, at what point does
27:41
Speaker 1: Trout get moved from the two spot? Well, M, who
27:44
Speaker 1: else you got? Who else is hitting second? You can
27:47
Speaker 1: move any of those guys in the top three or
27:49
Speaker 1: four spots in whatever or do you want.
27:52
Speaker 2: I just don't think you have.
27:53
Speaker 1: You know, there was a time I forget exactly the
27:56
Speaker 1: year when teams started moving their best hit from the
28:01
Speaker 1: third spot to the second spot, ostensibly to I think
28:05
Speaker 1: you know, there's been studies that show that each with
28:07
Speaker 1: each spot you move up in the order, you will
28:09
Speaker 1: get this number of more plate appearances during a season.
28:13
Speaker 2: And it's true.
28:15
Speaker 1: Although the Dodgers, I'm still not sure why Otani is
28:17
Speaker 1: leading off instead of hitting second, But yeah, I guess
28:21
Speaker 1: you could hit netto second if you want to keep
28:23
Speaker 1: Meckler in the first spot, move netto second and Trout
28:27
Speaker 1: third or fourth or you know, Shaanawah. But to me,
28:30
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter between Trout, Shannawell, and Neda. You
28:33
Speaker 1: can just pick a name out of a hat and
28:35
Speaker 1: write your lineup. I just don't see a lot of
28:37
Speaker 1: good options. Do you mark, where's he gonna go?
28:43
Speaker 3: I don't know if four would would possibly make some sense,
28:47
Speaker 3: but Mike's on base percentage is consistently high. I think
28:51
Speaker 3: Meckler Shaana well in that order. One two would make
28:56
Speaker 3: sense if no one could run. We've already talked about
28:59
Speaker 3: his skill set, but that would make and set the
29:03
Speaker 3: table for Trout three and Neo four. I guess that's
29:07
Speaker 3: kind of what I would say. But then again, Jorge
29:09
Speaker 3: made a good lead off hitter in a lot of
29:11
Speaker 3: people's minds and no longer with the club, But I
29:15
Speaker 3: guess so.
29:16
Speaker 1: All right, last question from c buyers. Will the Angels
29:20
Speaker 1: lose one hundred games? What year will they have a
29:22
Speaker 1: winning season?
29:24
Speaker 2: Wow?
29:25
Speaker 1: I'm gonna answer that first question, and my answer is yes,
29:30
Speaker 1: this will be the year the Angels lose one hundred
29:32
Speaker 1: games for the first time in franchise history. What year
29:36
Speaker 1: will they have a winning season? Twenty twenty nine, that's
29:42
Speaker 1: my prediction. Don't ask me why, it just sounds good
29:46
Speaker 1: to me. It's gonna take to mean, it's gonna take
29:49
Speaker 1: another year or two of rebuilding whatever that looks like,
29:53
Speaker 1: of signing. It's gonna take already opening up that if
29:56
Speaker 1: ardided owns a team or a new owner opening up
29:59
Speaker 1: the wallet. We're still not sure what the new CBA
30:02
Speaker 1: is gonna look like. But either way, the Angels aren't
30:04
Speaker 1: in danger of going over any luxury tax threshold right
30:07
Speaker 1: now and over the next few seedons. So they they're
30:10
Speaker 1: gonna have to spend money. They're gonna have to trade wisely,
30:12
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to draft extremely wisely. And you know,
30:16
Speaker 1: we've seen it before in other cities. We saw the
30:18
Speaker 1: Houston Astros lose one hundred games for three years in
30:21
Speaker 1: a row, and then within two or three years they
30:23
Speaker 1: were in that twenty seventeen World Series. Granted they might
30:27
Speaker 1: have got there a little help, but they still had
30:29
Speaker 1: a pretty good, darn good team.
30:31
Speaker 2: We've seen it with the Orioles.
30:32
Speaker 1: You know, they lost one hundred games for a few years,
30:34
Speaker 1: or they're in the playoffs a few years later. It
30:36
Speaker 1: can happen, but it's gonna take some time.
30:39
Speaker 3: What do you think, Mark, How close are they to
30:43
Speaker 3: the I mean, it's, in all seriousness the hundred or
30:45
Speaker 3: is it gonna be one of these things where it's
30:46
Speaker 3: just teetering.
30:48
Speaker 1: I didn't look at it specifically going into the weekend,
30:52
Speaker 1: but there if they keep losing two out of three
30:56
Speaker 1: for most series, they're gonna pass it, pass it with.
31:00
Speaker 3: They might get a little bit of a hot streak
31:02
Speaker 3: at some point.
31:04
Speaker 2: One hundred.
31:05
Speaker 3: Who gives a behind about that number. If it's a
31:09
Speaker 3: point of pride that you've never lost one hundred games,
31:13
Speaker 3: you might be focused on the wrong things. If you're
31:16
Speaker 3: what's ninety five, that's.
31:18
Speaker 2: No good either.
31:18
Speaker 3: So get it over with, get it out of the way.
31:23
Speaker 3: Nobody cares this. I don't if it I got to look.
31:28
Speaker 3: But they're going to get a top draft pick next year.
31:31
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's going to be one. I
31:32
Speaker 3: know it's a lottery. Hopefully it's closer to one, two,
31:37
Speaker 3: three then a little bit later. But as far as
31:43
Speaker 3: what was the second part? When when are they going
31:45
Speaker 3: to have a winning season year? Or will they have
31:47
Speaker 3: a winning season? I need to get a calendar first,
31:50
Speaker 3: because you do too. Apparently because they're accused of living
31:55
Speaker 3: like it's twenty sixteen. I think another one from our
31:58
Speaker 3: favorite but twenty twenty seven. I think they'll be in
32:04
Speaker 3: the mix with every single other team that's not playing baseball.
32:09
Speaker 2: During the lockown.
32:09
Speaker 3: There you go, There you go, as far as a
32:12
Speaker 3: winning season twenty thirty on the dot round number, there
32:19
Speaker 3: you go, all right, playoff team twenty thirty.
32:22
Speaker 1: All right, that's going to do it for us for
32:25
Speaker 1: our two part Angels mailbag. Hey, we really appreciate you
32:28
Speaker 1: tuning in and listening. Please like and subscribe and we'll
32:32
Speaker 1: see you next time on Halo Territory