Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / HEAD-SCRATCHER: Zach Neto's lethal bat holstered for key moment of Phillies sweep

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HEAD-SCRATCHER: Zach Neto's lethal bat holstered for key moment of Phillies sweep · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Well, hey, Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo territory.
0:11
Speaker 1: I am Mike DiGiovanna, former LA Times baseball writer and
0:14
Speaker 1: host of the show, joined by my regular co-host, Mark Trumbo. Mark,
0:18
Speaker 1: glad you could be with us this Sunday, but boy,
0:21
Speaker 1: it was a rough weekend for the Halos, who were
0:24
Speaker 1: swept by the Philadelphia Phillies and have now lost seven
0:27
Speaker 1: in a row, matching their longest losing streak of the season.
0:32
Speaker 1: The Angels had a 3-1 lead in the ninth inning
0:34
Speaker 1: Friday night and gave up a pinch hit grand slam
0:37
Speaker 1: to Edmundo Sosa. They lost 4-2 in 10 innings Saturday
0:42
Speaker 1: night and 5-2 on Sunday when the Phillies scored four
0:45
Speaker 1: runs in the final three innings. And there was, let's
0:49
Speaker 1: be honest, one very head-scratching moment in the eighth inning Sunday.
0:54
Speaker 1: Angels are down 4-2. They put two on with one
0:58
Speaker 1: out against Phillies lefty Jose Alvarado. They had right-handed hitting
1:04
Speaker 1: Zach Netto on the bench, who was getting the day off.
1:07
Speaker 1: One of their two best, probably their best player right now.
1:11
Speaker 1: A guy who capped a 12-pitch at-bat with a game-tying
1:14
Speaker 1: home run Saturday night. But they chose to let left-handed
1:19
Speaker 1: hitting Josh Lowe take the at-bat. Lowe struck out with
1:23
Speaker 1: a really weak pass at a full-count cutter. Jose Siri
1:26
Speaker 1: grounded out to end the inning. And afterward, Kurt Suzuki
1:30
Speaker 1: was asked why Netto did not pinch hit for low. Kurt,
1:37
Speaker 1: with the offensive chances there late in the game, but
1:40
Speaker 1: in the eighth, it looked like Netta was ready to go.
1:43
Speaker 2: Where were you guys thinking of possibly deploying him?
1:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wanted to give him a blow today.
1:50
Speaker 1: He's been grinding.
1:51
Speaker 4: He's been pushing pretty hard.
1:54
Speaker 1: So today was more of just a blow.
1:56
Speaker 4: I wanted to give him a full blow. So you
1:58
Speaker 4: just wanted to give him the day completely off, basically? Yeah,
2:00
Speaker 4: I know he wanted to hit, but.
2:02
Speaker 5: Just try to give him the blow.
2:05
Speaker 1: Now the postgame went on from there to cover a
2:07
Speaker 1: couple things, including a pretty fine start by Yusei Kikuchi.
2:10
Speaker 1: But I wasn't completely satisfied with Kurt's answer, so I
2:14
Speaker 1: asked him a little follow-up question. Let's hear that.
2:17
Speaker 4: Great job.
2:18
Speaker 5: I understand your reasoning behind giving Zach a rest, but
2:23
Speaker 5: he's ready to hit. Is one at-bat for a kid
2:25
Speaker 5: in his mid-20s going to really make that big a
2:27
Speaker 5: difference in getting a rest? I think.
2:31
Speaker 3: If you've played this game before, you understand when you
2:33
Speaker 3: need a.
2:34
Speaker 4: Blow, you need a blow.
2:34
Speaker 1: This part of the season, we.
2:36
Speaker 3: Decided to give him a blow, and that's the way
2:39
Speaker 3: I wanted to look at it.
2:43
Speaker 1: Mark, take us into the dugout. You got a day off.
2:45
Speaker 1: Soch says you're not playing today. Two guys on you.
2:49
Speaker 1: The tying run comes up. You know, lefty on the mound. Trump,
2:54
Speaker 1: go get ready to hit. You're ready to hit. You
2:56
Speaker 1: don't go in the game. What is going on there?
2:59
Speaker 1: What's going through Zach Netto's mind, I mean, I saw
3:02
Speaker 1: him in the dugout. He had his bat in his hand,
3:05
Speaker 1: you know, walking the length of the dugout. Didn't look
3:07
Speaker 1: too pleased.
3:09
Speaker 4: How about that wording?
3:10
Speaker 1: You know, if you.
3:12
Speaker 6: Played this game, you understand. Is that a slight dig?
3:16
Speaker 6: It's a 40-year veteran scribe.
3:18
Speaker 1: 45-year, not that anybody's counting. But, yeah, I mean, I
3:22
Speaker 1: did not play the game at that level, let's be honest. But,
3:25
Speaker 1: I mean– I don't know. I just think you got,
3:28
Speaker 1: you got.
3:29
Speaker 6: High school shortstop. That question was, you know what you
3:32
Speaker 6: were doing. It's a bit provocative. Uh, but any, any
3:35
Speaker 6: given answer that I'm not surprised. I think that they
3:39
Speaker 6: wanted to give him a blow today and they gave
3:42
Speaker 6: him one.
3:43
Speaker 4: Uh, I didn't. Okay.
3:46
Speaker 6: So as a 25 year old, I was a rookie. Uh,
3:49
Speaker 6: it was having, you can look at the numbers, decide
3:51
Speaker 6: for yourself. Uh, if you thought it was a decent season,
3:54
Speaker 6: I think it was okay. Um, I was ready to
3:57
Speaker 6: play every day. Uh, there were the way he's wording this.
4:02
Speaker 6: It's it's, this is the type of treatment you're going
4:04
Speaker 6: to see for a stone cold veteran player where it's
4:09
Speaker 6: just an entire day off. It's a physical day. It's
4:11
Speaker 6: a mental day, which is kind of interesting. Um, it
4:15
Speaker 6: almost seems like it was kind of a combination of
4:17
Speaker 6: both and Zach has been playing better.
4:20
Speaker 4: I don't know.
4:21
Speaker 6: Um, I'd say that this had to be more of
4:24
Speaker 6: a physical thing because As you'll get to, he had
4:28
Speaker 6: a very big home run in Saturday night's game. And
4:31
Speaker 6: his defense was tightened up. Everything's been looking pretty good.
4:34
Speaker 6: So the reasoning, I assume the hot weather. But beyond that,
4:41
Speaker 6: I think what happened was Zach, on his own, grabbed
4:44
Speaker 6: a bat. And I've seen that, I don't know, hundreds,
4:48
Speaker 6: thousands of times. Probably not thousands. But I've seen guys
4:52
Speaker 6: on their own. They grab a bat.
4:53
Speaker 4: They get ready.
4:54
Speaker 6: Puts their manager in a little bit of an awkward spot.
4:56
Speaker 6: You want guys to be ready, but sometimes you'll force
4:59
Speaker 6: the issue by getting right there in front of the
5:01
Speaker 6: camera and making it look like there's something going on,
5:04
Speaker 6: there's a plan, and you're imminently going to come up
5:08
Speaker 6: to hit. Meanwhile, it sounds like Kurt had no plan
5:11
Speaker 6: at any point. In addition, if you're going to pinch
5:14
Speaker 6: hit for Josh Lowe, I mean, that's one of your
5:17
Speaker 6: starting outfielders right there. That's somebody that you're kind of
5:20
Speaker 6: counting on.
5:21
Speaker 4: The numbers.
5:21
Speaker 6: aren't flattering, but it also indicates that you don't have
5:24
Speaker 6: any faith in a guy that really, coming into this year,
5:28
Speaker 6: looked like a part of this team's plan for the future. Yeah,
5:34
Speaker 6: I am hesitant to bring up the T-word, tanking, but
5:37
Speaker 6: the Angels are now tied with Colorado Rockies for the
5:40
Speaker 6: worst record in baseball at 52-85, and they do need
5:43
Speaker 6: to finish in the bottom three to have the best
5:46
Speaker 6: chance of getting the number one pick in next year's draft.
5:50
Speaker 6: remind our viewers, Mark, how that lottery works for those
5:55
Speaker 6: teams in the bottom three and what's the difference between
5:58
Speaker 6: three and having the third worst as opposed to the
6:01
Speaker 6: fourth worst record in the league? It's a 5% difference.
6:04
Speaker 6: The bottom three teams all have about a 15% chance
6:08
Speaker 6: to get the first overall pick and the fourth team
6:11
Speaker 6: has a 15% chance or flip the numbers if I
6:16
Speaker 6: got confused because I was thinking about it, it's a 5% difference.
6:21
Speaker 6: So the top three teams all have about the same percent,
6:24
Speaker 6: or they do have the same percent, the fourth doesn't.
6:26
Speaker 6: Why I was thinking was because it is a little
6:28
Speaker 6: more complicated or got confused. The Angels are technically a
6:32
Speaker 6: payer into the collective bargaining. There are special rules that
6:36
Speaker 6: go into it. It's awfully complex as far as this
6:39
Speaker 6: lottery goes, but because they picked outside the top 10
6:42
Speaker 6: last year, they are eligible to pick in the top
6:45
Speaker 6: 10 this year. So if they are one of the
6:48
Speaker 6: worst three teams in baseball, they're on their way to
6:51
Speaker 6: be that. They have as good an odds as probably
6:55
Speaker 6: the other two bottom feeders at getting the first overall pick.
6:59
Speaker 6: I'll need to dig deeper into the next year's draft
7:02
Speaker 6: class to see if there are any studs that would
7:05
Speaker 6: be worth trying to go for. In my opinion, they
7:09
Speaker 6: are trying to win all of these games, by the way.
7:11
Speaker 6: I don't think they are tanking. I think that this
7:14
Speaker 6: is just the level of talent that they currently have.
7:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're in the middle of a homestand against
7:19
Speaker 1: three very good playoff, most likely playoff-bound teams in the Guardians, Phillies,
7:25
Speaker 1: and the New York Yankees coming to town Monday. Let's
7:28
Speaker 1: go back to Netto's 12 pitch at bat Saturday night.
7:32
Speaker 1: He's up against right-hander Jonathan Bolin, pretty good setup man
7:35
Speaker 1: for the Phillies, and Zach fouled off six two-strike pitches,
7:40
Speaker 1: four sliders, two fastballs, And then he crushed an 84-mile-an-hour
7:46
Speaker 1: sweeper that was down in the middle, 407 feet for
7:50
Speaker 1: his 23rd homer of the year. And that snapped a
7:54
Speaker 1: string of 30 straight innings without an extra base hit
7:57
Speaker 1: for an offense, for the Angels offense, which tells you
8:00
Speaker 1: how things are going for them right now. Mark, was
8:02
Speaker 1: that Zach's best at bat of the season in your mind?
8:06
Speaker 4: Can't think of one better. Fought, fought hard.
8:10
Speaker 6: That's kind of what we've been looking for is extending
8:13
Speaker 6: those at bats. When you get to two strikes, not
8:15
Speaker 6: giving up. He, what happens to you start seeing enough
8:18
Speaker 6: of those pitches. You can really time a guy up.
8:21
Speaker 6: 12 is a lot. So the guy, I mean, Zach
8:25
Speaker 6: shouldn't have been fooled by anything unless he sold out
8:28
Speaker 6: and he already had gauged what the guy's fastball played like.
8:31
Speaker 6: So it's never a good strategy to sell out on
8:33
Speaker 6: the fastball anyway. Normally when you do that, you're probably
8:37
Speaker 6: giving the guy too much respect and yourself not enough
8:41
Speaker 6: to be able to catch up because once you see
8:44
Speaker 6: enough pitches, you're going to be fine. And he battled,
8:47
Speaker 6: he got one he could handle, and he drove it
8:49
Speaker 6: out of there. And really, you know, they were riding
8:53
Speaker 6: a high there for a couple minutes until they weren't.
8:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're battling in a bat like that, are
8:58
Speaker 1: you a lot less likely to swing for the fences?
9:00
Speaker 1: I mean, it just looked like you put on a
9:02
Speaker 1: really nice, firm, smooth, balanced swing on that pitch.
9:08
Speaker 6: That's the swing that's probably his best swing, to be
9:11
Speaker 6: honest with you. Anytime you're trying to add more than that,
9:14
Speaker 6: I mean, he hit the ball 400 plus feet. There's
9:19
Speaker 6: no reason to put more effort in than that. I
9:22
Speaker 6: think normally this year, or a lot of times this year,
9:24
Speaker 6: he probably has. And those are the ones where you'll
9:27
Speaker 6: see the big upper body coil usually resulting in anything
9:32
Speaker 6: but what he's trying to do. He's got, he's hit
9:34
Speaker 6: some home runs. He has, but A lot of the
9:36
Speaker 6: pitches he's got to hit have been fouled off, too.
9:39
Speaker 6: He would probably actually admit to that. And that's what
9:43
Speaker 6: happens when you get too big. You hear the term
9:45
Speaker 6: too big. That's what it looks like. The oohs, the aahs,
9:47
Speaker 6: swing it, way to go. But those are pitches you
9:50
Speaker 6: should probably crush. So that was a very positive sign.
9:52
Speaker 6: And Zach seems to, his game, we talked about it
9:55
Speaker 6: previous episode. He's looking good. He's looking improved.
9:59
Speaker 1: Agreed. Everyone take a quick break for a word from
10:01
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10:03
Speaker 1: about one other really bright spot for the Angels, the
10:07
Speaker 1: play of Wade Meckler. We'll be right back.
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11:12
Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory with Mark Trumbo and
11:14
Speaker 1: Mike DiGiovanna. Well, it's time to give Wade Meckler a
11:17
Speaker 1: little love. He comes back from a seven-day stint on
11:22
Speaker 1: the concussion injured list after taking a 94-mile-an-hour fastball to
11:27
Speaker 1: the back of the helmet. First pitch he sees Friday night,
11:30
Speaker 1: he rips into center field for an RBI single. Then
11:33
Speaker 1: in the top of the ninth, he races. He's playing
11:35
Speaker 1: right field, races toward that short wall, dives, jumps, leaps
11:42
Speaker 1: into the stands, and robs Bryson Stott of a three-run
11:47
Speaker 1: homer to preserve What was then a 3-1 Angels lead.
11:51
Speaker 1: The Angels, of course, lost 5-3 on that Sosa Grand Slam.
11:54
Speaker 1: But what a play by Meckler, whose catch drew comparisons,
11:57
Speaker 1: and rightly so, to Joe Adele's spectacular home run robbery
12:02
Speaker 1: of J.P. Crawford on that night. He robbed three home runs,
12:06
Speaker 1: I believe it was April 4th. Just play-to-play, side-by-side, Mark,
12:11
Speaker 1: what do you think? Comparable, better, not quite in Joe's league,
12:15
Speaker 1: what do you think?
12:17
Speaker 6: Every bit as good as Joe had three, so quantity
12:20
Speaker 6: is going to go to Joe. But I believe Wade
12:22
Speaker 6: had to actually cover more distance. And I think those
12:27
Speaker 6: short walls on both sides. I vividly remember J.B. Shuck
12:30
Speaker 6: robbing a home run. You can probably find it on YouTube.
12:34
Speaker 6: Down the left field line. But, again, the shorter fence
12:37
Speaker 6: allows guys that have that ability to do that. You
12:42
Speaker 6: would ask me, what would I have done? Well, I
12:44
Speaker 6: wouldn't have got there in the first place. Wade Meckler
12:47
Speaker 6: has elite speed. Funny anecdote or interesting one, at least.
12:52
Speaker 4: I believe it's his wife. Grace is an elite steeplechaser.
12:57
Speaker 1: Wow.
12:58
Speaker 4: So she gives him a run for his money, I
13:00
Speaker 4: do think, in a sprint. Literally.
13:02
Speaker 6: Well, best her in a short sprint. But she distanced one,
13:07
Speaker 6: I don't know, 400 meters or so. He might have
13:10
Speaker 6: his work cut out for him. But that play was...
13:13
Speaker 6: And talk about the situation, too.
13:15
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
13:16
Speaker 6: That was enormously important. It wasn't just a throwaway. Not
13:19
Speaker 6: that it would ever be with a play of that caliber. But,
13:24
Speaker 6: you know, he had a little bit of celebration, but
13:26
Speaker 6: it was the kind that I actually liked. It was,
13:29
Speaker 6: I don't know, there's something about it, the intensity he brings,
13:33
Speaker 6: the attitude he brings as compared to, you know, maybe
13:37
Speaker 6: Captain Jack Sparrow, who was manning center field today.
13:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.
13:40
Speaker 6: Jump catching, overthrowing cutoff man. Throwing the wrong base. The
13:48
Speaker 6: lack of fundamentals by a guy pushing 30, or he
13:51
Speaker 6: may be 30, is astonishing.
13:53
Speaker 4: But I guess he's good for laughs.
13:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go to the analytics on these catches. So
13:58
Speaker 1: Wade Meckler covered 110 feet, and his sprint speed was
14:05
Speaker 1: 27.4 feet per second. And Joe Adele... covered 103 feet
14:13
Speaker 1: sprint speed very similar 27 feet per second so meckler
14:20
Speaker 1: did cover more ground my feeling is joe had a
14:26
Speaker 1: little more degree of difficulty because he had to contend
14:28
Speaker 1: with a foul pole a lot more than meckler i
14:31
Speaker 1: think the degree of danger was a little higher for
14:33
Speaker 1: joe because he he flipped over on that low wall
14:37
Speaker 1: and ended up you know on the concrete steps on
14:39
Speaker 1: the other side of the wall But it's a tough
14:42
Speaker 1: one for me, but I did ask two experts, Kurt Zaduki,
14:48
Speaker 1: the manager of the Angels, and Mark Gubizal, a long-time
14:51
Speaker 1: Angel ABTV analyst and former Major League pitcher. Let's hear
14:56
Speaker 1: what they had to say about Meckler's catch. For a
15:00
Speaker 1: pure athleticism catch... Was Meckler's catch as good as, better,
15:07
Speaker 1: or not quite as comparable to.
15:08
Speaker 4: Joe's third one?
15:09
Speaker 3: I think very comparable.
15:11
Speaker 1: You know, very comparable.
15:12
Speaker 3: Maybe he didn't fall in, but at the same time,
15:15
Speaker 3: they both robbed it. They're both very similar. I wouldn't
15:17
Speaker 3: say one's above the other, because for me, an out
15:20
Speaker 3: is an out, right? But I think they're very comparable.
15:22
Speaker 1: Did he run a little longer to get to the
15:25
Speaker 1: corner than Joe did?
15:26
Speaker 4: Shoot, I don't know.
15:26
Speaker 1: Joe's might have been just as long.
15:28
Speaker 3: Joe's was pretty long to me.
15:29
Speaker 1: If I remember right. But they both were.
15:31
Speaker 4: Very.
15:31
Speaker 3: I mean, I was thinking when it went up, I
15:33
Speaker 3: thought the same thing. I thought about Joe in my head.
15:35
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, my God.
15:36
Speaker 1: And he got it.
15:36
Speaker 4: I thought it was very comfortable for sure.
15:38
Speaker 1: Not the play maybe you'd like to see from a
15:40
Speaker 1: guy just coming off the concussion list? Or does it
15:42
Speaker 1: even surprise you?
15:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't surprise me with him.
15:45
Speaker 1: He's just a maniac right there.
15:47
Speaker 3: So love the guy. Love his energy that he brings,
15:52
Speaker 3: that edge that he brings to the team.
15:54
Speaker 1: He's been such a joy to have. What does it
15:56
Speaker 1: take to make a play like that? Yeah. Well, you
15:59
Speaker 1: can't be scared, one, right? You can't be scared, but
16:01
Speaker 1: you also got to have a good jump.
16:02
Speaker 4: You got to have a good baseball instinct. You got
16:03
Speaker 4: to know where the wall is.
16:05
Speaker 3: All those things come into play that people don't really
16:06
Speaker 3: think about. Oh, he just went up and caught the ball, right?
16:08
Speaker 3: There's a lot of different things that come up.
16:10
Speaker 1: There's maybe the fact that he hasn't played much right
16:12
Speaker 1: field here.
16:13
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
16:13
Speaker 3: He doesn't know the dimensions as much as his left
16:16
Speaker 3: field maybe.
16:17
Speaker 8: So there's a lot of different.
16:18
Speaker 1: Things for sure. If there's one thing Wade Meckler is,
16:23
Speaker 1: it is fearless. Let's hear what Mark Gubiza had to
16:26
Speaker 1: say about the play.
16:28
Speaker 4: That catch he.
16:29
Speaker 1: Made last night, as good as, comparable, not quite as
16:32
Speaker 1: good as Joe's third catch that night against Seattle.
16:34
Speaker 9: Well, you know, I've asked that already a couple times,
16:37
Speaker 9: and it's only been happening a few hours ago. I
16:41
Speaker 9: look at Joe's, just because Joe the day before ran
16:44
Speaker 9: directly into that short wall, and it was like he
16:46
Speaker 9: ran into a brick wall with just a little padding
16:49
Speaker 9: on there.
16:50
Speaker 8: To make that play there, his third one, was an all-timer.
16:54
Speaker 8: But I look at how far Meckler actually went for
16:57
Speaker 8: that ball. I mean, the distance itself and to go out.
17:00
Speaker 4: There with that.
17:01
Speaker 8: Like, he knew he was catching it, though.
17:02
Speaker 4: It was weird.
17:03
Speaker 8: Joe was like, I'm going to do everything I can
17:05
Speaker 8: to catch it. It looked like Meckler, for whatever reason,
17:07
Speaker 8: thought he was catching it all the way through. Man,
17:10
Speaker 8: that's a tough one to say which one was better.
17:12
Speaker 8: I think I had to lean towards Joe only because
17:16
Speaker 8: the three and an impactful 1-0 game there. So I'd
17:19
Speaker 8: probably go that way. But Meckler was... Slightly better than J.B. Shucks,
17:23
Speaker 8: I remember, back in 2013 when he went in the
17:26
Speaker 8: left field wall like that over.
17:27
Speaker 1: The wall to make the play. So it was an
17:28
Speaker 1: amazing catch, though. What does it tell you about this?
17:31
Speaker 1: What does it take to make that play, and what
17:33
Speaker 1: does it tell you about this?
17:34
Speaker 8: I mean, that's what I love about him. I think
17:37
Speaker 8: he could have played hockey the way he is.
17:38
Speaker 4: I said he's almost a fourth-liner in hockey.
17:40
Speaker 8: I mean, he ran into the wall not that long
17:43
Speaker 8: ago here, last home stand. He got hit in the
17:44
Speaker 8: face basically with a baseball. The helmet protected it, but
17:48
Speaker 8: he was still ready to play defensively. I think the
17:50
Speaker 8: way he plays the game every day is something that
17:53
Speaker 8: should inspire, kind of like a Darren Erstad and David
17:55
Speaker 8: Eckstein type of player. You know, obviously those guys have
17:58
Speaker 8: tremendous talent, but I love this way Meckler plays, and
18:01
Speaker 8: I think that's why he's already a fan favorite.
18:05
Speaker 1: Good stuff from Gooby, Mark. This kid, he grows on you,
18:09
Speaker 1: doesn't he? You know, he's not, I don't know, I
18:11
Speaker 1: don't even know what to say him as a player
18:13
Speaker 1: in terms of athletic gifts and tools, but he's got
18:16
Speaker 1: some legitimate tools, and he's got the heart, And the grit,
18:20
Speaker 1: he does remind me a little of the Eckstein slash
18:23
Speaker 1: Erstad type. Has he forged a spot on this roster
18:30
Speaker 1: moving forward next year? Are the Angels going to make
18:33
Speaker 1: plans with Wade Meckler as a leadoff guy in some spot?
18:38
Speaker 6: First of all, I thought Kurt's part of the interview
18:41
Speaker 6: was some of the best I've heard from him this year.
18:43
Speaker 6: As far as articulating things on the field, I agree.
18:47
Speaker 6: you know, he's not going to take any advice from me,
18:50
Speaker 6: but I think he would be well-served to lean into
18:53
Speaker 6: some of those. Not that it was unfiltered, but it
18:56
Speaker 6: just seemed like a more real version and Gooby's thoughts too,
19:00
Speaker 6: who has seen all of these things as far as
19:03
Speaker 6: whose catch was the best. I think, you know, they're
19:07
Speaker 6: all great. So to answer your question, I don't know
19:12
Speaker 6: what else Wade Meckler really needs to do to, get
19:16
Speaker 6: over that hump to prove to people that he's a
19:19
Speaker 6: major league caliber baseball player. Uh, I thought highly of them. Um,
19:25
Speaker 6: and I really, yeah.
19:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
19:27
Speaker 4: And spring training February 12th for those that, um, care
19:30
Speaker 4: about those things. I looked it up just to see
19:32
Speaker 4: the other day.
19:33
Speaker 6: Uh, however, um, you know, some people still talk about
19:37
Speaker 6: him like he's maybe a bit of a placeholder or anything.
19:41
Speaker 6: He's a darn good placeholder. If that's what you want
19:43
Speaker 6: to call it. Um, this guy's a young player. And
19:46
Speaker 6: here's the thing about how do you get a starting
19:48
Speaker 6: job in the major leagues? you got to have some
19:50
Speaker 6: tools that really stand out you can't have no plus
19:54
Speaker 6: tools now what does meckler do really well he's an
19:56
Speaker 6: elite runner true he's got speed now when you compare
20:01
Speaker 6: him to a guy like von grissom von is a
20:04
Speaker 6: nice ball player he doesn't have any elite tools so
20:07
Speaker 6: I think that that kind of limits a guy. Peraza
20:10
Speaker 6: has an elite glove. Now, the bat has kind of
20:13
Speaker 6: gone cold. But I think for Meckler, he just needs
20:17
Speaker 6: to keep playing this brand of baseball. I mean, ideally,
20:20
Speaker 6: he gets into a few more balls. Maybe he hits
20:22
Speaker 6: 10 to 12 home runs. But this is more, we
20:26
Speaker 6: talked previously, Stephen Kwan, another guy we really like. It
20:30
Speaker 6: would be awesome to watch a leadoff hitter that plays
20:33
Speaker 6: that style of baseball. And Wade's arm, I think, could
20:36
Speaker 6: improve a little bit, although it's still competitive. And he
20:39
Speaker 6: plays smart, hits the cutoff man. He does a lot
20:41
Speaker 6: of things right. And he's been a lot of fun
20:44
Speaker 6: to watch. He's the type of ballplayer that I think
20:46
Speaker 6: fans of the Angels will gravitate towards and already have.
20:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think if I'm the Angels right now, I'd
20:52
Speaker 1: play him every night. bat him lead off, maybe not
20:56
Speaker 1: against the lefty, but I'd have him in the lineup
20:58
Speaker 1: against lefties just to see what he can do. To me,
21:00
Speaker 1: that might be, it's probably an area of weakness just
21:02
Speaker 1: because he hasn't hit many lefties in the big leagues
21:04
Speaker 1: so far because he has been sort of a platoon
21:07
Speaker 1: guy for the Angels. But yeah, you got a month
21:10
Speaker 1: left in the season. Let's see what this kid's got
21:13
Speaker 1: and let's see how he plays when he's playing every
21:15
Speaker 1: day as opposed to two, three, four times a week even.
21:19
Speaker 1: So now's a good time to do that. Well, as
21:22
Speaker 1: we know, his great play Went for a knot because
21:26
Speaker 1: flamethrowing closer Ben Joyce had a little hiccup in that
21:29
Speaker 1: ninth inning. He could not locate his fastball. And of
21:33
Speaker 1: the 26 pitches he threw in that ninth inning, only
21:36
Speaker 1: 11 were strikes. Kurt did pull him in favor of
21:40
Speaker 1: Sammy Peralta. And Peralta, of course, gave up that grand
21:44
Speaker 1: slam to Sosa. Mark, do we agree or disagree with
21:47
Speaker 1: Kurt's decision to pull Ben Joyce, your closer, in that game?
21:54
Speaker 4: Hindsight, it's an obvious answer.
21:56
Speaker 6: However, I'm wondering what– this is the type of outing
22:02
Speaker 6: he was having in those rehab starts when I would
22:05
Speaker 6: watch some of the highlights or whatever you want to
22:08
Speaker 6: call them. Pretty wild misses. The control wasn't there, and
22:12
Speaker 6: some of those innings spiraled on him. So if I
22:14
Speaker 6: had to guess, that's maybe what they have been on
22:17
Speaker 6: guard for. I mean, for such a physically– I don't know, muscular.
22:23
Speaker 6: I mean, he's a big dude.
22:24
Speaker 1: Imposing. Very imposing.
22:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, it seems like there are some serious durability concerns.
22:30
Speaker 6: And you can't have a fragile closer. I don't know
22:33
Speaker 6: how you feel about that. I know it's smart to
22:36
Speaker 6: probably look after him. But what was he at?
22:38
Speaker 4: 26 pitches?
22:39
Speaker 1: 26.
22:41
Speaker 4: Okay.
22:42
Speaker 6: The starting pitching hand, another one recording after Sunday's game.
22:46
Speaker 6: Kikuchi had a nice start. But I don't know if
22:48
Speaker 6: there was a high likelihood that Ben Joyce would be
22:50
Speaker 6: needed tonight, if that was the thought, or they just
22:53
Speaker 6: did not want him really going beyond a certain amount
22:56
Speaker 6: of pitches in any situation. And if that's the case,
22:58
Speaker 6: then hopefully in September they're going to, you know, because
23:03
Speaker 6: that's a very limited role in a bullpen that gets
23:06
Speaker 6: a lot.
23:06
Speaker 4: Of use or a decent amount of use.
23:09
Speaker 1: They're in a tough spot with this guy. You know, yeah,
23:12
Speaker 1: you want him to be your closer. He clearly has
23:14
Speaker 1: the stuff to close. He's got the mentality. But the
23:17
Speaker 1: physicality of it and him coming back from surgery, you
23:20
Speaker 1: want to protect him. I actually agreed with Kurt's decision
23:23
Speaker 1: to pull him. I just think if the Angels are
23:26
Speaker 1: in a pennant race or they're pushing for some kind of–
23:31
Speaker 1: to get to 500, whatever that positive measure is, they're
23:35
Speaker 1: nowhere near that. So you've got to protect him right now.
23:39
Speaker 1: But I do wonder if sometime in September they're going
23:41
Speaker 1: to want to see him pitching back-to-back games or if
23:44
Speaker 1: he just– you know, try to protect him the rest
23:46
Speaker 1: of the year, and that's how we're going to finish. But,
23:50
Speaker 1: you know, it's going to be a real, you know,
23:52
Speaker 1: a dilemma for the Angels moving forward on what to
23:56
Speaker 1: do with this guy. All right, let's turn our attention
24:00
Speaker 1: to Ryan Johnson, who had a really interesting start on
24:04
Speaker 1: Saturday night. He threw 60 pitches and walked four in
24:08
Speaker 1: the first two innings, somehow only gave up one run,
24:11
Speaker 1: and he needed only 28 pitches to throw three hitless innings.
24:16
Speaker 1: And beyond that kind of craziness, Johnson completely ditched his
24:23
Speaker 1: two-seam fastball. He threw 53 cutters, 18 sweepers, 15 splitters,
24:29
Speaker 1: and two, only two sinkers. Was that, is this a
24:33
Speaker 1: good move? And is it a good move for him
24:35
Speaker 1: moving forward, Mark? Because I watched him that whole game
24:39
Speaker 1: and I'm like, he hasn't thrown a pitch hardly over 90,
24:41
Speaker 1: 91 miles an hour. Don't you have to have a
24:44
Speaker 1: fastball to compete in this league? I don't know. That's
24:46
Speaker 1: what I always thought.
24:49
Speaker 6: It's a good move right now, and it's working. I
24:52
Speaker 6: struggle to find a comp for what he's doing. It's
24:56
Speaker 6: very unique, and he's got a unique arm action. Not
25:00
Speaker 6: a lot of– or it could be deceptive. It seems
25:03
Speaker 6: like it's a lot of arm, not a lot of
25:06
Speaker 6: lower body drive, although he does get good extension. Here's
25:09
Speaker 6: the thing about his cutter. it has a plane a
25:13
Speaker 6: lot better than it looks at least to the naked
25:16
Speaker 6: eye or to my naked eye. I kind of look
25:19
Speaker 6: at it and the velocity doesn't stand out, has some
25:22
Speaker 6: movement on it, but what it does is it holds
25:25
Speaker 6: its plane and it's got a lot of ride for
25:27
Speaker 6: what it is, meaning it looks more like a fastball
25:30
Speaker 6: coming in. A lot of cutters are going to have
25:32
Speaker 6: an element of, you know, kind of a baby slider
25:35
Speaker 6: type thing where they're moving down a lot more. His
25:37
Speaker 6: just kind of veers across. So yeah, I think it's
25:41
Speaker 6: baffling some of the hitters who are counting on some
25:43
Speaker 6: of that movement downwards where his is actually probably due
25:46
Speaker 6: to that low arm slot release, um, which kind of
25:49
Speaker 6: creates the illusion of an upshoot fastball. Uh, I've talked
25:53
Speaker 6: about that a little bit, highly coveted today. Now he's
25:56
Speaker 6: not doing that. He's throwing a cutter, but you know
25:59
Speaker 6: what it is? It's missing barrels. And it seemed like, uh,
26:02
Speaker 6: the Phillies were out in front of a lot, a
26:05
Speaker 6: lot of soft contact, um, His command was okay. I
26:09
Speaker 6: actually think the lefties that rated pretty poorly. Um, and
26:13
Speaker 6: it wasn't great with all the, all the free passes.
26:15
Speaker 6: I thought he was nibbling to a very high degree
26:17
Speaker 6: early and I'd still see elements of that. I think
26:20
Speaker 6: he's not immune to looking at some of the names
26:24
Speaker 6: on the back of the jerseys, uh, the guys who
26:27
Speaker 6: were up there and they have a who's who of yeah,
26:32
Speaker 6: you know, they have a murderer's row at the top
26:35
Speaker 6: of that order, but he did a very nice job
26:37
Speaker 6: settling in and giving them some, some quality innings.
26:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. I looked up the numbers. I, this was interesting.
26:42
Speaker 1: So opponents are hitting three 71 with a seven 26
26:45
Speaker 1: slugging percentage in at bats ending with his sinker and
26:51
Speaker 1: against the cutter, they're hitting one 84 with a three
26:53
Speaker 1: 30 slugger slugging percentage. Against the splitter, 167 with a
26:58
Speaker 1: 217 slug. But against the sweeper, 313 with a 604
27:04
Speaker 1: slugging percentage.
27:06
Speaker 4: So yeah, I agree.
27:07
Speaker 1: The numbers right now are dictating that you might want
27:10
Speaker 1: to ditch that sinker. I was going to ask you
27:13
Speaker 1: also about his windup, which is about as unusual as
27:18
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. For Angel fans, I'm sure you know
27:21
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. He kind of takes that step
27:23
Speaker 1: back and And he doesn't really lift his left leg.
27:26
Speaker 1: He just kind of drives his leg toward the hitter,
27:29
Speaker 1: almost like he's an infielder making a throw to first base.
27:32
Speaker 1: Is that something that'll continue to play? Or does that
27:35
Speaker 1: need any adjustment in your mind?
27:38
Speaker 4: Fluid, it is not. Jerky. Jerky. It's his delivery.
27:44
Speaker 6: It's his motion. It's not going anywhere. I don't think
27:46
Speaker 6: he will change it unless he has to. I'm assuming
27:49
Speaker 6: it's one of those. And this is a thing for
27:52
Speaker 6: anyone with kids out there. Um, if they have, uh,
27:55
Speaker 6: if they pitch and if they have mechanics that don't look, um,
27:59
Speaker 6: picture perfect as, as some might think, don't change them
28:03
Speaker 6: unless there's some sort of injury risk or otherwise. Those
28:06
Speaker 6: guys that throw those weird deliveries often are the ones
28:09
Speaker 6: driving the real nice cars and making, uh, false cards.
28:13
Speaker 4: No, it's true.
28:14
Speaker 6: It's hard to hit. You don't know what's going on.
28:15
Speaker 6: You got stuff flying at you. Um, you know, he's,
28:19
Speaker 6: he's a guy that, um, keep it up. I mean, we,
28:24
Speaker 6: I've talked about the way he was handled and mishandled.
28:27
Speaker 6: It seems like he's in a much better spot. You
28:29
Speaker 6: might be dead on with keeping him in the starting rotation.
28:33
Speaker 6: I was skeptical, but he's convincing me. And why he's
28:38
Speaker 6: convincing me? Well, he's getting the job done.
28:40
Speaker 4: And he's just, you know.
28:42
Speaker 6: If he has a nice finish to the season, you
28:44
Speaker 6: can pencil him in as a starter, you know, moving
28:48
Speaker 6: forward in the following years. He's a young guy, could
28:50
Speaker 6: end up being a very nice draft selection.
28:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's last five starts. He got a
28:55
Speaker 1: sub-two ERA, so that's a pretty good little run for him.
28:58
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to close the show talking about
29:01
Speaker 1: another young pitcher, George Clausen. He was placed on the
29:04
Speaker 1: 15-day injured list on Sunday because of left lower back inflammation.
29:10
Speaker 1: Angels say this is not a serious injury. They expect
29:14
Speaker 1: him to return in September, but if I'm the Angels,
29:17
Speaker 1: I'd shut this kid down. He's thrown 118 innings between
29:20
Speaker 1: Salt Lake and the big leagues this year. He threw
29:23
Speaker 1: 108 and two-thirds innings in the minor leagues in 2025.
29:28
Speaker 1: I know that's not a huge jump. I always remember
29:32
Speaker 1: back in the day, guys, you know, scouts, managers, front
29:37
Speaker 1: office personnel talking about guys jumping jumps. what was it,
29:41
Speaker 1: maybe 20, 25 to 30 innings max per year as
29:44
Speaker 1: they progress through the minor league. So it's not a
29:46
Speaker 1: huge jump. But to me, this kid has thrown some
29:50
Speaker 1: good games lately. I would not want to risk any
29:52
Speaker 1: kind of injury to him going into the offseason. I
29:55
Speaker 1: think we've seen enough of him to know what they have,
29:58
Speaker 1: and I think he's a pretty good rotation candidate heading
30:01
Speaker 1: into 2027. What do you think, Mark? Do you want
30:05
Speaker 1: to see more of this kid, or would you just
30:07
Speaker 1: shut him down at this point?
30:10
Speaker 6: I'd take care of the injury. I think credit to
30:12
Speaker 6: BTH if he was right. As far as team control,
30:16
Speaker 6: it might be influenced by him being on the field
30:20
Speaker 6: or on the IL. This is a story that We'll
30:24
Speaker 6: have to monitor a little bit. Hopefully this is nothing serious.
30:27
Speaker 6: It doesn't appear to be. I had a couple quick
30:29
Speaker 6: questions if you would be willing to answer.
30:32
Speaker 4: Of course.
30:34
Speaker 6: The first one, Schwarber's hit that fell in to center
30:39
Speaker 6: in Saturday night's game.
30:41
Speaker 4: Was that ball catchable in your opinion?
30:44
Speaker 1: It's not catchable when Trout's playing as deep as he plays.
30:47
Speaker 1: He has played so deep for so many guys. I
30:50
Speaker 1: know Schwarber's your major league home run leader, but He plays,
30:55
Speaker 1: to me, too deep against a lot of regular, you know,
31:00
Speaker 1: less Schwarber-like hitters. We've seen a lot of balls drop
31:04
Speaker 1: in front of Mike this year. I know he's a
31:08
Speaker 1: lot more comfortable coming in on baseballs than he is
31:11
Speaker 1: going back. I think most outfielders are that way.
31:14
Speaker 6: Would you have liked to see a dive there?
31:19
Speaker 1: I don't. Know that he would have caught it with
31:21
Speaker 1: a dive. He ran a long way, and I'm not
31:23
Speaker 1: sure he was that close. I mean, he made a
31:25
Speaker 1: diving catch one or two over the weekend, so I
31:28
Speaker 1: don't think it's a matter of him not diving. Why?
31:30
Speaker 1: Did you think he was close enough to dive?
31:32
Speaker 4: It's a tough play.
31:33
Speaker 6: He was playing into right center field, significantly shaded and
31:37
Speaker 6: very deep. So off the bat, it looked like just
31:41
Speaker 6: a can of corn. I believe it would have been
31:43
Speaker 6: a situation with the runner tagging. I think there were
31:45
Speaker 6: less than two outs.
31:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
31:47
Speaker 4: It ended up being– It kind of went by.
31:51
Speaker 6: I don't know what Siri was doing as usual.
31:54
Speaker 4: Interesting. Two more questions.
31:56
Speaker 6: The ABS replay challenges. I don't know what's going on
32:01
Speaker 6: with this system. I'm not a Phillies fan whatsoever, but
32:04
Speaker 6: I think they got hosed pretty good this series.
32:08
Speaker 4: Third, Trey Turner was clearly safe.
32:11
Speaker 6: I don't know what they were looking at. There's an
32:13
Speaker 6: angle that clearly states it. The one at home, Harper's,
32:17
Speaker 6: I'm going to agree that he was out, but this
32:21
Speaker 6: isn't really a question maybe. One thing, Darnot was allowed
32:25
Speaker 6: to block the plate there. For those that may have
32:28
Speaker 6: been wondering, is that legal? When the play is coming
32:31
Speaker 6: from an infielder, or in this case a pitcher.
32:34
Speaker 4: You are allowed to block the plate.
32:37
Speaker 6: But the replay as a whole, it just doesn't seem,
32:39
Speaker 6: it seems like a lot of them are wrong.
32:42
Speaker 4: A lot of people still upset.
32:43
Speaker 6: I guess it's the human element, but you wonder like
32:45
Speaker 6: the one today, Meckler ended up getting trout on RBI,
32:48
Speaker 6: but a quick overturn on that game ending double play.
32:52
Speaker 6: And I really, myself didn't see anything too definitive. The
32:57
Speaker 6: last one I was asked a personal question.
33:00
Speaker 4: Where did you get the skin fade? What barber are
33:03
Speaker 4: you going to?
33:04
Speaker 6: I had a buddy that was asking. He said that
33:07
Speaker 6: maybe downtown Santa Ana for a haircut that night. I've
33:12
Speaker 6: been going to the same guy who's been cutting my
33:14
Speaker 6: hair since 1991 or 2. Ron Smith and Brea. Salon 860,
33:21
Speaker 6: I think.
33:23
Speaker 4: A little plug. What can I say? I think a
33:26
Speaker 4: dude's hair type, no problem with but I had a buddy.
33:29
Speaker 1: That was asking and I said, I would ask you
33:31
Speaker 1: on here. I, uh, this time of year, I was,
33:35
Speaker 1: I say, give me the summer cut. Cause I don't
33:37
Speaker 1: want to mess with it. It is effing hot out there.
33:40
Speaker 6: Let's, let's be 31,000 people that were at today's game
33:45
Speaker 6: had to be melting 31,000, by the way.
33:47
Speaker 4: Yeah.
33:48
Speaker 1: I don't know. 20,000 in the shade, smart fans. Hey,
33:52
Speaker 1: to get back to your replay though. I was actually
33:54
Speaker 1: in Don Mattingly's office after that game Saturday night for
33:57
Speaker 1: the post game. And, Yeah, he's really struggling with those
34:00
Speaker 1: calls that need to be, the ones that are called
34:03
Speaker 1: a certain way and you need clear evidence to overturn it.
34:07
Speaker 1: It's like, how are you ever getting clear evidence on
34:09
Speaker 1: a lot of these calls? And it's like, he thinks,
34:12
Speaker 1: what he has a problem with is the replay is
34:17
Speaker 1: based more on the call on the field. If it's
34:21
Speaker 1: a safe call, it's most likely going to be, you
34:24
Speaker 1: need clear evidence to overturn it. if it's an out
34:29
Speaker 1: call and you just need to confirm it, you know,
34:32
Speaker 1: you need a little, it's like there's a lesser bar
34:34
Speaker 1: that you have to climb to overturn plays that are
34:38
Speaker 1: called a certain way on the field. And he's railed
34:40
Speaker 1: against that for a long time. So I don't know
34:42
Speaker 1: what the solution is. I looked at the replay at
34:45
Speaker 1: that steal a home by Harper. What a daring move
34:48
Speaker 1: on his part. And that was after going from first
34:52
Speaker 1: to third on a wild pitch, another great base running
34:54
Speaker 1: move on his part. But it's hard to even see,
34:58
Speaker 1: You know, because the dirt's flying up. Darnot's shin guard's
35:02
Speaker 1: right there. It's hard to even see the plate. Like,
35:05
Speaker 1: how do you even overturn that?
35:07
Speaker 6: Well, Darnot, too, I think, admitted that he was a
35:09
Speaker 6: little nervous after the fact. He kind of just plopped
35:12
Speaker 6: down and was going to rely on Harper inevitably running
35:17
Speaker 6: into his glove.
35:18
Speaker 1: Yeah.
35:18
Speaker 4: Where Harper's hand.
35:19
Speaker 6: I mean, I don't think there's an even with tech
35:23
Speaker 6: away unless there was a sensor on the plate that
35:26
Speaker 6: could sense... some sort of contact, maybe a good idea.
35:29
Speaker 6: I won't make any money off of that either, but I,
35:33
Speaker 6: I think that, you know, tennis and these other, they
35:36
Speaker 6: take the human element out because it's still just guesswork.
35:40
Speaker 6: Some weird challenges on ABS as well. This series that
35:44
Speaker 6: didn't go the player's way. The angels are second in
35:47
Speaker 6: the league in replay challenges, by the way, are asking
35:50
Speaker 6: for them and they, a little less, but they ask
35:53
Speaker 6: for a lot.
35:54
Speaker 4: My point.
35:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.
35:55
Speaker 5: All right.
35:55
Speaker 1: We're going to close the show with that. Hey, thanks
35:58
Speaker 1: for watching. Thanks for tuning in. Please like and subscribe.
36:02
Speaker 1: And thanks to your buddy who likes my haircut, Mark.
36:05
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time on Halo Territory.