Latest / Foul Territory / Jeff Fletcher talks SOARING Angels

Transcript

Jeff Fletcher talks SOARING Angels · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: I think, Ohapi and Netto, those are the guys that
0:02
Speaker 1: I think most of the baseball world that ignores the
0:05
Speaker 1: Angels or makes jokes about the Angels should pay attention
0:08
Speaker 1: to these guys. Those are definitely the core guys.
0:15
Speaker 2: Hey, we're back with Jeff Fletcher. He covers the Angels
0:18
Speaker 2: for the So Calm News group. He's joining us. Jeff,
0:22
Speaker 2: Good to see you again, and also at this time,
0:26
Speaker 2: it is great to have you on during a time
0:28
Speaker 2: period where the Angels have won seven games in a row,
0:32
Speaker 2: really resurrecting themselves from the burial ground, right, because this
0:38
Speaker 2: is a team that obviously hasn't been good for years,
0:40
Speaker 2: and so when you look at the start that they
0:42
Speaker 2: were off to you and see them already what they
0:43
Speaker 2: were in like the ten below five hundred ranger, Like
0:46
Speaker 2: season's done, let's talk about some trade pips, talk about
0:49
Speaker 2: next year, and then here they come. So how surprising
0:52
Speaker 2: is this and what's happening?
0:54
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, first of all, I think if you
0:56
Speaker 1: would have just if I'd have been in like a
0:58
Speaker 1: coma for the first fifty games of the season and
1:00
Speaker 1: then just woken up today and looked at the stats,
1:02
Speaker 1: it would not be a surprise. I mean, there are
1:04
Speaker 1: a game under five hundred. If you look at all
1:06
Speaker 1: the individual players, like, nobody is really crazy out of
1:09
Speaker 1: what you would expect. What's been weird is the way
1:12
Speaker 1: they've gotten there. Because they started off eight and four,
1:14
Speaker 1: everybody's like, oh man, maybe they're really good. And then
1:17
Speaker 1: for three and a half weeks they were horrendous. Everything
1:20
Speaker 1: went wrong, everybody was terrible, and then basically they had
1:24
Speaker 1: about two weeks where they were a little better, and
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Speaker 1: then this last week where just everything went right.
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Speaker 3: They all are on a tear.
1:30
Speaker 1: Everybody's hitting, which has brought all their numbers back to
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Speaker 1: where they should be. So, you know, right now they're
1:35
Speaker 1: twenty four and twenty five, which is certainly not far
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Speaker 1: out of the range of what you would have thought
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Speaker 1: they would have been. You know, last year they were bad,
1:42
Speaker 1: but they looked like they should be better. So I
1:44
Speaker 1: think that I figured they were going to be probably
1:46
Speaker 1: a seventy eight win team, seventy seven, seventy nine somewhere
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Speaker 1: somewhere around there. So twenty four and twenty five, that's
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Speaker 1: right in line with where they ought to be.
1:55
Speaker 3: So I want to get into some guys here. All.
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Speaker 4: First off, let's talk a little bit about Mikerout. How's
2:00
Speaker 4: he doing, where are you seeing him at right now,
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Speaker 4: and expectations for him coming up.
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Speaker 1: Well, he's been running. He ran at eighty percent the
2:09
Speaker 1: other day, so I think he's been kind of doing
2:12
Speaker 1: that every other day. Probably today, I would expect he
2:14
Speaker 1: might try to get up to one hundred percent. If
2:16
Speaker 1: that goes well, then he's going to run the bases,
2:18
Speaker 1: and I think once he can run the bases, then
2:20
Speaker 1: he's ready to go. So nobody really wants to give
2:23
Speaker 1: an official time frame because with Trout, you know, there's
2:26
Speaker 1: times we think he's all ready to come back and
2:28
Speaker 1: then something happens. But if nothing else happens, I would
2:31
Speaker 1: expect to see him within four to seven days from now.
2:36
Speaker 3: Talk about another Guy Ward.
2:37
Speaker 4: Eight consecutive game with an extra base hit, talk about
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Speaker 4: his presence, and you know, he's the first Angel to
2:44
Speaker 4: accomplished that beat since ten Salmon did back in two thousand.
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Speaker 3: I find that absolutely incredible.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's pretty good. Eight eight games in
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Speaker 1: row in extra base It is not easy to do.
2:55
Speaker 1: And he's a guy that's always been super streaky, and
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Speaker 1: at the end of the year he ends up with
3:01
Speaker 1: a ops like seven forty to seven seventy, So that's
3:05
Speaker 1: right where he is right now, but it was really
3:07
Speaker 1: bad for a little while, so he's just sort of
3:09
Speaker 1: catching up to where he's supposed to be, and I
3:12
Speaker 1: would expect him to end up around this same level,
3:14
Speaker 1: but I'm sure that's going to be with some big
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Speaker 1: hot and cold streaks between now and the end of
3:18
Speaker 1: the season.
3:20
Speaker 5: This is the time of year where we start talking
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Speaker 5: about All Star through this hot streak through the entire season?
3:27
Speaker 5: Is Logan'll hopy the All Star? Or am I missing
3:30
Speaker 5: somebody else? Well?
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Speaker 1: Zach Netto is probably the best player right now all around.
3:37
Speaker 1: He missed a couple of weeks the beginning of the season,
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Speaker 1: and there's obviously Bobby wit Junior is a pretty good
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Speaker 1: short stuff too, so he's going to be the starter.
3:44
Speaker 1: But you know, I think either of those guys could
3:46
Speaker 1: make a case. It just sort of depends on how
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Speaker 1: everybody else that those positions is doing. But those are
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Speaker 1: certainly the top two guys right now. And you know,
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Speaker 1: if Trout comes back, you know, who knows what he
3:58
Speaker 1: would do in a month before the All Stars are picked,
4:00
Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see is.
4:04
Speaker 5: This team more fun to watch than other years. Think
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Speaker 5: outside of just the seven seven game winning streak, think
4:15
Speaker 5: of like an entire like why an Angels fan would
4:19
Speaker 5: come to see a five hundred team. If the hot streaks,
4:23
Speaker 5: you know, low streaks, they end up as a five
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Speaker 5: hundred team, are they more fun to watch? Are the
4:28
Speaker 5: Angels as an organization putting a better product out on
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Speaker 5: the field.
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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think it depends how much you
4:35
Speaker 1: buy the young guys. So like Netto o'hapi, Nolan Shanawell
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Speaker 1: has been better lately, Jack Ohanowitz and Jose Soriano and
4:43
Speaker 1: the starting rotation.
4:44
Speaker 3: Have been a little up and down.
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Speaker 1: If those kind of guys, those five guys all are
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Speaker 1: doing well, then you can really have some hope for
4:52
Speaker 1: the team in the long run, regardless of what the
4:54
Speaker 1: record is. You know, at the moment, if they're just
4:58
Speaker 1: good because you know, Joan Mancatta is on fire, Hora
5:03
Speaker 1: Solaier gets hot, or even Taylor Ward gets hot, then
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Speaker 1: it's less easy to be excited about it because those
5:10
Speaker 1: guys really aren't the long term. So I think that's
5:12
Speaker 1: what it comes down to. Like Neto Ohapi Shana, Will Kohanawitz, Soriano.
5:17
Speaker 1: That's really the young core. So if those guys are good,
5:20
Speaker 1: then there's hope.
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Speaker 5: This will probably be perceived as very negative, but you
5:24
Speaker 5: look to the Angels with trade chips at the trade deadline. Obviously,
5:30
Speaker 5: this streak has got everybody thinking, Bye, I'm still thinking
5:34
Speaker 5: more trade? Is there any Is there any like give
5:39
Speaker 5: in from Artie Moreno or whoever supersedes the GM at
5:44
Speaker 5: the time, from not trading players in the recent history,
5:48
Speaker 5: they just haven't done a lot of trades that you
5:51
Speaker 5: would think, Okay, maybe you could get something for them
5:54
Speaker 5: at the trade deadline.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they definitely have Kenny Jansen. You could
5:59
Speaker 1: definitely trade him if he's still doing well. The deadline
6:02
Speaker 1: closers tend to get you a pretty good return at
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Speaker 1: the deadline. Joam Mankata has been great right now, but
6:09
Speaker 1: he's only been healthy for a few weeks, so we'll
6:11
Speaker 1: see what he's doing two months from now. Taylor Ward
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Speaker 1: is a guy that he's got a year of control
6:17
Speaker 1: after this year too, so if he continues to hit
6:20
Speaker 1: really well, they definitely could get something for him. Last
6:24
Speaker 1: year they consider trading him, but he really went in
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Speaker 1: a terrible slump right before the deadline, so they didn't
6:28
Speaker 1: really get the offers that they that they thought were
6:31
Speaker 1: worth making the deal. And you know, Tyler Anderson too
6:35
Speaker 1: is you know, not an ace by any means, but
6:37
Speaker 1: a team that just needs to fill some innings and
6:39
Speaker 1: needs to get to October could be interested in a
6:42
Speaker 1: picture like that, So they definitely have some pieces, you know.
6:45
Speaker 1: I think it depends how they look and what the
6:48
Speaker 1: trajectory looks like. As far as a guy like Ward,
6:51
Speaker 1: who you could have for next year too, they'd have
6:53
Speaker 1: to make that judgment like can we be good in
6:55
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six and if so, do we want to
6:58
Speaker 1: keep Taylor Ward? These other guys are a free agent,
7:00
Speaker 1: and you know, they don't have to make that decision.
7:02
Speaker 1: So I think that's really the way they're looking at it.
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8:07
Speaker 5: Has the organization or Ron Washington laxed their approach to
8:13
Speaker 5: not dhing Mike Trout because he's going to go in
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Speaker 5: there as a reporter. He goes in there and swings
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Speaker 5: five hundred times when he DHS. But now he had
8:21
Speaker 5: another injury. They have they gone back, relaxed a little
8:25
Speaker 5: bit on and maybe we might DH him for the
8:28
Speaker 5: longevity of him this season.
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Speaker 1: I mean, I think that they're open to having him DH.
8:38
Speaker 1: I think that they don't necessarily feel like it's going
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Speaker 1: to be a huge difference in terms of what happens.
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Speaker 1: If obviously if he needs a DH to play, that's
8:46
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen, you know, and Horeus Hilaire would go
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Speaker 1: out there every day in right field if that's the
8:51
Speaker 1: option that they have. But you know, I think that
8:53
Speaker 1: they probably are going to just see how it goes.
8:56
Speaker 3: You know.
8:56
Speaker 1: Certainly, if he needs DH more, that's what's gonna happen.
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Speaker 1: If he needs more days off, that's what's.
9:00
Speaker 3: Going to happen.
9:00
Speaker 1: But before he got hurt, he played every single game,
9:03
Speaker 1: which I don't think anybody expected. So I think if
9:06
Speaker 1: he went into the year and said he's gonna you
9:08
Speaker 1: know that you can get one hundred and twenty games
9:10
Speaker 1: out of him, they would take that in a heartbeat.
9:12
Speaker 1: And right now, you know that's still possible, you know,
9:15
Speaker 1: if he comes back soon. So I don't know that's
9:18
Speaker 1: gonna happen, but I'm just saying that they've already built in,
9:21
Speaker 1: you know, forty some games that he's gonna miss, So
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Speaker 1: I think that they're open to whatever gets him on
9:26
Speaker 1: the field the most, basically in the lineup the most.
9:30
Speaker 2: Jeff, what did you think when they mentioned how they
9:34
Speaker 2: felt like Trout moving away from centerfield into the corner
9:38
Speaker 2: was really more of the key and that they could
9:40
Speaker 2: actually hurt themselves by putting him at DH because he
9:43
Speaker 2: would take so many swings. I mean, Todd Fathers buddies
9:46
Speaker 2: with Trout, and I feel like we've kicked this around.
9:48
Speaker 2: Even AJ like this, dude's a pro. He knows that
9:51
Speaker 2: he's had trouble staying on the field. I'm sure he
9:54
Speaker 2: wants to still be out in the field playing corner
9:58
Speaker 2: outfield over DH. But at the same time, I don't
10:01
Speaker 2: think he's going to take five hundred swings. If he's
10:03
Speaker 2: dching for the day, he'll get his routine down, but
10:06
Speaker 2: he'll know that he's most valuable if he's given them
10:09
Speaker 2: four or five at bats per game. So do you
10:11
Speaker 2: think that was the right call when we look back
10:14
Speaker 2: at the decision to spend pretty big on SO Layer
10:17
Speaker 2: and kind of block them from having Trout at DH
10:20
Speaker 2: or putting them in a less favorable outfield defense position,
10:24
Speaker 2: and that's been a problem for them at times anyway.
10:27
Speaker 1: Well, I think, first of all, at the time they
10:29
Speaker 1: had the opportunity at SO Layer, it was a pretty
10:31
Speaker 1: reasonable amount of money, and I don't think you at
10:36
Speaker 1: that point want to really eliminate players because of Mike Trout, because,
10:40
Speaker 1: as we've seen a lot of times, you don't have
10:41
Speaker 1: Mike Trout, so you don't want to go and not
10:44
Speaker 1: get players figuring you're going to have Mike Trout fill
10:46
Speaker 1: this role and then all of a sudden he's hurting
10:48
Speaker 1: you don't have them. So I think that this problem
10:50
Speaker 1: that came up having two dhs is a better problem
10:54
Speaker 1: than having no DHS, which might have been the case
10:56
Speaker 1: if they had not gotten Solare. So for him taking
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Speaker 1: too many swings, you know, I also thought maybe that's
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Speaker 1: a little not given Mike enough credit for his own
11:07
Speaker 1: taking care of himself. I think they felt he did
11:09
Speaker 1: that in the past, but I think he's done a
11:11
Speaker 1: lot of things in the past that he's learned from,
11:13
Speaker 1: so I don't know that he would necessarily do that again.
11:17
Speaker 1: I think it's they just sort of wanted to have
11:19
Speaker 1: some options, and I think that that's what what given
11:21
Speaker 1: Clair getting Celaire did for them.
11:24
Speaker 5: How have they accommodated the media in West Sacramento. I
11:29
Speaker 5: should have asked, were you were you at Sacramento? Were
11:31
Speaker 5: you at the Sacramento A Stadium? Okay, yeah, sutter Field
11:36
Speaker 5: did West Sacramento accommodate for you guys.
11:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was nice.
11:41
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a teeny little press box, but
11:43
Speaker 1: it was a great view. It was a little bit
11:45
Speaker 1: of a nuisance to have to walk out to center
11:48
Speaker 1: field to the clubhouse before and after the game, but
11:51
Speaker 1: you know, there's other ballparks. We were just at Dodger
11:54
Speaker 1: Stadium and it's a pain in the butt to get
11:55
Speaker 1: to the visitor's clubhouse at Dodger Stadium too, so you know,
11:58
Speaker 1: they're worse things the field. The players said that the
12:02
Speaker 1: clubhouse and the food and the weight room and all
12:04
Speaker 1: that stuff was better than in Oakland, So I think
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Speaker 1: it's going to be okay. I think the most interesting
12:09
Speaker 1: thing is going to be when it gets really hot
12:11
Speaker 1: in the summer and it gets really windy, Like is
12:14
Speaker 1: every game going to be twelve to ten?
12:16
Speaker 3: You know.
12:16
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be an interesting scene. But
12:18
Speaker 1: as far as just the logistics and the amenities, I
12:21
Speaker 1: think they'll be able to make it there for three years.
12:25
Speaker 2: Hey, draft, while we're on the clubhouse. We talked about
12:27
Speaker 2: this a couple of months ago and having checked in
12:29
Speaker 2: on it, so I feel like it's fair to do
12:30
Speaker 2: so now from the media perspective, how has the lack
12:34
Speaker 2: of cell phone usage in the clubhouse looked? Do you
12:38
Speaker 2: see it and if that's still being implemented. I'm just
12:42
Speaker 2: curious from an inside baseball perspective, inside the clubhouse, what
12:46
Speaker 2: are they doing? Like, are they chatting more, are they
12:49
Speaker 2: watching TV? Playing card games? I mean, I know all
12:52
Speaker 2: that stuff goes on anyway, but curious if you actually
12:55
Speaker 2: see the impact of that. I'm not trying to put
12:57
Speaker 2: wind and losses on it. You know, some fans are like,
13:00
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter, it does matter, I don't care. I'm
13:01
Speaker 2: just curious, like, from a lifestyle perspective, what does that
13:04
Speaker 2: look like to take cell phones away from gen z ers.
13:08
Speaker 1: Well, that kind of disappeared when the season started. They
13:11
Speaker 1: said that they were going to try to do it
13:13
Speaker 1: throughout the season, but I think it just sort of evaporated.
13:17
Speaker 1: I think in spring training there are a lot more
13:18
Speaker 1: places that they could go outside of the clubhouse when
13:21
Speaker 1: they wanted to use their phones. In a regular season,
13:24
Speaker 1: there's less space and so it's just not as logistically
13:26
Speaker 1: workable to do that, and so I think guys are
13:31
Speaker 1: now on their phones in the clubhouse. But they did
13:34
Speaker 1: kind of make a point of saying, like, don't get
13:36
Speaker 1: out of control with it. And if we're seeing that
13:38
Speaker 1: you're not getting what you have to do done because
13:41
Speaker 1: you're scrolling on Instagram, then we're going to have to
13:44
Speaker 1: do something else. And I think it was partly the
13:47
Speaker 1: reason they had. It was partly to get them to
13:49
Speaker 1: like communicate with each other, but the other part was
13:52
Speaker 1: just to get them to do something. I mean, I
13:53
Speaker 1: talked to Tyler Anderson one time about it, and he said,
13:57
Speaker 1: you know, there's times where I sit there and I
13:59
Speaker 1: have five minutes to kill before I need to go
14:02
Speaker 1: to do a workout or something like that, and I'm
14:04
Speaker 1: just gonna sit down and scroll on my phone for
14:06
Speaker 1: five minutes and the next thing, you know, it was
14:08
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. And you know, there went fifteen minutes that
14:11
Speaker 1: he could have been working on something else. So I
14:13
Speaker 1: think that was part of it. But basically now it's
14:16
Speaker 1: the same as it ever was at this point the season.
14:21
Speaker 2: That is the job of the phone. Those apps, they
14:24
Speaker 2: know what they're doing. They'll keep you there. Have been
14:27
Speaker 2: there many times I went in for one thing and
14:29
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, what was I here for? Wait, I'm
14:31
Speaker 2: watching you know, I'm watching puppies? What am I doing here?
14:35
Speaker 3: Anyway?
14:37
Speaker 2: Who are we not talking about or what are we
14:39
Speaker 2: not talking about with this team that we should be
14:40
Speaker 2: talking about?
14:41
Speaker 5: Right?
14:41
Speaker 2: I mean, our show covers all thirty. We're giving love
14:44
Speaker 2: today to the Angels for a great wind streak going on.
14:46
Speaker 2: What's a name or just a component of what's going
14:49
Speaker 2: on with this team that you see on an everyday
14:50
Speaker 2: basis and an every game basis that we're not seeing
14:53
Speaker 2: or not talking enough about.
14:56
Speaker 1: You know, I think we've hit everybody, you know. I
14:59
Speaker 1: think Hopy and Netto those are the guys that I
15:02
Speaker 1: think most of the baseball world that ignores the Angels
15:05
Speaker 1: or makes jokes about the Angels should pay attention to
15:08
Speaker 1: these guys. Those are definitely the core guys. Those are
15:10
Speaker 1: the two you know, star players, and they're potentially like
15:14
Speaker 1: multi year All Stars going forward. And it's pretty good
15:18
Speaker 1: at catcher and short stuff. Those are positions you'd like
15:20
Speaker 1: to have lockdown. So I think kind of the next
15:22
Speaker 1: question for the Angels is are they going to sign
15:24
Speaker 1: these guys to big multi year extensions and lock them
15:27
Speaker 1: up because they're definitely, you know, at the ages twenty
15:30
Speaker 1: four and twenty five, right now looking like their long
15:34
Speaker 1: term studs. Do you think they will That's a great question.
15:41
Speaker 1: They haven't really had other than Trout, they haven't really
15:44
Speaker 1: had another guy that's it's even been an issue. So
15:48
Speaker 1: I don't know how they would approach it, but I
15:50
Speaker 1: would if I were them. But it's not my money,
15:53
Speaker 1: That's true.
15:55
Speaker 2: Last one for me, if things go awry and this
15:59
Speaker 2: team ends up more in the ninety plus loss range again,
16:03
Speaker 2: do you think this is a year that could cause changes,
16:08
Speaker 2: whether it's GM, manager, etc. Like For me, it's measuring
16:13
Speaker 2: the expectations of the boss. Right, every team is run
16:16
Speaker 2: by a dictator. That's just how it is, right, there's
16:18
Speaker 2: one person who makes the decision. They're called a controller,
16:20
Speaker 2: Zary ma Reno for many years. Do you think his
16:22
Speaker 2: expectations are high enough that he would try and do
16:25
Speaker 2: something drastic this year? Because obviously there hasn't been winning
16:28
Speaker 2: for a while.
16:29
Speaker 3: Now.
16:29
Speaker 2: The team's playing well, so you're seeing a little taste
16:31
Speaker 2: of what this could look like. But if it does
16:33
Speaker 2: go awry, what could happen?
16:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean definitely Ron Washington and Perrymansion. It could
16:41
Speaker 1: be gone at the end of the year. If they
16:42
Speaker 1: have another bad year and you're looking at, you know,
16:45
Speaker 1: ninety ninety five losses because certainly last year they were
16:48
Speaker 1: bad and Perry got a contract extension I think was
16:50
Speaker 1: an acknowledgement from Artie that he liked the direction. But
16:55
Speaker 1: that direction has got to keep going. They've got they've
16:59
Speaker 1: got to improve, and if they don't improve, then then
17:02
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if both of those guys are back.
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Speaker 1: But as we sit here today, they certainly look like
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Speaker 1: they're improved. You know, we'll see what the next one
17:10
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve games springs, but it's definitely looks better
17:14
Speaker 1: right now.
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Speaker 2: Jeff, thanks for swinging by. Appreciate the time at Jeff
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Speaker 2: Fletcher ocr is the follow on Twitter and check out
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Speaker 2: his work with the Orange County Register. Thanks Jeff, appreciate
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Speaker 2: the time.
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Speaker 1: M all right, thanks guys,