Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / MO' BETTER: How quickly can Angels improve under interim GM John Mozeliak?
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Well, Hey Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo territory.
- 0:09Speaker 1: I am Mike di Giovanna, former Alla Times baseball writer
- 0:11Speaker 1: and host of the show, joined by Mark Trumbo, the
- 0:14Speaker 1: former Angel slugger and regular co host, and with us
- 0:17Speaker 1: today Bill shake In, the longtime national baseball writer for
- 0:21Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Times. Bill, thanks for joining us. How
- 0:26Speaker 1: you doing today?
- 0:28Speaker 2: Good? Thanks for having me.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Great to have you so. Bill shake wrote a really
- 0:32Speaker 1: fine story on the new interim GM the other day
- 0:35Speaker 1: John Moseylock, who had some interesting comments about several different subjects,
- 0:41Speaker 1: of which we will dive a little more deeply into.
- 0:44Speaker 1: But Shake just sort of in general, what were sort
- 0:47Speaker 1: of your overall takeaways from your first conversation with Moe
- 0:51Speaker 1: in this new role.
- 0:54Speaker 2: I think I sensed, and I think everybody who's been
- 0:56Speaker 2: around him a sense that this is a man who's
- 0:59Speaker 2: come fit of all on his shoes. He's done this
- 1:02Speaker 2: job for a lot of years, maybe not in Anaheim,
- 1:04Speaker 2: but certainly in Saint Louis, and teams have won, and
- 1:08Speaker 2: so he is here to figure out how to get
- 1:11Speaker 2: the Angels to be one of those teams that win.
- 1:14Speaker 2: And if things work out the way everybody hopes great,
- 1:17Speaker 2: the Angels are on a better path, and if they don't,
- 1:22Speaker 2: he's a consultant. That was the Angel's term, not mine.
- 1:25Speaker 2: He's done at the end of the year. No harm,
- 1:28Speaker 2: no foul for him.
- 1:30Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll get into that for sure. So three areas
- 1:34Speaker 1: we want to hone in on, and the first was
- 1:39Speaker 1: most saying that he did not think the Angels need
- 1:42Speaker 1: to rebuild. And here's the actual excerpt from Shake's column.
- 1:46Speaker 1: At first, I was shocked to hear him say he
- 1:47Speaker 1: does not believe the Angels need to rebuild. Under owner
- 1:49Speaker 1: Ardie Moreno, the Angels resisted rebuilding, preferring to add low
- 1:54Speaker 1: tier free agents and rush college players to the major
- 1:56Speaker 1: leagues in an effort to feel the competitive roster that
- 2:00Speaker 1: has failed. For the first time in franchise history, the
- 2:03Speaker 1: Angels could finish in last place for a third consecutive season.
- 2:06Speaker 1: But when Mo and I sat down and doug out
- 2:08Speaker 1: the other day, explained that the path forward and Anaheim
- 2:10Speaker 1: should not be tanking. It should be acting like the
- 2:14Speaker 1: major market team the Angels are and were during Moreno's
- 2:18Speaker 1: first decade of ownership.
- 2:20Speaker 3: Quote.
- 2:20Speaker 1: The one thing you have to realize about the Los
- 2:23Speaker 1: Angeles Angels is they do have resources. Most said from
- 2:27Speaker 1: mister Moreno to the market size, this is a place
- 2:30Speaker 1: that could be a very very special place. Now, the
- 2:35Speaker 1: first question that arose in my mind shake is did
- 2:39Speaker 1: already somehow convince mo that he's gonna all of a
- 2:42Speaker 1: sudden be the big spend or he used to be,
- 2:45Speaker 1: Or is there any way Mo in this short of
- 2:47Speaker 1: time could could convince already to open up that wallt
- 2:50Speaker 1: a little bit?
- 2:53Speaker 2: Well, in one sense, we're not going to know in
- 2:56Speaker 2: this short window of time. If it turns out that
- 3:00Speaker 2: down Mozillac stays on and becomes a general manager or
- 3:04Speaker 2: more likely a president of baseball operations, which, as we
- 3:07Speaker 2: should point out, under Artie Marino the Angels have never had,
- 3:10Speaker 2: then Okay, that's a long term thing. But for the
- 3:14Speaker 2: short term, I think he's just trying to steer the
- 3:17Speaker 2: ship toward a winning course. And do you need to
- 3:21Speaker 2: spend five hundred million dollars like the Dodgers? No, you don't.
- 3:26Speaker 2: Do you need to spend more than you're doing now?
- 3:28Speaker 2: Yes you do. And the front office in Anaheim, at
- 3:33Speaker 2: least before a couple of weeks ago, had been working
- 3:36Speaker 2: under the impression that Hey if we can pump some
- 3:40Speaker 2: of these young kids, especially some of the college players,
- 3:43Speaker 2: that they rush to the majors and they look good.
- 3:46Speaker 2: At the same time, we can run down the final
- 3:49Speaker 2: years of Anthony red Doin's contract, then there'll be money
- 3:52Speaker 2: available and already will give us the money to spend it.
- 3:56Speaker 2: The young players didn't pan out, I think the way
- 3:58Speaker 2: everybody hoped, and the crash of the Angels local television
- 4:04Speaker 2: network didn't really help because you lost tens of millions
- 4:07Speaker 2: of dollars every year, and as a result, Arty ma
- 4:10Speaker 2: Reno hasn't spent the way the old front office thought
- 4:14Speaker 2: he would. Can John Mozilic flash a World Series championship,
- 4:17Speaker 2: bring and get Arady to do that?
- 4:19Speaker 3: You know, we'll find out.
- 4:22Speaker 4: What's this talk about the draft from Moe taking the
- 4:25Speaker 4: best available player. I mean, that's not the Angel way,
- 4:29Speaker 4: at least recently. Do you have any thoughts on this?
- 4:34Speaker 4: I mean, in all seriousness, I think this is a
- 4:36Speaker 4: great answer. I think this is exactly what they should
- 4:38Speaker 4: be doing, targeting high ceiling. If it's a prep player,
- 4:43Speaker 4: so be it. If it's a college player, that's fine too.
- 4:46Speaker 4: But the recent strategy, I guess you just talked about
- 4:49Speaker 4: it a bit, But I if that's an Arty Morino thing,
- 4:53Speaker 4: it's a bit surprising my time there. I never saw that,
- 4:56Speaker 4: didn't see it after It's it seemed like a Perry
- 4:59Speaker 4: Manassian thing.
- 5:00Speaker 3: Maybe you can talk about that a little bit.
- 5:03Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're and I'm sympathetic to Perry's position, because
- 5:07Speaker 2: when you're not allowed to rebuild and you want to
- 5:11Speaker 2: be putting a winning team on the field, some of
- 5:14Speaker 2: the ways you can do that are limited if you're
- 5:17Speaker 2: not going to go out and spend money on free agents.
- 5:20Speaker 2: And under Perry, the money they spent on you say,
- 5:24Speaker 2: Kikuchi was the most they ever were allowed to spend
- 5:27Speaker 2: on a free agent, which was sixty three million dollars.
- 5:29Speaker 2: I mean they were getting out spent by the A's
- 5:31Speaker 2: on free agents. So maybe that will change.
- 5:34Speaker 3: But in the.
- 5:34Speaker 2: Meantime, if you want to really put the organization in
- 5:38Speaker 2: a good place, like you said, Mark, you have to
- 5:40Speaker 2: have the best talent. And so if you look at
- 5:43Speaker 2: last year's draft, I think everybody in the organization has
- 5:46Speaker 2: great hope for Tyler Bremner, who was the number two
- 5:49Speaker 2: overall pick, but he hasn't developed as quickly as some
- 5:53Speaker 2: other players have. This year through no fault of his own.
- 5:56Speaker 2: I know he hasn't been one hundred percent healthy all year.
- 5:59Speaker 2: But if you look at the guy the Angels passed
- 6:01Speaker 2: up to draft Tyler Bremner, it was Kate Anderson, who
- 6:05Speaker 2: everybody understood to be the best college pitcher in the draft.
- 6:09Speaker 2: He's been the best minor league pitcher I think, for
- 6:12Speaker 2: any team this year. And he would be starting for
- 6:14Speaker 2: the Seattle Mariners if they didn't have a great rotation already,
- 6:17Speaker 2: if he had been drafted by the Angels, I have
- 6:19Speaker 2: no doubt he'd be here already.
- 6:22Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 6:22Speaker 1: That to me, that was the quote I think most
- 6:26Speaker 1: angel fans will appreciate and agree with. And if you
- 6:30Speaker 1: look at the draft strategy, and I agree with Shake this.
- 6:35Speaker 1: You can't pin this all on Perry because this seemed
- 6:38Speaker 1: to be this need to draft the player closest to
- 6:41Speaker 1: the big leagues. But here's the Angels last ten first
- 6:45Speaker 1: round picks or top picks, Tyler Bremner. As Shake just mentioned,
- 6:51Speaker 1: they passed on some really good players to pick this
- 6:55Speaker 1: kid out. As you see Santa Barbara, Christian Moore, Nolan Shanwell,
- 7:00Speaker 1: Netto Sam Bachman reed Detmer's will Wilson, So all of
- 7:04Speaker 1: those kicks, I think maybe Debt, Meers and Neto being
- 7:08Speaker 1: the only exceptions of guys with pretty low ceiling, you know,
- 7:12Speaker 1: higher floor guys. And I think you have to go
- 7:15Speaker 1: all the way back to seventeen and eighteen when the
- 7:17Speaker 1: Angels under scouting director Matt Watson, picked two high school kids,
- 7:22Speaker 1: Joe Adell and Jordan Adams. And I think the jury
- 7:27Speaker 1: is clearly still out on Joe Adell, who has had
- 7:30Speaker 1: you know, it's been almost nine years since that draft,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and he's basically had one really good major league season
- 7:37Speaker 1: and that was last year, and he's regressed a little
- 7:39Speaker 1: bit this year in several ways. And Jordan Adams just,
- 7:43Speaker 1: you know, he's.
- 7:43Speaker 3: One of those.
- 7:46Speaker 1: Athletic foot former football player guys they thought was gonna,
- 7:50Speaker 1: you know, develop in their great baseball player. Just didn't happen.
- 7:54Speaker 1: I think the last I heard from him, he was
- 7:55Speaker 1: going to play college football or something.
- 7:57Speaker 3: Shape am I right?
- 7:58Speaker 5: He is?
- 7:58Speaker 3: Yeah, good for him.
- 8:01Speaker 1: The Angels actually had a history of drafting some college
- 8:03Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the past too that didn't pan out, and
- 8:06Speaker 1: they gave some big money to some of these guys,
- 8:08Speaker 1: So not sure what that strategy is mark. You were
- 8:11Speaker 1: a high school pick coming out of the draft. You've
- 8:14Speaker 1: seen what they've done over these last few years. And
- 8:16Speaker 1: I'll also add that I didn't have room on that
- 8:18Speaker 1: chart to put Taylor Ward the twenty fifteen pick and
- 8:21Speaker 1: Matt Thie who came after him. Taylor Ward eventually evolved
- 8:25Speaker 1: into a decent player, Matt Dice never panned out. Very
- 8:29Speaker 1: similar players at the time they were picked. What do
- 8:33Speaker 1: you think of this? What we hope is a shift
- 8:36Speaker 1: mark in draft strategy for the Angels. And we should
- 8:38Speaker 1: also note that, unlike Perry Manassian, who was apparently very
- 8:42Speaker 1: heavy handed in the draft, Moe is leaving this pick
- 8:46Speaker 1: up to his scouting director, Tim mcelevan.
- 8:50Speaker 4: Nothing but positives. I guess Perry probably his legacy will
- 8:55Speaker 4: be these draft choices. It certainly can't be the one
- 8:59Speaker 4: lost record while he was a general manager. That not flattering,
- 9:03Speaker 4: So he's going to be tied. I think most heavily
- 9:05Speaker 4: to the recent draft and choosing to go under slot
- 9:09Speaker 4: with Bremner, who is shake said has had some success
- 9:14Speaker 4: this year. He got rocked in his last start. He's
- 9:17Speaker 4: only going three innings, three and a third something like that. Generally,
- 9:22Speaker 4: so for whatever reason, they're really slow playing him, and
- 9:26Speaker 4: I think part of it was due to some injury
- 9:29Speaker 4: that he had, which they never really clarified. But I
- 9:35Speaker 4: think it's a great thing for the Angels. I think
- 9:36Speaker 4: if they can get a quality player. There's a lot
- 9:38Speaker 4: of this draft is pretty deep with some quality players
- 9:42Speaker 4: that are going to be in the first round, so
- 9:43Speaker 4: I think it should be a good thing.
- 9:44Speaker 6: Aar.
- 9:45Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a quick break for a word from
- 9:47Speaker 1: our sponsors, and when we come back, we'll talk about
- 9:49Speaker 1: another key part of Shakes stories story that has to
- 9:52Speaker 1: do with the potential or lack of potential of Ardi
- 9:56Speaker 1: Marinos selling the team. We'll be right back with more
- 9:58Speaker 1: Halo territory book.
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- 11:02Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo territory with Mark Trumbo, Bill
- 11:06Speaker 1: Shaking of the La Times and Mike Di Giovanna, Well Shake.
- 11:09Speaker 1: The other really interesting part of your story we thought
- 11:13Speaker 1: was this quote from mo or this excerpt in his
- 11:17Speaker 1: hours of conversation conversations with Marino, Moselyics said, the topic
- 11:21Speaker 1: of whether the owner might sell the team quote never
- 11:24Speaker 1: came up. Does Marino appear interested in staying for the
- 11:28Speaker 1: long haul? Absolutely? Moselyics said, I don't know what to
- 11:37Speaker 1: say about this shake. Uh, what was your reaction when
- 11:41Speaker 1: when you heard this? We've this can't be music to
- 11:44Speaker 1: the ears of the fans who have been chanting for
- 11:46Speaker 1: weeks for already to sell the team. Uh does he
- 11:50Speaker 1: really Do you really think he's in this for the
- 11:52Speaker 1: long haul?
- 11:54Speaker 3: What do you think?
- 11:56Speaker 2: I think there had been some subset of fans that thought, Okay,
- 12:00Speaker 2: maybe this is somehow a way to position the team
- 12:03Speaker 2: better for a sale, hire an experienced guy to clean
- 12:06Speaker 2: things up a little bit. Honestly, the biggest factor in
- 12:10Speaker 2: a sale price, if there's going to be a sale,
- 12:12Speaker 2: is the fact that the Angels need a new stadium.
- 12:15Speaker 2: It's going to cost more than a billion dollars and
- 12:18Speaker 2: nobody's figuring out how to get that done. And if
- 12:20Speaker 2: that goes to a new owner, that's going to impact
- 12:22Speaker 2: the sale price because an owner is going to come in,
- 12:25Speaker 2: is going to figure that out and want some sort
- 12:27Speaker 2: of credit. So maybe the city of Anaheim works something
- 12:30Speaker 2: out with the team before then.
- 12:31Speaker 3: Maybe not.
- 12:32Speaker 2: But in the meantime, you still have a team, and
- 12:35Speaker 2: you still have an owner. By all accounts, and this
- 12:37Speaker 2: has really never changed. And how do you guys know
- 12:40Speaker 2: this too from anybody that's ever talked to Ardy over
- 12:43Speaker 2: the years. He wants to win. He's a huge fan
- 12:46Speaker 2: you know, he goes to spring training games and sits
- 12:48Speaker 2: in the front row. You know, this is not a
- 12:51Speaker 2: guy who just counts us as an investment and doesn't
- 12:54Speaker 2: pay attention to it, you know, for better or in
- 12:56Speaker 2: some cases for worse. So the fact that he'd want
- 13:01Speaker 2: to stay for now makes sense. But you know he's
- 13:05Speaker 2: going to be eighty. His closest ally among the owners
- 13:08Speaker 2: is Jerry reinsdorffho was in his nineties and is still there,
- 13:11Speaker 2: so really who knows.
- 13:12Speaker 3: But he'd like to win.
- 13:13Speaker 2: And if I think John Mozelac can show him a
- 13:16Speaker 2: path to winning, and then if Aready can abide by it,
- 13:19Speaker 2: which are two different things entirely, then maybe sticks around.
- 13:23Speaker 2: There's certainly a very real option that at the end
- 13:27Speaker 2: of the labor talks, if the owners have figured out,
- 13:29Speaker 2: whether it's a salary cap or something else, how to
- 13:33Speaker 2: make these investments in baseball teams even less riskier than
- 13:38Speaker 2: they are now, almost like foolproof, then maybe already can
- 13:41Speaker 2: sell for a good price.
- 13:42Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter.
- 13:44Speaker 2: But I think the bottom line is the results on
- 13:48Speaker 2: the field haven't been very good, and Hardy would like
- 13:52Speaker 2: to change that.
- 13:53Speaker 3: At this moment.
- 13:55Speaker 2: What happens going forward, who knows. I think Perry would
- 13:57Speaker 2: be the first to tell you there are things he
- 13:59Speaker 2: thought we're going to happen when he took the job
- 14:01Speaker 2: that didn't happen. I think Billy Eppler would probably tell
- 14:04Speaker 2: you the same thing. Eppler was the GM before Kerry,
- 14:08Speaker 2: so you know who knows. But again, Mozilic is a
- 14:10Speaker 2: guy with the World Series ring on his finger who
- 14:12Speaker 2: can say to already, I've been there, I've done that.
- 14:15Speaker 2: Let me show you how to do it.
- 14:17Speaker 1: Yeah, Shake and I have both covered already for his
- 14:20Speaker 1: entire two decade tenure as owner, through the good, the bad,
- 14:24Speaker 1: the ugly and the worst. And here's what I don't
- 14:27Speaker 1: get Shake. He turns eighty in August. As far as
- 14:29Speaker 1: we know, his kids do not have interest in in
- 14:32Speaker 1: running this team or owning the team. There's no succession
- 14:35Speaker 1: plan in place. Why does he insist on continuing when
- 14:38Speaker 1: he can sell this team for probably even you know,
- 14:41Speaker 1: even with the stadium issues north of three billion dollars?
- 14:45Speaker 1: Is it purely an ego thing with him or does
- 14:47Speaker 1: he not you know? Has he toned deaf to these
- 14:49Speaker 1: the sentiment of these fans who were who really think
- 14:52Speaker 1: the only way out and up for this franchise is
- 14:55Speaker 1: for him to sell the team to somebody who can
- 14:58Speaker 1: devote the resources, the effort, the energy, and the will
- 15:02Speaker 1: to win that he just hasn't shown in the last
- 15:04Speaker 1: few years.
- 15:07Speaker 2: Thank you, joys owning a baseball team, you know, there's
- 15:09Speaker 2: only thirty Major League teams, and if he sells the Angels,
- 15:13Speaker 2: he's you know, and I don't mean this cynically like
- 15:17Speaker 2: just another well off guy in retirement. You know, baseball
- 15:20Speaker 2: is what drives him right now, so you know, I mean,
- 15:23Speaker 2: God willing, we could all be in that position.
- 15:26Speaker 3: Something.
- 15:29Speaker 4: I have a question, Molly Jolly, it sounds like had
- 15:34Speaker 4: played a big part in this. Do you think there's
- 15:37Speaker 4: a singular thing that seal Perry's fate recently? I speculated
- 15:43Speaker 4: at one point that it seems like early June the
- 15:47Speaker 4: decision was made for this kind of that happen, and
- 15:50Speaker 4: they lost to the Dodgers, but right before that they
- 15:53Speaker 4: dropped a series to the Colorado Rockies, and just an
- 15:57Speaker 4: educated guest, that might have been too much to stomach
- 16:00Speaker 4: into that ball club. Do you have any guesses or
- 16:03Speaker 4: ideas as to why they ultimately decided to move on
- 16:06Speaker 4: from Harry.
- 16:08Speaker 2: Well, what I would suggest, based on what I know,
- 16:12Speaker 2: and it may not be everything, is that Mollie took over.
- 16:17Speaker 2: In April. There's a big ceremony during the home opener
- 16:20Speaker 2: for John Carpino, the former president. Unfortunately for him, he
- 16:24Speaker 2: got booed, which I don't think Ardi Brino really understood
- 16:26Speaker 2: the fan sentiment quite to that degree at that point.
- 16:29Speaker 2: But Molly got in there and said to Artie, Okay, well,
- 16:34Speaker 2: is my job running business or is it overseeing everything?
- 16:37Speaker 2: And already said overseeing everything. So I don't think it
- 16:41Speaker 2: takes any kind of great business strategy to know that
- 16:45Speaker 2: whatever the angels are doing, it's not working. John Carpino
- 16:48Speaker 2: said the same thing six years ago. He never really
- 16:50Speaker 2: figured it out. So Mall's going to try to figure
- 16:53Speaker 2: it out. And if you figured it out that it's
- 16:55Speaker 2: not working, maybe the first thing you do is try
- 16:58Speaker 2: to get somebody in here who can tell you why
- 17:00Speaker 2: it's not working. And that's what you did. I don't
- 17:02Speaker 2: think you need to keep Perry around to run a
- 17:05Speaker 2: draft or to run a trade deadline. If the talent
- 17:09Speaker 2: he's put on the field over the last six years
- 17:11Speaker 2: isn't satisfactory for you, why not go ahead, make the change,
- 17:15Speaker 2: and do what Moe basically said he's here to do,
- 17:18Speaker 2: which is to audit the organization. He sees a successful role,
- 17:22Speaker 2: get through the draft, get through the trade deadline, and
- 17:25Speaker 2: be able to tell Molly and already, here's what you
- 17:28Speaker 2: need to do going forward. Maybe he's going to stay
- 17:31Speaker 2: involved as president of Baseball Operations. Maybe he's going to
- 17:34Speaker 2: stay involved in a lesser role, a supporting.
- 17:37Speaker 3: Role, if you will.
- 17:38Speaker 2: Maybe he just goes back home to Saint Louis and
- 17:40Speaker 2: put his feet back up on the balcony and patio
- 17:43Speaker 2: in his house and says, job well done. Maybe gets
- 17:46Speaker 2: frustrated and says, you know, the things I thought were
- 17:49Speaker 2: going to happen are not going to happen. He wouldn't
- 17:50Speaker 2: be the first guy to have that happen, but I
- 17:53Speaker 2: think he's the first guy to come in here with
- 17:55Speaker 2: that level of credibility. Because if you go back, you know,
- 17:59Speaker 2: the best thing already, you know, ever did for the
- 18:00Speaker 2: Angels was when he bought the team. It was right
- 18:03Speaker 2: after the Angels had just won the World Series, and
- 18:06Speaker 2: he said, Bill Stoneman and Mike Soship, these guys seem
- 18:09Speaker 2: to know what they're doing. And he left them in place.
- 18:12Speaker 2: They ran a player development machine which other teams would
- 18:16Speaker 2: come to the Angels spring training games in Tempe, not
- 18:19Speaker 2: the major league games, with the minor league games, to
- 18:21Speaker 2: see how well the Angels were doing in player development
- 18:24Speaker 2: and to try to figure out how they could do it.
- 18:27Speaker 2: That is basically what the Angels have to do now
- 18:29Speaker 2: with other teams. That's the kind of thing that I
- 18:32Speaker 2: think Mozilla can sort of get him started on now.
- 18:35Speaker 1: Sheik mo has left the door slightly open to staying
- 18:39Speaker 1: with the Angels beyond his contract which expires in December.
- 18:44Speaker 1: But if he decides not to stay, what can he
- 18:48Speaker 1: realistically accomplish in these six months?
- 18:53Speaker 2: I think the number one thing would be to get
- 18:55Speaker 2: already on board with the idea of we just have
- 18:58Speaker 2: to do more, and in more, I mean everything we
- 19:02Speaker 2: talked earlier about the draft and how the Angels picks
- 19:05Speaker 2: this decade have not prospered the way the team hoped. Honestly,
- 19:09Speaker 2: if you look at the Dodgers' first round picks this decade,
- 19:13Speaker 2: they have not prospered the way the team hoped either.
- 19:16Speaker 2: It's not that much different, but what the Dodgers do
- 19:19Speaker 2: that the Angels don't and I know everybody will say
- 19:22Speaker 2: spend half a billion dollars, which is true, but they
- 19:25Speaker 2: also make smart trades, which the Angels haven't done. They
- 19:29Speaker 2: spend money not just on you know, Shoho Tani or
- 19:33Speaker 2: Mookie Betts, but on really good, complimentary players that can
- 19:37Speaker 2: raise the ceiling of the talent in the room. They
- 19:39Speaker 2: spend money on everything for the players that has nothing
- 19:42Speaker 2: to do with you know, fielding a ground ball or
- 19:45Speaker 2: hitting a curveball. They give them resources in the clubhouse,
- 19:48Speaker 2: they have great nutrition, they have a second plane. Like
- 19:51Speaker 2: there's a million things you could do. You can upgrade
- 19:53Speaker 2: the minor league system in some ways, and not just
- 19:55Speaker 2: with talent, but with the qualib or the instruction you're providing.
- 20:00Speaker 2: There's a lot you can international. Mozilla mentioned that specifically
- 20:04Speaker 2: to me. The Angels have just started to get back
- 20:06Speaker 2: into the international market. You can do that. You can again,
- 20:10Speaker 2: you can draft and scout better. There's a lot of
- 20:13Speaker 2: things you can do that do not involve signing a
- 20:16Speaker 2: player for seven hundred million dollars. And if you can
- 20:19Speaker 2: do that, then you don't have to hit on everything.
- 20:22Speaker 2: The reason the Angels draft failures are so stark now
- 20:26Speaker 2: is because they basically put everything in that basket. Yeah,
- 20:30Speaker 2: the Dodgers have not drafted much better than the Angels
- 20:33Speaker 2: this decade in the first round, and yet you know
- 20:36Speaker 2: they're wearing rings and the Angels are in last place.
- 20:38Speaker 1: All right, Hey, Bill Shakan has to run well the
- 20:41Speaker 1: only times. Bill Shakan, thanks for joining us. We're gonna
- 20:45Speaker 1: taken one more quick break for a word from our sponsors,
- 20:48Speaker 1: and Mark and.
- 20:48Speaker 3: I have comeback.
- 20:49Speaker 1: We'll talk about another rough game for the Angels Monday night.
- 20:53Speaker 1: We'll be right back Tuesday night.
- 20:55Speaker 3: Sorry.
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- 22:00Speaker 1: And Welcome back to Halo Territory with Mark Trumbo and
- 22:02Speaker 1: Mike d Giovanna.
- 22:04Speaker 6: Well.
- 22:05Speaker 1: Tuesy night, the Angels had a three to two lead
- 22:07Speaker 1: over the Texas Rangers with another a chance to beat
- 22:11Speaker 1: Jacob de Gram again this year, when Kurt Suzuki summoned
- 22:15Speaker 1: left handed Tyler Taylor Sacito to face the lefties at
- 22:20Speaker 1: the bottom of the Rangers order. Texas brought in a
- 22:24Speaker 1: pinch hitter, right hand at hitting Justin FOSSQ hits a
- 22:27Speaker 1: leadoff home run off Socito to tie to score three
- 22:31Speaker 1: to three. Sam Bachmann enters in the ninth and gave
- 22:34Speaker 1: up five runs for an eight to three loss. That's
- 22:38Speaker 1: the angel seventh loss in a row. It dropped them
- 22:40Speaker 1: twenty games, a season high twenty games below five hundred
- 22:44Speaker 1: at thirty six and fifty six, and that seventh inning
- 22:49Speaker 1: meltdown included a questionable play by shortstop Zach Netto that
- 22:52Speaker 1: will discuss. But first, Mark, what did you make a
- 22:55Speaker 1: Kurt's decision to go to Cessato, who was just called
- 22:58Speaker 1: up the other day from Triple A, over Sammy, Na
- 23:01Speaker 1: Terror Junior and Brent Souper.
- 23:05Speaker 4: I was intrigued, but I don't reasonably have any explanation
- 23:11Speaker 4: as to why, other than what Kurt said in the
- 23:13Speaker 4: post game, which was they thought the matchups against the
- 23:17Speaker 4: lefties were going to be in their favor. Texas immediately
- 23:22Speaker 4: Pinch hit with a right ended hitter that went deep,
- 23:25Speaker 4: so that plan totally backfired. I know that it was
- 23:28Speaker 4: interesting with the broadcast seemed to be questioning the decision
- 23:34Speaker 4: in real time, and then afterwards they had to talk
- 23:37Speaker 4: about it a bit too. I don't think that they
- 23:39Speaker 4: were able to make much sense of it either. So
- 23:43Speaker 4: one of those things that I guess there was a
- 23:46Speaker 4: plan but it didn't work out.
- 23:48Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he did strike out too lefties later
- 23:51Speaker 1: in the inning, and I saw that quote too. He
- 23:53Speaker 1: thought the matchups were good. But you have to obviously
- 23:57Speaker 1: anticipate that. You know the Rangers are going to send
- 24:00Speaker 1: three lefties up against a lefty in that inning. Now,
- 24:02Speaker 1: the eighth inning was pretty bizarre. So Smith opens the
- 24:06Speaker 1: inning with a single. Jake Berger comes up, hits a
- 24:09Speaker 1: grounder up the middle. Zach Netto, who had made two
- 24:13Speaker 1: pretty nice defensive plays earlier in this game, he gloves
- 24:16Speaker 1: the ball behind the bag, pretty far behind the bag,
- 24:19Speaker 1: I might think it was pretty much right up the
- 24:21Speaker 1: outfield grass and attempts and around the back glove flip
- 24:26Speaker 1: to second base in an attempt to get the force out.
- 24:29Speaker 1: I know they say these they practice these plays, but
- 24:32Speaker 1: this flip was not even close to the bag. Two on,
- 24:36Speaker 1: Brandon Nemo advances them with a ground out, Duran and
- 24:40Speaker 1: Foscu hit Rbhi singles, and Alejandro Osuna hits the dagger.
- 24:45Speaker 1: The inning a three run home run. Pretty much game over.
- 24:49Speaker 1: What do you think of that play? First of all, Mark,
- 24:53Speaker 1: to me, it seemed like, if anything, the play was
- 24:55Speaker 1: at first base, not at second.
- 25:00Speaker 4: I was surprised that Perraza didn't get blamed for it.
- 25:04Speaker 3: Somehow. He seems to be.
- 25:07Speaker 4: A guy that has been mentioned a few times for
- 25:10Speaker 4: plays like this. I think that it was. Hopefully the
- 25:14Speaker 4: audio side is still intact. I'm sorry about the video.
- 25:16Speaker 4: We'll try and figure this out, but obviously it's not
- 25:20Speaker 4: my favorite thing. The play that we're talking about. It
- 25:24Speaker 4: was ill advised and it was flashy. I don't know
- 25:28Speaker 4: if he practices that often. I doubt it that particular
- 25:31Speaker 4: one at that point in the game. That's not the
- 25:35Speaker 4: it's not the appropriate time to try such a thing.
- 25:37Speaker 4: If he pulled it off, it would be exceptional, but
- 25:39Speaker 4: I would still say the same thing, very high risk
- 25:44Speaker 4: in a situation that you know, you take the out, Okay,
- 25:46Speaker 4: you're gonna have a man on second, we'll deal with it.
- 25:48Speaker 4: But getting no outs there, I did come back to
- 25:51Speaker 4: bite them and they gave up the two runs, then
- 25:54Speaker 4: more runs on top of that, so that was a
- 25:57Speaker 4: tough deal.
- 25:58Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 25:59Speaker 1: Here's what kurtson Luki said about that play after the game,
- 26:02Speaker 1: courtesy of the Orange County Register and Jeff Fletcher. Quote,
- 26:05Speaker 1: that was a tough play, Suzuki said, quote, his momentum
- 26:09Speaker 1: was taking him pretty hard that way. I think he
- 26:11Speaker 1: felt like that was the play that he could have made,
- 26:14Speaker 1: and I think if he made it, everybody would have
- 26:16Speaker 1: been like, awesome, but unfortunately the flip was a little offline,
- 26:21Speaker 1: so it didn't work out. Uh yeah, I don't know. Gosh,
- 26:27Speaker 1: we've we've zay that it was just a lightning rod
- 26:31Speaker 1: on this show and really among a lot of fans
- 26:35Speaker 1: for his inconsistent play almost to both extremes. When he
- 26:39Speaker 1: is good, he is spectacular. And I mean that this kid,
- 26:43Speaker 1: you know, of all those draft picks we showed on
- 26:45Speaker 1: that on that chart a little while ago, he is
- 26:49Speaker 1: the one guy you could classify as a really high ceiling,
- 26:53Speaker 1: you know, college pick. I think he has immense potential.
- 26:58Speaker 3: Uh uh.
- 27:00Speaker 1: And I don't know if it's you know, watching too
- 27:03Speaker 1: many Omar of a Scale videos as a kid, just
- 27:06Speaker 1: trying to do that flashy thing over substance, And I know,
- 27:10Speaker 1: you know, it's really hard to maybe we're unfair and
- 27:13Speaker 1: judging him in these situations that are really you know,
- 27:16Speaker 1: split second decisions. They're really reactive plays you don't always
- 27:20Speaker 1: have time to you know, oh my god, this ground
- 27:22Speaker 1: is hit here. You know, the Jake Berger's running. He's
- 27:26Speaker 1: not that fast, you know, do I try to get
- 27:28Speaker 1: the out at second with a crazy play? Do I
- 27:30Speaker 1: maybe try to flip it forehand? Do I, you know,
- 27:34Speaker 1: forego all that and just try to get the sensible
- 27:37Speaker 1: out of first base. It's hard to know what's running
- 27:40Speaker 1: through a player's head in that situation. Mark, you were
- 27:42Speaker 1: a big league player, maybe you can enlighten us a
- 27:45Speaker 1: little more. And I know you didn't play the middle infield,
- 27:48Speaker 1: but is that maybe are we maybe being a little
- 27:51Speaker 1: too hard on Zach in a situation where maybe his
- 27:54Speaker 1: instincts just took over or were you just trying to
- 27:57Speaker 1: do a little too much.
- 28:01Speaker 4: Let me ask you this, do you think he would
- 28:02Speaker 4: have tried that play with Ron Washington as the manager?
- 28:06Speaker 3: That's hard to say.
- 28:07Speaker 1: Boy, there's a lot of things that I think change
- 28:11Speaker 1: was Zach netto in that change was Zach neddo last year?
- 28:13Speaker 3: Under Ron Washington.
- 28:15Speaker 1: I wasn't around the team as much, you know, as
- 28:18Speaker 1: I am in those years. I was a beat writer.
- 28:20Speaker 1: But from what I saw, Ron seemed to rub off
- 28:23Speaker 1: on this kid in a positive way. You know, he
- 28:26Speaker 1: did bench him that one time, and I think that
- 28:29Speaker 1: message got through. I don't know, do you think managing
- 28:33Speaker 1: coaching can have that much of a difference in a
- 28:35Speaker 1: kid like this, who, once again, all the potential was there,
- 28:39Speaker 1: he could be a perennial All Star at this guy
- 28:44Speaker 1: definitely in my mind, but these lapses, you know, he
- 28:47Speaker 1: also had a I don't think it was fair to
- 28:49Speaker 1: give anyone an air on that play where he and
- 28:52Speaker 1: he in the third basement, Guzman pretty much almost collided.
- 28:56Speaker 1: That was a rough one, But there's a lot of
- 28:58Speaker 1: plays like this where you just see you're just left
- 29:00Speaker 1: scratching your heads your head and wondering why he did that.
- 29:04Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 29:05Speaker 1: You tell me, would Mike Soosha have tolerated that play?
- 29:09Speaker 1: Would he have made that play under Mike's Sosha? I
- 29:11Speaker 1: don't know.
- 29:13Speaker 4: No, anybody that plays shortstop, for the most part, is
- 29:18Speaker 4: going to inherently be a good athlete and capable of
- 29:22Speaker 4: making some of these web gem type plays. But if
- 29:25Speaker 4: you have an old school manager that's gonna liable to
- 29:29Speaker 4: get in your rear for something like that, I don't
- 29:33Speaker 4: think that you're going to take the same chances. I
- 29:36Speaker 4: think as it is now, you've got a manager that
- 29:40Speaker 4: that was asked about it after the game and he said, oh,
- 29:43Speaker 4: you know, it would have been a great highlight if
- 29:44Speaker 4: he pulled it off. Just didn't happen. But so I
- 29:48Speaker 4: guess that's about the extent of it.
- 29:50Speaker 3: Yeah, it could.
- 29:51Speaker 4: It would have been cool, ended up, you know, really
- 29:53Speaker 4: hurting him. So that was a tough deal, about as
- 29:56Speaker 4: tough as the current feed. But one other thing too,
- 30:01Speaker 4: is another shot to thenother region for o'hapi last night.
- 30:08Speaker 4: They call it the tools of ignorance, but at some
- 30:11Speaker 4: point you just can't be ignorant to your health. I mean,
- 30:15Speaker 4: he's gonna most likely want to start a family at
- 30:17Speaker 4: some point in the future. This seems I mean it's
- 30:20Speaker 4: not joking. It's happened many, like, not many, but a
- 30:23Speaker 4: few times. And when I looked at the still image
- 30:26Speaker 4: of his stance, everything's exposed, and I don't think the
- 30:30Speaker 4: tradeoff stealing a few more low strikes is worth the
- 30:34Speaker 4: potential damage. I don't care what industrial grade cup he's wearing. Yeah,
- 30:41Speaker 4: I just it's just the right hand is totally exposed
- 30:44Speaker 4: as well.
- 30:46Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 30:46Speaker 1: I know he's been getting just crushed back there with
- 30:49Speaker 1: foul tips of the face mask. I know we went
- 30:52Speaker 1: to I knew. We saw him the other day showing
- 30:54Speaker 1: off a new helmet with more padding.
- 30:56Speaker 3: And that's great.
- 30:58Speaker 1: I mean, some of these things are obviously unavoidable. I
- 31:02Speaker 1: don't know I didn't catch in the big leagues. I
- 31:05Speaker 1: caught one year in my life. And yeah, even though
- 31:07Speaker 1: you wear the protective gear, it doesn't always protect you
- 31:10Speaker 1: against shots like that. What more could he do in
- 31:13Speaker 1: terms of his setup to the thing with the right hand,
- 31:18Speaker 1: I don't understand, especially with no one on base. You
- 31:21Speaker 1: know he got didn't he get hit by a foul
- 31:24Speaker 1: tip and spring training early in season where he messed
- 31:27Speaker 1: up his finger. I mean to me, with no one
- 31:30Speaker 1: on you got to have that hand behind your back.
- 31:31Speaker 1: That's how guys always used to catch going way back.
- 31:35Speaker 1: What else could he do to maybe provide a little
- 31:37Speaker 1: better protection for himself.
- 31:40Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to get an answer.
- 31:41Speaker 4: I think track how many guys are doing these new
- 31:44Speaker 4: stances now, and it's most of them, But I will ask.
- 31:49Speaker 4: I don't like to just comment when I purely speculating.
- 31:54Speaker 3: I do know that.
- 31:56Speaker 4: Just looking last night, I'm like, man, there's just somebody's
- 32:00Speaker 4: going to get very rich off making thigh protectors for this.
- 32:05Speaker 4: I think the gear is outdated, to be honest with you,
- 32:08Speaker 4: In some ways, it's not protecting the current, uh you know,
- 32:13Speaker 4: technique of the game. And I wonder if that is
- 32:16Speaker 4: going to change. So that was just another point that
- 32:20Speaker 4: I saw. And Ben Joyce made a rehab appearance, wasn't
- 32:24Speaker 4: able to get through the inning, but hit one hundred
- 32:26Speaker 4: and two point five down in the Arizona Complex.
- 32:32Speaker 3: So that was news.
- 32:33Speaker 4: And I'm going to give you one more chance. Who
- 32:36Speaker 4: saved the game for the Rockies last night over the Dodgers.
- 32:39Speaker 1: I'm gonna guess it was Jordan Romano.
- 32:43Speaker 4: You got it than Daily.
- 32:46Speaker 1: You know, Jordan was only here for a couple of weeks.
- 32:50Speaker 1: I didn't get to talk. I think I only talked
- 32:51Speaker 1: to him once or twice. He's a really great dude.
- 32:54Speaker 1: I screwed up his name. We do have a lot
- 32:57Speaker 1: of Justin's and a lot of relievers named Justin a
- 33:00Speaker 1: couple of me. It was just interesting in the game,
- 33:03Speaker 1: but it wasn't to highlight.
- 33:05Speaker 3: That just again against the Dodgers.
- 33:08Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, that's put it out. But the Rockies,
- 33:13Speaker 4: you know, they're not the one lost record hasn't reflected
- 33:16Speaker 4: it yet, but they have some some talent. They have
- 33:19Speaker 4: they have some momentum and I really do think that,
- 33:21Speaker 4: you know, I asked Shake about this, but uh, you
- 33:25Speaker 4: can't just be the only team not headed in the
- 33:28Speaker 4: right direction, and the Socks White Sox doing much better.
- 33:33Speaker 4: The Pirates have some much improved offense. Their own base
- 33:38Speaker 4: percentage as a team is way higher than the Marlins
- 33:41Speaker 4: are playing nice ball, So you're kind of you know,
- 33:45Speaker 4: the Angels I think made a very positive move and
- 33:48Speaker 4: Mo I think that his and we were going to
- 33:52Speaker 4: maybe shake the question, but I can kind of talk
- 33:54Speaker 4: about it. He has no nonsense approach how it might
- 33:58Speaker 4: it affect the players, and I think that I wonder
- 34:03Speaker 4: how much he's going to insert himself in that. But
- 34:06Speaker 4: I can just say the cardinal way from playing against
- 34:09Speaker 4: them was they were a serious ball club, serious business.
- 34:12Speaker 4: They weren't joking around. I didn't see any collectible toys
- 34:18Speaker 4: making the rounds, you know. I remember in the weight room,
- 34:21Speaker 4: they set the tone there. They came in. They they
- 34:24Speaker 4: I think it was when Metheni was there, but you know,
- 34:26Speaker 4: he was a very built guy, and they pushed a
- 34:29Speaker 4: lot of weight around. They were a big, physical team
- 34:31Speaker 4: and they came to win some games. That was when
- 34:33Speaker 4: I was with the Diamondbacks, and I think they did
- 34:36Speaker 4: although double chet, but you could tell. I mean, they
- 34:39Speaker 4: were there for one thing and that was always the
- 34:41Speaker 4: Cardinal Way, and I think the Angels would be good
- 34:44Speaker 4: to you know, the social way, very similar. Serious business
- 34:48Speaker 4: looking to win ball games and the Angels, you know,
- 34:52Speaker 4: all the fans, survey and others. They need to look
- 34:54Speaker 4: to win some ballgames. And that's what I got for today.
- 34:58Speaker 1: Well, it looks like a video fe came back just
- 35:00Speaker 1: in time for us to close the show, so hopefully
- 35:03Speaker 1: we will get this figured out. Hey, thanks for joining us,
- 35:06Speaker 1: thanks for watching and for listening. Please like and subscribe
- 35:10Speaker 1: and we'll see you next time on Helo Territory