Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / BRAWL GAME: Angels fight Braves; could 3 true outcomes doom offense?
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Blay Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo Territory. I
- 0:11Speaker 1: am Mike di Giovanna, former La Times Baseball writer and
- 0:15Speaker 1: host of the show, and we're joined by Mark Trumbo,
- 0:18Speaker 1: the former Angel slugger and my regular co host. We
- 0:22Speaker 1: got a lot to talk about in this today's episode.
- 0:25Speaker 1: We talk about the upcoming series against Cincinnati Reds, we're
- 0:28Speaker 1: gonna break down the Angels offense, and we're gonna analyze
- 0:32Speaker 1: a pretty interesting quote from Logan ho Hoppy, the Angels catcher.
- 0:36Speaker 2: But first we're going to talk about fight night at
- 0:39Speaker 2: the Big A Well.
- 0:41Speaker 1: The brawl between Jorge Solaire and Rionaldo Lopez Tuesday night
- 0:45Speaker 1: was a little slow in developing, but once it got going,
- 0:48Speaker 1: it was quite the brew haha, with some wild punches
- 0:51Speaker 1: being thrown and some even landing, And probably the highlight
- 0:55Speaker 1: for me was manager of the Braves, manager Walt Weiss,
- 0:59Speaker 1: who's probably Solar's size, tackling the Angels outfielder from behind. Mark,
- 1:05Speaker 1: what do you think about the way this fight started
- 1:08Speaker 1: and the way it evolved. It didn't look like anything
- 1:11Speaker 1: was gonna happen, then boom fists or flying.
- 1:14Speaker 3: I was watching live and it seemed like as the
- 1:18Speaker 3: game was just progressing as normal. Now, so there has
- 1:21Speaker 3: gotten Lopez a lot. He has owned him so far
- 1:26Speaker 3: in his career. He had already hit a home run
- 1:28Speaker 3: that game. He had got drilled the second at bat
- 1:31Speaker 3: and the third bat, uh you know, he sailed them
- 1:34Speaker 3: right over his head and then there was the kind
- 1:37Speaker 3: of clunky delay and Shannewell had got into second base
- 1:41Speaker 3: and next thing, you know, Randazzo, uh you know, as
- 1:45Speaker 3: he should is yelling and we you know, we kind
- 1:48Speaker 3: of brawl. We have to fight punches and I you know,
- 1:52Speaker 3: I'm sitting there watching so there and that's kind of
- 1:55Speaker 3: a lot of people when back, you know, the hitter
- 1:57Speaker 3: is John and you know, what are you gonna do?
- 1:59Speaker 3: You're gonna do something. Well, he did something he had
- 2:01Speaker 3: seen enough. And I think that they were briefly teammates.
- 2:06Speaker 3: I know that there was a breakdown. I believe John
- 2:08Speaker 3: Boyd did a breakdown h Celeroto exception to something that
- 2:13Speaker 3: was said. It wasn't exactly clear. It seemed like something disrespectful,
- 2:17Speaker 3: and you know that's this is pro sports. Due is
- 2:21Speaker 3: it great? I don't know the thing about brawls, it's
- 2:24Speaker 3: a lot, especially.
- 2:26Speaker 4: The bullpen's running in. What are those guys doing?
- 2:29Speaker 3: I mean I've seen, yeah, I've seen some that aren't
- 2:33Speaker 3: the Diamondbacks and Dodgers.
- 2:36Speaker 4: They had some of those.
- 2:37Speaker 3: Bullpen guys were heavily in the mix there years ago,
- 2:40Speaker 3: and that's what I can easily recall. I wasn't on
- 2:42Speaker 3: the team, but I did hear about it a lot.
- 2:45Speaker 3: But this was, you know, an example of a guy
- 2:48Speaker 3: that had just had had enough and we had talked
- 2:50Speaker 3: about Trout getting hit and eventually, you know, if a
- 2:54Speaker 3: hit or feels like he's seen enough, that is what happens.
- 2:58Speaker 4: Now.
- 2:58Speaker 3: Seven game suspension. Lopez I believe appealed his and got
- 3:03Speaker 3: five games. He's a starting pitcher, so yeah, it's essentially
- 3:07Speaker 3: not much maybe a misstart much.
- 3:09Speaker 4: Did did Celeira appeal his?
- 3:10Speaker 2: Do you know?
- 3:11Speaker 4: Yes?
- 3:11Speaker 1: He appealed it, and I don't think they've gotten a
- 3:13Speaker 1: response as of this taping, which is on Thursday afternoon,
- 3:17Speaker 1: But I would suspect he since the pitcher got his
- 3:20Speaker 1: knockdown and he's really only get at once start pushed
- 3:23Speaker 1: back by a day, maybe that Celeiro will probably get
- 3:25Speaker 1: his push down to uh in the aggressor.
- 3:29Speaker 4: I don't know.
- 3:30Speaker 3: I think I think maybe we'll see I don't fall
- 3:34Speaker 3: to either of them. I know that there were a
- 3:35Speaker 3: lot of people that talking about the ball in the
- 3:38Speaker 3: hand and the that was weird that I didn't think.
- 3:42Speaker 3: I think a punch, a close fist punch would probably
- 3:45Speaker 3: do more damage than a kind of an open hand
- 3:47Speaker 3: ball slap. And he had the what is it the
- 3:50Speaker 3: c flap helmet or whatever to protect him. So I
- 3:53Speaker 3: think about Walt Weiss, I will say, uh, Chipper Jones
- 3:56Speaker 3: alluded to it. Walt Weiss is a black belt. I
- 3:59Speaker 3: believe in take kwondo and he Jones have said that
- 4:03Speaker 3: if there, you know, we'll he'll fold you up like
- 4:05Speaker 3: a pretzel. I think one of the writers for The
- 4:08Speaker 3: Braves maybe covered an incident that was behind this. David O'Brien,
- 4:12Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well I want to make
- 4:15Speaker 3: sure we get this right. But I think, hey, Walton, uh,
- 4:18Speaker 3: a former player Josh Donaldson might have tussled a little
- 4:21Speaker 3: bit too interesting.
- 4:22Speaker 4: I saw it on X.
- 4:23Speaker 3: Hopefully it's not hogwashed, but I think it's correct. And
- 4:27Speaker 3: wal Wise, uh, you know, I haven't seen him up
- 4:30Speaker 3: close in a few years. He's pretty jacked. Those forums
- 4:32Speaker 3: are business bro and that tackle.
- 4:35Speaker 4: Could Yeah.
- 4:36Speaker 3: I mean I saw some NFL fans saying, uh, you know,
- 4:40Speaker 3: there's a spot for him on our team, depending on
- 4:42Speaker 3: how good that team is. But a tremendous form in
- 4:45Speaker 3: the tackle. Hopefully everyone's all right, so they're looked like, yeah, absolutely,
- 4:49Speaker 3: no no issues there. But he is going to have
- 4:51Speaker 3: to serve a suspension, so they'll they'll need to figure
- 4:53Speaker 3: out who will fill in. And there's some some likely suspects,
- 4:57Speaker 3: but you know, we'll get through this.
- 4:59Speaker 1: This early in the season. Kind of fight like that
- 5:01Speaker 1: maybe infuse the clubhouse with energy and does it send
- 5:05Speaker 1: any kind of message to the rest of the team, Yeah.
- 5:10Speaker 4: Maybe a little. This one was so out of the blue.
- 5:15Speaker 3: Had it been a team that you know, a little
- 5:17Speaker 3: more history, a little more you know, recent rivalry, I
- 5:20Speaker 3: think maybe a lot more. And I don't know, it
- 5:25Speaker 3: seemed like I think ideally, like like you cover hockey
- 5:29Speaker 3: as well, I don't see a whole lot of other
- 5:32Speaker 3: you know, fight isn't a fight. I mean it's one
- 5:34Speaker 3: on one and usually they asked you want to go,
- 5:36Speaker 3: how does that work?
- 5:37Speaker 4: If you could briefly just talk about it.
- 5:39Speaker 3: But I think it would be great in baseball if
- 5:41Speaker 3: it was a little more similar to that.
- 5:43Speaker 1: Yeah, I covered a Ducks game last week and there
- 5:47Speaker 1: was a big history between the teams. I guess one
- 5:49Speaker 1: of the Ducks defenders had taken knee kept one of
- 5:53Speaker 1: the Maple Leaf guys, and they put the Ducks defender
- 5:57Speaker 1: into the starting lineup, which he doesn't usually do, and
- 6:00Speaker 1: sevens literally when the puck dropped, they dropped the gloves
- 6:03Speaker 1: and they went at it. And you know, that's how
- 6:05Speaker 1: they sort of settle things in hockey. I don't think
- 6:07Speaker 1: things in baseball are as premeditated. Maybe sometimes they are,
- 6:12Speaker 1: but yeah, well, you know, this whole thing got us
- 6:16Speaker 1: to thinking, like, what's the best fights we've ever seen?
- 6:19Speaker 1: And a lot of them are really kind of ridiculous,
- 6:21Speaker 1: but there have been a few fights that were legit. Uh,
- 6:26Speaker 1: what's the best fight you ever saw? Or maybe we're
- 6:30Speaker 1: involved in mark.
- 6:32Speaker 3: The one that that comes to mind would would be Machado.
- 6:36Speaker 3: Manny took exception to getting drilled by your Donna Ventura
- 6:41Speaker 3: of the Royals. Unfortunately, your Donald's no longer with us,
- 6:46Speaker 3: but he, uh he was. It was in the cards.
- 6:50Speaker 3: I vividly remember bucksho Walter warning Manny before he went
- 6:55Speaker 3: up to the plate and I was hitting behind him that,
- 6:58Speaker 3: you know, keep your head.
- 7:00Speaker 4: He was. I think he was pleading with him. He
- 7:02Speaker 4: knew what was coming.
- 7:04Speaker 3: Everybody knew what was most likely com in Ventura was
- 7:07Speaker 3: was a guy that threw inside a lot and probably
- 7:10Speaker 3: sometimes on purpose, and he drilled him, and Manny was
- 7:13Speaker 3: you know, it was a time and part of it too.
- 7:16Speaker 3: It's kind of a macho thing, but sometimes you gotta go.
- 7:20Speaker 3: I never charged the mound. I don't feel like I
- 7:24Speaker 3: sometimes the batter instigates as well. I didn't pimp anything.
- 7:27Speaker 3: I didn't throw, you know, try and rub in anybody's face.
- 7:31Speaker 3: So I think I got maybe a little bit different
- 7:33Speaker 3: level of respect in that regard. You know, I wasn't
- 7:37Speaker 3: trying to show anyone up. But some guys do enjoy celebrating,
- 7:40Speaker 3: and sometimes pitchers don't like that, and you know, they
- 7:43Speaker 3: might buzz your tower or put one in your ribs.
- 7:47Speaker 3: So sometimes it it there's not a lot of sometimes
- 7:51Speaker 3: you plan it. Sometimes it's just the emotions take over.
- 7:54Speaker 3: You know, this is a alpha male sport and I
- 7:58Speaker 3: just you know, of it is just so ridiculous and
- 8:02Speaker 3: most guys. One thing I noticed was there was a
- 8:04Speaker 3: kind of a decent amount of bro hugs and other
- 8:07Speaker 3: things kind of in the periphery, So that probably was
- 8:11Speaker 3: the biggest clue that this wasn't you know, some heated deal.
- 8:15Speaker 2: Well.
- 8:15Speaker 1: I was actually in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, in two
- 8:18Speaker 1: thousand and three for the great Mike Piazza Germo Motive Brawl,
- 8:23Speaker 1: after which Piazza, who was then the New York Mets catcher,
- 8:27Speaker 1: was so pissed off he's actually stormed into the Dodgers
- 8:31Speaker 1: clubhouse screaming, where's Moda?
- 8:32Speaker 2: Where's Moda?
- 8:33Speaker 1: And I was in the clubhouse when he got in there,
- 8:36Speaker 1: and oh man, that was tense. Fortunately they had already
- 8:39Speaker 1: whisked Mota off back to Vero Beach by that time.
- 8:43Speaker 1: That was pretty ugly. But probably the best brawl I
- 8:46Speaker 1: saw in person was between the Angels and Royals in
- 8:49Speaker 1: Kansas City on June third, nineteen ninety eight. So this
- 8:54Speaker 1: was just one of those games. There were I think
- 8:57Speaker 1: there were two bench clearing incidents, and the second one.
- 9:00Speaker 2: There was another beanball.
- 9:02Speaker 1: The benches emptied, and it was kind of like that
- 9:05Speaker 1: regular fight you talk about, but right in the middle
- 9:08Speaker 1: of the sort of these guys just sort of you know,
- 9:11Speaker 1: scrumming up by the backstop. This infielder from the Royals
- 9:14Speaker 1: named Felix Martinez sucker punched from the side an Angels
- 9:19Speaker 1: infielder named Frank Bullock right in the mouth, and after
- 9:23Speaker 1: that it was just a melee for like fifteen minutes.
- 9:28Speaker 1: They went at it this gamers. These fights resulted and
- 9:32Speaker 1: had to write this down twelve Jackson's twelve ejections, eleven suspensions.
- 9:39Speaker 1: And Kaufman Stadium, as you know, it's one of those
- 9:42Speaker 1: rare stadiums where the dug the clubhouses are right across
- 9:46Speaker 1: the hall from each other, and there's a foyer in
- 9:49Speaker 1: between the clubhouses. And they had to station six police
- 9:52Speaker 1: officers down on that foyer after the game so players
- 9:57Speaker 1: wouldn't cross into the other clubhouse. And I'll never forget
- 10:01Speaker 1: this Phil Nevin quote after the game. He said of
- 10:05Speaker 1: Felix Martinez that dot dot should be kicked out of baseball.
- 10:08Speaker 1: If I'm catching and he steps into the batter's box,
- 10:11Speaker 1: I may just drop him and there may not be
- 10:13Speaker 1: one of his teammates backing him up. And Phil Neman
- 10:16Speaker 1: had already he was catching for the Angels, and that
- 10:18Speaker 1: night he had already been ejected, and he said, if
- 10:21Speaker 1: I would have seen that live, I would have ran
- 10:24Speaker 1: out of the field naked and killed him. He's a
- 10:26Speaker 1: disgrace to baseball. And you can tell him. Tell that
- 10:29Speaker 1: to him. If he has a problem with that, you
- 10:31Speaker 1: tell him to come see me. So there are times
- 10:35Speaker 1: when I know there was a lot of tension that
- 10:38Speaker 1: night in Kaufman Stadium, and that's a night.
- 10:41Speaker 4: Is that the same Phil Nevian, Dame.
- 10:43Speaker 1: Phil Nevin, who is the angel manager former cal State quoting.
- 10:49Speaker 2: He did in nineteen ninety eight.
- 10:51Speaker 1: They converted him to catch her because it's the best
- 10:53Speaker 1: place to get his bat.
- 10:54Speaker 2: In the lineup.
- 10:55Speaker 1: They had a young guy at third base named Troy
- 10:58Speaker 1: Gloss and I believe they had just signed a first
- 11:02Speaker 1: baseman name move on.
- 11:03Speaker 2: So that was Phil Nevian doing what he could for
- 11:05Speaker 2: the team.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, all right, we're gonna take a little break
- 11:09Speaker 1: for a word from our sponsors and we come back.
- 11:11Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the upcoming series against the
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- 12:17Speaker 1: Welcome back to Halo Territory with Mike D. Givanna and
- 12:20Speaker 1: Mark Trumbo. While the Angels open a three game series
- 12:23Speaker 1: in Cincinnati Friday night before traveling to New York for
- 12:27Speaker 1: a four game set in Yankee Stadium. The Reds go
- 12:31Speaker 1: into the series eight and four and tied with Milwaukee
- 12:33Speaker 1: in for the first place in the NLS. Mark, what
- 12:35Speaker 1: are your impressions in these Reds?
- 12:36Speaker 2: So far?
- 12:38Speaker 3: They got some very talented players. They seem to be
- 12:42Speaker 3: one of those teams that not the biggest payroll, but
- 12:47Speaker 3: good minor league system, and so far off to a
- 12:51Speaker 3: very good start. Elie Da la Cruz, you know that
- 12:54Speaker 3: you can do it all as sixty six sixty seven,
- 12:58Speaker 3: you know, arm strength, off the sharts. I wouldn't want
- 13:02Speaker 3: to play first base with him, you know. I mean
- 13:04Speaker 3: the ball across, huge power, stolen bases, just a five
- 13:07Speaker 3: tool stud. They're pitchers. They have some really hard throwers.
- 13:11Speaker 3: They have former Angel Rock Burke pitching late innings, high leverage,
- 13:16Speaker 3: and I believe his stuff is even ticked up from
- 13:18Speaker 3: what we saw last year a little bit.
- 13:20Speaker 4: I really liked him.
- 13:21Speaker 3: I think that that was tough to see him depart,
- 13:25Speaker 3: and that is part of the game, but you know,
- 13:30Speaker 3: it kind of stings. I think another ex Angel, not
- 13:33Speaker 3: to deviate too much, Taylor Ward might be doing pretty
- 13:36Speaker 3: well for the Orioles. Which is good to see. He's
- 13:39Speaker 3: got over one thousand ops. It's early as it hit
- 13:41Speaker 3: a home run yet, but you.
- 13:43Speaker 4: Know, you never know.
- 13:44Speaker 3: When a guy change of scenery, sometimes it works. I
- 13:47Speaker 3: swore as the other day with the Braves, he's you know,
- 13:49Speaker 3: he er. It was a little unsightly. But the Reds
- 13:52Speaker 3: have a very promising club. They play hard. I think
- 13:55Speaker 3: they've you know, he played the Angels pretty well in
- 13:58Speaker 3: some of the recent years. They I know, some of
- 14:00Speaker 3: the top of their orders done a lot of damage
- 14:03Speaker 3: against them.
- 14:04Speaker 4: So it'll be a good test.
- 14:05Speaker 3: I think this one might be one of the better
- 14:07Speaker 3: ones to see you know, exactly what the Angels are
- 14:09Speaker 3: working with. I don't know why I think that, but
- 14:13Speaker 3: it just seems like the Reds are a pretty good
- 14:15Speaker 3: litmus test.
- 14:16Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 14:16Speaker 1: The Reds also have a pretty hot rookie first baseman
- 14:20Speaker 1: in Sal Stewart, who as if Thursday was leading nan
- 14:23Speaker 1: L with a one one thousand and one five to
- 14:26Speaker 1: four ops, three homers, and eight RBIs in twelve games.
- 14:30Speaker 1: And Saturday we'll get our second look at young George
- 14:33Speaker 1: klass And the rookie right hander had a rough, rough
- 14:37Speaker 1: major league debut on Saturday night against the Mariners. He
- 14:42Speaker 1: admitted after the game that things sped up a little
- 14:45Speaker 1: bit on him, which is what you often see from
- 14:49Speaker 1: a rookie. He gave up three hits, walk five, struck
- 14:52Speaker 1: out four, only went two and two thirds. Angels did
- 14:56Speaker 1: come back to win that game eight seven and eleven innings.
- 15:00Speaker 1: A guy who's had an experience like that, I assume
- 15:03Speaker 1: it's a big learning curve when he makes a second start.
- 15:07Speaker 1: How much more relaxed should he be?
- 15:09Speaker 2: Will he be? And what can we expect out of George?
- 15:12Speaker 2: You think?
- 15:14Speaker 3: I saw the postgame interviews, I've seen the comments. He
- 15:17Speaker 3: seems like a really good kid. He seems like he
- 15:20Speaker 3: has the attitude that I personally like to see it.
- 15:23Speaker 3: Appears to listen and was honest with you know what
- 15:27Speaker 3: happened that first time out there. He's got the huge
- 15:29Speaker 3: stuff plus numbers. You know that's out is is a
- 15:33Speaker 3: newer one, but I think that it's uh, I'm going
- 15:35Speaker 3: to cover it in a second on another topic. But
- 15:38Speaker 3: George has the pitches. It's about using them to his advantage,
- 15:43Speaker 3: and you know, the walks are going to be probably
- 15:47Speaker 3: an ongoing thing. You know, hopefully he's able to kind
- 15:51Speaker 3: of figure out hone in on you know, maybe which
- 15:56Speaker 3: side of the strike zone he could be a guy
- 15:57Speaker 3: you know, glass now for example, works or middle the catchers, don't,
- 16:01Speaker 3: you know, set up on the corners and class and
- 16:04Speaker 3: stuff is good enough that maybe the approach early on
- 16:07Speaker 3: at least might be not trying to get too cute
- 16:09Speaker 3: at all and just you know, let the stuff overpower
- 16:12Speaker 3: the hitters, not be afraid to pitch to some contact
- 16:16Speaker 3: strikeouts for all the rage. But I think the better
- 16:19Speaker 3: approaches to, you know here it is let's see what
- 16:21Speaker 3: you got, and you know that's that's the easiest way
- 16:24Speaker 3: to find out too. The big leagues are an adjustment,
- 16:26Speaker 3: a big adjustment. But his stuff, you know the numbers,
- 16:29Speaker 3: and I think that's where the game is headed. You
- 16:31Speaker 3: can kind of project far more easily than just guessing
- 16:36Speaker 3: if a guy's stuff is going to translate based on
- 16:39Speaker 3: these metrics, and it seems like he does have this stuff.
- 16:42Speaker 3: He's got to trust it. But I like his attitude.
- 16:44Speaker 3: I hope he goes out and dominate to be nice
- 16:46Speaker 3: to see five innings out of him.
- 16:47Speaker 1: What do you think I talk about his stuff? I mean,
- 16:50Speaker 1: he's got three plus pitches for me that four. Seemer
- 16:53Speaker 1: is averaging ninety seven point four, so he's touching ninety eight,
- 16:57Speaker 1: probably an occasional ninety nine. The change up is ten
- 17:00Speaker 1: miles an hour to mph differential at about eighty seven.
- 17:04Speaker 1: His slider, when he you know, can throw it as
- 17:07Speaker 1: an out pitch at ninety.
- 17:09Speaker 2: Four, has got a pretty sharp break.
- 17:11Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 17:11Speaker 1: I think it's a matter of setting up the hitters
- 17:13Speaker 1: and using that slider as a putaway pitch, because it's
- 17:16Speaker 1: pretty pretty devastating slider.
- 17:19Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 17:19Speaker 1: I just think, you know, what happened to him in
- 17:21Speaker 1: his first start has happened to so many kids. I
- 17:23Speaker 1: think it will be a lot more relaxed and it'll
- 17:26Speaker 1: be a really interesting I'm not saying this kid is
- 17:29Speaker 1: going to stick in the rotation all year, but you know,
- 17:32Speaker 1: we don't know how soon Grayson Rodriguez is going to
- 17:35Speaker 1: be back. We're still not sure about Alec Manoa. But
- 17:38Speaker 1: if this kid can, you know, have a decent start
- 17:41Speaker 1: here and you know, maybe put string together a couple
- 17:45Speaker 1: of good starts. With Ryan Johnson on the I, I oh,
- 17:48Speaker 1: maybe he sticks around for a little bit. We're gonna
- 17:51Speaker 1: turn our attention down to the Angels offense, and we've
- 17:54Speaker 1: heard this phrase a lot in baseball. I'm not sure
- 17:57Speaker 1: when it started. I'm not sure I like it. But
- 18:00Speaker 1: the three true outcomes the three true moneyball? Oh is
- 18:05Speaker 1: it straight straight from Moneyball? I couldn't remember that specifically.
- 18:08Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, well there you go moneyball early two thousands.
- 18:11Speaker 1: The home run, the walk, the strikeouts are the three
- 18:13Speaker 1: true outcomes for those that maybe weren't around there, weren't
- 18:18Speaker 1: paying attention. The Angels entered play Thursday leading the major
- 18:23Speaker 1: leagues with one hundred and forty two strikeouts. No shocker there.
- 18:26Speaker 1: They almost set a major league record for strikeouts last year.
- 18:30Speaker 1: They ranked fifth in home runs with fifteen, which is good.
- 18:33Speaker 1: They ranked eighth and walks with fifty one, which is good.
- 18:37Speaker 1: But Mark, is this any way to build an offense?
- 18:43Speaker 3: It's a way the best way, I mean to their
- 18:48Speaker 3: team averages two to oh one ops is six forty two.
- 18:52Speaker 3: Those numbers are not good. There's no way around it there.
- 18:55Speaker 3: You're not gonna what they've really done A good job
- 18:58Speaker 3: is on the pitching side, you know, for example. But
- 19:01Speaker 3: this offense is going to have to start being a
- 19:03Speaker 3: little bit more dynamic for them to really hit their stride.
- 19:08Speaker 3: I know Zach Netto and Trout are both not really well.
- 19:14Speaker 3: They're not dialed in right now. Not to say that
- 19:16Speaker 3: that can't change in a heartbeat. Cincinnati's a very friendly
- 19:19Speaker 3: hitter's part, but in the most recent game, both Zach
- 19:23Speaker 3: and Mike had some opportunities, and I think that inordinate
- 19:27Speaker 3: amount of pop ups, kind of weekly hit pop ups.
- 19:31Speaker 3: So when I talk about dynamic offense, I mean they're
- 19:35Speaker 3: twenty fifth in the league in hits. That's obviously not
- 19:37Speaker 3: where you want to be. And as far as extra
- 19:40Speaker 3: base hits, they have the home runs, they have the
- 19:42Speaker 3: second lowest doubles, and they have no triples, so not
- 19:47Speaker 3: hitting you know, the singles, aren't it said twenty fifth,
- 19:50Speaker 3: So they're, you know, towards the very bottom, the bottom
- 19:54Speaker 3: in triples and the second least in doubles. So it's
- 19:56Speaker 3: really the home run. I know, on the Lockdown podcast,
- 20:02Speaker 3: the Brothers Mike, that's my brother Sean.
- 20:04Speaker 4: They do a great job.
- 20:06Speaker 3: I listened to quite a few of theirs, but they're
- 20:08Speaker 3: kind of always talking about the Angels keep reverting to
- 20:11Speaker 3: trying to hit the ball out of the park. I
- 20:13Speaker 3: think that's one of their bigger gripes when things aren't
- 20:15Speaker 3: going well. They see a lot of that. Is that
- 20:18Speaker 3: what you're seeing as well? Does this team seem kind
- 20:20Speaker 3: of hyper focused on that home run?
- 20:24Speaker 1: Not as much as last year. But it's way too
- 20:27Speaker 1: small a sample size. I mean, they only have a
- 20:30Speaker 1: few guys who I can even consider soup, you know, really,
- 20:34Speaker 1: you know, traditional power hitters and Adele Trout, I still don't.
- 20:38Speaker 1: I know, Netto's hit over twenty home runs for a
- 20:40Speaker 1: couple of years, I still don't look at him as
- 20:42Speaker 1: a power guy.
- 20:43Speaker 4: I don't look at I think Zach's a power hitter.
- 20:46Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he can for sure, but I don't
- 20:48Speaker 1: want Zach Netto swinging for the fences. I also saw
- 20:52Speaker 1: Zach Netto try to bunt twice with the bases loaded
- 20:55Speaker 1: and one out the other day. I didn't like that.
- 21:00Speaker 1: That was strange, especially for a team that hits as
- 21:02Speaker 1: many home runs as they do now. A guy like
- 21:04Speaker 1: Jorge Sohilaire, you know he's probably going to swing for
- 21:08Speaker 1: the fences. Mancata, I really don't know. I'm not sure
- 21:11Speaker 1: what he's swinging for half the time. But those are
- 21:13Speaker 1: the only guys I don't think Josh Lowe is a
- 21:15Speaker 1: big power hitter. These guys shouldn't be swinging for the fences.
- 21:18Speaker 1: To me, you put pressure on teams with base runners
- 21:21Speaker 1: by making, you know, creating some action on the bases.
- 21:25Speaker 1: I don't think the Angels have a ton of speed,
- 21:27Speaker 1: but they have a few guys who can run, and
- 21:31Speaker 1: I mean it's early. I just think they have a
- 21:33Speaker 1: few guys who aren't you know, you know, no, I
- 21:36Speaker 1: agree with you on the bass. You know, Kurt Suzuki
- 21:40Speaker 1: has stressed the importance of situational baseball. He's shown a
- 21:44Speaker 1: willingness to play small ball at times with a couple
- 21:47Speaker 1: of buns and key situations. My concern, I don't know
- 21:51Speaker 1: what if you think this way too, Mark, is that
- 21:54Speaker 1: they're going to fall into the same patterns that doom
- 21:56Speaker 1: them last season, where I think they really, you know,
- 22:00Speaker 1: you had guys like Christian Moore and some of these
- 22:04Speaker 1: young guys just all the time swinging you know, thse
- 22:09Speaker 1: two strike approach at all, just you know, brain dead
- 22:13Speaker 1: hacking is one former player he used to call it.
- 22:17Speaker 1: I hope they're not falling into the same patterns I
- 22:20Speaker 1: kind of doomed them last year.
- 22:22Speaker 4: I hope so too.
- 22:23Speaker 3: One thing that I'm going to be on and I've
- 22:25Speaker 3: said it before there and not using the whole field
- 22:27Speaker 3: at all. Pull up the spray charts on Savant and
- 22:31Speaker 3: not only is it pull some of them are. I
- 22:33Speaker 3: mean it's very pole. And when they played the Cubs,
- 22:38Speaker 3: the Cubs kind of singled into death. They were using
- 22:40Speaker 3: the whole field. The Braves using the whole field. And
- 22:43Speaker 3: I'm not saying poking balls the other way on purpose,
- 22:46Speaker 3: but with two strikes, and Tory Hunter was on the
- 22:49Speaker 3: other day, I asked them about the importance of hitting
- 22:51Speaker 3: for a high batting average. I think with two strikes,
- 22:54Speaker 3: driving the ball, you know, if it happens, that's awesome,
- 22:57Speaker 3: but it really shouldn't be the goal. Think you know,
- 23:01Speaker 3: at least in my mind, a hard single, you know,
- 23:03Speaker 3: hit it on the ground, that's great. You're trying to
- 23:06Speaker 3: find a way to get back in the count, or
- 23:09Speaker 3: you know, if they make a mistake, it's more of
- 23:11Speaker 3: a punch. It's not you know, you're not a home
- 23:14Speaker 3: run down the left field line. But when you see
- 23:16Speaker 3: and I think what you're talking about are some of
- 23:17Speaker 3: those inappropriate swings in counts where you're you're really behind,
- 23:21Speaker 3: it just doesn't look right. It doesn't look like you're
- 23:24Speaker 3: up there fighting, and there has been a too much chase.
- 23:28Speaker 3: I think some sladders down in a way, and unfortunately,
- 23:32Speaker 3: when they've been down in some of these games, I
- 23:34Speaker 3: haven't seen a ton of fight. We'll see if that's
- 23:38Speaker 3: kind of something to monitor. In their defense, they've faced
- 23:41Speaker 3: the second nastiest nastiest pitching so far, the Stuff plus
- 23:46Speaker 3: one oh one point two. So the Padres are the
- 23:48Speaker 3: only team that has seen nastier pitching than the Angels.
- 23:52Speaker 4: Now there's some.
- 23:52Speaker 3: Other teams, the Rangers, the Rockies, the Orioles Toronto that's
- 23:56Speaker 3: not doing so well, but some of these teams are
- 23:57Speaker 3: hanging in there. So it's part of the you know,
- 24:00Speaker 3: you get the schedule and sometimes you play against a tough,
- 24:04Speaker 3: stiff competition in the beginning. Sometimes you don't. But so
- 24:08Speaker 3: far it's kind of a mixed bag. If this keeps up,
- 24:11Speaker 3: the pitching staff is going to have to really do
- 24:14Speaker 3: their thing, because you know, the all or nothing is
- 24:18Speaker 3: all or nothing.
- 24:20Speaker 1: We're gonna turn our attention to Logan o'hapi, who said,
- 24:23Speaker 1: after catching Monday Night's gem of a start by Jose
- 24:26Speaker 1: Soriano that he is quote, never felt more trusted to play.
- 24:30Speaker 2: The game than I have this year.
- 24:33Speaker 4: And then when.
- 24:33Speaker 1: Asked to sort of elaborate or asked for a tangible
- 24:37Speaker 1: example by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, o'hapi
- 24:40Speaker 1: said he and Soriano determined early in Monday Night's game
- 24:43Speaker 1: that the Braves seem to be honest pitches anytime they
- 24:47Speaker 1: threw the same pitch back to back, So happy and
- 24:50Speaker 1: Soriano came into the dugout and told Maddox and the
- 24:52Speaker 1: other coaches that they needed to adjust.
- 24:55Speaker 2: Quote.
- 24:55Speaker 1: We got to keep more of a mix here than
- 24:57Speaker 1: just sticking to what is maybe looking like it's work
- 25:00Speaker 1: at the time, o'hapy said. He told Maddox and sorry,
- 25:03Speaker 1: mixed it up from there and went eight innings. Mark,
- 25:07Speaker 1: are you reading anything into this quote at all?
- 25:12Speaker 4: I would like your opinion on this quote. I think
- 25:15Speaker 4: that you have.
- 25:15Speaker 3: Done this for forty years and are much better at
- 25:18Speaker 3: reading between the lines when it comes to something like this.
- 25:21Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean you could read it as sort of
- 25:23Speaker 1: a knock on some of the previous coaching staff, some
- 25:25Speaker 1: of the pitching coaches and maybe manager Ron Washington. You know,
- 25:31Speaker 1: Logan had such a rough year last year. Both at
- 25:34Speaker 1: the plate and behind the plate, and confidence I think
- 25:38Speaker 1: on both sides of the ball is something that I
- 25:40Speaker 1: think is really important to him. You know, when he's
- 25:42Speaker 1: feeling relaxed and not feeling like the just all the
- 25:46Speaker 1: pressure that's on him. I mean, these young catchers have
- 25:48Speaker 1: enough on their plate as it is. I did a
- 25:50Speaker 1: story going into last season on o'hopy and how tough
- 25:54Speaker 1: it is for a young catcher to sort of, you know,
- 25:58Speaker 1: establish himself and shout to guys like Chris Iyanetta and
- 26:03Speaker 1: there's just so much And you know, Man Logan never
- 26:08Speaker 1: had to catch for Mike Sosha, but you saw how
- 26:10Speaker 1: he's greeted some of the catchers back when he was there.
- 26:13Speaker 1: I mean, I can't imagine anything more stressful than trying
- 26:16Speaker 1: to catch for Mike Soshia. And you know, he pretty
- 26:19Speaker 1: much ran a guy like Mike Napoli out of town
- 26:21Speaker 1: because he didn't think he could handle the pitchers as
- 26:23Speaker 1: well as he wanted him to. And as we all know,
- 26:26Speaker 1: nap went under a great career with the Rangers. So
- 26:29Speaker 1: I think being comfortable, being confident, feeling like he's doing
- 26:33Speaker 1: the right thing and that the coaches have his back
- 26:35Speaker 1: is important to Logan, and if that's how he feels
- 26:37Speaker 1: right now, I think that bodes well for the Angels.
- 26:41Speaker 2: You know, I'm not. I haven't been in the clubhouse.
- 26:43Speaker 1: I haven't talked to these guys as much as I
- 26:45Speaker 1: would normally if I was covering the team full time
- 26:47Speaker 1: like I did for many years.
- 26:49Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't.
- 26:51Speaker 1: I just think it's You could certainly take it as
- 26:54Speaker 1: maybe a knock on some previous coaches who maybe just
- 26:56Speaker 1: couldn't get through to Logan, or maybe there was just
- 26:59Speaker 1: some you know, butting of heads. But I think it
- 27:03Speaker 1: bodes well for the future of the pitching staff and
- 27:05Speaker 1: hopefully Logan's future.
- 27:08Speaker 3: I think that it indicates him taking some ownership. I
- 27:11Speaker 3: think catchers, ultimately, you know, you want them to be
- 27:15Speaker 3: the general out there on the field hauling the game.
- 27:18Speaker 3: They're the ones with the best view by far to
- 27:20Speaker 3: see what these hitters are doing. And hitters make and
- 27:23Speaker 3: I made a number of adjustments. Sometimes you're moving around
- 27:26Speaker 3: in the box pitch to pitch, count to count, and
- 27:30Speaker 3: the catcher is the one that ultimately is sitting there.
- 27:33Speaker 3: Most of them are sitting there staring, you know, staring
- 27:36Speaker 3: at your feet, and they're making sure you're not peeking.
- 27:38Speaker 3: I never peaked at anything, I hope, but nobody does
- 27:40Speaker 3: to be honest at least of the things. But it's
- 27:44Speaker 3: they're the ones that have the best feel and they
- 27:46Speaker 3: can kind of read things too, and not always things
- 27:50Speaker 3: that are they can even put into words, but just
- 27:53Speaker 3: kind of the timing of the hitter and certain things
- 27:55Speaker 3: and just get a They could also tell very easily
- 27:58Speaker 3: when guys are cheating. That's a big deal, like with
- 28:00Speaker 3: the story onor or somebody like that. If they see
- 28:02Speaker 3: that front shoulder starting to fly, I mean, that opens
- 28:05Speaker 3: up the entire outside part of the plate. Likewise, if
- 28:08Speaker 3: they think, you know, or started to see a team
- 28:11Speaker 3: that's overly passive and clearly up there that you know
- 28:13Speaker 3: they can get. You talk to a guy like Red
- 28:15Speaker 3: or something, and hey, let's go right out them. They
- 28:17Speaker 3: seem like they're trying to get a lot of pitches
- 28:19Speaker 3: out of you. And it's not a knock on reed,
- 28:21Speaker 3: it just is kind of you know, that's that's what
- 28:23Speaker 3: you see as a catcher. And I know I was
- 28:25Speaker 3: lucky to play with many that were really good, but
- 28:28Speaker 3: almost all of them exactly like what Logan's saying, they're
- 28:31Speaker 3: out there and you count on them to do that.
- 28:33Speaker 3: A catcher that is not a leader in at least
- 28:36Speaker 3: in this regard. It's it's just not really how the
- 28:40Speaker 3: big leagues operate. You know, most of these guys are.
- 28:43Speaker 3: That's why they are so popular to manage later on,
- 28:45Speaker 3: because they have to kind of take ownership with these
- 28:48Speaker 3: things and become, you know, guys that the pitchers trust.
- 28:51Speaker 3: That That is the relationship. So far, so good.
- 28:54Speaker 4: Logan's really done a nice job in that regard.
- 28:57Speaker 1: We're going to close a show. Is some more rough
- 28:59Speaker 1: in news for the Angels. Robert Stevenson, the much bligned reliever,
- 29:06Speaker 1: at another Tommy John surgery, just on a revision, so
- 29:12Speaker 1: he's out for the year. He'll have he signed a
- 29:15Speaker 1: three year, thirty three million dollars deal before the twenty
- 29:19Speaker 1: four season.
- 29:19Speaker 2: He'll have made twelve appearances.
- 29:22Speaker 1: We know how frustrated Robert is, you know, with some
- 29:26Speaker 1: of the quotes we heard from him in spring training,
- 29:29Speaker 1: and I just want to sort of take this from
- 29:32Speaker 1: a player's angle.
- 29:33Speaker 2: Mark you.
- 29:35Speaker 1: Signed a three year, thirty seven million dollar deal with
- 29:37Speaker 1: the Oriels before the twenty seventeen season, and then you
- 29:41Speaker 1: suffered some pretty bad knee injuries or limited to ninety
- 29:44Speaker 1: games in twenty eighteen and twelve games in twenty nineteen
- 29:48Speaker 1: before retiring. How tough is it for players when they're
- 29:52Speaker 1: unable to fulfill these types of contracts, or really any
- 29:56Speaker 1: kind of contracts.
- 29:59Speaker 2: Because of these injuries. I can't imagine what that's like.
- 30:03Speaker 3: I don't know if anyone can unless you're the one
- 30:05Speaker 3: doing it, you know. And in the case of Roberts,
- 30:09Speaker 3: he's done everything he can to be productive. I've seen
- 30:12Speaker 3: nothing that sounds like another injured player on the Angels.
- 30:18Speaker 3: Not to say that that Anthony hasn't also done things
- 30:21Speaker 3: to try and return to play, but number numerous stories
- 30:25Speaker 3: over the years. I think Ellsbury, you know, had an
- 30:28Speaker 3: interesting recovery on his own quite a bit. So sometimes
- 30:33Speaker 3: teams will grant more latitude to guys to kind of
- 30:35Speaker 3: you know, rehabit they're going to be long term things.
- 30:37Speaker 3: But you know, in my own case, it was something
- 30:41Speaker 3: that was, you know, entirely on the knee just started
- 30:45Speaker 3: to kind of there wasn't one precipitating event, but I
- 30:48Speaker 3: just started to feel like, man, I don't feel not
- 30:51Speaker 3: that I ever had an abundance of athleticism, but it
- 30:53Speaker 3: seemed gone, you know, and it started to swell routinely, Buckle,
- 30:58Speaker 3: and these are things that Nick pros or it's pretty
- 31:00Speaker 3: pretty difficult.
- 31:01Speaker 4: Now.
- 31:01Speaker 3: I was very stubborn too, and I continued to play
- 31:05Speaker 3: and play and play. I was still able to hit
- 31:07Speaker 3: to a decent level in eighteen. But I don't know
- 31:10Speaker 3: if it was kind of a mato thing or what,
- 31:12Speaker 3: but I probably should have gotten a look at before.
- 31:15Speaker 3: But eventually buck show Walter said, hey, you're not looking
- 31:18Speaker 3: very good out there, at least running wise. You want
- 31:20Speaker 3: to get it looked at. And it ended up being
- 31:22Speaker 3: a pretty serious thing. So in nineteen I honestly probably
- 31:27Speaker 3: who knows, I had an obligation to return. You know,
- 31:31Speaker 3: when you have a surgery, they talk about return to play.
- 31:33Speaker 3: I think it's such a funny term because return to
- 31:35Speaker 3: play just simply means you are there, you know, and
- 31:38Speaker 3: you return to play. It doesn't mean you returned to
- 31:41Speaker 3: the previous level of play. So small anecdote, but yeah,
- 31:45Speaker 3: this is very unfortunate. You know, he's got tremendous stuff.
- 31:48Speaker 3: But I don't know as a genetics, as a who
- 31:51Speaker 3: knows what it is, it's bad luck. I think by
- 31:53Speaker 3: and large, but I would have love to see what
- 31:56Speaker 3: he had had to bring, because when he was out
- 31:58Speaker 3: there it was quite good.
- 31:59Speaker 4: And best wishes to him.
- 32:00Speaker 3: Hopefully he's able to kind of, you know, get something
- 32:03Speaker 3: in order and maybe have a couple more years.
- 32:06Speaker 1: All right, we'll close the show with that. Thanks for watching,
- 32:10Speaker 1: Please like and subscribe, and we will see you next
- 32:13Speaker 1: time on Halo Territory.