Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / Perry Minasian's latest comments are GASLIGHTING Angels fans

Transcript

Perry Minasian's latest comments are GASLIGHTING Angels fans · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: Well, hey Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo Territory,
0:10
Speaker 1: part of the Foul Territory Network. I'm Mike di Giovanno,
0:14
Speaker 1: former Ela Times baseball writer, and I'm joined by former
0:17
Speaker 1: Angel slugger Mark Trumbo and Sam Blum, a baseball writer
0:21
Speaker 1: for The Athletic.
0:23
Speaker 2: Today, we're going.
0:23
Speaker 1: To examine the performance of Angels general manager Perrymnasium, and
0:28
Speaker 1: we're going to start with some clips from his oppress
0:30
Speaker 1: availability last week.
0:33
Speaker 2: We made a jump last year.
0:35
Speaker 3: I think we were in the top four, top five
0:36
Speaker 3: and wins from the previous season.
0:39
Speaker 2: You know, we expect to make another jump this year.
0:41
Speaker 3: I'm not going to get into you know, doesn't do
0:43
Speaker 3: me any good from a payroll standpoint, or you know,
0:46
Speaker 3: doesn't give me an advantage on anybody else to give information.
0:49
Speaker 3: I'm not going to make any statements again, that's forever.
0:54
Speaker 3: I'm not going to give into detail. I'm value, I
0:57
Speaker 3: mean basically real value money wise. I think anybody would
1:03
Speaker 3: look at that and believe it makes sense.
1:05
Speaker 2: Who wouldn't do that?
1:08
Speaker 4: Do you not do that?
1:12
Speaker 3: Now?
1:12
Speaker 1: I don't know IFULL have much time to get into
1:14
Speaker 1: the meaning of value time, money, But what I want
1:16
Speaker 1: to focus on is Perry saying that we were in
1:19
Speaker 1: the top four or five and wins from the previous season,
1:23
Speaker 1: the Angels went sixty three and ninety nine and twenty
1:25
Speaker 1: twenty four and seventy two and ninety In twenty twenty five.
1:30
Speaker 1: They basically went from an abysmal franchise worst record to
1:33
Speaker 1: merely awful. That's like me, a sixty three year old man,
1:37
Speaker 1: bragging that I increased my vertical leap from two inches
1:40
Speaker 1: to three inches. Yeah, it's an improvement, but I ain't
1:43
Speaker 1: about to enter any slant dunk contest. So while Perry
1:46
Speaker 1: is technically correct, this does seem like a form of
1:49
Speaker 1: gas lighting.
1:50
Speaker 2: What do you guys think?
1:52
Speaker 4: I mean, that's that's one hundred percent what it is. It's, uh,
1:56
Speaker 4: that's kind of really all they have to work with
1:57
Speaker 4: at this point is just you know, don't know if
2:00
Speaker 4: it's only gas lighting, but I mean, it's just it's
2:03
Speaker 4: not just that, it's the indignation with which it comes
2:05
Speaker 4: right like you saw it in that clip, like would
2:07
Speaker 4: you not do that? It's it's you know, we're just
2:09
Speaker 4: trying to get answers for the fan base on kind
2:11
Speaker 4: of what direction they're headed in. And every single time,
2:14
Speaker 4: and it's not just that one press availability, it's it's
2:17
Speaker 4: nearly every single time. That's the way he operates, and
2:20
Speaker 4: so he will respond to questions with indignation with what
2:24
Speaker 4: I would say is, you know, times feels rude, and
2:27
Speaker 4: he'll always say things like, well, that's not that question
2:29
Speaker 4: is not for me, which I'm which to me is
2:31
Speaker 4: as the person asking it. It's almost insulting because I
2:34
Speaker 4: know who I'm asking the question to, right, I know
2:38
Speaker 4: who I want to have answered that. And also it's
2:40
Speaker 4: not like this organization is making people above Perry available
2:42
Speaker 4: at any sort of regular clip, so he's the one
2:44
Speaker 4: who is speaking for them, and just the lack of transparency,
2:48
Speaker 4: you know, it's instead of just saying I can't answer it,
2:50
Speaker 4: he has to, you know, make people feel like they're
2:54
Speaker 4: dumb for even wanting to know it. And that that's
2:56
Speaker 4: where he I think the fan he loses the fan
2:59
Speaker 4: base in a lot of ways. Andrew, you know, Perry
3:01
Speaker 4: is a tough job. Everybody acknowledges that who he works for,
3:04
Speaker 4: but he makes it a lot tougher on himself. And
3:06
Speaker 4: I don't think he's done himself any favors. It's kind
3:08
Speaker 4: of similar to the rendowed situation in some ways where
3:10
Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, I mean he's hurt. I don't think
3:12
Speaker 4: anyone blames somebody for getting hurt. Well, when you don't
3:14
Speaker 4: handle the extra layers of that, well, you end up
3:18
Speaker 4: in a situation where you know, people are just upset
3:21
Speaker 4: you for the way you're handling the situation.
3:24
Speaker 1: Mark, I know you had a bit of a reaction
3:26
Speaker 1: to that quote as well.
3:30
Speaker 5: I think I was probably well, I know I was.
3:34
Speaker 5: As far as Anthony, I said he fell short in
3:38
Speaker 5: regards to handling his media duties. I stand by it.
3:41
Speaker 5: I think that it was obvious and it was frustrating,
3:45
Speaker 5: and it's frustrating for the fan base who the more
3:48
Speaker 5: we go on and we do the show, you know,
3:49
Speaker 5: I'm getting feedback and we have a number of very
3:55
Speaker 5: in tune interested fans and what's going on with this
3:59
Speaker 5: organized that are not casual observers. They want to know
4:03
Speaker 5: the ins and outs. They want to know why the
4:07
Speaker 5: restructuring of the contract with Anthony happened. We could speculate,
4:14
Speaker 5: which is what we've alluded to, is is all we're
4:16
Speaker 5: left with. But I think that that question could have
4:20
Speaker 5: been answered a myriad of ways. Ultimately what came out was,
4:26
Speaker 5: you know, it had a condescending tone to it.
4:31
Speaker 2: I don't know if it.
4:31
Speaker 5: Was more towards you guys as the writers, maybe one
4:36
Speaker 5: in particular, or.
4:40
Speaker 4: It wasn't even me lasted like it was.
4:43
Speaker 5: You know, it sounded it sounded like it was either
4:48
Speaker 5: a topic And I think this is kind of my
4:50
Speaker 5: whole thing. Every interview I've seen there's some level of evasiveness.
4:56
Speaker 5: It doesn't seem like and I'm again, I want to
5:01
Speaker 5: paint a fair picture. I think that's what we are
5:03
Speaker 5: trying to do. You know, right now, it's obvious Perry
5:07
Speaker 5: is under fire. Many media outlets are covering it. I
5:11
Speaker 5: think that press conference was a disaster. It didn't have
5:15
Speaker 5: to be one, but it ended up one. And I
5:18
Speaker 5: think ultimately, when I think about Perry, he may be
5:22
Speaker 5: under very strict orders from ownership. He may essentially have
5:26
Speaker 5: to go out there and walk the plank at times
5:29
Speaker 5: and take one for the team, and that's unfortunate. But
5:33
Speaker 5: when I think about what is under his control, it's
5:37
Speaker 5: his ability to speak, you know, a little more candidly.
5:41
Speaker 5: I think it would go a long way. I tried
5:43
Speaker 5: to get into I asked around. I tried to do
5:46
Speaker 5: my due diligence to figure out there's something I'm missing,
5:49
Speaker 5: or the fans are missing, or literally everyone's missing. As
5:52
Speaker 5: to why he operates the way he does, maybe he
5:54
Speaker 5: was mentored by his you know, Alex Enthopplis for example,
5:58
Speaker 5: I went and watched.
5:58
Speaker 2: A myriad of interviews with him.
6:01
Speaker 5: He is guarded at times with the information, but he's
6:04
Speaker 5: far more engaging. He's some personality shines. He's able to joke.
6:10
Speaker 5: He commented on some topics that I thought he might
6:12
Speaker 5: shy away from, as far as jumping salary and other
6:17
Speaker 5: you know things that were kind of you know, giving
6:21
Speaker 5: a look behind the curtain, and you know, everyone's different.
6:25
Speaker 5: So Perry's not going to be Alex or anybody else,
6:28
Speaker 5: but I think he probably is. As far as around
6:32
Speaker 5: the game, he provides the least. I can't remember a
6:36
Speaker 5: GM that was as guarded as Perry is. He doesn't
6:39
Speaker 5: comment on contract negotiations, which is fine, some of that
6:43
Speaker 5: stuff shouldn't be discussed. But I think at times he
6:47
Speaker 5: it's this adversarial tone and it doesn't need to be.
6:50
Speaker 5: He needs to live some of his personality shine, because
6:53
Speaker 5: at some point he might be looking for work elsewhere,
6:56
Speaker 5: and when you're looking at his body of work, you
6:59
Speaker 5: know what, maybe a tough time inherited a club that
7:01
Speaker 5: wasn't as good here. Hopefully some of the things he's
7:04
Speaker 5: done are going to pay off, But in terms of
7:07
Speaker 5: his interaction with the media, I'd rate it as poor
7:10
Speaker 5: right now.
7:11
Speaker 4: The other thing I mean that's going on.
7:14
Speaker 1: Sorry, well, I was going to say to me that
7:16
Speaker 1: quote fits a pattern that points to a general lack
7:19
Speaker 1: of accountability with this franchise. And that's something Sam, you
7:22
Speaker 1: explored at the end of last season when Perry went
7:26
Speaker 1: asked several times just refused to assess his performance after
7:32
Speaker 1: another losing season, and the angel Sam wrote, or an
7:37
Speaker 1: organization that refuses to look inward at their own mistakes
7:41
Speaker 1: and failures. They've had ten straight losing seasons and gone
7:44
Speaker 1: sixteen years without a playoff win, yet they operate with
7:48
Speaker 1: the confidence and indignation of a franchise that has earned
7:53
Speaker 1: the bent, that has earned the benefit of the doubt.
7:56
Speaker 1: First off, I have to say if Baseball Savant tracked
7:59
Speaker 1: barrel rays for ball riders, Sam would be among the
8:01
Speaker 1: league leaders in hard hit rates. So kudos to you, Sam.
8:05
Speaker 1: What led you to write that at that time.
8:08
Speaker 4: Well, so that was actually what I was about to say,
8:10
Speaker 4: which is, you know, looking back at that press, that
8:13
Speaker 4: was an impress availability that happened at the very end
8:15
Speaker 4: of the season. Origin said, the very end of the season.
8:16
Speaker 4: They delayed it for a week for no reason. But
8:20
Speaker 4: when the first question I asked Perry was, you know
8:23
Speaker 4: you let go of Wash, you know, and the reason
8:26
Speaker 4: wasn't because of his health. It was because of performance.
8:28
Speaker 4: I mean, they wanted to make that really clear. I'm
8:30
Speaker 4: not sure exactly why, but they wanted to make that clear.
8:33
Speaker 4: And I'm like, if you can make that decision on
8:36
Speaker 4: behalf of your manager, how do you evaluate your own performance?
8:39
Speaker 4: Because Wash has been there for two years. Wash had
8:43
Speaker 4: health issues that you know, sidelined him for the majority
8:47
Speaker 4: of a second season, and you know what he did manage.
8:49
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not saying he was great or fantastic
8:51
Speaker 4: or you know, super successful, but you know there they
8:53
Speaker 4: were probably a little bit better. I mean, you know,
8:55
Speaker 4: these showed some signs early in the season of an
8:58
Speaker 4: organization kind of willing to fight even and you know,
9:00
Speaker 4: with the resources, limited resources that he'd been given. So
9:04
Speaker 4: why Perry couldn't answer that question, you know, he said
9:06
Speaker 4: that was a question for someone else. I'm like, you know,
9:09
Speaker 4: I have to do self evaluations for my job every year.
9:11
Speaker 4: I mean we all do, right, Like, we all have
9:13
Speaker 4: to self evaluate. And I think it's very easy to
9:15
Speaker 4: just say something like I need to do better. We're
9:18
Speaker 4: all playing a role in this, and you know this
9:22
Speaker 4: is you know, we're not going to stop till we
9:24
Speaker 4: get this right. I mean, how hard is to say that?
9:25
Speaker 4: But he just won't do that. And I think to
9:28
Speaker 4: Mark's point, right, like, you know, if that's something that's
9:31
Speaker 4: in your control, you don't need to have ownership authorize
9:34
Speaker 4: you to have some self reflection. You can just be
9:37
Speaker 4: a human being and say it. And to me, like
9:39
Speaker 4: I've always felt like the excuse that Perry is, you know,
9:42
Speaker 4: has a really really tough job through ownership kind of
9:45
Speaker 4: went out the door when he signed his contract extension.
9:47
Speaker 4: He didn't have to do that. To me, that was
9:49
Speaker 4: an indication that they are one and the same, that
9:51
Speaker 4: they are going to operate the same way. He knew
9:52
Speaker 4: what he was getting himself into when he signed that extension,
9:55
Speaker 4: and ultimately there they are one team at this point
10:00
Speaker 4: and there's a reason he's entering a six season after
10:02
Speaker 4: five losing seasons. I mean, there's obviously something that's working
10:05
Speaker 4: well with the front office and ownership, and I think
10:07
Speaker 4: a lot of it has to do with how he
10:08
Speaker 4: handles these situations unfortunately, you know, and it's a tough
10:13
Speaker 4: It is tough. Like I don't, I don't Harry's under
10:15
Speaker 4: the gun because of how poorly they performed. But you know,
10:17
Speaker 4: there's just no reason to think it's getting any better.
10:19
Speaker 4: And ultimately, I think this might be their worst season
10:23
Speaker 4: maybe in the history of their franchise. We already saw
10:25
Speaker 4: that once two years ago. In the way that they're
10:26
Speaker 4: operating this offseason, you never know. I mean they every
10:29
Speaker 4: year you kind of think, oh man, he just could
10:31
Speaker 4: be a little bit better if all these things work out.
10:34
Speaker 4: But I mean, I'm looking at this roster and I'm
10:35
Speaker 4: seeing a really, really tough time to get you know,
10:39
Speaker 4: even sixty wins.
10:41
Speaker 2: Maybe.
10:41
Speaker 1: All right, We're we're gonna take a little break. Hear
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Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors, and we'll be right back
10:46
Speaker 1: with Halo Territory.
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Speaker 2: Job is so intriguing.
11:50
Speaker 3: This is not one hundred lost team.
11:52
Speaker 4: This is not a five to seven ten year rebuild.
11:55
Speaker 5: This is going to be a competitive club breaking news.
11:57
Speaker 4: Joe Madden out as manager of the Angels.
12:00
Speaker 3: Fired.
12:01
Speaker 6: We got my team, get them all excited, and I'm
12:04
Speaker 6: gonna give us a mohawk to get the people going.
12:06
Speaker 6: And ah, he got fired before he got a chance.
12:09
Speaker 4: The show is deemed that Albert Coolhols's time with the
12:12
Speaker 4: Los Angeles Angels has come to an end. The club
12:14
Speaker 4: announced today that they designated the future Hall of Famer
12:18
Speaker 4: for assignment. Philosophically, for me, it's all about makeup.
12:21
Speaker 3: Our player development has done an out standing jobs since
12:23
Speaker 3: I've been.
12:23
Speaker 2: Here to introduce Ron Washington.
12:24
Speaker 3: I think the Angels are definitely better today than they
12:27
Speaker 3: were yesterday.
12:27
Speaker 6: The twenty twenty three Los Angeles Angels were an absolute disaster.
12:32
Speaker 4: How the Angels can contend after ninety nine losses in
12:35
Speaker 4: twenty twenty four.
12:36
Speaker 3: Now, I'm expecting very positive things here in their future.
12:39
Speaker 1: Well, I never got to see Joe Men's mohawk, which
12:42
Speaker 1: is an extreme disappointment in my life. Did you Sam,
12:45
Speaker 1: did you ever get a chance to see that one?
12:47
Speaker 4: Oh? He just you know, it would have been funny
12:49
Speaker 4: to show up to the ballpark that I did. But
12:52
Speaker 4: I do remember they played like back for every single
12:55
Speaker 4: walk up song that the night or like today that
12:57
Speaker 4: was fired. So there was something in the but you know,
13:00
Speaker 4: not that.
13:01
Speaker 1: But the one quote I think really jumped out of
13:04
Speaker 1: me was when Perry said, our player development has done
13:07
Speaker 1: an outstanding job since we've been here. MLB dot Com
13:12
Speaker 1: ranked the Angels farm system under director Joey Brabinski twenty
13:16
Speaker 1: eighth or thirtieth in each of the last five seasons
13:19
Speaker 1: out of thirty teams. Every minor league affiliate last year
13:23
Speaker 1: was below five hundred. The Angels have only two prospects,
13:27
Speaker 1: right handed pitchers Tyler Bremner and Ryan Johnson, in the
13:30
Speaker 1: top one hundred. To compare, the Dodgers have seven. The
13:35
Speaker 1: Angels like to tout their young core of Zach Netto,
13:37
Speaker 1: Nolan Shanwell, Logan o'happi, Jose Soriano as being one of
13:42
Speaker 1: the better young cores in baseball, But right now, it
13:45
Speaker 1: looks like Netto's the only real potential star of that group,
13:48
Speaker 1: and you could easily argue that the A's young core
13:51
Speaker 1: is way better. Guys, how would you assess the Angels
13:54
Speaker 1: player development?
13:58
Speaker 5: I guess I I'll go first. I don't see much.
14:06
Speaker 5: You know, the the ratings and the rankings they seem
14:09
Speaker 5: pretty consistent throughout various publications. I've yet to see anybody
14:13
Speaker 5: that you know, thought that they were somehow a you know,
14:17
Speaker 5: rated way too low and had something that people were missing.
14:21
Speaker 5: Maybe there's a couple intriguing young players down.
14:26
Speaker 2: You know, an A ball or even below.
14:29
Speaker 5: RATA is a guy that is of interest to me.
14:32
Speaker 5: Classing has big stuff, and it seems like a lot
14:38
Speaker 5: of the highest ranked guys were taken in the most
14:41
Speaker 5: recent draft, which I think is intriguing. They went again
14:46
Speaker 5: with the strategy of going under slot. I think Bremner
14:49
Speaker 5: was two and a half million under slot, and there's
14:54
Speaker 5: nothing to say that he might not be considered to
14:57
Speaker 5: start on the major league roster. I don't think it's
15:00
Speaker 5: going to happen. But you know, Ryan Johnson, for example,
15:04
Speaker 5: last year, made the team pitch zero and ins in
15:07
Speaker 5: the minor leagues and then went down to a ball
15:11
Speaker 5: for the remainder of the year. Maybe there was a
15:14
Speaker 5: better explanation that I missed that was very strange to me.
15:18
Speaker 5: Not double A, not triple A. You know, he's major
15:21
Speaker 5: league ready and then he's an A ball pitching in
15:24
Speaker 5: Inland Empire or wherever he went to. I feel it
15:27
Speaker 5: was probably wrong there. But nevertheless, is that player development
15:31
Speaker 5: I I it's.
15:33
Speaker 4: To me, there's so many things to get into with this.
15:37
Speaker 4: I look at you mentioned Ryan Johnson. That's a good
15:39
Speaker 4: example because he's someone that, like you said, you know,
15:42
Speaker 4: these are decisions born out of like desperation in my opinion,
15:46
Speaker 4: right like that is that is a GM who at
15:48
Speaker 4: the time when you put him there last year, I
15:50
Speaker 4: felt like was doing that because not necessarily because he
15:54
Speaker 4: was the best option, because he was not in necessarily
15:55
Speaker 4: because he was ready, but because he might have been
15:57
Speaker 4: the very best option to do that very specific role.
15:59
Speaker 4: And it's like you said, he went from being the
16:02
Speaker 4: night the last night that he pitched in the big leagues.
16:04
Speaker 4: He was their seventh inning guy in a lead, right
16:06
Speaker 4: he came of a lead in the seventh inning, was
16:08
Speaker 4: let go after the game to tell Hia. But that's
16:11
Speaker 4: not even the worst example to me. Like I saw
16:14
Speaker 4: Samuel de Gary come in twice, Cayden Dana come in
16:18
Speaker 4: in games this year and throw forty three pitches in
16:21
Speaker 4: one inning to cover them out of a need to
16:25
Speaker 4: get through a major league game. You were using your
16:27
Speaker 4: top pitching prospects to cover you in relief appearances, because one,
16:32
Speaker 4: you've rushed these guys to the big league so quickly
16:35
Speaker 4: that you don't even have people on your forty man
16:37
Speaker 4: roster that you can call up without defaying them essentially,
16:40
Speaker 4: So they're already put painting themselves into a corner. And
16:43
Speaker 4: then they're putting these guys in an awful position to
16:45
Speaker 4: fail at that level and to fail royally in these
16:48
Speaker 4: like these seven a run innings that they just can't
16:50
Speaker 4: get out of. I think it's just an awful dereliction
16:53
Speaker 4: to Dodey. I wrote about it at the time. You know,
16:56
Speaker 4: the player development, it's not about player I mean the draft.
17:00
Speaker 4: You look back to that twenty twenty one draft where
17:01
Speaker 4: they took all pitchers. I mean, there's not a single
17:03
Speaker 4: guy from there that you can count on at the
17:05
Speaker 4: big league level at this point. I mean, Ja silth
17:07
Speaker 4: Seth is is okay. I mean he has got to
17:10
Speaker 4: prove something. Sam Bachman similarly a lot to prove and
17:13
Speaker 4: maybe those are the two guys that will show something
17:15
Speaker 4: from that draft. But that's a failure of a draft,
17:17
Speaker 4: and it was a gimmick of a draft too. And
17:20
Speaker 4: then beyond that, I mean, you're looking at zach Netto
17:22
Speaker 4: was probably the greatest thing that Perry's done, you know, right, like,
17:24
Speaker 4: that was a really good pick. But beyond that, there
17:27
Speaker 4: have been just not a lot of good decisions made.
17:29
Speaker 4: They don't make trades at the deadline when they are
17:31
Speaker 4: in position to do so, to actually add to that
17:34
Speaker 4: player that you know, that that system that has ranked
17:37
Speaker 4: so low, right, I mean, if they'd made trades in
17:38
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four, and twenty twenty five,
17:41
Speaker 4: when they did not, they'd be looking at a much
17:43
Speaker 4: different farm system in my opinion, especially if they traded
17:46
Speaker 4: Otani in twenty twenty three. But that's probably for a
17:48
Speaker 4: whole separate episode. So you know, there's just failures all around.
17:52
Speaker 4: I mean, you can you can look at the disconnect
17:54
Speaker 4: between the major league coaches and the minor league player
17:56
Speaker 4: development staff, and you can look at you know, Troy
17:59
Speaker 4: Percival coming in saying it didn't like technology, and then
18:01
Speaker 4: a couple of their top you know, player development pitching
18:05
Speaker 4: guys are out the door a week later, right Like,
18:07
Speaker 4: there are so many things that are just so like
18:10
Speaker 4: you shake your head at and then you know, like
18:13
Speaker 4: you said, I mean, Perry continuously props up as farm
18:15
Speaker 4: director Joy Pribinski, who's just not accomplished much of anything, right,
18:18
Speaker 4: and then they keep hiring these guys. I mean, most
18:20
Speaker 4: of their major league coaching staff right now is from
18:22
Speaker 4: their minor league player development system from last year. I mean,
18:25
Speaker 4: it's it's like where it's coming from. Where's this confidence?
18:28
Speaker 4: It's why? You know, it's just nothing really makes a
18:30
Speaker 4: lot of sense, and there's just mistakes and failures and
18:33
Speaker 4: just bad decisions like littered across the last five years.
18:38
Speaker 1: Mark, did you have some thoughts on that all Pitcher
18:41
Speaker 1: draft from a few years back.
18:44
Speaker 5: Well, I went back in preparation for talking about it,
18:48
Speaker 5: and I saw a clip somewhere where Perry was discussing.
18:54
Speaker 2: How it kind of transpired.
18:55
Speaker 5: And I believe he said they didn't go into it
18:58
Speaker 5: thinking they were going to do that, but it just
19:00
Speaker 5: kind of happened. You have plenty of time to prepare
19:05
Speaker 5: for this. Sam, I think you mentioned it may have been,
19:08
Speaker 5: you know, a gimmick or whatever it was. It definitely
19:13
Speaker 5: made some headlines if that was what people were looking for.
19:17
Speaker 5: You know, I don't know Sam Bachman. When he's on
19:19
Speaker 5: he does have very nice stuff. But I think he
19:22
Speaker 5: was the ninth overall pick, and you know, first rounders
19:27
Speaker 5: generally make up the bulk of major league rosters if
19:31
Speaker 5: they're domestic players, so you really want to hit on
19:33
Speaker 5: those guys and taking a guy I think they had
19:37
Speaker 5: high hopes that he would be a starter, but he
19:38
Speaker 5: quickly transitioned to into a relief role. He's been oft injured,
19:44
Speaker 5: you know, near it, while Stevenson takes the cake there.
19:48
Speaker 5: When I was looking at payroll, I you know, I
19:51
Speaker 5: guess he was coming off a little bit of well,
19:54
Speaker 5: he had a nice season, there's no doubt about it,
19:56
Speaker 5: and we bought very high. He's provided very little and
20:00
Speaker 5: again probably not what he wants, definitely not what he wants,
20:03
Speaker 5: but it's making a lot of money. Eleven million dollars
20:06
Speaker 5: this year and he's made that, you know, the last
20:09
Speaker 5: two years. I've seen him pitch, maybe by inning in
20:11
Speaker 5: a third. It's probably more, but not much more than
20:14
Speaker 5: that nice stuff when he's out there, but he's never
20:16
Speaker 5: out there, and I don't know. I'm going to try
20:21
Speaker 5: and set up some interviews with hopefully uh former members
20:26
Speaker 5: of the Angels organization if they're willing to do it,
20:29
Speaker 5: and player development. Maybe former general managers if they're up
20:33
Speaker 5: for doing it and talk about what they see, and
20:37
Speaker 5: you know, maybe what's changed if the college levels are
20:40
Speaker 5: that much more advanced and there's a justification for thrusting
20:45
Speaker 5: a guy into the major leagues with sub five hundred
20:49
Speaker 5: bats under his belt.
20:50
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear about it.
20:51
Speaker 5: And I think ex players can be you know, you
20:57
Speaker 5: get off my lawn. You know, they're these guys stink.
21:01
Speaker 5: This game stinks, and you know it's not really the sentiment,
21:04
Speaker 5: but sometimes it is. But it's not in my speaking
21:08
Speaker 5: for myself.
21:09
Speaker 2: But I do wonder.
21:09
Speaker 5: I mean, I played six full seasons in the minor leagues.
21:12
Speaker 5: I went to at least two Winter Balls, I went
21:16
Speaker 5: played in the Fall League, three or four instructional leagues.
21:19
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't even know the numbers, but the
21:22
Speaker 5: number of bats I had under my belt, and you
21:25
Speaker 5: know what, I think I needed it at some point.
21:28
Speaker 5: I think maybe I would have liked to get called
21:30
Speaker 5: up quicker and started my clock.
21:32
Speaker 2: But you know, it's water under the bridge now.
21:35
Speaker 5: But I do know that, I mean I had I
21:38
Speaker 5: was more than prepared in all facets of the game.
21:41
Speaker 5: Because Mike Soshia would not put someone out there who
21:45
Speaker 5: couldn't play defense. He just would not do it. He
21:48
Speaker 5: didn't care how good your bat was. I mean, if
21:51
Speaker 5: it had to be you know, all star caliber and
21:54
Speaker 5: beyond almost because I don't think he could stomach watching
21:56
Speaker 5: someone out there playing, you know, terrible defense. And that
22:00
Speaker 5: was the brand of baseball that used to be popular here.
22:03
Speaker 5: Pitching in defense. I think it's been touched on a bit.
22:07
Speaker 5: At some point it transitioned into a more power approach,
22:11
Speaker 5: but really in the last recent years, the offensive approach
22:15
Speaker 5: changed drastically. The numbers, I think around twenty twenty twenty
22:19
Speaker 5: one were fairly respectable, and the last couple of years
22:23
Speaker 5: they've fallen off a cliff. Relied solely on the solo
22:27
Speaker 5: home run, usually ambushing first pitch fastball, so, you know,
22:33
Speaker 5: swinging at a lot of first pitches in general, which
22:35
Speaker 5: to me means there's not a lot of confidence to
22:36
Speaker 5: hit with two strikes, and I think that that bears
22:39
Speaker 5: out as they've led the league in strikeouts more than once.
22:43
Speaker 5: Very low on base percentage. The offense is not dynamic,
22:47
Speaker 5: and all their runs I think if on games that
22:49
Speaker 5: they don't hit home runs, I don't think they win
22:51
Speaker 5: very often. I can you know, fact checkers can tell
22:55
Speaker 5: me if I'm wrong. That's what I see.
22:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I first started covering the Angels time as
23:00
Speaker 1: a beat guy in nineteen ninety five, guys like Joe Madden,
23:04
Speaker 1: a lot of the development guys they stressed, like guys
23:06
Speaker 1: like Garrett Anderson, Tim Sam and these guys got eight hundred.
23:09
Speaker 2: To one thousand at bats in the minor leagues.
23:12
Speaker 1: And definitely this is a topic we want to explore
23:16
Speaker 1: deeper on another show. To be fair to Perry, he
23:20
Speaker 1: has done a few good things. He's had a knack
23:23
Speaker 1: for acquiring some pretty good closers and Carlos Estevez, Russell Iglesias,
23:29
Speaker 1: Kenley Jansen. Last year hard to argue with that he
23:32
Speaker 1: got four prospects, including Ryan Zephyr Jhon for a journeyman
23:36
Speaker 1: reliever Luis Garcia. In twenty twenty four, I thought the
23:40
Speaker 1: Yusei Kakuchi deal wasn't too bad. I think we're gonna
23:45
Speaker 1: like the Grayson Rodriguez for Taylor Ward deal eventually. And
23:49
Speaker 1: his hands have been somewhat tied by these Rendon and
23:53
Speaker 1: Mike Trout contracts right now, and Artie Marino's refusal to
23:57
Speaker 1: spend big in free agency, and the owners refusal to
24:00
Speaker 1: approve the trade of shohe Atane in twenty twenty twenty
24:05
Speaker 1: two and twenty twenty three. As Sam mentioned, I think
24:09
Speaker 1: really set the organization back. But I think most of
24:11
Speaker 1: his acquisitions have been short term stop gaps like Yann Mancata,
24:16
Speaker 1: Jrez Solaire, Brandon Jury, and Hunter Renfro. You got Michael
24:20
Speaker 1: Lorenzo and Noah Sindegard one year, Aaron Lup, Ryan Tapara
24:24
Speaker 1: and Archie Bradley in the bullpen one year. During Perrymansian's tenure,
24:30
Speaker 1: the Angels are three hundred and fifty eight and four
24:33
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two. They're on their six manager in
24:36
Speaker 1: nine seasons in Kurt Suzuki. They appear to have done
24:39
Speaker 1: very little this winter to improve. Do you guys see
24:42
Speaker 1: any hope right now for this franchise?
24:46
Speaker 7: No short answer, huh?
24:51
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, I could be wrong, you know. That's
24:53
Speaker 4: what I always try to couch it because like some
24:55
Speaker 4: someday I'm going to be wrong about this. To the
24:58
Speaker 4: flip of me being wrong, it'll be great fodder for
25:02
Speaker 4: many Angels. But I've yet to be wrong about them,
25:05
Speaker 4: and I don't think it's going to change this year.
25:08
Speaker 4: Well where's the hope general, you know, generating from I mean,
25:11
Speaker 4: you know, I think the Rendome thing, everyone was like, okay,
25:13
Speaker 4: well all right, like they're they're about to do but no,
25:16
Speaker 4: it's there. They did that too. And I mean you
25:18
Speaker 4: mentioned the Taylor War trade. You got to look at
25:21
Speaker 4: that in the context of these other moves. I think
25:22
Speaker 4: that was a money done. I mean I do. Taylor
25:24
Speaker 4: Ward just agreed to like a two and a twelve
25:26
Speaker 4: and a half million dollar contract in his last year
25:29
Speaker 4: of arbitration. Grayce and Roriguez is going to be paid,
25:32
Speaker 4: you know, minimum salary for a big leaguer this year.
25:34
Speaker 4: So I look at that as saving twelve million dollars essentially.
25:38
Speaker 4: I don't look at it as getting another young arm
25:41
Speaker 4: And now you know they don't really have a replacement
25:44
Speaker 4: out there. Are they going to run out Bryce Yudosio?
25:45
Speaker 4: Every day? I look at Bryce Yodosio is a really
25:48
Speaker 4: good player on a really good team, on this team,
25:50
Speaker 4: what is he what does he really add? You know,
25:52
Speaker 4: he's not a good offensive player at this point, so
25:54
Speaker 4: you know, his defense and his and his base running
25:57
Speaker 4: don't add that much, and I just I don't know,
26:02
Speaker 4: Like you mentioned some of the good moves. I think
26:04
Speaker 4: that you know, he's done some good decisions. I mentioned
26:08
Speaker 4: the Netto thing. I you know, even there the uh
26:11
Speaker 4: Brandon Marsh trade. I think a long run could be
26:14
Speaker 4: a very smart deal. I mean, at the time, for
26:15
Speaker 4: a couple of years, looked like a great trade in
26:17
Speaker 4: Ohapi's regression last year is certainly concerning, but there are
26:21
Speaker 4: good moves. I would just say as a whole, I
26:23
Speaker 4: think Perry is essentially a small market GM who does
26:25
Speaker 4: not do a good job of being a small market GM.
26:28
Speaker 4: That's the problem I think he had. He's not you know,
26:30
Speaker 4: you got to you look at those those small market
26:33
Speaker 4: teams that are really effective, and it's because they're doing
26:36
Speaker 4: every little thing right. Look at the Brewers, I mean,
26:38
Speaker 4: you know they are they are making tough decisions every
26:40
Speaker 4: year about trades and you know, deadline decisions and player development.
26:45
Speaker 4: They're really really honing it on player development constantly. The Rays,
26:49
Speaker 4: these are these are teams that are consistently really good
26:51
Speaker 4: in those areas. The Angels just aren't at any way,
26:53
Speaker 4: And I think some of that stuff is tough for
26:55
Speaker 4: Perry to deal with with ownership restrictions, but some of
26:58
Speaker 4: it he could do much much better on. And again,
27:01
Speaker 4: I think that all ties into self reflection. And you know,
27:05
Speaker 4: I think he operates in a form of desperation regularly
27:08
Speaker 4: to keep his job, to use his boss to you know,
27:12
Speaker 4: do all these various things that don't ultimately help them win.
27:15
Speaker 4: And you know, when you're when you're running out your
27:18
Speaker 4: prospects to fill innings and blowout losses because you don't
27:23
Speaker 4: have other guys in your forty men that you can do,
27:24
Speaker 4: that you can call on for that job you've lost me.
27:27
Speaker 4: I just I know some people say, well, it didn't
27:30
Speaker 4: kill sam Aldigarry's development. I'm not saying it. I'm not
27:33
Speaker 4: saying their careers are ruined or they won't be really
27:35
Speaker 4: good big league pictures, because they might. I certainly think
27:37
Speaker 4: that's possible. But when I think your decision making is
27:40
Speaker 4: rooted in that in those in that flawed methodology, really
27:44
Speaker 4: flawed methodology, you're not going to see success long term
27:47
Speaker 4: because you are making decisions based on that methodology. That's
27:50
Speaker 4: just it will never work in my opinion, mark for optimism.
27:54
Speaker 2: There go ahead.
27:56
Speaker 5: Well, I wanted to Sam like you've seen these guys,
28:00
Speaker 5: I mean, I've seen them. Is there a chance that
28:04
Speaker 5: you know, we're talking about prospects, so let's put our
28:06
Speaker 5: quotes on those. Is there a chance they don't actually
28:09
Speaker 5: view these guys as huge prospects.
28:12
Speaker 4: I certainly think that's possible. But again, I mean I
28:14
Speaker 4: don't think they have the luxury of not viewing them
28:16
Speaker 4: as prospects. I mean, ultimately, these are the guys who
28:18
Speaker 4: they're going to have to have in their system at
28:20
Speaker 4: pitching for them, because you know, that's they don't have
28:23
Speaker 4: other options. Really, I mean, they you know, and you
28:25
Speaker 4: mentioned that some of the best prospects in their system
28:27
Speaker 4: are guys who were drafted in the last year, And
28:28
Speaker 4: I think that is consistently what you're kind of seeing
28:30
Speaker 4: in this organization, which is some of these guys will
28:32
Speaker 4: fall off. A lot of them fall off as they
28:34
Speaker 4: get later in their development, because early on, you can
28:36
Speaker 4: kind of base that that hope on you know, just
28:40
Speaker 4: that on hope, right, But you know, once they actually
28:44
Speaker 4: they don't develop them to be really good pictures. They
28:45
Speaker 4: don't they don't figure out the best way to you know,
28:48
Speaker 4: get them ready for the big leagues. Yeah, I mean,
28:50
Speaker 4: maybe sam Altegarry is not viewed as highly as they
28:53
Speaker 4: did when they made the trade, you know, the st
28:55
Speaker 4: of his trade in twenty twenty four. I don't if
28:58
Speaker 4: that's the case. They haven't said so, but I think
29:01
Speaker 4: it's possible. But I also think that if that is
29:03
Speaker 4: the case, it's reflective of their inability to develop. And
29:06
Speaker 4: you know, ultimately it doesn't really matter because those are
29:09
Speaker 4: the guys who are going to have to pitch big
29:11
Speaker 4: league games for them. I think it's mostly reflective of
29:13
Speaker 4: their decisions to call them up quickly and then not
29:15
Speaker 4: be able to take them off the forty men roster.
29:17
Speaker 4: They just have such little flexibility in terms of who
29:21
Speaker 4: they can call up because those are the guys with options,
29:24
Speaker 4: and you know you're making if you're going to make
29:25
Speaker 4: other decisions, you're probably gonna have to DFA players, and
29:28
Speaker 4: they just don't have the depth in their system to
29:30
Speaker 4: be making decisions about dfaing certain players, you know, for
29:33
Speaker 4: a random game in May, when you know they can
29:36
Speaker 4: just as easily throw Caydan Dana out there and let
29:37
Speaker 4: him kind of, you know, get lit up if they
29:41
Speaker 4: want Mark.
29:42
Speaker 1: Do you see any reason for optimism here?
29:45
Speaker 2: Do you.
29:49
Speaker 1: Not in the immediate future. I do not, especially with
29:51
Speaker 1: the way things are going this winter. It seems pretty clear,
29:54
Speaker 1: as Sam mentioned, they've been dumping salary and not acquiring
29:58
Speaker 1: you know, they don't seem like they're even in on
30:01
Speaker 1: big time guys and you know, not gonna They're probably
30:04
Speaker 1: not going to get Nolan aeronauto. I mean, he doesn't
30:06
Speaker 1: even want to play here from what I've heard. And
30:08
Speaker 1: this is a guy who, even though he's in decline
30:10
Speaker 1: right now, would probably be a huge upgrade at third
30:13
Speaker 1: base and an Orange County native, and he doesn't even
30:15
Speaker 1: want to play for this franchise.
30:16
Speaker 2: So that tells me a lot. It's unfortunate.
30:20
Speaker 5: We've taught you know, briefly in the other episodes, but
30:24
Speaker 5: it is a very hard sell right now, and for
30:27
Speaker 5: a number of reasons, and and for me, it really
30:30
Speaker 5: the majority is that this team could very well be
30:32
Speaker 5: looking at another you know, ninety plus loss season, if
30:35
Speaker 5: if not more so, Sam, I guess one question I
30:39
Speaker 5: might have if if you're let's say, Taylor Ward was
30:42
Speaker 5: a you know, to get his larger salary off the books,
30:46
Speaker 5: why not just go for it and and you know,
30:49
Speaker 5: see if you can move Cokuchi's contract, Joey Dell could
30:52
Speaker 5: probably net a decent return right now. What is preventing them?
30:57
Speaker 5: I guess from you know, if it you don't want
31:00
Speaker 5: to call it a rebuild and put it out there
31:02
Speaker 5: in words, fine, it's what, I don't know what exactly
31:05
Speaker 5: what would you call what they're doing.
31:08
Speaker 4: If it's not a rebuild, it's dumb chaos. A tweeted
31:11
Speaker 4: that a couple of times. Chaos. It's not a rebuild
31:14
Speaker 4: because they're not actually doing the things to rebuild, right
31:16
Speaker 4: like they're doing things to dump some salary. I mean,
31:20
Speaker 4: training Kikuchi can make some sense. I mean, especially if
31:22
Speaker 4: you really think that you're going to struggle this year.
31:25
Speaker 4: But you know, ultimately, I think part of this grift
31:28
Speaker 4: is selling a competitive team to your fan base. So
31:31
Speaker 4: if you make wholesale salary dumps and just and just
31:36
Speaker 4: completely punt on a season in a way that is
31:38
Speaker 4: obvious to people, you can't. I think that that that's
31:42
Speaker 4: just never been what already does right Like to me,
31:45
Speaker 4: when I say grift, I always think it is putting
31:47
Speaker 4: out a team that in spring training you could you
31:49
Speaker 4: could sell as a potential winner and let that kind
31:52
Speaker 4: of speak for itself until it just fails. I think
31:54
Speaker 4: that is kind of what they always do, and that
31:56
Speaker 4: is what they're trying to do this year, but maybe
31:58
Speaker 4: in a little bit more of a obviously not going
32:00
Speaker 4: to work context. Right, So I think like when you
32:05
Speaker 4: make the trade for Grayson Rodriguez, like, yeah, you're you're
32:08
Speaker 4: taking a lottery ticket, You're taking a guy that maybe
32:10
Speaker 4: will be a really good picture for you. But ultimately,
32:12
Speaker 4: like I don't think that was the reason for the decision,
32:15
Speaker 4: but maybe that's the reason why that that particular player
32:18
Speaker 4: was acquired because it's someone that they can sell to
32:20
Speaker 4: their fans as potentially, you know, really really effective in
32:25
Speaker 4: this first year with the team, as opposed to if
32:27
Speaker 4: you just trade for prospects, that maybe says something different
32:31
Speaker 4: to that fan base. So I think that they're always
32:33
Speaker 4: you know, trying to put out a product that they
32:36
Speaker 4: can at least you know, have some bibbleheads for have
32:39
Speaker 4: you know, some giveaways, do this and that, But it's
32:43
Speaker 4: to me, it's not really a serious attempt at winning
32:45
Speaker 4: baseball games.
32:47
Speaker 2: All right.
32:47
Speaker 1: Well, that we're going to close this episode of Halo Territory.
32:50
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Please like and subscribe and We'll
32:54
Speaker 1: see you next time on Halo Territory.