Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / A fan's-eye view of the Angels reveals plenty of frustration; Breezy Nowlan joins

Transcript

A fan's-eye view of the Angels reveals plenty of frustration; Breezy Nowlan joins · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Of course. Well, hey Angel fans, and welcome back to
0:10
Speaker 1: Halo Territory. I am Mike Digievanna, former La Times Baseball
0:15
Speaker 1: writer and host of the show, and I'm joined by
0:18
Speaker 1: my regular co host Mark Trumbo, the former Angel slugger Mark.
0:21
Speaker 1: How are you doing today?
0:23
Speaker 2: What's up?
0:24
Speaker 1: DJ? And if you're watching us on YouTube, you might
0:28
Speaker 1: see a new face there in the middle. Her name
0:31
Speaker 1: is Breezy Nolan. Breezy, Welcome to the show.
0:33
Speaker 3: How you doing, I'm doing great? Thanks for having me.
0:37
Speaker 1: Well, we're glad to have you. In an effort to
0:40
Speaker 1: add some more fan perspective to Halo Territory, we're going
0:43
Speaker 1: to have folks like Breezy join the show every now
0:45
Speaker 1: and then. So, Breezy, how long have you been an
0:48
Speaker 1: Angels fan and what got you hooked on this team? Oh?
0:52
Speaker 3: Man, my dad has been a season ticket holder since
0:58
Speaker 3: two thousand and My first memory of actually being at
1:04
Speaker 3: an Angels game was Game seven of when the Angels
1:08
Speaker 3: won the World Series. So it's been a long time.
1:13
Speaker 1: So as the old song says, good, good times, bad times,
1:17
Speaker 1: you have seen them all. The Angels were for a
1:21
Speaker 1: solid decade or more one of the best teams in Baseball,
1:24
Speaker 1: the World Series title in two thousand and two, six
1:28
Speaker 1: division titles from two thousand and four to twenty fourteen. Lately, lately,
1:34
Speaker 1: it's been a rough go of It was a ten
1:37
Speaker 1: straight losing seasons, eleven year playoff drought. How tough is
1:43
Speaker 1: it being an Angels fan right now?
1:47
Speaker 3: It's it's pretty hard being an Angels fan, But I
1:51
Speaker 3: think it's worse being an Angels season ticket holder. I
1:58
Speaker 3: get more like hate on Twitter about being a season
2:03
Speaker 3: ticket holder than I do about being a fan or
2:06
Speaker 3: like anything else that I say, because they just see
2:10
Speaker 3: it as like we're giving money to Artie, and I
2:14
Speaker 3: keep having to explain to them, like we have these
2:17
Speaker 3: seats for so long that if we decide to give
2:22
Speaker 3: it up, we go back in line, and you know,
2:26
Speaker 3: like our seats are right in front of the ondeck
2:29
Speaker 3: circle in the Diamond Club, and I don't think that
2:33
Speaker 3: there's any better seat in the stadium, and so it's like, sure,
2:39
Speaker 3: I would love to, you know, not be giving Arty money,
2:44
Speaker 3: but I also don't want to give up our seats,
2:49
Speaker 3: so excuse me. So essentially, I mean, we have to
2:55
Speaker 3: just bite the bullet. For the past few years of
2:57
Speaker 3: like if one of us can use our tickets. I
3:02
Speaker 3: post them on step hub and like at you know what,
3:07
Speaker 3: we end up buying them for and people wait until
3:11
Speaker 3: day of so that way we drop the ticket prices
3:14
Speaker 3: way down and then they'll buy them and sometimes they
3:17
Speaker 3: don't even buy them. And that happens all the time
3:20
Speaker 3: for season ticket holders. Right now, like it's it's pretty brutal.
3:27
Speaker 2: Well, that's uplifting. On maybe a little bit lighter note. Today,
3:33
Speaker 2: Bill Shakan wrote an article on Zach Netto and there's
3:38
Speaker 2: a quote from Zach. We all know and we all
3:41
Speaker 2: believe that if we play with each other, and if
3:44
Speaker 2: we play how we want to play, there's nobody that
3:47
Speaker 2: can beat us. How excited does this get you about
3:51
Speaker 2: the Angel's young core when you see a quote like
3:53
Speaker 2: this from what appears to be the emerging face of
3:58
Speaker 2: the franchise.
4:03
Speaker 3: You know, I think that they want people to show up.
4:10
Speaker 3: I think that they're feeding off of the crowd's energy.
4:14
Speaker 3: I think that they've all, you know, talked about going
4:17
Speaker 3: to other stadiums, especially Dodger Stadium, and you know the
4:21
Speaker 3: electricity of playing there because of the crowd, And I
4:25
Speaker 3: think that they're willing to say whatever they need to
4:28
Speaker 3: say to make people come to the stadium. You know,
4:32
Speaker 3: they don't want to play poorly. They want to show
4:36
Speaker 3: up and you know, play as best as they can
4:41
Speaker 3: so that probably hopefully they can go to a different team.
4:46
Speaker 3: You know. That's that's what I think that he's trying
4:49
Speaker 3: to do. I don't think it, actually, I don't think
4:52
Speaker 3: he believes any of it. Yeah, if anyone's believing that,
4:58
Speaker 3: I mean they're they are just as divisional as Artie
5:02
Speaker 3: Marino is.
5:03
Speaker 1: You know, very ambitious statement by the young shortstop. I
5:06
Speaker 1: will say that, But then you look at last year
5:10
Speaker 1: and they go six and zero against the Dodgers, and
5:13
Speaker 1: you know, the Angels were playing their game, they could
5:15
Speaker 1: beat anybody. But the problem is most teams can't put
5:19
Speaker 1: together six straight days of great baseball, let alone six
5:24
Speaker 1: straight months. And sure, when any team plays its best
5:28
Speaker 1: baseball for a period of time, you can probably beat
5:30
Speaker 1: anybody if you have the pitching. But I think the
5:33
Speaker 1: whole issue, We've talked about it on the show before
5:36
Speaker 1: is depth. You know, you get on a hot street, great,
5:40
Speaker 1: a couple of guys go down with injuries, who's the
5:43
Speaker 1: six through nine or ten in your rotation? Who's the
5:48
Speaker 1: four through eight in your bullpen? Who's coming in to
5:52
Speaker 1: play first base? If Nolan Shanwell gets hurt, who's playing shortstop?
5:56
Speaker 1: If Zach Netto gets hurt, who's playing third base? Period?
5:59
Speaker 1: You know, these are all things ye with this team
6:04
Speaker 1: that I just I see so many issues with. But
6:07
Speaker 1: you know, by the same token, the young core does
6:10
Speaker 1: have some talent, and zach Neto is He's one of
6:13
Speaker 1: the top five short young young shortstops in the game
6:16
Speaker 1: right now. And I think maybe because he's been around
6:20
Speaker 1: a little too long, not too long, but so long,
6:22
Speaker 1: that he's not really deemed part of that young core.
6:25
Speaker 1: We can't ignore Joe Adell, who had a career year
6:28
Speaker 1: last year. He's only twenty six and it took a
6:31
Speaker 1: long long time for him to get here. But if
6:35
Speaker 1: he can build on that year, if he you know,
6:37
Speaker 1: I don't know that he's another thirty home one hundred
6:39
Speaker 1: rb RBI year, but if he can boost his ops,
6:43
Speaker 1: reduce his strikeouts, you know, repeat another year like this.
6:48
Speaker 1: I think, you know, they at least have a couple
6:49
Speaker 1: of players you can build around now. Breezy Artie Marino
6:53
Speaker 1: made some waves last week. I don't know, if you
6:55
Speaker 1: heard when he claimed, citing internal surveys, that wordability was
7:01
Speaker 1: the top priority for Angel fans and winning wasn't even
7:05
Speaker 1: in the top five. Do you remember getting any kind
7:08
Speaker 1: of surveys that asked these types of questions.
7:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've definitely received season ticket holder surveys. And you know,
7:19
Speaker 3: I was thinking about this a little bit this morning,
7:23
Speaker 3: knowing that I was going to be doing this podcast
7:25
Speaker 3: and reading his list. I think he has like a
7:28
Speaker 3: serious vendetta against the Dodgers. And if my season tickets
7:34
Speaker 3: were at the Dodgers Stadium right now, they would be
7:36
Speaker 3: probably like four times the amount. And so it's almost
7:40
Speaker 3: to me like he so badly wants to like let
7:44
Speaker 3: everyone know that he's better because tickets are way I
7:50
Speaker 3: think you guys even talked about this like they're cheaper there.
7:53
Speaker 3: It's not less expensive at this point, like it's a
7:55
Speaker 3: cheaper experience. But I think it's this weird vendetta with
8:01
Speaker 3: with the Dodgers and I mean the Padres, but being
8:05
Speaker 3: a season ticket holder, I have so many Dodger fans
8:08
Speaker 3: surrounding me when we're not even playing the Dodgers, and
8:10
Speaker 3: I asked them, like, what are you guys doing here,
8:12
Speaker 3: and they're like, oh, you know, tickets are just really
8:15
Speaker 3: expensive at Dodgers Stadium. So if we want to go
8:17
Speaker 3: see a baseball game, we've come here. You know, we
8:19
Speaker 3: get front row for a hundred bucks at this stadium.
8:22
Speaker 3: Why would we? You know? So, I think and Mark
8:27
Speaker 3: already is a marketing genius. You know, his career was
8:31
Speaker 3: doing billboards, and I think that is his way of
8:36
Speaker 3: still trying to get money in his pocket and you know,
8:40
Speaker 3: letting everyone know we're still affordable. But yeah, this this
8:44
Speaker 3: picture is one of the screenshots I posted a few
8:48
Speaker 3: years ago on Twitter from a survey, and yeah, I
8:54
Speaker 3: definitely wasn't holding back. But to me, it's like, you know,
8:59
Speaker 3: I don't even think that the team performance should have
9:02
Speaker 3: been third. I think it should have been first, because
9:04
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, if the team's performing well,
9:07
Speaker 3: then I could resell our tickets easily. And I mean,
9:12
Speaker 3: the benefits are they're all right. But you know, I
9:15
Speaker 3: shared this with you, Mike, that other stadiums. I'm into
9:20
Speaker 3: a lot of other stadiums, and they have much better
9:24
Speaker 3: perks if you're a season ticket holder that we don't have.
9:28
Speaker 3: But I don't think that that's necessarily a bonus. I
9:31
Speaker 3: think team performance should have been chop priority. And I
9:35
Speaker 3: think there's another screenshot as well.
9:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got this for those listening on audio, to
9:43
Speaker 1: what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements.
9:46
Speaker 1: The Angels are headed in the right direction on the field,
9:50
Speaker 1: The Angels have a positive influence on the local community.
9:54
Speaker 1: The Angels care about their season seat holders. I'm excited
9:58
Speaker 1: about the players in the Angel minor league system. And
10:01
Speaker 1: you said this was from twenty twenty four, And yeah,
10:04
Speaker 1: if you're watching on YouTube, you can see a pretty
10:06
Speaker 1: good trend here bringing you you strongly disagreed with all
10:11
Speaker 1: of those statements. Yeah, fair to say you're not too
10:14
Speaker 1: enthused about things along those lines.
10:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, but so that's my point of Like,
10:21
Speaker 3: I think the way that he worded things in that
10:25
Speaker 3: interview he used they make really like they're the questions
10:31
Speaker 3: are really not confusing, but they're misleading. They're trying I
10:35
Speaker 3: feel like they're trying to get people to click certain things.
10:40
Speaker 3: So it's like, sure, if it's a mom who never
10:43
Speaker 3: goes to games, or she goes to games for her kids,
10:46
Speaker 3: like she's not going to care about certain questions like this,
10:51
Speaker 3: and or it's just that's not really their priority. That's
10:55
Speaker 3: not they don't care. They don't even know what the
10:57
Speaker 3: minor league team looks like. Right, But then of course
11:00
Speaker 3: he can use that and be like, see, our fans
11:03
Speaker 3: actually don't care about what's going on. So but I
11:06
Speaker 3: think he definitely is using mis leading questions.
11:10
Speaker 1: As far as you recall, and you've been a season
11:12
Speaker 1: ticket holder for a long time, spending a lot of
11:15
Speaker 1: money with the team, do you recall any survey where hey,
11:18
Speaker 1: what are your top five priorities, you know, winning, affordability,
11:22
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. You never got a survey like that.
11:25
Speaker 3: No, No, but I think that they, you know, they
11:29
Speaker 3: can figure based off of those types of weird answers
11:33
Speaker 3: and then say, oh, well, you know they care about this,
11:36
Speaker 3: and it's yeah.
11:42
Speaker 2: Well interesting stuff. You know, it would be nice to
11:47
Speaker 2: know if that is the survey in question, and all
11:50
Speaker 2: fairness to all parties, but because it's the only one
11:54
Speaker 2: I believe I have seen, we have to assume it
11:57
Speaker 2: probably is seems very generic, and if that is the reflection,
12:07
Speaker 2: then you know, there it is it, and you know,
12:10
Speaker 2: maybe there is a lot of truth to season ticket
12:13
Speaker 2: holders and hardcore. You know, people buy season tickets, I
12:17
Speaker 2: think for a wide range of reasons, whether it's for
12:19
Speaker 2: their company, for their own entertainment, for whatever. So maybe
12:24
Speaker 2: there is a broader net of fans. But I think
12:27
Speaker 2: on this show, the people that would be listening to
12:29
Speaker 2: a baseball podcast covering the Angels are not the casual fans,
12:33
Speaker 2: So very little of that probably resonates if we could
12:38
Speaker 2: maybe get back to a slightly better or uplifting topic.
12:44
Speaker 2: But so far in spring, have any players really stood
12:47
Speaker 2: out for you and looked like they're doing a really
12:51
Speaker 2: good job, you know, on the offensive side or or
12:54
Speaker 2: the pitching side. And I need a prediction from you,
12:57
Speaker 2: as you know a strong Angels fan, which player from
13:02
Speaker 2: the most recent twenty twenty five draft. I'll say Chase
13:06
Speaker 2: Shores is going to be my pick, but we'll make
13:09
Speaker 2: their debut first. Who do you think will it be Bremner, Shores,
13:13
Speaker 2: Nate Sneid the power reliever? Do you have a prediction
13:17
Speaker 2: word with Mike?
13:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I would say I would say Nate.
13:22
Speaker 1: Nate Sures Yeah. Yeah. I think you don't want to
13:28
Speaker 1: rush the starting pitchers to the big leagues. And even
13:30
Speaker 1: though Bremner even though Bremner and Class them may be
13:37
Speaker 1: closer per se than the two relievers. I just think
13:43
Speaker 1: you want to bring them along slowly. You want them
13:45
Speaker 1: to develop, you want them to gain maturity, command, durability.
13:51
Speaker 1: You don't want to rush them up to the big
13:53
Speaker 1: leads and get their brain speed in. But I think
13:55
Speaker 1: with these relievers, and Shores and Snead especially, I mean
14:00
Speaker 1: you think back to two thousand and two. Frankie Rodriguez
14:03
Speaker 1: is what nineteen when he came up and impacted that
14:06
Speaker 1: team in September. Shores and Snead were major college pitchers
14:13
Speaker 1: at LSU and I believe Wichita State. Both of these
14:17
Speaker 1: kids have pitched in really high leverage environments, you know,
14:19
Speaker 1: the College World Series. They're pitching in much shorter bursts.
14:24
Speaker 1: I think with guys like that, I think it'd be
14:26
Speaker 1: good for them to at least come up in the
14:28
Speaker 1: second half, whether you're contending or not, to sort of
14:31
Speaker 1: get their field, get their feet wet, get the field
14:33
Speaker 1: of big leagues, you know, be around a big league environment,
14:36
Speaker 1: because these are two arms that could impact this bullpen
14:40
Speaker 1: in the future for sure. And as far as position players,
14:45
Speaker 1: I don't know what games you're watching Mark, but I
14:46
Speaker 1: haven't seen many games on my TV, but.
14:52
Speaker 2: I will say I.
14:54
Speaker 1: Did watch yesterday's game with the Dodgers. Yeah, I did
14:58
Speaker 1: watch that.
14:58
Speaker 2: I thought there were some some actual highlights. I thought
15:01
Speaker 2: Nelson Rada for whatever reason, probably because we know the
15:06
Speaker 2: answer to it, but I haven't seen a lot of coverage,
15:09
Speaker 2: but he looked a lot more physical to me than
15:13
Speaker 2: all the reports I've read. Everything has made him out
15:16
Speaker 2: to be somewhat of a undersized I know he's very
15:20
Speaker 2: young too, but he looked the part. He looked like
15:23
Speaker 2: he is a ballplayer. He had a more muscular build
15:28
Speaker 2: than you know, everything that I have read, and he
15:32
Speaker 2: looked very comfortable leading off two walks, nice drag bunt,
15:36
Speaker 2: bass hit, and he looked like a very strong arm
15:39
Speaker 2: playing right field, so that was a He made a
15:41
Speaker 2: nice stole and base as well, really good impression there.
15:44
Speaker 2: And then o'hapi with a nice at bat ending up
15:48
Speaker 2: in a home run. And Praso had some very nice
15:53
Speaker 2: at bats resulting in solid contact twice, and he played
15:57
Speaker 2: a really nice short stuff. So I believe he would
16:00
Speaker 2: be my pick two back up netto at this point.
16:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, for us, it does look good to me as well.
16:05
Speaker 1: In the action I have seen and from what I've read,
16:09
Speaker 1: Mike Trout got down first base in a pretty like
16:11
Speaker 1: as fast as time in two years the other day,
16:13
Speaker 1: which is to me both encouraging and somewhat concerning. Encouraging
16:18
Speaker 1: because that must mean the guy feels pretty darn good.
16:20
Speaker 1: A little concerning because I'm not sure I want him
16:23
Speaker 1: open up the throttle this early in spring training. I
16:26
Speaker 1: think the last time he ran that time is when
16:28
Speaker 1: he heard his knee a couple of years ago. So, uh,
16:31
Speaker 1: you know, having Mike back, when we've talked about on
16:33
Speaker 1: the show before, having him back in center field doesn't
16:37
Speaker 1: solve all your problems, but it certainly, uh you know,
16:40
Speaker 1: improves that defensive alignment in that outfield when you can
16:43
Speaker 1: move Joe Adele on the right breesing anyone catching your
16:46
Speaker 1: eye so far the spring.
16:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was gonna say, Logan's bat seems like he's
16:52
Speaker 3: finally figuring out a little bit. It was so brutal
16:58
Speaker 3: watching him last year, and it was so funny. I
17:01
Speaker 3: was listening to twenty of Your Guys's episodes and with
17:05
Speaker 3: their new hitting coach, and he said something along the
17:09
Speaker 3: lines of like everyone was giving Logan tips on hitting,
17:12
Speaker 3: and I will never forget there's this guy sitting in
17:15
Speaker 3: like a few rows behind me to the left last
17:17
Speaker 3: season and he was hammered and he was just screaming
17:21
Speaker 3: at Logan like you know, you need to wait for
17:24
Speaker 3: this pitch, you need to you know, telling him what
17:26
Speaker 3: to do. And Logan just turned around and was like thanks, coach,
17:31
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, you know, like it normally
17:36
Speaker 3: they never turn around, they don't say anything. And it
17:40
Speaker 3: was like you could just tell he was so overhearing
17:43
Speaker 3: people giving him tips and it's like, yeah, I'm well aware,
17:48
Speaker 3: like shut up. And that guy was a season ticket holder,
17:53
Speaker 3: so I'm curious if he'll be back. But yeah, I
17:56
Speaker 3: think he looks a little bit more calm. And then
18:02
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, Nelson Roda, I think he I
18:06
Speaker 3: swilly and I talk about him all the time, like
18:07
Speaker 3: we can't wait for him to be up. I think
18:09
Speaker 3: he's going to make a big difference. I think he
18:11
Speaker 3: has that same energy that Netto brought to the team
18:15
Speaker 3: when he came up, of just firing everyone up and
18:18
Speaker 3: you know, making them want to play harder. But yeah,
18:24
Speaker 3: I feel I mean same thing. It's like it's hard
18:27
Speaker 3: to follow much of spring training when yeah, they're not on.
18:33
Speaker 1: So you mentioned Silly. I was going to ask about
18:36
Speaker 1: her for fans. Many Angel fans are familiar with her.
18:40
Speaker 1: She was an Angel's content creator and partly that into
18:44
Speaker 1: a full time job with John Boy and Media, which
18:47
Speaker 1: if you're a baseball fan, you know John Boy and
18:50
Speaker 1: he's a lot of fun. He makes the game a
18:52
Speaker 1: lot of fun. I got to give him credit. How
18:54
Speaker 1: did you and Swilly first meet and how has that
18:57
Speaker 1: relationship sort of evolved?
19:02
Speaker 3: I had gone viral on Twitter because of Carlos' Steves
19:07
Speaker 3: Is Grand Slam where we lost the game, and I
19:09
Speaker 3: had said something on the lines of like please for
19:12
Speaker 3: the love of God, and it went crazy viral on Twitter,
19:17
Speaker 3: and she started following me, and I followed her and
19:21
Speaker 3: she was like, hey, a baseball girl, you know. And
19:25
Speaker 3: we both had season tickets at the time, and she
19:29
Speaker 3: actually gave hers up after that season, which was so funny.
19:33
Speaker 3: But she kind of have been like, eh, like maybe
19:37
Speaker 3: it's not worth it or not not not worth it,
19:40
Speaker 3: but just like you know, she could easily go buy
19:42
Speaker 3: the same tickets online for cheaper, and so one day
19:48
Speaker 3: I wasn't sitting in my seats. I was in a
19:50
Speaker 3: suite with a bunch of friends, and I went down
19:53
Speaker 3: and I sat with her for like two innings, and
19:56
Speaker 3: I was like, dang, like this is really cool to
19:59
Speaker 3: actually meet a girl or woman whatever who loves baseball
20:03
Speaker 3: just as much as I do. And you know, after that,
20:07
Speaker 3: this season was just about to be done. And so
20:09
Speaker 3: we connected, you know a little bit over the off
20:12
Speaker 3: season and talked about baseball, about you know, the trades
20:15
Speaker 3: and what was going on and who we were going
20:17
Speaker 3: to pick up, and then we made a video about
20:23
Speaker 3: the season starting and it was just like it was
20:26
Speaker 3: the worst opener that we had both seen in so long.
20:29
Speaker 3: It was so embarrassing. Patrick Sandibal I think went like
20:32
Speaker 3: one and a half innings and we're like, oh great, Yeah,
20:35
Speaker 3: we're so back, and you know, it was just like,
20:40
Speaker 3: you know, we have very similar humor. We're both geminis.
20:43
Speaker 3: And from that point forward, we you know, we went
20:47
Speaker 3: and saw a ton of games at home. We went
20:49
Speaker 3: to San Francisco to watch the Angels play the Giants.
20:57
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think if we've been anywhere else together,
21:00
Speaker 3: but now obviously she's with John Boys. So I went
21:03
Speaker 3: and visited her in New York and we got to
21:06
Speaker 3: go see a bunch of Angel games. We that was
21:09
Speaker 3: the series that we beat the Yankees three out of
21:12
Speaker 3: four games. You know, like like you were saying, like,
21:14
Speaker 3: we do play really well against good teams sometimes, and
21:20
Speaker 3: it's the weirdest conundrum. You know, I don't understand it.
21:25
Speaker 3: And uh, there's got to be some sort of science
21:29
Speaker 3: behind the mentality to me that maybe the Dodgers and
21:33
Speaker 3: the Yankees walk into it just saying it's the Angels,
21:37
Speaker 3: We're fine, and then you know, either get swept or
21:39
Speaker 3: almost swept.
21:40
Speaker 1: So I got to ask you. You mentioned the term,
21:44
Speaker 1: what is the definition of a baseball girly? And how
21:48
Speaker 1: and when did that become a thing?
21:52
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it has stemmed from Twitter.
21:58
Speaker 3: I honestly don't know when it started to become a thing,
22:01
Speaker 3: but it has taken off over the last few months.
22:05
Speaker 3: I think it probably started last year is when I
22:07
Speaker 3: first started seeing it. But it was like, you know,
22:10
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, women realized that we all actually
22:15
Speaker 3: like baseball and it's and it's also really cool, like
22:18
Speaker 3: if a girl wants to get into baseball, she doesn't
22:21
Speaker 3: really necessarily want to go talk to a guy about it,
22:23
Speaker 3: because you're going to feel a little like undermined or
22:28
Speaker 3: you know, maybe they're just like, oh, you don't know
22:30
Speaker 3: what that means, and you know, and when you're just
22:33
Speaker 3: talking to another girl, it's like, yeah, let me tell
22:35
Speaker 3: you exactly what this is. And my favorite thing in
22:39
Speaker 3: the entire world is a season ticket holder is bringing
22:41
Speaker 3: other girls to the game and watching them like ask
22:44
Speaker 3: me questions and falling in love with the game. And
22:48
Speaker 3: it's like it's not about you know, what the guys
22:52
Speaker 3: look like on the field anymore. It's like, Wow, I
22:54
Speaker 3: actually really enjoy this and like I'm having fun and
22:59
Speaker 3: and then wed up winning, you know sometimes and they're
23:03
Speaker 3: like the most excited and now they're following, you know,
23:07
Speaker 3: people on Twitter and Instagram and just loving the game.
23:11
Speaker 3: You know, Like it's I think girls think that baseball
23:17
Speaker 3: is for men, and it's definitely not the case. And
23:21
Speaker 3: I think it's really cool to be able to see
23:23
Speaker 3: how many women are actually following sports.
23:26
Speaker 1: All right, now, let's turn our attention to the World
23:30
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic, which starts this week. All of our World
23:34
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic coverage is brought to you by our friends
23:38
Speaker 1: at Fox One, which is live stream all your Fox
23:41
Speaker 1: favorites together in one place, including all WBC games over
23:45
Speaker 1: the next few weeks, and after that the best MLB
23:49
Speaker 1: action all season long. So, guys, angels have two frontline
23:53
Speaker 1: players in the WBC. Left hander you say Kakuchi, of course,
23:58
Speaker 1: we'll pitch for Japan, and third baseman Yowan Macatta will
24:02
Speaker 1: play for Cuba. Outfielder Matthew Lugo will play for Puerto Rico.
24:07
Speaker 1: Left hand or Sam alder Gary, or we'll pitch for
24:10
Speaker 1: Italy or as Sam Blum likes to call him, Sam
24:12
Speaker 1: al Degardy and right hander Sam and the Tara, Mark
24:17
Speaker 1: Trumbo's guy. He's caught Mark. Sorry, this spring, we'll pitch
24:22
Speaker 1: for Mexico. Both of you guys, are you fans of
24:25
Speaker 1: the d WBC. Do you guys watch it all the time?
24:29
Speaker 1: Where are we at with this event?
24:32
Speaker 3: Yeah? I went to a bunch of WBC games in
24:35
Speaker 3: Arizona the last time, which was really cool. I had
24:40
Speaker 3: Freddy Freeman's wife was sitting like right behind me. I
24:43
Speaker 3: saw Trout's wife sitting in this section like. It was
24:46
Speaker 3: so fun. There was nothing like it. I'm actually I
24:50
Speaker 3: just realized I'm going to be in Houston next week
24:52
Speaker 3: the same time as Swilly is going to be there,
24:55
Speaker 3: and you know some of the games are going to
24:57
Speaker 3: be played. So I'm trying to look into if I
24:59
Speaker 3: can it back to it because it was a blast.
25:03
Speaker 1: Mark you a big fan of the WBC.
25:07
Speaker 2: If the fans like it, I like it. I will
25:11
Speaker 2: usually watch most of the action that I can, especially
25:16
Speaker 2: at the end when they're the better teams are still
25:21
Speaker 2: in it. Although it is fun seeing some of the
25:26
Speaker 2: teams that you would not expect maybe to be able
25:29
Speaker 2: to compete as well, and then some of the guys
25:32
Speaker 2: that have. I think it's always interesting who qualifies to
25:35
Speaker 2: play for who because there are some X teammate Zach
25:39
Speaker 2: Britton would have qualified for the Dominican team and I
25:43
Speaker 2: looked at him and I said, I didn't know he
25:47
Speaker 2: had any lineage there, and.
25:49
Speaker 1: You like, I do.
25:52
Speaker 2: You your Dominican? But I did qualify, so I think
25:57
Speaker 2: Great Britain would be the only one, and I wouldn't.
26:01
Speaker 1: Did you ever play Did you ever get a chance
26:04
Speaker 1: to play in it? Or come close?
26:06
Speaker 2: Uh, I'm gonna say no. I have forgotten a lot.
26:12
Speaker 2: But if it was ran by me, I don't know
26:16
Speaker 2: my My personal opinion is I was way more likely
26:21
Speaker 2: if let's say this scenario had played out, I probably
26:24
Speaker 2: would have wanted to focus on the regular season. It's
26:26
Speaker 2: it's boring and probably not the answer everyone loves, but
26:30
Speaker 2: that was where my whole mindset was because that was
26:35
Speaker 2: kind of my priorities. And the Olympics are coming up,
26:38
Speaker 2: so my wife is really jazzed on that. And you know,
26:42
Speaker 2: the the prospect of the best players in MLB playing
26:47
Speaker 2: for Team USA, we've kind of debated, you know, is
26:51
Speaker 2: that logistically possible? Will teams and owners be willing to
26:54
Speaker 2: let the best go for and how would that even
26:58
Speaker 2: work mid season? I'm glad I don't have to decide that.
27:02
Speaker 2: But as far as the WBC, I know the players
27:04
Speaker 2: are amped up. I have concerns, like everyone else, ramping
27:08
Speaker 2: up too soon because you want to win, and especially
27:12
Speaker 2: on the pitching side, can be a little nerve wracking hitters.
27:16
Speaker 2: I think it's actually probably better because they're seeing some
27:19
Speaker 2: really good competition. Mancata with the little rescue to me
27:23
Speaker 2: early on in the handful of our bats, take it
27:26
Speaker 2: for what you will, so hopefully he gets plenty of reps,
27:29
Speaker 2: especially with the glove as well, and hopefully you know,
27:33
Speaker 2: the Angels players represent.
27:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think if Baseball and MLB can figure out
27:39
Speaker 1: how to do the Olympics to condense the schedule in
27:42
Speaker 1: the one week, well, I think you cancel the All
27:45
Speaker 1: Star or postpone the All Star Game that year. I
27:47
Speaker 1: think if you can do that kind of event mid season,
27:50
Speaker 1: it's going to be a lot more representative of the talent,
27:53
Speaker 1: you know, being in mid season form as opposed to
27:56
Speaker 1: being an early spring training form. I think that'd be
27:59
Speaker 1: a really interesting and not that you know, the WBC,
28:01
Speaker 1: I think came a long way last time, and the
28:03
Speaker 1: way it ended was show Hey striking out Mike Trout.
28:06
Speaker 1: I mean, as far as drama in March, you're not
28:09
Speaker 1: going to get much better than that. But I certainly
28:12
Speaker 1: see your point Mark in you know, ramping up too soon,
28:16
Speaker 1: especially for a picture can be really dangerous. So it's
28:20
Speaker 1: going to be an interesting event to watch. So from
28:24
Speaker 1: the WBC through the World Series to the World Cup,
28:27
Speaker 1: to NASCAR and IndyCar. With Fox One, you'll get it
28:30
Speaker 1: all live. Start your seven day free trial today. Offers
28:34
Speaker 1: are subject to change. Download Fox one Today and stream
28:38
Speaker 1: the World Baseball Classic live March sixth through fourteenth. Go
28:43
Speaker 1: to foxwe dot com for complete terms and conditions. Fox
28:47
Speaker 1: one streaming. Now all right, we're back with Halo territory
28:54
Speaker 1: and a correction from earlier. I do stand corrected. Nate
28:58
Speaker 1: Snead went to Tennessee. I don't know why I had
29:00
Speaker 1: Wichita State in my head, but he was a closer
29:02
Speaker 1: for Tennessee, and a hard throwing one at that. So
29:06
Speaker 1: mark any closing thoughts on things that have caught your
29:10
Speaker 1: eye early in camp so far or your ear We.
29:14
Speaker 2: Covered a lot of them.
29:15
Speaker 1: I did.
29:16
Speaker 2: In the broadcast against the Dodgers. Rick Munday had some
29:20
Speaker 2: thoughts on Logan o'hoppies throwing hand and being exposed.
29:25
Speaker 1: I saw that, yeah.
29:28
Speaker 2: As I am not a catching expert, I did consult
29:32
Speaker 2: two former catchers who I lean on quite heavily. One
29:35
Speaker 2: was on the show, Caleb Joseph and Hank Conger too.
29:38
Speaker 2: I was more interested in the late glove movement as
29:43
Speaker 2: I was watching Readetmer's out there navigating. I think that
29:47
Speaker 2: was a very mediocre performance by him. I would like
29:52
Speaker 2: to see a lot better pitch efficiency and not let
29:57
Speaker 2: some of those of bats go as many pitches and
29:59
Speaker 2: get rid of the walks. But I know Ahpi had
30:02
Speaker 2: some lake love moment and I inquired as to what
30:04
Speaker 2: was going on with that, because as a picture, I
30:06
Speaker 2: assume you want to get a good look at the target.
30:08
Speaker 2: You don't want to telegraph it, and with the cheating
30:10
Speaker 2: and whatnot, I know, but apparently it is intended to
30:13
Speaker 2: get the glove low and work upwards to steal those
30:17
Speaker 2: low strikes. But when you're you know, I don't know
30:22
Speaker 2: too many things where you're you know, for a picture,
30:24
Speaker 2: you're hyper focused. I believe on a spot, maybe you
30:27
Speaker 2: have to choose the shin guard or something else. But
30:29
Speaker 2: I don't like a lot of movement, and I could
30:31
Speaker 2: be dead wrong, but I do wonder if if his
30:36
Speaker 2: is a little more exaggerated, and as far as his
30:39
Speaker 2: throwing hand, it must be a personal preference, and maybe
30:41
Speaker 2: he is just willing to roll the dice. But it
30:44
Speaker 2: is hanging out kind of in the open, and somebody
30:47
Speaker 2: that's seen as much baseball as Rick, he spotted it
30:50
Speaker 2: right away, so something to keep an eye on. May
30:52
Speaker 2: not be a big deal, but I'd rather see him
30:55
Speaker 2: stay on the healthy side.
30:56
Speaker 1: That first foul tip into the old thumb will probably
31:00
Speaker 1: half that hand behind his back before you know it.
31:02
Speaker 1: I actually asked, you know, I've noticed that last year
31:05
Speaker 1: with the catchers bringing their you know, starting their the
31:08
Speaker 1: the guys in the wine, they start with a glove
31:10
Speaker 1: almost pretty much on the ground and then they bring
31:12
Speaker 1: it up. And I asked Logan that specific question, and
31:14
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, they're trying to bring the ball up
31:16
Speaker 1: into the strike soon to snag that low strike as
31:19
Speaker 1: opposed to the you know catchers in the past just
31:21
Speaker 1: set a target and hopefully you hit it. I'll sort
31:25
Speaker 1: of pose this question. You will ask some people as
31:27
Speaker 1: we move forward toward the season. But Mark, with the
31:30
Speaker 1: ABS system, people think framing is not going to be
31:34
Speaker 1: as important. But you only get two challenges a game,
31:37
Speaker 1: so I don't you suspect that style of catching is
31:40
Speaker 1: really going to change much even though you know the
31:42
Speaker 1: ABS system is in place for this year.
31:45
Speaker 2: I was so swisch here to get answer.
31:50
Speaker 1: Yeah we did.
31:51
Speaker 2: I tried to bring it up a little bit, but
31:53
Speaker 2: and he did cover it. I think you only have
31:57
Speaker 2: a couple of challenges, so yes, they are still going
31:59
Speaker 2: to try and steal relast strike because catchers are low
32:03
Speaker 2: lifes and you know, coming from a formarat or they
32:08
Speaker 2: want to do a very good job. You know, you
32:10
Speaker 2: just give a look back like and then probably look
32:15
Speaker 2: Actually you're not supposed to look.
32:16
Speaker 1: If you want to get some words in.
32:17
Speaker 2: With the umpire, best uh to look down and get
32:22
Speaker 2: your point across as opposed to turning around. But they're
32:26
Speaker 2: gonna keep doing it. I'm tired of seeing, you know.
32:30
Speaker 2: I think most umpires are very good anyway. The challenges
32:33
Speaker 2: have been a mixed bag so far, and one thing.
32:36
Speaker 2: As a fan, well, I guess say I'm that now
32:38
Speaker 2: or a whatever I fit and doo. But without the
32:41
Speaker 2: lack of the box viewing the games, a lot of
32:46
Speaker 2: pitches are hard to tell, especially when the camera is
32:48
Speaker 2: lightly off angle. I got very used to watching games
32:51
Speaker 2: with that strike box, and I guess the thought there
32:54
Speaker 2: is you don't want to give teams an advantage on
32:56
Speaker 2: the replay side of it, instantly viewing and then tapping
33:00
Speaker 2: helmet or however they do it. So but a different
33:03
Speaker 2: viewing experience and the way it used to be. Mike,
33:06
Speaker 2: maybe you remember those days, but.
33:09
Speaker 1: Sorry, remember we're a pitch up near your your armpits
33:13
Speaker 1: was called a strike a long time ago.
33:18
Speaker 3: I know, we'll see I have a question. Is the
33:22
Speaker 3: box not going to be on the app either?
33:26
Speaker 1: It's a good question. I think it will be on
33:28
Speaker 1: the app. I don't see why it wouldn't, but unless
33:30
Speaker 1: they're gonna they're fearful of the app being played in
33:33
Speaker 1: the dugout as well. But that's a good question. Yeah,
33:35
Speaker 1: we're gonna find the answer to that question on the
33:37
Speaker 1: next episode of Halo Territory. Well, that's going to close
33:41
Speaker 1: our show for today, and Breezy Nolan, thanks for making
33:44
Speaker 1: your Halo Territory debut today. We're glad to have you.
33:48
Speaker 1: Mark Trumbull, thanks as always. Uh please like and subscribe
33:52
Speaker 1: and we will see you next time on Halo Territory.