Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / Angels owner Arte Moreno claims winning is a priority; most fans aren't buying it.

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Angels owner Arte Moreno claims winning is a priority; most fans aren't buying it. · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Well, hey, Angel fans, welcome back to Halo territory. I
0:12
Speaker 1: am Mike di Giovanna, former La Times Baseball writer and
0:16
Speaker 1: host of the show. And if you're watching us on YouTube,
0:19
Speaker 1: you can see we got our first four top We
0:21
Speaker 1: have four esteemed members of the media and former player
0:25
Speaker 1: Mark Trumbo my co host. We have Sam Blum with
0:28
Speaker 1: the Athletic and our guest today is Jeff Flescher, who
0:32
Speaker 1: I believe is the only traveling, full time traveling Angels
0:37
Speaker 1: beat writer left. Is that correct, Fletch? Yeah, well, congratulations,
0:45
Speaker 1: I guess. Well, let's get right into the main topic today,
0:48
Speaker 1: which is the eyebrow raising quote that Angels owner Artie
0:52
Speaker 1: Moreno gave Fletch and MLB dot Com on Friday and
0:58
Speaker 1: his somewhat annual state of the franchise address. Let's go
1:02
Speaker 1: right to this quote. The number one thing fans want
1:08
Speaker 1: is affordability, Marino said. They want affordability, they want safety,
1:13
Speaker 1: and they want a good experience when they come to
1:15
Speaker 1: the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in
1:18
Speaker 1: their top five. Marino said. The information comes from surveys
1:23
Speaker 1: they've done. Quote, the moms want to be able to
1:26
Speaker 1: afford to bring the kids. Moms make about eighty percent
1:30
Speaker 1: of the decisions. They want to be able to bring
1:31
Speaker 1: their kids and be affordable, and they want safety, and
1:35
Speaker 1: they want to have a good experience, so they get
1:37
Speaker 1: all the entertainment stuff or whatever. The purest you know,
1:41
Speaker 1: it's just straight winning. When asked what his top priority is,
1:45
Speaker 1: Marino said, for me, for me, I've always wanted to win.
1:49
Speaker 1: It's just what is the cost of winning right now?
1:58
Speaker 1: But there's a lot to unpack their guys, Flesh, just
2:01
Speaker 1: first start with you. You were there? Was it just
2:04
Speaker 1: you and the MLB dot com reporter? First question?
2:08
Speaker 2: Well, one of the Angels PR guys was also there,
2:11
Speaker 2: of course listening in.
2:12
Speaker 3: But only two reporters.
2:14
Speaker 1: Yes, Like, what scored through your mind as you're sort
2:16
Speaker 1: of listening to this, Like, were your shoulders starting to
2:19
Speaker 1: shrug a little bit? What were you sort of what
2:21
Speaker 1: was your first immediate reaction.
2:24
Speaker 2: I definitely gave a little eye roll because I knew
2:26
Speaker 2: that that was not the right thing to say. But
2:32
Speaker 2: you know, as the context was that we were talking
2:35
Speaker 2: about the ballpark and all the stuff leading up to
2:37
Speaker 2: that discussion was about things they're doing in the ballpark,
2:40
Speaker 2: the repainting and the repaving the parking lot and all
2:42
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, And that's why he was talking
2:45
Speaker 2: about fans that go to the ballpark and what you know,
2:49
Speaker 2: those kind of people are interested in and what we'll
2:51
Speaker 2: bring them back to the ballpark.
2:53
Speaker 3: So I think that's you know, he.
2:55
Speaker 2: Probably didn't really say that as clearly as he wanted to.
2:58
Speaker 2: And then that's why I asked him about, well, what's
2:59
Speaker 2: your top already, and which to me, I think was
3:02
Speaker 2: the most important thing that he said was, you know,
3:04
Speaker 2: my top priority is winning, but how much does winning cost?
3:07
Speaker 2: So to me, the headline is that Ardi Moreno doesn't
3:11
Speaker 2: think the Angels are worth spending a lot of money
3:12
Speaker 2: on right now, which is because of where the team
3:15
Speaker 2: is and where the TV situation is. To me, that
3:18
Speaker 2: is what people should be talking about, not the fact
3:20
Speaker 2: that maybe he used the word fans instead of customers,
3:23
Speaker 2: you know, in this other quote. But you know, the
3:26
Speaker 2: way the internet is, it kind of took on a
3:29
Speaker 2: liking its own.
3:31
Speaker 1: Sam, I understand you had a little reaction to that quote.
3:34
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, Jeff will be not too surprised to
3:37
Speaker 4: know I don't fully agree with him, but we never
3:39
Speaker 4: fully agree. We sometimes a little agree, sometimes a lot agree,
3:43
Speaker 4: but almost never.
3:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:44
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, I think that quote. You know people
3:49
Speaker 4: are going to take from that quote. I mean, there's
3:51
Speaker 4: absolutely no surprise for me. I mean, this is one
3:53
Speaker 4: of the more disastrous things I think an owner could
3:55
Speaker 4: possibly say, which is suggests that fans don't prioritize winning.
3:58
Speaker 4: And I think you're seeing that not just in his words,
4:01
Speaker 4: but also in the actions of the entire operation. I mean,
4:03
Speaker 4: there's kind of nothing that I see when it comes
4:06
Speaker 4: to the Angels that's like, Okay, this team is really
4:08
Speaker 4: putting in the resources and effort and you know, the
4:12
Speaker 4: making it a priority to win for their fans. It
4:14
Speaker 4: just doesn't it doesn't appear to me that that's what
4:16
Speaker 4: they're doing. So this is, you know, this is a
4:18
Speaker 4: ridiculous thing to say, and I think it's in the
4:21
Speaker 4: fans are taking it as they should, which is they're
4:23
Speaker 4: insulted by it. You know. Ultimately, I agree with Fletch,
4:27
Speaker 4: which is probably the most significant element of what he's
4:30
Speaker 4: saying is that he doesn't really view it as you know,
4:33
Speaker 4: worth the cost to put a good team on the field.
4:36
Speaker 4: But what I would also say is the reason why
4:38
Speaker 4: it's probably not worth the cost right now is because
4:39
Speaker 4: he's just run the thing into the ground at this point.
4:42
Speaker 4: I mean, this team is bad because of the decisions
4:44
Speaker 4: that he's made for over twenty years now, and really,
4:48
Speaker 4: you know, I mean just talking with with Bruce Meyer
4:51
Speaker 4: this year and then Tony Clark last year. And I
4:52
Speaker 4: think one of the grapes that the union has, which
4:54
Speaker 4: I think is fair, which is that then the Angels
4:56
Speaker 4: really treat the CBT threshold as a salary cappening even
5:01
Speaker 4: more recently, I mean they're like almost one hundred million
5:03
Speaker 4: dollars below the tax at this point. I mean they're
5:06
Speaker 4: not even They're not basically operating like a very small
5:09
Speaker 4: market team. This is Los Angeles supposedly, so there. I
5:14
Speaker 4: just think that there are a lot of issues here
5:16
Speaker 4: and it's good he said.
5:17
Speaker 5: The quiet part out loud at the very least.
5:20
Speaker 1: Arc As a former player, how do you think this
5:23
Speaker 1: was received in the clubhouse? Like, say, you're the cleanup
5:25
Speaker 1: better in the Angels. Right now you're reading this quote,
5:28
Speaker 1: what are you thinking?
5:31
Speaker 6: It's an awkward time to be a fan A player
5:37
Speaker 6: manager Kurt Suzuki, I know he's incredibly optimistic about just
5:42
Speaker 6: about everything, but I do wonder you can't ignore those comments,
5:47
Speaker 6: so it's.
5:50
Speaker 1: I guess you have to just.
5:52
Speaker 6: Accept them and say that that's the business side of things,
5:54
Speaker 6: and as a player, you're going to put your head
5:57
Speaker 6: down and play hard because whether in you get paid
6:02
Speaker 6: by this team or maybe they can't afford you. I
6:06
Speaker 6: don't know if you mentioned some numbers too. That fifteen
6:11
Speaker 6: million was mentioned as maybe too expensive. I don't know
6:15
Speaker 6: if that applies to everyone, but maybe a guy like
6:17
Speaker 6: Zach Netto. It's not the news you really want to hear.
6:21
Speaker 6: It seems like the financial situation is bleak until a
6:24
Speaker 6: TV deal comes through, which I don't know when that
6:27
Speaker 6: will be, but maybe they have some idea. But if
6:32
Speaker 6: pro sports is not about winning, what is it. I mean,
6:36
Speaker 6: this is the top level. You're there to win. That's
6:38
Speaker 6: all I know from when I was coming up. I've
6:40
Speaker 6: talked about it before. Some you know, people like to
6:43
Speaker 6: say it's more about a process, but I firmly believe
6:45
Speaker 6: it's about winning. I think the angel fans want to
6:48
Speaker 6: see a winning ball club. There are other teams that
6:51
Speaker 6: operate on limited payroll that win, the Brewers, the Athletics,
6:56
Speaker 6: many others, the Guardians, we can go on and on
6:58
Speaker 6: the rais so if we're a smaller market team now,
7:01
Speaker 6: for whatever reason, we need to find a way to
7:04
Speaker 6: and I say we they win more games and cited
7:08
Speaker 6: mental mistakes as why last year did not go better. Mike,
7:13
Speaker 6: what do you what do you think about mental mistakes?
7:15
Speaker 6: Do you agree with that?
7:17
Speaker 1: Well, certainly the Angels had their fill of them. But
7:19
Speaker 1: when I look at the you know, the second half collapse,
7:24
Speaker 1: I don't think mental mistakes were as big of an
7:26
Speaker 1: issue as you know, the incredibly thin rotation, the bullpen, injuries,
7:31
Speaker 1: the strikeouts that were just off the charts. I mean,
7:36
Speaker 1: I don't know, Sam, can you you got you and Fletched,
7:38
Speaker 1: can you remember like even a single game, maybe a
7:41
Speaker 1: handful of games that were decided by mental mistakes?
7:44
Speaker 4: Sure, I mean they're you know, mental mistakes.
7:46
Speaker 7: Are you know?
7:47
Speaker 4: I agree with the first part of what you say,
7:49
Speaker 4: which is like this is this team isn't good enough.
7:51
Speaker 5: I mean they're not.
7:52
Speaker 4: They don't have a good enough team right now. And
7:53
Speaker 4: to Mark's point, right like, there are teams that are
7:57
Speaker 4: you know, when you're operating in a small market, you
7:59
Speaker 4: make certain decisions that I think are painful at times.
8:01
Speaker 5: But they're in the product.
8:02
Speaker 4: They are in the business of, you know, trying to
8:04
Speaker 4: put a winning product on the field, and I think
8:06
Speaker 4: the Angels are always just trying to sell a winning
8:08
Speaker 4: product rather than actually do it. And you know, now,
8:11
Speaker 4: I think what we're seeing and what you kind of
8:13
Speaker 4: see in these comments from already, which is this kind
8:15
Speaker 4: of having to acknowledge that they're not really even trying.
8:18
Speaker 5: To put a winning product on the field at this point.
8:20
Speaker 4: I mean, they're just kind of where they are. And
8:21
Speaker 4: I think if you're a player, and that is I
8:24
Speaker 4: think kind of where things are with this team at least,
8:27
Speaker 4: you know, based on the comments from Meyer. I mean,
8:29
Speaker 4: there's like it's awkward, right, Like it's just weird. It's
8:31
Speaker 4: like if you're a player and you kind of hear
8:33
Speaker 4: your owner maybe Flimsily say like this isn't really that
8:36
Speaker 4: important to us, then I don't know what what that
8:38
Speaker 4: really says to you, is, you know, as someone as
8:40
Speaker 4: from like Mike Trout who's put his whole career into
8:43
Speaker 4: this team.
8:43
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know.
8:44
Speaker 4: I just think it's it's a it's a really hard
8:47
Speaker 4: thing to possess as a fan, as a player, and
8:50
Speaker 4: especially like you said, Kurtuzuki's on this one year deal.
8:52
Speaker 4: Who's probably just like Okay, well great, you know there
8:55
Speaker 4: should be a fun season and maybe just one of them.
8:59
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break for a word
9:01
Speaker 1: from our sponsors and then we'll hear from Fletch. We'll
9:03
Speaker 1: be right back with more Halo territory.
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Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to Halo's Territory sleds. Should you
10:11
Speaker 1: want to add something on the subject of mental mistakes.
10:16
Speaker 2: Oh, I mean, obviously they made lots of mental mistakes
10:19
Speaker 2: and they obviously had a lot of deficiencies. Otherwise, you know,
10:23
Speaker 2: I don't think you should read too much into like
10:26
Speaker 2: his assessment of what happened in each game.
10:28
Speaker 3: I think the big the big issue is I think already.
10:32
Speaker 2: Cares about two things. They're one in one A and
10:35
Speaker 2: they're winning and they're not losing money. And I think
10:38
Speaker 2: he'd be willing to lose money if he could win.
10:40
Speaker 2: But I don't think he's willing to lose money and lose.
10:44
Speaker 2: And so far, when he's tried to spend money, it
10:46
Speaker 2: has looked at what's happened the last few times he's
10:48
Speaker 2: spent a lot of money. Mike Trout has you know,
10:51
Speaker 2: not played. Anthony Rendon has been bad even like a
10:55
Speaker 2: little thing like Tyler Anderson, you know, didn't really work out.
10:58
Speaker 2: So all already thinks all he's seeing is that look
11:01
Speaker 2: when I when I spend extra money, we're still no good.
11:04
Speaker 2: So what he wants just hey, hang on, hang on.
11:09
Speaker 2: I think what he wants the young guys played better
11:12
Speaker 2: and give them more of a core. So he spends
11:15
Speaker 2: the twenty million dollars to go from eighty four wins
11:18
Speaker 2: to ninety wins rather than going from you know, seventy
11:21
Speaker 2: four wins to eighty wins. Because there's that's it is
11:24
Speaker 2: not interested in spending extra money to go from seventy
11:26
Speaker 2: four wins to eighty wins.
11:29
Speaker 4: Sam, No, I listen, I just I think, like in
11:34
Speaker 4: a vacuum, that's all true. Right, Like you know, you
11:36
Speaker 4: see a lot of your investments go poorly, and that
11:39
Speaker 4: leads you to not want to make investments. But I
11:41
Speaker 4: mean to me, the reason they've lost is I mean,
11:43
Speaker 4: it's obviously in part because some of these big name
11:46
Speaker 4: players that they've signed are you know, have not panned out.
11:49
Speaker 5: I mean you can also make some.
11:50
Speaker 4: Cases that they've made bad bets. They made the wrong
11:53
Speaker 4: choices in terms of who they signed. But I mean, ultimately,
11:56
Speaker 4: I think that the reason that they've lost is is
11:58
Speaker 4: poor management top to bottom. I mean, it's you know,
12:02
Speaker 4: there's a lot of things that go into winning besides
12:04
Speaker 4: just making bets on free agent players.
12:06
Speaker 5: And I think the Angels.
12:07
Speaker 4: Right now, if they didn't make any bets on any
12:09
Speaker 4: big free agents this offseason, that would be okay if
12:11
Speaker 4: they were also.
12:12
Speaker 5: Doing some other things that they're just not doing.
12:14
Speaker 4: I mean, you look at those last couple of trades
12:16
Speaker 4: last like four trade deadlines, where they've really not been
12:19
Speaker 4: in a position to make the playoffs, and I mean,
12:21
Speaker 4: I just can't really think of any like primetime talent
12:23
Speaker 4: they've acquired outside of the Carlos Stevis trade. So you know,
12:27
Speaker 4: I mean this is these are times when you build
12:29
Speaker 4: up a franchise if you're not willing to spend, and
12:32
Speaker 4: he's clearly kind of indicating he's not willing to spend,
12:34
Speaker 4: and so all right, so go the other direction. Do
12:36
Speaker 4: the things that those teams are doing.
12:39
Speaker 1: Letch, was there any indication from already when the survey
12:42
Speaker 1: was conducted, who was sent to uh, where can we
12:45
Speaker 1: get our hands on the results.
12:48
Speaker 2: I mean just you know, my impression is just something
12:50
Speaker 2: that they when people buy tickets, they get the survey.
12:53
Speaker 2: I mean, first of all, like I mentioned before, the
12:55
Speaker 2: word customers, a lot of people have heard me use them.
12:58
Speaker 2: There's fans and there's customers, and there's a lot of
13:01
Speaker 2: people who are both. But there's also a lot of
13:02
Speaker 2: people who are one or the other. And to suggest
13:05
Speaker 2: that the Angels don't have a huge amount of people
13:07
Speaker 2: who are customers who pay no attention to what is
13:10
Speaker 2: going on is just not paying attention to what happens
13:13
Speaker 2: when you go there on August thirty thousand people having
13:16
Speaker 2: a party and throwing the beach balls around because they
13:19
Speaker 2: like the fireworks. I mean, those are real, Those real
13:21
Speaker 2: people they are that we ignore because they're not listening
13:24
Speaker 2: to this podcast. They're not following me on Twitter, they're
13:27
Speaker 2: not following the same on Twitter. They have no idea
13:29
Speaker 2: this conversation is even happening. But they put money in
13:32
Speaker 2: artist's pocket. So to say that they're not real, this
13:35
Speaker 2: is ridiculous.
13:37
Speaker 1: Sam. If you have a cert, Sam, you do a
13:39
Speaker 1: survey asking the Angels angel fans if they had received
13:46
Speaker 1: any surveys. Does anybody have a copy of this. Did
13:49
Speaker 1: you get much response on that?
13:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got some emails of like old like there
13:54
Speaker 4: was a maybe a survey done on like twenty twenty
13:56
Speaker 4: three or something like that, But no, but he had
14:00
Speaker 4: like the actual survey, and nobody could recall being asked
14:02
Speaker 4: a question that would involve, you know, their priorities when
14:06
Speaker 4: it relates to winning and things.
14:07
Speaker 5: Like that, you know.
14:09
Speaker 4: And I also asked the Angels if they could provide
14:12
Speaker 4: the survey or even just like indicate what the survey
14:14
Speaker 4: was or maybe what the question was that would have
14:17
Speaker 4: led them to believe to you know, because I mean
14:19
Speaker 4: this is I mean, I wasn't there, but it sounds
14:22
Speaker 4: like he said that they are citing a survey on this.
14:25
Speaker 4: So I mean, there's this survey that's supposedly telling you
14:27
Speaker 4: that they don't people don't care about winning, and that
14:30
Speaker 4: is how you are basing your strategic operations for your franchise.
14:33
Speaker 4: I think it's a very fair question to want to
14:35
Speaker 4: know what this survey is, uh, And I have yet
14:39
Speaker 4: to see evidence that it exists, But I'm not going
14:41
Speaker 4: to say it doesn't.
14:41
Speaker 5: I just haven't seen any evidence that it does.
14:44
Speaker 1: You also did a follow up survey on Monday. Since
14:48
Speaker 1: I'm curious, Angels fans, what's more important to you ballpark
14:51
Speaker 1: affordability or the Angels winning games?
14:55
Speaker 3: Yeah?
14:55
Speaker 4: I mean done on this one. Yeah, Like I would
14:57
Speaker 4: just say that to Fletch's point, right, Like, there's you know,
15:00
Speaker 4: there's probably a large subjects and people that are not
15:04
Speaker 4: following us on Twitter and not engaging and maybe aren't
15:07
Speaker 4: going to maybe we have their net percentage might be
15:09
Speaker 4: higher on the ballpark affordability one. I just don't think
15:12
Speaker 4: that there's any credible you know, you're gonna you're gonna
15:15
Speaker 4: find any credible survey where fans are going to tell
15:16
Speaker 4: you they just don't get that winning.
15:18
Speaker 3: Let me let me tell you this is a little
15:19
Speaker 3: metric that I use.
15:21
Speaker 2: I've got like sixty five thousand Twitter followers, Sam, you got.
15:24
Speaker 3: Like what thirty five thousand or something like that.
15:26
Speaker 4: The Angel.
15:31
Speaker 2: Marks one point two million. Let's they have one point
15:36
Speaker 2: two million. What are those other million people that don't
15:40
Speaker 2: care about what I'm tweeting? They don't care about what
15:41
Speaker 2: Sam's tweeting, They don't care who's going to play second base,
15:44
Speaker 2: they don't care how you know Robert Stevenson's shoulder is doing.
15:49
Speaker 2: They want to know when there's fireworks and who the
15:52
Speaker 2: bobblehead is going to be.
15:53
Speaker 3: A million people that are paying no attention to any
15:56
Speaker 3: of us right now, those are real people.
15:59
Speaker 2: I would we can all make fun of them and
16:01
Speaker 2: say they should count, but they do count to already,
16:04
Speaker 2: So I mean.
16:06
Speaker 4: I guess, but like you know, you can still try. Yeah, yeah,
16:10
Speaker 4: I just I just think that you're talking if you're
16:11
Speaker 4: talking about your fans, the people that have you know,
16:13
Speaker 4: it's been you know, eleven or maybe they're growing in
16:16
Speaker 4: the twelve years without making the playoffs. It's like the
16:18
Speaker 4: second I think it's the longest in North American sports
16:20
Speaker 4: outside of maybe like the Buffalo Sabers or something like that.
16:22
Speaker 4: Like they this is just getting to a point where
16:25
Speaker 4: it's ridiculous, like this is nobody goes this long, being
16:29
Speaker 4: this bad, especially in this market. I mean, so at
16:32
Speaker 4: some point you come out with this, like I get it,
16:35
Speaker 4: everything in a vacuum could be you can you can
16:37
Speaker 4: make the case one way or the other for what
16:39
Speaker 4: he means, what he's trying to say, this and that,
16:41
Speaker 4: But at some point you are running this, this entire
16:43
Speaker 4: operation into the ground. It's so clear as day. This
16:46
Speaker 4: team is projected to win like sixty something games, and
16:50
Speaker 4: I think that is optimistic at this point. So you know,
16:53
Speaker 4: you're this is just a bad product, and it's getting worse,
16:56
Speaker 4: and it's getting less organized, and there's getting less optimistic
16:59
Speaker 4: for the future. This is not a rebuild, right I
17:01
Speaker 4: think that that is what you'll hear the Angels try
17:03
Speaker 4: to sell this season as over and over again when
17:05
Speaker 4: things start to get bad.
17:06
Speaker 5: I'm certain of it.
17:07
Speaker 4: I've seen it. I know it'll happen again. But I
17:09
Speaker 4: want to tell you this right now. If they are
17:11
Speaker 4: if they do in fact lose and they are not
17:13
Speaker 4: pulling off a miracle this year, this is not a rebuild.
17:15
Speaker 4: It's a bad team without a future right now. And
17:18
Speaker 4: I think that's what That's what people are upset about,
17:20
Speaker 4: and that's what's driving fans right now to believe what pletch.
17:24
Speaker 1: Was there any reaction from an Angel's clubhouse, maybe from
17:27
Speaker 1: Mike Trout about some of these comments.
17:31
Speaker 2: No, because honestly, I knew what Artie was talking about,
17:35
Speaker 2: So I didn't ask.
17:37
Speaker 3: The players a question that Sam was asking because that's
17:42
Speaker 3: a different meaning than what he was talking about. Now,
17:45
Speaker 3: there are a lot of other legitimate things that already does.
17:47
Speaker 3: You know, we've talked about I talked to.
17:49
Speaker 2: Players about how the fact that their payroll is way
17:51
Speaker 2: down because of the TV deal. I mean, that's like
17:54
Speaker 2: a real thing that's actually happening. You know, that's something
17:58
Speaker 2: that they talk about in the clubhouse. This is not.
18:03
Speaker 9: I don't know.
18:03
Speaker 1: Bruce Meyer said it was, Yeah, we were just gonna
18:06
Speaker 1: ask you about that. Sam. You've got to hold of
18:07
Speaker 1: Bruce Meyer on Sunday, and that was the day of
18:10
Speaker 1: the union. Bruce Meyer, the new union boss, UH met
18:14
Speaker 1: with the Angels on Sunday morning. I believe Sam, what
18:17
Speaker 1: what came out of that.
18:19
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, it's just he said that that
18:21
Speaker 4: that players are I've taken notice of this, and I mean,
18:24
Speaker 4: you know, I don't know which player. I mean, obviously
18:26
Speaker 4: there are a lot of players in that clubhouse that
18:27
Speaker 4: are probably getting opportunities on this team that they wouldn't
18:30
Speaker 4: get if it was a you know, a better product.
18:34
Speaker 5: You know, that's no insultating.
18:35
Speaker 4: There's just like a lot of young players that maybe
18:36
Speaker 4: are getting opportunities in the big leagues otherwise they wouldn't
18:39
Speaker 4: otherwise be getting right now. But yeah, it's listen. I mean,
18:44
Speaker 4: I think his point, which is a fair point, is
18:47
Speaker 4: the Angels are, you know, one of their bigger market teams,
18:50
Speaker 4: one of the MLB's bigger market teams.
18:51
Speaker 1: There.
18:52
Speaker 4: The Union's obviously coming in with their own agenda of
18:54
Speaker 4: you know, trying to prevent a salary cap and things
18:56
Speaker 4: like that, and the Angels I think are very very
19:00
Speaker 4: you know, fruitful case study for the Union to try
19:04
Speaker 4: and make their point because this is, you know, a
19:06
Speaker 4: big market team that's just not really spending and you know,
19:09
Speaker 4: there this highlights I think a lot of the issues
19:13
Speaker 4: at play here. This is the Angels highlight a lot
19:16
Speaker 4: of the issues that MLBP a kind of sees. So
19:18
Speaker 4: that's why they want to talk about it. But ultimately,
19:20
Speaker 4: like he said, players are are are concerned about this,
19:24
Speaker 4: that it came up as part of their discussion. They
19:26
Speaker 4: go to every King.
19:30
Speaker 5: Camp every spring they went to.
19:33
Speaker 4: And Bruce Meyers had the players we're talking about that
19:35
Speaker 4: this is an area of concern. So I don't, you know,
19:38
Speaker 4: I don't know, Fletch's in spring training right now and
19:41
Speaker 4: I'm not, so I don't want to discount that, but yeah,
19:44
Speaker 4: I mean that he literally walked out of that meeting
19:47
Speaker 4: and said that.
19:49
Speaker 5: Conversation.
19:50
Speaker 1: So all right, we're going to take another quick break
19:55
Speaker 1: for a word from our sponsors, and we'll be right
19:57
Speaker 1: back with more Halo territory.
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21:03
Speaker 1: Oh, welcome back to Halo territory. Glad you could all
21:08
Speaker 1: join us. Kevin Pillar, former Major League outfielder who's spent
21:12
Speaker 1: pretty good chunk of his twenty twenty four season when
21:14
Speaker 1: the Angels, had some pretty strong comments in reaction to
21:19
Speaker 1: Artie's quote. Let's hear from Kevin Pilar me.
21:22
Speaker 9: Winning is all fans should really do care about, and
21:25
Speaker 9: that's a non negotiable, much like going to the field
21:27
Speaker 9: and feeling safe and affordability. I mean, maybe the list
21:31
Speaker 9: should have been like giveaways and concessions and things like that,
21:35
Speaker 9: because I have no idea what he's talking about. I
21:37
Speaker 9: mean the Angels. The Angels don't I don't think Arty
21:41
Speaker 9: moreno realizes how great of an asset he has. You know,
21:44
Speaker 9: I got a chance to play there, and it is
21:47
Speaker 9: arguably one of the best places to play in baseball
21:49
Speaker 9: southern California, you know, the Orange County. The weather's beautiful,
21:54
Speaker 9: the fans are very passionate. I mean, he doesn't realize
21:58
Speaker 9: what he has because if he really cared about winning,
22:01
Speaker 9: it would be such a destination for players to want
22:03
Speaker 9: to come and play it's just a matter of time.
22:06
Speaker 9: He just needs to get rid of the team because
22:09
Speaker 9: he really doesn't really care about the Angels. And obviously
22:13
Speaker 9: franchise values are going way up right now. And I
22:15
Speaker 9: think there was a quote he came out with the
22:17
Speaker 9: other day that said he wasn't actively shopping, but I
22:19
Speaker 9: think there's a lot of people interested in buying. So
22:22
Speaker 9: hopefully someone just kind of blows him away with an
22:24
Speaker 9: offer here soon and we could kind of move past
22:26
Speaker 9: the story.
22:28
Speaker 1: And Mark, considering Kevin Plarer was on Hardy's payroll just
22:32
Speaker 1: two years ago, does his comments his reaction carry a
22:36
Speaker 1: little more weight.
22:40
Speaker 6: I think it does. He played, he put the uniform on,
22:44
Speaker 6: and now he's in the position that we are talking
22:49
Speaker 6: about this topic. He said the things that I think
22:53
Speaker 6: most people would take away from that. I know a
22:57
Speaker 6: tremendous amount of people, even in our male episode, we're
23:01
Speaker 6: asking about the sale of the team. But you also
23:03
Speaker 6: read the fact that already loves being an owner. Said
23:07
Speaker 6: that in I think Jeff's article, in the Angel's article,
23:10
Speaker 6: he loves being the owner of this baseball team. So
23:16
Speaker 6: when I hear that, I'm not seeing someone who probably
23:18
Speaker 6: know he is eighty or coming up on eighty, So
23:22
Speaker 6: I don't know. I know his kids apparently want nothing
23:24
Speaker 6: to do with the team, so that makes the most sense.
23:27
Speaker 6: Across the fifty seven Freeway, the Ducks are doing huge things.
23:32
Speaker 6: You can't not see that parking structure. They seem to
23:35
Speaker 6: be pumping a lot of money into their product, and
23:39
Speaker 6: so there are train tracks. This might be the other
23:42
Speaker 6: side of the tracks situation. When I see affordability, does
23:47
Speaker 6: that mean cheap?
23:48
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
23:48
Speaker 6: Four for forty four? Where are those seats upper deck
23:52
Speaker 6: beyond the foul pole. That's what I think. I think
23:56
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty six, cheap is not good. That's not good.
24:00
Speaker 6: I know they put some money into the parking lot,
24:02
Speaker 6: that's good, the diamond club seats and some other things.
24:06
Speaker 6: I don't know about the ballpark food, but I do
24:08
Speaker 6: know as a fan you go to Petco Park much
24:10
Speaker 6: different experience. And for those million Twitter followers that Jeff
24:16
Speaker 6: alluded to, I don't know what they want. If they
24:19
Speaker 6: want cheap, maybe go watch the Quakes. But major leagues,
24:24
Speaker 6: I'd like to see a little bit of everything improved
24:28
Speaker 6: for the Angels. I know we mentioned a rebrand too,
24:32
Speaker 6: Maybe that includes some access to the players, for the
24:36
Speaker 6: people the tow credentialed media people that aren't given the
24:39
Speaker 6: access because it's slim pickings on our end. And I
24:45
Speaker 6: think that would be nice. A rebrand we could, you know,
24:48
Speaker 6: our show many other places could be a good vehicle
24:50
Speaker 6: for these, you know some opinions that I know. Zach
24:53
Speaker 6: Nettle wasn't thrilled with the predictions I believe in your
24:57
Speaker 6: article today. He said that, you know, that's what a
25:00
Speaker 6: player should say that you know, I ignore the noise
25:03
Speaker 6: and get to work. I did like his other comments
25:07
Speaker 6: by in large on his plan this year, and so
25:11
Speaker 6: it's uh, I don't know, cheap, I guess to echo
25:14
Speaker 6: my point, if you're literally looking for cheap, there's one
25:19
Speaker 6: way to do that. But in this day and age,
25:21
Speaker 6: I think you got to you gotta have a better
25:23
Speaker 6: product than just cheap.
25:25
Speaker 1: Question for any or all of you. When Artie says
25:28
Speaker 1: what is the cost of winning right now? Does that
25:33
Speaker 1: sort of undermine his claim that winning is a top priority.
25:41
Speaker 2: I mean, it's what I just what I said earlier,
25:43
Speaker 2: that he wants to win, I want to lose money,
25:46
Speaker 2: and I think that he doesn't feel like right now
25:51
Speaker 2: losing money is going to equate to winning. He feels
25:53
Speaker 2: like losing money is just going to be losing more
25:55
Speaker 2: money and they're still going to lose because he's looking
25:57
Speaker 2: at you know, Rendown, Trout, all these lead Maybe that's wrong. Maybe,
26:02
Speaker 2: you know, if you or I owned the team and
26:03
Speaker 2: we were seventy nine years old, we would just say, oh, whatever,
26:06
Speaker 2: I don't care.
26:06
Speaker 3: I'll lose one hundred million.
26:07
Speaker 2: Dollars will be good and I'll still be a billionaire.
26:09
Speaker 2: But that's not the way he looks at it, you know.
26:11
Speaker 2: And I can't say that's right and wrong. I'm not
26:13
Speaker 2: in his shoes, but I think that that's the way
26:15
Speaker 2: he looks at it.
26:18
Speaker 4: Sam, go ahead, I just look at that, and I'm like,
26:20
Speaker 4: you know, you know, yeah, just like that that meme
26:24
Speaker 4: of like, oh, we're all trying to figure out who
26:26
Speaker 4: did this.
26:26
Speaker 5: You know, he did it. It's his fault that they're
26:31
Speaker 5: this bad.
26:32
Speaker 6: You know.
26:32
Speaker 4: So maybe he doesn't want to lose any more money.
26:34
Speaker 4: But then then Kevin Pillar's got a good point here,
26:36
Speaker 4: which is okay, then just leave right, Like why are
26:39
Speaker 4: we doing this year? You know, because this fan base
26:41
Speaker 4: deserves a lot better than what they're getting. So I'm
26:43
Speaker 4: not really worried about already making and losing money. If
26:45
Speaker 4: I'm a fan, I'm not worried about it as a reporter,
26:48
Speaker 4: and I don't think players, are the coaches or anybody's
26:51
Speaker 4: worried about it except priority. And if he's if you know,
26:54
Speaker 4: he's made I mean, what do you buy this team
26:56
Speaker 4: for like one hundred and eighty million and it's worth
26:57
Speaker 4: probably north of three billion now or close to. So
27:01
Speaker 4: I'm not really worried about holding money.
27:02
Speaker 6: Uh.
27:03
Speaker 4: Hell, he's fine, you know. And I mean for this
27:08
Speaker 4: franchise to be doing this, it's like it's just I
27:10
Speaker 4: understand the TV deals. It's it's probably costing them something.
27:14
Speaker 4: You know, it's probably costing them a lot of money,
27:16
Speaker 4: I'm sure. But and this is a business, and you're
27:18
Speaker 4: you're as a business, you're trying to make money. That's
27:20
Speaker 4: that's all fair, it's all well and all good. But
27:23
Speaker 4: his fault that they're this bad. And if he's not
27:26
Speaker 4: interested in making the sacrifice is necessary to put a
27:29
Speaker 4: winning product on the field, then get out at this point.
27:32
Speaker 4: That's where that's I'm not calling him to do that.
27:34
Speaker 4: I don't think it's my place. But I mean, if
27:36
Speaker 4: you're not going to, then sure, I'll say that you're
27:38
Speaker 4: not going to. If you're not going to do your
27:40
Speaker 4: job put a winning product on the field, then I
27:43
Speaker 4: don't think it's fair for anybody, because there's a lot
27:44
Speaker 4: of fans here who are sick of hearing about two
27:47
Speaker 4: thousand and two. I think it's a great time. There's
27:51
Speaker 4: you know, there's a lot of really special people that
27:53
Speaker 4: were a part of that. But it's also been twenty
27:55
Speaker 4: four years and I think it's time that there's a
27:57
Speaker 4: there's another thing to celebrate around there.
27:59
Speaker 1: Well, that leads right into my last question, and we'll
28:02
Speaker 1: close the show with this. As we all know, already
28:04
Speaker 1: put the team up for sale in August of twenty
28:06
Speaker 1: twenty two, only to pull it off the market the
28:09
Speaker 1: following January. I said on Friday that quote, he's not
28:13
Speaker 1: shopping the team, but there's just a lot of people
28:16
Speaker 1: wanting to buy a baseball team right now. Reading between
28:20
Speaker 1: the lines, does anyone think already is just sort of
28:26
Speaker 1: willing to sell right now if the right offer comes along.
28:30
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what that offer is. Maybe it is
28:32
Speaker 1: north of three billion. If someone makes him an offer
28:35
Speaker 1: that blows him away, do we think he could just sell.
28:41
Speaker 1: I mean, because he doesn't have As we mentioned on
28:44
Speaker 1: the show before, his kids are not there's no succession plan.
28:47
Speaker 1: He's going to be eighty years old this year. You know,
28:51
Speaker 1: if he leaves the team, you know, in some kind
28:53
Speaker 1: of trust, it's going to be somebody's gonna have to
28:55
Speaker 1: sell it, and it's going to be a big problem
28:57
Speaker 1: and a big asshle to do that.
28:59
Speaker 3: There's two things coming up. But there's a new CBA
29:03
Speaker 3: and if they do get a.
29:04
Speaker 2: Salary cap, which I doubt, but if they do get
29:06
Speaker 2: whatever concessions they get could make the value even more.
29:10
Speaker 2: So I think he's waiting on that. And the other
29:12
Speaker 2: thing is there's expansion coming up, and when they have
29:14
Speaker 2: expansion in twenty eight or whatever, everybody that owns one
29:17
Speaker 2: of the current teams is going to get a huge chuck.
29:19
Speaker 2: So I'm sure that he wants to wait for those
29:22
Speaker 2: two things to happen. And at that point, I think
29:26
Speaker 2: that he's probably a lot more likely to sell.
29:29
Speaker 4: So I probably agree with that. I mean, you know,
29:33
Speaker 4: there's right now, you know. I mean, I think Angels
29:37
Speaker 4: fans dream would be that he'd sell, But I mean
29:39
Speaker 4: I agree with Letch in terms of the pragmatism of
29:41
Speaker 4: waiting to kind of see some of these things play
29:43
Speaker 4: out makes sense to me, and I think that would
29:45
Speaker 4: probably be the timeline. And I do think that him
29:47
Speaker 4: bringing up the second half of that quote where he
29:50
Speaker 4: does say that there is a lot of interest in it,
29:52
Speaker 4: is his probably way of letting people know, Okay, like
29:55
Speaker 4: this is don't worry, someday I'll give this up.
30:00
Speaker 1: Final thoughts at all?
30:03
Speaker 6: Where are the TV games for spring training?
30:06
Speaker 1: Fletch? You got anything on that?
30:10
Speaker 2: Well, see, that's a situation where basically they could have
30:13
Speaker 2: just punted like the other teams did and had MLB
30:16
Speaker 2: produced and do the whole thing, and they would add
30:18
Speaker 2: games on, but they would have lost a lot more money.
30:20
Speaker 3: So that's a case where it's.
30:23
Speaker 2: Just comes down to the bottom line, and already doesn't
30:25
Speaker 2: want to lose any more money, so that's why they're
30:27
Speaker 2: trying to do what they're trying to do.
30:29
Speaker 1: And any thoughts on the regular season? Is it prediction? Fletch?
30:33
Speaker 1: We think go to the MLB dot Com. They're gonna
30:35
Speaker 1: start their own network. What are you looking at?
30:38
Speaker 3: I think they're just gonna end up.
30:41
Speaker 2: MLB is gonna end up producing the games probably, I
30:45
Speaker 2: don't know, they're still working on it, you know, ask
30:47
Speaker 2: me another week or two.
30:48
Speaker 3: But the game is definitely gonna be on, and they're
30:50
Speaker 3: going to be on. Probably people that could watch them
30:52
Speaker 3: before will.
30:53
Speaker 2: Still be able to watch them as a matter of
30:54
Speaker 2: who's going to produce them and how much money the
30:56
Speaker 2: Angels are going to get out of it, But from
30:58
Speaker 2: the fans perspective, it's going to be available just the
31:01
Speaker 2: same as it was before.
31:03
Speaker 4: I'm sure I'll be loves loves loves loves that they
31:06
Speaker 4: get to be wait till the very last minute to
31:08
Speaker 4: see if the Angels want to have them produce their
31:11
Speaker 4: games for them, and you know, and again, like as
31:13
Speaker 4: Fletcher just laid out, it's like, you know, this is
31:15
Speaker 4: a couple extra bucks essentially that he's sacrificing, you know.
31:19
Speaker 4: Uh And as a result, now fans can't watch the
31:22
Speaker 4: spring training games. Now, I would never watch the spring
31:24
Speaker 4: training game that I didn't have to in a million years.
31:26
Speaker 4: But I think that baseball fans can like it, so
31:28
Speaker 4: it's it sticks and uh, you know, like they'll they'll
31:31
Speaker 4: be on when when when the bell rings. I'm sure,
31:33
Speaker 4: at least I think I'm sure.
31:35
Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it. For today's Halo Territory,
31:39
Speaker 1: Thank you Jeff Fletcher and the Orange County Register, Sam Blama,
31:43
Speaker 1: The Athletic, and Mark Trumbo, former Angel Slugger. Thanks for
31:46
Speaker 1: joining us today. Please like and subscribe and we'll be
31:49
Speaker 1: back next time on Halo Territory