Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / New Angels coach Brady Anderson expected to be "calming influence" on team's hitters

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New Angels coach Brady Anderson expected to be "calming influence" on team's hitters · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Well, Hey, Angel fans, Welcome back to Halo Territory. I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: am Mike Digiavanna, former La Times Baseball writer and host
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of the show, and I'm joined by our co host
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Mark Trumbo, the former Angel slugger.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Mark.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Are you doing today?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: All is well, Mike watched some of the Cactus League
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: action today and we got some good content covering that
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and Brady Anderson.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Brady's going to be our main topic today, but
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: we did want to touch on Wednesday, start from young
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: George Clawson, one of the organization's top pitching prospects, who
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: threw two scoreless innings with three strikeouts against the San
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Diego Padres. It was on TV for those who were
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: watching on MLBtv. Clawson struck out Manny Machado with a
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: nasty ninety one mile an hour slider and Jackson Merrill
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: with a ninety nine mile on our fastball in the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: first and then the second ending when the bases loaded,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: he wi Ty France with an eighty nine mile one
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: hour slider in the ending. Mark, what were your impressions
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: of this guy, who's I guess one of the top
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: five prospects in the system right now.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: This is the first time I've gotten to see him,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and I was very impressed with the stuff. He's a
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: power pitcher, that is for sure. Big fastball. You kind
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: of look, especially with a guy like Machado, Merrill, guys
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: that have experience, how you know, do they appear to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: be seeing the ball off of him? Are they timing
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: his fastball? And I didn't see anyone that was necessarily
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: on it. I didn't see anyone that you know, looked
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: like they were getting a really good look at him.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: And his slider looked like a plus pitch. There was
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: no doubt about it. He had some traffic in the
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: second ending. I'm sure he was amped up, being you know,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: younger guy out there facing some big name superstars, but
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a very nice appearance for him. And I think that
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: as you know, his command gets a little bit better.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's a nice arm right there.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I look purely at stuff with these prospects because
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of the other things will grow.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: It will come as they grow bigger, more physical, more durable.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: But yeah, fastball that's basically sits at ninety eight touches
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: ninety nine and maybe one hundred with a pretty nice
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: wipeout slider. It's very encouraging. Of course, it's his first
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: start of the spring. As you mentioned, the question with
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a guy like that is always, you know, how long
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: can he maintain that stuff throughout each outing. I'm sure
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: they're going to bring him along slowly. Pitch a double
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: a last year, though, and you know, with stuff like that,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you can be knocking on that door pretty quick. Let's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: move on to Brady Anderson, who spoke at length with
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the Orange County Registers Jeff Fletcher this week. The Angels,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: as we all know, have struck out one thousand and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty seven times last season, the second
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: worst total in major League history, behind the Minnesota twenty
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: six hundred and fifty four k's. In twenty twenty three,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: their twenty seven point one percent strikeout rate was the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: highest in the majors. They ranked twenty fifth in runs,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: despite being fourth in homers. They were dead last and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: average and twenty eighth in on base percentage. This is
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the quote from Brady Anderson. As Fletch wrote in his story,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Anderson bristles at the notion of any one size fits
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: all philosophy to correcting the problem with strikeouts. In fact,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: he said, it's best not to emphasize that specific problem
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: at all. Maybe your zero strike approach is wrong if
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you need to drastically change it with two strikes. And
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Anderson said reducing strikeouts is a side effect of improved hitting,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: rather than a goal in itself. Quote. Strikeouts are problematic,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt, he said. But you can clean up mechanics,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you can clean up how our player sees himself. Get
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a player to relax a little bit more. Mark, what
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: do you think of some of these sentiments.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I agree with what Brady said. I think it was
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: a very solid interview. It's refreshing to hear that much
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: candid material. In the last couple of years it's been
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a little more guarded. But I think Brady has the
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: resume to be able to kind of have more leeway
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: in that way if he so chooses. He's a very
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: thoughtful guy. I do know him from years in Baltimore
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: together and various other things, so it's not as if
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: he is a stranger. But one of the things that
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: made a lot of sense to me is him talking
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: about cleaning up the mechanics of his swing, and that
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: in and of itself helping to eliminate some of these
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: issues with the offense, namely the strikeouts, and I think
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: that usually are almost always, actually always the person's best
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: swing is also their most efficient swing. If you are
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: having to drastically change your swing when you get to
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: two strikes, now there are some adjustments. I really do
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: like a little bit of a choke up something I did.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: It's something a lot of guys do, not everybody does,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: but I do wonder sometimes when I see a guy,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: you know, with his hand hanging way down off the
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: end of the knob and then putting a swing on
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: it that mirrors that of a two zero swing when
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: he's you know, a reverse account oh two, It just
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: doesn't look appropriate to me, and it doesn't look like
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: there's that intent. But what I think is if you
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: build a swing that is mechanically sound, it's going to
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: play in any count. And one of the big things, too,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: is making contact on pitches that are in your zone.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: The death of many hitters is the foul ball. A
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: lot of guys think it's chasing wildly in the dirt
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: and stuff. That's going to happen. Some guys a little
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: bit more than others. But the really good hitters, when
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: they get a pitch to put in a play, they
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: do that. And whether you know, you get to a
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: two zero count, for example, and you get a meatball,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: you see the big swing, you get the ooze in
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: the os. It's a foul ball. That's not a good thing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: You want to square that pitch up. And a guy
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: like Joe Adell, if he even you know, comes close
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: to putting his best swing on the ball, it's probably
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: gone or it's in the gap. OHOPI net O trout
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: all these guys. So I think Brady's statements were really good.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: He's talking about taking some of the pressure off too,
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: and on that point, I think he's right.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: We hear all the time that today's hitters are not
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: sacrificing anything for power. Two strike swings often look the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: same as zero zero count swings, two oz count swings. Said,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: all or nothing approach that leads to a lot of strikeouts.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, you were as good as slugger as there
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was in the game when you played. Did you have
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: a two strike approach or were you sort of playing
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in that transitionary time where lounch angles are start to
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: become so prominent. And two strike approaches started to go
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to the wayside.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: I think I was in the transition period to some extent.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: But one thing is I never wanted strikeouts, and I
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: believe this. You never want to view them as just
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: another out or equivalent to a ball that you smoked.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Yes they're both out, but they're not remotely similar, especially
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: a strikeout where you don't see the bat as long
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: as you could, meaning that you give up and hacket
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: something because you're either buried in the count or feeling
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: sorry for yourself or whatever. I was a guy that
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: was countered on to drive in runs and to drive
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: the ball over the wall in the gaps, YadA, YadA,
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: so I was given more leeway.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: The rough percentage I always remember, at least it was
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: mentioned a lot was twenty percent. That was considered a
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: lot of strikeouts. It has moved up to roughly thirty
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: percent for some which I feel like that's that is
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: a lot. That really it starts to pile up, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: that's when you can have two, three, four a game.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I believe I had four either once or twice, and
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: it was I felt like I had no business playing
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: this game. I felt that many many times but for strikeouts,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: and you know, you realize it's not the end of
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: the world, but it felt terrible and I grew. You know,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: there was a while where I tried to avoid rolling over,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: for example, or hitting a ground ball. I came to
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: realize after watching really good players that so what if
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: you ground out, you smoke it. You aim for solid contact.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: That should be the goal of everyone. Solid contact wherever
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: it goes, preferably on the line in the air is awesome.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Everybody knows that. But if you set your sites too
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: high in the air, then the misses become other those
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: infield pop ups, foul balls or whiffs.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Yep, all right, We're going to take a quick break
• 9:05
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• 10:21
  Speaker 1: back to Halo Territory with my co host Mark Trumbo.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: We're talking about Brady Anderson, the Angel's new hitting coach,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: who Mark knows pretty well from his Baltimore Orioles days.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: In the story, Brady also said that he disagrees with
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: the direction of the game in which followers have advanced
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: metrics have claimed that a strikeout is the same as
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: any other out, and the exact quote was for the
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: mathematical equation part of it. They have to account for
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: a strikeout as just an out, Anderson said, but when
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you're watching in real time, if you've been on teams
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: or coach teams, or been around teams, if you have
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: multiple players with high strikeout rates, you can see that
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: leads to multiple slumps. Mark, what do you think of
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that one?
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: It's true, unfortunately today the timing. I believe we struck
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: out fourteen times in the Cactus League action, but the
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: early results I've seen, I think that we had a
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: ten and eleven, but we also had a seven, and
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: so it's been somewhat mixed. Part of it's depending on
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: who's pitching. And I think that he's exactly right about
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: the extended slumps and team team slumps if you're not
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: putting the ball in play and giving yourself those opportunities,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: and you know, you can only draw so many walks
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: with big league pitchers, they're not going to give you
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: all that many, some more than others, but it comes
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: down to putting the ball in play more. I think
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: the shift probably started some of this. For example, hitting
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: the ball up the middle is a youth was always
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: that was a base hit. If you get it past
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: the pitcher, it was a base hit. And at some
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: point I started to realize for whatever reason. It was
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: cano that I vividly remember, but he was sitting right
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: behind the pitcher, right behind second base, So those hits
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: went away. And then the six hole, the shortstop. There
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: used to be some hits available there. Now there's a
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: few guys when they were stacking them, and I think
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: guys tried to change their approach and realized there weren't
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: too many hits available in the infield. And then I
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: think at that point it probably shifted more to Okay,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: if I can't hit it there, I got to hit
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: it further, and so I'm going to try and hit
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: more balls in the air. Find some You know, there's
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: only three outfielders out there for the most part, so
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: that's I believe, probably the genesis of some of this.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Now the shift is limited, not totally, but cleaned up
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: a lot, so there are more hits available, and I
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: think there's a lot more ground ball hits. I know
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: that's not in fashion, but it is true. There are
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: a lot more hits available. That is how you keep
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: your batting average up. That is how you keep your
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: confidence up. And for guys that Brady alluded to one
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: in particular, we can get to a little bit later.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: That's a big deal if you can salvage one hit,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: one walk, but a hit feels pretty good. I got
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: to be honest. If you zero for three and you
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: sneak one in that fourth at bat, that's a big
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: confidence boost. You go home feeling different and hopefully the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: team wins too, you know, and maybe you're the guy
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: that is able to contribute big. Those are things that
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: really matter throughout the course of a year.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Brady also said that genetics play a part is quote
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to the highest degree. Hitting is visual. You don't know
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: what another player sees, and Anderson said some players simply
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: see certain pitches better than others could do.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: You agree with that one hundred percent. There is something
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: inherent and I was envious of those that did it
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: a lot better than me. It was my Achilles heel.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I still don't have an exact answer, and I think
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: part of it may be answered by what Brady said.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Now there's eye dominance. We can get very geeky. I'm
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: his right eye dominant, heavily right eye dominant as a
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: right handed hitter. So going down to TPI title is
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: performance Institute. Quickly was going over a few things with
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: doctor Greg Rose, and he had me get in my
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: batting stance and he said, well, yeah, it's not surprising
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: because your head is significantly more open to the pitcher
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: than other guys. Paul Goldchmidt would be an example of
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: a guy that can stay a little more to the side. Now,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Paul saw the ball a heck of a lot better.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: And my strong suspicion is he's left eye dominant, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: that stuff can really play a part. Once you know
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: what you are, you can adjust. I know this is
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: a little bit complex, but it does matter, and it
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: can explain some of the tendencies for guys, maybe why
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: guys thrive against certain styles of pitching and struggle against others.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: But you can't improve it too. It's not something that
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: my genetics are lousy in this regard. I can't get
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: any better. It's something everyone can improve upon, but at
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: times to get to that upperrational and maybe those guys
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: are just inherently better.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: What are some of the challenges Brady is going to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: face with some of these individual hitters, because you know
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: every one of them is different. You can't just go
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: into a team meeting and say, hey, come on, guys,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: we've got to cut down on our strikeouts. There's different
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: plans and approaches, mental approaches, physical adjustments that each individual
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: guy will have to make. There are a couple of
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: players that stand out in your mind where you think,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: this is what this guy needs to do, This is
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: what that guy needs to do.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: There are I think I'll echo some of Brady's the
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: guys that he pointed out Channel and Netto. He had
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: really nice things to say about. He said Nolan has
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: a very repeatable swing, very low maintenance, which I agree
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: with watching him. Interestingly, interestingly enough, he doesn't see him
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: at all interested in trying to get Nolan to drive
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: the ball out of the park more. I think he
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: hopes and as Nolan does that maybe some of the
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: improved bat speed will lead to that. But he's not
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: looking for some big swing change. He wants him to
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: continue to do what he's doing. And I know Kurt
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: Suzuki mentioned that he sees Nolan is a potential batting
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: champion titled, so that would mean hitting for a very
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: high average, and I'm all for that. I think he's
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: a pure hitter, very very good at hanging in there
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: against left handed pitchers. By and large, he gets some
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: hits against some guys that on paper don't look like
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: great matchups. Netto is a very talented player. We've talked
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: about him. I think Gray's expecting him to continue his trajectory,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: knowing himself a little more, probably pning in on swinging
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: at pitches that are, you know, in a place he
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: can do damage on. Improve his on base percentage maybe
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: a little bit. But he's a guy that's going to
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: swing the bat. He swings early often, and he's very
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: good at pulling the baseball. Speaking of pulling the baseball,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: I know I made a brief comment about Logan O'HOPPI
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: some thought maybe I had just plucked it out of
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the small social media clip from drive Line, but I
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: have watched a lot more than that, and I think
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Brady had a very good point on Logan. Searching for
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the perfect mechanical swing that is a it doesn't exist.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: There's the answer. It is something that makes a lot
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: of sense in golf as well. You know, if I
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: just perfect my swing, those scores will come right on down.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: In baseball, the perfect swing will lead to me having
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: the same line as Aaron Judge. Doesn't really work that way.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: You need to find the best swing for you, and
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I think if Logan is chasing perfection, that will lead
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: to anxiety. And Brady touched on that, think he's looking
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: for Logan to be able to breathe a little easier
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: in the box, trust that the swing that he does
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: have is going to produce, and when those offers, you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: you have a couple of games back to back, it's
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: not a big deal. You're a good player, You've done
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: it before, You're going to do it again. You don't
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: need to panic, you don't need to go seek out
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: advice and ask around. I think that's one thing. If
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: I were to give Ohapi any advice, it's too At
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, trust yourself, don't you Trust
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: yourself and trust your hitting coaches because you have two
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: very good ones. As far as the outside influences, if
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: they help, so be it. But it sounded like last
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: year he was really struggling with too many voices, too
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: much unsolicited advice, which is always going to happen when
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: you're not playing well from everywhere the Little League coaches,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Fred relatives, YadA yadas. So that and then Joe Adele
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: would be the last one. Brady touched on his swing.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Some have said it is too long. He disagreed. He
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: said it's appropriately long to generate the kind of bat
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: speed needed to drive the ball like Joe does. Joe
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: has eighty grade power and he was able to tap
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: into it last year. I think the biggest improvements for
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: me with Joe and Savant backs it up big time.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: He started to really mash the fastball. He hit the
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: fastball and the slider significantly better than any other point
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: in his career, and that led to much better statistics.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: His on base percentages the area that needs the most improvement.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Some quick stats on that he chases only four percent
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: more than league average, so that's not really it as
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: far as that goes. I think some of the things
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: that stood out more. When he does chase, he makes
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: contact ten percent less than the league average, so that
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: number starts to get a little bit wider. Meaning when
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: he chases, he you know they're either foul balls or
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: swings and misses as opposed to putting those balls in play.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: And then he swings at forty five percent, or did
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: last year forty five percent of first pitches. That is
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: fifteen percent more than the league average of thirty percent,
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: So it is very high. I don't know what trouts is.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I could have looked it up, but it is probably
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: a lot lower. And Brady also touched on Mike, saying
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: that he expects improvements this year. It was a little
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: more vague, but I think it's just giving the benefit
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: of the doubt. If Mike is remotely healthy, he's going
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: to be much more capable and the numbers will be
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: better than they were last year.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Now, you were in Baltimore with Brady Anderson for several years.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I believe he's the special assistant to the GM, working
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in a variety of roles. From what you know about
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Brady his personality, how do you think he's sort of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: going to affect and impact these hitters here from a
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: mechanical standpoint and from a personality standpoint, because as we know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a lot of the game is a metal it's between
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the years, and that's a big part of these coaches
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Brady is a very unique individual in a good way.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: He's very thoughtful. He is not just going to throw
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: something at someone and then say the same thing to
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: the next guy. It's going to be intended specifically for
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: that person. And he's probably spent a long time pondering
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: what he's going to say. I know, Buck show Walter said,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: if there was one flaw with Brady, he tries to
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: save everybody, meaning even a player that you know, every
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: single other person in the room has given up on.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Brady will see something and want to try and make
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: that player better and give them a chance. And I
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: think with that can come some burnout because at the
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: end of the day, some guys, while they're excellent baseball players,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: they may not be major leaguers. And that's kind of
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: a tough concept, but it is true. And I think
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: that Brady's a very common influence. He's not a yeller,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: he's not a screamer. He's not going to get in
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: guys faces. He's going to be someone that instills a
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: very even killed approach and I think that's really good
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: for these younger guys. And he's got the resume. I mean,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: he was an excellent player, he played for a long time,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: and so the credibility part of it, it does matter,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: and he's got it. And you know what, I really
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: think this interview was a nice job by both Fletch
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: and Brady, you know, giving some candid insights into what
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: he's thinking well.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Speaking of Jeff Fletcher, I'd like to close the show
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: today with a little defense of Fletch, a guy known
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: for I think thirty years now. Fletch, as many fans know,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: took a lot of heat in our last show from
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Angel fans who didn't think he came down hard enough
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: on Artie Moreno for the owner's claim that fans care
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: more about affordability than winning. Whether you disagree or agree
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: with that sentiment, whether you know you like or dislike Fletch.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: He's the only beat writer who travels full time with
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the Angels right now. He's the only guy who's in
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: his Arizona all spring, who's on almost every road trip,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: and because of that we get stories like the one
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: he road. I'm Brady Anderson now, my former employer, employer
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: of the Los Angeles Times, pulled the plug on it's
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Angels coverage two years ago. They pretty much ignore the
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: team all spring, and they don't even cover home games anymore.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I lobbied hard against that decision in twenty twenty four
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: to no avail, and I believe it was shortsighted, ill
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: advised in a move that it's one of a series
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: of moves and decisions that has led to the downfall
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: of what was once one of the greatest sports sections
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: in the nation. And as good as a reporter as
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Sam Blum is and I love him, the Athletic is
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: not going to be traveling full time in the Angels
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: this year, or even covering them as a full time beat,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: So like or dislike them, agree or disagree with him.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Fletch and the Southern California News Group and the Orange
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: County Register are the only ones committed to covering the
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Angels full time. And I don't know what about you guys,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: but I'd rather have coverage than no coverage at all.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And on that we're gonna end this episode of Halo Territory.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Please like and subscribe and we'll see you next time
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: on Halo Territory.