Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / BOTTOM FEEDERS: Misery has company in Mets-Angels weekend series; Abbey Mastracco joins

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BOTTOM FEEDERS: Misery has company in Mets-Angels weekend series; Abbey Mastracco joins · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Well, hey Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo territory.
0:11
Speaker 1: I am Mike D. Giovanna, former La Times Baseball writer
0:14
Speaker 1: and host of the show, joined by my regular co
0:17
Speaker 1: host Mark Trumbo, the former Angel slugger, and today we're
0:20
Speaker 1: happy to have as our guest Abby Mastraco, the New
0:23
Speaker 1: York Mets beat writer for the New York Daily News. Abby,
0:27
Speaker 1: how you doing, Welcome to the show.
0:29
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. I'm doing great. I'm back in
0:31
Speaker 2: California as a Natives. Yeah.
0:33
Speaker 1: For those who don't know, Abby is a local so
0:35
Speaker 1: Calle native.
0:36
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
0:37
Speaker 3: I grew up in the Sacramento area, but went to
0:40
Speaker 3: school at Long Beach State.
0:41
Speaker 2: Was in southern California for ten years before I moved
0:44
Speaker 2: to New York.
0:45
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, we were a month into the season. We
0:49
Speaker 1: haven't really done any shows that preview upcoming series, but
0:53
Speaker 1: we thought with the Angels off to such a brutal start,
0:56
Speaker 1: it might be a good time to show Angel fans
0:58
Speaker 1: that as bad as things are, they can always get worse.
1:02
Speaker 1: Exhibit A being the New York Mets the Mets Center.
1:06
Speaker 1: This weekend series Anaheim with the worst record in baseball
1:09
Speaker 1: ten and twenty one they have, but they have the
1:12
Speaker 1: highest payroll in baseball at three hundred and sixty three million,
1:15
Speaker 1: and unlike the Angels, the Mets were expected to compete
1:18
Speaker 1: for a World Series title. Abby, I was gonna ask
1:22
Speaker 1: what the heck is wrong with the Mets, but I
1:24
Speaker 1: feel like it might be a lot quicker to ask
1:26
Speaker 1: what's right with the Mets? What the heck is going
1:28
Speaker 1: on in New York right now?
1:30
Speaker 3: There's not much that's going right with the Mets other
1:32
Speaker 3: than a couple starting pitchers who are having some good seasons,
1:35
Speaker 3: but then they can't even get any run support. Nolan
1:37
Speaker 3: MacLean and Clay Holmes have been great, but you know,
1:42
Speaker 3: you could say that the lineup has been sort of
1:43
Speaker 3: ravaged by injury.
1:44
Speaker 2: That that is true, but I'm not.
1:46
Speaker 3: Sure that that has factored in just as much as
1:49
Speaker 3: the general suckage of the team.
1:52
Speaker 2: Everything has gone wrong.
1:54
Speaker 3: You know, they've got a lot of guys playing out
1:56
Speaker 3: of position defensively, and that was intentional. You know, Bubbish
2:00
Speaker 3: that signed to be a third baseman, Jorge Polonko signed to.
2:03
Speaker 2: Be a first baseman.
2:05
Speaker 3: But they aren't quite catching up defensively as quick as
2:08
Speaker 3: the Mets anticipated.
2:10
Speaker 2: The bullpen has been kind of a mess. Nobody, nobody
2:15
Speaker 2: can hit.
2:16
Speaker 3: They're hitting balls straight into the ground, They're not getting
2:18
Speaker 3: balls into the air. It's nothing is going right with
2:22
Speaker 3: this team right now, really nothing.
2:27
Speaker 1: Well, that sounds like a lot of fun, sounds familiar, familiar, Elmark,
2:34
Speaker 1: it's that baseball.
2:35
Speaker 2: And even they'll tell you it's baseball.
2:38
Speaker 4: Angels prefer to go the air route. But after looking
2:42
Speaker 4: at the stats, it does seem like the Mets of
2:44
Speaker 4: a serious problem hitting for power. We can let Abby
2:48
Speaker 4: expand upon that, but I wanted to ask about manager
2:51
Speaker 4: Carlos Mendoza and his job security. There have been a
2:55
Speaker 4: couple of managers around the league. Alex Cora and Rob
2:58
Speaker 4: Thompson already dismissed Carlos Mendoza's managing a team with high expectations.
3:04
Speaker 4: Is this job security questionable right now?
3:08
Speaker 2: It's definitely questionable.
3:09
Speaker 3: But I think that there was sort of a narrative
3:11
Speaker 3: out there that once the Red Sox and the Phillies
3:14
Speaker 3: made their move, it would put pressure on David Stearns
3:17
Speaker 3: to fire a manager.
3:18
Speaker 2: But that's not how David Sterns operates. He is not reactive.
3:22
Speaker 3: He's not going to let what other teams do dictate
3:25
Speaker 3: how he runs the baseball operations departments, So if other
3:28
Speaker 3: teams are firing their managers, it's not necessarily like a
3:31
Speaker 3: Domino situation.
3:32
Speaker 2: With Carlos Mendoza now having.
3:34
Speaker 3: Said that, yes, his job is on the line, his
3:36
Speaker 3: seat is very hot right now.
3:39
Speaker 2: I do continue to hear from the Mets that they
3:42
Speaker 2: don't have.
3:43
Speaker 3: Any interest in making a move right now and making
3:47
Speaker 3: a personnel move now. That could be because they are
3:50
Speaker 3: hoping that if they give Mendoza enough time, he does
3:53
Speaker 3: start to turn this around, or maybe they see that
3:55
Speaker 3: it's actually flowed roster construction. I don't think that they
3:59
Speaker 3: want to fire Carlos Mendoza. I think they know at
4:01
Speaker 3: some point they might have to because they're going to
4:04
Speaker 3: have to make a change. But at the same time,
4:06
Speaker 3: is a new guy really going to do anything better
4:08
Speaker 3: with this roster.
4:09
Speaker 2: It's like I said, this is pretty flawed roster construction. Yeah,
4:13
Speaker 2: this is.
4:13
Speaker 1: Pretty stunning for a team with the payroll of the
4:16
Speaker 1: New York Mets. They entered this weekend ranked twenty ninth
4:20
Speaker 1: in the league in runs, twenty sixth in homers, twenty
4:24
Speaker 1: sixth in doubles, twenty seventh in walks, twenty seventh, in
4:28
Speaker 1: batting average twenty ninth, and on base percentage thirtieth, in slugging,
4:34
Speaker 1: thirtieth in ops and twenty six with the average with
4:38
Speaker 1: runners in scoring position. Now we know it is a
4:41
Speaker 1: pretty busy winner. Abby. The Mets let Pete Alonzo walk
4:45
Speaker 1: in free agency, they traded away Brandon Nemo and Jeff McNeil,
4:49
Speaker 1: and as you mentioned, Boba Schett signed to a three year,
4:51
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty six million dollar deal. What is
4:54
Speaker 1: sort of the net effect of these moves been and
4:57
Speaker 1: has been as the subtraction of maybe a couple the
5:00
Speaker 1: key guys from last year been a little more impactful
5:03
Speaker 1: than the Mets thought.
5:05
Speaker 2: I think so, yeah, I think that they are.
5:08
Speaker 3: You know, they're definitely missing Brandon Nemo's presence. I think
5:11
Speaker 3: on the field and in the clubhouse. Brandon Nemo was
5:14
Speaker 3: a homegrown player who was such a strong voice in
5:17
Speaker 3: that clubhouse. Now things go wrong and it's like Francisco
5:20
Speaker 3: Lindor is there to stand in front of the banner.
5:22
Speaker 2: But really who else?
5:23
Speaker 3: I mean a few weeks ago in LA when the
5:26
Speaker 3: Mets loss to the Dodgers, I think we were talking
5:28
Speaker 3: to Bobachette, and he seemed a.
5:29
Speaker 2: Bit confused why we were asking him.
5:32
Speaker 3: Question sort of general questions about the team and the
5:35
Speaker 3: offense because he's not an established team leader.
5:39
Speaker 2: He's new on the team.
5:40
Speaker 3: He's trying to figure out why he's having a slow
5:42
Speaker 3: start to the season as well. So I think they're
5:44
Speaker 3: missing Nemo's influence with Alonso, you know, he was one
5:47
Speaker 3: of the most durable.
5:48
Speaker 2: Guys in the game.
5:50
Speaker 3: He always played one hundred and sixty two games, rarely
5:52
Speaker 3: went on the injured list. And now they have Jorge Polonko,
5:55
Speaker 3: who they signed to play first base. He played two
5:57
Speaker 3: games at first base and got hurt. They they kind
6:01
Speaker 3: of slow played that with his injury, let him dh
6:03
Speaker 3: for a bit. Then he got a risk injury in
6:06
Speaker 3: addition to the heel achilles injury and decided they had
6:09
Speaker 3: to put him on the injured list. Now, when he
6:11
Speaker 3: comes back, he's going to have to get reps at
6:15
Speaker 3: first base, either in like simulated games or maybe I
6:19
Speaker 3: don't know, do some other work at first base because
6:20
Speaker 3: he's just not there where he needs to be. He's
6:24
Speaker 3: not as experienced as he needs to be at the
6:25
Speaker 3: position to be able to just jump right back into it.
6:28
Speaker 3: So you trade away a couple of those guys, and yeah,
6:32
Speaker 3: you are going to have some holes in the met
6:34
Speaker 3: stop that they filled them as best they could, But
6:36
Speaker 3: this was always a high risk, high reward team. There
6:39
Speaker 3: was no guarantee that Jorge Polanka was going to work
6:42
Speaker 3: out at first base. There was no guarantee that Luis
6:45
Speaker 3: Robert Junior was going to revert to his all star self,
6:49
Speaker 3: you know, and now he's hurt as well. Francisco Lindor
6:52
Speaker 3: is on the injured list. Wan Sodo is really the
6:55
Speaker 3: only player playing up to the level that we expect
6:58
Speaker 3: him to play at. At some point, I think we've
7:01
Speaker 3: asked Carlos Mendoza quite a bit. Does this come back
7:05
Speaker 3: on the hitting coaches? And these are hitting coaches this year.
7:09
Speaker 3: The Mets fired Eric Shaves and Jeremy Barnes after last season,
7:14
Speaker 3: and that was a pretty well established duo that they
7:17
Speaker 3: had for a few years. You know, Guys liked that
7:20
Speaker 3: Eric Schavez was a big league veteran and he was
7:22
Speaker 3: very experienced in in game situations, whereas Barnes was a
7:26
Speaker 3: really good communicator, very good at delivering the analytics and
7:30
Speaker 3: a lot of the swing adjustments in sort of concise,
7:32
Speaker 3: simple ways, and you know, they continue to say that
7:36
Speaker 3: it's not it's not for lack of preparation or effort.
7:39
Speaker 2: With the coaching staff. They like the communication, but.
7:42
Speaker 3: At some point, if things are not happening the way
7:45
Speaker 3: that that they're supposed to happen, you do have to ask, well,
7:49
Speaker 3: maybe is this is it somebody else? Is it this
7:50
Speaker 3: coaching staff? Is it the philosophies of this coaching staff.
7:54
Speaker 3: It's it's got to be something, And they.
7:56
Speaker 2: Seem to be at a loss for any real answers
7:58
Speaker 2: right now.
7:59
Speaker 1: As bad as the offenses, there's been some pitching issues
8:02
Speaker 1: as well. It seems like the rotation falls off a
8:04
Speaker 1: cliff after MacLean and Holmes and Peralta and then the
8:08
Speaker 1: closer they brought in. I think he has of what
8:10
Speaker 1: a nine point zero zero Devin Williams. I mean, yeah,
8:15
Speaker 1: the Angels know all about closing issues, but some pitching problems.
8:19
Speaker 1: I mean, gosh, that's a lot of money for a
8:21
Speaker 1: really bad team.
8:23
Speaker 2: It is a lot of money for a really bad team.
8:25
Speaker 2: But you know, the Mets have done this in the past.
8:27
Speaker 3: It's kind of shocking how I you know, you can
8:31
Speaker 3: make all the jokes the Mets are cursed, God hates
8:33
Speaker 3: the Mets, whatever, But sometimes it really does seem like
8:35
Speaker 3: it's true because you think back to like twenty twenty three,
8:39
Speaker 3: they'd gone to the playoffs. In twenty twenty two, returned
8:42
Speaker 3: a very similar roster, added Justin Verlander right after he
8:45
Speaker 3: won a Cy Young Award, and things fell apart immediately.
8:48
Speaker 3: This just happens with the Mets sometimes. And that was
8:50
Speaker 3: a different manager, that was Buck show Walter. So it
8:54
Speaker 3: does seem like every few years the Mets have this
8:56
Speaker 3: giant payroll and everything seems to fall apart. I think
9:01
Speaker 3: that there are still some sort of like infrastructure issues
9:04
Speaker 3: within the team that maybe Steve Cohen didn't anticipate taking
9:08
Speaker 3: so long to have to sort of fix or smooth
9:10
Speaker 3: out with the personnel that he has in place when
9:13
Speaker 3: he bought the team, because I think he expected a
9:15
Speaker 3: pretty quick turnaround. I don't think he expected things to
9:18
Speaker 3: still be this like METSI a few years or five years,
9:21
Speaker 3: six years into his ownership.
9:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, is Jeff Albert in charge of the hitting there?
9:29
Speaker 3: Yes, Jeff Albert is the director of Major League Hitting,
9:32
Speaker 3: and then Troy Snicker is also a hitting coach, and look,
9:35
Speaker 3: I like both guys, and I know that the team
9:37
Speaker 3: lights both of them as well. But it is interesting
9:40
Speaker 3: how last year Eric's Javas took so much heat, especially
9:44
Speaker 3: from the fans and even from sort of outside analysts. Well,
9:48
Speaker 3: is it Javas, is it Barns? Why aren't they hitting
9:50
Speaker 3: with runners in the scoring position? And this year the
9:52
Speaker 3: hitting coaches. Maybe it's because they're new and people just
9:54
Speaker 3: don't really know them very well, but they're not getting
9:57
Speaker 3: any heat. And I don't blame them for sort of
10:00
Speaker 3: trying to stay out of this and just put their
10:02
Speaker 3: heads down and work. When you talk to them, they
10:04
Speaker 3: tend to have some short answers. It's clear that they
10:08
Speaker 3: don't really they don't have an answer either. They don't
10:11
Speaker 3: have an answer for why this isn't working.
10:13
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick time out for a word
10:15
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10:17
Speaker 1: Halo territory.
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11:00
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11:22
Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory with Mike Di Giovanna
11:24
Speaker 1: and Mark Trumbo and our guest is Abby Mastraco, New
11:28
Speaker 1: York Daily News, New York Mets Beat writer. I believe
11:31
Speaker 1: Mark had a question for you, Abby.
11:34
Speaker 4: Yes, Abby, a good one for you here. I've heard
11:38
Speaker 4: rumblings that want Soto and Francisco Lindor may not be
11:42
Speaker 4: the best of friends. Do you have any thoughts on that?
11:46
Speaker 4: Have you heard anything?
11:47
Speaker 2: Is that.
11:49
Speaker 4: Hartially true?
11:51
Speaker 3: They are not the best of friends. They are co workers,
11:56
Speaker 3: They keep it professional. There is I think there's a
11:59
Speaker 3: level of respect for each other as players and as professionals,
12:03
Speaker 3: but their personalities are very different and they are not
12:08
Speaker 3: guys who are especially close.
12:10
Speaker 2: In the clubhouse.
12:11
Speaker 3: You know, Francisco Lindor has a lot of other interests
12:13
Speaker 3: outside of baseball.
12:15
Speaker 2: Fashion.
12:15
Speaker 3: He's got three kids, and I think One Soda is
12:19
Speaker 3: very baseball focused and maybe sees Lindor as somebody who
12:26
Speaker 3: is sort of a you know, flashy guy, and maybe
12:29
Speaker 3: that just doesn't jive with his put your head down
12:32
Speaker 3: in work kind of ethic. But I always found that
12:35
Speaker 3: kind of that kind of funny because when One Soda
12:38
Speaker 3: was coming up, you look at him at the plate
12:40
Speaker 3: and you know the Sodo shuffle that he's kind of
12:42
Speaker 3: famous for, and he plays with a lot of flash
12:46
Speaker 3: and a lot of personality, so.
12:49
Speaker 2: I think maybe they just don't.
12:51
Speaker 3: It's two personalities that are very different in some ways
12:54
Speaker 3: and maybe similar in other ways, and they end up
12:57
Speaker 3: butting heads and just yeah, they're not the best friends,
13:00
Speaker 3: but there is a level of professionalism and they do
13:05
Speaker 3: exchange hitting tips and things like that.
13:07
Speaker 2: You know.
13:07
Speaker 3: I've seen them in the cages together, and I've seen
13:10
Speaker 3: them on the field taking VP talking with each other
13:13
Speaker 3: about hitting. And at the end of the day, if
13:16
Speaker 3: there's one thing that they are going to get along about,
13:18
Speaker 3: it's probably hitting, because those two guys just love to hit.
13:22
Speaker 3: But yeah, they're different people and they've not really shied
13:24
Speaker 3: away from the fact that they're not exactly best friends.
13:28
Speaker 3: You know, if you ask both of them, how do
13:30
Speaker 3: you feel about Francis Glendor, How do you feel about
13:31
Speaker 3: Wan Sodo?
13:32
Speaker 2: We're teammates, that's what they say. We're teammates.
13:35
Speaker 4: Wow, local leader of this team. That was a good
13:39
Speaker 4: question in the clubhouse.
13:41
Speaker 3: I don't really know anymore because it was Nemo and
13:47
Speaker 3: I think probably Clay Holmes. This year, Clay Holmes has
13:51
Speaker 3: been Clay Holmes is a guy who he works really
13:55
Speaker 3: well with a lot of the younger players, and he
13:58
Speaker 3: always has this sort of like Allen's nuanced take on things,
14:01
Speaker 3: where he's like he's able to sort of say the
14:05
Speaker 3: right things to.
14:07
Speaker 2: Calm people down. But I don't know who the vocal.
14:10
Speaker 3: Leader is right now because Lindor has been a bit
14:12
Speaker 3: quieter this season. Lindor doesn't really even look like himself.
14:16
Speaker 2: He's hurt right now. He has a calf strain.
14:18
Speaker 3: He's going to be out for at least a month,
14:19
Speaker 3: if not too But even before that, he was making
14:22
Speaker 3: some mental mistakes at shortstop that you never see Francisco
14:25
Speaker 3: Lindor make. I mean, this team can't turn a double
14:27
Speaker 3: play right now. That's sort of astounding. Lindor is a
14:31
Speaker 3: Gold Glove caliber shortstop and he has not been playing
14:34
Speaker 3: like it, and he admits he has not been playing
14:36
Speaker 3: like it. So I don't know who the leader is
14:39
Speaker 3: right now, and I do think that could be a
14:41
Speaker 3: problem as well. I think they're trying to sort of
14:45
Speaker 3: feel their way around with so many new players.
14:47
Speaker 2: You know, they lost.
14:47
Speaker 3: Nimo, and Nimo and Lindor were the leaders for the
14:51
Speaker 3: last few years and there were times when they didn't
14:53
Speaker 3: get along, but they knew how to sort of set
14:55
Speaker 3: aside their differences for the sake of the team, and
14:58
Speaker 3: it was, you know, the the Spanish speaking guys could
15:01
Speaker 3: go to Lindor the younger Spanish speaking guys. A lot
15:04
Speaker 3: of the other guys who had played in the organization
15:06
Speaker 3: for a long time were comfortable with NIMO.
15:08
Speaker 2: I don't know what the leadership group really looks like
15:10
Speaker 2: right now.
15:11
Speaker 3: I do know Clay Holmes has taken on a much
15:13
Speaker 3: bigger role, and he's somebody who a lot of guys
15:16
Speaker 3: do gravitate towards and for good reason. He's a great
15:20
Speaker 3: guy and he has experienced a lot in baseball, so
15:24
Speaker 3: that doesn't necessarily surprise me, but it does surprise me
15:26
Speaker 3: that it is a starting pitcher, especially not your ace
15:30
Speaker 3: kind of starting pitcher.
15:32
Speaker 1: Speaking of leadership and more accurately, leadership voids, I asked
15:37
Speaker 1: you this sort of as a comparison. We have a
15:40
Speaker 1: GM out in Anaheim, Perry Manasian who seems to disappear
15:44
Speaker 1: for extremely long stretches of time, very little availability to
15:49
Speaker 1: the media, and I know from first hand experiences a
15:53
Speaker 1: lot of his availabilities off the record, and you know
15:56
Speaker 1: that really doesn't do us any good as writers and
15:59
Speaker 1: media members, Where is David Sturge, your GM, the Mets
16:03
Speaker 1: in all of this? Uh?
16:06
Speaker 6: Is he?
16:06
Speaker 1: Is he more one of the more front facing guys.
16:09
Speaker 1: Is he taking a lot of heat? Is he available?
16:12
Speaker 1: Is he taking the criticism? Is he addressing issues that
16:15
Speaker 1: are coming up in the clubhouse and with this team.
16:19
Speaker 2: He's not really addressing those issues?
16:20
Speaker 3: So yes, he has He is available every home stand,
16:23
Speaker 3: he has a press conference. And when things got particularly
16:27
Speaker 3: bad a few weeks ago, when the Mets went from
16:30
Speaker 3: LA to Chicago for a series at Wrigley Field, he
16:33
Speaker 3: did address the traveling writers and you know, we were
16:37
Speaker 3: able to get some answers from him, you know, especially
16:40
Speaker 3: about Carlos Mendoza. He said that Carlos Mendoza is doing
16:43
Speaker 3: a good job and putting guys in position to succeed.
16:46
Speaker 2: But that's where he kind of stops.
16:47
Speaker 3: He doesn't elaborate on things, and he he continues. He's
16:51
Speaker 3: very polished, very poised when he talks. He's not very
16:54
Speaker 3: candid though. That's drive that's drivet fans insane. You know,
16:57
Speaker 3: they tend to think of it as sort of LinkedIn
17:00
Speaker 3: or like Baseball Chat GPT answers. He doesn't really know
17:03
Speaker 3: how to like deviate from the script. He always has
17:06
Speaker 3: to be very polished. He's not a guy who likes
17:08
Speaker 3: to talk off the record a whole lot.
17:10
Speaker 2: So you don't see him on the field.
17:13
Speaker 3: He's not one of those guys that like, you can
17:15
Speaker 3: go approach on the field all the time.
17:16
Speaker 2: You kind of have to pick your spots with that.
17:18
Speaker 3: He does make himself available, but he's not really addressing
17:21
Speaker 3: the core deficiencies with the team. You know, he says
17:24
Speaker 3: that he's very happy with the defense. Sure, you know
17:27
Speaker 3: they might be middle of the pack in some of
17:29
Speaker 3: the analytics, but the eye test does still exist. And
17:32
Speaker 3: when Francisco Lindoor can't turn a double play, or when
17:36
Speaker 3: you have a right fielder who is just learning to
17:39
Speaker 3: play right field and you see the catch probability and
17:43
Speaker 3: he doesn't make the catch, you know, these questions are
17:46
Speaker 3: going to be asked, should he have made that? Is
17:48
Speaker 3: he ready to be in right field as much as
17:51
Speaker 3: he is playing right field? What about the first basement
17:53
Speaker 3: with Polonco injured Mark Bientos, Why is he not able
17:57
Speaker 3: to just make a throw home without bouncing it right now?
18:03
Speaker 3: David Stearns tends to give these very polished corporate answers
18:06
Speaker 3: that don't address the whole issue, you know, things like
18:11
Speaker 3: asking about code I Sega.
18:13
Speaker 2: Before he went on the injured list. It was we
18:16
Speaker 2: believe in Senga.
18:17
Speaker 3: We believe that he will pitch like he has pitched
18:20
Speaker 3: in the past. We believe in our players. We believe
18:22
Speaker 3: they will turn around. Okay, well, what sort of what
18:24
Speaker 3: do you have to indicate that they will turn it around?
18:26
Speaker 3: What about your internal projections or your scouting are you
18:29
Speaker 3: seeing or hearing that indicates to you that they will
18:32
Speaker 3: turn it around? And he just sits there with and
18:35
Speaker 3: you know, like a CEO and says, we believe that.
18:39
Speaker 2: Our players will turn it around.
18:40
Speaker 3: Those aren't real answers, and it's driving the fans insane.
18:44
Speaker 2: I don't blame them. I really don't blame the fans
18:47
Speaker 2: for being upset with that.
18:49
Speaker 1: All Right, we're going to take another break for a
18:51
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors, and we're going to say farewell
18:53
Speaker 1: to Abby Mastraco, the outstanding New York Mets beat writer
18:57
Speaker 1: for the New York Daily News. Abby really appreciated your
19:00
Speaker 1: input and thank you for your time, and we'll be
19:02
Speaker 1: right back with more Halo territory. Halo territory is brought
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20:51
Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory. Back with Mark Trumbo
20:54
Speaker 1: and I am Mike did givanna. We're going to turn
20:56
Speaker 1: our attention to the angels right now. Mark ben Joyce
20:59
Speaker 1: made a first rehab appearance in his recovery from an
21:02
Speaker 1: inflamed shoulder Wednesday night. He allowed one hit, struck out one,
21:06
Speaker 1: and walked a batter in a scoreless inning for Class
21:08
Speaker 1: A Rancho Cucamonga. Did you get a chance to see
21:12
Speaker 1: that outing on video?
21:15
Speaker 4: Yes?
21:16
Speaker 2: Man?
21:16
Speaker 1: What'd you think?
21:18
Speaker 4: Throwing hard?
21:20
Speaker 2: Shocker?
21:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, hard, rowing hard. I looked at the video. It
21:25
Speaker 4: was the Ben Joyce. It looked like Ben Joyce out there,
21:29
Speaker 4: he looked. I mean, it's just one inning and the
21:32
Speaker 4: video was what it was. I think a lot of
21:35
Speaker 4: people have seen it. It looked like early on he was
21:37
Speaker 4: pulling some of his pitches into the left handed batter's
21:41
Speaker 4: box facing the right handed hitters. But he kind of
21:43
Speaker 4: dialed in his armslot and pitched a nice ending for
21:48
Speaker 4: a guy that we were somewhat uncertain of what was
21:52
Speaker 4: going on with him throwing one hundred and one miles
21:56
Speaker 4: an hour in Rancho Kukamonga is the answer. So I think,
22:00
Speaker 4: as far as the communication and his timeline a little
22:04
Speaker 4: bit surprising, but that's encouraging.
22:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, his fastball hit triple digits several times. I did
22:11
Speaker 1: think his command, at least for the first half of
22:14
Speaker 1: the inning fastball wise, he was kind of all over
22:16
Speaker 1: the place. He did dial in a few nice sliders,
22:20
Speaker 1: so I think as the inning went on he did
22:22
Speaker 1: get better. You know, in a perfect world, I think
22:26
Speaker 1: he would probably benefit from maybe another rehab appearance or two.
22:31
Speaker 1: Both Angel's bullpen in such a bad way right now,
22:34
Speaker 1: And as a reminder, Angel relievers enter Friday with a
22:37
Speaker 1: five point six six ERA, second worst and major League Baseball,
22:42
Speaker 1: and they have nine blown saves and thirteen opportunities. Can
22:46
Speaker 1: this team really afford to wait much longer for Ben
22:48
Speaker 1: Joyce to come back?
22:51
Speaker 4: Can they run the risk of hurting him. I mean,
22:57
Speaker 4: that was that trade off worth it in your opinion?
22:59
Speaker 4: Where I mean, what is the rush to get Ben
23:01
Speaker 4: Joyce back being twelve and twenty?
23:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. I guess I'm thinking, is there really
23:09
Speaker 1: any more risk he's going to injure himself in rancho
23:13
Speaker 1: or double A or triple A? I don't know. I mean,
23:16
Speaker 1: to me, the velocity was there. I mean, I'm in
23:17
Speaker 1: favor of him. I just think his command, especially the fastball.
23:22
Speaker 1: I think he would need at least one more game
23:23
Speaker 1: to just sort of dial it in. But you know,
23:27
Speaker 1: things might be getting a little desperate around Anaheim these days.
23:30
Speaker 4: You just never know. They certainly probably are. I think
23:35
Speaker 4: that a lot of the heat has fallen on the
23:39
Speaker 4: manager in his first year, but we've talked about that.
23:43
Speaker 4: Kurt Suzuki is not the one to blame. He seems
23:47
Speaker 4: to be doing what he can and it seems like
23:51
Speaker 4: there's a lot of other influence in my opinion as
23:53
Speaker 4: far as the moves he's making. A lot of heat
23:57
Speaker 4: has come about because these relievers seemed to really struggle
24:02
Speaker 4: pitching either parts of an inning, sitting down, coming back out.
24:06
Speaker 4: And Zephyr John was a guy Why is that, in
24:10
Speaker 4: your opinion, You've covered this game a long time. Why
24:13
Speaker 4: can't a guy sit down for a half inning and
24:16
Speaker 4: go out and pitch without giving it up.
24:20
Speaker 1: I don't know the exact answer to that. All I
24:22
Speaker 1: can guess is so many of these relievers an how
24:24
Speaker 1: are so max effort. You know, Bachmann comes in, he's
24:27
Speaker 1: throwing ninety nine. Sil Seth comes in, he's throwing ninety eight.
24:31
Speaker 1: Zephyr John comes in, he's throwing ninety eight, ninety nine.
24:34
Speaker 1: You know, obviously he's got some secondaries in there as well.
24:38
Speaker 1: But when you expand all that energy and effort, whether
24:41
Speaker 1: it's getting one to two, maybe a whole inning, I
24:44
Speaker 1: just think sitting down and cooling off and getting back up.
24:47
Speaker 1: I'm not a major league pitcher. I'm not a pitcher
24:49
Speaker 1: at all. I just have to think all that effort
24:52
Speaker 1: is draining some of these guys a little bit, and
24:55
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, they're losing some of their edge coming
24:57
Speaker 1: back for that second inning. Now that being said, I
25:01
Speaker 1: didn't have a huge problem with Zephyr John coming back
25:04
Speaker 1: for the ninth inning Wednesday. You know, he struck out
25:07
Speaker 1: the side on sixteen pitches in the eighth. His stuff
25:10
Speaker 1: looked crisp. They had already use Bachman, already use sil Seth.
25:15
Speaker 1: He comes in the he starts the ninth, gets the
25:17
Speaker 1: first out, and then he's zero and two on who's
25:22
Speaker 1: the guy? Tristan Peters left handed batter yanks a slider,
25:28
Speaker 1: hits him in the back foot, take your base, then
25:32
Speaker 1: gets another strikeout and then gives up the triple to RBI,
25:35
Speaker 1: triple to Sam Antonaci to tie the game. I just
25:38
Speaker 1: think in that situation, you know, Kurt just didn't have
25:44
Speaker 1: many options to go to, and we did have this
25:46
Speaker 1: stat courtesy of Jeff Fletcher today about Zephyr John He's
25:50
Speaker 1: pitching multiple innings and nine of his eleven games. When
25:52
Speaker 1: he first comes to the mound, he has allowed one
25:55
Speaker 1: run in nine innings with eleven strikeouts and two walks.
25:59
Speaker 1: After turning to the mound for a second or third time,
26:02
Speaker 1: he has allowed nine earned runs in seven on the
26:05
Speaker 1: third hands, with six walks and ten strikeouts. I still
26:10
Speaker 1: contem that was an I was okay with that move
26:13
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. Are you saying he asked too much for
26:16
Speaker 1: the kid in Chicago?
26:20
Speaker 4: From what I'm told, he's a high leverage reliever.
26:23
Speaker 1: True, Yeah, they don't have any relievers.
26:27
Speaker 4: I know, and it appears they're going, which the statistics
26:33
Speaker 4: would back this up, the route of trusting these late
26:36
Speaker 4: Indians to the younger arms. I don't know exactly how
26:39
Speaker 4: that's going to play out, but it is some at
26:43
Speaker 4: least it's a strategy. Unless this is well that could
26:48
Speaker 4: be actually Jeff Fletcher's opinion. Maybe, I think Kurt might
26:53
Speaker 4: have made some comments, But what about a quote like this?
26:55
Speaker 4: With the talent our young players have, I think the
26:58
Speaker 4: sky's a limit. Does that happen and this year? Does
27:00
Speaker 4: it happen next year? I don't know. Everybody has different
27:02
Speaker 4: timeframes on different things, and you're going to go through
27:05
Speaker 4: some adversity. Harry, what.
27:09
Speaker 1: Was that in reference to the relievers in the farm
27:11
Speaker 1: system and the young relievers in the major league staff?
27:13
Speaker 1: The Bachman's spring training spring training quote? Oh yeah, Well
27:20
Speaker 1: I other quotes have you seen from him? Not many?
27:24
Speaker 1: And that's a problem I love very much. A lack
27:27
Speaker 1: of accountability I feel on his part. I mean, yeah,
27:31
Speaker 1: I think you at this point you have if Ben
27:33
Speaker 1: Joyce can come back, does that solve the ninth inning?
27:36
Speaker 2: You hope?
27:36
Speaker 1: But man, you still have to get to a ninth
27:38
Speaker 1: inning with a lead, and as we see with all
27:40
Speaker 1: these really good teams, that bridge to get from the
27:45
Speaker 1: starter to the closer can be a long and turbulent ride.
27:51
Speaker 1: And yeah, I would move you know, Bachmann sil Seth
27:55
Speaker 1: to the eighth seventh inning. I wouldn't let Palmoran see
27:58
Speaker 1: a seventh or eighth inning for a while.
28:00
Speaker 2: Uh.
28:01
Speaker 1: You know, this fer mean guy to me. I'm not
28:03
Speaker 1: sure what to make of him. His stuff seems pretty good,
28:08
Speaker 1: his stuff does seem good. Maybe you throw him in there.
28:11
Speaker 1: I just think you have to drop Pomeranz down. I'm
28:13
Speaker 1: not sure where Nick Salmlin fits in anymore. But yeah,
28:17
Speaker 1: getting anybody back who can pitch some high leverage innings
28:22
Speaker 1: being you know, Ben Joyce is gonna help. But it's
28:24
Speaker 1: still a huge, huge problem. This is bullpen depth. And
28:28
Speaker 1: you you mentioned Kurtsuzuki taking a lot of heat. Maybe
28:31
Speaker 1: he should, but you know, the one guy I think
28:34
Speaker 1: should be catching a lot more heat as a general manager, Perrimanesium.
28:38
Speaker 1: You know, he put this bullpen together. He showed a
28:40
Speaker 1: lot of confidence in it, as you probably have to
28:43
Speaker 1: going into the season. But it's pretty clear one month
28:46
Speaker 1: then that it hasn't worked out. I don't know what
28:50
Speaker 1: they're gonna do with this guy. He's in the last
28:52
Speaker 1: year of his contract. You could easily make a case
28:55
Speaker 1: for firing him right now. You could make a case
28:57
Speaker 1: for the last year or two of firing him already.
29:00
Speaker 1: You know, he may try to get to the winner
29:02
Speaker 1: and maybe there's a lockout, and maybe he doesn't have
29:05
Speaker 1: to pay a GM. You know, maybe he wants to
29:07
Speaker 1: take a winner to do a whole other search. But
29:09
Speaker 1: to me, the angels as much as much of an
29:12
Speaker 1: issue as the owner is, and maybe the manager is.
29:16
Speaker 1: To me, the big problem is a general manager, and
29:19
Speaker 1: I just don't think they have the right guy. Where
29:20
Speaker 1: do you stand on that mark?
29:23
Speaker 4: You know where I stand on that? Well, you must
29:26
Speaker 4: it's nothing, it's nothing personal. This is the thing that
29:30
Speaker 4: I felt for a long time. And as a player,
29:33
Speaker 4: your job security, and there are guys that have thirteen
29:36
Speaker 4: year contracts and such, but especially as a young player,
29:39
Speaker 4: a lot of guys are constantly worried about losing their gig.
29:42
Speaker 4: And if you don't produce, you will lose your gig.
29:46
Speaker 4: And it is that you put up or shut up
29:49
Speaker 4: business so that there's more leeway now, younger players are
29:53
Speaker 4: given longer periods. My experience was a little bit different.
29:58
Speaker 4: I truly believe under uh you know, my rookie season
30:01
Speaker 4: playing for SOCIA, if I got off to a poor start,
30:05
Speaker 4: and then even so I got I was I believe,
30:07
Speaker 4: second in Rookie of the Year voting at the end
30:09
Speaker 4: of the year, and they had brought in Russell Brandon
30:12
Speaker 4: as an insurance policy, remember that, and we split some
30:14
Speaker 4: playing time and I was I hit I believe over
30:18
Speaker 4: two fifty twenty nine homers eighty nine RBIs. Yes, I
30:21
Speaker 4: remember the numbers. Thanks Albert if needed well whatever for context,
30:27
Speaker 4: but I had to and that still was not enough
30:32
Speaker 4: to prevent them from having someone come in and platoon
30:35
Speaker 4: a bit. And general managers, I mean, no winning season
30:40
Speaker 4: above seventy seven, that's the highest win total, multiple last
30:43
Speaker 4: place finishes, no postseason appearances. The farm system, we know
30:48
Speaker 4: where it ranks.
30:49
Speaker 2: Now.
30:49
Speaker 4: This last draft is probably the high point. I think
30:52
Speaker 4: there are some nice players that were taken there, and
30:55
Speaker 4: I guess the case would be, if you feel that
30:57
Speaker 4: he has a good aptitude for drafting, then you let
31:01
Speaker 4: him take the reins over this next draft. You're not
31:05
Speaker 4: picking us high, but it's still important. First rounders make
31:08
Speaker 4: up the bulk of most teams rosters, not all of it,
31:12
Speaker 4: but a lot of them, so it's important to hit
31:16
Speaker 4: on and it's going to be a case where they're not.
31:19
Speaker 4: And I think I did touch on this, but their
31:21
Speaker 4: pick is going they're going to have to take the
31:23
Speaker 4: best player available. I believe they pick eleventh ish, maybe
31:27
Speaker 4: a little later, but it's not a value pick. You're
31:30
Speaker 4: not going to in my opinion, they could do it again,
31:33
Speaker 4: but I think that you've got to get a good
31:35
Speaker 4: player and pay the going right for them this time.
31:38
Speaker 4: So the strategy I think will be a little bit different.
31:41
Speaker 4: I don't know what they're going to do after this
31:43
Speaker 4: really poor start, and around the league, managers so far
31:47
Speaker 4: have been the ones to go, but usually at some point,
31:50
Speaker 4: if this keeps up, somebody will go. Maybe I don't
31:53
Speaker 4: root for anybody to lose their job, but sometimes it's
31:57
Speaker 4: a looks thing. Do you think that that's part of it?
31:58
Speaker 4: Do you think perception it or is it just a
32:01
Speaker 4: tough start? Keep it, you know, keep your head up.
32:04
Speaker 2: Yeah.
32:04
Speaker 1: I think the Angels have made some ind season changes
32:06
Speaker 1: with the hitting coaches in the past few years. I
32:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't put it past them at all. I just think,
32:13
Speaker 1: you know, the old Dick cheers and the Titanic analogy
32:16
Speaker 1: really rings true with this team. And I think you know,
32:20
Speaker 1: at some point the buck has to stop at Periminesian.
32:23
Speaker 1: I was surprised when they you know, they extended them
32:27
Speaker 1: another year. When they did. I'd be stunned if they
32:29
Speaker 1: bring them back after this year, but who knows. Stranger
32:33
Speaker 1: things have happened with this owner. We're gonna end on
32:35
Speaker 1: that note. Thanks for watching Halo Territory. Angel fans enjoy
32:40
Speaker 1: the Mets series this weekend. As they say, I'm sure
32:42
Speaker 1: plenty of good seats are available. Please like and subscribe.
32:46
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time on Halo Territory