Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / Breaking down Halos' regime change, their new FanDuel Sports TV deal and the WBC; ESPN's Alden Gonzalez joins
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Well, hey Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo territory.
- 0:11Speaker 1: I am Mike di Giovanna, former La Times Baseball writer
- 0:14Speaker 1: and host of the show, joined by my regular co
- 0:17Speaker 1: host Mark Trumbo, the former Angel slugger, and Alden Gonzalez
- 0:22Speaker 1: of ESPN, and welcome to the show.
- 0:24Speaker 2: Alden, good to have you.
- 0:25Speaker 3: Great to be here, guys, thanks for having me.
- 0:28Speaker 1: Thanks, we appreciate it. We're going to have several topics
- 0:31Speaker 1: to talk about today, including some interesting Angel highlights from
- 0:36Speaker 1: the World Baseball Classic, a new team, well, a new
- 0:39Speaker 1: TV deal kind of for the Angels. Looks like we
- 0:42Speaker 1: have some resolution on that. But first we're going to
- 0:46Speaker 1: talk about a story that Alden broke early Friday morning,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and that has to do with a regime change at
- 0:52Speaker 1: the top of the Angels organization. John Carpino, team president
- 0:58Speaker 1: for the last sixteen years Ardi Morino was right hand
- 1:00Speaker 1: man for the last twenty three years, announced his resignation
- 1:05Speaker 1: and he will be replaced by Molly Jolly the pretty
- 1:08Speaker 1: much the chief financial officer of the Angels.
- 1:12Speaker 2: Now.
- 1:12Speaker 1: I can't say I was shocked by this move, considering
- 1:14Speaker 1: John a sixty six and sort of right in that
- 1:16Speaker 1: sweet spot of retirement. But for any either of you,
- 1:20Speaker 1: two guys alten start with you, did the timing sort
- 1:22Speaker 1: of seem a little odd. I mean, right at the
- 1:24Speaker 1: beginning of the season, I supposed to the end of
- 1:26Speaker 1: a season.
- 1:28Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I mean I was not. Look, Ardi Marino
- 1:32Speaker 3: putting the team up for sale and then backing out,
- 1:35Speaker 3: I think kind of created sort of a weird environment
- 1:37Speaker 3: for everybody where. There were a lot of people at
- 1:39Speaker 3: very prominent positions in the organization John Carpedo included, who
- 1:43Speaker 3: thought they were on their way out and all of
- 1:45Speaker 3: a sudden they were back in. And look he is,
- 1:48Speaker 3: as you said, he's sixty six years old. I had
- 1:50Speaker 3: heard you wanted to spend a little bit more time
- 1:51Speaker 3: with his family. These last few years obviously have been
- 1:54Speaker 3: really difficult on the organization as a whole, on him specifically,
- 1:59Speaker 3: I would imagine. But yeah, I was shocked that this happened. Now.
- 2:05Speaker 3: As for what it's going to mean moving forward, I
- 2:07Speaker 3: think that's the open question here. Look, Molly Jolly's name
- 2:11Speaker 3: got panned on social media, predictably, but I've heard from
- 2:17Speaker 3: a lot of people in the organization who speak really
- 2:18Speaker 3: highly of her. She's been there since even before Artie
- 2:21Speaker 3: Moreno took over the team. She worked for the Walt
- 2:23Speaker 3: Disney Company when it was under their ownership for about
- 2:25Speaker 3: three years before Artie Moreno stepped in. She's been a
- 2:28Speaker 3: really prominent role. She's gonna be the first woman now
- 2:32Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball, I believe, who heads up both
- 2:34Speaker 3: the business side and the baseball operation side. And I mean, look,
- 2:37Speaker 3: she's not going to have a say on how the
- 2:39Speaker 3: roster shapes up, or who they draft or anything like that,
- 2:43Speaker 3: but Perry Manazien does answer to her. The thing though,
- 2:46Speaker 3: is that she does answer to Artie Moreno. So what
- 2:50Speaker 3: that changes, What that means? I think that's going to
- 2:52Speaker 3: be the interesting thing.
- 2:54Speaker 2: Mark is a former player.
- 2:55Speaker 1: Does a move like that as you're in the middle
- 2:57Speaker 1: of spring training have any impact in the clubhouse?
- 3:00Speaker 2: Do players notice that?
- 3:01Speaker 1: Do they care about it?
- 3:03Speaker 2: Couldn't care less? Yeah, how much should I?
- 3:07Speaker 4: At least in my opinion, that's you know, that's a
- 3:10Speaker 4: move that effects I think probably the fan base a
- 3:14Speaker 4: lot more than the players. But we'll have to see
- 3:17Speaker 4: how it plays out. And I appreciate Alden here shedding light.
- 3:21Speaker 4: He's not wearing his suit, which I normally see it
- 3:24Speaker 4: on the field. But I appreciate you taking the time
- 3:30Speaker 4: to explain the situation because for a lot of people,
- 3:33Speaker 4: it is it does seem about Mike. To answer your question,
- 3:35Speaker 4: timing wise, why now who knows?
- 3:39Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought that at first, but then I started
- 3:41Speaker 1: to think, well, maybe John really felt the need to
- 3:44Speaker 1: sort of shepherd this TV deal through. In granted, there's
- 3:48Speaker 1: still a lot of work to be done in terms of,
- 3:50Speaker 1: you know, lining up advertisers and programming and all that
- 3:54Speaker 1: for this TV deal, but that's the only thing I
- 3:56Speaker 1: can think of in terms of the timing of it.
- 3:58Speaker 1: You know, he probably wanted to at least get that
- 4:01Speaker 1: major task office plate. How do we think this change
- 4:06Speaker 1: at the top will impact the club, Alden.
- 4:12Speaker 3: I'm interested to see if and I know this is
- 4:15Speaker 3: probably not what fans want to hear, but like, if
- 4:17Speaker 3: there's different stuff that they do around the ballpark, if
- 4:20Speaker 3: there's different promotional stuff that the Angels do, maybe Christmas
- 4:24Speaker 3: in July no longer exists, which we could only hope
- 4:26Speaker 3: that Christmas in July ceases to exist. But I think
- 4:31Speaker 3: there was a thought with the organization and you guys,
- 4:35Speaker 3: you guys would not be surprised to hear this but
- 4:36Speaker 3: the thing's got stale for a while. And I'm not
- 4:39Speaker 3: even just talking about the player side, the roster construction side,
- 4:42Speaker 3: we can get into that that obviously did, but just promotionally,
- 4:47Speaker 3: the things at the ballpark, the amenities, all that stuff.
- 4:50Speaker 3: So like bringing in sort of a fresh set of eye,
- 4:53Speaker 3: not a fresh set of eyes, but somebody in more
- 4:55Speaker 3: of a leadership position has the power to do stuff
- 4:57Speaker 3: like that. I'm interested to see what if anything on
- 5:01Speaker 3: the media side, Like the fact that the Angels radio
- 5:04Speaker 3: broadcast crew doesn't travel with the team is insane. The
- 5:07Speaker 3: fact that they're in a market like Anaheim in southern
- 5:11Speaker 3: California and they have such limited amount of Spanish language broadcasts.
- 5:17Speaker 3: It is just a space that they're not tapping into,
- 5:20Speaker 3: which I never understood. On the John Carpino had a
- 5:23Speaker 3: lot to say on the media side. What changes on
- 5:25Speaker 3: the media side, What changes on the promotional side? You know,
- 5:29Speaker 3: That's the stuff I'm interested in. But the stuff that matters,
- 5:31Speaker 3: and Mark could speak to this is what happens on
- 5:35Speaker 3: the field, and I don't know that anything's going to
- 5:38Speaker 3: change there. I hate to break it to everybody. The
- 5:40Speaker 3: budget's not changing. The local media situation is not getting
- 5:44Speaker 3: much better. And at the end of the day, the
- 5:47Speaker 3: issues that plague the Angels are not having a long
- 5:50Speaker 3: term vision, not investing enough in player development, and not
- 5:55Speaker 3: getting all the different elements of the organization aligned to
- 6:00Speaker 3: build a good cohesive organization. These are the things that
- 6:03Speaker 3: have played the Angels for I don't know, ten fifteen
- 6:07Speaker 3: years especially. That's the stuff that really needs to change,
- 6:11Speaker 3: and that's the stuff that can only change I think
- 6:16Speaker 3: from the very top, and that's above Molly Jolly.
- 6:19Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always hard to tell how much a team
- 6:22Speaker 1: president is involved in baseball decisions. I do think John
- 6:26Speaker 1: Carpino was a little more involved than many As we
- 6:30Speaker 1: remember Alden, it was John Carpino and Arty Moreno who
- 6:34Speaker 1: traveled to Texas in the winter before the twenty thirteen
- 6:38Speaker 1: season and signed Josh Hamilton pretty much behind Jerry Depoto
- 6:42Speaker 1: the GM's back, I wonder, and maybe all in our
- 6:46Speaker 1: mark ands speak to this. With Molly Jolly taking over
- 6:49Speaker 1: as a president and her background mainly in finance and
- 6:52Speaker 1: running the business side of the club, is this going
- 6:55Speaker 1: to leave more power baseball wise in the hands of
- 6:59Speaker 1: Periminaesium general manager.
- 7:02Speaker 3: Well, I could answer this first I never really got
- 7:07Speaker 3: the sense that, I know Josh Hamilton is an extreme example.
- 7:11Speaker 3: I never got the sense that John Carpino meddled a
- 7:14Speaker 3: lot in baseball operations. I think he tried his best
- 7:17Speaker 3: to support that aspect of it. But the person who
- 7:20Speaker 3: gets involved in baseball operations is already Moreno, and so
- 7:24Speaker 3: I don't think Perry Manazien is gonna have any more
- 7:27Speaker 3: or less autonomy than he ever did. And look, I'm
- 7:30Speaker 3: not saying that already impacts who they draft or specific
- 7:36Speaker 3: targets and free agency. I will also say that once
- 7:39Speaker 3: you get to certain price points, owners always get involved,
- 7:42Speaker 3: especially when you're talking about nine figure contracts and stuff
- 7:45Speaker 3: like that, owners will get involved. But when you're talking
- 7:46Speaker 3: about like not trading players at the trade that line,
- 7:49Speaker 3: when they're clearly not winning, you know, that's not a
- 7:52Speaker 3: John Carpino thing. That's an already Moreno thing, you know. So, like,
- 7:55Speaker 3: I don't know how much is going to change there.
- 7:57Speaker 3: Like I said before, Artie Moreno's still owns this team,
- 8:00Speaker 3: for better or worse. Perry Monazian's marching orders, the way
- 8:05Speaker 3: he goes about his job. A lot of this is
- 8:08Speaker 3: sort of under the vision of what Artie Marino wants
- 8:12Speaker 3: for this franchise and so in many ways, And I've
- 8:14Speaker 3: said this before about Perry, I don't know where he
- 8:18Speaker 3: ends and already begins, and I kind of felt that
- 8:21Speaker 3: with Carpino as well. I don't know where he ends
- 8:24Speaker 3: and already begins right like good and bad. So we'll
- 8:29Speaker 3: see still the same order.
- 8:32Speaker 1: All right, We're going to take a quick break for
- 8:34Speaker 1: a word from our sponsors, and we'll be right back
- 8:36Speaker 1: with more Halo Territory.
- 8:39Speaker 5: The number one rated ticketing app is seat geek, and
- 8:43Speaker 5: you can get ten percent off on sea geeks app
- 8:45Speaker 5: by using the code territory ten, So you should use it.
- 8:48Speaker 3: Aj Oh.
- 8:49Speaker 4: I'm definitely gonna use it for WBC games in Miami
- 8:52Speaker 4: because I want to go to the semi finals in
- 8:54Speaker 4: the finals and they're going to be sold out. Absolutely
- 8:56Speaker 4: spring training games for the people out there who want
- 8:58Speaker 4: to go to spring training games.
- 8:59Speaker 2: Absolutely great idea of best seats radar.
- 9:01Speaker 3: One through ten. And I recently had to use sea
- 9:03Speaker 3: geek to buy tickets to a Florida Gators basketball game
- 9:05Speaker 3: that was sold out.
- 9:06Speaker 4: So I love the code territory ten percent off and
- 9:09Speaker 4: the rating is the best.
- 9:10Speaker 5: Yes, he's talking about each ticket rated on a scale
- 9:13Speaker 5: of one to ten, so you know you're getting a
- 9:14Speaker 5: good deal. So look for the green dots. Green means good,
- 9:17Speaker 5: red means bad. And of course we have a code
- 9:19Speaker 5: for you. Like I mentioned, it's Territory ten for ten
- 9:23Speaker 5: percent off your next set of tickets at se geek.
- 9:25Speaker 5: That's ten percent off any tickets with promo code t
- 9:29Speaker 5: E R R it O R Y one zero. Make
- 9:31Speaker 5: sure you click the link in the description and download
- 9:33Speaker 5: the app and have the code automatically added to your
- 9:36Speaker 5: account so you can use it later. Thank you to
- 9:39Speaker 5: see Geek.
- 9:42Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory. I guess is all
- 9:44Speaker 1: in Gonzales the ESPN. Here's kind of a million dollar question.
- 9:49Speaker 1: Do we feel that John Carpino's resignation or retirement at
- 9:55Speaker 1: this point is an indication that already is going to
- 9:58Speaker 1: soon sell the team.
- 10:01Speaker 3: I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't
- 10:04Speaker 3: I don't think anybody I would say, and I'm just guessing.
- 10:08Speaker 3: I would say it's the opposite again just to guess,
- 10:12Speaker 3: but I would think that when Arti Marino sells the team,
- 10:15Speaker 3: the team somebody like John Carpino would stand to make
- 10:18Speaker 3: a lot of money off of transaction like that, So
- 10:23Speaker 3: I was if you brought You asked at the top
- 10:25Speaker 3: of the show about whether I was surprised. I think
- 10:27Speaker 3: that was an element for me that was surprising, which
- 10:30Speaker 3: was and again I don't know this for sure, but
- 10:32Speaker 3: my assumption would be that he would have waited for
- 10:36Speaker 3: Artie to sell the team and then he could make
- 10:38Speaker 3: a lot of money off that transaction. The fact that
- 10:40Speaker 3: he didn't makes me think maybe we don't know when
- 10:43Speaker 3: he's going to sell the team.
- 10:44Speaker 2: That's just my thought, Mark, I don't know. I do
- 10:50Speaker 2: know that.
- 10:51Speaker 4: All I can say is that John, on a personal
- 10:54Speaker 4: level always was was really good to me seeing him
- 10:59Speaker 4: throughout the years. He was far more visible than some others,
- 11:03Speaker 4: and he was willing to have a conversation. Met his
- 11:05Speaker 4: son when he was much younger. Now he's probably taller
- 11:08Speaker 4: than me, but you know, and when the Cowboys stadium open,
- 11:12Speaker 4: for example, we were I got a video somewhere of
- 11:15Speaker 4: Trout kicking a field goal many years ago. John was
- 11:19Speaker 4: there for that too, So so those were good memories.
- 11:22Speaker 4: I did worry a little when I'd see him at
- 11:24Speaker 4: the stadium in recent years. He was visible. He was
- 11:27Speaker 4: out there running around. One of the days was a
- 11:30Speaker 4: Hawaiian shirt giveaway. It was felt like a hundred ish degrees.
- 11:35Speaker 4: Him and Gooby were dripping with sweat, but hustling around
- 11:38Speaker 4: the ballpark promoting these giveaway shirts. I'm not sure any
- 11:42Speaker 4: of these giveaways need promotions, because the line is, you know,
- 11:46Speaker 4: down down the street, no matter what it is, gas
- 11:49Speaker 4: station hat or you know, tawny bobblehead obviously no longer,
- 11:54Speaker 4: but that drew a lot of interest. Altan, I'm sure
- 11:56Speaker 4: you have a couple of those. But John John was
- 12:00Speaker 4: was really good to me as far as the time
- 12:03Speaker 4: in I don't know. I think my preference would be
- 12:08Speaker 4: for baseball people to evaluate baseball talent, and if Molly
- 12:13Speaker 4: has a keen eye for scouting and baseball talent evaluation,
- 12:18Speaker 4: then go for it. And if not, make sure someone
- 12:23Speaker 4: that is versed in that probably does that.
- 12:26Speaker 2: Usually.
- 12:27Speaker 4: I don't know, Alder, maybe you can what's the structure
- 12:29Speaker 4: of like front offices Dodgers would be one? Andrew Friedman's
- 12:32Speaker 4: title there is what.
- 12:35Speaker 3: He is the executive He is president, so.
- 12:42Speaker 2: That would be a Molly's title is also that.
- 12:46Speaker 3: No, Molly's title is actually, and look, the Angels front
- 12:49Speaker 3: office is a lot smaller than most front offices. Most
- 12:52Speaker 3: offices have a president baseball operations, but more. Molly's position
- 12:55Speaker 3: now is like what Stan Caston is, right, So like
- 12:58Speaker 3: stan Casten works below the ownership group. His title is CEO,
- 13:02Speaker 3: so like these titles can be nominal. But Molly is like,
- 13:05Speaker 3: the next person below already is my understanding, So that
- 13:09Speaker 3: is the equivalent of what Stan Caston is. Stan Kasten
- 13:12Speaker 3: oversees the business side, and he sees the baseball operation side.
- 13:16Speaker 3: Andrew Freeman reports to Stan cast and just like Perry,
- 13:19Speaker 3: general manager reports tomorrow. Yeah.
- 13:22Speaker 1: The reason I asked that question is I have seen
- 13:24Speaker 1: speculation online that, you know, people somehow think this is
- 13:28Speaker 1: an indication already's going to sell. I agree with all
- 13:30Speaker 1: of them. I think it's the exact opposite when when
- 13:33Speaker 1: I already put the team up for sale in twenty
- 13:36Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, right, I think John would have been
- 13:40Speaker 1: sixty two. Then he was probably looking at a really
- 13:43Speaker 1: sweet golden parachute, you know, a chunk of that sale
- 13:47Speaker 1: and retiring at sixty two it would have been pretty nice.
- 13:50Speaker 1: I can't remember how old his son is, and how
- 13:52Speaker 1: old his kids are, but I'm pretty sure then they
- 13:54Speaker 1: were still in high school, and when already pulled the
- 13:57Speaker 1: team off the market. I don't think John would ever
- 13:59Speaker 1: admit this to me publicly or privately. Even I think
- 14:03Speaker 1: he was bombed out because the last four years, I mean,
- 14:07Speaker 1: he's had to endure just more losing and more grief.
- 14:11Speaker 1: And I can't imagine, even though as long as John's
- 14:14Speaker 1: been with Arty, it can't be easy working for ARTI
- 14:19Speaker 1: I want to remind readers or listeners of a quote
- 14:24Speaker 1: from John Carpino, and this came. It was a lead
- 14:27Speaker 1: to a story I wrote on the How Just the
- 14:30Speaker 1: Angels Lost Decade in twenty twenty two. But this was
- 14:34Speaker 1: after the twenty twenty season when the Angels somehow managed
- 14:38Speaker 1: to not make the playoffs despite an expanded sixteen team
- 14:42Speaker 1: playoff field, and John was in a zoom call with
- 14:45Speaker 1: Joe Madden and he said, obviously we're not doing it
- 14:49Speaker 1: the right way. We're not winning games, so something is
- 14:53Speaker 1: not right in our organization. Now, mind you, this was
- 14:57Speaker 1: now six years ago. Did did did John? Did the Angels?
- 15:03Speaker 1: Have they gotten anything right since then? I mean they
- 15:06Speaker 1: did hire Perry after that, and I don't think they've
- 15:11Speaker 1: gotten much right at all. Is there anything you feel
- 15:12Speaker 1: like they've done well in these last four or five years.
- 15:17Speaker 3: Well, look, I think one thing they did do well
- 15:21Speaker 3: or at least start focusing on a little bit more,
- 15:23Speaker 3: is sort of building kind of a young nucleus, right so,
- 15:26Speaker 3: and Perry talks about this all the time. And look,
- 15:29Speaker 3: Zach Netto, Logan o'hoppy, Joe Adell has kind of emerged
- 15:34Speaker 3: a little bit yet a nice season last year. You
- 15:39Speaker 3: have Nolan Shanwell too.
- 15:40Speaker 2: Like.
- 15:41Speaker 3: They have a position player group that is kind of
- 15:45Speaker 3: starting to emerge, which has been nice to see. But look,
- 15:50Speaker 3: the Rockies have a group like that too, right Like.
- 15:52Speaker 3: And I'm not trying to say anything against Netto and
- 15:54Speaker 3: Shanwell and o hoping these guys there they could be
- 15:56Speaker 3: great ballplayers. But my point is that you need a
- 15:58Speaker 3: lot more than that. And the problem with the Angels
- 16:01Speaker 3: is that they continue to be sort of in this
- 16:04Speaker 3: vicious cycle where every off season, if you look at
- 16:07Speaker 3: the totality of their forty man roster, they have about
- 16:10Speaker 3: like fifteen I'm just making up a number, fifteen eighteen
- 16:12Speaker 3: twenty holes that need to plug. And they don't have
- 16:15Speaker 3: a ton of money to do it, and so they
- 16:17Speaker 3: have to go bargain hunting in free agency and sign
- 16:20Speaker 3: a bunch of guys to NRIs, guys who when they
- 16:23Speaker 3: defa them, nobody claims them on waivers sort of like bottom.
- 16:26Speaker 3: They have to scrape the bottom of the barrel a
- 16:28Speaker 3: lot to just sort of plug forty man roster holes.
- 16:31Speaker 3: And these are guys who, when people inevitably get hurt,
- 16:34Speaker 3: they end up having a large say on seasons. And
- 16:37Speaker 3: so you can't have both, right, Like, so you can't
- 16:41Speaker 3: be a team that doesn't have that steady pipeline of
- 16:44Speaker 3: talent coming through the farm system and then also not
- 16:48Speaker 3: have an owner who's spending a ton of money to
- 16:50Speaker 3: make up for it, Okay, And then when you don't
- 16:52Speaker 3: have either of the two, you get sort of stuck
- 16:55Speaker 3: in these situations where every year you're kind of trying
- 16:59Speaker 3: to win and if you squint a little bit and
- 17:01Speaker 3: maybe nobody gets hurt, maybe they have a chance to
- 17:03Speaker 3: get in the wildcard round. But we know that, like
- 17:05Speaker 3: that's clearly not how baseball seasons play out, and so
- 17:09Speaker 3: they just keep getting stuck in this rut. And then
- 17:11Speaker 3: it seems as if every summer they're kind of out
- 17:14Speaker 3: of it, but maybe they have like a five percent
- 17:17Speaker 3: chance to make the playoffs. And they have these pending
- 17:19Speaker 3: free agents and they don't trade any of them and
- 17:21Speaker 3: they don't get any future value back, and it's just
- 17:23Speaker 3: sort of a difficult way to build organizations. And that's why.
- 17:27Speaker 3: And look, the Angels will say this, and I think
- 17:29Speaker 3: to some degree, like I agree with them that, like
- 17:32Speaker 3: Artie Moreno has never torn it down to the studs
- 17:35Speaker 3: and like sold the rebuild to him, like the entertainment
- 17:39Speaker 3: product on a nightly basis, like people like just in
- 17:42Speaker 3: a vacuum, people showing up to the ballpark and having
- 17:45Speaker 3: a team that they're kind of excited about, Like that
- 17:48Speaker 3: matters to him. He doesn't want to like intentionally lose.
- 17:52Speaker 3: The problem is, though, they've been occupying this middle space
- 17:56Speaker 3: now for ten years and it doesn't seem like it's
- 17:58Speaker 3: going anywhere, and they keep hyping up this young nucleus
- 18:02Speaker 3: of theirs. But jo Adell is now going to be
- 18:05Speaker 3: a free agent in two years, Zach Nettle's going to
- 18:07Speaker 3: start getting expensive. Logan o'happy is too. That's kind of
- 18:11Speaker 3: starting the age too, And they still haven't sort of
- 18:14Speaker 3: caught up to that, they haven't developed pitching, they haven't
- 18:17Speaker 3: signed big free agents. The ones they have signed have
- 18:20Speaker 3: turned out to be Anthony Rendon. So like, it's just
- 18:23Speaker 3: it's hard to see sort of where they're going here,
- 18:26Speaker 3: Like I don't know how they get out of this,
- 18:30Speaker 3: is my point in Mark. I don't know if you'll
- 18:32Speaker 3: disagree with me, but it's just it's tough, Like if
- 18:34Speaker 3: you're an Angels fan right now, like I don't know
- 18:36Speaker 3: what the light at the end of the tunnel is.
- 18:39Speaker 2: That's why you're here to tell us.
- 18:42Speaker 3: Well, I feel like i'm talking.
- 18:43Speaker 4: You seem to be pointing out a lot of the things,
- 18:47Speaker 4: and I don't know if anyone has the answers, But
- 18:50Speaker 4: what what do you see a team like the Sacramento
- 18:54Speaker 4: Las Vegas Athletics, Uhland whatever, They have talented young players.
- 19:01Speaker 4: They are also signing some free agents Severino and others
- 19:07Speaker 4: to contracts that are not nothing. I mean, these are
- 19:09Speaker 4: some significant dollars being spent. How are they And if
- 19:14Speaker 4: you're not an expert in them, that's fine, But I
- 19:16Speaker 4: keep looking at them and saying, how did they get
- 19:19Speaker 4: because it's really over the last four or five years
- 19:21Speaker 4: they've done it so I didn't you know, was it
- 19:23Speaker 4: a total rebuild? Not exactly, but it's a lot better
- 19:27Speaker 4: looking product.
- 19:29Speaker 3: Well it kind of was. And I will say, just
- 19:32Speaker 3: as an aside, you're doing this because it's your podcast,
- 19:35Speaker 3: and I see what you're doing. You're taking these little
- 19:37Speaker 3: swipes at me, and then you change the conversation and
- 19:39Speaker 3: then I can't retaliate. But I just want you to
- 19:41Speaker 3: know that I'm writing these down. Okay, at one point
- 19:43Speaker 3: you told me that I own many Otani bobbleheads, and
- 19:45Speaker 3: then you gave me craft for wearing a suit, which
- 19:47Speaker 3: is standard. Fair, that's fine, but I'm making a note
- 19:50Speaker 3: of these. I'm not forgetting these just because you sort
- 19:52Speaker 3: of segue into else. I see what you're doing.
- 19:54Speaker 4: Even you started talking about your swings in the cage.
- 19:58Speaker 4: Yet so we get today that video, I've broken.
- 20:02Speaker 2: Down plenty of time to talk about it, but I
- 20:08Speaker 2: can't wait for that.
- 20:09Speaker 4: Why don't you talk about the A's or another team
- 20:11Speaker 4: you think has has done things the right way?
- 20:14Speaker 3: I I'll happily talk about the A's. They this is
- 20:17Speaker 3: what this is what they do? Uh, the A's. I
- 20:20Speaker 3: mean there's a movie about this, right. The A's have
- 20:23Speaker 3: had to for the last quarter century because their owner
- 20:27Speaker 3: says he doesn't have the revenue streams. They sort of build, uh,
- 20:31Speaker 3: build this pipeline of talent, develop players into stars, and
- 20:34Speaker 3: then we get too expensive, they trade them away. It's
- 20:36Speaker 3: what the Rays do, It's what the Brewers do, It's
- 20:38Speaker 3: what the A's do. But the A's are really good
- 20:40Speaker 3: at it. David Force and that front office is really good.
- 20:43Speaker 3: And and I will note the A's did rebuild by
- 20:47Speaker 3: trading Matt Olsen and Matt Chapman and others. They didn't
- 20:52Speaker 3: do great on those trades. The return on those trades
- 20:54Speaker 3: weren't good, and I think fans would be surprised that,
- 20:56Speaker 3: Like the hit rate on those trades are usually not good,
- 20:59Speaker 3: Like what the Red Sox get for Mookie Betts, like
- 21:01Speaker 3: nothing that anybody remembers. Right, But they've drafted well and
- 21:07Speaker 3: they've developed well. And so now they have because they
- 21:10Speaker 3: committed to this plan and they had the people who
- 21:13Speaker 3: could execute this plan. They have an offense now that
- 21:16Speaker 3: is a lot of fun. Like they're gonna be really
- 21:20Speaker 3: fun to watch this year, and they have homegrown talent
- 21:24Speaker 3: and they're doing a lot of what the Braves have done. Too,
- 21:27Speaker 3: is that they get the sort of homegrown talent and
- 21:30Speaker 3: they sign them to extensions early on in their careers
- 21:33Speaker 3: so that they capitalize on their primeiers, like rather than
- 21:37Speaker 3: go out and shop for free agents when they're thirty
- 21:39Speaker 3: thirty one years old and beginning to descend, they have
- 21:43Speaker 3: these players as they're rising, and sometimes it works, sometimes
- 21:48Speaker 3: it doesn't. The White Sox tried this, it did not work.
- 21:52Speaker 3: We'll see what happens with the A's, but you could
- 21:54Speaker 3: already see that they have a really exciting offense. Their
- 21:56Speaker 3: challenge is going to be building pitching. Pitching in Sacramento
- 21:59Speaker 3: is really difficult, and so they try to supplement that
- 22:02Speaker 3: with Louis Severino. It didn't work. Jeffrey Springs didn't really
- 22:05Speaker 3: work that well too, either. But they have pitching coming,
- 22:08Speaker 3: and every team says that they have pitching coming, and
- 22:10Speaker 3: we'll see pitchers break down. Sometimes pitchers don't pan out.
- 22:15Speaker 3: But my point is they have a plan, and they
- 22:19Speaker 3: had this target, which is Las Vegas. They're going to
- 22:22Speaker 3: move in there in twenty twenty eight, and they wanted
- 22:25Speaker 3: to build up an exciting cores and be a team
- 22:28Speaker 3: that is competing for championships by the time they get there.
- 22:31Speaker 3: I don't know if it's going to work, but they're
- 22:33Speaker 3: headed towards something, right, and they're fans whatever fans they
- 22:38Speaker 3: have left, because I don't know if they have any
- 22:39Speaker 3: Oakland fans or any Sacramento fans anymore. And I don't
- 22:41Speaker 3: know if Las Vegas has fans. But that's beside the point.
- 22:44Speaker 3: People can get excited for the A's because they're building
- 22:48Speaker 3: towards this thing, right, And I keep I go back
- 22:50Speaker 3: to the Angels. What's the thing that they're building toward.
- 22:54Speaker 3: I can't figure it out yet.
- 22:56Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you know, they've already locked up some
- 22:58Speaker 1: of their young up and coming plays to long term deals.
- 23:01Speaker 1: And I think if they can secure Nick Kurtz, who
- 23:04Speaker 1: I think is one of the best young hitters in
- 23:06Speaker 1: the game Rookie of the Year unanimous choice, that's going
- 23:10Speaker 1: to lock up a lot of that young core and
- 23:12Speaker 1: that's going to make that I agree with all and
- 23:14Speaker 1: there's going to be an exciting team for the next
- 23:17Speaker 1: few years. Okay, we're going to turn our attention now
- 23:21Speaker 1: to the news also broke last Friday about the Angels
- 23:25Speaker 1: in their new TV deal. Sports Business Journal reporting that
- 23:28Speaker 1: the Angels purchased fifty share of Main Street Sports, and
- 23:34Speaker 1: they're going to form their own regional sports network that
- 23:37Speaker 1: will also house the NHL's Kings, but probably not the Clippers.
- 23:41Speaker 1: The network is expected to be available on the same
- 23:43Speaker 1: cable and satellite outlets as before, which I appreciate because
- 23:46Speaker 1: I did get FanDuel Sports before and I won't have
- 23:48Speaker 1: to pay extra for it. The on air talent Wayne Rendazo,
- 23:52Speaker 1: Mark Goubaza, Erica Weston is apparently going to stay the same.
- 23:57Speaker 1: This is good news for Angel fans, I think. But
- 24:00Speaker 1: I think the Angels still have a lot of work
- 24:02Speaker 1: to do in terms of, you know, building up the
- 24:04Speaker 1: sponsors and the advertising to try to get their revenue
- 24:08Speaker 1: at least toward what they were making in that you know,
- 24:11Speaker 1: great Fox Sports West deal, which is like what twenty years,
- 24:16Speaker 1: three billion or something. They were making a lot of money,
- 24:19Speaker 1: I think three hundred you know a lot of money
- 24:20Speaker 1: off that deal. All the what's the task at hand
- 24:23Speaker 1: here for the Angels.
- 24:26Speaker 3: It's a really difficult one. I like what they did,
- 24:27Speaker 3: and there were as Main Street Sports was headed towards
- 24:32Speaker 3: what looks like a liquidation, the vast majority of teams
- 24:35Speaker 3: went with Major League baseball right away. Major League Baseball
- 24:38Speaker 3: now has the rights to about half the industry. The
- 24:41Speaker 3: two main holdouts there were the Braves and the Angels,
- 24:44Speaker 3: and the reason why they were holdouts is because they
- 24:48Speaker 3: were two of the most valuable entities that Main Street
- 24:51Speaker 3: Sports has. The Braves have this massive territory which TBS
- 24:56Speaker 3: is very responsible for from the nineteen nineties, and so
- 25:00Speaker 3: you saw the Braves form their own network to try
- 25:02Speaker 3: to capitalize on that. The Angels obviously took out an
- 25:04Speaker 3: ownership stake in Main Street Sports and they're trying to
- 25:07Speaker 3: capitalize on that. Look, the Angels are not going to
- 25:10Speaker 3: recoup the money that Fox Sports was paying them before.
- 25:14Speaker 3: I think that was in twenty eleven twenty twelve, right
- 25:16Speaker 3: around when they signed Albert Pools and CJ. Wilson. That
- 25:19Speaker 3: all season these next three years for teams is all
- 25:23Speaker 3: about just sort of trying to hold on to as
- 25:26Speaker 3: much of that old cable local media money that they
- 25:30Speaker 3: used to have. Get as much out of that as possible,
- 25:33Speaker 3: because then at the end of twenty twenty eight, everything
- 25:35Speaker 3: is going to change. Major League Baseball wants to centralize
- 25:38Speaker 3: local media. I think the vast majority of the industry
- 25:42Speaker 3: is going to go with them. We'll see how this
- 25:44Speaker 3: goes with the Angels. Depending on how this goes, it
- 25:46Speaker 3: will depend on whether they go with Major League Baseball.
- 25:47Speaker 3: But I will say it's a different thing. The Rangers
- 25:50Speaker 3: tried to start their own TV network. It hasn't gone
- 25:52Speaker 3: anywhere near as well for them as they thought. Striking
- 25:55Speaker 3: these carriage deals these days it's very difficult, and you've
- 25:59Speaker 3: seen it with the payroll, like their revenues are impacted greatness,
- 26:03Speaker 3: and the fact that they're a team that pays into
- 26:05Speaker 3: revenue sharing also means that all those CBT overages, all
- 26:09Speaker 3: those luxury text payments, they don't get those either. So
- 26:12Speaker 3: they're sort of in the wrong end of both here.
- 26:15Speaker 3: They don't get revenue sharing and they don't have a
- 26:17Speaker 3: local media deal. So they're in a tough spot and
- 26:19Speaker 3: they're trying to recoup as much as possible over these
- 26:21Speaker 3: next few years. It's going to be hard.
- 26:23Speaker 1: Yeah, we're still not going to get spring training games
- 26:25Speaker 1: on TV, but at least we'll get the regular season games.
- 26:28Speaker 2: Mark, if you figure out if you.
- 26:29Speaker 1: Even have fan duel sports on your on your cable
- 26:32Speaker 1: package or what, do you got.
- 26:35Speaker 2: Fairly confident I do.
- 26:36Speaker 4: I still always view it as Fox Sports West and
- 26:40Speaker 4: probably always well. These name changes are tad confusing, but
- 26:44Speaker 4: it appears it will be uninterrupted and I will get
- 26:48Speaker 4: to watch the games when they are available, So good
- 26:53Speaker 4: news there, I think for the.
- 26:55Speaker 2: Fans, Yeah, how do you think?
- 26:57Speaker 1: I mean they're also going to try to sell streaming
- 26:59Speaker 1: package is maybe for ninety nine bucks a year. I'm
- 27:02Speaker 1: not sure exactly how much. What do you think of
- 27:05Speaker 1: the appetite is going to be for fans who don't
- 27:08Speaker 1: get this network on their cable package and have to
- 27:10Speaker 1: pay extra for it.
- 27:13Speaker 4: I think that Aldon can probably weigh in as well.
- 27:19Speaker 4: What number does it start to feel uncomfortable? Especially if
- 27:22Speaker 4: the on field play is it spectacular? Is it one
- 27:26Speaker 4: hundred dollars? Is it two hundred? If it gets much
- 27:28Speaker 4: over that, I think a lot are going to be out,
- 27:33Speaker 4: especially if another team across town is available on Sportsnet cable.
- 27:38Speaker 2: So we'll see.
- 27:41Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you can't pay per month, so maybe
- 27:44Speaker 1: if they're not too far out in April or May,
- 27:47Speaker 1: they'll get half season customers. Okay, we're going to turn
- 27:52Speaker 1: our attention to the World Baseball Classic. All of our
- 27:54Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic coverage is brought to you by our
- 27:57Speaker 1: friends at Fox one, which is a lot stream all
- 28:01Speaker 1: your Fox favorites together in one place, including all WBC
- 28:04Speaker 1: games over the next few weeks, and after that the
- 28:07Speaker 1: best MLB action all season long. Now, some interesting news
- 28:12Speaker 1: out of the WBC with some Angel prospects, notably Lucas Ramirez,
- 28:16Speaker 1: the son of former slugger Manny Ramires, hit two home
- 28:20Speaker 1: runs for Brazil against the Team USA and the opener
- 28:25Speaker 1: and a pitcher who I'm gonna admit I had never
- 28:27Speaker 1: heard about a prospect in the Angels organization. Niger Victor
- 28:31Speaker 1: struck out four batters against Team USA. Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper,
- 28:37Speaker 1: Gunner Henderson and Roman Anthony. His kid's a twenty four
- 28:40Speaker 1: year old right hand or fourteenth round pick out of
- 28:42Speaker 1: Central Florida in twenty twenty four, ninety seven mile an
- 28:46Speaker 1: hour fastball and got I think he got swinging strikes
- 28:49Speaker 1: on seven of his eleven sliders. Mark Aldman, anything about you,
- 28:54Speaker 1: these guys jumping out at you in the early rounds
- 28:56Speaker 1: of the WBC.
- 28:58Speaker 3: I just think it's this is what I like about
- 29:00Speaker 3: the early portion of the WBC, where like you get
- 29:02Speaker 3: these names that you're not really familiar with these young kids.
- 29:06Speaker 3: I mean, you saw Hoste Contras's seventeen year old son
- 29:10Speaker 3: get Aaron judged to ground into a double play, and look,
- 29:13Speaker 3: these are even probably Angels fans weren't super familiar with
- 29:16Speaker 3: these two guys. But and Mark Trumple could speak to
- 29:19Speaker 3: this as somebody who like played a winter ball and
- 29:20Speaker 3: stuff like that, like you want to get better as
- 29:23Speaker 3: a prospect, like playing these high pressure environments against premium competition,
- 29:29Speaker 3: and like I'd be really curious to study like the
- 29:32Speaker 3: past of these two players to see like how just
- 29:35Speaker 3: sort of being in these games, being in those environments
- 29:37Speaker 3: might have made them better. And it's cool, like, Angels
- 29:40Speaker 3: fans now have two other guys that if they weren't
- 29:43Speaker 3: on their radar already, now they got two guys that
- 29:45Speaker 3: they could follow in their career. I think that's awesome.
- 29:47Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think either was in their top thirty
- 29:51Speaker 1: on all these prospect lists. Mark, what kind of a
- 29:53Speaker 1: couple of performances like that do for kids in these
- 29:57Speaker 1: sort of at this level of their career.
- 30:00Speaker 2: They can go viral and you can see the clips everywhere.
- 30:05Speaker 4: Lucas Ramirez is a young guy twenty years old, just
- 30:08Speaker 4: drafted in twenty twenty four. He had a nice season
- 30:13Speaker 4: with the bat. I think he made it up to
- 30:15Speaker 4: Hya briefly. Too early to tell exactly what he is
- 30:20Speaker 4: or isn't, but it's a strong showing. Looks like he
- 30:22Speaker 4: has some pop on the bat. We've talked about the
- 30:24Speaker 4: Angels minor league system having a distinct lack of power hitters,
- 30:28Speaker 4: so if he blossoms into one, that's great. As far
- 30:32Speaker 4: as Victor very fired up, I think he clearly, you know,
- 30:38Speaker 4: was in the moment and you know, let the kids play,
- 30:42Speaker 4: so he looked like a stare down to the team
- 30:45Speaker 4: USI dugout. Then he kind of reined it in, but
- 30:49Speaker 4: it was, you know, it was celebrating. It's what everyone
- 30:52Speaker 4: does now, not what we were taught. But whatever, big stuff,
- 30:56Speaker 4: nice slider. The minor league numbers not as flattering. I
- 31:00Speaker 4: believe he's career five plus e RA and apparently gets
- 31:07Speaker 4: hit fairly hard when he's in the strike. Song may
- 31:09Speaker 4: have gone. I think he did play in the Fall League,
- 31:11Speaker 4: so I want to watch. You know, some of these
- 31:13Speaker 4: guys kind of it clicks when it clicks, but if
- 31:16Speaker 4: you have the physical tools, which every big leaguer generally
- 31:19Speaker 4: does have well above average tools. You don't find anyone
- 31:23Speaker 4: that's just, you know, got ordinary tools that somehow has
- 31:26Speaker 4: this mental capacity to take it to the next level.
- 31:29Speaker 4: Most guys are extremely talented with the skill set, and
- 31:33Speaker 4: both these guys seem to have that. So maybe a
- 31:36Speaker 4: nice platform for them to do some big things. Have
- 31:39Speaker 4: good seasons and you know those prospect lists. How much
- 31:43Speaker 4: do that matter? Who knows?
- 31:44Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 31:45Speaker 1: Bryce Harper had an interesting quote I think right as
- 31:48Speaker 1: a WBC open He said, obviously the WBC is great,
- 31:52Speaker 1: but it's not the Olympics. That's no disrespect to the
- 31:56Speaker 1: WBC or anything, but everybody knows when the Olympics are on,
- 32:00Speaker 1: everybody is watching. Doesn't matter what sport it is. It
- 32:03Speaker 1: could be the most random sport. And as all the
- 32:06Speaker 1: fans watching, I hope LA twenty eight it happens. Now,
- 32:13Speaker 1: this whole Olympics thing is gonna be really interesting. I
- 32:16Speaker 1: find I think major leaguers are gonna They're gonna find
- 32:18Speaker 1: a way to do it.
- 32:20Speaker 2: Now.
- 32:20Speaker 1: How they condense the whole Olympic tournament into maybe one week,
- 32:23Speaker 1: and whether it's July or August is going to be
- 32:26Speaker 1: a challenge. And I see what Bryce is saying, But personally,
- 32:30Speaker 1: I think what the Olympics will lack that the WBC
- 32:34Speaker 1: has in spades are some of these moments. Show hal
- 32:38Speaker 1: Otani hitting a grand slam in the Tokyo Doom in
- 32:41Speaker 1: his home country, the guy from Puerto Rico who hit
- 32:45Speaker 1: the walk off through on Homer the other night in
- 32:48Speaker 1: San Juan. I mean, you see these celebrations. I do
- 32:51Speaker 1: think the Olympics will bring out the energy that especially
- 32:54Speaker 1: some of these teams from Latin America bring, but man
- 32:57Speaker 1: to see show Hey and Yamamoto pitching in Japan and
- 33:02Speaker 1: to see maybe a team from the Dominican Mexico doing
- 33:05Speaker 1: in their home countries, I don't know. I think the
- 33:08Speaker 1: WBC does a great job of that.
- 33:13Speaker 3: Yeah, and look, I understand what he's saying, like this
- 33:15Speaker 3: is the sixth iteration.
- 33:17Speaker 2: Of the WBC.
- 33:18Speaker 3: The Olympics has been going on for what one hundred,
- 33:21Speaker 3: five hundred, one thousand years. I don't know. This is
- 33:24Speaker 3: just a deeper history there. It's not a thousand marks. Sorry,
- 33:29Speaker 3: there's a deeper history. There's a deeper meeting there. I
- 33:31Speaker 3: get it. I will say though, I think major league
- 33:34Speaker 3: players are going to find a way to play in
- 33:35Speaker 3: the Olympics in twenty twenty eight, and it's going to
- 33:37Speaker 3: be pretty simple. I think all you gotta do is,
- 33:40Speaker 3: you know, elongate the All Star break by four or
- 33:43Speaker 3: five days, a handful of days. I know that's going
- 33:45Speaker 3: to be a challenge for a lot of a lot
- 33:46Speaker 3: of guys sort of sitting around to start the second half.
- 33:49Speaker 3: But I think it's going to happen. I think there's
- 33:51Speaker 3: enough momentum around it. And one thing that I have
- 33:54Speaker 3: thought about, and I actually kicked it a lot around
- 33:57Speaker 3: to some league officials recently, is you know you talk
- 34:01Speaker 3: about how difficult it is for pitchers to take part
- 34:03Speaker 3: in the WBC because the middle of March they're not
- 34:05Speaker 3: fully stretched out. They got to be on schedule in
- 34:08Speaker 3: order to get their innings in and be ready for
- 34:09Speaker 3: opening Day to start a regular season. If it works
- 34:13Speaker 3: out well in twenty twenty eight with the Olympics and
- 34:15Speaker 3: they could sort of stretch out the Allstar Break to
- 34:18Speaker 3: make it happen, can that be a template for doing
- 34:21Speaker 3: that in the World Baseball Classic every few years, every
- 34:25Speaker 3: three four years, whatever, every three years when the WBC
- 34:28Speaker 3: rolls around, can you make the All Star Break a
- 34:30Speaker 3: little bit longer, and if you make it in the
- 34:32Speaker 3: middle of the season, I think you'd get more buying
- 34:34Speaker 3: from pitchers. I think more importantly, you'd get more buying
- 34:37Speaker 3: from their teams because they're already stretched out, right, Like
- 34:41Speaker 3: imagine Terrek Scoople taking down six innings right instead of
- 34:45Speaker 3: three in the WBC. They're already ramped up. I think
- 34:48Speaker 3: it would be easier. Now, Look, there would be challenges.
- 34:51Speaker 3: The WBC is longer, you would have to have a
- 34:53Speaker 3: much longer All Star break. But I do wonder if
- 34:55Speaker 3: twenty twenty eight can sort of set a sort of
- 34:58Speaker 3: template where like, hey, maybe we can be a little
- 35:01Speaker 3: flexible with this All Star break. Let these international events
- 35:04Speaker 3: take place in the middle of the season as opposed
- 35:07Speaker 3: to in March.
- 35:08Speaker 1: Yeah, I actually think they should just postpone the All
- 35:10Speaker 1: Star Game in the years of the Olympics if they
- 35:13Speaker 1: want to. And I agree, the competition for baseball in
- 35:17Speaker 1: the middle of July or early August or whatever it
- 35:20Speaker 1: is is going to be so more reflective of the
- 35:22Speaker 1: team's talent on the field in the countries that are competing.
- 35:27Speaker 1: And yeah, I don't think you could have as you know,
- 35:30Speaker 1: forty eight sixty four teams in the Olympics. Maybe there's
- 35:33Speaker 1: a way to whittle down some of these in qualifying
- 35:35Speaker 1: events for some of these European countries if they want
- 35:38Speaker 1: to compete, maybe some of these smaller countries and you
- 35:40Speaker 1: have to sort of do some kind of competition on
- 35:43Speaker 1: the way to get into the Olympics. But I just
- 35:46Speaker 1: think that kind of event with big leaguers in the
- 35:49Speaker 1: middle of the season would be spectacular. What do you think, Mark, I'm.
- 35:53Speaker 2: All for it.
- 35:54Speaker 4: I think that it seems like some very prominent players
- 35:58Speaker 4: want this to happen. I think one of the the
- 36:00Speaker 4: main difference is whenning a gold medal is really cool
- 36:04Speaker 4: and I think a lot of guys would love to
- 36:06Speaker 4: have that on their trophy case, the logistics of how
- 36:11Speaker 4: you do it are more difficult, and as always, how
- 36:15Speaker 4: do the teams benefit? And sometimes it pretty much means
- 36:20Speaker 4: they do not. I think what would be nice if
- 36:24Speaker 4: you were to postpone the All Star gamers. You said,
- 36:26Speaker 4: maybe you nominate guys that are deserving of being on
- 36:30Speaker 4: the All Star team, so you can say that you
- 36:32Speaker 4: were an All Star because the game, you know, how
- 36:35Speaker 4: important is it? It's fun? The homer in Derby is
- 36:39Speaker 4: stale in my opinion, but people still probably tune in.
- 36:45Speaker 4: And if these guys that are nominated to make the
- 36:48Speaker 4: All Star team, maybe you condense that roster somewhat and
- 36:51Speaker 4: that's the Olympic team, or maybe you know, you see
- 36:54Speaker 4: what the buying is. But enough big names want to
- 36:56Speaker 4: do it. I think that's going to move the needle,
- 36:58Speaker 4: and I think it'd be really they neat to see
- 37:01Speaker 4: and if there's a will, there's a way, so I
- 37:04Speaker 4: you know, smart baseball minds will figure out how to
- 37:06Speaker 4: do it.
- 37:08Speaker 1: From the WBC through the World Series to the World Cup,
- 37:11Speaker 1: to NASCAR and IndyCar. With Fox one, you'll get it
- 37:15Speaker 1: all live. Start your seven day free trial today. Offers
- 37:20Speaker 1: are subject to change. Download Fox one today and stream
- 37:23Speaker 1: the World Baseball Classic live now through March seventeenth. Go
- 37:28Speaker 1: to foxwe dot com for complete terms and conditions. Fox
- 37:32Speaker 1: one Streaming now. Okay, we're going to close the show
- 37:39Speaker 1: with a little personal questions for Alden Gonzales. I know
- 37:42Speaker 1: a lot of fans see Alden on TV with ESPN.
- 37:47Speaker 1: Hopefully some fans read his writing on the website. What
- 37:50Speaker 1: is sort of the breakdown all into your job? You know,
- 37:53Speaker 1: percentage wise TV writing.
- 37:58Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of varies. I think at the on
- 38:00Speaker 3: the time of year, it's more fifty to fifty in
- 38:04Speaker 3: I would say Spring Training, All Star Game, doing the playoffs,
- 38:10Speaker 3: and then it's very heavy on the reporting writing side,
- 38:15Speaker 3: maybe basically every other month. But it's a lot of fun.
- 38:18Speaker 3: I mean, I've always I've always liked doing the TV thing.
- 38:22Speaker 3: I came up as an annoying Angel Beat reporter covering
- 38:27Speaker 3: Mark Trumbo and the TV thing sort of evolved later,
- 38:32Speaker 3: but I've always liked it. I do some Sports Center stuff,
- 38:35Speaker 3: and they let me do games every once in a while.
- 38:37Speaker 3: I was just in Arizona last week and we did
- 38:39Speaker 3: Tim you say, against the Giants, and we did Dodgers Reds.
- 38:42Speaker 3: My favorite thing is doing the games. I love just
- 38:46Speaker 3: being involved in that environment. I love it because you
- 38:50Speaker 3: sort of bring every aspect of your job and you're
- 38:52Speaker 3: just telling stories in a different format. I love trying
- 38:55Speaker 3: the challenge of just sort of trying to bring something
- 38:58Speaker 3: additional to the broadcast that will help viewers sort of
- 39:01Speaker 3: enhance their experience and sort of learn about some of
- 39:04Speaker 3: the things that they're watching. But it's really cool. ESPN
- 39:09Speaker 3: is one of these great companies where like I get
- 39:10Speaker 3: to do a little bit of everything. I still get
- 39:12Speaker 3: to do the writing and reporting. I get to do
- 39:14Speaker 3: the TV stuff, and every once in a while we'll
- 39:17Speaker 3: get to do the games. I know Mark Trumble thinks
- 39:19Speaker 3: the home Run Derby is stale. I used to do
- 39:21Speaker 3: the home Run Derby, so I wonder if that has
- 39:24Speaker 3: played a part in his opinion, sort of swaying in
- 39:27Speaker 3: that direction, And if so, I apologize for that more
- 39:30Speaker 3: for making the home Run Derby stale for you.
- 39:33Speaker 4: No, you do a great job translating. Minus when I
- 39:36Speaker 4: ask you to translate a YouTube clip of me in
- 39:40Speaker 4: winter Ball and very gentleman was speaking very yeah, Well
- 39:46Speaker 4: you said, he's saying like you have big power.
- 39:49Speaker 3: Yeah that's what he said.
- 39:51Speaker 4: Well no, he said a lot more than that, and
- 39:53Speaker 4: you did not go the extra mile to translate.
- 39:55Speaker 3: Well, I didn't want to hurt your feelings.
- 39:58Speaker 4: I know it was all flattering. I had Google do
- 40:00Speaker 4: it for me, so thank you for that. But you
- 40:03Speaker 4: are out there, your high energy. You can do it all,
- 40:07Speaker 4: including a hit off show. Hey o Tani, that's the
- 40:10Speaker 4: traject machine. A lot of whiffs, but you didn't hit
- 40:13Speaker 4: a singlestic.
- 40:17Speaker 2: You have.
- 40:20Speaker 4: I describe you as a front foot hitter, prone to
- 40:23Speaker 4: lunching and weak against the breaking ball.
- 40:25Speaker 2: Very weak.
- 40:27Speaker 3: Keep the way back, kid, Hey, Mike Trout struck out
- 40:31Speaker 3: on that same sweeper in the WBC. Man, what do
- 40:33Speaker 3: you expect?
- 40:35Speaker 2: It's nasty.
- 40:35Speaker 3: You got to.
- 40:38Speaker 2: Choke up.
- 40:39Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to step into against show hey, against
- 40:42Speaker 1: the real show hey, or the video show hey. So
- 40:44Speaker 1: all kudos for that, Alton, Oh well that we're going
- 40:47Speaker 1: to close the show today. I really appreciate our guests.
- 40:49Speaker 1: All In Gonzalez of ESPN, thank you for joining us.
- 40:53Speaker 1: We're part of the Foul Tour Tour network. This is
- 40:56Speaker 1: Halo territory. Please join us next time. Until then, thanks
- 41:00Speaker 1: for watch