Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / ANGELS MAILBAG: What will Stan Kroenke's biggest moves be once the sale of the Angels goes through?

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ANGELS MAILBAG: What will Stan Kroenke's biggest moves be once the sale of the Angels goes through? · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Well, hey, Angel fans, and welcome to Halo Territory. I'm
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Mike DiGiovanna, former LA Times baseball writer and host of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the show, joined by my regular co-host, Mark Trumbo, the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: former Slugger. And we thought for this edition of Angel's Mailbags,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: we'd sport some new Halo Territory swag that we just got,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: wearing it proudly. Remember, you can go to haloterritoryshop.com for
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: all your swag needs. Mark, how are we doing today?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Fired up for this mailbag? I always like the mailbag episodes.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I think that there are some good questions here.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: These shirts are quite comfortable, by the way. They're not
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: the beefy cotton. This is nice, soft cotton and pretty form-fitting.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: So beyond these two, I'm not sure if we've sold
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: too many T-shirts already.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. What's your call, Mark?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Do we avoid putting these in the dryer or not?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: My wife is going to have to be the arbiter
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: on this one. You're asking the wrong person. Let's get
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: right into the mailbag from Matt Osso, one of our
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: regular commenters in the comments section of Halo Territory YouTube page.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Two questions.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: What do you think Stan Kroenke's first move will be
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: once the sale goes through? Will it be to make
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Mo the full-time GM? Will it be to hire a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: new manager or something else? Second, what do you think
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Kroenke's first roster move will be Do you see him
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: going big in free agency or will he start by quote,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: trimming the fat and getting rid of guys that don't
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: fit his vision for the team? Why don't we try
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to tackle that first question first, Mark? Uh, what do
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: you think the first big move will be when the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sale goes through?
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: A press conference. Probably what I would think. And then I, if,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: if it, um, works for both sides, I assume, uh,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: John Moselec will become the president of baseball operations and
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: hire a general manager under him. I believe that's what
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: I've heard all along. If they choose to have a
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: sole person as general manager and no president, then I
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: think that would make sense. I don't know any more
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: than the next guy, but that seems to be what
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: teams do these days is have a hierarchy in that structure.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: And then first roster moves. See, I don't, know what
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Stan Kroenke's type of ball player is.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: If you have an owner that you've observed for a
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: number of years, I think with the previous and, well,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: he's not the previous totally. I believe today we learned
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: he's going to have a 5% stake, Artie Moreno, that is,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: in the ball club. But he liked the big sluggers,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: the power bats. Did they always work out? We know
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: the answer, but... I think one of the procedural things
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: I'll have to do is protect a guy like Nelson Rada,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Rowdy Rodriguez, some of these minor league guys on the
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: 40-man roster or expose them to the Rule 5 draft.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: As far as big free agent splash, I'll let you
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: take that one. Maybe you have some insights.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the timing of the takeover is going to be
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: interesting because it's not going to happen until early 2027,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: most likely when the entire winter of free agency has
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: been completed, of course. With the lockout looming on December 1st,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: we don't know that there's going to be a regular
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: winner this year. So that may work to Stan's advantage
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: in terms of timing. I'll start with the second question.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: What will the first roster move? Do you see him
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: going big in free agency or will he start by
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: trimming the fat? I actually looked this up. There's not
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of fat to trim, believe it or not.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: You have Rendon's contract coming off the books, Robert Stevenson's
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: contract coming off the books. The only fat I see
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: is Yusei Kikuchi's got another twenty twenty one million left
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: on his three year contract. And Josh Lowe made two
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: point six million this year. He's going to be in arbitration.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Not sure what he's going to cost, but you could
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: easily trim some fat by trading Kikuchi. You'll probably have
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to eat a little bit or some of that contract.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: by non-tendering Josh Lowe and then the other guy, Travis Darnot,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: I was surprised. He's making $ 6 million this year. Not
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: a humongous contract for a reliable backup veteran catcher, but
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: $ 6 million. That money can probably be spent better elsewhere.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: And I think once he does take over, it may
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: not be this year, but I think he will make
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: a big splash in free agency. That's been his MO
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: with the Rams. They have not spared any kind of
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: expense when it comes to bringing in top-tier talent. The
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Miles Garrett trade, perfect example. Hopefully he comes back strong and,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you know, getting the quarterback in there, Matt. Why do
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I keep forgetting his name? Matt Stafford. And I watched
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that game in Australia. Oh, what a rough start for
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the Rams, but they'll come back. But as far as
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: his other big move, once the sale goes through, I
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: think there's going to be, there will be a move
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: or two, before the sale actually goes through. I do
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: see Stan appointing some kind of person, whether that's Kevin Demoff,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the current Rams president, his son Josh, who runs a
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: lot of the team.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Somebody's going to.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Be a liaison between Kroenke and current interim GM John Moselock.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Will Moselock be that first hire? You know, he does
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: have a relationship with Kevin Demoff going back to their
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: days in St.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: Louis.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: But I think.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: The other MO with the Rams especially is to look
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: for that next big hiring as a coach, the up-and-comer.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Sean McVay, perfect example, 30 years old, the youngest head
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: coach hired in NFL history at the time, and look
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: what he's done for that Rams team. They're probably scouring
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: baseball already to come up with the next Sean McVay,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Maybe they're even doing that in terms of the next,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you know, Andrew Friedman, the next big front office hire.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's any guarantee it's going to be Mo.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I think they could do a.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Lot worse than Mo.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: And it might ease the transition to at least have Mo,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: a guy who's been in place since the summer and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: has already made a lot of moves, sort of, you know,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: pushing that rebuilding plan, getting it started and then pushing
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: it forward. You know, he's got a pretty good pulse
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: on the team right now. So I do see him
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: staying at least through the transition and then Stan's going
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to have a big move to make. You know, who
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: runs this team and what kind of people are they
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: going to put together, you know, in this front office
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and especially who's going to be in that manager seat.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Next question kind of piggybacks the first one. If this
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: front office can only fix one thing this winter, catching
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: a left-handed power bat, bullpen arms, which one do you
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: pick in free agency pretty good question and oh that
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: was from x and this this person has a pretty
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: good pulse on uh what this team needs mark what
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: do you i mean i i hate to think they
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: this new ownership group is only going to have enough
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: money to address one of these things but that was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the question mark what would you go.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: With i think when you look at what the team
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: needs the most and what free agency is the most
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: abundant in, it's got to be the bullpen and bullpen upgrades.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: There are a number of guys that could help this
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: club and help them immediately. I think finding a legitimate
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: star or not star, but you know, above average catching
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: is very difficult. Now those first two points catching on
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: a left-handed power bat, They potentially have a guy, and
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: he's hitting the ball better. You were a little critical
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: for a minute there, which was warranted. Moises Ballesteros wasn't
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: lighting it on fire, but he does seem to have
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: found a much better rhythm. I think he got two
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: or three hits in Wednesday night's interesting ball game. And
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I think that we've talked about maybe the improved fitness
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: could lead to more games behind the plate, and that
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: would kill two birds with one stone. I think this guy...
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: easily has 20 home run power, uh, in that bat, uh,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: could be more, but I don't see it being much
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: less if given, um, the, the, you know, number of
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: plate appearances that, uh, in order to produce those types
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: of numbers. Uh, what do you think?
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Given the constraints of this winter's free agent market, I
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: don't think there's much you can do certainly in the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: lines of catching or along those lines and along the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: lines of a left-handed bat. Uh, I would, uh, focus
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: on the bullpen for sure. I would try to sign
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: as many quality arms, whether that's a closer, whether that's
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: a setup guy, whether it's a lefty specialist, and there's
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: a number of good left-handed specialists that are going to
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: be on the market this winter. You have to sign,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to me, minimum three to four frontline relievers. The cost
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: of relievers can be a little high sometimes in free agency,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: but You can also do a lot of damage in
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: terms of fixing one area of your team that is
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: in dire need of upgrading. And then I would go
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: after a left-handed bat like Jake Bowers. He can play
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the corner outfield. I just don't think Josh Lowe is
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: going to be the answer, at least in terms of
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: left-handed power.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: You're going to have to pursue that in the trade market,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: but I can already.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: See the comment, well, who's going to pay for this?
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: You can guess too. The fans, well, no, we have
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: the wealthiest owner in all of Major League Baseball. And
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: some of that cost, we'll trickle down, we'll figure out
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: what that is. But big league teams that want to win,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: win in, you have to invest and you have to
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: have a bullpen that is way more reliable than it's
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: been this year.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there may be some non-tendered left-handed bats out there.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Whatever that best available left-handed bat is on the market,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: you need to pursue regardless of the position. And I know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: you know, Jake Bowers is a first baseman by trade,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: but who knows? Maybe they'll want to platoon Shanwell. Well,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: he's left-handed. I don't know what you do at first base.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I've made my opinions clear on Nolan. I think his
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: ceiling is limited. If you could trade him to a
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: team that sees some better value or a better fit,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I would do that. I just think at first base,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: you're going to have to incorporate a lot more power
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: than we've seen so far. We're going to take a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: quick break for a word from our sponsors, and we'll
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: be back with more Angels mailbag questions. I think the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: next one involves some of these young Angels hitters.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back with more Halo Territory.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: Hey, today's episode is presented by the ASPCA Pet Health
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• 12:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to Angel's Mailbag with Mark Trumbo and
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Mike DiGiovanna. Next question from Jose in Anaheim. Denzer Guzman,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Christian Moore, and Karin Paris all matched in the minors,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: but the results and Salt Lake haven't translated to big
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: league production. Do you guys see anything that stands out?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Trying too hard? I'm going to let the professional hitter
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: handle this one.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you. I think that these guys, this is one
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: of the things with Salt Lake, and it is very
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: hard to totally wrap your head around, but why do
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: guys put up such lofty numbers and then come up
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: to the big club and it just doesn't translate? Is
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: it the altitude? I think, and I've said it a
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: few times on the show, I just don't think the
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: quality of the competition in AAA is as good as
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: it used to be. I think too many guys are
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: going to Mexico and other places, Asia, that used to
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: be those kind of 4A guys, but better quality arms.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: Denzer Guzman on Wednesday night's game, I believe he collected
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: four hits, first four-hit game.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, four singles.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I know I would have liked to know what they
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: worked on, but a recent article I think Fletch wrote
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: talked about Denzer, if it wasn't Fletch, sorry, but doing
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: some extra work with hitting coaches Brady Anderson and John Mabry.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: I assume they were trying to tighten things up a
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: little bit. He takes very few walks and swings at
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: a lot of pitches. One thing I see with him
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: that is a little bit interesting is he stands far
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: away from the plate. And by and large, most of
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: his hits are to the pull side. So that, uh,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: is an interesting, um, matchup. If you're going to usually
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: guys that stand off the plate, uh, want to target
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: more of the center of the field, right center for
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: a right-handed hitter, um, unless they dive in big time,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: which he doesn't really do. I think he would benefit
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: from getting a little bit closer. Uh, Kyron Paris, this
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: is a hot topic due to the philosophy he's, uh,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: he's working with and he's chosen to, uh, dive into
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: it is the Aaron judge HLP. Um, I am not
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: looking to get into a debate on this, but I
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: will say that he is lacking, um, some elements of
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: the sequencing. If judge is the model, I think Kyron
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: gets started a little bit too early and he loses
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: some of the sequencing, the proper sequencing and his swing. Uh,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: it ends up being not so much a, uh, leg
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: driven swing, um, kind of more upper body, does look like.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: And his head drops significantly, too. That's one thing that
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: is a killer of swings. If you look at the broadcast,
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: sometimes his head looks like it's dropping a foot. So
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: your eyes are moving, your head's moving. In my opinion,
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: you do that to artificially try and get underneath the ball,
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: hit it in the air. But he doesn't need to
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: do that. I think if he were to keep his
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: head still, it would be a big step in the
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: right direction. The last one, Christian Moore. Quite frankly, this
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: has been tough to watch. And I know even tougher
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: for him to probably use stomach. From a technical standpoint,
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: I think his swing needs some work. I don't think
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: this is a mental thing. I think it's a technique thing.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: He loads in, I'm going to make it as little
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: league as possible, but he wraps his bat. So his
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: hands are going up and behind his head when he
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: lifts his leg. He's also late getting started a lot
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: of times too. And when you look at the best hitters,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: now it's not all of them. There are exceptions, but
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Barry Bonds is a pretty good model. When his leg
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: comes up, his front foot comes up, his hands are
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: actually going down and they're going to do a little
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: semicircle and return to a place to fire. Christian Morris
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: are kind of going back and up. And so all
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: that distance has got to be made up for. And
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: that's why you see, in my opinion, a lot of
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: foul balls on pitches that are middle middle. And then
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: he's also, his brain is realizing he doesn't have any
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: time due to starting late and the long swing. And
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: then he's chasing wildly on breaking balls. And these are bats.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Maybe you can piggyback this a little bit. They haven't
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: been competitive really for the extent that he's been up here.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: His, I think he struck out on three pitches of
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the bases loaded against that Mariner reliever last night. And
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you could just see it. I think it was two
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: fastballs and oh, and two, you know, the sweepers coming boom.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Didn't even come close to it. So, yeah, that's a
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: tough one. And, boy, they picked him, what, number eight
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: in that draft. If he doesn't pan out, that's going
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: to be yet another mark on Perry Manazian's record. Okay,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: next question from Stephen C. Smith, one of our regular contributors.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: Hi, Mike.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Idle question.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: How much time did you get to spend with Jim Murray?
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I always enjoyed his columns. Sometimes I go back to
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the archives to read his earliest columns. Just curious if
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: you have any anecdotes about his influence. Well, Stephen, thank
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: you for this question. Anytime I get a chance to
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: talk about Jim Murray, it's always a treat. I was
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: lucky enough to cover my first two World Series for
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the LA Times in 1995 and 1996 with Jim Murray.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: What was cool is.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Jim Murray, believe it or not, and I were born
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: in the same hometown of New London, Connecticut. And we
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: both grew up in Connecticut, him in Hartford, myself in
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: East Lyme. So we always had that common sort of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: experience to talk about whenever we met. He, of course,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: was a lot older than me at the time. But
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: the first time I met Jim Murray was in the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: mid 80s. I was working at the L.A. Times Orange
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: County Edition. And they brought Jim. We had a really
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: good staff of young writers, Chris Dufresne, Mike Penner, Jim McCurdy.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Just a whole staff of up-and-comers. We were all in
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: our 20s and eager to learn. And they brought Jim
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Murray down to speak to us as a staff. And
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the best part was the Q & A part at
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the end. And I remember Chris Dufresne, you know, Jim
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Murray was known for his incredible anecdotes. He could compare
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: one thing on the sports field to something that happened
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: in real life or a.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Hollywood movie or anything, you know.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: And it was just amazing how he could just pull
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: those anecdotes seemingly out of thin air. And Chris asked Jim, Jim,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: where do you get all these amazing antidotes? And Jim said, well,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I just reach back and they're there. And we're like,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: we've reached back and we got nothing. That's how good
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Jim was. And I will say, as I got older,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I was able to reach back and find
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: a few things. But it takes a lot of living
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and a lot of experience and a lot of writing.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: But I'll never forget the last World Series game I
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: covered with Jim Murray. It was an old Yankee stadium.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: It was a game six clincher for the Yankees. And
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I got to the park and I looked to my
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: left and sitting next to me is Roger Angel, the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame baseball writer, great New Yorker essayist. And
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: to my right, of course, is Jim Murray, the Pulitzer
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Prize winner, another Hall of Famer. And all I could
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: think of was who the hell let me in here?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: How did I get into this seat? And I was
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: so nervous that night. I felt like I had to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: write the best game story ever.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: I did not.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But I have this beautiful memory, a keepsake, the LA
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Times front page from that day with.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: My byline next to Jim Murray's. And I'll always have
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: that to relish.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: And Jim was an amazing guy, just the most humble,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the most talented and humble guy you could ever meet.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Just never brought attention to himself. Uh, just, I mean,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: he was, he was a walking, talking celebrity when he
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: walked it. I remember he came down to talk to
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: social a few times and it's like the, the, the
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: clubhouse would just part when he walked in the room,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: he was a presence, he was royalty. And, uh, He's
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: pretty much the idol of everyone that grows up in
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: this business. All right, we're going to take one more
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: break for a word from our sponsors. And thank you
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: again for that question, Stephen. We'll be right back with
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: more Angels Mailbag on Halo Territory.
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: Back in the day, Kratzy and I were looking for tickets.
• 20:22
  Speaker 7: It was so hard to find a seat or anything available.
• 20:26
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• 20:28
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• 20:33
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• 20:34
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• 20:35
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• 20:39
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• 20:41
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I know you used to scalp your tickets, but look,
• 20:43
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• 20:46
  Speaker 6: go right on SeatGeek and find your postseason tickets. I'm
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: not even going to fast forward to the postseason. I'm
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: going to say the run to October because some teams
• 20:55
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• 20:57
  Speaker 6: get it, and those seats are available.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: And it's playoff time, the best time for baseball. And
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: of course, I have a quote for you all. You
• 21:03
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• 21:04
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• 21:07
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• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back to Halo Territory and the Angels Mailbag
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: with Mark Trumbo and Mike DiGiovanna. Question from Sedan05 on
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: our HT comments page. Why do we need a new stadium?
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Wrigley Field only became Wrigley because no one ever tore
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: it down. Just to build some massive, soulless monster stadium.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: It's the fourth oldest stadium in the league, and it
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: needs some love, but we have an opportunity to nurture
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: something that truly endures.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Save the Big A.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: I'll start here, Mark, and then I want your thoughts
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: as a former player, because, Sedan, I get what you're saying.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: The Angel Stadium is the fourth oldest stadium in the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: big leagues. And I guess, you know, it does have
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a little tradition with the big A and all. But
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: if you get a chance to walk around in the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: bowels of Angel Stadium, the tunnels, the clubhouse, the facilities,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: everything is so outdated and so not modern when compared
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: to the amenities that these teams and these newer stadiums have,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: whether it's the training room, recovery room, the weight room,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: the clubhouse. the offices, the technology analytics department, all the things.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And yeah, you could look at like what Dodger Stadium
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: did some pretty amazing work. They have put millions, hundreds
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: of millions of dollars into renovating that place. But a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: couple of winters ago, one way they upgraded all their
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: facilities is they excavated. They went under the stadium a
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: couple more stories and added all these things. So it
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: has all the updated facilities and amenities that that you
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: need to, one, compete in this game and to attract
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: free agents and those types. So, Mark, you can speak
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: a little more to the facilities. It's not even second-rate,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: it seems.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: It's third-rate.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: And these are the areas that I think make it
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a necessity to get a new stadium for the Angels.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to keep this short. I think the
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: name might have been Caden, by the way. Saddam, I'm
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: not sure what you said. there's two d's man i
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: think it's one of the red socks player new age
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: spellings but if it is your pronunciation uh and um
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: bottom line they need a new stadium i'm not gonna
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: wax on about it um the reasons you listed and
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: others uh tell you it's time it's time and i
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: was also uh going back uh jim murray a admittedly,
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: wasn't terribly familiar. And then I looked up his birth
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: date of 1919, and I think I realized why. So
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: I will familiarize myself more, but I think the saying
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: a little before my time might apply here. What's this
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: next question?
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: One more Jim Burke story.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I was at his funeral in 1998, and it was
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: a star-studded affair. And we're, we all mingling outside the
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: church afterward. And I hear this weirdly familiar high-pitched voice talking.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: I turn around and it's Mike Tyson. That's how much
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: respect Mike Tyson had. Him and Jim Murray were actually
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: really close. And believe it or not, I did not
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: see eye to eye with Mike Tyson. He was quite
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: a bit shorter than me. Not that I would mess
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: with him, but I was surprised at how short he was.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Next question from X. What would you guys say the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: current identity of Angels baseball is? The Manasian vision, let's say,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: under Societ was clear the Angels were a scrappy team
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: that prioritized pitching and defense along with an offense built
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: on manufacturing runs. Do teams need identities these days? I
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: personally think the Angels at this point have no identity.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: But I think the second part of that question is
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: what interests me more, and I'd like to hear Mark's
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: take on this.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Do teams need identities these days? I don't know.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, I look at the teams. You could certainly
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: say that Brewers have an identity, very similar to those
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Angels teams of Socia in the early 2000s, scrappy manufacturing runs, pitching,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and incredible defense. Do the Dodgers have an identity outside
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of just acquiring the most amazing talent and spending the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: most amount of money? Certainly their rotation is incredibly deep
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: when healthy. But, you know, their bullpen's been up and down.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Their offense.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: How's their defense?
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Their defense is pretty average right now. You know, Max
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Muncy's done a lot to improve at third.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: They have a good defense. Yeah, it's not great. Freeman
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: is a good defender. Pahis is a good defender.
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: He was.
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: There he is when he's in there, yeah.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker is not. Taylor Hernandez is not.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: I think at times they are willing to go outside
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: the box with some of these players, whether that or
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: a pitcher, if they feel that the positives outweigh anything
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: else hasn't always worked. But bottom line is teams have
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: got to play quality defense. And if you don't play
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: quality defense, you just can't hang. You make too many mistakes,
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: too many free outs. And I think if you don't
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: have a, organizational philosophy, how do you know where you're going?
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: I think that if I had the last five years,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: I can only surmise it was slug, but, um, it
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: was a lot of solo home runs. Um, that's not
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: really the old Weaver. Okay. So when I got to
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: the Orioles, um, I remember, I think our first meeting
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Buckshot Walter gets a team together. It was very interesting
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: to hear in plain English, what we were going for.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: We were going to hit a lot of home runs,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: a lot of home runs with, People on base, so
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: the offense was not going to be a team that
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: walked a lot. And guys hit for, I mean, the
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: averages were more respectable, though. That was filled with good hitters,
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: but he also wanted the hardest throwing bullpen. And that
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: was well-defined. And the infield defense at the time, J.J. Hardy,
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Manny Machado, Jonathan Scope, and Chris Davis, best four infielders
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: I've ever played with. And it was fun getting to
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: watch them. They found outs in places I don't know
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: where they did. And then, unfortunately, looking at Wednesday night's ballgame,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: for example, the Angels did not play very good defense.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: They haven't all season. There has been improvement from guys.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: Zach Netto has improved. I think his defensive runs saved. Well,
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: they've jumped a ton. The broadcast gets some interesting numbers.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: But he has rounded into form. First base, Vaughn Grissom
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: has been very rough, well below average there, which is
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: interesting as a guy that can also play some middle infield.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: You wouldn't expect that. But first base can be a
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: lot more challenging than people think. You get a bad
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: first baseman, I'm not saying he's bad, but it can
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: make things tough. The outfield defense has rated poorly. Wade
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Meckler has rated actually positive. And third base, actually Guzman
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: has played a quality third base. He's got nice range.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: catching the worst in baseball, but that player is no
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: longer with the ball club.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Curious, when you came up with the Angels, was their
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: identity pretty clear to you, and or did Mike Socia
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: articulate that identity and approach in spring training, whether it's
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: day one? Because it seemed like they had that philosophy
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: throughout the whole organization, all the way down to the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: minor leagues. They played an Angels brand of baseball that
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: was very distinct. You knew Darn well, what we were doing.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: There was no mistaking the focus drill where Xhosa himself
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: would hit fungos. It would be on the half field at, well,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I guess it's the minor league side, kind of.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: They'd blur together.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: And I haven't been.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: In a while. And he hit the piss out of
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: those ground balls. I remember that. And then during the season,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: he would hit to the right side. So Howie and
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: myself and Albert. And he, I mean, he would hair
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: lip you. They were coming in hot and... Pearlet means that,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: you know, these, they have some fuzz on them and
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: you better, uh, work, uh, down to up, not the,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: not the opposite, but it was meant to be challenging
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: and yeah. i don't care who you are he'd bark
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: at ibar just as quickly as he'd bark at the
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: um non-major league player working his way up uh he
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: challenged guys i saw some guys get totally defeated right
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: there one in particular i won't say the name but
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: i think that that killed the guy's confidence but it
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: also weeded out the guys that um You know, at
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: the highest level, we'd probably get exposed. We consistently worked
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: on hit and runs. Everyone bunted, no matter who you were.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: And we took the extra base. He was willing to
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: give up those outs in favor of all the runs created.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I believe he talked about it on the show earlier on.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: I'd like to have him on again. I think it'd
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: be fascinating. But we had an identity. Everyone knew it.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: It was written about extensively, too. So you know the
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: answer to that question. Oh, yeah. I mean, there.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I'd have to go back, but I'd be surprised if
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: in those 10 years, say from 2002 to even to 2014,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the Angels probably led the major leagues in going first
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to third, both in number of times and success rate.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: If they weren't leading, they were probably in the top five. Yeah,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: that was always huge. And boy, the pressure that put
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: on the defense was very tangible.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: Which leads us.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Into our next question from Eric. Any chance of a
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: social return?
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: It's funny how almost nostalgic we get for a guy
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: like Socia returning when we're so far removed from the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: on-field performance that creates that nostalgia. That was the Angels
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: winning five division titles from 2004 to 2009, winning a
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: World Series in 2002, winning another title in 2014, all
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: under Mike Socia. As much fun as it would probably
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: be for me and Soj to be reunited, I'm sure
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't want that. I just don't see it happening, Eric.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: I just don't think that's the MO, the crunky group
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: in terms of hiring managers. And I think the way
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: today's game is structured, GMs don't want a very headstrong
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: manager who's going to challenge them at every turn. I
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: think that's what led to many of Soj's problems. In
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: his later years, butting heads with Jerry DiPoto. The game
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: is structured differently, and GMs and presidents of baseball operations
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: have a lot more say in how the lineups are constructed,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: what runs, what lanes certain relievers get, how many times
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: through the orders a starter should go through, all these things.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: And I just don't think Socha's style of managing in
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: his time I don't want to say need to control everything,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: but when he controlled everything, the results are usually pretty good.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: The game just changed and he didn't.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Mark?
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: As far as the return, highly unlikely. Yeah.
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: That's it.
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: No elaboration. They'd welcome impact. I mean, it's phenomenal. We're
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: enormous fans. I am, you know, but with the history
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: of the Cronky franchise, franchises um he is not exactly
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: the young and up up and uh comer uh trendsetter
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: but uh the game is cyclical uh maybe more experience
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: but it does seem to be trending towards youth even
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: teams that bring back um you know bruce bochy types
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: uh ron washington too yeah yeah it happens and i
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: think it doesn't you know what's what's ideal today i
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: think a combination of both uh Pat Murphy is probably
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: leading the way. Dave Roberts would be 1A or, you know, whatever.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Guys that just know what they're doing, command respect, all
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: the things we've talked about too many times. But also
• 33:34
  Speaker 3: guys that can communicate with the youth of today. I
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: think that would be probably the hardest thing for any
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: old school manager is some of these players and their mindsets.
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: One more question specifically for Mark. When you were a
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: young power guy who had to adjust to big league
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: velo and spin, oh, this is from Evan on the Habra,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: what was the first thing that actually clicked, a mechanical tweak,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: a pitcher's tell, or just getting embarrassed enough times?
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: You got to get over that part, getting embarrassed. No,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, there is a point here. If you're afraid
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: to get embarrassed or if you're tentative at all, you're
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: dead in this game. You cannot be tentative. You have
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: to play aggressively, and the mistakes have to be made aggressively.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: There's no place for being passive. In pro sports, you
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: can be analytical, but not passive. And if you're worried
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: about chasing a curveball in the dirt, I'll tell you what,
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: not only are you going to do it, first of all,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: probably more than you want to, but you're going to
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: miss all the other pitches too. And you're up there
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: just kind of petrified, Don't chase, don't chase. Well, there's
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: a proper way to do it and not. I think
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: the best way I can answer this question as a
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: minor leaguer or as a player overall, I always handled
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: the fastball well, even the high-velocity fastball. I'm sure if
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: you've watched games, you've mentioned the high fastball. I've practiced
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: that for better or worse since I was old enough
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: to swing a bat. So I wouldn't advise chasing balls
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: that high, especially with guys throwing triple digits, uh, routinely now. But, uh,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: when I went to Venezuela winter ball, that's one of
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: the things the angels and social in particular, and you recall,
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: no doubt the angel sent, uh, guys to winter ball,
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: Christian Moore, you go into winter ball. Um, anybody that's
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: a Guzman would, would they sometimes do okay. If they're
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: Latin Americans, uh, it's often just, uh, even as a veteran,
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: that's what you do. But, uh, American players would go
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: to winter ball. I went to the Dominican. It's the
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: only time I've ever been fired, uh, And I was
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: not broken up about it. I got handed the money
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: I was owed, all cash, put in my pocket, some
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: random dude driving me to the airport. I don't know
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: where they got him. I do remember we stopped at
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: a gas station and something about having the tanks that
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: are flammable. And he said, get out of the car.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: But the English wasn't really great. And I was like,
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: I'm not getting out of this. I don't have the
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: money in my pocket.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Anyway.
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: But I remember that was a tough experience. But it
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: was meant to be. Dominican was– I had a lot
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: better success in Venezuela. Great time playing for Magallanes. But
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: a coach there, Dan Radisson, who was on Jim Riggleman's
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: staff for a long time, was the hitting coach. He
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: recognized that I didn't really conceptually have any idea how
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: to hit the breaking ball. And so, like the other times,
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Andy Van Slyke did it for me. Mickey Hatcher was
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: excellent at doing it. But he said, hey, you're going
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: to meet me out here early, 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock,
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: whatever it was. And he threw just kind of loopy
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: breaking balls. But he wanted me to start to clue
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: in to the fact that you can't take the fastball swing.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be the same swing, but
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: the Dodgers, for example, on hitting the breaking ball, they
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: try and miss underneath. It's nearly impossible to do on
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: something resembling a curveball. You might think you can do it,
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: give it a shot. It's very tough, but you've got
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: to match the plane of the ball. If you're a
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: guy that's just hacking at it like it's a fastball, well,
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: those are the ones that the catcher's going to be
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: going to two knees or whatever they do these days.
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Probably just glove save, but the ones in the dirt. Anyway,
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: I started to realize, okay, this is how I can
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: have some success. Before that, it was just the stone
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: cold hangers, but in order to be a good, good,
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: good big league hitter, you have to be able to
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: defend some of these pitches that, um, you know, sliders
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: in the zone, curve balls that are landing in the zone.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: They're trying to steal strikes with them, uh, changeups catching
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: too much plate. It's hard to just survive on one pitch,
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: but if there is one pitch to survive on, you
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: want it to be the fastball, uh, guys that do
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: not hit the fastball. Um, and these are these young
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: angels hitters, um, The numbers need to improve in that regard.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: You need to hit the fastball to be a good
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: big league player. Mike Trout this year is doing a
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: nice job hitting the fastball, and I think that that
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: is partly why his production, while it's not near what
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: it was at the elite level, he has been consistent,
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: OPS over 800 the entire time, a lot of walks, yes.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: But he's done a good job combating the fastball, which
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: is something that I think for a long time pitchers
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: have challenged him there. Yeah. As a young player, too,
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: I could go into another episode about this one topic,
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: and we probably will. You just need to fight and
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: not give up any at-bats late in the game. It
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: is tough. You might go 0 for 3, but if
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: the fourth at-bat, you can get a walk or a
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: little infield dink single, whatever. They all count, and they
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: help you to keep your job.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll close the show with two questions. I
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: definitely wanted to address this one from Raul Ignacio in
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: our YouTube comments. Mike, here's a trivia question. Question for
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: a longtime baseball guy, which is more rare in the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: history of baseball, the number of guys that have thrown
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: a perfect game, which is always made a big deal about,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: or the number of guys who have won both a
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: college and Major League Baseball World Series? Mike, you have
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: never mentioned Kurt pulling off this ultra rare feat and
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: how it makes him an ultimate winner. Well, I did
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: look it up. I knew perfect games are right around
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the low 20s. There have been 24 perfect games. And
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: number of players who have won a College World Series
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: and a Major League World Series, 22. That list includes
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Walker Buehler, Rod Clemens and both Kurt Suzuki and Justin
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Turner who were members of the 2004 Cal State Fullerton
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: championship team my alma mater they make us proud last
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: question from Christian Stan Kroenke purchasing the Angels is the
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: best thing to the franchise since dot dot dot question
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: mark This may not be received that well, but I
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: think it's the best thing to happen to this franchise
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: since Artie Marino bought the Angels. We have bagged on
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Artie for this entire season. The fans have crushed him
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: all season. The last few years of his ownership have
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: been terrible, to say the least. He seemed to almost
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: stop investing in the team. really gun-shy and maybe rightfully
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: so about, you know, pursuing the big free agents after
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: the Anthony Wren done. Deal gone bad. You know, the
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: stadium has fallen into disrepair. Really, the franchise has essentially
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: been driven into the ground, but we cannot ignore the
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: fact that after he took over in 03, they made
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: immediate and drastic improvements to the team with some of
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: their free agent signings, most notably Vladdy Guerrero and Bartolo Colon.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: They were in on, you know, They made trades for
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: guys like Mark Teixeira at the deadline, and they made
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: legitimate runs to, you know, World Series contention, and especially
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: 05 and 09. That team was every bit as prominent
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: in Southern California and as successful as the Dodgers, if
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: not more successful. So it's a pretty darn good run.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: That was a full decade of Angels glory years. So
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: You know, Artie's on the way out the door. You know,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: you mentioned his 5% stake in the team is worth
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: $ 200 million, which is more than he bought the team for.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: So do the math and you can figure out his
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: return on investment. He is literally laughing all the way
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: to the bank. But yeah, I don't think we can
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: just ignore some of the good and a lot of
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: the good that Artie did as Angel's owner.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: Mark, any thoughts on that last question?
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: It's the best thing to the franchise since, well, how
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: about recently? They started using the technology and it took
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: quite a while. And I, you know, I mean, talk
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: about what's already happened with John Moselec. I mean, he's
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: helped Zach Netto get into the right head space. So
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: maybe the answer is actually moving on from the previous
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: general manager. And I'm not trying to, Do you have
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: a hit piece or something? But things have improved in
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: some significant ways. Better attitude from Zach. The starting pitching
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: speaks for itself. Sans Kikuchi. And that required, was it
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: a misstep in saying that all the coaches' jobs were
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: safe and then letting them go? I don't think it is.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: I think it's one of those things that this is
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: the real world. And sometimes adjustments need to be made.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: And he probably, John wasn't aware that there was this
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: hard line stance, uh, against the technology until he was.
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: And he said, you know what, practically. And for these reasons, this, uh,
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: this simply doesn't align with what we're doing at least
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: now and probably most definitely moving forward. So they made
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: some changes and guys like Ryan Johnson have hit, uh,
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: really turned it on and now looking like a viable
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: rotation candidate, um, at least for the end of this year,
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: but you can pencil them in for next year too.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: For sure. So this is some good things have happened.
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: We're going to close the show with that. Hey, thanks
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: for watching. Thanks for tuning in and listening. Appreciate the support.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Please like and subscribe and we will see you next
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: time on Halo Territory.