Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / ONE AND DONE: Kurt Suzuki out as Angels MGR after 100-loss season; interim GM John Mozeliak to follow

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ONE AND DONE: Kurt Suzuki out as Angels MGR after 100-loss season; interim GM John Mozeliak to follow · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Seven managers in 10 years. Eight if you include Ray Montgomery,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: who is an interim manager for more than half of 2025.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: That will be the number of field bosses the Angels
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: will have had since 2018 when they hire a replacement
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: for Kurt Suzuki, who is one and done after the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Angels announced on Wednesday that they will not exercise the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: 2027 option on his contract. We're here to help break
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: down the big news this week. Sam Blum, our regular
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: HT contributor from The Athletic. Welcome back from the ALCS, Sam.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the show.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Good to have you.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Great to be here.
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: Thanks, Deej.
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: Thanks, Mark.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Mark Trumbo, our regular co-host. I am Mike DiGiovanna, former
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: LA Times baseball writer and host of the show. Well,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it was interim GM John Moselock who announced the decision
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, but the move was coordinated by executives with
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment Group. That group has made
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a $ 4 billion purchase of the Angels from Artie Moreno
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that is expected to be completed in early 2027. The
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Angels will also have a new GM after Mo Zaloc,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: who replaced the fired Perry Manazian in June, said he
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: does not intend to lead the Baseball Ops Department in 2027.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Mo said he will coordinate the search for a new GM,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: which could run into early January, and that GM will
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in turn hire a manager replicating a process that played
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: out before the 2000 season when the Angels hired Bill
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Stoneman as new GM and Stoneman then hired Mike.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Socha as manager.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Well, never a dull moment with these Angels, even after
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: coming off a franchise record 100 loss season. Let's start
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: with our reaction to the news on Wednesday. Sam, we'll
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: start with you. What a little head spinning all in
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: one day, but interesting news for sure.
• 2:05
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's interesting because to me, the Suzuki news
• 2:08
  Speaker 6: was less notable. It seemed like an obvious decision, you know,
• 2:11
  Speaker 6: move on. I was, you know, to me, when Mozelek
• 2:15
  Speaker 6: came out and said that he wanted Suzuki back, that
• 2:17
  Speaker 6: was kind of the moment where I was like, oh,
• 2:19
  Speaker 6: is Mozelek really the right person for that role? Because
• 2:22
  Speaker 6: it just was a surprising decision. It didn't feel like
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: it was reflective of what we'd been watching, you know,
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: play out over the course of 162 games. You know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 6: I'm curious to see how involved Mosaic actually is in
• 2:37
  Speaker 6: replacing him at GM. I don't know what that will
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: look like. He said he's uncertain of if that will
• 2:44
  Speaker 6: actually happen. He imagines he will help out, but it's,
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: you know, I think at this point, what's, what's, what's so,
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: what's so interesting is who's making these decisions. Cause I
• 2:54
  Speaker 6: think KSE is basically of the mind of we're not
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: owners yet, but, but the current management with the angels
• 3:00
  Speaker 6: is saying, well, KSE is the one coordinating everything. We're
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: not hearing anything from KSE. So, like, there seems to
• 3:05
  Speaker 6: be some sort of disconnect there. I don't know exactly
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: what it is, but it was weird that we had
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: about three weeks of radio silence and then all this
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: coming out in one day, but yet nothing from KSC
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: and the statement from Mozealek and then Mozealek saying he's leaving. Like,
• 3:18
  Speaker 6: this is not how this typically goes, even in, like,
• 3:21
  Speaker 6: the weird, unique circumstance that this already is. So I
• 3:25
  Speaker 6: think at the end of the day, probably for the best,
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: everything's being reset. there's a reason the Angels are in
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: the position they are in.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: It is poor leadership.
• 3:34
  Speaker 6: It does not necessarily mean that Mo or Kurt are
• 3:37
  Speaker 6: bad at their job, but it means that things need
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: to change. And I'm of the belief that bringing in
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: somebody new completely and restarting completely is absolutely the right
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: way to go about this.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was surprised. I mean, it's a very unique situation.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: We've had ownership changes before. We've had regime changes in
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the front office, presidents of baseball ops, general managers, but
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to have all these things going on at the same
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: time is definitely, I don't know if it's unprecedented, but
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it hasn't happened too often in this game.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: One sort of takeaway I had from this is, yeah,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: there's sort of an awkward transition phase where Kroenke is
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: going to buy the team. He has not purchased the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: team yet, but to me, these moves clearly show that
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: The executives with the Kroenke Sports and Entertainment Group are
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: firmly in control of this club right now. And we'll
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: get into a little more about Mo's decision in a bit. But,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: you know, I think we were all under the impression
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: that there was a good chance he was going to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: stay in some capacity beyond his contract.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: But, Mark, let's go to you. What was your reaction
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to the news?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: And what's your thoughts on what's going on right now?
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Not surprised. I wouldn't have been surprised if Kurt stayed
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: necessarily either. Um, as far as not hearing anything, uh, well,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: that really wasn't a surprise. Uh, that was business as usual, uh,
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: with the Halos. Um, and hopefully something that, uh, does improve.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: I think, uh, John Moseley liked to do a nice job. Um,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: did he always say the right things? Uh, I'm not sure. Uh,
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: I don't know if he would maybe do over some
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: of his comments about all of the staff's positions being
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: safe and then having to amend that. I think at
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: the time it's probably the right thing to say, but
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: to his credit, when he saw the situation with the
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: pitching and Mike Maddox reluctancy to use what is commonplace,
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: literally everywhere in the game, he made the decision to
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: let him go. It was for the better. I blame
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: the majority of fans, at least in the last handful
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: of years, squarely on the shoulders of the former GM,
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Perry Manazian. I think he did a lot of harm
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: to the organization. I've said it before. Talk about the
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: coaching staff that he hired. And it looked odd at
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: the time that he surrounded Kurt with. The average age
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: of the guys for the majority of the bulk is
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: 62 years old. That is probably 20 years older. than
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: the average age of most of those positions around the game.
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about John Gibbons, 64, Maddox is 65, Daryl Scott, 58,
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: Brady Anderson, very youthful, 62, maybe he's 56, and Dom
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: Chidi is 67. So you're talking about guys that, while
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: attractive and have the big names, I don't believe they
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: would have got interviews elsewhere. The Angels were probably the
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: only place that would take them on. Not necessarily anywhere.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: certain of that. But I do know that a guy
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: like Mike Maddox is not trending in 2026 for the
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: reasons that he was let go. You know, he's not
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: for the technology. And as far as Kurt's, you know,
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: the job that he did, I think he probably did
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: as expected. He was mentored by Perry. So that was
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: about the extent of his training. Is that enough? I
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: don't think it is. I doubt he remains with the team.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: I might've sniped a question you have for later, but
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: I don't really care. I know he was offered a
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: chance to stay in the organization. His answer made it
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: seem like that's probably not going to be the case.
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: I wonder, maybe you could clarify, why would they do that?
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: If you don't think he's right to manage the club,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: why would you want him to remain with the organization?
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe more as a courtesy, Sam?
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think Mosaic likes him. I mean, that is,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: that is true.
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: This is, this is, listen, I think what's happening here
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: a little bit, and this is just me reading between
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: the lines is that John Mosaic is trying to, you know,
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: I mean, he put that press conference on, on September
• 7:52
  Speaker 6: 28th hours before he's supposed to meet with Kevin Demoff
• 7:55
  Speaker 6: with KSC. Like, I don't really think that Mosaic knows
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: exactly who he was answering to or reporting to.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, he even said as much essentially.
• 8:03
  Speaker 6: And so it's, you know, I think people are trying
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: to position themselves to some extent in this entire operation
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: and this entire story here.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: So, I mean, he likes, he likes Kurt Suzuki.
• 8:12
  Speaker 6: He was offered, gave him this chance to stick around. I,
• 8:16
  Speaker 6: you know, again, I didn't agree with the decision or
• 8:18
  Speaker 6: the thought process behind saying that Kurt should come back
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: for another year. But, you know, clearly that is not
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: the way John Moselec saw this organization or the people
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: in it.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: At the end, in that press conference, I believe his
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: exact words were, I think Kurt has done a great job. So,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: There's obviously a respect there and an affinity for the guy.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we don't have to wait to address this question.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I don't see any way Kurt stays, especially, you know,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: assuming they bring in a GM from there or president
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of the baseball office from the outside, maybe another GM
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: from the outside and another manager from the outside.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It's just, it would be very awkward for Kurt. I
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: think it probably would be best for his resume to,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: there's no wiping 2026 off his resume.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: He did manage in the big leagues, but it.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Was just disaster of the year of a year from
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: start pretty much to finish. And yeah, I guess he
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: never lost the clubhouse for lack of.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: A better term.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: There were, you know, you could argue the angels did
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: play hard most of the time, but we saw some
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: things at the beginning of the season that to at
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: least to Mark and I, and a lot of people
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: just seem to establish the fact that he didn't have
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: a good command of the position and, Was he.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Put in a no-win situation?
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: For sure.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Is he not the best manager for this team? Yeah,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I think the answer, I think you have two answers.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: You can answer yes to both those questions. As they say,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: two things can be true. So, you know, probably not
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the best career move for him if he wants to
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: do this long term. But, you know, there's only 30
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of these jobs. You got to go for them when
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: you can. Hey, we're going to take a quick break
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: for a word from our sponsors. And when we come back,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: we'll have more Halo Territory.
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• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And welcome back to Halo Territory with Sam Blum of
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: The Athletic, Mark Trumbo, and Mike DiGiovanna. Well, Wednesday's news
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: raises a series of questions. The first one, in my mind,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: How do these moves impact the November period before the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: expected December 1st lockout? Andy McCullough had an interesting story,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and we speculated about this on a recent show posted
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to the Athletics website this morning in the headline. Quote,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: MLB's lockout is coming before it arrives. Baseball insiders expect
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a free agent frenzy. Now, my question is how active
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: can the Angels, will the Angels be And a pretty
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: important winner for them to start to turn things around
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: with the lame duck GM.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Sam?
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, that seems concerning, right?
• 11:53
  Speaker 6: That you don't necessarily have a set infrastructure in your
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: front office going into what is going to be a
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: condensed and very important month. And I think it's common
• 12:04
  Speaker 6: sense that players are going to want to sign before The,
• 12:09
  Speaker 6: you know, the lockout begins because after the lockout ends,
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: who knows what the state of play will look like
• 12:13
  Speaker 6: with free agency and payrolls and everything like that. So,
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: you know, you get those legally signed contracts in ahead
• 12:20
  Speaker 6: of time. I think that makes common sense for everybody.
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: And so if you don't have a front office that,
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: you know, is authorized to go and pursue, you know,
• 12:29
  Speaker 6: not that there's a great free agent class by any means, but,
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: you know, there's there's the angels should in theory be
• 12:34
  Speaker 6: in in. contention for you know better players under new
• 12:38
  Speaker 6: under this new ownership so the question will be you
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: know how much of a role will kse be playing
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: in you know determining that strategy will they be working
• 12:45
  Speaker 6: with mosaic will they be working with a new gn
• 12:48
  Speaker 6: that's hired before you know we get to that point
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: i think a lot of that's in the air but
• 12:53
  Speaker 6: it is you know not a great position to be
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: in when you don't have any real set um you
• 12:57
  Speaker 6: know front office in place and uh i i think
• 13:00
  Speaker 6: it would be concerning but i also don't really know
• 13:02
  Speaker 6: i mean i don't think anybody really knows.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think they're going to be putting a lot
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of trust in Moe because I think the Kroenke executives,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: I know some of these guys personally, I think they're
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: very equipped to hire a new GM and to have
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: that GM hire a new manager. But are they in
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a position to evaluate this winter's.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Free agent market? I agree with you, Sam.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know that the Angels necessarily need to be
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: in on the bidding on Tarek Skubal this winter, but
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of second-tier free agents who could definitely
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: raise the floor for you know, the Jake Bowers of
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the world, the, uh, Bren, uh, the second baseman, I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: forget his name. Who, who, uh, the raise, uh, Brad's dad, grandma,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: I knew it was another loud, but my God, there's
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: way too many of these guys running around.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Uh, yeah.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: A lot of relief pitchers on this market who will be, uh,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: very sought after.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: So the competition, I think, right.
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: Why not?
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: You think so?
• 13:59
  Speaker 8: I don't know.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: You have the richest owner in sports.
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: Or in baseball rather, richest owner in baseball, yeah, 100%.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: That's where the angel should be. And why not?
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: And I don't know, but the question is, how much
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: influence is that new ownership gonna be having? How much
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: money are they gonna be able to say, we wanna spend?
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know what that will look like.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: I don't think anybody does.
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: And that's why it's such an important question because there
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: are some really big name free agents that in theory,
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: someone of his wealth would absolutely be going after.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Mark? Would you go after Schuble now?
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: It certainly would accelerate the process.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: There's a case.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Okay. So, I mean, yes. How much are you willing
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: to overpay to sell him on a ball club that is, well,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: in my opinion, not going to contend for multiple years?
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, can you buy a winning team out of nowhere?
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: It's very difficult. I think that they can reasonably, they
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: can acquire four, or five really good players if that's
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: what they want to do. Uh, one of them might
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: be jazz Chisholm. I know you guys can barf at
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: the name.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I like the guy.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: I like the guy.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: The fans don't like him.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: He's a talented baseball players, uh, Moray on and, and,
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: and others. Um, well, this free agent market is, uh,
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: according to Tim Britton, um, second weakest in a decade.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: So the talent beyond Scoogle, um, is not top tier.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: There are good players. I think part of it, um,
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: is going to be the middle class, the middle tier
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: that usually has to wait an extended period of time
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: might not be the case this year. If, if there
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: is a flurry of signings right after the world series,
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: the guys that you know, that pecking order where you've
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: got to wait for the top tier to drop. And
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: then that you might just see that erased and teams,
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: if they want them, they go get them. And when
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about guys that are, you know, one B
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: and in this free agent market, you know, it could
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: literally be anybody. So you might see, many guys trying
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: to sign immediately. Scott Boris had some excellent quotes in
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: today's article. One of them being, in the MLB pool,
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: I've got a bunch of swimmers and I've got a
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: bunch of owners in their floaties, Boris said. And a
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: lot of them won't get rid of their floaties. So
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: what do we do? Do we support that? Or do
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: we say, no, we're going to continue to reward the swimmers?
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: What do you think about that, Mike?
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I think Scott Boris is the shark in those waters.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: He knows how to manipulate and finesse and really moved
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: the free agent market better than any agent I've ever seen.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: He's the best, love him or hate him. Fans, owners,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: you know, he is a very polarizing figure in the game.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: But if I'm a baseball player and I'm a really
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: good player, Scott Boris is a guy I hire as
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: my agent. Yeah, I agree with you, Mark, that middle
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: or the second tier, and there's such a drop off
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: from Scooble to that second tier. I still think there's
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: some really impactful players in that second tier. And I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: do think those are the guys you might actually have,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you might be wise to overpay on early. You know,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a guy like Jake Bowers is an interesting case. He's
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: an Orange County kid. He's had one great year. And
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: my goodness, have we, you know, stressed the perils of
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: signing guys to big deals after one really good year.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: But quite a player for the Brewers. If they go on,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: if they win the World Series, is he going to
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: feel good? a real connection to the Milwaukee and want
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to resign there no matter what. But really the rest
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: of the market, it's free game in my mind. And
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: I think if you're the angels, you might be better
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: off spending a little more to get maybe three or
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: four of these second tier free agents who could really
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: raise the floor of your team. I would maybe hold
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: off on a big splash on a guy like Scooble
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: right now. But if, you know, if they're, if they
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: throw whatever, how many years and, 350, 400 million at Scooble.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Who's to say you wouldn't bite? I don't know. It's
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: an interesting, uh, an interesting conversation.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: And, and the owners are going to dictate, um, or,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: you know, MLB, just tell them, I guess that would
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: be collusion, uh, potentially, or just a plan of attack, but, uh,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: hold tight.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: We're not doing anything. And, will everyone follow that? I
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: assume they will. Uh, otherwise we'll show some cracks in
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: the armor. Uh, at very least I agree with Sam
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: that they should absolutely at least be in on Scoogle
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: in air quotes. I love in on, um, you know,
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: you read that and how many window shoppers are out there,
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: but if, if not him, Michael King, who I 100%, uh,
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: expect to opt out. I like him. I've said it.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: I think fans might have this show, uh, might start
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: to realize you are a fan of Jake Bowers too,
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: but Michael King and you know, these guys are nice
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: players and this team needs nice quality players that are
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: bringing the floor up. They don't have enough of them.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: They didn't have enough of them last year. And maybe
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: I'll just get into it now on the last episode,
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: we covered five players who might not be coming back.
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: And I got torched by a couple that, crawled out
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: of the gutter, maybe new, uh, they're new around here, but, uh,
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: part of the trouble with covering a topic like that
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: on this team, there's not a lot of great players
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: on this team. So arguably, I mean, five players could
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: have been, I don't know, 10, Teodosio, Paris, Rivero, Madrigal, Campero, Kohanowitz, Dana, Aldegiri, Peralta.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, we can keep Sean Anderson. I don't know
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: if he's still in the team or not, but, um, Yeah,
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: I mean, putting a list together and coming up with
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: all these guys that should, yes, there's a reasonable. case
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: that all these guys on a good team like the Yankees,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: who I believe have 34 winning seasons in a row,
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: and they are under fire. This team has 11 losing
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: seasons in a row. But, I mean, to you know,
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: is he an MLB ballplayer? Does he hit like one?
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Not yet. Not even close. His defense is quite solid.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: But when you're talking about the Angels, they need to
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: start bringing in better players and major league players and
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: not guys, you know, Campero. He's a nice story. But,
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's a catcher. He's a right fielder. He's
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: got a big smile on his face. I do love
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: his attitude and his hustle. But, I mean, he's not
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: going to play for a contending team. And it's nothing
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: against him. It's just how I evaluate it currently. So,
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: I think part of the episode– I mean– It was
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: supposed to be a ratings machine. The Yankees won with
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: a smash hit. And I wonder why when they're talking
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: about players departing, you got Jazz Chisholm, Ryan McMahon, Trent Grisham,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: Goldie and Fernando Cruz, who I'm not as familiar with.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: But the other four, you got a Hall of Famer
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: in there. You got, you know, multiple 30 million dollar players.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: And we're talking about, you know, Darnot. Yeah.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: It's not a diss on Darnot.
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: He's had a great, great career. But, I mean, it's
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: not apples to apples. So maybe that episode will grow
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: with age. Obviously, I wasn't a big fan of the reaction.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: There you go.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Getting back to Moe. What do we think happened with Moe?
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: First of all, let's go to his quote, actually, courtesy.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Of the Orange County Register. This is John Mosela.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Quote, after being here and experiencing what I've experienced, I
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: think it's been fun, but I know I'm not a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: long-term solution. nor was I looking to be a part
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: of a long-term solution. I think it's best that I
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: just honor the role I signed up for and then
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: ultimately turn that over to people that are going to
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: be committed to this for the long term. Now, I
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: said earlier, I felt like there were indications Mo wanted
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to stay, and I really felt like what he did
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: at this trade deadline was probably the strongest indication of
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a guy who's trying to remake this organization. I mean,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: he sent, what, eight, seven, eight, nine big leaguers, players
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: off the big league roster elsewhere for prospects. Really infused
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the system with some, what appear to be some decent prospects,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: at least in the eyes of the people who evaluate
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: farm systems. I thought he just was acting like a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: guy who was going to stay here beyond his contract,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: which is out in December. Do you guys feel like
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Mo made this decision to step aside on his own,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: or do you feel like Cronky, you know, somebody in
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the Cronky group said, Mo, thanks for your help. We're
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: going to lean on you during this transition, but it's
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: not going to work for us long-term.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: What do you think? Yeah.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think I can clearly, right.
• 22:40
  Speaker 6: I mean, that, that quote is to me a little
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: bit of a revisionist history to some extent.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: That was my plan coming in.
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: I mean, I mean, I could probably sift through my
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: recorder to like 10 different times throughout the last, you know,
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: a couple of months where he said things that made
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: me think he absolutely wanted to stay and was looking
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: long-term and was, you know, planning out. I mean, he
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: basically hired a front office. He seemingly stopped discussing, you know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: interviewing candidates for the GM role.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: So I just felt like this was.
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: His plan was not like, I don't know if that
• 23:11
  Speaker 6: was a plan coming in to do this long-term, but
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: I think he obviously decided after a certain amount of time.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: That that was what he wanted.
• 23:17
  Speaker 6: Um, And, you know, I don't know, like this, that
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: quote doesn't make a lot of sense to me is
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: probably what I would say. It's, it's not, it's not
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: reflective of what we heard him say for quite a while.
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: And I think Kroenke probably let them go. I think,
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: you know, this is not a unique situation. People get
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: let go all the time and they kind of get
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: let to get to frame it as parting of ways,
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: mutual decisions. It's not going to work out, but you know,
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: we all know usually, and that's, I think that's the
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: case here.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have many requests, by the way, to have
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Mo on the show. It has not happened yet, but
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: we do hope to get him on before he leaves,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: and maybe he can answer some of these questions specifically. Mark,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: were you reading anything between the lines with that comment
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and the actions of Wednesday?
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: I think it fits with everything he's said since he's
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: been here, which is usually positive in nature and positive
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: he pivots well. I think he, I don't want to
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: say politician, but he does have some elements of knowing
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: how to say things and when to say them. And
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: then when he has to amend them, he does a
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: nice job of that too. But he's, you know what,
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: he was hired to come in and do a job.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: But once he did, I mean, the juices are flowing.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: He's got some skin in the game. He's got his
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: name attached to some of these deals. And I think
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: I would want to see them through. Part of it,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: he also kind of, the way he makes it sound,
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: it's like a free roll to some degree, just brought
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: in for a short amount of time, kind of a
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: gun for hire to come in and kind of clamp
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: down on areas that needed to be dealt with. But,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: you know, just taking Netto to the side, you don't
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: do that if you're only looking through a very narrow
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: window of time, in my opinion. I think you do
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: that if You want to be around for a while.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: You want to establish a relationship with a player. And
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: you want to forge something that's going to last. I
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: assume he's probably disappointed to hear that they were going
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: to go with someone else. But I don't want to
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: speak for him. If he wants to articulate that at
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: some point, I think he should. But he probably won't.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: That's kind of how it goes. Partly, I wonder who
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: is safe. I mean, I, I, well, I know one, I,
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: Mike Ashman was asked to come back and I think
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: him and Tim bus are both still listed on the website. Uh,
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: and a third person who I can't recall, but, uh,
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: is Molly Jolly's job safe, Mike?
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Not necessarily. I mean, you could, uh, there could be, uh,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: what do they call them? Redundancies.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know, if you look at a guy like
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Kevin Demoff, who's the president of the Rams, and he
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: is very involved in some of the other Kroenke owned
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: sports teams. He could be a guy who is at
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the top of that, you know, flow chart in terms
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of the organization. And maybe someone, you know, Molly has
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: been mostly on the finance side during her 25-year career
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: with the Angels. She does seem to have impressed a
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: lot of people around the organization.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I never have gotten to know her that well, but.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: I think we all agree she made some good moves,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: some really difficult moves that had to be made this year. One,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: firing the GM. Bringing Moe in, I thought, was a
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: pretty smart move. So maybe she stays in some kind
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: of capacity and remains on the financial side. Or she
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: could remain in her president role as she has right now.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: It's an interesting question. I don't know.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: You know, some of that will maybe depend on the
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: profile of the guy who they hire. Like if you
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: were to bring in a Dave Dombrowski, which I don't
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: expect to going to, you know, somebody like that may
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: not need a president like Molly Jolly around. But that
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: brings us to our next question is who will the
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Angels hire to run their operations baseball ops department? And
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: knowing what I know about the Kroenke group and the
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: profiles of types of guys they have hired, My guess
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: is it will be someone like the A's just hired
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: as their president of baseball operations, 31-year-old Taylor Smith, former
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Boston assistant GM who oversaw the Red Sox baseball research
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and development department, including analytics, science, systems, and technology, and
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: he collaborated on player acquisitions. Now, that's sort of a guy.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I don't know Taylor Smith at all, 31 years old.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Heck of a job for a guy that young to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: have in the game. But it seems like that's the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: type of guy you need to run baseball teams right now.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Sam, what do you think?
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think you're right that that's probably the
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: direction they will go.
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: I don't know if he'll hire someone that young or,
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: you know, but I imagine that, you know, like you said,
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: the track record is, you know, developing front office folks,
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: you know, through their system, right?
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: Like bringing in young people and who have, An ability to,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: you know, establish a track record. So I think that's
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: maybe what they'll end up doing. You know, I'm always intrigued.
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: By John Daniels, who's, you know, I think Yahoo did
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: a story a few weeks ago just laying out that
• 28:37
  Speaker 6: he's kind of the main, I guess, maybe GM candidate
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: out there, and he's with Arrays now, and they're going
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: to the World Series. So I'd be curious, someone like
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: him who's got a ton of experience and had a
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: ton of success and has been that young kind of
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: wunderkind GM. Um, but yeah, I imagine they will, they'll
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: probably go that route. Uh, uh, you know, the, the, the,
• 28:58
  Speaker 6: maybe the younger side, but it'd be interesting.
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 29:01
  Speaker 6: Um, they kind of have a blank canvas and when
• 29:02
  Speaker 6: it comes to, you know, you talk about Molly Jolly
• 29:04
  Speaker 6: and you talk about who does come back, like I,
• 29:06
  Speaker 6: I kind of get the sense that there's going to
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: be a lot of changes more than we even really
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: are kind of, uh, anticipating right now. Like, I, I
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: just think that, you know, when this this group bought
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: the angels. It was as a, basically to remake everything.
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: I mean, from the ballpark to the front office, to the,
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: you know, to the people that you don't even really
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: think about that much. Um, and we'll see, you know,
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: I hope they keep certain people obviously, like, because there's
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: a lot of good people that work there, but it's, it's,
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: you need to make changes when this, when, when you're
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: failing at this level, um, you know, to an extent
• 29:39
  Speaker 6: that it's gotten, you know we can't even really articulate
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: just how bad it's been now for like more than
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: a decade um and that that's going that's going to
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: mean it's just you know this group is going to
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: come in and and fix that or at least attempt
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: to one.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Guy we have speculated on about uh gm is randy
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: floris the assistant gm with the cardinals uh And I
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: did a little digging on him, and he does have
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: a profile that I would also agree might fit, especially
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: if Mo is, you know, Mo is a former Cardinals executive.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: If he does have a big hand in who they
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: do hire as a GM. Flores is 51, big league
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: pitcher for eight seasons from 2002 to 2010. After his
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: playing career, he founded a sports data startup that used
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: video capture technology to improve the training of amateur players.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: And that system worked. was deemed so advanced that he
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: sold it to 11 major league teams. Uh, he then
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: returned to USC, uh, earned a master's degree in sports
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: administration before Mo offered him a job as Cardinal scouting director.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: And in that role, Flores developed a reputation for finding
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: hidden gems among them, Tommy Edmond in the sixth round,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Brendan Donovan in the seventh, Lars Neutbar in the eighth.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a pretty good resume.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Uh, I don't know, 51.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I really like your John Daniels idea. I've got to
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: know John really well over the years. I didn't know
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: he was looking to get back into that capacity, but
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: you could do a heck of a lot worse.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Than John Daniels.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know that he is either. I just think
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: he makes some sense.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that name. Mark, any names? We'll get
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: to the manager position here, and we had a lot
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: of names for that one. You know of any aspiring
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: young executives in the game that might fit what Kroenke's
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: looking for?
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: Dan Duquette.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: I'll assume that is a facetious response. Maybe not. What
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: do you think, Sam?
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: I have a lot of respect for Dan. He did
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: a nice job in Baltimore, turned that team from not
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: good to very respectable and did it with some payroll constraints.
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: There were some deals signed, and I think he's gone
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: on record to say he really had his fingerprints read.
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: nowhere near the one Albatross that gets mentioned. But you
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: know what? He's a shrewd baseball guy. He's got the
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: sense of humor that I appreciate. You've got to know
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: what you're looking for, maybe similar to myself at times.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: But what about Bobby Heck, Mike? What do you know
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: about Bobby Heck?
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: I know nothing about Bobby Heck.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: Can I make a point about Dan Duquette, please? Dan
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: Duquette was already on the Angels payroll once recently.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: That is true.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: And that was a disaster, in my opinion.
• 32:25
  Speaker 6: And should be absolutely nowhere near running the Angels or
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: baseball team based on the testimony I heard.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Mark, you're going to have to tell us about Bobby Heck.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: What do you got on Bobby Heck?
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: Bobby Heck's a special assistant with the Rays currently. He's
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: got a very bright future. He could immediately jump into
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: this hobo term. I really think that's my favorite. Hobo
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: sounds like, you know, obviously there's something else going on.
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: Thad Levine is a guy, obviously, with a bigger name,
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: and he blends traditional scouting, some progressive ideas. Kim Ng
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: was revered, and very, you know, teammates, ex-teammates of mine
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: spoke very highly of her. Obviously, not the traditional, well,
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: she's a woman. But she did an excellent job. She
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: knows the game inside and out, and she had a
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: real way, I guess her communication was outstanding. Uh, will
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: she be a candidate? I have no clue.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: No.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: And you know, a lot of these, I saw people
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: saying that they knew about the news that came out
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: on X a few days ago. Nonsense. Uh, you did not, um,
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: most likely did not. I don't know this. We don't
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: hear hardly anything. Um, I don't know who they're going
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: to Matt Klein is another guy is with the brewers.
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: He's a young up and coming. Uh, I'm not going
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: to pretend I know him or these other people, but
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: people like names. They like lists. We've done this before. Um,
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: Who do they have in mind? I'm not sure. I
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: will say if Mo is no longer going, well, it seems,
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: I don't know what his role is. If he is
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: a part of things, then the Cardinals guys like Descalzo
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: for manager, Randy Flores for general manager, those are a
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: lot more, you know, they make more sense under that umbrella.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: But if John Moselec is not making some of these decisions,
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: then I would start to pivot away from anybody with St.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: Louis ties pretty quickly. That's unclear. So it's kind of,
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: you know, We're going to have to speculate, but that is,
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: I guess those are my thoughts on the St. Louis crew. Yeah.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Well, let's turn to the manager position. And we did
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: a whole show a couple of weeks ago. I think
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: it was right after the season speculating on some of
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: these names. Several Mark just mentioned Flaherty, Hank Conger, Lombard,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Daniel Discalso. Mark had a good suggestion. Miggy Rojas, who
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: just retired after the NLCS with the Dodgers.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Much as I love Miggy personally, I think he's going
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: to be a good manager, a manager in the big
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: league someday. I just don't think you can go with
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: a guy who has zero experience on the bench. You know,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: it's so rare that these things work out. I think
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: he does need to, I'm not necessarily, oh, you got
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: to pay your dues, blah, blah, blah. But I think
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: you do need to spend some time as a coach,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: a third base coach, a bench coach, especially, So I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: wouldn't go the Miggy Rowe route just yet. There are
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: a couple of big league, former big league managers out there.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Joe Espada, who interviewed with the Angels, I know, at
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: least once, maybe twice for some of these before he
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: ended up joining the Astros. Dan Wilson, fired by the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: M's recently.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Not a big fan. Love him personally. Great dude. I
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: just think that team was a disaster this year. Alex Cora.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: Fired by the Red.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Sox, I read somewhere where he wants to take a
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: year off, but those things can change with the right
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: financial offer, I'm guessing. Any other guys jump out at
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: you two for next manager?
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: You know, when the WBC, watching that play out, I
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: was just continually impressed with Omar Lopez, the Venezuelan team manager.
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: You know, just someone that seemed like they could really
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: connect with people in all capacities, really a good communicator.
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: with the media, really good communicator with the team. So I,
• 36:13
  Speaker 6: you know, and obviously they won, you know, they won
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: in a really meaningful and powerful way. So he's a
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: name that stands out to me.
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: I don't know like a.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Ton about him.
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: Just someone that I watched and was impressed by earlier
• 36:25
  Speaker 6: this year.
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: Probably need to think a little more on the names,
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: but that was just someone that stood out to me.
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Another guy we've talked about, Dino Ebell, longtime third base
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: coach for the Dodgers, former Angels coach. I personally think
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: He would do a really good job, but he's 61
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: years old and maybe not that profile, the up-and-comer that
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: the Kroenke group is known for hiring. Marky, any other
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: names to add since we did that show? Any sleepers?
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Anyone else we can add to that list?
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: I saw a number of lists on Twitter. It was
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: Facebook X, yada, yada. I mean– If you're into that thing,
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: grab some popcorn and enjoy. Albert's name came up just
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: as quickly. Half the people said, idiot, no way. Very divisive.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: Tori's name came up a ton. Darren Erstad's name came
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: up a ton. I saw Gooby got quite a few
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: nods as well. I don't know what they're going to do.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: Whatever they do, if it were me hiring... I want
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: someone who has experience in player development. At the end
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: of the day, that to me is absolutely paramount. You know,
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: spending time with players, knowing how to communicate with them,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: knowing how to deliver some of these analytical things that
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: need to be conveyed, knowing how to kick them in
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: the rear when they need it. And if you don't
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: have any experience and you're, you know, let's take Kurt
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: just because he's right there in front of us. He
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: was probably, as far as attitude, more similar to how
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: he was as a player than how a manager should operate.
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: He never really, it appeared beyond some youth coaching, dealt
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: with guys in that capacity. And maybe he just didn't
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: have any idea how to go about telling Zach Netto
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: that his hustle was unacceptable or that Jorge Soler looked
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: like a lazy dog out there sometimes. And it's not
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: that easy to do unless you've done it. And I
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: think anybody that they need to consider should have experience
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: doing that, dealing with big personalities, not being intimidated to,
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: you know, have those conversations. And one thing I guess
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: I aspire to never have attached to me is good dude.
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: That usually means that you didn't light the world on
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: fire if those are the comments that are being relayed.
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: Not to say it's not, you know, all these people
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: are great people, but it seems to be attached when somebody,
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: you know, scuffled a bit.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: Good dude.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Well, for the record, when I covered Mark Trumbo as
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a player, I always thought.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: He was a good dude.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I agree. He could get a little salty sometimes, just
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: as you guys can see.
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: I was really hoping you corrected it. You had Miguel
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: Cabrera written on and you corrected it to Rojas.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: I was going to let you trip, but oh well.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that, Mark. Hey, that's going to do it
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: for today's show. We do have a very special guest
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: lined up for our first show next week. We're going
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: to let that be a surprise. Sam Blum of The Athletic.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: It's not me. I have no idea who it is.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: It is not Sam Blum. I can guarantee you that. Hey,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: thanks for tuning in, watching on YouTube, listening to us
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: on the podcast.
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: Please like and subscribe. And we will see you next
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: time on Halo Territory.