Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / GOING, GOING GONE? Yoan Moncada emerges as DFA candidate as Angels swept by Guardians

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GOING, GOING GONE? Yoan Moncada emerges as DFA candidate as Angels swept by Guardians · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welly Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo territory. I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: am Mike D. Giovanna, former Early Times Baseball writer and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: host of the show, joined by Mark Trumbo, the co
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: host of the show and former Angel slugger. And well,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: it's no other way to put it's been a rough
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: start of the week for the Angels, who were outplayed, out,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: pitched outrun out defended, and out fundamentaled in a three
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: game sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Guardians. Started
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: with Monday night seven and two loss that featured a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: pretty bizarre opener strategy. Mark, seems like you had a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: little hard time with their pitching plan on Monday.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: The opener is always a thing that some teams do
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: it really well. Some teams do it in the playoffs
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: and you see it. The Angels haven't been a team
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that have done it that much, and this instance of
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: trying to use it did odd to me. Burned through
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: three relievers, I believe, before getting to Manoa, who to
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: his credit, was able to eat five innings. We'll talk
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: about him in a little bit, but I just don't
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: quite know what the strategy was, if there was one, really,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: because I think Suitor is a guy that you're going
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to count on at some point for those additional games.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And he did not pitch and either of the other two.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: So that was his lone appearance. And you know, he
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: did okay, but it wasn't as crisp. It's not something
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: he's done I at least recently, at least for the Angels.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: So not a great start. And the rest of the series, well,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: there was one almost win.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, three to two loss on Tuesday night. Might have
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: gone better if the Angels didn't go oh for eight
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: with runners in scoring position. It seemed like you had
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: a little issue with the quality of that bats. Not
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: only the performance with running score in position.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: The aggressiveness was definitely there, not in a good way.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: And some of the guys, like Nolan for example, is
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: incredibly patient and generally won't do you know that lasted
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: bat to end the game, just wild swing out of
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: him on a breaking ball. Their closer Smith is you know,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I think the Guardians might know what they're doing when
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: it comes to pishing. It's you know, to be honest,
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen a couple of these guys. The starter
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: today messicability, I am not familiar with him now I am,
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: and they just they know what they're doing, and I
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: think it'd be foolish not to try and copy. I'm
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: sure everyone has tried. But why they are so much
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: better than the rest is very interesting. But when they
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: get in trouble, they get groundball double plays. He got
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: a couple of them today, And they really pray pawn
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: hitters being over aggressive in big situations, and I think
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: that only comes with having the command to do that,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and they do and generally they get ahead really well.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: They're not falling behind. Our pitchers did not get ahead
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: of their hitters quite as often. Their hitters didn't really
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: light it up either, But three wins for them, zero
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: for the Angels.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Angels struck out thirteen times on Wednesday, including
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: the last six outs of the game. Now, Wednesday actually
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: had a pretty decent start from Reed Detmer's and a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: potential breakout game from Zach Netto, who was dropped from
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the leadoff spot to the sixth spot and hit a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: two run home run and a single mark You said
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: in an earlier show that hitters will sometimes find their
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: swing in strange places in it sound like that might
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: have been the case with Netto on Wednesday.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I'll be interested to see his postgame comments if I
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: guess Splitch is able to talk to him or anybody else,
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: but I watching him. He was dropped in the order.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I do think that that was a good thing. It
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: was necessary overdue by ways, but he was hitting six.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I know Gooby was talking about these guys have been
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: gripping the bat too hard. I know what he's saying there.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Net O especially, I think has been searching and what
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: you want to see our adjustments and what I want
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: to see, especially as someone who played and works with hitters,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: what are you doing differently? Because if it just looks
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the same all the time and you're going up there,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and even to the most casual fan, it's like, man,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: this guy just doesn't it just looks like the same
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: at bat over and over. That's no good. But what
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: I did see is he fouled the ball off and
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: he got jammed. And I don't think if you look
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: at his advanced stuff on Savant and stuff, he's catching
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: the ball the furthest out in front of home plate
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: in all of MLB. He's got the most significant vertical
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: bat angle, being essentially his hands are quite a bit
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: higher than the barrel and he's catching it way out
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: in front. So that matchup plays nice on a few pitches,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: but we've all seen low and away and well other
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: spots too. Up and in isn't a good one either.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: There's just not He's not giving himself that much leeway.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: The foul ball, though, was a much better swing, and
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I said, you know, if I was more active on Twitter,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: I could have been first to that. But I did
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: think that was a positive sign. He goes on to
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: hit a home run, and then he had a single
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: and extra bat and punched out the last one to
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: a very nasty pitcher. But you know, long home run.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Admired it too. Yeah, it seems to be his thing,
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: so I'll kudos. But yeah, he didn't miss his pitch,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: and hopefully that this game is actually a real confidence booster,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: not just a I think he hasn't really had one
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: yet and this could actually be it.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Here was manager Kurt Suzuki's rationale for dropping Zach in
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the line of courtesy of Jeff Fletcher of the OC Register.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: For me, the biggest thing was just to try to
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: take the pressure off him. It's a lot of pressure
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: when you're scuffling a little bit and not playing how
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you want to play. This is just a way to
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: take the pressure off him, let him go and start
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: having fun and not feeling the weight of the world
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: on him. As you said, he did hit a two
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: run homer, got the Angels back into the game, and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: then swallowed that homer with a single. At this point, Mark,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: would you leave him in that sixth spot or I mean,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I do think the Angels are a better team when
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Zach is doing his thing in the leadoff spot. But
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: once again, he's not moving.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not making this lineup, and if I were,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I would not have done. I know today is going
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: at least to get some recognition for a change, But
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: it's okay. The real issue is the personnel, and it
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: starts and ends with the players that you have and
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the mixing and matching the line It's I mean, what
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: is ideal with this club? Because there at any given
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: time or two three automatic outs or guys that are
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: really scuffling, and then if you know, the trade off
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: is positionally trying to get guys some reps playing out
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: of position. If you move Paraz out of the infield,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: a criminal nothing short of it I mean, he's he's
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: a fantastic infielder. I'm going to keep saying it because
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: it's true. You know, I think he saved three runs
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: at second base alone and playing left field. No, that's
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: not it. What do you think?
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we were going to talk about that for sure.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I Parazza and Grissom apparently are beginning working left field.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think a guy like Paraza, he's such
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: an agile infielder, such a versatile infielder, I think he
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: probably would be no worse out there than Adam Frazier.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not so sure about Grissom. He doesn't seem to
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: have the foot speed, maybe the the letticism. Although left field,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, you moved from the infield to the outfield,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: you would know as well as anybody what that transition is, like,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: who do you like better to make that switch? And
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: if it means getting a better bat in the lineup,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I would make it, because, my goodness, when they're starting
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Tudosio and God, they started Moncata, who's won for twenty
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: one against right handers today and we're going to talk
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: about him in a bit. Their lineup for his left
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: handers is not very good, and their line up for
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: his right handers when Josh Lowe is in there is
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: not very good either. You made that switch, I got
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to go.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the answer is the worst defender in the infield
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: so ins and it really doesn't run that well. Yeah,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I mean left fielders. It's a benefit if you got
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: a stud out there, but yeah, they're probably going to
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: get exposed a little bit. But you really, I think
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: von is sure handed enough to be able to catch
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: routine fly balls. Seems to have an adequate arm, and
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I don't know, you're not if he hits, and really
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: he has been. He's been a nice contributor, so i'd
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: get him more reps out there. Frasier. I'm not sure
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: if he's falling out of favor a little bit, or
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: they're trying to be careful, or they need him, you know,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: in case those Indians later on in the game, you
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: know they need him to come in and pitch a
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: little bit. But it's hard to say with a straight face,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: but you know, he does seem to be the guy.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: I like him though. I think that yeah, he had
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: a bad game, maybe on a homestand or something, but whatever,
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, he's a pro. I like the way he
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: swings to that. He's fundamentally sound. He's very even keeled emotionally,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: and I'd like to see him out there more often.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: And I'd like to see someone that was manning third
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: base maybe no longer out there.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to get into Yoan Mancata and talk
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a little bit more about zach Netto when we come back. First,
• 9:50
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• 9:51
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• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Geek and welcome back to Halo Territory with Mike d
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Giovanna and Mark Trumbo. Zach Netto, in an interview with
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Jeff Fletcher earlier in the week, acknowledged that he's made
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: too many mental mistakes this season, telling Flescher his defense
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: hasn't been up to par, and Zach also responded to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: some relatively harsh comments on a pregame show from Bobby Valentine,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: who wondered if Nedo's head was in the right place.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Here is what Zach had to say about Bobby's quotes.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: That's just Bobby's opinion. It's cool hearing him seeing how
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: much Carrie has for me, and I didn't take it
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: as no diss or anything. I just see how much
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: carry has for me as a person and as a player.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I just got to be better. And I know that,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and he knows that, and all the Angels fans know that,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: my teammates know that. I just got to keep being myself.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I'm starting to feel like myself again, and it's just
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: a matter of just a matter of time before I
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: start breaking out of here soon and we're going to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: start winning some ballgames. Mark is a little mia culpa.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Good for a young player situation. I mean, I apparently
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: he'd been feeling the heat. So, uh, what do you
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: what do you think of his comments?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Best baseball is in front of us, No doubt about.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: That, general manager.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, speaking of taking a cue, do you think
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: that Bobby Valentine took a queue from someone?
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know? I mean, I don't know. I haven't
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: talked to Bobby much this year. I was enjoyed talking
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on what I do.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Ab TV is positive and fully enough so that yeah, either.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: A chuckle a minute on the on the broadcast before
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and after the game. Yeah, it's a good question. Who knows?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Maybe one person knows. Yeah, I mean it, I and
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Kurt doesn't. We've I've talked about it. He's very positive.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: That's that's a good attribute in life. In sports, sometimes
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: you gotta ramp it up. I wonder, yeah, And I
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: can try and find out if he's at some point
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: you've got to be frustrated. That's okay to be frustrated too,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: that's part of the deal. And I don't know if
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: I've seen any I don't like equipment throwing whatsoever. But
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I also haven't seen really any emotional denvers and I
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: guess cohno, let's just looked more frustrated on his air.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: But I don't know. Team meetings are for bad teams too,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: by the way, good teams don't have too many team meetings.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: So I think Zach's comments he took some accountability. That
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: was good. I don't think it was a harsh criticism
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: to begin with. In today's world, maybe so, but you
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: know that was coming, and I'm surprised it wasn't addressed
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: a little bit earlier. You know, he's made six seven
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: errors this year, had one today that was ruled a hit,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: could have been an air. And when you're not hitting,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: really the only thing you can do is play defense
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: and bring something to the table in that regard, And
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: if both aren't working. And that's where I kind of
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: miss Ron Washington because I've Ron would have had some
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: opinions at this point so far on many different topics,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: and I do, you know, sometimes it was like a
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: little bit hard, but that's how he rolled. You know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you're going to get the straight, straight feedback. And he
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: benched guys if he you know, I think he put
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Zach on the pine, uh just for for that, for
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: for carrying the glove or the bat out to defense.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So miss Round in that regard. But I think that,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: you know, hopefully this is this is the start of
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Zach getting everything together and becoming you know, that leader
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: and you know, all star caliber short stuff everyone's counting on.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Well, speaking of players who aren't hitting or playing much defense,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: that brings us to the third basemany on Mancata. He
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: made another air on Wednesday that cost the Angels an
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: un and run in the third inning. Didn't run out
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of ground ball. Right now, he's hitting one ninety with
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: a six fourteen ops, three homers, one double, one triple,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: nine RB, sixteen walks, forty three strikeouts and thirty eight
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: games and I think he's minus five outs above average
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: according to fangrafts. He's only made a handful of errors,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: but his advanced metrics at the position are not good.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: That's like second or worst of all third basement in baseball,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: as we said, one for twenty one against left handers.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: So him being a switch hitter is not much help. Mark.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: You called Toronto pitcher Eric Lawer's DFA earlier in this week,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: is Yon Mancata your DFA pick of the week.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: It's time eat the money let him? What do you mean,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: really you're watching him? I don't see anything that is
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: trending towards giving him four hundred five hundred bats. I
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: don't know that. Okay, so he didn't hustle on the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: double play, but what a what a week swing that
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: started it. I think it was a one to zero
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: coount in His right handed statistics this year have just
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: been nothing. Gives one hit or yeah he has to
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: have one at least, but just smother a tough pitch
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: to the shortstop after the leadoff guy got on. No
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: discipline in that no discipline is running down the baseline
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: and then makes just another silly error that cost him
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: a run. And we've already talked about him. He got
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: it together a little bit, really just an attitude the
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: on field play has got to. I mean the fact
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: that I can remember his hard hits means there haven't
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: been too many of them. So I don't know why
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: why they You know, I don't have the advanced metrics
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: that they might, but I can't see anything that would
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: say that, hey, you know, give this guy, keep him
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: in there, he's gonna together. I don't see that. Do
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: you do you think that you know, you see the
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: reason to keep him in that lineup. He's got a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: good plate discipline usually I guess that he does.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he he works some long at bats, he
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: sees pitches if that's If that's your thing, I guess
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: The question is always, okay, what's do they have a
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: better option? Like when Logan Hopey was really struggling before
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: he went on the il OH, everyone wants to send
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: him down Triple A, Well who are you going to
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: bring up? And I think in this case they do
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: have a better option with Parazza and even Grissom at
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: third base, So you could shuffle around, whether it's a
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Fraser moving to second, Chris uh staying at second, paraz
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: at third. There's certainly.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: What's that who's playing third base in Salt Lake?
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: More?
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Is it Kristen Moore?
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they've.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Nine hundred plus ops and first round pick. He's already
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: been in the big leagues. I don't really see. I
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: don't know if it would be an upgrade or not,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: but they do have kind of a log jam in
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: the infield and keeping a guy that Moncata doesn't have
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: any versatility beyond third base. I've never seen him play
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: anywhere else. Actually, I think at.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: One point, Yeah, that's a good point with More. I mean,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: they rushed they rushed him up to the big leagues
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: last year, and why not bring him up this year?
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: And I just saw a brief stints of him at
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: third base and spring training and it looked pretty good
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to me. And he, let's be clear, he's not going
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to be much worse than you on Mancata. So yeah,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I get to agree with you. I agree with you
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: on the DFA. Yeah, get rid of this.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Guy if the effort was there, and the team leadership
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: and some of the intangibles. But yeah, listen, I'm not
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: seeing it. I don't see any of those. He's really
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: a guy that you count on for his on field
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: production and probably you know, just the that's about it,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: and when he's just not again the motivation factor, I
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: don't know at this point. I think, you know, he
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: got embarrassed a little bit early on in the season.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Usually that's enough to to say, hey, hey, let's go.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, guys like Paraz and stuff are doing
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: it the right way. So that's that's again why I
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: like fundamentally sound baseball. He gets away with some stuff too.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Sometimes of his throws and stuff, he just comes straight
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: up out of his you know, infielders generally just or
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: better if you stay down in the legs and he'll
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: just kind of pop straight up and throw it over
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: to Nolan's done a good job picking them up too.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I think the time's up for
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: me watching him. Maybe he gets his act together if
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: they keep him around, but who knows.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: Well, there was at least one positive development in the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Cleveland series. Wahlbert urin Ya another solid start Tuesday night,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: five innings, pitch, three hits, two earned runs, one walk,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: four strikeouts. He's now one and four with a three
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: point twenty nine e er and seven games five starts
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: this season and on the year. He's throwing twenty seven
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: on the third innings, twenty two hits allowed, ten earn runs,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: seventeen walk twenty six strikeouts. Now, he's been relatively effective
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: despite a walk rate that's a little high. But this
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: is a guy Mark we barely even heard of in
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: spring training until that. Was it the fangraphs thing with
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the stuff plus metric that we once again hearing about
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: for the first time, and Wilbert Arana was leading the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: major leagues in spring training, and sure enough, this guy
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: might be their second best starter. He probably is their
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: second best starter right now.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I would agree, I think he is, and you're right.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know if that was enos with the stuff
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: plus or I want to get the right, but I
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: do believe you are correct with fangrafts if it's not
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the athletic. But yeah, he's got, you know, obviously a
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: cannon for an r. I mean he's a pitcher, so
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: not an outfielder. But I think you know what I
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: mean by that velocity for days and just a really
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: nice change up. Looking at that overall stat line, the
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: walks are still very high. He doesn't get ahead of
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: as many hitters as a guy like Striano. So but
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: but I mean expectations wise, he is totally exceeded by
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: far anything that I would have had for a guy
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: that I think I had said that he probably was
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: a year away, despite you know those those nice stuff
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: plus numbers, so you know, not only is he in
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: the big leagues, he's getting it done giving his team
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: a chance to win, just no offense behind him.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Interesting numbers in these statistics. When you look a little deeper,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: you mentioned that change up opponent. It's a ninety one
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: mile an hour change up. Opponents are hitting one forty
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: six for forty three, and at bat's ending with that
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: change up, it's a pitch that averages, according to Baseball Savant,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: twenty seven inches of vertical drop and almost seventeen inches
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: of armside fade. He's got a twenty eight point four
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: percent with rate with it. But in the sinker he
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: throws with some great movement at ninety eight miles an hour,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and opponents are hitting four seventeen ten for twenty four
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in that bats ending in that sinker, which looks like
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: a really plus pitch. How do you explain that? Mark
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and his force seamer, by the way, is ninety eight
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: as well, and opponents are hitting one forty three at
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: bets ending with a force seemer four for twenty eight.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: I think in when I was looking at his minor
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: league numbers that he didn't have a ton of strikeouts
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: to Indians pitch, so I was kind of curious as
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: to what was going on there. And then I saw
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: that he did throw a big sinker, as you said,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: with a lot of movement on the First thing I
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: thought watching the other day was I wouldn't want to
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: catch this guy. There's a lot of balls that are
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: either in the dirt or close to the dirt, and
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: then you're always going to try and fight to get
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: underneath some of those pitches to make them look better
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: than they are. Maybe that's where the one knee stance
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: comes in. But covered that, I think, I think what
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: it is is he doesn't really hide the ball as
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: well as some other guys. So when I was looking
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: at his delivery and when you see radar gun readings
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: like that and he's not blowing it by guys, my
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: initial reaction is probably they're getting a pretty good look
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: at it. Another thing, too, it's easier to make contact with,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: you know, pitches that register you know, premium velocity when
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: they're down in the zone, and if they're down in
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: the zone and going down further for whatever reason, at
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: least my opinion, you're not as liable to whiff on those.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: So you're gonna put a lot of those in play.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: You're gonna be able to foul them off. The guys
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: that get a ton of whiffs generally have you know
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: the Garrett Cole went healthy the four seam kind of
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: riser that generates a ton of swing and mists and
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: then you can throw a breaking ball off of that.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Urana goes to a really nice changeup which he's leaning
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: on about half the time. That's a lot, but it
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean he can't sustain it. I'd like to see
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: him experiment more with a four seamer see if he can. Yeah,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: it could be terrible advice, but that's kind of more
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: of what I see with guys that, you know, really
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: set up their change up and punch out more hitters
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: would be trying to work up in the strike zone.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: A little more.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: And then he did throw some really nice sliders. I
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: don't know what they're categorizing it, almost.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Sweeper, Yeah, I think they call it a sweeper. But yeah,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: it looked it looks sharp, and it looked like something
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that is not he's not comfortable with. He's not throwing
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: it that much yet, but I'd really like to see
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: him keep working on it because I think, like Striano, uh,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: you know, and I've talked about how great starting pitchers
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: almost always have three pitches or more, and right now
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I think Walbert's kind of leaning on too.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: But if he can add a third that, especially if
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: it's something he can land in the strikes on, I
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: think he needs something beyond the change up that he
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: can throw for strikes more consistently, because that sinker as
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: a as a ton of movement, as you said, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of them start out strikes and balls.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, a couple of bullpen developments somewhat interesting. Alec
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Manoa and Kirby Yates both made their second appearances of
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the season in Monday Night's loss, and as we said,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: Manoa threw five scoreless innings, gave up two hits, walked five,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: struck out two. But the velo on the fastball the
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: four seemer and the sinker eighty seven and a half
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: on the four seamer eighty nine point one on the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: change up. I'm sorry, eighty nine point one on the
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: sinkers change up at eighty four to five and his
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: slider at seventy seven to six. With a velo that
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: low mark, it just seems like he's gonna need some
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: greater differentials between his fastballs and his and his off
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: speed pitches to succeed because he's just not throwing very hard.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I thought he looked better than Yates. I wonder what
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the plan is for Yates because I'll get to my
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Noah Yates and stuff. Just it didn't look good at all,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: and he kind of gave it up as if he's
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: going to be a guy that's counted on for some
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: You know, he's getting five million dollars too, by the way,
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: so five million dollars is generally a reliever that's going
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: to be pitching those high leverage intings. But you just
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: can't put a guy out there that's throwing eighty eight
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: eighty nine with a little bit of a change up.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know how, you know, I'm trying to be nice,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: but he just looked old, kind of old, I know,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: but there's a lot of guys that you know it
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: defined It just kind of looked like the arm was
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: a little stiff, and I guess the weather was cold.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Segue into but Noah, you know what, he got the
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: job done. His comments after he seems to be kind
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: of out there talking about some animals thing recently. I'm
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: not going to put a lot of stock into he
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: might be just I can't having a good time. But
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: maybe that's how he is. I don't know him at all,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: and I do know that he got a lot of
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: outs and he ate five innings and at the end
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: of the day, Yeah, it doesn't look the part, you know,
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: with the advanced metrics, it's probably I saw the reports
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: at least on one of the X accounts, and they
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: you know, lined up D minus or something, but the
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: results were better than that, and I kind of looked
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: like the Guardians. Okay, one of two things. Either they'd
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: already score their runs and we've I'm sure you know
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: you've seen it hundreds of times of thousands where teams
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: get up in the lead and they just don't do anything,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: and so that's maybe part of it, or the other part.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: He might be throwing beneath the hitting speed and you
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: get so used to seeing ninety five ninety five, ninety eight,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: hundred hundred and one, all these things that a guy
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: can just baffle you. And the thing is sustainable. You know,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: we've touched upon that topic. It probably not, but but
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: who knows, you know what, He's got a lot of extension.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: They highlighted that he really gets out over his front side,
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: so mobility wise, I think he looked quite good. It's
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: just I think it'd be a lot more easy on
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: the eyes if it were ninety three.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, with Gras and Rodriguez apparently his return imminent, maybe
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: it would be nice to have a guy down in
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: that bullpen who could at least eat multiple, you know,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: more than two. We're talking three, four to five innings
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of these games that are getting out of hand early
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and at least save some of your bullpen. We'll close
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the show a little more on Yates. That fur Seemer
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: average is eighty nine point five right now, the splitter
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: eighty three point eight, and that is his outpitch, So
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: that's a five point seven mile an hour differential. As
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: a comparison in twenty twenty four, when he went seven
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: to two with a one point one seven ERA and
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: sixty one games for the Rangers. His four seemer average
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: ninety three point two and his splitter eighty six point one,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: So that's a seven point one mile an hour different
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: ken Yates be successful if he at least gets a
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: little more differential in his fastball. Is it ninety? Are
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: those two combos at that less velocity workable in this
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: league right now?
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: If he had a wipeout slider, I think that that
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: is about the only way. I would say. Yes, the
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: guys like Sergio Romo, and that's a lower arm slot.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: But if you're going to pitch on that, it's usually
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: side arm guys. I mean, what relief pitcher you see
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: throwing eighty eight miles an hour? You know you don't
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: high leverage out. No, And it's no dish on him.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: He's had a ton of wear and terry. He's had
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: a fantastic career. This is probably going to be the
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: tail end of it. Palmerance on the il now, I
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: think elbow inflammation or something. Another guy that's had a
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: great career. And as we talked about earlier in the year,
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: you got a lot of you know, you sign enough
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: of these thirty five year olds or older. It's kind
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: of what a looks like you don't know what you're
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: going to get production wise, and then there's probably going
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: to be some injuries too. I don't know what to
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: make of Ben Joyce. He was supposed to pitch and
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: then I believe Suzuki misspoke and it was going to
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: be the next day, and then he didn't pitch there either.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: You know, he's thrown one hundred and one mile an
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: hour gas and then you know, is the arm barking? Now,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: what's going on?
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Well, they hit the old pause button on his rehab
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and I've heard that one before. I can't imagine it's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: anything else. The company line right now is that his body,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: or assuming his arm is not responding or bouncing back
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the way they would like, the way Ben would like.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: As we know you, I don't know that it's imperative
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: that he be able to pitch back to back when
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: he comes back. I mean, how many save opportunities is
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: this team really going to have? Realistically? I think it'd
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: be nice to have him in any capacity in the bullpen.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: But I think the whole issue with Ben is he
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: has to find some kind of happy medium between you know,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: his velocity, the max effort pitch and staying healthy. I
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: don't think he's gonna be able to stay healthy at
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: one oh five. Can he stay healthy at one oh one?
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Does he need one oh one? I
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: don't know. Would ninety nine do it with some good secondaries?
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I think that's gonna be his struggle for the rest
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: of his career. Uh, So we're gonna close on that note.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on Halo Territory today. Join us
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Friday morning. We're gonna have Bill plunk At, the outstanding
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Dodgers beat writer and an old friend of Mark Trembo's.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Uh do you preview the Yeah Plunk Plunk in the
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: house to preview the Dodgers Angels weekend series. So that
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: should be interesting. Join us then. Until then, thanks for watching.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Please like and subscribe.