Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / BOOM OR BUST: Can the Angels' all-or-nothing offense be more dynamic?

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BOOM OR BUST: Can the Angels' all-or-nothing offense be more dynamic? · Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: And hosts of the show, joined by Mark Trumbo, the
0:03
Speaker 1: former Angels slugger and our regular co host, And today
0:07
Speaker 1: we're going to lean into the fact that, unlike any
0:11
Speaker 1: other Angels podcasts, we have a former Big League baseball
0:15
Speaker 1: player who knows a thing or three about hitting, and
0:19
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a little deep dive into the Angels offense.
0:22
Speaker 1: But first we do want to acknowledge the fact that
0:25
Speaker 1: the Angels have won four games in a row.
0:27
Speaker 2: As we sit.
0:27
Speaker 1: Here on a Wednesday morning, they swept the Rangers three games.
0:32
Speaker 2: Over the weekend.
0:33
Speaker 1: They beat the Tigers ten to six Tuesday night, Von
0:36
Speaker 1: Grisson with six RBIs, including a game winning grand slam
0:40
Speaker 1: in the eighth inning. Mark, have the Angels just run
0:46
Speaker 1: into a couple of struggling teams at the right time,
0:48
Speaker 1: or do you think they're starting to turn this thing around.
0:50
Speaker 2: A little bit? I think a little bit of both.
0:54
Speaker 2: I think that they have definitely played better. I think
0:57
Speaker 2: that they have a different feel and look to the team,
1:02
Speaker 2: maybe some additions by subtraction that already changing at least
1:10
Speaker 2: the overall look of that. I see more intensity, I
1:13
Speaker 2: see guys running harder. Zach Netto as something has lit
1:17
Speaker 2: a fire under Zach Netto. He looks like a brand
1:19
Speaker 2: new player out there. Energizer Bunny Store from angle yesterday
1:24
Speaker 2: first base, Yeah.
1:25
Speaker 1: From first base, that was very impressive. Yeah, the offense
1:28
Speaker 1: really busted out last night Tuesday night. But Mark, you
1:34
Speaker 1: had a little issue with the start by Jack Kahanowitz,
1:37
Speaker 1: which was not great. And we'll sort of refer to
1:39
Speaker 1: a quote that Jack gave Jeff Fletcher the Orange County
1:42
Speaker 1: Register after the game, and that will sort of lead
1:45
Speaker 1: us into what Mark wants to address. Jack said, just
1:49
Speaker 1: keep working. I can't put my finger on it. Obviously,
1:52
Speaker 1: I want to continue to keep working on the breaking ball.
1:55
Speaker 1: But I don't feel like that really mess things up
1:58
Speaker 1: today too much. It was just baseball is tough, you know.
2:02
Speaker 1: I've got to be able to be better out there. Mark,
2:07
Speaker 1: what'd you see and Jack start last night? And what
2:10
Speaker 1: didn't you like?
2:12
Speaker 2: I think Jack is somewhere in between right now. He
2:16
Speaker 2: has a guy that I think is very hard, even
2:21
Speaker 2: in his own mind to figure out exactly what type
2:23
Speaker 2: of pitcher he is. Yet he has an elite sinker.
2:27
Speaker 2: He gets a ton of ground balls, but he also
2:29
Speaker 2: has the ability to throw one hundred miles an hour.
2:32
Speaker 2: You can at any given point touch upper nineties triple digits,
2:37
Speaker 2: and I think that presents somewhat of a conundrum. Is
2:40
Speaker 2: he a power pitcher or is he more of a
2:43
Speaker 2: contact ground ball guy. And I think he's kind of,
2:46
Speaker 2: unfortunately somewhere in the middle of both of those. Now,
2:50
Speaker 2: one thing, watching yesterday's start, he was throwing a significant
2:55
Speaker 2: amount of change ups. That pitch is something that I've
3:00
Speaker 2: feel like, I believe it is his best whiff pitch,
3:05
Speaker 2: but he's not really a guy that gets a ton
3:07
Speaker 2: of whiffs on anything. So we were looking at this,
3:10
Speaker 2: and I was looking at Persevant the pitch run values.
3:15
Speaker 2: If you were to look at how it's graded and
3:18
Speaker 2: last year included, his change up does not rate as
3:22
Speaker 2: a quality pitch yet. It may be something that will
3:25
Speaker 2: develop further, but it clearly is not as good as
3:29
Speaker 2: his breaking balls when looking at this, his slider in particular.
3:34
Speaker 2: So in yesterday's ballgame, the pitch usage I believe actually
3:40
Speaker 2: favored change up as the primary weapon. He threw the
3:44
Speaker 2: most change ups out of any of his pitches, and
3:47
Speaker 2: next to no sliders. He might have had three of
3:50
Speaker 2: them or so. I kind of wonder when I look
3:53
Speaker 2: at those and I'm sure that they have the metrics.
3:58
Speaker 2: What is the justification for using your worst pitch so often?
4:02
Speaker 2: Is it a thing with the Tigers being particularly poor
4:05
Speaker 2: against change ups in general, or is it a case
4:08
Speaker 2: of trying to generate more whiffs more strikeouts. Maybe that's
4:12
Speaker 2: at the forefront of his mind. And I still believe
4:15
Speaker 2: that Jack is he doesn't need to be the highest
4:17
Speaker 2: punch out guy in the league. It looks the part.
4:20
Speaker 2: It gets you paid, But I think being a guy
4:22
Speaker 2: that eats a ton of innings and turns out quality
4:24
Speaker 2: starts will also put a lot of money in your
4:26
Speaker 2: back pocket. I think he, reasonably, to me, would be
4:30
Speaker 2: best leaning into his strengths, which is a sinker and
4:34
Speaker 2: his slider, and mixing in his change ups he goes.
4:38
Speaker 2: I'm also not certain he doesn't give possibly something away
4:42
Speaker 2: with his change up at times pitch tipping. I'll look
4:46
Speaker 2: at it a little bit further, but I know the
4:49
Speaker 2: grip is obvious at least watching on TV from behind,
4:52
Speaker 2: so the runners on second base or no doubt seeing
4:55
Speaker 2: a much wider hand which usually a much wider glove,
4:59
Speaker 2: may accompany that from the hitter's perspective and that if
5:02
Speaker 2: you're going to throw that pitch a lot and the
5:04
Speaker 2: hitter knows what's coming. Maybe why when I know Kurt
5:07
Speaker 2: had some comments that it seems like all of his
5:09
Speaker 2: mistakes get hit hard. He doesn't get away with as
5:12
Speaker 2: many as some other guys, So that could be part
5:14
Speaker 2: of it.
5:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder if this is one of those situations
5:17
Speaker 1: that sort of brings to the fore an issue that
5:21
Speaker 1: has emerged with all the analytics and all the advanced metrics.
5:25
Speaker 1: It's like too much information where a pitcher will get
5:31
Speaker 1: a scout on report, try to pitch to the opponent's
5:34
Speaker 1: weaknesses as opposed to the pitcher's strengths, and that seems
5:37
Speaker 1: to be an ongoing battle with a lot of guys,
5:40
Speaker 1: not just Jack. Kay, Is this just a problem that's
5:45
Speaker 1: going to be here with us to stay because there's
5:48
Speaker 1: so much information in the game now.
5:52
Speaker 2: Ideally the information would help you solve said problem a
5:55
Speaker 2: lot quicker. And I think when I look at this
5:58
Speaker 2: and I did pitch, I will ask around a little
6:03
Speaker 2: bit more. As his start was so soon as we're recording,
6:08
Speaker 2: didn't have a ton of time to solicit the opinions
6:11
Speaker 2: of those maybe that could answer it. Better. But I
6:14
Speaker 2: think I've seen enough baseball to know that guys that
6:19
Speaker 2: I faced that that had the most success generally leaned
6:21
Speaker 2: on their strengths regardless of who was hitting. Now, if
6:25
Speaker 2: the guy owned you and a hitter had just a
6:28
Speaker 2: ton of success, eventually you will have to get off
6:30
Speaker 2: of it unless you're just so stubborn that, uh, you know,
6:33
Speaker 2: you're not living in reality. But with Jack in particular,
6:37
Speaker 2: the comments, at least what he said yesterday, they don't.
6:41
Speaker 2: It sounds like somebody who's lost and is in need
6:44
Speaker 2: of somebody, and that maybe that's Logan or Mike Maddox
6:48
Speaker 2: or somebody that just says, hey, man, you need to
6:51
Speaker 2: lean into this more. You've had enough experience. Read Detmer's
6:56
Speaker 2: you know, his last start looks like he's really taking ownership.
6:58
Speaker 2: That's one thing I believe, if I may have said
7:01
Speaker 2: on a previous show, that I think he needs to
7:03
Speaker 2: be his own coach, his own you know, driving the train, basically,
7:07
Speaker 2: not relying so much on anyone else. He's got enough
7:10
Speaker 2: experience under his belt go out there and get it done. Man.
7:12
Speaker 1: The stuff is there. Yeah, all right, Well, let's get
7:15
Speaker 1: in the bulk of the show. The main topic. We've
7:18
Speaker 1: talked a lot on this show about the Angels one
7:20
Speaker 1: dimensional offense, how they're over reliant on the home run. Today,
7:25
Speaker 1: we're going to explore whether the Angels can actually add
7:28
Speaker 1: some more diversity to their attack. And this idea came
7:31
Speaker 1: from a conversation we had with the manager Kurt Suzuki
7:34
Speaker 1: before Sunday's game against Texas, and let's give that a listen.
7:41
Speaker 3: Last night, you guys were able to come through in
7:42
Speaker 3: more clutch situations, both pitching and offensively, but sigory and runs,
7:48
Speaker 3: not just being reliant on the homer.
7:50
Speaker 2: Is that something that maybe you're going to try to
7:52
Speaker 2: do more of? I know, what's easier said than done.
7:53
Speaker 2: Is that something that maybe you're looking for? These guys
7:55
Speaker 2: take maybe a little different approach.
7:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I think anytime you know, really know
8:00
Speaker 4: the home or it is kind of scary, right because
8:02
Speaker 4: you know those things. They're not easy to hit home
8:04
Speaker 4: runs in the big League. So I think if you
8:06
Speaker 4: have another dynamic way to score runs besides the homer,
8:10
Speaker 4: it's it's definitely gives you more opportunities. So that's something
8:14
Speaker 4: that we've been talking about, and I know the guys
8:17
Speaker 4: have been working on it and then thinking about it.
8:18
Speaker 2: So that's a good you know, it's been good.
8:20
Speaker 4: Is that something you can be proactive about or is
8:22
Speaker 4: it more personnel thing.
8:23
Speaker 2: I think a little bit of both.
8:25
Speaker 4: I think personnel has a lot to do with it.
8:27
Speaker 4: But at the same time, these guys are all major
8:29
Speaker 4: league quality, you know, caliber hitters, and and I feel like,
8:33
Speaker 4: you know, whatever they put their mind to, they can
8:35
Speaker 4: do it. So it's a mindset thing. But yeah, personnel,
8:39
Speaker 4: for sure. You know, we don't want, you know, Soleira
8:42
Speaker 4: to turn into a guy that's just hit grundballs to
8:44
Speaker 4: the right side of the field, you know what I mean,
8:45
Speaker 4: the guy you getting the ball one hundred and fifty
8:46
Speaker 4: miles an hour. So we still want them to stay
8:49
Speaker 4: to their strengths. But at the same time, just having
8:51
Speaker 4: that that other, you know, aspect of their game that
8:54
Speaker 4: you know, might help, you know, in a in a
8:57
Speaker 4: type of situation.
8:58
Speaker 1: How much just having a better or a different two
9:01
Speaker 1: strike approach along those lines, Yeah, two.
9:04
Speaker 4: Strike approach, you know, whatever you want to call it.
9:07
Speaker 4: I think having something like that where your mindset maybe
9:10
Speaker 4: shifts a little bit would be good. And you know,
9:13
Speaker 4: I've been in those meetings every day that they're talking
9:15
Speaker 4: about it, they're they're focusing on it, they're doing everything
9:18
Speaker 4: they can to you know, work with these guys so
9:20
Speaker 4: you know their credit, they've been buying in, they've been
9:22
Speaker 4: working on it. And we know it's not easy, right,
9:24
Speaker 4: You're gonna face some guys that just have nasty stuff.
9:26
Speaker 2: You're gonna strike out.
9:27
Speaker 4: But I think if the intense there, the works there,
9:30
Speaker 4: then you know you just got.
9:32
Speaker 2: To keep working.
9:34
Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot of to unpacked there and we
9:37
Speaker 1: will get to all that and more, but first we're
9:39
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Speaker 1: Gold and welcome back to Halo Tour Territory with Mike D.
10:51
Speaker 2: Givanna and Mark Trumbo.
10:52
Speaker 1: Now let's before we get too far, Let's take a
10:56
Speaker 1: look at the overall offensive numbers for this club going
11:01
Speaker 1: into Wednesday night's game. So batting average to twenty eight
11:06
Speaker 1: that's twenty seventh in the league. The things that really
11:11
Speaker 1: stand out to us, as always, are these strikeouts. They
11:15
Speaker 1: are tied five twenty seven strikeouts, they're tied for the
11:18
Speaker 1: worst in the league, and they're average with runners in
11:21
Speaker 1: scoring position, though it hasn't proved a little bit lately.
11:24
Speaker 2: To twenty one that's thirtieth. Now.
11:27
Speaker 1: I remember first couple of weeks of the season we
11:30
Speaker 1: talked about the three true outcomes and the Angels. For
11:33
Speaker 1: a few weeks, we're leading the league in walks, but
11:36
Speaker 1: that has tailed off. They're now middle of the pack
11:39
Speaker 1: in walks for one hundred and ninety three. Their home
11:41
Speaker 1: runs are still hitting them. They have sixty six of
11:44
Speaker 1: them and that's ninth and I believe I forgot to
11:48
Speaker 1: look this up this morning, but thirty eight or thirty
11:53
Speaker 1: nine of them are.
11:54
Speaker 2: Solo home runs.
11:56
Speaker 1: So I don't think anyone expects this club to morph
12:00
Speaker 1: into the situational hitting machine that T two thousand and
12:04
Speaker 1: two Angels were. But Mark, are there ways this team
12:08
Speaker 1: can be a little more dynamic on offense?
12:12
Speaker 2: I think there are. When you look at Kurt's answer
12:15
Speaker 2: makes me giggle a little bit at times. The way
12:17
Speaker 2: I mean he Kerr played for a long time and
12:20
Speaker 2: it's a unique way of phrasing things. So he gave
12:24
Speaker 2: a two part answer. Basically, I think the bigger part
12:28
Speaker 2: is the personnel I haven't yet seen so Laire quite
12:33
Speaker 2: cracked one hundred and fifty mile an hour Exipilosco. But
12:36
Speaker 2: you know it's happened. He does hit the ball very hard.
12:39
Speaker 2: I know what he's getting at there. But let's talk
12:43
Speaker 2: about a guy like Wade Meckler. You bring in now,
12:46
Speaker 2: why he was in Double A. I have no clue
12:49
Speaker 2: he's major league experience. And maybe it's very hard too,
12:54
Speaker 2: because you just almost as likely to get called up
12:57
Speaker 2: from Double A as Triple A. Now, so that he
13:01
Speaker 2: was a guy that, yes, I did like in spring,
13:03
Speaker 2: I will make one loan comment that he was a
13:07
Speaker 2: guy that I was high on. He has a career
13:09
Speaker 2: four fourteen on base percentage in the minor leagues. You
13:12
Speaker 2: can't ignore that. That is something that is very rare.
13:17
Speaker 2: It's very hard to teach, and that's you improved by
13:21
Speaker 2: bringing in a different player if you want to, if
13:24
Speaker 2: you want to really improve in that category. So what
13:26
Speaker 2: he also does is he makes a lot of contact.
13:28
Speaker 2: I mean, watching him at the plate, he's got a
13:31
Speaker 2: very repeatable swing. He's not going to hit over five
13:33
Speaker 2: hundred this year. I don't assume so, but he does
13:36
Speaker 2: seem I mean, he's not overmatched by any means. And
13:41
Speaker 2: he made contact. He's gotten hits all over the place.
13:44
Speaker 2: He drove on yesterday that was ran down in deep
13:46
Speaker 2: left field, but it's very tough to defend a guy
13:50
Speaker 2: they can go line to line. I mean, he's showing
13:52
Speaker 2: he he's got home run poll power, but he hardly
13:54
Speaker 2: hits the ball hard and he's very patient, and that's
13:57
Speaker 2: something that the Angels. I mean, he's immediately benefited them
14:00
Speaker 2: for Oh, obviously since he he started. Von Grissom got
14:03
Speaker 2: a big two RBI hit on the on a ground
14:07
Speaker 2: ball up the middle in a two strike count yesterday.
14:10
Speaker 2: That was a huge deal. That is something that the
14:13
Speaker 2: Angels a lot of times go down on strikes, and
14:19
Speaker 2: we'll get into why more so that happens to this
14:23
Speaker 2: team as opposed to others. Oswald Perrazza, I was Wald.
14:29
Speaker 2: Make sure I apologize for getting that wrong. I do
14:32
Speaker 2: know his name. For those who don't know, it's we
14:36
Speaker 2: are doing almost all of this ourselves, so Big John
14:40
Speaker 2: Video Production News didn't didn't you seem to have an issue?
14:44
Speaker 2: I do know his name, and I am very impressed.
14:46
Speaker 2: I have said it all year with the glove, but
14:49
Speaker 2: with the bat as well. He's changed his You know,
14:52
Speaker 2: I bet the Yankees are wondering why they weren't able
14:54
Speaker 2: to get as much out of him. But he's I assume,
14:57
Speaker 2: going to play every day moving forward. He's definitely, in
15:01
Speaker 2: my opinion, earned the right to do so. He impresses
15:04
Speaker 2: me each and every night. In some way, he strikes
15:08
Speaker 2: out a bit too much. I think he can probably
15:10
Speaker 2: shore that up a bit. But these are all guys
15:13
Speaker 2: that are kind of new additions to the lineup, and
15:17
Speaker 2: they are different than some of the guys that we've
15:20
Speaker 2: seen a lot of in the past that do strike
15:23
Speaker 2: out quite a bit.
15:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've given our brought our share of heat on
15:27
Speaker 1: GM Perry Minasian, but I have to give him credit.
15:30
Speaker 1: He did show up the bench, although I don't think
15:32
Speaker 1: Peaz is a bench player anymore, nor is Grissom. Really
15:35
Speaker 1: they're playing a lot more. Both those two guys have
15:37
Speaker 1: brought a dimension to this team that it's severely lacked.
15:42
Speaker 1: And Peraz against the Rangers, I forget the game, but
15:45
Speaker 1: I think he had base load of situation and in
15:49
Speaker 1: field in you know, he did swing at a first pitch,
15:52
Speaker 1: but he took a nice, easy swing. It wasn't a
15:54
Speaker 1: you know, go for the Grand Slam swing, rolled a
15:57
Speaker 1: nice groundball single through the six hole, knocked in two runs.
16:01
Speaker 1: So it shows it can be done. Now, Mark, you
16:04
Speaker 1: were a power hitting first baseman, and I'm guessing Mike
16:10
Speaker 1: Soosha probably asked or even demanded things from you that
16:14
Speaker 1: maybe forced you out of your comfort zone. You know,
16:17
Speaker 1: you referenced so Lair and yeah, he's not going to
16:20
Speaker 1: turn into David Eckstein and the Angels don't want that.
16:23
Speaker 1: But what adjustments can hitters like so Lair and some
16:28
Speaker 1: of these, you know, power first guys make to incorporate
16:34
Speaker 1: more of a team concept, maybe keep the chance the
16:37
Speaker 1: train rolling as opposed to keep swinging for the fences.
16:42
Speaker 2: That's a tough one. With a guy like Hoor, I
16:45
Speaker 2: doubt he will change at all. He's kind of doing
16:48
Speaker 2: his thing. His first pitch swing percentage is sky high.
16:53
Speaker 2: It's significantly higher than league average, possibly by like twenty
16:57
Speaker 2: percent or so. So I mean, you watch it now.
17:00
Speaker 2: Joe Adele hit a solo home run yesterday, awesome, But
17:05
Speaker 2: first pitch of the inning, borderline strikes slider And to me,
17:11
Speaker 2: that's a guy that, you know, if he's able to
17:14
Speaker 2: do that consistently, absolutely, But if he were to make
17:18
Speaker 2: an outright there on a first pitch, you know, leading
17:21
Speaker 2: off the inning on a slider that you know is
17:25
Speaker 2: a questionable pitch, and that looks like somebody that's kind
17:30
Speaker 2: of up there just hacking. He's Joe's done a fairly
17:33
Speaker 2: nice job. His ops still is hasn't gotten above seven hundred.
17:39
Speaker 2: I think he's still hovering about six eighty five on
17:41
Speaker 2: base is just okay. Not drawing a ton of walks
17:44
Speaker 2: these guys. I think that this is the brand of
17:47
Speaker 2: baseball that they kind of wanted to see. The home runs,
17:51
Speaker 2: and I think the trade off, in the opinion of
17:54
Speaker 2: the Angels, must be worth it. Now, Logan o Hoppy,
17:58
Speaker 2: he had a nice double yesterday, probably should have been caught,
18:01
Speaker 2: but nevertheless he squared it up and Karen ab off
18:05
Speaker 2: the wall and right field the opposite way. Why did
18:08
Speaker 2: I mention him over the winter when I saw some
18:11
Speaker 2: of his drills because of the extreme pole path that
18:15
Speaker 2: that created. Wherever a lot of his hits gone recently
18:19
Speaker 2: the other way. Not all of them have been hit hard,
18:21
Speaker 2: but he's got that in the bag netto he's going
18:24
Speaker 2: to be a pole hitter now. He has said he
18:26
Speaker 2: was going to explore the middle of the field a
18:28
Speaker 2: little bit more, almost as if it's a novel concept.
18:30
Speaker 2: To him. But you know, if he's doing this and
18:33
Speaker 2: he and he's able to keep up, this looks like
18:35
Speaker 2: the guy that we remember, you know, in previous years.
18:39
Speaker 2: So whatever allowed him to come out of it is great.
18:42
Speaker 2: I know, to get back to socia. I mean, I
18:44
Speaker 2: played in a different era. It's it's it's hard to
18:47
Speaker 2: I nothing was out of my comfort zone because I
18:50
Speaker 2: had to do it all the time. So sack bunts,
18:52
Speaker 2: hit and runs, all these things. It wasn't like, hey,
18:54
Speaker 2: you have the potential to hit for a lot of power.
18:57
Speaker 2: You're you know, you don't do these things everybody, but
19:00
Speaker 2: he did him. I had to sack bunt the major leagues,
19:02
Speaker 2: you know, hit and runs. There was an approach. Now.
19:07
Speaker 2: The biggest thing I think for me, let's just get
19:10
Speaker 2: into the RBI situations. What's the mindset when you get
19:14
Speaker 2: up there, or what's the situation run around second? What
19:17
Speaker 2: are you trying to do at the end of the day.
19:19
Speaker 2: You want to advance the guy to third base, that
19:21
Speaker 2: is your job. Ideally you want to drive him in.
19:24
Speaker 2: So the first couple of pitches, I'd love to see
19:26
Speaker 2: a line drive approach, aggressive, looking to drive the ball.
19:29
Speaker 2: If it's a mistake. But once you get to two strikes,
19:31
Speaker 2: there should be somewhat of a noticeable difference. And the
19:34
Speaker 2: foul balls. If you remember Howie Kendrick, he was excellent
19:37
Speaker 2: at it, staying more inside the ball and a lot
19:40
Speaker 2: of his foul balls would be over the right side.
19:43
Speaker 2: So when I see guys that are topping it to
19:45
Speaker 2: the third basement for right handed hitters with a man
19:47
Speaker 2: on second, that doesn't show me that they're looking to
19:50
Speaker 2: get that guy over. That's the all or nothing approach
19:54
Speaker 2: we're talking about. And then when brothers in third less
19:57
Speaker 2: than two, I'll wrap it up. But your biggest a
20:00
Speaker 2: swing the court screw, the off balance, the one that
20:03
Speaker 2: fouls a lot of balls off the ooze and ohs,
20:05
Speaker 2: those are strikes and they ended up in a lot
20:07
Speaker 2: of strikeouts. If you get a good pitch to hit,
20:09
Speaker 2: great RBI guys generally get the job done quickly and efficiently.
20:14
Speaker 2: Hopefully you know, you get a hit, maybe more, maybe
20:17
Speaker 2: you hit it out of the park, whatever. But getting
20:20
Speaker 2: to two strikes in those situations is the pitchers are
20:23
Speaker 2: only looking for one thing, and that's to not let
20:25
Speaker 2: you make contact. And you know, so best to pounce
20:28
Speaker 2: on those early pitches that are mistakes and more hit them.
20:31
Speaker 1: All right, We're gonna take one more break for a
20:33
Speaker 1: word from our sponsors, and we'll be right back with
20:35
Speaker 1: more Halo territory.
20:38
Speaker 5: Godfather, I'm a last minute guy. Sometimes you're a last
20:40
Speaker 5: minute guy where you all of a sudden see a
20:43
Speaker 5: night open up and you want to go grab some tickets,
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Speaker 5: dot and see where the good seats are and the
20:52
Speaker 5: good value is and have a little night with the fam.
20:54
Speaker 3: Right without a doubt. And I'm looking for some of
20:57
Speaker 3: the best seats. I'm looking for that green dot. When
20:59
Speaker 3: I get that, it's a simple plug it in, use
21:02
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Speaker 3: They make it so easy for you to do. Even
21:12
Speaker 3: my son can do it if I ask them. Hey, Blakester,
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Speaker 3: let's go man, get on there for us, find us
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Speaker 3: a couple of seats so we can watch even that
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Speaker 3: Subway series that would be fantastic. Seat Geek has it
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Speaker 3: all there for you.
21:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, and the code for you. You should know it.
21:25
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21:35
Speaker 5: Then the code is automatically added to you account so
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Speaker 5: you can use it later.
21:39
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back toload Territory. Look at that camo hat. Wow,
21:46
Speaker 1: I got you one at the game. Where'd you get that?
21:48
Speaker 2: I was gonna? I know my wife one too, she
21:50
Speaker 2: knew I wanted one. Oh that's awesome. Looks good on
21:54
Speaker 2: you man.
21:56
Speaker 1: Well, I'm wearing Alad Territory with Mark and Mike d Givonna. Well, Mark,
22:02
Speaker 1: you found an advanced plate discipline metric that illustrates an
22:06
Speaker 1: important area, the area that the Angels are lagging in
22:10
Speaker 1: a bit. Do you want to share with the class?
22:15
Speaker 2: This is one thing when when we were talking about
22:17
Speaker 2: the offense as a whole, that I was trying to
22:20
Speaker 2: find any stats that really stand out. We know they
22:22
Speaker 2: swing in a lot of first pitches that's already known.
22:26
Speaker 2: We know they strike out a lot that's already known.
22:28
Speaker 2: But is there anything that we could really cling onto
22:32
Speaker 2: it stands out and Baseball Savant has a lot of
22:35
Speaker 2: numbers and a lot of metrics, so I was looking
22:37
Speaker 2: and trying to see and there were a lot of
22:38
Speaker 2: things that I said, Oh, they're not really that much
22:40
Speaker 2: worse than anyone else. So what I was able to
22:44
Speaker 2: find was one stat in particular that they seem to
22:48
Speaker 2: be the worst at in the game, and that is
22:53
Speaker 2: chase contact percentats or O contact meaning pitches that end
22:58
Speaker 2: up outside of this strike zone. The Angels with more
23:03
Speaker 2: than the rest, and by a ways, I believe while
23:09
Speaker 2: they are the worst, the Rays are leading the league
23:14
Speaker 2: in chase contact percentage. Now, that also implies that you
23:18
Speaker 2: are chasing a pitch outside the strike zone, which is
23:21
Speaker 2: not something that you would generally advocate for hitters you
23:26
Speaker 2: don't want to chase, but it's inevitable you're going to chase.
23:30
Speaker 2: That also includes foul balls. So really, what to me
23:33
Speaker 2: that this stat is saying is the Angels with a
23:36
Speaker 2: heck of a lot and when the pitches are they
23:40
Speaker 2: do miss inside the strike zone two. But when they
23:43
Speaker 2: are offering at the strike to all sliders especially and
23:47
Speaker 2: some of the pitches away, they are unable to get
23:49
Speaker 2: any wood on it. And that's you know, keeping the
23:52
Speaker 2: bat alive. For example, with two strikes. Sometimes you got
23:56
Speaker 2: to do that. I don't care who you are, Aaron judge,
23:58
Speaker 2: you know you got to file some pitches off if
24:00
Speaker 2: you're just swinging through the example last night not a
24:03
Speaker 2: good one Torklesen for the Tigers. I don't know exactly
24:07
Speaker 2: what he's doing or working on, but you know, just
24:11
Speaker 2: just he's really struggling, but he was unable to really
24:15
Speaker 2: he did have a foul ball home run, but that
24:18
Speaker 2: lasted bad for just no foul balls, no nothing, just
24:21
Speaker 2: swinging through hot you know. And then he took took
24:24
Speaker 2: the last strike right down the middle. So that's clearly
24:27
Speaker 2: a guy that's going through it. But I think the
24:29
Speaker 2: Angels would how do you teach this? I think it's
24:32
Speaker 2: more of a mindset thing. I think that if you're
24:34
Speaker 2: looking to pull the ball and pull the ball in
24:36
Speaker 2: the air, this is where it really comes back to
24:39
Speaker 2: bite you because that path and why I brought up Tortlesen.
24:42
Speaker 2: It looks like that's all he's looking to do and
24:44
Speaker 2: those swings Adele Solaire, some of these guys that have
24:49
Speaker 2: the big power are not adjusting when they get to
24:52
Speaker 2: two strikes. It's the same swing. Even Trout can be,
24:56
Speaker 2: you know, kind of fall into that Netto as well.
25:00
Speaker 2: So when I look at this, who are the guys
25:03
Speaker 2: that I guess statistically are really struggling. League average for
25:10
Speaker 2: Chase contact percentage, let's get that out of the way.
25:12
Speaker 2: It is fifty eight percent. Zach Netto is at forty
25:15
Speaker 2: seven percent. Jae Hilaire is at thirty five percent, So
25:20
Speaker 2: fifty eight percent league average, he is at thirty five.
25:23
Speaker 2: That's that's a big divide. He's whiffing a lot, and
25:26
Speaker 2: we see it. Trout's at forty six, so it's a
25:29
Speaker 2: little bit better. Moncada forty one. Those are the guys
25:32
Speaker 2: that seem to really be scuffling. O'hapi and Adele were
25:36
Speaker 2: somewhere in the middle. They were a little bit below
25:38
Speaker 2: but not bad. And like you know, Joe Adell is
25:42
Speaker 2: actually a fifty four percent. The one guy that really
25:45
Speaker 2: does a good job, and it has a big enough
25:46
Speaker 2: sample size to to talk about is Nolan Shanowell, which
25:50
Speaker 2: people probably have noticed. He's and I think you've said,
25:53
Speaker 2: you you know, he's the guy that stands out if
25:56
Speaker 2: there's a runner at third and you need to get
25:57
Speaker 2: him in and I think that this is probably why
26:00
Speaker 2: he's got He puts a lot of wood on the ball.
26:02
Speaker 2: Nolan's at sixty four point three percent twenty twenty six
26:05
Speaker 2: and almost seventy percent for his career. So he spoils pitches,
26:08
Speaker 2: He hangs in there, he fights off the tough ones,
26:12
Speaker 2: and he will strike out, but he's a lot tougher
26:14
Speaker 2: to strike out than you know, his teammates. And I
26:18
Speaker 2: think that that this O contact or chase percentage is
26:21
Speaker 2: an area that I kind of wanted to talk about.
26:23
Speaker 2: Hopefully we were that I explained it well enough so
26:28
Speaker 2: you don't want to chase, but if you're going to
26:31
Speaker 2: it is a good thing too, you know, foul balls
26:34
Speaker 2: or what I'm talking about now. The downside is if
26:36
Speaker 2: you're going to chase and you hit, you know, especially
26:38
Speaker 2: early in the count, little dinkers, nothing, ground balls, pop outs,
26:42
Speaker 2: making outs with you know nothing behind him and swinging
26:46
Speaker 2: at bad pitches. That's also a more formula. But I
26:49
Speaker 2: think if they were to look and it's what does
26:51
Speaker 2: it come down to is more of a mindset thing.
26:53
Speaker 2: Kurt alluded to it a little bit. Two strikes. Something's
26:56
Speaker 2: got to change. A little bit, and I think the
26:58
Speaker 2: easiest thing is shifting your sights from maybe dead left
27:01
Speaker 2: field to being the bigger part of the park, even
27:03
Speaker 2: right center.
27:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna ask if a good chase contact
27:08
Speaker 1: percentage sort of goes hand in hand with a good
27:10
Speaker 1: two strike approach, because it seems like I think so
27:14
Speaker 1: Laer had on a bat Tuesday Tuesday night where there
27:18
Speaker 1: were guys on first and third, one out, and he
27:20
Speaker 1: just waved at a breaking ball off the plate for
27:22
Speaker 1: strike three. There seems to be more a need for
27:27
Speaker 1: more feistiness, for lack of a better term, with two strikes.
27:31
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not gonna compare this team to the
27:34
Speaker 1: two Angels, but man, those guys just battled. They made
27:37
Speaker 1: pitchers work, They never gave away at bats, they moved
27:41
Speaker 1: runners over, they did all the situational things, all the
27:43
Speaker 1: little things. They ran the bases aggressively and smartly. Once again,
27:48
Speaker 1: I don't expect this team to just become that overnight.
27:51
Speaker 1: But is there a way for some of these hitters
27:54
Speaker 1: who are a little set in their ways to have
27:56
Speaker 1: a better two strike approach?
28:00
Speaker 2: Is it's just a matter of are they interested in
28:02
Speaker 2: doing it. I've wondered aloud, and I can kind of
28:07
Speaker 2: try and see, But when did the Angels offense It
28:12
Speaker 2: seems like within the last three four years become you
28:16
Speaker 2: know this, this really polarized an example of the all
28:21
Speaker 2: or nothing home run lead the league in strikeouts, and
28:25
Speaker 2: I know Perry has talked about there's various ways to
28:28
Speaker 2: have a high ops and this is one of them.
28:31
Speaker 2: Now these guys, you know, Netto's kind of gone back
28:34
Speaker 2: to not taking a lot of walks. Every once in
28:36
Speaker 2: a while, it seems like it kind of flip that
28:38
Speaker 2: switch again and do it rout. It's generally, you know,
28:42
Speaker 2: he's always been great at it, but a lot of
28:45
Speaker 2: these guys swing the bat, and they swing a lot.
28:46
Speaker 2: So Learia doesn't walk much, Adell doesn't walk much. Moncatta
28:50
Speaker 2: actually did, but he's not in there right now. Mackler
28:52
Speaker 2: is a guy that I assume is going to take
28:54
Speaker 2: a number of free passes himself. But I don't know
28:57
Speaker 2: what's going on in these hitters meetings. I do know
28:59
Speaker 2: that the recently Kurt was asked if anything was different,
29:02
Speaker 2: I think one of the games against the Rangers, possibly
29:06
Speaker 2: it was probably after de Grom. Was there anything that
29:09
Speaker 2: you guys switched up in the hitters meeting and he said, no,
29:13
Speaker 2: not really, just be ready to hit. So I kind
29:16
Speaker 2: of was wondering if that may be the message. And
29:20
Speaker 2: it's not a bad message, but it seem if that's
29:24
Speaker 2: all you're hearing it, you know, is it working. It
29:27
Speaker 2: is for some of these guys, and they're on a
29:30
Speaker 2: good run right now now that the Rangers not the
29:33
Speaker 2: greatest team that we've seen. The Tigers are in a
29:36
Speaker 2: bad spot. They are really depleted and it showed they
29:40
Speaker 2: have the worst outfield defense in baseball and it cost them.
29:43
Speaker 2: Their relief pitching is not very good either. The credit
29:45
Speaker 2: to the Angels because these are the types of teams
29:48
Speaker 2: that they should be taking advantage of and they have
29:50
Speaker 2: it in recent years and they're taking care of business now.
29:53
Speaker 2: So we'll see if it keeps up. As we said,
29:56
Speaker 2: the Rais are coming up next and they are much
29:58
Speaker 2: tougher team. Yeah.
30:00
Speaker 1: Last question, runners in scoring position approach. How did you
30:04
Speaker 1: sort of approach these situations? Was it a little different
30:08
Speaker 1: than you know, coming up with runner on first, you know,
30:12
Speaker 1: no oubt, and is there maybe any difference with the
30:15
Speaker 1: runners and score im positioning him two outs.
30:19
Speaker 2: In two outs. I think you got to be yourself
30:22
Speaker 2: because you can't manufacture a run through a productive out,
30:25
Speaker 2: it will be the end of the inning. So my
30:29
Speaker 2: approach and what I was always taught as a kind
30:32
Speaker 2: of had mentioned. But it's looking to pounce on something early,
30:37
Speaker 2: probably shortening up the swing just a little bit, not
30:40
Speaker 2: not a choke and poke. But what really and I
30:43
Speaker 2: think pat Roll was I believe who was telling me,
30:48
Speaker 2: gave me this, but just overall hitting. For example, when
30:51
Speaker 2: you get to a two zero count, you want to
30:53
Speaker 2: take advantage of that. Now, in today's game, they're just
30:56
Speaker 2: as likely to throw you a little wrinkled slider, but
30:59
Speaker 2: those are his do you know. I mean, if they're
31:01
Speaker 2: just going to hang it, you bang it. But you
31:04
Speaker 2: need to have a swing that is able to do that.
31:06
Speaker 2: And when you're you're taking a swing that if you
31:10
Speaker 2: lose your balance, to me that you're that edicates you're
31:12
Speaker 2: swinging too hard. And when I see an extra step
31:15
Speaker 2: or a lunge afterwards, it usually is indicative to me
31:19
Speaker 2: of somebody who's using a lot of upper body and
31:22
Speaker 2: trying to do a lot with it, trying to do
31:25
Speaker 2: too much. That people like to hear that just trying
31:28
Speaker 2: to do a lot and sometimes that that well, it
31:32
Speaker 2: really never is is appropriate, and it doesn't really work
31:35
Speaker 2: unless you're a guy that has a proclivity for just
31:38
Speaker 2: putting the ball in play with for you know, you
31:41
Speaker 2: get some guys do this, some guys maybe Actually times
31:43
Speaker 2: I was more and it might be a byproduct of
31:46
Speaker 2: the coaching I had coming up just putting the ball
31:48
Speaker 2: in play. I hit a lot of ground balls, and
31:50
Speaker 2: I think von Grissom was actually talking about it too.
31:53
Speaker 2: He's been hitting too many ground balls, so he was
31:55
Speaker 2: looking to drive the ball the right center yesterday. Overall,
31:58
Speaker 2: hitting with runners and scoring positions, and you want to
32:01
Speaker 2: get that runner in. Sometimes that benefits yourself and the
32:06
Speaker 2: team in the form of a single, double, home run, whatever.
32:08
Speaker 2: Sometimes it benefits the team more than you. So a
32:11
Speaker 2: sack fly is going to hurt your own base percentage.
32:13
Speaker 2: I actually didn't know that for too long as a
32:17
Speaker 2: minor league player, but I had a lot of sack flies.
32:20
Speaker 2: It was something I could reasonably do. It was you know,
32:23
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's discouraged today. That's one thing
32:25
Speaker 2: that I assume it's still valuable. You should get high fives,
32:29
Speaker 2: you know, moving a guy over you. If you do
32:31
Speaker 2: it on the first pitch, runner on second less than
32:33
Speaker 2: two and you hit a nothing you know, grounder to
32:36
Speaker 2: the second basement, that's okay, but it's not you're gonna
32:39
Speaker 2: get high fives. That's not a great at bat either.
32:41
Speaker 2: You should be looking to sting it and with two strikes,
32:44
Speaker 2: you know, if you get you know, jammed. Trout's got
32:47
Speaker 2: jammed a couple of times recently and it's produced Good
32:50
Speaker 2: hitters get jammed. I think I'll end with that. Good
32:52
Speaker 2: hitters get jammed if you're living off the end of
32:54
Speaker 2: the bat. It's a tough way to go about it.
32:57
Speaker 2: So if any of the players happened to be watching,
33:00
Speaker 2: I doubt they are getting jammed. Is not you know,
33:04
Speaker 2: good hitters get jammed. All right, we'll close the show
33:07
Speaker 2: with that.
33:08
Speaker 1: Thanks for watching and listening, Angel Fans, and please like
33:13
Speaker 1: and subscribe and we'll see you next time on Halo Territory.