Latest / Halo Territory: A Los Angeles Angels Podcast / SPARK PLUG: New OF Wade Meckler infuses Angels with much-needed energy and grit
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: Helay Angel fans, and welcome back to Halo Territory. I'm
- 0:12Speaker 1: Mike d. Giovanni, former Ella Times Baseball writer and host
- 0:15Speaker 1: of the show, joined by Mark Trumbull, my regular co
- 0:17Speaker 1: host and the third basement for the Angel during Jared
- 0:21Speaker 1: Weaver's no hitter. How about that, Guys got some interesting
- 0:25Speaker 1: things to cover today. We're gonna talk about horror, Jose
- 0:28Speaker 1: Soriano's very extended slump, and we're gonna talk a little
- 0:33Speaker 1: bit about Mickey Moniac, the former Angel outfielder who is
- 0:36Speaker 1: in town with the Rockies. But we're gonna open with
- 0:39Speaker 1: an interview I did with our newest Angel, Wade Meckler,
- 0:42Speaker 1: before the Rocky series began on Monday. Meckler was called
- 0:46Speaker 1: up about a week and a half ago. His first
- 0:49Speaker 1: ending with the Angels, he makes a spectacular diving catch
- 0:53Speaker 1: before crashing into the wall and foul territory against the
- 0:57Speaker 1: Rangers two Fridays ago, and at the bottom of the
- 1:00Speaker 1: first he hits a three run homer off Jacob deGrom
- 1:04Speaker 1: and then he also hit a grand slam over the
- 1:07Speaker 1: weekend in Tampa Bay. And he's made a nice first impression,
- 1:11Speaker 1: as we've talked about on the show. So let's get
- 1:13Speaker 1: right to this interview with Wade Meckler. So why don't
- 1:18Speaker 1: we start?
- 1:18Speaker 2: Wade?
- 1:20Speaker 1: Are you sort of starting to feel a little more
- 1:22Speaker 1: settled in after that World win of an Angel's debut
- 1:25Speaker 1: in that last homistant? Yeah?
- 1:27Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like once the first game started, you know,
- 1:30Speaker 2: it becomes.
- 1:30Speaker 1: His baseball again.
- 1:31Speaker 2: So uh, you know, once the the travel whirl wind
- 1:35Speaker 2: and the pregame stuff was done, and just yeah, fell
- 1:38Speaker 2: felt pretty settled in.
- 1:39Speaker 1: It seems like your style of play, made in contact,
- 1:43Speaker 1: getting on base, run and hard playing very aggressively on
- 1:46Speaker 1: defense was something this team really needed, uh and maybe lacked.
- 1:52Speaker 1: Were you aware of that when you got here? Did
- 1:55Speaker 1: you sense any of that?
- 1:56Speaker 3: No?
- 1:57Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's just the way that I've kind
- 1:59Speaker 2: of always played the game and just trying to help
- 2:03Speaker 2: the team win, and that's just how I know how
- 2:06Speaker 2: to do it.
- 2:06Speaker 1: Yeah. How do you feel your style has been in
- 2:08Speaker 1: so far?
- 2:09Speaker 2: It's good.
- 2:10Speaker 1: I mean, I'm.
- 2:12Speaker 2: You know, whether it's on defense or based running or offense,
- 2:15Speaker 2: I'm just trying to contribute to either scoring runs or
- 2:19Speaker 2: or shaving runs. And you know, it's it feels good.
- 2:24Speaker 1: To be helping. Yeah, we've mentioned this on the podcast
- 2:27Speaker 1: a few times. I don't know if it's because of
- 2:28Speaker 1: the red hair, the fact that your numbers in the fifties,
- 2:31Speaker 1: your mannerisms kind of remind me a lot of cool Calhoun.
- 2:37Speaker 1: Was he a player you admired the coming up?
- 2:40Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'm coming to games his rookie year and
- 2:44Speaker 2: Washington play growing up, and he was a great player,
- 2:46Speaker 2: played great defense. I felt like he was always guys
- 2:49Speaker 2: trying to do little things, and so it's a good
- 2:51Speaker 2: player to try to emulated.
- 2:53Speaker 1: Yeah, so you tried to style your game a little
- 2:54Speaker 1: bit after a guy like that.
- 2:56Speaker 2: Yeah. I was an infielder growing up, so it was
- 2:57Speaker 2: more you know, the icy bars and guys like that.
- 3:01Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean it's it was a guy that
- 3:04Speaker 2: always admired watching play.
- 3:06Speaker 1: Trumbo sees the comparison with Cole in that you both
- 3:14Speaker 1: have or had a chip on your shoulder. Is that true?
- 3:18Speaker 2: Uh?
- 3:18Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit. So, I don't know.
- 3:21Speaker 2: I mean, throughout my career, I've just been always told
- 3:24Speaker 2: that I wasn't good enough, whether it was you know,
- 3:27Speaker 2: barely making my high school team, getting cut from my
- 3:29Speaker 2: college team, yeah, just not having a whole lot of
- 3:36Speaker 2: people outside of small circle believe in me. So yeah,
- 3:38Speaker 2: I mean there's obviously a desire to prove a lot
- 3:40Speaker 2: of people wrong.
- 3:41Speaker 1: And prove all people right to Some of that come
- 3:44Speaker 1: from being a little undersized when you get to high school.
- 3:46Speaker 2: Too, definitely. Yeah, it kind of had to be that
- 3:48Speaker 2: way growing up. Yeah, I kind of had to play
- 3:51Speaker 2: a little bit, a little bit angry and nixause if
- 3:54Speaker 2: I didn't and it wasn't gonna be good enough, you know.
- 3:57Speaker 2: So I always had to try to find find small
- 4:00Speaker 2: little edges. And one of those edges was kind of
- 4:02Speaker 2: tapping into that trying to prove it wrong.
- 4:04Speaker 1: A little bit. I read in the story of somebody
- 4:07Speaker 1: wrote when you're at double A that you're actually under
- 4:09Speaker 1: one hundred pounds your freshman year.
- 4:11Speaker 4: How was that possible for put tenent five pounds? I
- 4:14Speaker 4: was just yeah, I just hadn't grown. We were trying
- 4:16Speaker 4: to good I just just hadn't grown. I grew by
- 4:19Speaker 4: the end of that year, I was over one hundred pounds,
- 4:21Speaker 4: but when I entered the freshman I was I was
- 4:23Speaker 4: seven hundred pounds.
- 4:24Speaker 1: Wow. And how did that sort of experience as you're
- 4:28Speaker 1: coming up through high school and through college, how did
- 4:31Speaker 1: it sort of shape and drive you throughout your career,
- 4:34Speaker 1: you know, in the minor leagues and now.
- 4:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean as as the kid that just forced
- 4:38Speaker 2: me to be perfect, you know, even being perfect to
- 4:41Speaker 2: the freshman, I couldn't hit the ball at the enfield
- 4:43Speaker 2: and barely I had to really get into a ball
- 4:45Speaker 2: to get out of the infield. You know, when you
- 4:49Speaker 2: have to be perfect like that, it it you don't
- 4:51Speaker 2: really lose that, you know. As I grew, I kind
- 4:55Speaker 2: of kept that same mentality, feeling like I had always
- 4:57Speaker 2: be perfect to compete, and it kind of created a
- 5:01Speaker 2: standard that carried on into college and that eventually brought
- 5:04Speaker 2: me back on that team at Oregon State and got
- 5:06Speaker 2: me drafted. And you know, it's that's the standard in
- 5:09Speaker 2: pro ball. So it was like beneficial for me to
- 5:12Speaker 2: have to follow that standard at a young age.
- 5:15Speaker 1: When did the careers sort of take a turn for
- 5:19Speaker 1: the better.
- 5:21Speaker 2: It kind of happened slowly. There was a guy Scottie Tennant.
- 5:26Speaker 2: He had some connections with some college coaches who really
- 5:29Speaker 2: really believed in me, even back when I was one
- 5:32Speaker 2: hundred pounds. He was telling me I was a big
- 5:34Speaker 2: leaguer when I was one hundred pounds, and so he
- 5:38Speaker 2: was reaching out to a bunch of college coaches, reached
- 5:40Speaker 2: out to about every college coach in the country for me,
- 5:43Speaker 2: and the only one, only school who was in Division
- 5:46Speaker 2: one that he reached out to that you know, gave
- 5:48Speaker 2: me an opportunity happened to be Oregon State, which you know,
- 5:50Speaker 2: one of the best programs in the country. So I
- 5:53Speaker 2: mean that, I guess is a turning point. You know,
- 5:55Speaker 2: getting an offer from Oregon State the big Honestly, COVID
- 6:00Speaker 2: was a big career changer for me, just more. You know,
- 6:05Speaker 2: every day my first year were gonna say, I was
- 6:07Speaker 2: like day to day I get cut, like I was
- 6:11Speaker 2: not able to take risks. I felt like I had
- 6:14Speaker 2: to just spend every day competing as hard as I
- 6:17Speaker 2: could to even make that team. And then all of
- 6:19Speaker 2: a sudden, you get an eight month, six month hiatus
- 6:24Speaker 2: where there's no evaluation happening, where all of a sudden,
- 6:28Speaker 2: the only thing that matters is develop and how can
- 6:31Speaker 2: I change who I am as a player and competing
- 6:35Speaker 2: is no longer an issue. So I got six months
- 6:37Speaker 2: of just straight development around guys who were already doing it,
- 6:40Speaker 2: or we're gonna state guys who had already been first
- 6:42Speaker 2: team All back twelve and form a small group of
- 6:47Speaker 2: them was able to just get a lot better and
- 6:49Speaker 2: eventually get back on that team in twenty twenty one.
- 6:51Speaker 1: You said you got cut what after your freshman year?
- 6:54Speaker 2: So I made the team my freshman year. I mostly
- 6:58Speaker 2: pinch ran. I got kind of bats that, but yeah,
- 7:03Speaker 2: kind of coaching change and cut is I guess a
- 7:06Speaker 2: stronger word. It was more, you know, it was a
- 7:09Speaker 2: walk on at the time. I don't know if the
- 7:10Speaker 2: rules has changed, but you couldn't cut Scarship players without
- 7:14Speaker 2: losing the roster spot. So from a roster crunch standpoint,
- 7:18Speaker 2: you had to cut the walk on. So they strongly
- 7:21Speaker 2: encouraged that I should look elsewhere if I wanted to
- 7:25Speaker 2: ever have an opportunity to play somewhere. Told them no.
- 7:30Speaker 2: Eventually made the team, but they had to cut a
- 7:33Speaker 2: Scarship player and I was a walk on, and I
- 7:35Speaker 2: ended up getting kind of a second time in that
- 7:37Speaker 2: same year. So I wasn't on the team in twenty twenty.
- 7:41Speaker 2: But it wasn't like, hey, you can't come around anymore.
- 7:44Speaker 2: It was smort I did not make the team, so
- 7:47Speaker 2: but I was still you know, able to use facilities
- 7:49Speaker 2: and work out and wait and all that stuff. I
- 7:51Speaker 2: just didn't make the team.
- 7:52Speaker 1: How do you not let something like that deriil you
- 7:55Speaker 1: because that could easily sign your packing.
- 7:58Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was I didn't really have much
- 8:00Speaker 2: much of a choice. You know, I'd heard it my
- 8:03Speaker 2: whole career. You know, even in high school. I didn't
- 8:07Speaker 2: have any offers. The only offers will walk on offer.
- 8:10Speaker 2: It happened late my senior year when I got that offer,
- 8:13Speaker 2: So it wasn't anything new. And my end goal was
- 8:17Speaker 2: always playing the big leagues. And I felt like, if
- 8:20Speaker 2: I'm not going to have to play Oregon State, then
- 8:22Speaker 2: I'm not going to play the big leagues. So and
- 8:26Speaker 2: I wanted to be an organ State and I liked coaches,
- 8:28Speaker 2: I love the guys I was around. I felt like
- 8:31Speaker 2: it was one of the best environments in the country
- 8:33Speaker 2: to get better as a baseball player. And you know,
- 8:37Speaker 2: the other optionists transfer and it's like, yes, or maybe
- 8:41Speaker 2: maybe I could play it at a smaller school. But
- 8:44Speaker 2: if I can't play organ State, I can't play the
- 8:46Speaker 2: big leagues. So that was kind of the main thing.
- 8:49Speaker 1: Here. You are taking guys like Jacob de gram deep
- 8:53Speaker 1: heck of a way to introduce yourself to Angel fans.
- 8:55Speaker 1: Do you feel you feel a little love here already,
- 8:57Speaker 1: even though it's been only been a couple of games
- 8:59Speaker 1: in Anahi, Yeah.
- 9:00Speaker 2: It feels good. I definitely feel, you know, a little
- 9:03Speaker 2: bit actually get a lot of people who are reaching out,
- 9:07Speaker 2: just happy that to have someone from from the area
- 9:11Speaker 2: on the team. And yeah, I'm definitely things.
- 9:18Speaker 1: Did that play the defensive play that first game, you know,
- 9:21Speaker 1: when you're crashing into the long foul territory almost kind
- 9:24Speaker 1: of loosen me up a little good.
- 9:27Speaker 2: Way of putting it. Yeah, it felt like I, you know,
- 9:30Speaker 2: contributed a little bit, you know, took a load of
- 9:34Speaker 2: the weight off that bad because the end of the day,
- 9:37Speaker 2: I just want to contribute to wins. And having already
- 9:39Speaker 2: done something that could contribute to a win, I don't
- 9:43Speaker 2: want to say makes it bad less important, but it
- 9:46Speaker 2: makes you feel a little bit like, all right, I'm
- 9:49Speaker 2: not helping the team and you kind of take that
- 9:53Speaker 2: bat a little more freely.
- 9:54Speaker 1: Last question, what do you think of Mark Trumbo when
- 9:57Speaker 1: you're coming up watching them with the Angels? That was
- 9:59Speaker 1: a big, big.
- 10:00Speaker 2: Mark Trumbo fan. I was watching it hit you know,
- 10:02Speaker 2: hitting thirty home runs a year. I think he's a
- 10:06Speaker 2: so called guy as well, right, yeah, Bill Park, that's right.
- 10:10Speaker 2: It's actually in my league growing up.
- 10:13Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 10:13Speaker 2: Yeah, I knew he's a so called guy, so I
- 10:15Speaker 2: was with Extra and it was fun watching watching it
- 10:18Speaker 2: hit a bunch of homers that'll work with Thanks for
- 10:21Speaker 2: your time, Yeah, thank you.
- 10:24Speaker 1: Another Mark Trumbo fan? How about that, kids, I failed
- 10:28Speaker 1: to mention at the top. I should have that Wade
- 10:31Speaker 1: is an Orange County product, like Mark Trumbo went to
- 10:34Speaker 1: Anaheim Esperanza High School. We're gonna take a quick break
- 10:38Speaker 1: for a word from our sponsors, and when we come back,
- 10:41Speaker 1: we will unpack this interview with Wade Meckler and get
- 10:45Speaker 1: into a little more about the Angels pitching. We'll be
- 10:47Speaker 1: right back with more Halo territory.
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- 11:51Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back to Helo teror two with Mike dg.
- 11:53Speaker 1: Givanna and Mark Trumbo. Mark, what do you think wayde
- 11:57Speaker 1: Meckler has brought to this Angels club?
- 12:01Speaker 6: Way has been a really nice addition. Waited a very
- 12:05Speaker 6: good answer there at the end too. I appreciate that.
- 12:10Speaker 6: But I think he's brought what the Angels have been missing,
- 12:15Speaker 6: and we've talked about it to some degree, and the
- 12:19Speaker 6: fans I think have noticed as well. Yes, he is
- 12:21Speaker 6: a gritty player that first play I like the answer.
- 12:26Speaker 6: It seemed like he was able to contribute to the
- 12:29Speaker 6: team with a really nice defensive effort, and I, you know,
- 12:33Speaker 6: would he have gone deep if he hadn't done that,
- 12:35Speaker 6: I don't know, but those types of things can really
- 12:38Speaker 6: help a player. I feel like that, Hey, you know,
- 12:41Speaker 6: I've already done something to help the cause. Tonight takes
- 12:46Speaker 6: Jacob de Grom deep. That's obviously great. Big Grand Slam
- 12:49Speaker 6: the other day. I really like the quality of his
- 12:51Speaker 6: at bats. At times it's been a little bit of
- 12:54Speaker 6: swing and miss, but it's not excessive. And he indicated
- 12:59Speaker 6: that he did work on a few things over the
- 13:03Speaker 6: winner with the way, you know, the quality of his
- 13:05Speaker 6: contact and his poll backspin, So we might be looking
- 13:10Speaker 6: at a better version of wayde Meckler, who, in addition
- 13:13Speaker 6: to what he already does, we'll just get on base
- 13:15Speaker 6: at an extremely high clip. I like that he also
- 13:18Speaker 6: runs extremely well. Him and Siri look very similar in
- 13:21Speaker 6: speed serie. Maybe a tad faster, but it's you know,
- 13:25Speaker 6: kind of indiscernible. And he plays nice defense and left field,
- 13:28Speaker 6: so I don't think there's anything not to like. And
- 13:31Speaker 6: he again has the kind of the chip on the shoulder.
- 13:35Speaker 6: What does that look like?
- 13:35Speaker 1: What does that mean?
- 13:36Speaker 6: It means the guy gets after it each and every night.
- 13:39Speaker 6: He runs hard down the baseline and he's a welcome
- 13:41Speaker 6: addition to a club that needed a little bit attitude.
- 13:45Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like he's brought an energy, and of
- 13:47Speaker 1: course we can't measure that, but I know in that
- 13:50Speaker 1: first game because of the defensive play, and I think
- 13:53Speaker 1: he had it in another game on the trip as well.
- 13:56Speaker 1: When a guy comes up to for his first ad
- 13:58Speaker 1: bat of the game in his unifor already covered in dirt,
- 14:01Speaker 1: I mean that was quintessential Darren Erstad right there, especially
- 14:05Speaker 1: when he was playing first base in that center field.
- 14:09Speaker 1: Those guys you get dirty, they get after it. They're hungry.
- 14:12Speaker 1: Not saying other Angels players aren't, but yeah, I was
- 14:16Speaker 1: going to ask you, when you look at that, when
- 14:19Speaker 1: you talk about a chip on your shoulder, how you
- 14:22Speaker 1: view that through the eyes of a former player? Is
- 14:25Speaker 1: it that noticeable when a guy is just hungry?
- 14:31Speaker 6: It is noticeable. It's not in various ways, but usually
- 14:35Speaker 6: it's going to be a guy that gives an effort
- 14:37Speaker 6: like that, runs into a wall, hustles everything out, runs
- 14:44Speaker 6: hard after balls in the gap just never takes a playoff,
- 14:48Speaker 6: and that's what I see when I look at him. Also,
- 14:51Speaker 6: probably not going to be a guy that's given hugs
- 14:53Speaker 6: to the opposing team at second base. Not a big
- 14:57Speaker 6: fan of that either, And maybe you know, let the
- 15:01Speaker 6: kids play, have a good time. I think you can
- 15:03Speaker 6: be a really good guy, nice guy, but in a
- 15:07Speaker 6: way that doesn't look like too chummy. I mean, that's
- 15:10Speaker 6: the opponent you're looking to beat him, and I doubt
- 15:13Speaker 6: we'll see Wade giving bro huggs and et cetera. He
- 15:17Speaker 6: seems like he's there to take care of business and personally,
- 15:21Speaker 6: that's that's the type of player I enjoy watching.
- 15:24Speaker 1: Mark. You don't have any four foot ten, seventy five
- 15:26Speaker 1: pound high school freshman who couldn't hit the ball out
- 15:29Speaker 1: of the infield make it to the big leagues. Anyone
- 15:32Speaker 1: you recalling high school like that?
- 15:35Speaker 6: Yeah, they got it, didn't usually last too long. That's
- 15:39Speaker 6: incredibly small. I mean, that's like I hate the elementary
- 15:43Speaker 6: school small.
- 15:44Speaker 1: I think I couldn't believe that. But you know it's
- 15:48Speaker 1: a testament to his work ethic for sure to overcome that.
- 15:52Speaker 2: Well.
- 15:52Speaker 1: I did ask Kurt Suzuki, our manager, bring Pram there
- 16:00Speaker 1: for a sec about way before the game as well,
- 16:02Speaker 1: let's take a quick listen to that.
- 16:05Speaker 2: Kurt.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Was Meckler brought here because this team needed the kind
- 16:09Speaker 1: of things he brings in the box or did that just.
- 16:12Speaker 3: Happen to be a I mean, I think he came
- 16:14Speaker 3: here because he was playing well. You know, he's playing
- 16:16Speaker 3: really well in the minor leagues, and we felt like,
- 16:19Speaker 3: you know, he earned it, he deserved to be up. Heer,
- 16:21Speaker 3: he's playing well, and you know, he's been fun to
- 16:25Speaker 3: have around.
- 16:25Speaker 1: What has he brought to this team? Maybe backed I.
- 16:29Speaker 3: Don't know if anything that we lacked.
- 16:31Speaker 2: I think he was more just he's playing well.
- 16:33Speaker 3: He's he's doing things we all know what he could do.
- 16:36Speaker 2: We saw miss free training right.
- 16:37Speaker 3: The baseball player, you know, he can run, he can
- 16:40Speaker 3: play some defense, he can you know, put the ball
- 16:41Speaker 3: and play hard with authority and you know it doesn't
- 16:44Speaker 3: strike out very often, not but but but yeah, you know,
- 16:48Speaker 3: like I said, he's been fun to have around. He's
- 16:49Speaker 3: he's always working, he's he's working to get better and
- 16:52Speaker 3: he brings that type of energy to our club.
- 16:56Speaker 1: Right, we're going to turn our attention to Jose Soriano,
- 16:59Speaker 1: who was he American League Pitcher of the Month in April.
- 17:02Speaker 1: We were talking back then about him maybe getting the
- 17:05Speaker 1: All Star Game start, and boy, things have turned and
- 17:09Speaker 1: not for the better, uh, sor He gave up two
- 17:12Speaker 1: earn runs and three hits and four and two thirds
- 17:14Speaker 1: innings Monday night against the Rockies, but he walked seven,
- 17:19Speaker 1: which is a career high. He also hit two batters
- 17:23Speaker 1: in an eventual nine to eight loss to the Rockies.
- 17:26Speaker 1: And this continued a pretty lengthy downturn for Soriano. Let's
- 17:33Speaker 1: look at his stats first six starts of the year
- 17:40Speaker 1: five and one record zero point eight four ERA forty
- 17:44Speaker 1: nine strikeouts, sixteen walks, and his next seven starts one
- 17:51Speaker 1: in four record five point one seven ERA forty two strikeouts,
- 17:58Speaker 1: twenty five walks, and Mark pulled up his I'm not
- 18:03Speaker 1: sure the site that does this, but they do a
- 18:05Speaker 1: report card for each pitcher after the game, and sorry, Ono,
- 18:11Speaker 1: and I don't know how you explain this one. Mark
- 18:15Speaker 1: a plus for stuff, f for location. What's going on
- 18:22Speaker 1: with our right hander here? And what's this is a
- 18:27Speaker 1: really extended downturn? What would be your concerns with him
- 18:30Speaker 1: at this point?
- 18:33Speaker 6: That's an x account PLV. I think it's pictureless PLV.
- 18:39Speaker 6: And they're using an algorithm to grade some of these things.
- 18:41Speaker 6: It's newer. I think it's probably still being tweaked to
- 18:44Speaker 6: some degree. But this stuff plus that kind of began
- 18:49Speaker 6: a thing when we were talking about Walbert Uranian spring training.
- 18:51Speaker 6: Who is this guy? What's this stuff?
- 18:53Speaker 1: Plus?
- 18:53Speaker 6: What does this all mean? Well, they're now grading these
- 18:57Speaker 6: guys individual pitches, So you'll see some guys continually miserowski
- 19:02Speaker 6: a A. You know, the results don't always you know,
- 19:07Speaker 6: they won't always be an A, but usually the stuff
- 19:09Speaker 6: is going to be so Soriano according to you know,
- 19:13Speaker 6: and this is just the raw data. His pitch is
- 19:15Speaker 6: graded out. I think he had three that graded out
- 19:17Speaker 6: really well yesterday, well above average. I don't know if
- 19:21Speaker 6: either or any of those were his fastball, though. I
- 19:24Speaker 6: think his split finger actually was was the nastiest in
- 19:27Speaker 6: air quotes. But his pitch usage just continued to bewilder
- 19:32Speaker 6: me a little bit. It seems like he's kind of
- 19:36Speaker 6: like Jack trying to get into a rhythm of some sorts.
- 19:41Speaker 6: The pitcher that we saw to begin the year, I
- 19:45Speaker 6: don't see him any longer. And I mean, does do
- 19:48Speaker 6: you think he looks fatigued? What I do in first
- 19:52Speaker 6: I do. They've really leaned on this guy.
- 19:53Speaker 1: And we'd have to remember, even though he's sort of
- 19:56Speaker 1: developed as a horse, he is a I who had
- 20:00Speaker 1: two Tommy John surgeries. I didn't look at his career
- 20:04Speaker 1: that close. But I'm, you know, going wire to wire
- 20:07Speaker 1: for a guy like that is it's a big ask.
- 20:11Speaker 1: He does look fatigued to me. A lot of teams,
- 20:14Speaker 1: especially the Dodgers, will take a guy like that and
- 20:18Speaker 1: give him a little break, find something to put him
- 20:20Speaker 1: on the injured list with, you know, take a two
- 20:23Speaker 1: three week respite so he can come back a little fresh,
- 20:26Speaker 1: get a little reset. I don't know that the Angels
- 20:29Speaker 1: have the pitching depth to be able to afford that
- 20:31Speaker 1: kind of move, but and I'll give Kirk credit. He
- 20:35Speaker 1: tried to leave sorry end Monday night to get that
- 20:38Speaker 1: last out of the fifth inning, and the Angels were
- 20:41Speaker 1: ahead by three at the time, looked like they were
- 20:43Speaker 1: going to win. And he stretched him out to one
- 20:45Speaker 1: hundred and eight pitches and he doesn't even get he
- 20:48Speaker 1: doesn't he has to pull him before he gets that
- 20:51Speaker 1: last out in the fifth and then he doesn't get
- 20:53Speaker 1: the win at either, So he just he looks a
- 20:56Speaker 1: little tired. You can see it in his facial expressions
- 20:59Speaker 1: on the he looks a little exasperated. I just think
- 21:03Speaker 1: that's a pretty bad sign. Maybe time for him to
- 21:06Speaker 1: take a little step back physically and either skip a start,
- 21:10Speaker 1: you know, whatever it is, what do you what do
- 21:13Speaker 1: you what do you think would be best for this
- 21:14Speaker 1: guy right now?
- 21:18Speaker 6: I don't know about skipping a start. I think he's
- 21:22Speaker 6: a guy that he's too nice in my opinion. No,
- 21:29Speaker 6: I've been trying to think about, Okay, his arm slot
- 21:33Speaker 6: that's been covered a bit, maybe a little bit lower
- 21:37Speaker 6: arm slot and whatever, so he's getting a lot more
- 21:41Speaker 6: contact in the air. He's forty eight percent opposing batteries.
- 21:45Speaker 6: He went from a you know, a pretty significant ground
- 21:49Speaker 6: ball pitcher to a guy that's now hitters have made
- 21:52Speaker 6: an adjustment against him. So he's going to need to
- 21:56Speaker 6: do what he can. But he's not throwing enough first
- 21:59Speaker 6: pitch strikes. He's not attacking hitters.
- 22:02Speaker 1: He's not He's.
- 22:03Speaker 6: Really relying on Chase And I think we're going to
- 22:06Speaker 6: get into a little segment on the Angels pictures as
- 22:09Speaker 6: a whole and it's exactly that they're relying on a
- 22:14Speaker 6: ton of off speed and hoping that the opposing hitters
- 22:17Speaker 6: are going to, you know, be flailing at it. I'm
- 22:21Speaker 6: assuming going for the punch. It kind of aligns a
- 22:24Speaker 6: lot with a drive line type thing to me, you know,
- 22:29Speaker 6: maximum everything, break, horizontal, vertical, all these things, and really
- 22:36Speaker 6: not enough emphasis on the fastball command. And he's not
- 22:39Speaker 6: thrown enough fastballs for strikes. I think he was fifty
- 22:42Speaker 6: three percent strikes last night. You want to see about
- 22:45Speaker 6: seventy ideally or somewhere near there. Fifty three is not enough.
- 22:49Speaker 6: It was a soggy start, and even in the first
- 22:52Speaker 6: inning he's pouring sweat and it looks really I hate
- 22:56Speaker 6: to I don't know what he's doing conditioning was That's
- 22:59Speaker 6: one thing I've kind of wondering. I assume benefit of
- 23:02Speaker 6: the doubt, he works extremely hard. I'm not in there, though.
- 23:07Speaker 6: I don't know for his conditioning what he's up to.
- 23:09Speaker 6: But to be already talking about being fatigued this early
- 23:13Speaker 6: in the year is not the greatest topic. The overall
- 23:16Speaker 6: stat line is still quite nice, but we want to
- 23:18Speaker 6: see him trending. I know the Angels do and the
- 23:21Speaker 6: fans do. Let's get back on track, Let's get aggressive
- 23:26Speaker 6: out there.
- 23:27Speaker 1: Yeah. Mark mentioned some statistics he found pretty interesting for
- 23:32Speaker 1: our viewers. Shows a somewhat alarming trend with the Angel
- 23:38Speaker 1: pitching staff as a whole, Mark, why don't you tell
- 23:40Speaker 1: us what the viewers are looking at here with this
- 23:43Speaker 1: chart and what's the significance of it.
- 23:47Speaker 6: This is from Baseball Savant. I was kind of browsing.
- 23:50Speaker 6: I didn't expect to see some of these things, but
- 23:52Speaker 6: looking for some trends at times. The Angels are leading
- 23:56Speaker 6: the league. They've thrown the most pitchers most pitches by
- 23:59Speaker 6: any team with eighty seven. And of that they've also
- 24:07Speaker 6: thrown the most off speed pitches in all of MLB.
- 24:10Speaker 6: They've thrown and seventeen. Now the bottom graph shows first
- 24:16Speaker 6: pitch swing percentage by the opposing teams. They are dead last,
- 24:20Speaker 6: so the opposing hitters are swinging at the angels pitchers
- 24:24Speaker 6: first pitches at the lowest percentage in the league. If
- 24:27Speaker 6: you go back to the first graph, Tampa Bay, you'll
- 24:29Speaker 6: see them on the end. There they have thrown the
- 24:32Speaker 6: least amount of pitches in baseball. Go to the middle graph.
- 24:36Speaker 6: Excuse me, they are second in the amount of off
- 24:39Speaker 6: speed pitches thrown. So that's a pretty interesting representation. I
- 24:45Speaker 6: would not have expected to see that. But to me,
- 24:47Speaker 6: Tampa Bay is pitching to contact, the Angels are pitching
- 24:52Speaker 6: for whiffs. Which team is doing better? In your opinion,
- 24:58Speaker 6: I said, the Rays are doing a little bit better,
- 25:00Speaker 6: although you know, Angels starting pitching in their defense has
- 25:04Speaker 6: been better than we expected. Yeah, we don't have the
- 25:07Speaker 6: percentage of strikes on those first pitches, but I gotta
- 25:11Speaker 6: assume if you're throwing that many off speed pitches on
- 25:14Speaker 6: first pitches of an pat chances are I don't want
- 25:18Speaker 6: to say.
- 25:19Speaker 1: More there are more balls in there than strikes, but
- 25:22Speaker 1: percentage wise, my guess would be there would be a
- 25:25Speaker 1: higher percentage of balls because a lot of guys are
- 25:28Speaker 1: looking maybe fastball on that first pitch, they see off
- 25:31Speaker 1: speed and they lay off it, and then you're getting
- 25:33Speaker 1: into some one zero counts already and you're already behind
- 25:37Speaker 1: any other significance of these numbers that you're seeing, Is.
- 25:41Speaker 6: It them that stood out that We don't have the
- 25:45Speaker 6: graphic there, but they I believe are throwing a ton.
- 25:49Speaker 6: They're a fastball primary team, and it looked like Seattle,
- 25:54Speaker 6: you know, has a nice pitching staff. The Guardian's a
- 25:57Speaker 6: nice pitching staff. Now the Rays are a little bit different.
- 26:00Speaker 6: To be honest, I wasn't overly The raised bullpen, especially
- 26:03Speaker 6: to me, didn't look like a strength. Is it sustainable?
- 26:08Speaker 6: I don't know. The Yankees probably have an advantage in
- 26:11Speaker 6: my opinion in that regard the Angels. I don't know
- 26:14Speaker 6: if this is a mic matics thing, but if I
- 26:16Speaker 6: look back at least a year prior, it seemed similar
- 26:19Speaker 6: ish trends with guys that are out there, and then
- 26:23Speaker 6: I think it leads to guys like Jack and Depmer's
- 26:26Speaker 6: at times that seem to be a little bit lost.
- 26:29Speaker 6: They are trying to use all their pitches. Are they
- 26:33Speaker 6: using them appropriately and are they using them effectively? That's
- 26:37Speaker 6: a different story. And I look at Urania, you know,
- 26:40Speaker 6: he's a new addition to the team. I wouldn't touch him.
- 26:44Speaker 6: I don't think anyone has. Which is the smart thing
- 26:46Speaker 6: to do. Why mess with the guy that's having success.
- 26:49Speaker 6: He is getting ahead of guys, he's limiting his pitch count.
- 26:54Speaker 6: Usually he's not going deep into a lot of games.
- 26:56Speaker 6: Some of the pitch counts have gotten up there a
- 26:58Speaker 6: little bit, but he seemed to be by far the
- 27:01Speaker 6: biggest bright spot right now. I'd probably say he's number one.
- 27:06Speaker 6: Debt Meers is probably trending in the right direction, and
- 27:10Speaker 6: a couple of these other guys, and Grayson Rodriguez is
- 27:13Speaker 6: looking good and we're going to give him a lot
- 27:15Speaker 6: more leash. But both Soriano and Jack need to dial
- 27:19Speaker 6: it in a little bit better. And the bullpen, you know,
- 27:23Speaker 6: for Mean's actually been throwing the ball real nice. Had
- 27:26Speaker 6: to pour out in and was Unfortunately they didn't have
- 27:28Speaker 6: anybody ready to go to get him out of that jam.
- 27:33Speaker 6: Sam Bachman, I'm not sure expected to see him in
- 27:36Speaker 6: a game like that yesterday, and he didn't pitch the game. Overall,
- 27:40Speaker 6: the Rockies very sloppy, four errors. I believe on defense,
- 27:45Speaker 6: they did it everything they could to kind of gift
- 27:47Speaker 6: the Angels a win, and they still got the win themselves.
- 27:52Speaker 6: So the Angels weren't able to get it done.
- 27:55Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of the Rockies, I want to close the
- 27:57Speaker 1: show with an interview I did with Mickey Money, the
- 28:00Speaker 1: Rockies outfielder who hit two eighty with an eight h
- 28:04Speaker 1: two ops, fourteen homers, forty five RBIs and eighty five
- 28:07Speaker 1: games for the Angels in twenty twenty three, and then
- 28:11Speaker 1: he hit two nineteen with a six forty six ops,
- 28:14Speaker 1: fourteen homers, forty nine RBIs in one hundred and twenty
- 28:17Speaker 1: four games of the Angles in twenty twenty four, before
- 28:22Speaker 1: being released at the end of spring training in twenty
- 28:24Speaker 1: twenty five so the Angels could add veteran infielder Tim
- 28:29Speaker 1: Anderson to their roster. Well, Moniac, a former first overall
- 28:34Speaker 1: pick in the draft, went on a sign with the Rockies,
- 28:38Speaker 1: and in twenty twenty five he hit two seventy with
- 28:41Speaker 1: an eight twenty four ops, twenty four homers, sixty eight
- 28:45Speaker 1: RBIs in one hundred and thirty five games, and this
- 28:49Speaker 1: season he is hitting two eighty with a nine to
- 28:51Speaker 1: forty two ops, twelve homers, twenty eight RBIs and forty
- 28:55Speaker 1: three games before going down with an ankle injury in
- 28:59Speaker 1: mid May. So let's take a listen to my interview
- 29:02Speaker 1: with Mickey Moniac. So, how is the ankle festival? It's good.
- 29:08Speaker 7: Yeah, it's getting better, you know it's uh. I think
- 29:12Speaker 7: today has been ten days since going on the il,
- 29:15Speaker 7: so this the rest has been good for it. Yeah,
- 29:18Speaker 7: it's definitely feeling better every day, so uh, brand a
- 29:21Speaker 7: little bit today felt good. So just naturally going to
- 29:25Speaker 7: progress and hopefully get back pret soon.
- 29:27Speaker 1: Never a great time for an injury, but man, this
- 29:29Speaker 1: seem a really bad time I got in the league
- 29:32Speaker 1: and horrors and for a while there.
- 29:34Speaker 7: Yeah, something like that. No, it's uh, it is what
- 29:37Speaker 7: it is. Man, It's uh, you know, obviously everyone's something
- 29:40Speaker 7: like this to happen. But uh, you know, I'm just
- 29:43Speaker 7: glad it's nothing too serious and gonna you know.
- 29:46Speaker 2: Be able to get back relatively quickly.
- 29:47Speaker 1: What's sort of been clicking for you before you got hurt?
- 29:51Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I felt like last year, you know,
- 29:54Speaker 7: had a good year. I think that there's a lot
- 29:56Speaker 7: of good things that happened last year, you know, from
- 30:00Speaker 7: June first on kind of found something to where.
- 30:04Speaker 6: You know, I was able to go out there and uh.
- 30:06Speaker 7: Just go compete and you know, be myself, and yeah,
- 30:10Speaker 7: just try to continue that into the off season and
- 30:12Speaker 7: then you know, build off of it, go into this
- 30:13Speaker 7: season and uh, you know, I'll be able to stay
- 30:16Speaker 7: in that same mindset.
- 30:18Speaker 1: The timing and circumstances around your release here seemed a
- 30:21Speaker 1: little strange for a lot of people. Yeah, what did
- 30:25Speaker 1: you think of the lighty things ended in Anaheim? Yeah,
- 30:27Speaker 1: it was unfortunate.
- 30:29Speaker 7: You know, you never want to get released, Uh obviously,
- 30:32Speaker 7: you know I love my time here, Uh, the fans,
- 30:35Speaker 7: you know, the city, you know, being a southern California kid,
- 30:39Speaker 7: getting to play, you know, close to family, and you know,
- 30:42Speaker 7: it was something that uh, you know, always cherished and uh,
- 30:46Speaker 7: you know it came to abrupt ending, but it is
- 30:48Speaker 7: what it is.
- 30:49Speaker 1: Did you feel like they gave up on you a
- 30:52Speaker 1: little bit?
- 30:53Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I guess that would getting released means, uh,
- 30:57Speaker 7: you know, it is what it is. You know, it's
- 30:59Speaker 7: uh out of my control.
- 31:01Speaker 1: So how much of the motivators is there? Not that
- 31:04Speaker 1: you need much motivation to excel in this game, but
- 31:07Speaker 1: I'm sure that must have lived an extra.
- 31:09Speaker 2: Fire under anything.
- 31:10Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I think just you know, just getting
- 31:12Speaker 7: an opportunity to go play every day. And uh, I
- 31:14Speaker 7: think you know, ever since I got from Denver, you know,
- 31:17Speaker 7: organizations shown tremendous confidence in me from day one, and
- 31:23Speaker 7: you know, I'm eternally grateful for that. I think you know,
- 31:27Speaker 7: it allowed me to go up there and just kind
- 31:28Speaker 7: of play and you know, become a baseball player that
- 31:32Speaker 7: I you know, felt like I could become and uh yeah,
- 31:35Speaker 7: still got a long way to go, a lot of
- 31:36Speaker 7: learning to do, but uh, you know, just taking things
- 31:39Speaker 7: day by death.
- 31:40Speaker 1: I know your overall numbers your last year with the
- 31:42Speaker 1: Angels work great, but if something seemed to click on
- 31:44Speaker 1: the second half that maybe catapulted you toward the next year.
- 31:48Speaker 2: In twenty four.
- 31:49Speaker 7: Yeah, I think I was just getting more healthy. I
- 31:51Speaker 7: had this same ankle injury in twenty four, but played
- 31:55Speaker 7: through it, you know, never took any time off. I
- 31:57Speaker 7: think that was kind of a deciding factor with this
- 31:59Speaker 7: ankle this time. You know, they were good about getting
- 32:02Speaker 7: me an MRI right away. Uh right, you know that
- 32:06Speaker 7: year it was just kind of we'll grinding through it,
- 32:09Speaker 7: keep playing, and uh so, I think that was the
- 32:13Speaker 7: biggest thing. You know, doctor said, you know, reaggravated something.
- 32:18Speaker 7: So just validation that you know, I wasn't playing at
- 32:22Speaker 7: one hundred percent that whole year and you know, proud
- 32:26Speaker 7: that I was able to grind through it and you know,
- 32:27Speaker 7: get a whole year under my belt. But uh, I
- 32:31Speaker 7: think the biggest thing was just going to that off
- 32:33Speaker 7: season getting healthy. Ankles felt great, you know, since that
- 32:37Speaker 7: offseason and then just reaggravate a little bit here. But
- 32:39Speaker 7: it's been feeling good every day and I think this
- 32:41Speaker 7: rest and you know, rehab.
- 32:43Speaker 1: It's been good for it. Well, Mark, I'm sure the
- 32:48Speaker 1: Angels couldn't use a left handed hitting outfielder with the
- 32:51Speaker 1: twenty five to thirty five homer potential.
- 32:53Speaker 2: Uh.
- 32:54Speaker 1: Did the Angels give up on this kid too soon? Yes? Yeah.
- 33:00Speaker 6: Thing to answer is that this one, this one, this
- 33:03Speaker 6: one is this is a dud by the Halos. This
- 33:08Speaker 6: is a kid that grew up San Diego. I believe
- 33:12Speaker 6: and liked playing here and was playing well here. He
- 33:16Speaker 6: turned a corner. I normally hesitate to say I have
- 33:22Speaker 6: kept it, and you know, out of courtesy to him,
- 33:25Speaker 6: I did a little bit of work with him in
- 33:27Speaker 6: twenty four. Really, Phil plant here was a guy that
- 33:30Speaker 6: connected with him by far the best, and Mickey and
- 33:34Speaker 6: I share an agent.
- 33:35Speaker 1: Great guy.
- 33:37Speaker 6: You know, I sound like someone else now the person,
- 33:41Speaker 6: but he really is and he gets after it. He's
- 33:43Speaker 6: a left handed hitter. To me, he played a really
- 33:46Speaker 6: nice outfield. I know the metrics last year and Coors
- 33:49Speaker 6: were not great. I believe he was playing too deep,
- 33:52Speaker 6: is what I was told but you look at Brandon
- 33:56Speaker 6: Marsh now he's playing really nice and that's one that
- 34:00Speaker 6: I don't know. I thought Brandon was a nice player.
- 34:03Speaker 6: If he's thriving for Philadelphia, that's great. But Moniac's stings
- 34:06Speaker 6: even more. Why did they get rid of him? I
- 34:08Speaker 6: don't know. Was it because they he beat them in arbitration?
- 34:12Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a circumstances. It was weird. It wasn't
- 34:16Speaker 1: a huge arbitration figure either. It was like what two.
- 34:18Speaker 6: Billions or something two million dollars and possibly they they
- 34:22Speaker 6: it was between him or Joe Adell. Now Joe Adell,
- 34:26Speaker 6: you know, Joe's a great guy as well. He was
- 34:28Speaker 6: a negative war player this year. He said, you know,
- 34:31Speaker 6: the home run robberies and what you know, some home
- 34:35Speaker 6: runs mixed in, but the overall package hasn't been his
- 34:38Speaker 6: best And Mickey's the guy that his big thing. Yes,
- 34:43Speaker 6: it's going to be struggling at times to stay on
- 34:45Speaker 6: the field. He's battled injury. What was he mentioning with
- 34:48Speaker 6: the MRI. Was he saying the Rockies got an image
- 34:51Speaker 6: right away?
- 34:51Speaker 1: Or yeah, I think that's what he was insinuating there
- 34:54Speaker 1: for sure.
- 34:55Speaker 6: Yeah, I don't want to read too much between the lines,
- 34:57Speaker 6: but maybe he was, you know, tip of the cap
- 34:59Speaker 6: to to the Rockies for getting on top of a
- 35:02Speaker 6: medical thing, and maybe that was something he felt, uh
- 35:05Speaker 6: didn't happen here. One thing I was going to ask, uh,
- 35:09Speaker 6: you know last night's game, would you have given Trout
- 35:13Speaker 6: the green light three and oh in the bottom of
- 35:15Speaker 6: the eighth inning?
- 35:16Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking about Monday night's game. Yes, And trust
- 35:21Speaker 1: you know, it was interesting just watching him. The more
- 35:23Speaker 1: I see in this year, he's been really good at
- 35:25Speaker 1: laying off the high the fastball right above the zone,
- 35:29Speaker 1: which used to eat him up. And I don't know
- 35:31Speaker 1: if that's an ABS thing or not, but he's been
- 35:33Speaker 1: great at that. But how many were on in that situation?
- 35:36Speaker 1: Was it two on, man on third, two.
- 35:39Speaker 6: Outs, one one out, man on third. Oh, that's right,
- 35:42Speaker 6: works its way to a three zero coount. Yeah, it's
- 35:44Speaker 6: a tie game, so you know they're looking for one
- 35:46Speaker 6: run to go ahead and close it out with Kirby
- 35:49Speaker 6: coming in in the ninth.
- 35:51Speaker 1: Yeah, I would have. I would think on a three
- 35:53Speaker 1: to zero at the very worst, he gets a good
- 35:55Speaker 1: rip the fastball I believe was right down the middle.
- 35:57Speaker 1: He flies out to an outfielders to run in. Yeah,
- 36:01Speaker 1: he's your best hitter right now. Why not? Mike's always
- 36:05Speaker 1: he's always been reluctant to swing three to zero, but
- 36:07Speaker 1: I think he's had some success doing it in the
- 36:09Speaker 1: few in the very few times he has. But yeah,
- 36:12Speaker 1: in that situation, I turned him loose. So this is
- 36:16Speaker 1: the whole game was pretty odd, especially as we got
- 36:19Speaker 1: it in the later innings. We're going to close the
- 36:22Speaker 1: show with that. Thanks for tuning in, thanks for listening. Uh,
- 36:27Speaker 1: please like and subscribe and we will see you next
- 36:30Speaker 1: time on Halo Territory.