Speaker 1: I think, Ohapi and Netto, those are the guys that
Speaker 1: I think most of the baseball world that ignores the
Speaker 1: Angels or makes jokes about the Angels should pay attention
Speaker 1: to these guys. Those are definitely the core guys.
Speaker 2: Hey, we're back with Jeff Fletcher. He covers the Angels
Speaker 2: for the So Calm News group. He's joining us. Jeff,
Speaker 2: Good to see you again, and also at this time,
Speaker 2: it is great to have you on during a time
Speaker 2: period where the Angels have won seven games in a row,
Speaker 2: really resurrecting themselves from the burial ground, right, because this
Speaker 2: is a team that obviously hasn't been good for years,
Speaker 2: and so when you look at the start that they
Speaker 2: were off to you and see them already what they
Speaker 2: were in like the ten below five hundred ranger, Like
Speaker 2: season's done, let's talk about some trade pips, talk about
Speaker 2: next year, and then here they come. So how surprising
Speaker 2: is this and what's happening?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, first of all, I think if you
Speaker 1: would have just if I'd have been in like a
Speaker 1: coma for the first fifty games of the season and
Speaker 1: then just woken up today and looked at the stats,
Speaker 1: it would not be a surprise. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: a game under five hundred. If you look at all
Speaker 1: the individual players, like, nobody is really crazy out of
Speaker 1: what you would expect. What's been weird is the way
Speaker 1: they've gotten there. Because they started off eight and four,
Speaker 1: everybody's like, oh man, maybe they're really good. And then
Speaker 1: for three and a half weeks they were horrendous. Everything
Speaker 1: went wrong, everybody was terrible, and then basically they had
Speaker 1: about two weeks where they were a little better, and
Speaker 1: then this last week where just everything went right.
Speaker 3: They all are on a tear.
Speaker 1: Everybody's hitting, which has brought all their numbers back to
Speaker 1: where they should be. So, you know, right now they're
Speaker 1: twenty four and twenty five, which is certainly not far
Speaker 1: out of the range of what you would have thought
Speaker 1: they would have been. You know, last year they were bad,
Speaker 1: but they looked like they should be better. So I
Speaker 1: think that I figured they were going to be probably
Speaker 1: a seventy eight win team, seventy seven, seventy nine somewhere
Speaker 1: somewhere around there. So twenty four and twenty five, that's
Speaker 1: right in line with where they ought to be.
Speaker 3: So I want to get into some guys here. All.
Speaker 4: First off, let's talk a little bit about Mikerout. How's
Speaker 4: he doing, where are you seeing him at right now,
Speaker 4: and expectations for him coming up.
Speaker 1: Well, he's been running. He ran at eighty percent the
Speaker 1: other day, so I think he's been kind of doing
Speaker 1: that every other day. Probably today, I would expect he
Speaker 1: might try to get up to one hundred percent. If
Speaker 1: that goes well, then he's going to run the bases,
Speaker 1: and I think once he can run the bases, then
Speaker 1: he's ready to go. So nobody really wants to give
Speaker 1: an official time frame because with Trout, you know, there's
Speaker 1: times we think he's all ready to come back and
Speaker 1: then something happens. But if nothing else happens, I would
Speaker 1: expect to see him within four to seven days from now.
Speaker 3: Talk about another Guy Ward.
Speaker 4: Eight consecutive game with an extra base hit, talk about
Speaker 4: his presence, and you know, he's the first Angel to
Speaker 4: accomplished that beat since ten Salmon did back in two thousand.
Speaker 3: I find that absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's pretty good. Eight eight games in
Speaker 1: row in extra base It is not easy to do.
Speaker 1: And he's a guy that's always been super streaky, and
Speaker 1: at the end of the year he ends up with
Speaker 1: a ops like seven forty to seven seventy, So that's
Speaker 1: right where he is right now, but it was really
Speaker 1: bad for a little while, so he's just sort of
Speaker 1: catching up to where he's supposed to be, and I
Speaker 1: would expect him to end up around this same level,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure that's going to be with some big
Speaker 1: hot and cold streaks between now and the end of
Speaker 1: the season.
Speaker 5: This is the time of year where we start talking
Speaker 5: about All Star through this hot streak through the entire season?
Speaker 5: Is Logan'll hopy the All Star? Or am I missing
Speaker 5: somebody else? Well?
Speaker 1: Zach Netto is probably the best player right now all around.
Speaker 1: He missed a couple of weeks the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: and there's obviously Bobby wit Junior is a pretty good
Speaker 1: short stuff too, so he's going to be the starter.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think either of those guys could
Speaker 1: make a case. It just sort of depends on how
Speaker 1: everybody else that those positions is doing. But those are
Speaker 1: certainly the top two guys right now. And you know,
Speaker 1: if Trout comes back, you know, who knows what he
Speaker 1: would do in a month before the All Stars are picked,
Speaker 1: So it'll be interesting to see is.
Speaker 5: This team more fun to watch than other years. Think
Speaker 5: outside of just the seven seven game winning streak, think
Speaker 5: of like an entire like why an Angels fan would
Speaker 5: come to see a five hundred team. If the hot streaks,
Speaker 5: you know, low streaks, they end up as a five
Speaker 5: hundred team, are they more fun to watch? Are the
Speaker 5: Angels as an organization putting a better product out on
Speaker 5: the field.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I think it depends how much you
Speaker 1: buy the young guys. So like Netto o'hapi, Nolan Shanawell
Speaker 1: has been better lately, Jack Ohanowitz and Jose Soriano and
Speaker 1: the starting rotation.
Speaker 3: Have been a little up and down.
Speaker 1: If those kind of guys, those five guys all are
Speaker 1: doing well, then you can really have some hope for
Speaker 1: the team in the long run, regardless of what the
Speaker 1: record is. You know, at the moment, if they're just
Speaker 1: good because you know, Joan Mancatta is on fire, Hora
Speaker 1: Solaier gets hot, or even Taylor Ward gets hot, then
Speaker 1: it's less easy to be excited about it because those
Speaker 1: guys really aren't the long term. So I think that's
Speaker 1: what it comes down to. Like Neto Ohapi Shana, Will Kohanawitz, Soriano.
Speaker 1: That's really the young core. So if those guys are good,
Speaker 1: then there's hope.
Speaker 5: This will probably be perceived as very negative, but you
Speaker 5: look to the Angels with trade chips at the trade deadline. Obviously,
Speaker 5: this streak has got everybody thinking, Bye, I'm still thinking
Speaker 5: more trade? Is there any Is there any like give
Speaker 5: in from Artie Moreno or whoever supersedes the GM at
Speaker 5: the time, from not trading players in the recent history,
Speaker 5: they just haven't done a lot of trades that you
Speaker 5: would think, Okay, maybe you could get something for them
Speaker 5: at the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they definitely have Kenny Jansen. You could
Speaker 1: definitely trade him if he's still doing well. The deadline
Speaker 1: closers tend to get you a pretty good return at
Speaker 1: the deadline. Joam Mankata has been great right now, but
Speaker 1: he's only been healthy for a few weeks, so we'll
Speaker 1: see what he's doing two months from now. Taylor Ward
Speaker 1: is a guy that he's got a year of control
Speaker 1: after this year too, so if he continues to hit
Speaker 1: really well, they definitely could get something for him. Last
Speaker 1: year they consider trading him, but he really went in
Speaker 1: a terrible slump right before the deadline, so they didn't
Speaker 1: really get the offers that they that they thought were
Speaker 1: worth making the deal. And you know, Tyler Anderson too
Speaker 1: is you know, not an ace by any means, but
Speaker 1: a team that just needs to fill some innings and
Speaker 1: needs to get to October could be interested in a
Speaker 1: picture like that, So they definitely have some pieces, you know.
Speaker 1: I think it depends how they look and what the
Speaker 1: trajectory looks like. As far as a guy like Ward,
Speaker 1: who you could have for next year too, they'd have
Speaker 1: to make that judgment like can we be good in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six and if so, do we want to
Speaker 1: keep Taylor Ward? These other guys are a free agent,
Speaker 1: and you know, they don't have to make that decision.
Speaker 1: So I think that's really the way they're looking at it.
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Speaker 5: Has the organization or Ron Washington laxed their approach to
Speaker 5: not dhing Mike Trout because he's going to go in
Speaker 5: there as a reporter. He goes in there and swings
Speaker 5: five hundred times when he DHS. But now he had
Speaker 5: another injury. They have they gone back, relaxed a little
Speaker 5: bit on and maybe we might DH him for the
Speaker 5: longevity of him this season.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that they're open to having him DH.
Speaker 1: I think that they don't necessarily feel like it's going
Speaker 1: to be a huge difference in terms of what happens.
Speaker 1: If obviously if he needs a DH to play, that's
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen, you know, and Horeus Hilaire would go
Speaker 1: out there every day in right field if that's the
Speaker 1: option that they have. But you know, I think that
Speaker 1: they probably are going to just see how it goes.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Certainly, if he needs DH more, that's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: If he needs more days off, that's what's.
Speaker 3: Going to happen.
Speaker 1: But before he got hurt, he played every single game,
Speaker 1: which I don't think anybody expected. So I think if
Speaker 1: he went into the year and said he's gonna you
Speaker 1: know that you can get one hundred and twenty games
Speaker 1: out of him, they would take that in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: And right now, you know that's still possible, you know,
Speaker 1: if he comes back soon. So I don't know that's
Speaker 1: gonna happen, but I'm just saying that they've already built in,
Speaker 1: you know, forty some games that he's gonna miss, So
Speaker 1: I think that they're open to whatever gets him on
Speaker 1: the field the most, basically in the lineup the most.
Speaker 2: Jeff, what did you think when they mentioned how they
Speaker 2: felt like Trout moving away from centerfield into the corner
Speaker 2: was really more of the key and that they could
Speaker 2: actually hurt themselves by putting him at DH because he
Speaker 2: would take so many swings. I mean, Todd Fathers buddies
Speaker 2: with Trout, and I feel like we've kicked this around.
Speaker 2: Even AJ like this, dude's a pro. He knows that
Speaker 2: he's had trouble staying on the field. I'm sure he
Speaker 2: wants to still be out in the field playing corner
Speaker 2: outfield over DH. But at the same time, I don't
Speaker 2: think he's going to take five hundred swings. If he's
Speaker 2: dching for the day, he'll get his routine down, but
Speaker 2: he'll know that he's most valuable if he's given them
Speaker 2: four or five at bats per game. So do you
Speaker 2: think that was the right call when we look back
Speaker 2: at the decision to spend pretty big on SO Layer
Speaker 2: and kind of block them from having Trout at DH
Speaker 2: or putting them in a less favorable outfield defense position,
Speaker 2: and that's been a problem for them at times anyway.
Speaker 1: Well, I think, first of all, at the time they
Speaker 1: had the opportunity at SO Layer, it was a pretty
Speaker 1: reasonable amount of money, and I don't think you at
Speaker 1: that point want to really eliminate players because of Mike Trout, because,
Speaker 1: as we've seen a lot of times, you don't have
Speaker 1: Mike Trout, so you don't want to go and not
Speaker 1: get players figuring you're going to have Mike Trout fill
Speaker 1: this role and then all of a sudden he's hurting
Speaker 1: you don't have them. So I think that this problem
Speaker 1: that came up having two dhs is a better problem
Speaker 1: than having no DHS, which might have been the case
Speaker 1: if they had not gotten Solare. So for him taking
Speaker 1: too many swings, you know, I also thought maybe that's
Speaker 1: a little not given Mike enough credit for his own
Speaker 1: taking care of himself. I think they felt he did
Speaker 1: that in the past, but I think he's done a
Speaker 1: lot of things in the past that he's learned from,
Speaker 1: so I don't know that he would necessarily do that again.
Speaker 1: I think it's they just sort of wanted to have
Speaker 1: some options, and I think that that's what what given
Speaker 1: Clair getting Celaire did for them.
Speaker 5: How have they accommodated the media in West Sacramento. I
Speaker 5: should have asked, were you were you at Sacramento? Were
Speaker 5: you at the Sacramento A Stadium? Okay, yeah, sutter Field
Speaker 5: did West Sacramento accommodate for you guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was nice.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was a teeny little press box, but
Speaker 1: it was a great view. It was a little bit
Speaker 1: of a nuisance to have to walk out to center
Speaker 1: field to the clubhouse before and after the game, but
Speaker 1: you know, there's other ballparks. We were just at Dodger
Speaker 1: Stadium and it's a pain in the butt to get
Speaker 1: to the visitor's clubhouse at Dodger Stadium too, so you know,
Speaker 1: they're worse things the field. The players said that the
Speaker 1: clubhouse and the food and the weight room and all
Speaker 1: that stuff was better than in Oakland, So I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be okay. I think the most interesting
Speaker 1: thing is going to be when it gets really hot
Speaker 1: in the summer and it gets really windy, Like is
Speaker 1: every game going to be twelve to ten?
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be an interesting scene. But
Speaker 1: as far as just the logistics and the amenities, I
Speaker 1: think they'll be able to make it there for three years.
Speaker 2: Hey, draft, while we're on the clubhouse. We talked about
Speaker 2: this a couple of months ago and having checked in
Speaker 2: on it, so I feel like it's fair to do
Speaker 2: so now from the media perspective, how has the lack
Speaker 2: of cell phone usage in the clubhouse looked? Do you
Speaker 2: see it and if that's still being implemented. I'm just
Speaker 2: curious from an inside baseball perspective, inside the clubhouse, what
Speaker 2: are they doing? Like, are they chatting more, are they
Speaker 2: watching TV? Playing card games? I mean, I know all
Speaker 2: that stuff goes on anyway, but curious if you actually
Speaker 2: see the impact of that. I'm not trying to put
Speaker 2: wind and losses on it. You know, some fans are like,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter, it does matter, I don't care. I'm
Speaker 2: just curious, like, from a lifestyle perspective, what does that
Speaker 2: look like to take cell phones away from gen z ers.
Speaker 1: Well, that kind of disappeared when the season started. They
Speaker 1: said that they were going to try to do it
Speaker 1: throughout the season, but I think it just sort of evaporated.
Speaker 1: I think in spring training there are a lot more
Speaker 1: places that they could go outside of the clubhouse when
Speaker 1: they wanted to use their phones. In a regular season,
Speaker 1: there's less space and so it's just not as logistically
Speaker 1: workable to do that, and so I think guys are
Speaker 1: now on their phones in the clubhouse. But they did
Speaker 1: kind of make a point of saying, like, don't get
Speaker 1: out of control with it. And if we're seeing that
Speaker 1: you're not getting what you have to do done because
Speaker 1: you're scrolling on Instagram, then we're going to have to
Speaker 1: do something else. And I think it was partly the
Speaker 1: reason they had. It was partly to get them to
Speaker 1: like communicate with each other, but the other part was
Speaker 1: just to get them to do something. I mean, I
Speaker 1: talked to Tyler Anderson one time about it, and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, there's times where I sit there and I
Speaker 1: have five minutes to kill before I need to go
Speaker 1: to do a workout or something like that, and I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna sit down and scroll on my phone for
Speaker 1: five minutes and the next thing, you know, it was
Speaker 1: twenty minutes. And you know, there went fifteen minutes that
Speaker 1: he could have been working on something else. So I
Speaker 1: think that was part of it. But basically now it's
Speaker 1: the same as it ever was at this point the season.
Speaker 2: That is the job of the phone. Those apps, they
Speaker 2: know what they're doing. They'll keep you there. Have been
Speaker 2: there many times I went in for one thing and
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, what was I here for? Wait, I'm
Speaker 2: watching you know, I'm watching puppies? What am I doing here?
Speaker 3: Anyway?
Speaker 2: Who are we not talking about or what are we
Speaker 2: not talking about with this team that we should be
Speaker 2: talking about?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: I mean, our show covers all thirty. We're giving love
Speaker 2: today to the Angels for a great wind streak going on.
Speaker 2: What's a name or just a component of what's going
Speaker 2: on with this team that you see on an everyday
Speaker 2: basis and an every game basis that we're not seeing
Speaker 2: or not talking enough about.
Speaker 1: You know, I think we've hit everybody, you know. I
Speaker 1: think Hopy and Netto those are the guys that I
Speaker 1: think most of the baseball world that ignores the Angels
Speaker 1: or makes jokes about the Angels should pay attention to
Speaker 1: these guys. Those are definitely the core guys. Those are
Speaker 1: the two you know, star players, and they're potentially like
Speaker 1: multi year All Stars going forward. And it's pretty good
Speaker 1: at catcher and short stuff. Those are positions you'd like
Speaker 1: to have lockdown. So I think kind of the next
Speaker 1: question for the Angels is are they going to sign
Speaker 1: these guys to big multi year extensions and lock them
Speaker 1: up because they're definitely, you know, at the ages twenty
Speaker 1: four and twenty five, right now looking like their long
Speaker 1: term studs. Do you think they will That's a great question.
Speaker 1: They haven't really had other than Trout, they haven't really
Speaker 1: had another guy that's it's even been an issue. So
Speaker 1: I don't know how they would approach it, but I
Speaker 1: would if I were them. But it's not my money,
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: Last one for me, if things go awry and this
Speaker 2: team ends up more in the ninety plus loss range again,
Speaker 2: do you think this is a year that could cause changes,
Speaker 2: whether it's GM, manager, etc. Like For me, it's measuring
Speaker 2: the expectations of the boss. Right, every team is run
Speaker 2: by a dictator. That's just how it is, right, there's
Speaker 2: one person who makes the decision. They're called a controller,
Speaker 2: Zary ma Reno for many years. Do you think his
Speaker 2: expectations are high enough that he would try and do
Speaker 2: something drastic this year? Because obviously there hasn't been winning
Speaker 2: for a while.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The team's playing well, so you're seeing a little taste
Speaker 2: of what this could look like. But if it does
Speaker 2: go awry, what could happen?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean definitely Ron Washington and Perrymansion. It could
Speaker 1: be gone at the end of the year. If they
Speaker 1: have another bad year and you're looking at, you know,
Speaker 1: ninety ninety five losses because certainly last year they were
Speaker 1: bad and Perry got a contract extension I think was
Speaker 1: an acknowledgement from Artie that he liked the direction. But
Speaker 1: that direction has got to keep going. They've got they've
Speaker 1: got to improve, and if they don't improve, then then
Speaker 1: I would be surprised if both of those guys are back.
Speaker 1: But as we sit here today, they certainly look like
Speaker 1: they're improved. You know, we'll see what the next one
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve games springs, but it's definitely looks better
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Jeff, thanks for swinging by. Appreciate the time at Jeff
Speaker 2: Fletcher ocr is the follow on Twitter and check out
Speaker 2: his work with the Orange County Register. Thanks Jeff, appreciate
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: M all right, thanks guys,