Under the Halo Podcast: Nolan Schanuel

Under the Halo Podcast: Nolan Schanuel

if you could just start with a selfie video and just introduce yourself my name is john here and this is under the halo podcast hey what’s up this is nolan shawal here and this is under the halo podcast i can do better than that hello this is nolan shell here and this is under the halo podcast i think that’s the best take we’ve had yet
the second one’s better yeah
of any of them i think i think that’s i think that’s the best one that we got going to this point because we’ve had the guys up here and it’s been um
it’s been fun seeing the zag neto logan o’hoppy mike trout dynamic and they all have said kind of the same thing they have fun with you they it gets it’s pretty clear and and i think sometimes that
it may be at your expense
but they seem to think that like you don’t mind that is is that do i have the right read on that
100% yeah um yeah i don’t mind it last week uh we had when logan was up here cuz i was actually giving mike and logan a hard time said like you guys kind of bully nolan a little bit and he’s like it’d be like johnny washington just putting it on a t4 you make it too easy is that kind of is that are you just the fun guy like let these guys have a good time and and i play along with the joke yeah yeah 100% i think um i play into it a little bit um sometimes i’ll set up a joke for them to kind of i’ll be their punching bag sometimes but also uh i’ll dish it out as well
have you dished anything on mike trout at this point
um i think i a couple digs nothing nothing too big i think the biggest guy i go after is neto if i can get a dig on neto i go after okay so what’s the best way to go about getting at neto
h it depends um honestly it depends on the city we’re at if i mean
is there one you can share
uh i would say two days ago we were in new york and he got two hits the night before and he’s all like ecstatic like sure
around the locker room and oh calls him out he’s like “hey net would you be like this if you if you got no hits?” and he’s like “yeah of course.” so just how the baseball gods work that day he gets no hits we get a win but he wasn’t as ecstatic as the day before and we uh oh and i went up to him and we’re like “what’s going on today?” like where’s that fire you brought yesterday and we kind of needled it out of him and i mean it’s all it’s all fun and games no
i’m glad somebody can keep zach neto in check
somebody has to you have to yeah there’s got to be some kind of poling in that clubhouse to keep zack from from getting out of hand that’s i love the i love the vibe of this group this is this is this is a fun group okay you have to help me out with something and i’ve always wondered this
the first base conversation when a player reaches and you got and you’re chatting them up who are some of the fun guys to talk to around the league that you you talk to uh it’s hard um honestly it depends on how many times they get on first that day sure
so uh or if they play first and i get on first base uh i i tend to talk to the first baseman a lot more
then they talk to you then uh like the i would say like if they’re like whoever’s playing first that day
because you’re running into each other more
a lot more um i’ve talked like freddy really good guy fun to talk to um
i mean there’s a lot of a lot of guys uh
is it ever contentious or is it always
really or is always kind of looking good fun
always good fun always good fun no i mean i don’t think any bad talk anything ever at first base um even yesterday
uh bench is clear uh cooper gets on first base pena gets on first base and we’re we’re laughing having a good time i mean no bad blood i’ve always kind of but i wondered like the dynamic of that and that conf like that probably i would think correct me if i’m wrong when you’re first coming up and you’re you know hey it’s my fourth game in the big leagues like you’re not going to go chat up freddy freeman or maybe you maybe you would but now that you got you got a little service time now you’ve been at this for a minute now it’s like whoever comes up let’s go have some fun
yeah i think um when i first got called up it was more like yo what’s up like like now kind take a little like how’s the family or if if if we have like if i worked out with them in the offseason or
like catch up a little bit um
there’s a real relationship
yeah 100% um i it all depends on the player obviously but i mean we can talk about fishing we could talk about uh if they have a dog like i mean the conversation can go anywhere okay well hold on hold on we got to stop everything now i was so excited to talk fishing with you because i know nothing about it and i know you are a very avid fisherman a a fly fisherman at that correct
uh not a fly fisherman
oh okay so i got i had bad info our research department let me down here so that’s unacceptable actually okay so what’s the fishing approach like how how do you go about it like what are what kind of fishing do you do where do you like to go what are you looking for i i’m a big saltwater fisherman um you’re a good spot for that
very good spot uh i’m more of a fisherman in florida
sure
so
oh yeah because you have so much free time during the baseball season in southern california
yeah see i i’ve i’ve only fished one time in uh this season and it was in tampa on or off day
there you go so there you go
but uh big saltwater fisherman i’ll go inshore um for like snook tarpon uh fish like that and then i’ll go offshore depending if we’re in the keys or if i’m at home we’ll go sailfish tuna mahi depending honestly it depends if
we’re going for for the game like just catch and release or if we’re going
for for dinner so
okay so if we’re going for dinner because now that’s a language i understand a little bit i know i know getting some tuna i know getting mahi that that’s my world there okay who prepares it or do you do you know like do you clean them out do you take care of that is that is that your deal you you can do that
um usually i i’m the one who does it but if i go with a buddy and it’s his boat or like he supplied the spot then it’s courtesy for him to the cleaning and preparing
i like learning fishing etiquette yes this is this is excellent so if i invite somebody on my boat or my spot i i clean i cook i do if it’s vice versa they do all the the cleaning and cooking
is this something that you’ve always been into or is it kind of like recentish
yeah no i’ve i’ve always been a a big fisherman uh growing up with my dad uh we fish a lot lakes um more than anything growing up but once i kind of got a like a taste of saltwater fishing i lake fishing is not the same anymore
so when you get drafted and you get your signing bonus is a boat very high up on the priorities of what that’s going to be
it was i actually um that was the first thing i wanted to buy and it like with the season it didn’t work out so
this off season um that will be the first purchase when we get home i’ve always wanted a boat but i know i would have no idea what to do with it and i’d go once and it’d be the most fun time i could ever have and then i think it would sit in the dock or storage for another like four years before i go that’s my that’s my concern but i don’t think that’s an issue for you
i think it happens with a lot of people honestly uh knowing a lot of people growing up
they get it loved it for a month and used it once a year after that
sure but
i mean that can happen okay so do you have like a a prize catch is there something that you’ve caught that you want to brag about while we have all angel fans watching this right now
um i’ve caughten a couple of sailfish over 150 pounds before
dang
so uh pictures so i
walk walk me through how it how it played out tell me tell me the story
we were fly uh kite fishing what is kite fishing
so this is a little complicated so you got we did three rods
okay
you send a kite out and each like each section there’s your line is connected so your line’s connected to the top middle and lower part of the kite and then you have a bobber so you make sure the fish is always in on top of the water and you have to keep track of it so you’re you’re letting line out you’re reeling up so you you want it it’s mostly like top water okay
you want the prey to see a fish struggling on the top of the water and uh it could take a while it could take minutes so you’re constantly on on the reel and making sure it’s in the water and once you see the the fish come up or sailfish came up in that instance grab the bait the line will dehook from the kite and then it’s just a fight from there
see but this is great so 150 lbs now i’m thinking you know what maybe i don’t need to go to my workout today i can go out in the water and i can justify hey look no this is what i’m doing this is i’m putting i’m getting get my work in come on that’s tougher anything we can do in the gym have you taken any teammates out
yes um well this year i was supposed to take a couple guys out in tampa but we got in really late so they didn’t want to wake up
um but this off season there’s going to be a couple guys who are going to come out i like that we’ve now gotten to a point where no one shauna is bagging on guys for not waking up because i know you are the notorious not a morning guy yes um
i mean it’s hard during the season every day like especially like after a game like especially last night um extra ending game adrenaline’s going and
i mean i get home and i’m expected to go to bed right away which never the case for me i can’t uh my heart’s still pumping my blood’s still going so it takes me about two hours to go to bed and then
how do you unwind like do you do you like is it watching a show is it like just chilling like how do you how do you unwind
usually it’s a movie yeah um if i want to go to bed before a 90minute movie or that i’ll put on a tv show or just watch something on youtube well for me i mean if i put on a 2-hour movie it’s 15 minutes i’m out
that’s the best thing for me is if i if i put on it could be the my favorite movie and we’re done that’s just that’s how that works but i’m an old man you got you got years before you get to me
yeah i’m the opposite i think if i put a movie on i got to finish it
okay i get it i get it that makes a lot of sense um so can we last night so we’re taping this let’s let everybody a little behind the scenes here we’re taping this the day of your bobblehead day there was the extra innings affair last night i was out we did the 5k this morning that everyone did by the way uh i finished 634th in case anyone’s wondering so very proud of that accomplishment um but like you got a bobblehead night tonight
i know that like by now everyone’s already received the bobblehead but just how cool is it the fact that like you have a nolan shaunell bobblehead it’s pretty awesome yeah i mean this is something like when you were a kid you looked like it’s a dream you know um have a lot of family out here so a couple friends came out for the occasion so pretty pretty hectic in that standpoint and i mean everyone back home’s kind of asking for one and trying to
yeah how many do you have to come up with now you think
h i think i have to go home with at least 30
and that’s that’s not including i have uh 12 people here today so
okay so we’re talking we’re talking 40 plus bobbleheads that’s actually not that bad it’s not not i mean not compared to like there’s some that i think are probably asking for over a hundred
yeah i think hearing like the the christian moore and kairen paris how many tickets they had to get for a game in their hometown was a lot crazier than what
man you okay you just brought up something that’s amazing christian moore debuts
uhhuh at yankee or not i mean he debuted in in baltimore but hometown brooklyn guy yankee stadium now you got to come up with a bunch of yankee tickets tough ass that’s that’s not easy to get
those are $100 tickets yeah
for the oh i mean i think he played for free that week
i’m sure
so a lot of people don’t realize that we have to as as players have to pay for the tickets and
it adds up it does
well well yeah i mean you’re going to have a hundred family members coming out to a game and yeah he’s been in the big leagues for four minutes
um
christian moore is interesting because he is yet another in this line of angels that get drafted and they’re up very fast nobody has gotten up in 40 days like you like this is you’re you’re like an anomaly here but
are you able to give christian like advice for how to handle some of this stuff when you really don’t have hardly any minor league experience yeah i mean i think um i just gave him the advice that i thought like if i could go back and tell myself what i needed to hear i told him exactly that and it’s a tough road uh especially the first couple weeks not knowing i mean when you get to the locker room you don’t even know where the stadium is like you don’t know where the field is you don’t know where to park you don’t know half the stuff that you need to know when you first get here and for him like i i i played with him um in 2022 in cape cod so
okay
i knew um kind of like his pregame routines there and
stuff like that and just talking like what we do on a daily basis where we have to be
uh the the hidden rules that every mlb team has and i think that was the biggest part for me was not knowing most of those hidden rules and kind of having
probably probably learning some of them the hard way
yeah oh 100%
so at the same time like here you are a couple of years now into this i mean it’s crazy to think about but it seems like you have totally owned kind of who you are as a player what you want to be how do you feel like confidence-wise where you’re at where you think you want to be at some point how would you describe maybe where you feel like you’re at as a major league player at this point
yeah i mean right now um as like my role as the two-h hitter or just
like
i say the setup guy um neto does a great job of getting on base if if he gets on first base my job is to move him hopefully to third base first to third if not just get him into scoring position and make it a lot easier for uh trouty uh when yo-yo is healthy uh t- ward just guys like that to rack up rbi’s and get a run on the board which i mean the more runs you score the better so i think that’s kind of where i saw my role this year compared to last year where i was in neto’s spot where i was trying to get on base
for those guys or if i mean it could have been the same uh circumstance if the nine-hole was leading off and
so i think as of right now the being the two-hole that’s my job but if i get moved up and down the lineup i think your your job is never set in stone zone i mean you have to kind of you have to be able to be flexible throughout the lineup um i know last year i was moving up i was six sometimes five sometimes and my role would change almost every day if if that was the case but when i’m set in stone right now at the two-hole i know what i need to do to help the team win
one thing that i really appreciate about what you bring in that two spot
it’s a quality at bat every time you might not get a hit yeah but it’s a quality at bat and i talk about this all the time of guys on this team i don’t know that there’s anybody that’s given you as many quality at bats working counts just being a nightmare for a pitcher
and i think that there’s such value in that is that part of the mentality is that part of the approach for what you’re trying to do
yeah i think uh no matter where i would be in the order i think that would kind of be what you’re getting from me um
whether it’s see a lot of pitches make a guy just honestly make the pitcher work for an out um that’s that’s my goal to do every time i get to the plate um if i get into one and get an extra base hit double or homer it’s i mean that’s just even more added to it but if i could get his pitch count up draw a walk or flare single somewhere that’s also doing a good job i mean ultimately it’s just you versus the pitcher in that singular moment of the game so it’s i mean i love to compete and i think that’s the best way that i can compete is go up and give a quality at bat
you ever find yourself chasing homers
uh i would say my first year yes this year i don’t think i’ve even thought about it um there’s been a couple times where i just missed a homer and i was
well there was a couple f some one extremely famous one in particular yeah and that kind that hurts a little bit more um but i don’t think i never go up trying to hit a home run so but yeah there’s been one really really uh painful one this year and there’s been a couple that i was like h that hurts but not as bad as that one
okay so you get robbed by on a spectacular catch and i’m sorry to bring it up but here we are here we are in the moment okay yeah yeah he got me like how ticked are you later like man that should have had that should have been a homer
yeah i think i hit it and i like i knew i hit it good enough for it to be a homer and just kind of a half like half jog like some somewhat hustle
and i got past first base and i see him spider-man on the wall and i’m like all right he’s he might be doing that just for show like a lot of guys kind of do it just to you had just played a series with a center fielder that does that all the time yeah
yeah julio and seeing him do that i’m like “all right he’s just doing it just to like kind of show that he can maybe catch a like i don’t know and then
so you didn’t think he caught it
i didn’t like i i thought he was just doing it for like for giggles you know
and then seeing him come down and celebrate cuz i honestly i didn’t even see the catch right away uh tough angle from first base but
i see him celebrating i’m like there’s no way i get to second and i stop and i’m like is he like like he could be just like playing a joke you know a lot of guys hidden ball like joke around with that stuff and seeing him come up with it i was in i mean i was in shock uh best play i’ve ever seen in i mean ever for me um especially in person i mean i’ve never seen a play like that in person but
i’m with you it’s also like i actually spent some time i went back and i went through some like all-time great catches there’s some really good ones in angels history
obviously trout’s had a couple vernon wells had one u gary matthews jr had one jim edmonds there tory had a bunch
kenny loftton i know had some there’s some amazing ones but that that was that was that was pretty darn good so i’m sorry to bring up a source because you’re on the wrong side of that one but still i i feel like at least the numbers are starting to reflect that that your approach has been let me just make contact let me be a nightmare at bat let me move guys over do you feel like the situational hitting that obviously you bring the two-hole is something that maybe can translate to other guys up and down the lineup for what you guys are trying to do in different situations
100% i think um a lot of times when we have a guy on third base uh with less than two outs we chase um we chase the hit too often instead of uh ultimately sacrificing your bat for a guy to get in whether it is to put a soft ground ball in play or hit a hit a fly ball sack fly and i think with my game being like a high contact guy i’m usually pretty good at those situations and uh i think in when you get into a situation like that you kind of have to get your pitch early uh you don’t want to see too many and and get behind but you also don’t want to chase
so i think throughout the lineup we we we tend to do a good job in those situations but i think that we could do a better job and stuff like that um i think we could walk more that that’s another thing um i we might be bottom bottom tier in walks uh but that’s just that’s stuff we we could work on and
i mean we can only get better
you had a uh
you tried to have almost like a push button when they shifted hard on you the other night i’ve seen you a couple times do this is that something like almost to send a message like you’re not shifting on me like i’m gonna if you want to do that then i’m gonna go get my hit and i’ll just butt down
okay
uh i did it in new york and it worked out a lot better than last night so last night yeah that was it was pretty tough but i think
but the idea like i know you’re not always going to execute 100% of the time but the idea and the thought process i think that a lot of times what’s important
yeah i think it it’ll help also because it’ll make that third baseman have to play pretty much up until two strikes which can open up a hole for for me later in the game when there’s a guy on second base and that’ll that’ll get an extra run in for the game or even in that situation it was 2-2 eighth seventh or eighth inning get a guy in first base to start an inning and who knows what can happen there uh with trout behind me and t- ward and uh my job is to start innings so if if the opportunity comes like that then that’s i’m going to try my best to do so
i understand i’m preaching to the choir right now
but here’s something that nobody talks enough about
first base defense
it does not get enough play nobody talks about first base defense and it’s so important and now i’m pleased to be sitting next to the king of pop-ups dubbed by your skipper ron washington who said this about you that you have become this guy that ball’s in the air you’re going to get it nolan it’s amazing your approach and how things have changed for you in a pretty short amount of time what was some of the difference that’s happened there what kind of work did you do to get to be like you are the king of pop-ups yeah i think when i first came up i was a little timid
to go after uh as many as i like now if the ball’s in the air i want to catch it i don’t care if i’m calling off whoever simo if he’s at second or uh hoppy or trav if they’re behind the plate if if it’s up i i i trust myself in catching i mean i think at first i was kind of like like i said timid scared didn’t want to call off the guy who had five or six years of service time ahead of me and now i just it’s my job to make a play when when the opportunity arises um so yeah i think it’s it’s pretty cool that skip gave me that
well you had an amazing over- the-sh shoulder one i guess that was last night too that’s a lot happened last night but you also there was a play uh earlier in the season maybe about a week or two ago where it was a pop-up back behind home play and logan was pretty adamant like i got it i got it and you were like no you don’t it’s like i am taking this baseball i think to have that confidence i think it’s a it’s a total reflection yeah of service time but i think also a reflection of the work i mean i don’t think people have realized how much work you’ve put in to be at that level where it doesn’t matter who you are i’m gonna call you off to go catch this baseball yeah and i think for for a catcher that’s the hardest thing for them to do a a pop-up straight up because you never i mean you really never know which way it’s going to go um and us as infielders we’re always coming in on it they they have either way so it’s it’s harder for them so i i think with an opportunity like that that that came up the other night it’s it’s a lot easier for me to catch that ball than for him so and he loves i mean he i think last year in miami um early in the season
i caught a ball and he he gave me a hug after he’s like “thank you.” like i i i didn’t know he was like he’s i didn’t know if i was going to catch that or not so
it just it helps them out a lot cuz it’s a lot st uh less stressful for them to let me catch it than
and that’s not even that’s just not even to get into how much an infield can feel better when you just send the ball anywhere over to first base and go get there who are some of the guys that
like were there other players you spent time with in the offseason whether it be defense whether it be hitting who are some of the the players now that you’d spend time with maybe try to learn like older guys try to learn from them uh well this off seasonason or i guess two offseasons ago i was with goldie a lot um learned a lot from him and just he’s like one of the greatest first baseman um
how does that come together
so
do you call up paul goldman
uh jerry jerry neran actually he uh
he’s like hey there’s this place um i want you to work out this offseason and i was like i was actually already going to work out there which was awesome and
find out goldie was working out there and um honestly it was just a time time adjustment where i i think i had to work out an hour earlier than normal and it worked out perfectly and then we go out hit take ground balls after we worked out and whether it was just talking the game or like learning routines stuff like that um his base running his like defense like he puts so much time into his game that a lot of people don’t even notice
um like he’s got over a 100 stolen bases like just a total like ninja on the bases like the other day in new york uh last inning rango throws me a ball up the line i jump and he’s sliding into first base to avoid the tag like a lot of people just look past that which is crazy because uh if if things do work out that inning for them and he scores the game’s totally different and it’s just some like it’s not appreciated enough in in like in this game at all well we see you now i mean you’re stealing bases no no one’s going to confuse you with being a track star nolan i don’t mean i think you could probably beat my 634 in the 5k but i don’t think by much um but you’re but your ability to steal bases and and read different situations is that something you take pride in
100% i think
for me it’s not i’m not stealing a base because of my speed at all it’s because i i notice something either in the pitcher or in the catcher that will give me that extra half a second of time to get to the bag and that i think that’s just being a smart like a smart baseball player you don’t always have to be like the track star the power guy uh like the best way i i describe my game is i’m a good baseball player like i know like so much about the game that a lot of people don’t realize um kind of iq-wise that i can pick up when i need to steal a bag um the timings the like
it it sucks to say but like grips like stuff like that like just
attention to detail
yeah and that’s what separates a lot of times you know there’s a there’s occasionally freak athletes that they’re just going to be great no matter what they do but but guys are generally able to get to the next level and stay in this game because of what you’re talking about the baseball iq the attention to detail have you always been that kind of a player or is that something that’s come in time
i think um once i got to college it was a lot more geared towards learning the baseball iq i think in high school it was just you go out and you play um you for for us like we were a really good high school team and we were just good because we i mean we knew how to play baseball we were really good like as a team we grew up together we had good team chemistry but once we got to college and you’re playing with a bunch of guys throughout the state throughout the country and you’re actually learning so much more about the game that’s kind of like where it clicked for me on like just the little things that can help you win baseball games
who are your favorite players to watch as a kid
i grew up obviously like everybody loves trouty i grew up watching trouty i uh
that’s not a you don’t you can’t pick trout
david ortiz was a big guy for me cody ross was a big guy for me that a lot of people don’t even know
no hold on that is by the way that is the most beautiful answer because if nolan shawnwell can be something in between cody ross and david ortiz that’s a heck of a ball player that’s be good for a long time
that’s i think that’s the the the crazy thing is like cody ross was a baseball player high iq baseball player and i think i just love to watch him because like i was i mean i was a student of the game like i i love to watch every like i go to marlins games when i could spring training games all the time and watching cody ross and just a very high iq baseball player knew the game in and out and uh like you can ask i mean you probably could ask simo and he wouldn’t even know who he is as a baseball player
like like am i saying that simo doesn’t watch baseball not at all like he definitely watched baseball growing up but i’m saying
no i 100% i 100% know what you’re saying i think our fans get it as well at at the same time i think it’s a it’s just a fascinating example of what you’re picking up on and again going back to the kind of the attention to detail and how important all that stuff is i get the sense no one you’re just a baseball junkie like do you watch are you watching the whole league are you watching everybody all the time
i i would say being on the west coast i watch a lot of east coast games right because it’s like it’s on in the locker room before the game i watch a lot of baseball before but if we’re like postgame and there’s a game on still on the west coast it’s hard to watch especially after we get done with the game but
no but when you’re when you’re on the east coast and the west coast games are can are do you have the ability to sit and watch the game like “oh i’m going to take this in as a fan.” boy i wonder i wonder what seattle’s going to do here or is it “oh no let me i’m picking up a tendency.” like are you always on i like when i watch baseball i’m always like even the college world series like just little like little things like a guy gets walked and he’s looking over twice every time i’m like “all right if he doesn’t steal on the second look like he like he’s going to be out.” like just stupid like literally it’s stupid stuff like that that i pick up on or if he’s like raising his glove too high on on curve balls like it it’s it’s hard to turn off um once once you’re in the game of baseball it’s like when you watch it you’re you’re i still feel like i’m in the game so it’s kind it’s weird um in a sense but i think a lot of guys kind of have that tendency nolan this is the the biggest compliment i can give no one seanell baseball player
baseball player
no one shaell baseball player thanks for hanging out with us
thank you i appreciate it all right
thank you guys good stuff
thank you [Music] the stuff you guys pick up on blows me away [Music] i try i try in the booth i can’t i don’t just don’t see it [Music] whatever [Music] awesome [Music]

Los Angeles Angels infielder Nolan Schanuel sits down with host Trent Rush on this episode of the Under the Halo podcast! The pair talk about the conversations had a first base, Nolan’s love of fishing, his progress as a baseball player, the players he grew up watching, and more!

Catch ‘Under the Halo’ with Trent Rush all season long for in-depth interviews with Angels players, coaches, and other members of the Angels family. Watch the podcast at youtube.com/angels or listen at angels.com/fans, on the AM830 app, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Episode Time Stamps:

00:33 – Joking around with his teammates
1:39 – Razzing teammate Zach Neto
2:50 – Conversations at first base
4:56 – Nolan’s passion for saltwater fishing
7:13 – Wanting to buy a boat this offseason
8:00 – “Bragging” about his prize catch and kite fishing
9:48 – Being a night owl and unwinding after a game
11:23 – Having is own bobblehead
13:07 – Giving Christian Moore Major League advice
14:29 – Where he’s at as a MLB player at this point in his career
17:38 – “Do you ever find yourself chasing homers?”
20:22 – His situational hitting approach
23:10 – First base defense and being dubbed “the king of pop-ups”
26:00 – Other MLB veterans he has learned from
27:59 – Base running, attention to detail, and Baseball IQ
30:08 – Favorite players to watch as a kid
31:40 – Watching baseball as “a fan”
33:09 – End of interview