Zach Neto Leads Los Angeles Angels to 4th STRAIGHT WIN Over Dodgers! Fans Sad Over Shohei Ohtani?

Zach Neto Leads Los Angeles Angels to 4th STRAIGHT WIN Over Dodgers! Fans Sad Over Shohei Ohtani?

On this episode of Locked On Angels, with their win last night, the Halos win the Freeway Series for the first time since 2019. They got a big victory over the Dodgers last night. We’ve got five takeaways to share with you and we’re sharing those today. I’m Mike. That’s John. We’re the Super Halo Bros. And this is Locked on Angels. [Music] You are Locked on Angels, your daily Los Angeles Angels podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Thanks for making Locked On Angels your first listen of the day. You can find us anywhere you get your podcast, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, and SiriusXM by searching Locked on Angels. And if you’d like to get back to the Super Halo Bros for all the Super Halo content, here are some things that you can do. Leave us a rate and a review on Apple Podcast. Hit that thumbs up and subscribe button on YouTube. And while you’re here, leave a comment. One of the best ways to get in touch with us and be a part of the conversation. And this episode of Locked On Angels is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is just around the corner. Visit the FanDuel app today to start planning your future bet now. And you can come bowling with us. The second annual Logan Hoppy All-Star Bowl, Sunday, September 7th, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. We’re raising money for the YMCA of Orange County. Get your ticket by clicking the link in the episode description. And when you check out, use the promo code Halo Bros. Can’t wait to see you at the second annual Logan Hoppy All-Star Bowl. Thanks for being here for this episode of Lockdown Angels, where it’s your team every day. You’ve got the Fresh Brothers here with you, aka the Super Halo Bros. My name is John and that’s my brother Mike. And my name is Mike and that’s my brother John. In a good mood, Mike, because the Angels got a big win over the Dodgers, take the freeway series in 2025. Can we just play above 500 teams the rest of the way because apparently that’s the secret sauce. Hey, we’re talking Angels baseball with you Monday through Friday, every single weekday. On today’s show, uh, is Otani going to be emotional when he returns to the mound on Wednesday, or is it just another day for show? We’ll tell you about the meeting of Jose Soraniano and Pedro Martinez. But first, let’s get to the takeaways from last night’s win. The Angels won this one 7 to4. They clinched the Freeway Series in 2025. Mike, take it away, my friend. First takeaway. Last night, the Halo scored at least six runs against the Dodgers. And this was the sixth straight game that they’ve done that. They have really dominated this team. Here’s how they did it. Bottom one, Zack Note hits a leadoff home run. First p first pitch swinging and launch and first pitch crushing. Launched it to right field. Do that. That was great. And uh he’s now got eight leadoff home runs this year. That breaks Brian Downing’s record of seven in 1987. And then Trout follows with a walk. Taylor Ward walks. The pitch that Taylor Ward walked on though was strike three, but what’s called ball four. We’ll get to we’ll get to all of that nonsense in in just a moment. Then Yoan Mana hits an RBI single to right field. Angels are up two nothing. John, they add four more in the bottom of the fifth. Yeah, Bryce Diodosio leads off with a little excuse me swing single. Neto follows up with a single of his own. Todd also goes first to third because he read the play in left field perfectly. Mike, that’s what’s been missing from this team. A guy taking extra bases. Uh they said on the broadcast the Angels were second to last, I think, in taking the extra base. That’s not something they did last year. Last year they were really aggressive in their base running. So I think that that’s been part of the issue. Everything’s been dialed back, so to speak, this season. But Shaunell was hit by the pitch. He stayed in the game uh to run and you know hopefully that he’ll be okay because uh otherwise who you going to put it first? Darno PZA like what are we going to do here guys? He didn’t really think that through. Uh and he delivered uh the base is loaded. That brings up Trout and he comes through with a clutch two-run single to right field. This uh this came from Taylor Blake Ward, former Angel Locked on Angels host and of course Hall of Famer. does some great writing for the Sporting Tribune all over the Angels organization. Mike Trout’s career with the bases loaded, 127 played appearances, 126 RBI’s in that situation. Wow. So with one out, Monata comes up again, singles to right center, made it a fiveun lead. Gustavo Campo, who came in for Joe Adell after he was ejected, added another run with a nice little ground out RBI, scored the sixth run. Mike, Halo’s knocked Yoshino Yamamoto out of this game after just four and two/3s, handing him his worst loss in his MLB career. Yeah. Six earned runs in this one and the shortest outing he’s had all season. That brings us to our next takeaway. Yeah. Second takeaway is the Angels have been really good versus aces since the All-Star break. John, here’s here’s what they’ve done against Ranger Suarez. They they they knocked him out. Four and a third innings pitched, six runs. Kodiena only went three innings, gave up four runs. Logan Gilbert, five innings, four runs. Jacob Deg Grom, five and a third, five runs. And then TKO, four and two/3 and five earned. And then last night against Yamamoto, four and two/3, six earned runs. John, what do you what do you make of the Angels rising to the occasion against these really good pitchers? It’s like I said, they got to play above 500 teams. And apparently that’s the the key to victory here, Mike, because look at that list. Suarez, Sangga, Logan Gilbert, Jacob Deg Grom, TK Scubble. They got to Deg Grom twice this year. Yep. By the way, and then Yamamoto. Do they Is it a matter of the Angels rising to the occasion? Is it these guys not taking the Angels seriously? Um I think this speaks good for anybody who’s watching this young Angels team and going, “Hey, you know what? There’s some there’s something going on there. Whether they make the postseason or not, whether they get above 500 or not, I think that if you look at stats like this throughout the season and you see what the Angels have been able to do, I mean, five in a row against or I’m sorry, four in a row against the Dodgers now. Yeah. Um, I think that this is going to help shift that narrative, Mike. So, the fact that they’re getting to these aces, these frontline starters at the very least, uh, it really is great to see. And you know it it like we always say the Angels play up to their competition. Yeah. Certainly did that again against Yoshino Yamamoto. Well, and they admitted that earlier this year. They talked a lot about how when they are in big stadiums with big teams, it feels like a playoff atmosphere and it kind of stirs them up and gets them excited. Now, that hasn’t always that hasn’t always been the case. More often than not, though, but more often than not, and then when they play those bad teams, it’s like they lose all of that. And so, it was great to see them rise to the occasion last night. Speaking of that, John, third takeaway, Soraniano was great last night, wasn’t he? Yeah, he did really well. Went six innings, gave up just two hits, only walked two, struck out six. Five of those were on that knuckle curve. He threw 91 pitches. More than half of his pitches, Mike, were sinkers. He only threw the uh five four seam fast balls and threw them in specific and key moments rather than just, you know, spamming them. He’s using them in a uh a creative way, I guess you could say. One of those happened in the fourth inning against Freddy Freeman. Soraniano threw a 100 miles an hour four seam fast right past him to get Freeman swinging. And speaking of that fourth inning, that’s been his worst inning this year. He came into last night with a nine erra and he’s allowed 23 earned runs in 23 games in the fourth inning. 27 total runs allowed in this one. He threw 11 pitches, got a ground out of Mookie Betts, a strike out to Freeman on that 100 mph fast. He did give up a single to Will Smith, but he got Maxy to ground out to first. Fourth inning, no problem, my friend. So, that was great to see. By the way, speaking of Max, um they need to give his optometrist a raise because ever since he started wearing glasses, it was like, “Oh, my back.” And so, he needs to get half of Muny’s contract because that’s when he saved his career, right? Uh, speaking of home runs, John, fourth takeaway, Zach Neto had two of them last night, 19 total on the season. Remember, he hit 23 last year. Had 20 home runs, 20 doubles, and 20 steels last year. Uh, this year, 24 doubles, 21 steals, just one home run away from a 2020 season. Again, he reached base five times in five played appearances. Has had an intentional walk in the last inning. And then he was interviewed after the game by Erica Weston. They’re like, “Hey, you got an intentional walk. What was that about?” out and he was like, “That’s always a good sign that the team doesn’t want to pitch to you and I’ve not had that happen to me before.” So, he was thrilled about it. Keep in mind, he missed the first month of the season as well. So, you’d think that those numbers might be a little bit more, but here’s the thing, Mike. You read those numbers, 24 doubles, 21 steals, one home run away from another 2020 year. This is a five to player, right? And he’s great on defense. He’s great at the plate. The one thing that you might think is that, you know, as a leadoff guy, he might want to cut down on the strikeouts, but um the fact that he’s getting on base and walked so much in this one, including that intentional walk, great sign. So, this is a this is a franchise guy that you build around, and I certainly hope the Angels are do that. And I know there’s always a lot of questions about when are the Angels going to extend some of these guys, guys. They’re not going to do it until Anthony Rendone is off the books after 2026. Plus, prepare for a lockout to start 2027. And certainly, the Angels are not going to RD Marino is still in charge. They’re not going to want to pay somebody uh before this lockout nonsense happens. So, you don’t know what’s going to happen um between, you know, what the players are going to be owed and the players union and the and the owners. Yeah, it’s just going to be a mess. So, I imagine once things get rolling in 2027 is when we’re going to start seeing extensions for some of these guys. John bringing the good news here on Lockdown Angel. Fourth takeaway. Johnell got tossed last night. Pitch timer violation when he walks into the batters box. He’s ready. Yeah, he was looking at Yamamoto. I don’t know why he got a pitch timer violation. And he argued that he was like, I’m standing right here. I’m And he very very animated, right? And then it was a ball and then two swinging strikes at pitches that weren’t in the zone. I think Joe was just in his head and frustrated and then when he struck out you could you could tell he said something to Dan Asona and and got tossed although Adele never says anything and so him just kind of like making a point about like I wasn’t late and he’s walking away as he says it too so it’s not like he turned around and screamed at him but it was yeah really these umpires like that that ABS system is going to be great. You made a great point on uh on Twitter uh for Super Halo Bros. You had talked about how it could be interesting to see if the umpires adjust to ABS if they look bad because some of their calls are bad and if they start maybe stretching the zone a bit or making sure that they’re a bit more accurate. So, we’ll hopefully see that. It sounds like we’re going to see that next season. Yeah. I mean, if if you’re getting a bunch of overturned calls against an umpire because you’re getting challenged constantly, it’s going to make that umpire adjust. And right now, the only way you can really say anything to an umpire is if your manager or player says something to them. And you know, sometimes between innings, the catcher might say, “Hey, you gave uh you gave that pitcher that strike on the corner. I want that from my guy, too.” Right? And so that’s kind of the only thing you can do right now. But I imagine, Mike, if if you’re embarrassing an umpire, which a lot of these umpires are going to be embarrassed. I hope umpire scorecards adds like a a challenge element to their card to see how many got overturned and and that sort of thing. But that’s going to be very interesting um in this one. So, uh bad news all around though for Gustavo Campo. He got hurt in right field trying to jump and catch a Maxy home run. Hurt his ankle. And just imagine, I’m going to do it on the video side. Just imagine trying to touch the top of your hand to the back of your wrist. That’s what happened to Gustavo Campo with his foot. So, just uh not a great image. Not good. Um Matthew Lugo gets the call up for the replacement, Kairen Paris. Maybe somebody like that coming up. You know, Lugo’s been good in TripleA recently, so you never I think I think it’ll be Paris because I think they’re probably going to prioritize defense and they probably want Lugo to continue to have regular at bats until the end of the year. So, I think it’ll be Paris. We’ll see. We haven’t had at at the time of this recording haven’t heard yet. John, that does keep uh that does keep Paris in center field so that Joeell can stay in right field. Yeah. So, I think they’re going to move some pieces around. Plus, they’re going to have Teodosio and those guys moving in and out and they’re not going to play every day and I think they want they want Lugo to play every day. Last takeaway, Johnny. Halos had to use Kenley last night because they gave up four runs in the top of the eighth. It forced the Angels to bring him in. He came in with 20 consecutive appearances of not allowing a run. Longest streak in the majors, 10th longest in Angels history. And it was no problem last night. Two strikeouts, fly out, 21 straight appearances. Gets the save against his former team. And the Angels 4-0 against the Dodgers this year. So that’s small victories, right? small victories for us because we don’t have anything big major to celebrate this season. It’s frustrating that it came down to a save situation because I understand why they brought Shawn Anderson in just to just eat the innings, bro. Like it’s one it like get three outs, right? And he gives up the solo home run to Otani. Fine. Right. And and then he gives up that three-run home run to Muny with with two outs. And so you have to go to, you know, your better pitchers in the bullpen like Brogden got the last out. Kenley comes in, closes the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing Kennley on the mound, but frustrating that that’s what ended up happening because you feel like 7 nothing, you give up four runs. That was the worst case scenario, right? And and that’s exactly what happened. You’d think, you know, if Anderson gives up that solo home run to Otani and then it’s over, fine, right? It’s that’s that’s why he’s up. But it’s frustrating that it came down to a safe. I just want to read this real fast. Mike show Otani hits 100th career home run at Angel Stadium and ties Kyle Schwarber for the National League of 42 home runs as the Dodgers fall to the Angels 74. Well, looks like the tungsten Armo Doyle is on the other foot once again. And thanks for making Lockdown Angels your first listen of the day. Coming up, Doriano got that dog in him as we like to say. We’ll explain what we mean and we’ll talk about that coming right up. Everydayers, you business owners, you need a reliable business line to make sure you don’t miss any customers. And that’s why you need Open Phone. They’re the number one business phone system that helps you streamline and scale customer communication all from an app on your phone or your computer. 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So whether you’re calling out the MVP, a longot division winner, or ready to crown the Super Bowl champion in week one before it even gets started, this is your moment. So, if you can see into the future and you have some bold takes and some bold claims, this is the day for you. August 26th, visit the FanDuel app today. Start planning your future bets now because the futures day is one day and one day only. How about Harbaugh in the house last night? That was a lot of fun to see. Who’s got it better than us? Nobody. FanDuel, play your game. This is the Lockdown on Podcast Network where it’s your team every day and you’re listening and watching Locked on Angels. Thanks for making us your first listen of the day. Barry Enright reached out to Pedro Martinez and he wanted Pedro to talk with Soraniano about the mental side of pitching. I think that’s a perfect guy to reach out to. I’ve heard of Pedro. Prime Pedro is probably one of the best, if not the best pitchers of all time, man. That guy from like 98 99 was so freaking good. Angels asked Pedro if he would help get the best out of Jose Soraniano. Barry said he talked to Pedro and asked him to teach him how to have a bit more of a a bulldog in him. Soraniano first talked to Martinez a few weeks ago and then after talking with him, he had a three start stretch with an RA of 225. So it looked like it worked and then he had really bad outing against Tampa Bay the other night and that game was not good. Seven runs, seven hits and it was in the fourth inning. John, that fourth inning is not good for Sorano. So Enright said that the Bulldog mentality is to fill up the strike zone but not throw everything incredibly hard. And that’s what Soraniano did in that fourth inning against Tampa. He relied on a 98 mph sinkle sinker instead of using his other pitches. And Enright said he went hard. He went hard. He went hard. Nothing was soft. Nothing was off speed. And the next phase for Sorano is understanding in those moments that the hitters he’s facing, they don’t want to face his offspe pitches. And we saw that last night, John, in a knuckle curve. Five of the six strikeouts came on that pitch. And he said, “What happens often is Soraniano is going to try to get them early with the hard stuff and then he follows up with the offspe stuff, keeps them off balance. When he gets into trouble though, he just throws everything really hard. He throws his sinker really hard, really fast, and he throws his fast ball really hard, really fast. And Barry wanted Pedro to walk him through how he can change his approach in those situations. Yeah, this is why he wanted him to connect with Pedro Martinez. He said he was one of the underrated aspects of Pedro’s career was that he had a lot of power, but he also had precision and could pitch too, maybe better than anybody ever. He said Montgomery said, “Uh, I think Sor has that capability. He just has to be able to harness it in the moment, be able to step off the gas as much as he wants to step on it.” Mike, did we see Bulldog Soraniano in last night’s game? What do you say? Yeah, man. I mean, that guy pitched a heck of a game last night and he was smart. And here’s here’s this is hard for me to say, but was the difference last night, John? Travis Darno as catcher and not Logan Hoppy. What do you think? Well, I mean, if the mentality is don’t rely on your hard stuff to just get you out of a of a bad moment, because look, if everything’s coming in fast, the timing is going to be the same between the sinker and the four seam fast. I know he ramped it up to 100 last night, but you can sit on that and and wait for that, you know, really fast pitch to come into the zone. And if Sorano makes a mistake, which he can do, right? uh get a flat sinker in there that stays at the top of the zone they can do some damage on. You’re just not messing with the hitter’s timing at all. But all of this conversation, Mike, tells me that Soraniano is learning how to be a pitcher and not a thrower. How many times have we seen throwers, especially in the Angels, especially in the bullpen during the uh Billy Eper years, saw a lot of throwers, guys that could hit a hundred. Justin Anderson is somebody that comes to mind. I know he’s still in the league, but the fact is you saw a lot of guys just go up there and throw. And you know, it’s not a coincidence that when we talk about guys who know how to pitch, we talk about show Otani and what he used to do on the Angels where he’d hold back that 102 mph fast until he needed it. And we saw a glimpse of that with Jos Soraniano ramping up a four seam fast ball to Freddy Freeman at 100 miles an hour to get him to swing right through it. He wasn’t ready for it. It wasn’t expected. It wasn’t something that Freddy could catch up to because he wasn’t sitting on it. And a lot of the times if you’re just going fast, fast, fast. These guys, they’re professional hitters and despite how fast you can throw, they’re going to be able to hit it. Look at Mason Miller, right? Mason Miller, who’s now with the Padres’s, was the A’s closer. You know, uh, Lordis Guriel Jr. took a 104 mph fast for a ride and hit it out for a home run, and it was the the fastest fast ball that’s ever been hit for a home run in the pitch tracking era since 2008. Mike, that’s cuz if you’re not messing with the hitter’s timing up there, then you can sit on a fast ball. Even if it is 104 miles an hour, you know it’s coming in fast. So, you better start that swing early. But if you’re going to throw me 85 knuckle curve and I start my swing early, I’m going to be swinging out in front of that thing before it even hits the dirt, before it even hits the glove. Right. And so, I think that’s what’s been missing from José Sorano. He’s learning how to pitch. He’s learning how to pitch smart. I think that we are finally moving past an era of pitchers who just throw, right? Because you have to be creative as a starting pitcher. Look at Jared Weaver. Didn’t have the highest VO and year after year that VO ticked down, tick down, ticked down. But he was creative. He was smart. He hid the ball as long as he could because he’s a tall, lanky dude. And he pitched smart. He never pitched to just throw the ball at the strike zone. And I think that’s where Soraniano is going right now. I think he’s learning how to pitch, Mike. Yeah. And you saw it last night with how he mixed up a lot of his pitches. He did throw 54% of his pitches. Was it was that sinker, but he added in a lot of other pitches to help slow things down to change the eye level. And a part of that might be Darno behind the plate walking him through some of those things. The problem is with the Angels sometimes is that they don’t have consistency. We talked about Jackanowitz and doing really well with Logan Oppo behind the plate. Then they sh they they they shifted and brought in Darno. Now I I don’t know if they should shift and bring in Ohapy and mess this up. I’d rather see Hoppy because I’m a fan, right? But uh I think Darno has really helped at least last night Sorano walk through the mentality that they want him to hang on to and how he should approach hitters, especially with a really tough lineup like the Dodgers. And he had him really off balance. They could not do much against him at all. Just two hits. He allowed two free passes, struck out six. He really was bulldoglike last night. And you can tell that he knew what he wanted to do before he got back on the mound. And then, of course, the king of the double play. He got out of some big situations because they turned the double play behind him. So, what we saw last night was Pedro Martinezesque, right? Like he was really smart in how he pitched against the Dodgers. And I was really impressed with that performance. Yeah. And you go back to um you go back to facing this lineup. Nobody got to scoring position against Sorano, right? And that’s that’s huge as well. Despite the two walks and despite the two hits, he’s able to keep them off second base. And you know, this goes back to what we talked about yesterday with the hoham culture of the Angels, the ca casual culture. Yeah. Of the Angels. This is how you beat that, isn’t it? Like, this is how you break through that. You reach out to Pedro Martinez. You connect him with a guy who, you know, could certainly look up to Pedro as he’s growing up and learning how to pitch, right? And so, I think that this is a step in the right direction. More of this, please. So, credit to Barry Enright for making this happen. I also, they also said Dantrell Willis helped make this connection happen, too. So glad to see that there was results and glad to see that Soraniano really took what Pedro had to teach him to heart in last night’s game. Our everydayers at Game Day Hugh make clean no logo gear with team inspired colorways for every pro and college fan base. And they’re inviting you to wear that gear and rock that gear. It’s about letting your colors speak for themselves. No giant logos, just smart, versatile style that works on game day or maybe on the golf course or anywhere in between. And the hat that John has, it’s beauty. It’s white with the red stripes and it pairs perfectly with what he normally wears. It doesn’t stand out. It’s not weird. It’s not awkward. He can wear it maybe out having a good time or even out on a on a date with his wife. And they need that cuz they have a young child and you never get a break when you have a young child. So, it looks good. It’s subtle. Best of all, it fits our heads. That’s what I loved about the about the hats. And game day also makes these split shade gloves. John’s showing that on the video side. May for the golf course or it’s a perfect gift for the fan who has everything. And right now get 15% off with the code MLB15 at gamedayhw.com. That’s gamedayh.com. 15% off when you use the promo code MLB15. One more time. Gamedayhw.com. Yeah. The other day, the media asked Dave Roberts, the manager for the Dodgers, if uh Otani returning to play and pitch in Anaheim would be emotional for him. Dave Roberts said, “Not really.” And so, the question we have as we uh talk this through is, is this emotional for the fans? Is it emotional for Otani? Are fans angry with him? Do they miss him? Is there regret because they didn’t win with Otani? Where are we at a year and a half after he’s left the team, a year and a half after he didn’t return to the Angels, and a half a year, well, almost a full year now, where he won a World Series with the team that he went to after the Angels. won it all and he had an MVP season despite just dhing, despite just hitting because he was that good at the plate and on the bases, Mike. So, where do we stand? I want to hear from our everydayers, of course. So, whether you’re watching or listening, come on over to YouTube, get in the comments section for today’s show because that’s the best place to get in touch with us. Michael, are you emotional? Is that a tear that I see on there? John, I’m Switzerland, man. I’m neutral. I I I really I really was thankful that we had him on our team. Uh I was thankful to watch him over the years. I was thankful that he is a guy who can pitch a double header, pitch in the first and then hit two home runs in the bottom, right? Like he’s fantastic. Did that with us his last season. John, I’m just I’m kind of neutral and I’m glad they gave him a nice rousing celebration last night. Mostly Dodger fans were doing that, right? World Series walk-off home run, my friend. where they kind of took over, you know, the stadium, which normally happens. But I I’m I’m really neutral. I I really what I want, John, is I want a team that wins. And so if it means that we don’t have the Michael Jordan of this era for baseball, if it means that we don’t have the amazing GOAT of all time on our team, but we’re winning, I’m going to take that. And I like the makeup of our team right now. I like some of the guys more than I like the other guys. I like the non-casual guys. I like the ones that have grit and going to run through a wall and that’s what I want. And so when it comes to a player like this, it was great to have him on our team. I’m just sick and tired of MVPs and great players and we do nothing. I’m sick and tired of that. That’s not to put the blame on on Otani. I get the narrative behind it. I’m just sick and tired of having fantastic players and we end up not even getting anywhere near the playoffs. So that’s how I feel about this situation. Not really emotional, very neutral. What about you? Yeah, it it reminds me of, you know, Pool Hulse hits home run number 500 with the Angels. We have the countdown board in, you know, right field and it’s like, yeah, but we’re not winning. We’re not going to the playoffs, right? Mike Trout on the way to 400. Yeah, but we’re not winning. And so, you know, they’re trying to win. They’re they’re competitive, Mike. They’re obviously competitive. Um, and they’re trying to make these games meaningful. They’re trying to force a square peg in a round hole, right? And so, uh, that’s that’s the kind of stuff that you talk about when you talk about I’m I’m sick of MVPs doing great things, but the team isn’t winning. Imagine if you will for one second, imagine if, and this is going to be I’m going to stand up for GMP. I’m going to stand up for Perry Manasian here. Imagine if you will, had Billy Eper and Arty Marino not deinvested in scouting and international free agency and player development. And Billy Eper actually had some good drafts in the way that Perry Manosian has where we get the likes of Christian Moore and Zach Neto and he makes trades to acquire guys like Logan O’Hers on this team that you go, “Yeah, like Neto, right? That’s a dog. That’s a guy I want on my team, you know, seven seven days a week. And the thing is, imagine if Billy Eper had got this process started in 2018 when they brought Otani over. Imagine if they had gotten this process started when Mike Trout signed his extension. you would have had some great years there where you have young players coming up to support Mike Trout and support show Otani. The problem with this team over the tenure was that Trout was always hurt, Randon was always hurt, Otani didn’t get to pitch in half of 2018 and 2019 and 2020 he was a non-factor. But the years that he emerged as who he is now, 21, 22, and 23, and what was around them, nothing. Yeah. You know, the first season of Logan O’Happy cut short because of a shoulder injury. The first season of Zach Neto, where he’s still trying to figure things out at the plate. Imagine if this whole process had begun four, three, four years earlier. Then you would have your Netos and your Shauno’s and your Oh doing the and your Soranos, right? Doing the things that they’re doing now. But that that engine would have started three years before. Yeah. So, by the time Otani is doing Otani things in 21 and 22 and 23, you have a supporting cast. Even with Mike Trout and uh Anthony Rendone being out, you still have a supporting cast around them to do the things that they need to do. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is imagine if Otani were still under contract with the Angels, but he’s on this version of the team. This is a very, very different version of the team. They’re probably above 500, Mike. No, no doubt in my mind that they are. Even Even with his injury and how he’s ramping up starting on the mound again, which again, we’ll see him later this week. To me, the version that of this team that we have right now should have been the version of the team the Angels had when Otani was on it. And that speaks to a failure on ownership. It speaks to a failure on Billy Eper’s drafting and development, not getting the guys that they needed, not trading for the guys that they needed to have a supporting cast, and worst of all, closing up the pocketbook and not putting valuable players around Mike Trout and Show Otani. And I know there will be people who say, well, he paid Renone, right? But you could you didn’t have to stop there. You didn’t have to stop at Anthony Rendone. And the fact is, you should have been the one who got Garrick Cole to be an ace in this staff, right? And and do what he’s done for the Yankees over the years. It should have been you, Angels. Don’t tell me he wanted to be a Yankee fan his whole life. It was about the money. It’s always about the money. And at the end of the day, Arty should have ponyied up the money. Whether it was Garrick Cole, whether it was Renone, whether it was building out a good team around Shi and Mike Trout, they didn’t do it. And so I think it’s a a missed opportunity to not have this version of the team right now three years ago when we had the best of show Otani. Thanks for making Locked on Angels your first listen of the day. Make sure you’re subscribed to Locked on Angels on YouTube so you don’t miss all of this great Halo content including our postcast with Gavin Carlson. He’s live after every game right here on the Locked On Podcast Network where it’s your team every day. Hey, be sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Lockdown Angels. Connect with Mike and I on Twitter and Instagram, Super Halo Bros. Again, whether you’re watching or listening, come on over to today’s show. On YouTube, get in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you. Uh Mike, what do we have on deck for Wednesday’s show? Uh there’s a player that you haven’t heard of in a long time, Chase Silth. He’s still around, right? They changed his role and I think I like it. And we’re going to talk about why I like it and I would love to know your thoughts and our everyday thoughts tomorrow on Locked on Angels. If you like it, I don’t like it. That’s what that’s my take. No, I’m just All right, friends. We hope you we hope you’ll come back and join us for that one. Until then, my name is John and that’s my brother Mike. And my name is Mike and that’s my brother John. Thanks for being here with us and we’ll see you back here on Wednesday. You always have to dislike everything I like. I don’t understand it. I’m telling Mom. Mom.

How did the Los Angeles Angels take the season series over the Dodgers on Monday night? On Today’s Locked On Angels, the Super Halo Bros. give you the takeaways from the 7-4 win thanks in part to a BIG night from Zach Neto and Jose Soriano! Soriano took the advice he received from Pedro Martinez to heart, as he overcame the 4th inning struggles he’s had all year to deliver one of his best performances, while the Halos handed Yoshinobu Yamamoto his worst loss of the year. Plus, are fans still sad over Shohei Ohtani? Mike and Jon share their thoughts and what could’ve been in segment 3!

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