Los Angeles Angels Owner Arte Moreno’s Pending Offseason Drama, Astros Takeaways, Helping Mike Trout

Los Angeles Angels Owner Arte Moreno’s Pending Offseason Drama, Astros Takeaways, Helping Mike Trout

A miscommunication in the eighth inning cost the Halos three runs and the ball game. [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. Hey, the Halos end up splitting the series with the Astros and we’ve got four takeaways from yesterday’s game. How are the Halos trying to get Mike Trout to be Mike Trout again? We’re going to talk about that and already in the front office are headed into a very interesting off season. We’re going to explain what that means and how it has nothing to do with the team on the field. Before we talk about the Angels, let’s talk about our sponsor, FanDuel. Football season is here. Visit the FanDuel app right now and start planning your futures bets today. Thanks for being here for this episode of Locked on 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. Hey, we’ve been fans of this team our whole lives, and it’s a pleasure and a privilege to talk Angels baseball with you Monday through Friday, every single weekday. You can check us out wherever you listen to podcasts. If you’re watching or listening, you can find us on YouTube and get in the comments section by searching Locked on Angels and finding today’s show. We’d love to hear from you there. Hit that like and subscribe button while you’re there. and hit us up on social media. Lockdown angels at Super Halo Bros. You can find us there and get in on today’s discussion. Come bowling with us this Sunday at the second annual Logan Hoppy All-Star Bowl, Sunday, September 7th, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. in Fountain Valley. We’re helping raise support for the YMCA of Orange County. You can get your ticket by clicking the link in the episode description. Make sure you use the promo code Halo Bros and you’ll get yourself a nice discount and you’ll see me and Mike there and we’ll bowl together and uh you can laugh at the way I bowl or you can be impressed with the way I bowl. I don’t know how I’m going to bowl on Sunday. It just it it’s always a 50/50 shot like this team. Right. Right. The best thing is that we get to hang out with our everydayer. So looking forward to that. Plus Logan Hoppy will be there. And speaking of this team, John, they lost yesterday 8 to3. Got four takeaways from that game. The first one is you say Kikuchi wasn’t sharp in his start. He was not that great in this game. He went five and two/3s innings, gave up eight hits and five runs. He walked two and struck out six. Feels kind of like a typical Usay Kikuchi start, which is kind of this starting rotation. There’s the typical Kyle Hendrick start and the typical Tyler Anderson start, right? And this is a typical Kikuchi start. He gave up a run in the second and third inning. The Halos did give him the lead in the fourth inning, but he gave it right back and he allowed a run in the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth inning. And remember, in his last start after that start, it was it was terrible. He said that he changed his grip on his pitches and he said that that was a dumb decision and so he wanted to adjust back to that in this start. Now, this wasn’t a great start. I don’t know how his grip in impacted what he did yesterday, John, but it just felt like a lot of his pitches were flat and he left a lot of pitches in the heart of the zone and the Astros just didn’t miss. Yeah, it wasn’t quite as bad as the previous start, but it wasn’t as great as two starts ago. And so, it’s somewhere in the middle. And you’re right, it comes back to being a a a typical Kikuchi start. not his greatest, not his worst, but changing changing grips and working on things. I don’t know. I guess is this the time of year to do it? I I guess so. But it’s just like, hey, why don’t you do what you did two starts ago? Cuz that was working really, really well for you. But once again, Mike, the Angels get a lead for a starting pitcher and the starting pitcher gives it right back. Yeah. Just how many times have we said that over if this was a drinking game? Uh I know you don’t drink, but we’d we’d both be drunk, right? black blacked out drunk, right? Yeah, exactly. Uh, second takeaway, the Halo’s hitters had a good fourth inning. The Angels went nine up and nine down through the first three innings against Luis Garcia. By the way, I’m so glad his rockabye baby uh wind up is gone. We don’t sit sitting. This game was not that long because he didn’t have to wait for Luis Garcia to do that. Yeah, this time u but the Angels finally got it going in the fourth inning. first hit and first base runner for the Angels came when Zach Neto hit his 25th home run of the season. Of course, it was over the the Crawford boxes, their version of the Yankees short porch and in right and left field, I should say. He’s five homers away from 30 home runs and six stolen bases away from 30 stolen bases. So, a possible 3030 year for Zach Neto is something that we’ll need to keep an eye on. But two batters later after Trout’s single, Joe Adell hit a two-run homer and man, he crushed that one to left field. His 31st of the season. He now leads the team on home runs and he’s fifth in the AL for all home runs right now. Just just crazy what Joadell has been able to do in this season where he’s finally turned it on uh and and starting to live up to all the hype he had as a top prospect long long ago. Yeah. And Taylor Ward being out, we’ll talk about him in a minute, but him being out kind of puts the kaibos on him maybe getting to 40 home runs, but Joe Adell, he’s had some big months, right? And so maybe perhaps he can hit nine more this month. I know that that’s a a tall order, but Joe Adell has done that already. So we’ll see what he can do in the month of September. Third takeaway, John. Astros scored in every inning, but the first and the seventh inning. They got three big runs in the eighth inning off of Brock Burke. And here’s the thing, Burke would have been out of the inning if the Halos could just, you know, communicate, right? Talk, right? Burke had the runner picked off at first base. PZA, who’s playing first, throws the ball down to second base to tag the runner, but Chris Taylor and Zack Neto collapse on the base. Both of them go for the ball and the ball gets dropped and the runner is safe. That would have been the first out of the inning and Burke got next two hitters. So, he would have been out of the inning. It would have been five to three entering the ninth inning. But that error changed everything and the Astros took advantage. They ended up scoring three in that inning. And here’s what’s really frustrating is in the top of the ninth, the Angels got two runners on and so they would have had the go-ahead runner at the plate. Now, I know they didn’t score, but that intensity and that moment would have been very different. It wouldn’t even have been uh who they had on the mound at the time. It would have been uh a Breu that would have come in and and able to shut it down possibly, although he struggled in the game before. So just one play, it changed the course of the the the next two innings. And little things like that are are why the Angels just keep shooting themselves in the foot. John, it’s what keeps them from being a team that maybe perhaps could come back in that ninth inning. Down two runs rather than five runs. And you have two runners on. Man, you have the momentum on your side, but because of the air, they didn’t have the momentum on their side and they really weren’t even a threat in that ninth inning. Yeah. And then uh of course was was it Altuve hits the the big bomb that you know puts them way puts it way out of reach at that point and that comes after the air and the two outs that followed that. So just frustrating. Mike, speaking of frustrating, Christian Moore was sent down and Taylor Ward is doing better. The frustrating part of course is Christian Moore being sent down. Now before I get to that, uh he he was hitting 195. He had a 623 OPS. had two defensive mistakes in the loss on Friday that cost the Halos. Now Ray Montgomery said the Angels wanted more to play every day and they also wanted to get more of a look at Oswell Pza who’s been at the majors of course for a longer stretch in his career. He also added that more was not the same after he suffered that sprained thumb in early July in Atlanta. He said it’s probably going to affect his swing a little bit. The swing has a little bit more length here lately, which could be a combination of not playing every day as well as just pressing a bit. We’ll probably see Christian Moore later this month. Frustrating thing is uh his rookie status has exceeded. Yeah. Four days ago. Yeah. Four days ago it was exceeded. And so you just sent him down now. You didn’t send him down four days ago to work on things. Like this is this is again is what we talk about when the Angels have a mess out there and like a mess on the field. It’s just like what are you doing guys? didn’t think that far ahead, right? That’s the phrase. That’s going to be the summary of the season when we talk about this season and it’s going to be the well, we really didn’t think that far ahead because that’s been their that’s been their mo for even when Ron Washington was managing this team. We really didn’t think that far ahead. I mean, even when it comes to like who’s pitching today, right, as of this recording, they haven’t announced that. We know Mitch Ferrris is here and we know that they’ve got Arena that’s that’s available as well, but they’re still kind of up in the air about that stuff. And it’s like you guys remember you have a game tomorrow. You know, you have a game the next day, but that’s just part of this whole process for the Angels. They just don’t think that far ahead. And and so it look it’s it’s neither here nor there in the sense that Christian Moore losing his rookie status affects anything this year, but next year he could have come in as a rookie and competed for rookie of the year. And the reason why that’s important is because there’s incentives now for your players earning those achievements of rookie of the year and this and that. Now look, it would have been a difficult year for him to earn it had he come up and and had a good season this year anyway, right? And and so you think about somebody like gosh Nick Curts for the A’s, right? He’s probably a shoe in for something like that. But next year you you at least give them a chance to compete for that. And the incentives that come along with that are like draft pick compensation and all this kind of stuff that you really could benefit from. So it’s just again it’s just like uh an oversight um from this front office. It’s it’s how do you miss that? I don’t quite understand. So the to cover that up they said well we we’ll probably see Christian Moore back up later this month but like give me a break guys. Give me a break. Now, Taylor Ward didn’t play in this game for obvious reasons. Ran into the scoreboard in the previous game. He did say that he felt way better. And he said he could have played the ball better to avoid the injury. I love his his attitude about this. He said, “Uh, it I was pretty far in the gap and I thought I had a little bit more room in the corner than I did. Obviously, I didn’t. And that that ball was hit pretty hard and I hit the wall pretty hard.” He said I definitely should have peaked. Obviously, it’s another learning situation out there. tried to go for the ball and the wall was right there. Ward said, “I just need a couple of days and I’ll be back to playing soon.” He got 20 stitches just above his eye and said that he’s feeling great. He slept great the night before. Didn’t have migraines or headaches. So, all of that is really good signs of maybe perhaps no concussion or anything along those lines. You know, you know Twitter is a cesspool when the responses you get to your displeasure with what happened to Taylor Ward and how much I hate that stadium are just some of the most god- aful things a human being has ever said. And so I want to give a shout out to Eric and Brett over at Locked on Astros because they discussed it and they had a reasonable responsible take like yeah they need to do something about that. They got to put an LED board out there. You know, Craig Bio ran his hand through one of those numbers at one point and thought his hand was going to come out all cut up. He was worried about Altuve playing left field because of how dangerous it. So, it’s not unprecedented that this corner is dangerous just because it’s an angel who ran into it. Even Brett and Eric over at Locked on Stros were like, “Yeah, they got to do something about that.” So, it’s Thank you to those two for having a a reasonable adult response to that whole situation cuz some of the social media stuff, man, I was just like, “How do you do good? How do you exist? How do you how do you go daytoday in your life like operating when you have like the slightest inconvenience? How do like do you say this stuff to your mom? Like, good grief, man. It’s just a baseball game, right? It’s just a baseball stadium and it was frustrating to see a guy get hurt and we don’t want to see anybody get hurt and suddenly the world’s falling apart because somebody commented about their favorite team’s ballpark. Right. Yeah. About the building that they play in, right? Yeah. Exactly. Thanks for making Lockdown Angels your first listen of the day. Coming up later on, uh it’s a very interesting off season for the Angels and not about the stuff on the field, but more how are Ry Marino in the front office going to handle two very important events? We’re going to get into that conversation coming right up. Locked on Angels is brought to you by Prize Picks. It’s the daily fantasy app where making the right call can actually pay off for you and for all of those around you. You and I make decisions every single day. But on Prize Pick, being right means you can cash in. And with football being back, it’s coming this weekend. That’s exciting. 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This is your chance to tell us what you like, what you don’t, and answer questions about our advertising. Go to lockdonpodcast.com/servey to get started. Everyone who completes the survey will be entered to win a chance to win one of 10 $100 Amazon gift cards. Again, lockdownpodcast.com/servey. You can also find the link in the show notes. And thanks for helping us out. Hey, so even though Trout had two doubles on Sunday, it was a great sign, right? And it was certainly part of what helped the Angels win that game. The Angels are still trying to find a way to get him out of his slump. Now, hitting coach Johnny Washington said he’s optimistic they will soon find something that clicks for Trout. He said, “We’ve been in the video room watching, doing a bunch of comparisons, things like that, but honestly, we just haven’t found the same success we’re looking for in the game and it’s really frustrating.” At the same time, he’s going to keep coming in and we’re going to keep going to work until we find it. Now, he did go one for four with two strikeouts in yesterday’s game. And he’s really struggled at the plate all the month of August. He bat 203 and he had just one home run in 79 at bats. He struck out 38 times last month, which is more than twice as many times as he has gotten a hit. Trout has no home runs and a 539 OPS in his last 18 games. It’s the fourth longest stretch of his career without a home run and the longest since 2015. He’s been stuck at number 399 in terms of home runs. That’s the next one he’s trying to get uh during this slump. So, he’s been sitting at 398 career home runs. Uh just needs two more. And time time’s a ticking. Time’s a wasting and and you kind of wonder if that’s part of the issue, right, Mike? Yeah, he’s this is an incredible stat. He’s gotten into two strike counts. 74% of his plate appearances in August. 74% of his plate appearances. He’s had two strikes on him. Highest percentage in any month of his career. His overall percentage is 56%. So, he’s in two strike counts, John, more than half of the time. In fact, Johnny Washington said he’s been in a ton of two strike counts, and there’s been some pitches that he’s taken in the past that he probably would have swung at. We’ve identified some of that. Some of it’s just ending the at bat when the at bat needs to be ended. I I knew you were going to roll your eyes on that one. And at times he’s fouled that pitch off or he’s swung and missed. And so Trout said he’s frustrated to say the least. He’s working through it. Johnny Washington believes that they’re going to find a way through it. John, here’s here’s my question to you and I would love your thoughts in between my question as well. Trout always struck out a lot, right? And we’ve seen the high fast ball get him, but now it seems like everything is kind of getting him. So, do you think that this is a part of the Johnny Washington approach because everybody’s striking out or do you think it’s more this is some trout regression that perhaps is who he is? Because the question really we really have is are we ever going to see Trout be troutesque or troutike ever again? Yeah, I think that it’s uh there it’s it’s nuanced, right? It’s never just one thing. Um, but when you look at what Johnny Washington said about Trout taking pitches that he probably should be swinging at and ending the at bat when he’s supposed to end the at bat, like I hate that nonsense, but in this case kind of actually makes sense, right? How many pitches have we seen Trout take that are just like, oh, dude, swing at that one, right? Like, what are you waiting for? And and I think another issue with it, Mike, is I know he’s been batting out of uh the two-hole. Yesterday he was at number three again because they put PZA between Neto and Trout, which come on guys, I understand you want to give that guy a long look, but really like, you know, there was a moment where Trout could have come up and and it was PZA with runners on base instead of Trout. It was like, good grief. So yeah, all that to say, you know, I’ I’ve argued that Trout needs to be out of the three spot for a very long time. Well, then lately he had been in the two spot, but to be honest with you, like if if he’s struggling at the plate, I I really just hate this idea of like, you know, we just got to find a way to get through it. We got to work through it. We got to grind. We got to do this. We got to do that. And it’s like, okay, but in the meantime, put him at five. Yeah. Put him at six. put him at one because he apparently loves to walk and he’s still getting on base. Now I know the OPS hasn’t been great over the last 18 games, but the truth is before that the taking the walks was the best thing that he could possibly do because even when he was swinging the bat, he was swinging and missing. And you’re right, it’s not just that up and in fast ball anymore. It’s stuff like right down the middle. And so I I get what they’re trying to do, but at the same time, I if if I were in charge, and that’s a silly way to approach this conversation, but I wouldn’t you want to put guys in the best positions to succeed, right? And especially if a guy is slumping, wouldn’t it make more sense to put him in a position where he’s going to succeed maybe just a little bit better? Because, you know, success breeds more success, right, Mike? And and so for him to have success in one area and maybe that’s getting on base in front of of Neto and Shaunell, you know, when Shawn before he was hurt, like getting on base in front of them and then getting driven in and helping the team score runs and and all that stuff. Like right now he’s just not doing anything great and and so it’s like then help him find what he can do to help out this team. But they’ve they’ve just refused uh to move on from him in the three and the two spot right now. Well, if you can move PZA around, why can’t you move Mike Trout around, right? Like that’s that’s what’s so silly about this situation is Oswald PZA is not a great hitter. At least he hasn’t performed very much in his career. So why why are you moving him around? You’re trying to figure that out. Why not do that with your Hall of Famer, right? Like why not try to figure that out with Trout? Now, I know that if we move to one, people ask what happens to Neto, like where does he go? Does that change his approach at the plate? I don’t necessarily think so because Neto his approach at the plate at one I think could be the same approach that he has at three or at two depending on where they put him because Neto’s swinging away. He’s swinging at that first pitch and he’s not drawing a lot of walks. And so I would rather have more of a contact guy in those situations. More of a guy who can hit a bomb than than a guy who’s swinging and missing a lot. And I know Neto has a strikeout in his game, but Mike Trout, let’s figure out what we can do with this guy and and why not put him at at leadoff. It’s not like you’re going to have somebody on base that is going to steal because I know Neto has got some wheels, but he’s not necessarily stealing like at at a at a blind Ellie dea Cruz kind of kind of rate, right? And so I think putting Trout there at the end of this year is the smartest move. But then also at the beginning of next year, I think that you you should have Mike Trout lead off because he’s going to draw walks. He’s going to get on base. He’s going to take pitch number one. And maybe perhaps he doesn’t take pitch number one and can kind of jump the count and hit a home run. Overall though, he’s a smart base runner. So when he gets on base, he’s going to go first to third. He’s going to be somebody that can score a run on a on a sacrifice fly. He’s he’s that type of player. So, if you’re going to move PZO around, I think you got to move Mike Trout around. And when they brought him back, he was hitting fifth and he was doing really well. So, why not just drop him a little bit? I don’t know, maybe there’s behind the scenes conversations about respect and disrespect and they don’t want to do that. This is one of those situations where I would guess, John, is that they don’t want to drop him because they feel like it’s disrespectful, but they haven’t talked to him. I guarantee you they haven’t talked to him. They just far ahead. They they’ve just answered the question without answering the question. And I think that that’s been the biggest situation with Mike Trout in this lineup right now. Yeah. Okay. So, I’m looking at the bat speed from this year. 73.9 miles hour. Now, remember last year was when they first started tracking bat speed and there wasn’t a lot of trout to go around last year, right? And so, in uh last year’s small sample size, 75.7 miles hour. So, uh, the bat speed has decreased over a longer period of time. Um, not I would say by a mile and a half, but also it’s hard to ah it’s hard to say like, oh, there it is. He’s swinging the bat slower because last year was such a small sample size that this year, you know, maybe 74 miles an hour is about where he sits normally in his career. But I’m just I’m looking at the metrics that show like the the obvious signs of aggression, right? Like his his his strength is going down, his bat speed is going down. And it’s it’s hard to say, Mike. There’s not really any huge red flags other than like the kind of contact he’s putting on the ball um has not been fantastic. The the biggest thing that stands out to me is how much he’s swinging and missing. Now, he’s not chasing at a terrible clip. 20.6% is good for the 91st percentile in the league. But he’s swinging and missing, whiffing on pitches. 28.7% that’s the 22nd percentile in the league. That’s a a big blue bar right there. And that feels like mechanics rather than regression. I mean, if you look at those numbers, and we haven’t dived in deep on those things, but that feels more like mechanics. And he’s even talked about, you talked about that on yesterday’s show, turning in, not being able to see the ball, where’s his where his swing is at, longer swings, those types of things, which are all easily adjustable and all things that they can work on, which is a good sign that maybe perhaps he’s not regressing regressing at a really, you know, incredible rate. He’s obviously getting older, but those are things that he can adjust and those are things he can work on. So, when Johnny says they’re in the video room looking at that stuff, they need to identify that stuff and then Trout needs to make the adjustment. Yeah. Hopefully that they can find something. I mean, gosh, what did Remember we joked about like, hey, get uh get Jared Tims from Talking Halos on the coaching staff because he identified Trout’s hip opening up like a month ago and it certainly seemed like that was a big part of the conversation. 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That’s promo code season. Offers vary by user and location. Go to upside.com for terms and conditions. So, we talked about this very interesting off season that’s ahead for the Halos, but especially for Arty Marino, and it’s not anything on the field. It’s, you know, going to be the usual stuff of us saying, “Well, Art’s not going to get this top free agent, and they’re not going to do this, they’re not going to do that.” Probably have a lot of those conversations over the offseason, Mike. The two things that are off the- field issues that RD and the Angels are going to have to face this season are the Tyler Scaggs civil suit and the stadium evaluation which is coming up. Let’s start with the Tyler Skagg suit. Yeah, the wrongful death trial uh with Tyler Skagg’s family is expected to begin in less than a month. Uh that’s according to the schedule on the Orange County Superior Court judge by the Orange County Superior Court Judge. They had a hearing last Thursday. There’s been a lot of delays, John, and attorneys on both sides of the civil case have confirmed they’re prepared to move forward with the jury trial. Now, attorneys as well as the judge all agreed that they want to complete the trial by Thanksgiving. Now, Skaggs’ family has asked for $210 million. Jury selection is expected to begin August 6th, and with the trial itself, I’m sorry, October 6th, with the trial expected to last about a month. Now, remember, Skaggs passed away in 2019. He was discovered in a hotel room uh dead from a lethal combination of fentanyl and alcohol. Eric Kay, who’s a former communication staffer for the Angels, was convicted in federal court in 2022 for providing Skaggs with drugs, sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. This guy, by the way, was in the Angels organization for about 20 years, Eric Kay. Now, in the civil suit, Skaggs’ family is arguing that the Angels knew uh or should have known about this. and attorneys for the Angels are saying no, they there was an agreement between Kay and and and Scaggs in which uh Kay would obtain street drugs and then Scaggs would pay for that. And so that’s that’s been the biggest argument. Attorneys for the Scaggs family, which includes his widow Carly and his mom Debbie and his father Daryl, they have asked the uh previously have said that the Angels are trying to kind of run the clock out on this civil trial. But now both sides are a bit more civil. It sounds like they’ve got everything ready to go and this trial is going to begin at least the the clock says October 6. So, we’re going to be paying attention to that. Yeah. The reason why it’s been delayed so many times is that they’ve tried to push it off to the off season, but there there is a uh statute of limitations, so to speak, and they kind of were trying to run out the clock, Mike, so that they they could get this trial uh at least from the angel side, try to get this trial uh under the rug here. So, the second issue is the uh the viability of the Big A and not just the Big A outside, but the whole stadium. It turns 60 years old next year and uh the city of Anaheim hopes to learn how many hundreds of millions of dollars it might take to keep the stadium viable for decades to come. Now, the Angel Stadium lease extends through 2032, not going anywhere, but the city manager said that there are no talks between the city and the team about what might happen beyond then. The Anaheim city manager said, “I want to be clear that there’s no long-term discussion taking place and none imminent.” So, back in 2022, if you remember, there was a federal corruption investigation into the mayor of Anaheim, Harry Sedu. The council uh squashed a deal under the an where the Angels were going to give it to or the angels owner, Arty Marino, would have bought the stadium and the surrounding land. It was 150 million. We all went, “Huh? Really?” Yeah. And uh then build a neighborhood with parking lots, renovated the place, or even straight up replaced the stadium. Um the Angels remain a tenant of the cityowned stadium. And in 2023, the council authorized an assessment of the condition of the facility. The city manager said, “We expect a finalized assessment in mid 2026, but after the initial visual inspection, engineers are currently testing the concrete, the metal structures within the ballpark. Uh the results could inform the city about uh what needs to be done to maintain the stadium in the future as well as the team and what they need to do. Uh it could spark a debate over who’s responsible who’s responsible for this for any current upgrades that it might need. So, now that we’ve said all that, now that we’ve given you just uh, you know, two light topics, right, to end the show today, is there much drama surrounding any other team or owner in baseball? Like, is is this is does this continued mess like is is that why this team is the state is in the state that it’s in? Right. Like, good grief. Well, and I think that this is a big reflection of of Arty Rarino and and Arty has has chaotically ran this team. Now, this is a bit behind the curtain, but uh about a year, two years ago maybe, uh John and I received uh multiple emails late at night, one of many of them to my private email with my real life job from someone who was trying to defend Arty Mareno and saying, “Look at all this stuff that he’s done. Look at all these things that he has done.” And none of that I’m we’re dismissing. But here’s here’s the reality is sometimes there’s a bait and switch. Sometimes there’s a don’t watch this hand and watch this hand. And I think that that’s often what happens with RD Marino. When someone shows you who they are, you got to believe them, right? And the fact that this situation with Tyler Scaggs and Eric Kay happened under the nose and leadership of Arty Mareno. He’s got to take ownership and responsibility for that. He has to, right? And I get that there’s all sorts of stories that we could say about Eric Kay and about Tyler Skaggs and their responsibility. I I get that. I 100% get that. But this happened under his leadership and there has been no ownership. There’s been no acknowledgement. There’s been nothing. It’s been like, “No, that wasn’t us. We didn’t do anything.” Right? Like, and it this is your organization. You’re the leader of this thing. And sign the checks, bro. Right. And and and culture and attitude reflects leadership, captain. Right. Like that’s from Remember the Titans. And and and that that’s the reality of this situation is that the the terrible culture is a reflection of who’s leading this culture. And at the top is RJ Moreno. Yet baseball will not make a change. Baseball will not make an adjustment. Rob Manfrren loves his friend Arty Mareno. Yeah. Yeah. You know, uh I’ll give you a little inside baseball uh behind the scenes here, too. Um some of you guys know that, you know, when I first moved to the LA area, I was working at the Ellen Degenerous show, I was in the digital department, and I was working on the games and the apps that come out like Heads Up, right? And you know, I left before a lot of that drama unfolded in 2020. And so many people were like, “Oh, she’s an awful person. She does this. She does that.” And and so anecdotally, in my experience, not so much her as it was the culture that was built there and and the producers, right, who, you know, caused some of the issues from the top down. Um, in my experience, it wasn’t so much her as it was the people that were in charge. And look, at the end of the day though, her show ended. People don’t like her anymore. She, you know, she’s kind of outcast because of everything that happened. And and rightfully so, in the sense that it’s her name on the product, right? And and that’s kind of the same thing here with Arty Marino. It’s it’s his name on the checks. It’s his ownership. It’s his leadership. All this stuff happened while you were in charge. In the same way, all the stuff at the Ellen Show happened while she was in charge. even though she might not have known about everything going on still happened under you and they still faced the consequences of that and and so yeah it I think that you can apply that to this situation as well whether it’s the stadium whether it’s uh you know everything that happened with Tyler Skaggs and Eric Kay um all of this is happening while you’re in charge right like we we say it all the time Disney had this team and owned it and let the baseball people do baseball things right and it wasn’t always easy it wasn’t always fun. But by the time Arty Marino bought this team, there was a pretty good structure in place, Mike, with Bill Stoneman and all the, you know, the great GM that he was and the infrastructure and scouting and development. Like, it’s all it was all there handed to Arty Marino and yeah, he made some great moves. He got Vlatty Vlatty Senior, he got uh Bartolo Cologne, right? Like all that stuff. But at the end of the day, we have 20 years of history now, more than 20 years. Yep. of what happens when Arty Marino is in charge. And it’s not great. And whether it’s the stadium issue or the Scaggs issue, it’s it’s your name at on the on on the lease, buddy. It’s your name who owns the team, buddy. And it’s your name. Sign in the checks, buddy. So, you got to take some responsibility. How this plays out over the offseason. I don’t know what it’s going to do to impact ownership, even if if it will do anything. Um I I’m I am trying not to get my hopes up in any regard. Also, I’m just trying to be sensitive to the fact that this civil suit is very very personal and very very uh, you know, emotionally charged for everybody involved. So, I’m not going to sit here and go, “Man, I hope the scagg suit makes him sell the team.” Right. Like that’s you’re not going to hear that from me, right? And and I don’t think that people would hear that from you as well. Right. Right. Hey, thanks for making Locked On Angels your first listen of the day. College football fans, Locked On and Fire TV present college football kickoff. It’s your ultimate college football weekly preview. Drake Tol of Locked On Big 12 leads the conversation along alongside twotime AP coach of the year Gary Patterson and former college star Jesse Holly and the Locked On Experts, a college preview show that only Locked On can do. You can catch the show every Thursday throughout the season only on Fire TV. Hey, be sure you give us a follow on Twitter at Lockdown Angels and at Super Halo Bros on Twitter and Instagram. Whether you’re watching or listening, come be a part of the conversation on YouTube. Get in the comments section, find today’s show, and hit that like and subscribe button to really help us out. Mike, what do we have on deck for Wednesday’s show? We’re going to have our takeaways from the Kansas City Royals uh first game of the series, but we’re also going to talk about like what we’re going to try to get in the mind of Arty. Now, we don’t know what he’s thinking, so we’re going to guess. And we’re going to talk about that tomorrow on Locked on Angels. All right. Looking forward to that, and we hope you’ll come back and join us. 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 everybody. and we’ll see you back here on Wednesday. I am wearing the shirt that Debbie Hetman, Tyler’s mom, sent to us. We’re grateful for that. So, thank you. We love you.

What offseason drama is in store for Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno? On Today’s Locked On Angels, the Super Halo Bros. give you the takeaways from the series finale against the Houston Astros, discussing Yusei Kikuchi’s rough start, Zach Neto and Jo Adell’s home runs, and the Halos letting the game get away from them due to a crucial error at 2nd base. Plus, the Bros discuss the upcoming civil trial with the Angels front office and the family of Tyler Skaggs, and the stadium assessment being carried out by the City of Anaheim; what could these mean for Arte Moreno’s future with the Halos? We’ll discuss it all on today’s show!

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