STUNNER: Angels SHOCK Baseball Hiring Mike Maddux as Pitching Coach | The START of Something Good?

STUNNER: Angels SHOCK Baseball Hiring Mike Maddux as Pitching Coach | The START of Something Good?

Our Angels surprised us and they signed a top-notch pitching coach to lead the staff in 2026. 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. Mike Maddox is the new Angels pitching coach. So, what kind of impact will he have on this staff? And what does this hire say about how the off season will go for the Angels? We’re going to get into that in just a moment. But before we do, we want to thank Game Time, our sponsor of the show. Download Game Time right now. Create an account and use our promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Happy Monday to you and 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 talking Angels baseball with you here on Locked on Angels for the last four seasons. We’re entering another off season, Mike, where a lot of big moves are going to happen and whether they happen with the Angels or not is the big question and I think a lot of people are leaning not. But we were surprised by this move. Not a player move, not a free agent acquisition, not a trade, but Mike Maddox, brother of Greg Maddox, coming over from the Texas Rangers to the Angels to be the pitching coach in 2026. I got to get used to saying 2026 cuz uh I’m going to say it’s like when you write a check and you keep putting the the wrong date on there. That’s how it’s going to be. He’s going to certainly help Kurt Suzuki when he’s uh in your words managering, right, Mike? Yeah, he will. Now, we got this word on Friday, and that was exciting. We were all really shocked and surprised. The Angels are expected to formally announce the move once the entire coaching staff is put together. Maddox has been the pitching coach for four teams in Major League Baseball, the Brewers, the Rangers, the Nationals, and the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s had two stints with the Rangers as pitching coach this past year, of course, and he was there for their back-to-back World Series appearances, which was with Ron Washington back in 2010 and 2011. Mike Maddox led the Rangers to a major league best 347 erra in 2025. John, their bullpen erra was 362. That was fifth in baseball. And they did that despite being composed of almost entirely shortterm free agent acquisitions. Hold on to that thought. We’ll come back to that in a minute. But that was prior to the offseason. The Rangers kind of pieced this bullpen together. Now before we dig deep into the numbers, John, I would love your initial reaction to the hiring of Mike Maddox. I’m shocked to be honest with you because and for those who might not know, he’s probably one of one when it comes to pitching coaches in Major League Baseball. He’s got the experience. He’s got the track record. Like, guys, this is a really good get for the Angels. And that’s my reaction, Mike, is how in the world did they pull this off other than giving him a good payday, uh, wrestling him away from the Rangers because apparently they offered him uh, a deal to stay in Texas with Skip Schumacher, who’s going to be their new manager, but he decided to go to the Angels instead. We’ll talk about that in a sec. However, I I’m shocked and because you and I had discussed previously on the show like what coaches are going to want to be here when the manager and general manager are on a one-year timeline. So, really, if the Angels I mean, they did do this. This is going to happen. They They’re making us eat some humble pie. And I am more than willing give me a second helping of humble pie, Mike, because this is crazy. And again, we’re gonna get into the nitty-gritty of all of this, but when it comes down to it, you want a good pitching coach. Mike Maddox is a fantastic pitching coach, John. It’s it’s like Bud Black 2.0, right? Last time we had a really good pitching coach was Bud Black. He was kind of a relative unknown when they first brought him in, though. And Bud ended up doing really great with the pitching staff. He was there, of course, when they won the World Series. And Bud Black was a coveted coach and manager. Other teams wanted him and they hired him. He was just recently with the Colorado Rockies. The reason why I brought up Bud Black and him being a really coveted pitching coach and major league manager is because the other guys that the Angels have had in that position haven’t done anything. Mike Butcher hasn’t done anything. Right. And Matt Weise, of course, hasn’t done anything. Now, I know that Barry Enright was somebody that worked under a really well-known pitching coach in Brent Strom and that was what made him attractive and the Angels went after him. And again, we’ve said this on the show, I’ll just reiterate it. We would have loved to have seen if all the coaches were going to be gone, we would have loved to have seen at least Barry Enright stay because he seems like a good dude and we’ve had some good interactions with him. But John, this feels like we finally got a pitching coach that really knows his stuff and doesn’t need to prove himself. He’s coming in with his pitching coach Bible already written, right? And he need he can literally hand it off to these pitchers that he is going to be meeting and interacting with in Anaheim. Yeah, we talk about a lot how we just wish the right people could get their hands into the clay that is this Angels roster and unlock their potential and what they can be. Mike, if if you know Reed Deetmer’s, Jose Soraniano, Kaden Dana, maybe like if those guys don’t improve or at least like with Reed Demmer’s kind of stay where they’re at, then it’s not on the coaching. It’s it’s the talent, right? Love talent within those guys. That’s how confident I am in a move like this with getting Mike Maddox as pitching coach. if if he can’t unlock what’s there in these young guys and maybe it’ll take more than a season. It seems like it’s a one-year thing and that’s typically how these things go in terms of coaches coming back and retaining them and whatnot. All that to say, I yeah, I’ll put my I’ll put my money where my mouth is on that one. Like if if they can’t unlock what’s good about the young starters with Mike Maddox, then there’s an issue. But I will say this, I’d even say let him have a top down approach in terms of the major league level and teaching what these guys should be doing in the minor league levels. Like he needs to have all the reigns in terms of how this Angels organization approaches pitching and all of that. So yeah, you and I were disappointed with the fact that Barry Enright wasn’t going to come back, but this makes it all better. Like this is this is a fantastic upgrade. this is so much better. Um, you mentioned the Angels not having a good pitching coach in a long time and the problem with that is is like remember when they hired Mickey Callaway that was a really good move and he transformed that Guardians rotation at the time the Indians that rotation was electric that bullpen was electric. It was it was the rotation that was part of, you know, the World Series against the Cubs, right? Had a huge hand in that. And for him to come to the Angels was like, “Oh, that’s a really good get.” But then Callaway was a bozo, did some really inappropriate things outside of the organization. And so the Angels had to let him go. They gave Matt Weise the interim pitching coach label. They let him stay. Stayed way too long. Three years too long over his three-year tenure. Right. And to me, this is this is better than that. Mike Maddox is a better pitching coach than even that. So, this is uh something to get hyped about. It’s something to be happy about for once in Halo Land where they try to sell everything they do as rainbows and sunshine and gumdrops, but this is actually that, right, Mike? Yeah. And when you think about what Mike Maddox has done, it hasn’t just be been because he’s had really great pitching staffs. Now, I know that the push back could be, well, he had Natali and he had Jacob Deg Grom, and we’ll talk about that in segment, too. But I think the thing that I would really want to emphasize here is that this guy knows his stuff. He knows what he’s doing. And it really will be telling to see how these pitchers respond to him because there’s always been that question. There’s always been that excuse, right? Well, if they got good coaches then, right? And there’s always been some sort of hole that you could poke in what the Angels are doing. John, this feels like there’s no holes to poke, right? This feels like there is no opportunity to critique this and go, “Well, it’s this coach or maybe because of that.” Mike Maddox comes in with a proven track record. And what’s interesting about all of this, and you already mentioned it, but let me circle back. He was offered reportedly a deal to stay in Texas to be the pitching coach with Skip Schumacher. And he decided that he was going to go to the Angels instead. Now, you said it. Let me repeat it. It might just be what we’ve talked about on this show for the last few years that Mike Maddox sees the opportunity and wants to put his fingerprints on it. He wants to not walk away with just a thumb drive of information. He wants to walk away, whatever that might be, going, I transformed that team, that pitching staff. Because Mickey Callaway really did that for as bozo as he is. He did that with the Guardians when he was with them. And there are other pitchers I think about like Leo Mazone when he was with the Braves in the 90s. Like he could walk away going, “Yeah, he had some really good guys, but he really transformed those guys. He helped John Smoltz go from starter to premier closer back to starter again.” Like he is he is a really good guy and he can walk away going Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer. and I had an impact there. And I think that that’s really what maybe this boils down to. We haven’t heard from Mike Maddox, but I think it really boils down to him going, “That looks like some clay that I could get my fingers in. That looks like a blank slate that I could paint on. I could draw on.” And to me, that is encouraging and that is inspiring. And that shows me the leadership style of someone like Mike Maddox who goes, “It’s messy. I’m going to run from that.” And that’s the narrative. And I get it. Like, who’s going to want to come here? What coaches are going to want to come here for? Mike Maddox does. He wanted to come here. Does that change the narrative of the Angels? No. But it does cause people to go, “Wait, what? Yeah, you signed there. That’s interesting. What does this say, John, about Curt Suzuki as well?” like as the manager for only one year. There’s something there that Mike Maddox went I’d like to at least go one year with that guy because maybe perhaps there’s some sort of synergy, some sort of unity and there’s a vision that he was sold and went, “Yeah, I could do that. I’m in.” Yeah. Yeah. It seems like considering the fact that Mike Maddox is a World Series champion with the 2023 Rangers, like he helped he helped them to get there, Mike. Uh, and we’ve had a lot of Ranger fans online saying like he was a huge part of the reason why they got to the World Series and then you know the numbers that that they had this year in the bullpen and in the starting rotation. Huge numbers. Fantastic. And so yeah, maybe it’s a matter of what do I have left to do in this sport? Like I’ve I’ve been to the top and so maybe it is maybe he is somebody who likes a challenge. Maybe he is somebody who, you know, is not going to sign with the best team and have all the best players and, you know, roll right into whatever success that they can get, right? I’m not talking about anyone in particular. Um, and that’s what I like about this. I think, all right, I admire the fact that this guy is going to come here and try to leave his fingerprints on this pitching staff and the way that they do things. Now, the push back and the honesty that I’ll bring to this conversation is how much is Mike Maddox going to be able to influence the infrastructure of this Angels organization when it comes to pitching development specifically at the major league level and through the minor leagues. That’s my concern. But if if they were smart, we know they’re not always smart. Yeah. If they were smart, you would give Mike Maddox the reign the reigns from the top down. Now, he seems like a he seems like a guy Arty would trust with that. Obviously, Perry’s okay with him being here as well. I just don’t want them to interfere, right? Like, does that make sense? It just feels like don’t interfere. Let this guy let baseball people do baseball things is I guess is what I’m trying to say here, right? Yeah. With one year on a contract for both Perry and Kurt Suzuki, it would make sense that they would let baseball people do baseball things. And with the looming lockout, I think that it would be wise to go all in and and and go nuts, right? Go crazy, spend some money, get the right people, right? I mean, this is an expensive git. There have been conversations about how Arty didn’t want to have expensive coaches and now he’s paying for Mike Maddox. It’ll be interesting to see then who’s the hitting coach and who are the other coaches, but he’s paying for Mike Maddox. And if we needed any help in the coaching area, it really it really needed help. The Angels really needed help with our our starting pitching and with our pitching in general. Yeah. Uh I’m waiting for that hitting coach because uh they’ve got to cut down on the strikeouts. They need a whole new approach. They need to play Blue Jays baseball because they play the kind of ball that you wish your team played. And I wish the Angels played that kind of baseball where they go the other way, they take the extra base, they bump the runner over, they sacrifice fly, right? All that stuff. Um, and so yeah, I think that that’s really important for the hitting coach. But, uh, as far as pitching goes, it it really can’t get better than this when it comes to a pitching coach for the Angels. Thanks for making Lockdown Angels your first listen of the day. Coming up, what kind of impact will Mike Maddox have on this team? And what does this hire tell us about the halos? We’re going to get into those conversations in just a minute. 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Thanks for making Lockdown Angels your first listen of the day, part of the Lock on Podcast Network, where it’s your team every day. Listen, this was a big get for the Halos and so we’d love to hear your thoughts. So, don’t forget to lock in and get locked on with us wherever you check out your podcast. Also, if you’re watching or listening, come on over to today’s show on YouTube. Get in the comments section because we’d love to hear your thoughts as well. Mike, we asked Bryce Pterick of Locked on Rangers for his response to this move. And he said, the first thought is, I’m utterly devastated and furious that he would leave. I know, right? Right in his voice. let alone for a division rival. Now, that’s interesting as well. He coached literally the best pitching staff in Rangers history, and he’s coached every Rangers team that won a playoff series. He’s brilliant at game planning and being a calming presence, instilling confidence in pitchers. And the truth is, the results have been there. the pitching staff that Mike Maddox have has led over the years have pretty much mostly improved under his leadership. Now, if you take a look at the erraas of the staffs he coached uh over the years, now we you pulled these numbers, what they were before he got there and then what they were in like the next two years after he got there. Why don’t you start with his first tenure with the Rangers? Yeah, in 2008 it was out with without uh Mike Maddox 537 erra before he got there. Next year in 2009 they had a 438 RA and then in 2010 they had a 393 erra. Then he was with the nationals and before he got to the nationals in 2015 they had a 262 or a 362 RA and then when he got there they had a 352 erra in 2016 and then a 388 in 2017. then went to the Cards in 2018, but before he got there, they had a 401 RA. Then two years with the Cardinals after that first year, they had a 385 ERA and a 382 RA. And then the Rangers, they were 422 erra before he got there. Now, their ERA went up when he got there, but they got better as a pitching staff when he arrived. So, Mike Maddox, for the most part, has improved the pitching staffs that he has led. Now, he’s had some really good pitchers over the years. I don’t want to discount that. That’s a part of the reason why he’s had great success. However, you see the numbers. You heard the numbers in front of us. These numbers tell us that most of the teams that he’s worked with, they got better. Depending on who was there, whether it was a Jacob Deg Grom or not, each of those teams got better. So, that is an indication of two things. one, he did probably have some good talent, but two, he was able to do it everywhere he went, John. So, he was able to unlock some things in some pitchers that maybe needed to try to figure some things out. And even with talented pitchers like a Nate Evaldi or a Jacob Deg Grum, he was still able to unlock some things and pull some things out of those guys to help them to be better. And so, this is what’s exciting about Mike Maddox. He’s somebody that can really get his hands dirty with the Angels. They need a whole lot of help. They posted the third worst ERA in 2025, 4.89. And this team from top to bottom of the pitching staff, they need some help. Now, the bullpen has been better the last few years. They’ve been, let’s say, decent, maybe neutral, right? But the it’s been the starting pitching that just hasn’t been able to perform. And one of the things that we’ve talked about on this show is that the Angels need a better run differential that they need to be able to prevent runs and they need to be able to score more runs. Their their prevention was not great last year. Mike Maddox seems to be the type of guy that can help them to grow in their confidence and in their game plan when they arrive. So John, because of that the game planning and the calming presence, how does this help uh uh Kikuchi a Soraniano? Uh does it unlock Sorano and his home struggles? How does this help Ari Deetmer’s moving back into the rotation and having to work on that mindset? What are your thoughts on the impact that Maddox will have specifically on those three guys? Game planning to me is a huge part of it because sometimes it seems like they aren’t going in with a game plan. Mike, the uh the other night when Treya Savage struck out 12, right? Set the rookie record for most Ks in a World Series, when he started the game, everything he was throwing was pretty even. It was like a 3030 split between the slider, the forcing fastball, and the splitter. Later on in the game, you saw that increase to about 55% slider. That’s why he generated so many whiffs on that thing. Got so many strikeouts that night because he was mixing his pitches. But as the game went on through the second and third time through the order, the guy was mixing it up. And we just haven’t seen enough of that with the Angels rotation where don’t don’t show all your secret weapons in the first inning. You got to hold something back, right? you got to hold that that ace in your sleeve and drop that when you know you’ve got the the game on the line. And that’s something I think that’s been missing from the Angels rotation. So when it comes to game planning, game calling, all of that kind of stuff. I mean, think about this. If if Maddox and Suzuki get back to the kind of thing where, you know, Sosa was calling pitches from the dugout sometime, like I’d be okay with that, right? like instead of letting these guys make their decisions, I think that those guys ought to have some some input as well. So, I think that might be a big part of what the Angels do for the rotation. But here’s the thing, you can talk about good staffs, you can talk about good players and all of that, and that’s a completely valid point, but at the same time, he’s not always had great staffs. And if you get down to the individual performances, I mean, look at Patrick Corbin this year with the Rangers. Like, yeah, I know the the end results, not super fantastic, but he was on a run there for a while where it was just like this guy this guy sucked for the last Yeah. what, five, six years with the Nationals and leading the league in in losses. Yeah. Yeah. And so, uh, to me, when you can when you can do some things that help individual players and pitchers, that’s going to go a long way. But I think in general, when you take some time to settle a deet or you take some time to settle a José Serano when they’re on the mound because they’re young and this is, you know, Sorano’s going to be it’s his third full season of starting. Demer’s just made that transition to the bullpen. He’s going to come back to the rotation. How do you take that bulldog attack mentality that he got in the bullpen and keep that going as a starter? It’s going to be the the nuances and the little things that are really going to matter and especially how they handle big moments, too. And uh you know, people make a joke, Mike Maddox will come out there, he’ll put his hand on your shoulder and ask you how you’re doing and and that I think goes a long way. I know it’s silly. It’s kind of a meme of him putting hands on shoulders, but it goes a long way, doesn’t it? Yeah. And the biggest key is going to be how the players respond because Barry Enright when he came, there was really a big emphasis on throwing strike one and then we saw the Angels struggle with that in his first year. So much so that they had the Angels stand in a batters box and they had a computer generation of them as a pitcher to show them how good their stuff was because they just weren’t confident in that. And the Angels still struggled with throwing strike one. They still struggled with getting swings and misses. They struggled with that even though that was the emphasis. So, this pitching staff now has a guy who has a great track record and they’re going to have to respond to him. This is going to be a I think a makeorb breakak season for a lot of these guys. And I hope that it’s a make season. I hope it’s a season where we see them really grow. I think it’s a season where you might want to take some chances on some of the young guys and instead of maybe going and grabbing a couple of guys in the free agent market because you have someone like a Mike Maddox in the dugout coaching these guys, helping these guys to get better and to prepare in a thoughtful and strategic way as they get ready to go out on the mound. Yeah. I don’t think it’ll excuse them from needing to sign people. And I know I know that’s not what you’re saying, right? Right. But you can have confidence that really everybody should take a step forward from the from the previous year. And I think that I would be okay with saying that like this needs to be a step forward for all of these guys. Otherwise, you’re going to have some really serious decisions to make on the type of uh talent that you have on this team. as it currently stands. The NFL season is back and there is no better place to be than in the stadium. It’s so much fun at a football game. Goes so fast watching the game happen in front of you. Very different than baseball. So, if you’re a baseball fan and you try to go to an NFL game, you’re not going to get the same experience. You don’t sit down during a football game. No, you don’t. It’s like a playoff game the whole time. But getting tickets for an NFL game can be really difficult. That’s where game time comes in. They give the advantage back to you. Game time is fast, easy, and backed by the game time guarantee. 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And then, you know, can and then even the Rangers fans were like, I I think I saw somebody pop into Angels Reddit and he said, “Hey, Rangers fan here. This is unreal. like you guys are going to see an immediate impact and I’m heartbroken that he’s gone. I understand, you know, maybe Schumacher and them want to do some changes and yeah, they did offer him to stay in Texas, but you know, we’ll see what happens with with Schumacher and and and his staff and everything with the Rangers, but Mike, this this is a win. Can we just have a win for a change? And I think that that’s okay, right? I think it’s it’s definitely okay. And it it’s a it’s a good decision in an organization that doesn’t necessarily make good decisions all the time or at all. Right? And we just haven’t seen it with a coaching staff. We’ve we’ve seen a lot of excuses. We’ve seen a lot of it’s not my fault, right? We’ve seen a lot of pointing the blame somewhere else. So for them to get Mike Maddox says a lot about what they’re trying to do in this one-year time period. And I think that that’s not going to be unusual for the Angels. It might be for other teams because the Angels usually operate yeartoear. We’ve we’ve called them the fiscal angels, right? That’s that’s what I think that they’re prioritizing. What can they do in this oneyear time period? And getting Mike Maddox means that they’re going to give it a good run. I know that there were some fans that complained about like, well, it’s probably only a one-year deal, or how can you be excited about a one-year deal? man, you’re gonna get a guy who’s a guru who’s going to at least get the ball rolling for these young guys and be around them for 162 games, right? So, this is something I think that we can celebrate. It’s something that we can be excited about. John, I think it also says something about the off season that maybe maybe the off season isn’t going to be just a bargain bin shopping, but that they’re gonna maybe be strategic. Am I Am I drinking the opium? Am I hoping for something that’s not going to happen? Because they had to have spent some money for Mike Maddox. That does that mean that they’re maybe going to surround him and this team with players that are, you know, at least major league average? Good. Yeah, it it it would seem to indicate that you have a plan for this season. But Mike, I just I you know, I think this is a huge get. I think he’s going to be great for the guys they already have, especially the young guys. We’ve talked about Demmer’s, talked about Soraniano. What about like Ben Joyce, right? Somebody’s going to tell Ben Joyce, Mike Maddox, I should say, is going to tell Ben Joyce, “Hey, dude, you don’t have to chase 104.” Mhm. I need you to hold back on that 103, that 104 until you really need it. Right. That’s huge. Ryan Zephr John, for the love of God, please don’t throw your cutter as the first pitch. I complained about that all season. So, the guys who were already there are certainly going to benefit from the fact that Mike Maddox is there. Is that good enough? Well, I mean, yes, in a sense, because I’m just not confident they’re going to do what we would like them to do because they never do, Mike. They never do. You say Kikuchi was a great signing, don’t get me wrong, but I would expect if they’re going to do anything in the direction of pitching, it’s going to be a You say Kikuchi type. It’s probably not gonna be Shane Bieber, former Sai Young winner, right? It’s probably not gonna be one of those top tier talents that are are out there. I suggested the other day cuz he turned down the player option. Maybe Michael King of the Padres’s. That’s somebody I have brought up a few times. He’s a he’s a B to a A minus pitcher for the most part and what you get is kind of in between some of that. And that’s kind of where Kikuchi has been. Um, I would say he’s probably more of a B minus to an A minus guy. Like, he’s got some range where he looks really good sometimes and then struggles sometimes. And that’s fine. That’s that’s a pretty big swing in both directions. But to to say that this indicates to us that the Angels plan on on doing something and and meaning that they’re they’re going to go all out or even just get serviceable guys to put in this rotation and in this bullpen. I don’t know, dude. I I would like to think so, but I I have been disappointed time and time again. Where do you stand on this? I am still going to use this the the same posture that I shared I’m going to have on on this show. I said it a couple weeks ago and with 2026, I’m going to sit back, arms folded like this, watching. What are you doing? Right. Right. That’s interesting. That’s an interesting move. Right. That’s going to be me. I’m going to be the armchair quarterback. I’m gonna be the guy that goes, “Okay, because I’ve been I’ve been hyped, right? I’ll get hyped on this team. One, because I’m a fan. Two, because we have a show. Three, because I want the team to be good.” And so, I’m going to try to find the good. And that’s naturally me. Naturally, you going to try to find the good. But this year, I I’m really going to temper that. So, I’m going to need you to hold me accountable to that. And every day, hold me accountable to that. Mike, you’re you’re not you’re not sitting back with your arms folded. You you look like you’re getting a little bit more excited than you should, right? I’m going to need you to do that. So, I need I need somebody like Matt Matt Oso Every Day and and then Nathan Every Dayer who have never said a positive thing about this team in the four years that we have been doing the show. I’m gonna need them to remind me of of of what I’ve just said, right? And so I I I I’m going to be a wait and see guy. That’s going to be the the season for me, especially with the off season. I’m going to be a wait and see guy because I want to see what the Angels do. I don’t want to get too hyped because I’ve been hyped in the past. I want to see them do significant things, not mediocre things and try to sell it as significant. And and I think that’s what’s significant about this. You can be hyped about this move. This is the best pitching coach out there. And the fact that he was available and willing to come here, let’s be hyped on that. That’s fantastic. So whether they do get people or not that they should get and and ought to get and could if they wanted to, right? Let’s put all the caveats in there. Whether they get those guys or not, Mike Maddox will be good for the people who are currently on this team. The ones that we’ve said, man, if they could just do this, if they could just do that, like Kaden Dana, Sam Dairy, if they come up and have to pitch and start a game, like get Maddox around those guys, that’s significant. That’s huge. That’s what needs to happen. So, yeah, let’s get hyped on this move because it it really can’t get better than that. But it doesn’t mean that what’s coming next is going to match the level of this. But for once, Mike, they didn’t do a mediocre move. They didn’t do a half measure. They didn’t do anything and, you know, try to wrap try to gift wrap a a pile of dog crap and sell it to us. That’s not what this is. And I’m actually really happy about that. Whether they do that next, I’m with you. I’m going to sit back. I’m going to fold my arms and see what happens. Thanks for making Lockdown Angels your first listen of the day. Be sure to like and subscribe while you’re here. It’s the best way to stay updated on all things Angels throughout the offseason. Hey, be sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Lockdown Angels, and Super Halo Bros on Twitter and Instagram, whether you’re watching or listening. Come on over to today’s show. Get in the comments section on YouTube. Hit that subscribe button like Mike said. And also, let us know your thoughts on everything we discussed today. Mike, what do we have on deck for tomorrow’s show? Well, we’re watching closely to see what the Angels do, right? We posted the show on Friday and then they signed Mike Maddox. So, we’re going to watch closely. They’re usually a team that moves pretty quick in the offseason. At least the last two or three years they’ve done that. So, we’re going to watch that closely. But if they don’t make a significant move or any moves at all, then tomorrow I’m going to sit in the GMC. You get to make the moves and I’m going to make the moves. I’m going to share with you about what I would do for the 2026 Angels 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. And for all the sickos who love this team and all the everydayers who love to watch and listen, we’ll see you back here on Tuesday. So, I’m going to be hyped about Mike Maddox. Okay, check. That’s it. Check. That’s it. Sit back, arms folded. Don’t don’t give it

The Los Angeles Angels just pulled off one of the most shocking coaching hires in baseball, landing Mike Maddux as their new pitching coach for 2026! The brother of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, Maddux led the Texas Rangers to a major league-best 3.47 ERA in 2025 and coached their World Series championship staff in 2023. The Super Halo Bros. break down Maddux’s incredible track record of improving pitching staffs across four MLB organizations, from the Rangers to the Nationals and Cardinals. They analyze what this means for Angels pitchers like Reid Detmers, Jose Soriano, and Caden Dana, and debate whether this expensive hire signals a more aggressive offseason approach. With reactions from devastated Rangers fans and insights into Maddux’s game-planning brilliance, the hosts express cautious optimism while maintaining their skeptical stance on the organization’s overall direction.

Tune in to hear why this might be the Angels’ best move in years and what it means for their 2026 pitching staff!

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0:00 Intro

0:48 Mike Maddux hired as Angels pitching coach

2:50 Initial reaction to the shocking hire

5:28 Maddux can unlock young pitchers’ potential

8:16 Maddux’s proven track record with staffs

11:16 Why Maddux chose Angels over Rangers

23:22 Players must respond to new coaching

26:02 Angels finally made a good decision

28:50 What this means for offseason moves

31:04 Taking a wait-and-see approach

33:42 Celebrating a non-mediocre move