Anaheim Ducks goalie woes, Angels sign Alek Manoah & potential Anthony Rendon buyout

Anaheim Ducks goalie woes, Angels sign Alek Manoah & potential Anthony Rendon buyout

Hey everybody, welcome to Wings on Catella episode 26. And hopefully this part of this uh portion of the episode is recording because as you can tell our producer is out and about and ill. He is not feeling well. So Thomas Murray will not be joining us today. But for the Wings on Catella podcast, we have Mr. Jack James and Mr. Zack Kavanagh and myself. Uh, Jack James covers the Angels and the Ducks for the Sporting Tribune. Zach covers the Ducks for the Sporting Tribune and occasionally the Angels on on fair occasion. Rare rare or fair either way. On one occasion, yes, on occasion. And uh I cover a flurry of things including the Angels uh for the Sporting Tribune. So uh we are the podcast that talks about Orange County sports, the Ducks, the Angels among other things. Uh sometimes your Belinda based race teams, but not today. Um, what we’re going to talk about today is some big news on the Angels front that we’ve kind of been behind on because everyone was sick. Uh, Anthony Renone uh is and the Angels are working on trying to figure something out for the rest of his contract, final year of his contract. We’re going to talk about that. Uh, the Anaheim Ducks are going through some goalie wos and also some defensive woes. We’re going to talk about that. and the Angels have made some uh significant enough signings that we will talk about them and we’ll kind of preview the winter meetings a little bit. So for that uh we are going to start with the big news. The Angels and Anthony Rendone are trying to work out kind of a buyout of his cont before Before we get into business. Where’s the banter? Where’s the banter? The banter. How are you? How are you doing? Hey pal. Hey buddy. Hey. Hey friend. This is a Sammy Pollson episode. We’re not gonna I was gonna say number 26. Sammy Pollson 26. Fun fact, that’s a Sammy Pollson signed stick right there on my left or on the screen. Really? Yep. Sammy Pollson at 26 for the Angels. Let’s see. Okay. Look it up. Wait, isn’t that a retired number? Uh, it is not the craziest one. Okay. 26 has not been worn by the Angels since 1981. Bill Travers and that Joe Rudy wore it. Bill Stoneman, we could talk about Bill Stman all day. He’s a a regular in the Ducks press box for some reason. Zach sees Bill more than any of us. Yeah. Um which is unique. Uh looking at the rest of Terry Cox Johnson. So we’ll just call it the Stony. It’s the Stoneman episode. Talking about Bill Stman to some degree. What’s Gene Autry’s number that’s retired? Gotrey was 26. Yeah, I thought Yeah, I thought they retired 26. That’s right. So that’s why that’s You know what? Respectfully respectfully then, this is the Mr. Audrey episode. Jean Bill Stoman is will happily bow out as a number two to Gene Audrey. So um got banter. Can we get Can we get in the room? I think I think I think that’s banter. Yeah, let’s let’s let’s we had to get it out of our system. Let’s uh let’s tear up the Anthony Rendone contract. Let’s do it. That’s basically what the Angels are well to a degree they’re trying to do. Um Angels and Anthony Renone are working on trying to negotiate the remainder of his contract. He is owed uh right around $38 million uh this final year. Um obviously has not played in in some time, has not been very good through his contract. Um there’s a lot to this and I think if you’re listening in at this point you’re you’re aware of what’s going on but but for our own sake. Uh Jack, can you kind of break down a little bit about what’s going on between Anthony Reno and the Angels right now and I’ll kind of share some stuff too. Yeah. Um you know it’s obviously not been a fun six years last six years for the Angels and Anthony Rodell besides the 2020 season. He was actually really good that year. Finished in the top 10. Six six whole years. I know. It It doesn’t feel like it. It doesn’t feel like it. I think because he only plays like 20 games a year, but um you know, he was really good that first initial 2020 season when it was shortened. He finished 10th in MVP voting. And then since then, it’s been a whole lot of injuries and when he’s on the field, a whole lot of nothing in productivity wise. He still has more war in that uh 2020 shorten season than he has in from 2021 to 2024 when he played. Uh which is crazy. Um so I I think this is just something that you could say both sides want to move on from. The Angels want to move on from Renone and Renone wants to move on from the Angels. That’s just me speaking from the outside what it would seem like. I don’t have any inside information, but um that just seems like it it it’s time. you know, Anthony Reddone is gonna be 36 by the time next year rolls around. Um, and he’s obviously dealt with injury issues the last five years. So, it’s probably not going to be a good situation for a 36-year-old who’s already had a long uh laundry list of injuries trying to go out and and play baseball again. Uh, I’m sure his body is just done at this point. I’m sure he’s mentally done at this point. I don’t blame Rendone for wanting to retire and to step away. Um, now they got to work out that contract cuz it’s $38 million. And um, I believe if he straight, correct me if I’m wrong, Taylor, if he straight up retires, he doesn’t he forfeits the 38 or some money for uh, forfeits with some players association rights, but essentially he would lose the majority of the 38 million on the spot. So, like I I don’t blame uh you know, Rodone wanting to rework the deal to get his money because he signed the contract. He you know, he earned that contract uh prior to becoming an Angel. So, um you know, I don’t blame him for trying to get the last 38 million. Obviously, the Angels um would rather not pay 38 million, but hey, you know, they they got to work a business. This is a business. So, um that’s kind of where we’re at right now. You mentioned it, the business side of this, right? is that Anthony Rendone, he earned the 38 million at the he earned his $245 million contract, no doubt about it, but he still owes the Angels $38 million worth of work. Um, he owes him a lot more than that on merit, but Arty Moreno has a right to say, “No, uh, I’m paying you $38 million to show up to work next year, and you need to show up.” Now, I think Anthony I think an you know Anony’s been uh cast as a villain throughout the last six years, maybe the last five years more, but I I don’t think Anony’s a bad guy. I think, you know, the comments about him not prioritizing baseball. Um I think it’s fine. I mean, obviously he’s a baseball player and that’s his He’s not the only one to do it. No, he’s not. And I think Kevin Polar came out with some really strong comments about baseball does this to you. Your your career does this to you. I mean, there are definitely days like Zack, you watched a 70 defeat of the of the Ducks on what was that Tuesday, Wednesday night, whatever it was. I can’t imagine you were enjoying yourself that all that well that night. You know, there are definitely times loss in franchise history is not fun to sit through. Now, there are definitely times where when you’re at work, whether you are blue collar, white collar, sports writer, baseball player, you’re probably not going to enjoy your job. Um, so I don’t blame Ante for that. He has been uh not victimized uh what’s the opposite of victimiz uh uh as a villain vil villainized he’s been villainized um but I think right now Anthony is actually doing the angels a favor um to my understanding and I could be wrong but to my understanding no matter what happens with the contract negotiations the angels luxury tax number will be 38 million next year. Um, but the actual pay, what Anthony can do is open up the actual payroll. So the on paper that goes to MLB that says, you know, you’re 40 $40 from being over the luxury tax, right? That doesn’t change no matter what. The $38 million is there, but the actual pay that’s coming out of pocket from Marty Brano can change. Now, that is a positive for building this team the rest of the way through the winter. Um, I don’t know, Zach, we mentioned it in the last episode. What are you going to do with that $38 million? We don’t know, right? You have to do something with that money. But at the same time, Anthony can look at this and say, you know, there’s so much to this that’s not going to be known until it comes out. But Anthony essentially can say, you know, I do want half of my 38 upfront. I want $19 million uh next year. Like, I want you to hand me $19 million, but then that, you know, I want a million dollars for the next uh 19 years after that or something like that. I mean, there’s so many ways that this can go with this, but at the same time, the Angels still have control over all of this, and it’s Arty Marino has full control over all this, and he could say, “No, uh, I’m paying you $38 million next year, and you’re going to show up and then we’re done.” You know, don’t call me. Like, we might be buddies, but don’t call me kind of thing. Well, and it’s and it’s it’s within their right. And I think the thing that’s it’s one thing to just sign a guy and have him underperform. that happens. You know, it’s another thing for and then, you know, for a guy to get injured again, it happens. But I think it’s just the way all of this has been handled from Anony’s side of things. Like the the fact that he that the stories were when the Angels would even roll through Houston that he wouldn’t even even he wouldn’t even show up to interact with the team while he was still living there, right? like there. Yeah, there’s I think there’s more to that. Sure. I don’t know if he was asked to come or not. I have no idea if he was asked. Sure, that that’s possible, too. But the the the fact is that like when not only when he wasn’t producing and when he when he wasn’t injured, he just seemed to have no interest in being an angel really. At least from at least that’s what I’ve seen like what I felt like from the outside. Absolutely outside perspective. 100%. I could I could completely understand that. Um, he was wellliked in the clubhouse. I mean, he was wellliked in the clubhouse to the degree and and I think Anthony was tired of particular media figures. And you know, like we can all say I we all love Sam Blum. Sam Blum’s a great guy. We all love Sam Blum. But yeah, he probably he could probably be tiresome because he does a good job. He’s tiresome because he from that perspective, right? If you’re somebody that doesn’t is is in a position like Ren Dones where you’re not producing, constantly injured, and also kind of just like not seeming like not not putting on the face of giving an effort, then you’re going to get criticized for it in any sport by any Yeah. And and that’s that’s real. And if doesn’t want to deal with that, then you know, we’re not blaming Sam for doing his job, but we’re also not blaming Anthony for being frustrated. Yeah. Right. Sure. But my point before was that just like he h he hasn’t produced. He hasn’t played. He’s constantly injured. The Angels have every right to just say like, “Dude, we’re done with you. We’re we’re tired of this and you and we’re not giving you anything and we’re going to And the other issue there, the other issue there is I don’t know if Anthony physically can play baseball.” I have no idea. Right. But with his back injury, with his hip injury or uh it was his hip injury, his uh he had so many stinking injuries at this point, but the hip in particular, we don’t know if he can physically swing, you know, use so much rotational force around your hips when you’re swinging and also when you’re throwing for third base. Yeah. Uh I have no idea. Swing left-handed. I hope so. That was honestly, man, that has been the highlight of the Angels last five years is left-handed. Yeah. So, you guys can crash on Anthony Renon all you want, but he has the the best highlight of the last. His his two biggest hits in an Angel uniform are both left-handed. The left-handed home run and the left-handed uh smack in the face to Jesse Winker Winker in the same year. That’s right. Oh, man. But like to to Rendone, like back to the whole, you know, it seemed like he never wanted to be an angel and he was always in a bad mood, this and that. I don’t know him personally, but I think it could be a fair assumption that maybe he’s someone that was just super frustrated with not being able to play on the field. Like, yeah, sure, baseball is not the top priority. His family and his uh faith is, as he said, but he still views it as a priority, like a job. It’s Yeah, he still wants to be there and produce. And, you know, uh sure, he’s got the guaranteed money. he doesn’t, you know, he’s going to get the money whether he produces or not. But I’m sure to anybody even if they don’t necessarily love baseball, like I’m sure that would just eat at them all the time if they’re a always injured because that’s your own physical health and then not producing. That’s your mental health. And both things are out of whack. I think it’s fair to assume some people may be a little bit more snippy and uh a little bit more pointed with their comments than others would. And also back to the uh you know he’s not the only one that suggested this or suggested shorter uh baseball seasons and all that stuff from 2018. Anthony Rizzo. I think we play too much baseball. Yes, guys are going to take bait cuts, but we are playing this game for the money. Or do we love this game? I know it’s both, but in the long run it’ll make everything better. I think playing in the cold sucks. I was thinking about this the other day. When you think of the Cubs and Cardinals, uh you think of a beautiful Saturday Wrigley Field. you don’t think about playing in 20°. And he went on to say how he wants a 140 game season. And what his perception on Anthony Rizzo, great guy, loves the game of baseball. Plays the game hard. Plays the game the right way. Right. And he, you know, no disrespect to Anthony Rizzo, but um No, I I think I think we’ve all figured it out. It’s just Anthony is done. He’s done with baseball. His career is is over. And jobwise, I mean, because he, keep in mind, he was coming off a World Series victory. And if you go look back at the World Series, he was he wasn’t MVP of the World Series, was he? Strawber was, right? Strawber was. Um, but I mean, he had an insane run through the playoffs. And if you go watch him during that playoff run for the the Nationals, it was pretty exciting, man. He seemed to have fun. That’s why he got signed. Yeah. Like I it it at the time of the signing, it all made so much sense. It was super it was extremely exciting and then it it all just fell apart so quickly. There’s another perception item probably with the fan base in that case is Garrick Cole was the guy. He was the target for that off seasonason, right? Garrick Cole Angels would not m it everything came out Angels would not manage the finances of what Garrett Cole would cost. And I think you know hindsight being 2020 I think Garrett was going to the Yankees. I think that was a decision that he was kind of openly making that about. But Anthony Renown was always he was never like, “Hey, we’re going to go get Anthony Renone.” It was never that. But at the time, yes, Anthony Renown was probably the best two-way defensive offensive player uh on the market and and one of the top 10 in the league at the point. So yeah, I think every reason to be frustrated, but at the same time, I think Anthony right now for being what the villain was and and all that for the last five years, I think he’s trying to not be the villain for the Angels, open up some spending for them. Uh it is up to the Angels at this point to say, I this is strictly opinion. Strictly opinion. Um I know I tell you guys, make sure you have facts on everything. I just don’t know if Anthony I don’t think Anthony is physically going to be able to play baseball at a high enough level. And not I’m not talking about $38 million worth of level. I’m talking I don’t know if this guy could go swing a baseball bat in double A next year. I really don’t. Um and when you’re that when you’re that far removed from the game, you haven’t played in a year and a half. Um you haven’t been productive in half a decade. Uh and also I have no idea what his hips are going to be like at this point. I have no idea what his literal physical body is going to limit him to doing. I think Anthony is physically done and that’s my opinion. Um, and I think honestly it would be better for the Angels to go and talk about this retirement plan, talk about buying them out instead of going into next year and saying, “Okay, well, you’re going to be back in Houston hanging out with the kids for $38 million and we’ll be done with it.” I don’t know. I I think it’d be better just to open up that payroll, especially if 2026 is what you’re claiming as your window to building successful team. So, it’s as simple as that. You The Angels need money and right now they’ve got a golden ticket to open up some cash flow. Yeah, I think it it one way or another it’ll be best for everyone to just finally be done. you know, Anthony Rendone can go home and and not and just vanish into baseball obscurity until he wants to be a skills coach or something. Go be a dad. And and then the Angels can just put this behind them and in theory try to move forward, but they’ve also kind of been trying to move forward for at least three years from that position now. So, um Jack, anything left on on Anthony here? Uh, the only thing I was going to pull up was I remember looking at this the other day. I’m pretty sure if you take out Renone’s contract, the Angels fall in the bottom 15 of payroll for baseball. I think that’s just an interesting note. It is interesting because they’ve been flirting around top 10, right? They’ve been flirting like 12 to eight or something like that. Anywhere uh along that range. I’m trying to pull up the uh payrolls for so the problem with that is the luxury tax would still have them above. So if you’re looking at the pay well pay difference between payroll and luxury tax payroll in terms of the luxury tax payroll in 2025 the angels were 12th okay minus 38 oh god that would not move next year because the 38 million is still on the books for for the AAV for the luxury tax under based on my understanding. So, uh, let’s move on to some, uh, hockey. Um, for all the good, we were talking about the Anaheim Ducks for the past month and a half. Uh, they’ve, they hit a wall. They hit a bit of a wall. Uh, not natural circumstance to a degree. I don’t know if they were expecting this kind of natural circumstance, but, uh, Lucas Doshaw out with injury. Peter Morazzic out with injury. They are down to their fourth technically fifth string goalie at this point. Third, third and fifth. Third and fifth. Third and fifth. Yeah, third and fifth. Um, Kale Clang is just out for personal reason. Call Cali Clang was out for personal reasons. I saw a report yesterday that he’ll be joining the Gulls shortly. Um, would that mean I don’t know if that means that he would come back up with the Ducks immediately afterwards or if he needed to work himself back into any sort of shape. But, uh, I think well, we’ll get into it, but I Yeah. Either way, Ducks down to their third and fifth string goalies. Um along with that, their defense has been bad. Uh it’s been relatively bad through the course of the season, really bad this last week and a half. Um for that, we are going to go to our Ducks expert here at the Sport interview, host of Ducks Indeed, Zachary Kavanagh. Uh, Zach, just kind of tell us a little bit about what’s going on with the goalie situation in anime. Yeah. Uh, Ducks and Deep now available on uh Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Ah, as is Wings on Catella. Yeah. Um, so the goalie situation. Yeah. Uh, dol uh we’re we’re one week into his two to three week window. Uh, he’s been, you know, doing some prekate workouts. We we’ve seen him around. So, he’s on course for that. Whether that means he comes back at the two week mark or he comes back at the 3-week mark, unclear. Uh you know, we won’t know until until we know and we really won’t know in person because it’s not likely that he’ll be uh good to go uh you know in the next two games. He’s obviously not playing tonight against Washington and uh and I don’t expect him to be good to go on Sunday. Um but it also works out for the Ducks a bit because they can ride Billy Huso for now. Um uh with Peter Morazzic also out two to three weeks uh with a lower body injury. Um you know, one of those tough ones where he’s just pushing off the post and you can kind of guess what the injury is. Probably a groin. Um and those are never easy for for goalenders in this day and age that need to push back and forth so much. Um but has been serviceable. Um, and luckily for the Ducks, they don’t have any backto-backs until the end of this upcoming road trip, which would be in the third week of Dostall’s window. So, either Doall comes back uh for one of those backto-backs at the end of the road trip or they sacrifice poor Slava Boutettes for uh for a game and and just see what he what he does. Um, but I think all in all, it’s it’s not as bad as it could have been of a situation. Um, and like you said though, I think what what this is highlighting is just how much Lucas Dostall does for this team. Like early in the season, they were outscoring their problems a lot of the nights and they were able to outscore their problems because Dostall plays how he plays. Like this is no knock on on Huso who I think as I said has been serviceable or even Morazzic, but Dostall’s best ability is his play recognition. So when you go into a game against Utah where they give up, you know, all these oddman rushes, a twoon breakaways and stuff like that, Dostall can defend those himself because he’s so good at reading the play and anticipating where the puck is going to go and getting himself into the right spot. So that kind of covers up those holes where if you do leave defensive openings, he’s able to jump across because he knew where the puck was going to go because the defense funnels it a certain direction. Um and he and you know again he stops those chances. So in terms of like what they’re going to do goending wise, I think they’re just going to ride it out. Um, and then hopefully this, we’ve tried to ask a couple days if this an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the defense and they’ve kind of avoided those questions here and there. Um, but it certainly is something to take note of, you know, now that this is the point in the season where they’re at and everything. They’re still in first place, so it’s not like it’s taking them down too many notches, but it’s uh the standings are incredibly tight. So, I was just going to ask I’m I’m pulling it up right now with spot track. Um, are there any free agent goalenders right now that first off that uh that Edmonton’s not looking at because they’re going because the trade market it seems like Edmonton’s really trying to find a goalie right now because Edmonton’s atrocious. I I Oh man, I’m gonna get myself in trouble in another city here. Um, I heard such a good reference joke. I know it’s one of the funniest jokes. I’m I’m just going to do it. I’m get myself in trouble. Um, San Jose people claim to be drug dealers because their friend Oh, wait. San Jose people claim to be drug dealers to their friends because they work at the medicine aisle of CVS. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard and one of the most factual, too. Um, sorry about that. But we got See, that’s what happens when we talk about Edmonton is I talk crap about everybody. Um um when it comes to like filling the needs of a goalender, I don’t I just I I don’t think there’s any reason to do it. Even someone like a like a Well, Georgia just went to Russia, right? Just went to Russia. Um right. But like So you’re going to go get another All-Star ran goalender to throw into your system just to have I’m just I’m not even talking about that. I’m talking about an emergency backup for two weeks. Like Louis Deming, uh Rodriguez here, Jack Campbell, like Jack Campbell was fine. This is the reason they signed Billy Hoso in the first place though is because they could get down to their third goalender and be okay. So I call Okay, so Colin Dele is from Ranch Kukamonga. I I can’t imagine he’s hanging out anywhere other than Rachel right now. But I can’t believe that he’s not better than Billy Huso or Slava booty at this point. Okay. like there’s why why waste cap space? Why waste a roster contract slot? Why throw another guy into your uh your AHL San Diego mix when you’re trying to get reps for Cali Clang or Thomas and all these guys? I’d be straight up and just say, “Look, here’s here’s a two-eek try out with the NHL club. You’re gonna be our backup for two weeks.” Uh Robin Leonard, Colin Deia, I you and I were talking about it yesterday. You know who I would love to see get two weeks with the Anaheim Ducks is Peter Budai. And he’s been on the ice with the Ducks for the last two years. He has. He’s I would love to see Peter Budai get another just just give him one more game, man. He suited up on the day that Dosel went down. Not again, not the first time he’s done it either. Ebug, right? He’s just ebugging. Yeah. I well if you remember uh I I forget how many years ago it was but Dwayne Rollison was a goalending coach and he was the emergency backup one night uh like he suited up and sat on the bench uh because uh there was a goalending injury and they were on the road so they didn’t have anybody. Well they’ve I mean we’ve seen Ebugs in the league. Yeah. And every every team has like that’s actual emergency backup right. That’s a 10-minute at at worst kind of situation, though. Yeah. Like you’re gonna tell your goalie, “Hey, like, sorry, your groin is toast and you’re gonna end your life right now, but I need you to play for 10 minutes because Peter Budai is coming in.” If not. Yeah. Again, I think it’s it’s the schedule is helpful. Uh, you know, is going to get run out there every night and uh and he’s he’s just got to take it because no offense to to boots, but he’s just not that. That’s why I’m saying he’s too young. Yeah. Well, that’s why I’m saying go get Colin De. Go get someone that gets it. I’m not saying the boots. Ifo got hurt. Ifo got hurt, they would absolutely get somebody. They have to. They h they would. But like because who is it? Sukanic is the next guy in line. Yeah. Tulsa right now. No. Sukunic is up in Oh, because of the San Diego stuff, too. Yeah. But he hasn’t played yet in San Diego because of a bunch of things. JF Bub’s got to be somewhere out there, man. He’s played for every team except for the Ducks. Yeah. Again, I think it’s I think they’re very confident in Dostall’s timeline and I think that they’re very happy with what Billy Huso brings and they’re willing to just ride it out for the week and hope that Dostall comes back at the start of next at the start of the next week. Um, you know, they’ll and the nice thing about this upcoming road trip, it’s long, but they are three of the five games are in New York City. uh you know with the Devils, the Islanders, and and the Rangers. So, they’re able they’re going to be able to hunker down and not get like so tired out by the travel because they’re not going to be traveling. They’ve got the game in Pittsburgh and then they go to New York and then they’re going to hunker down for a bit. So, uh I not a great situation to be in obviously with all the goalenders, but I think it’s a very lucky time of the season for it to happen for them. Fair. Um, Jack, anything here that you’re you’re thinking on when it comes to uh my computer just froze. Hopefully I still have you guys. Um, uh, anything with the Ducks goalie situation you’re thinking on? Stuart Skinner available. He’d make a heck of a backup. Yeah. Uh but on a serious note, uh you know, as much as the the um goalender wolves uh is plaguing the Ducks right now, I think they could just get better defensively cuz you know, they you you can’t rely on Dost Stall bailing you out every single night and outscoring your problems. Uh you know, can Dost Stall do that? Yes. But it’s not going to happen every single night. And if this team wants to make a playoff run, they’re going to have to tighten up defensively because they can’t count on Lucas Oro Stall to win every single game for them. Uh, you know, when you look at their defense, it’s just, you know, I can’t pinpoint exactly what breaks down. Uh, but what I see a lot from the Ducks defense in in their own zone is like I feel like guys just kind of overcorrect in a way. I feel like there’s too many times where I’m watching where it’s like, okay, there’s four guys on one side of the ice and only one guy on the other side and it just creates a lot of open space, a lot of, you know, open passes and u cross ice passes and all that and high danger scoring chances, especially in front of the net. I felt like um they’re g up a lot of scoring chances right in front of the net. Um so they just got to, you know, part of it is just a really young team learning how to defend well because they’re all built on offensive talent. Um, so, you know, it’s something that could get fixed over time, but it could also be addressed at the trade deadline if, you know, they want to go get like a a more, you know, defensive-minded forward or something like that for like the bottom six or something along those lines. Well, we’ve we’ve been that for Go ahead. The the net front is something that we in the press box have all noticed and we’ve tried to bring it up several times and it’s it’s brutal. It it is sort of just handwaved away, which is a little frustrating. like, yeah, we just need to be uh, you know, tighter on, you know, on our sticks and need to be better at boxing out. And it’s sort of like, okay. But the the problem, it’s two, the problem there is twofold. One, it looks like it’s part of the defensive system. They don’t want guys like tied up in front of the net so that they can get out and block shots, which sure, but the problem is when you’re when you don’t block the shot and there’s now a guy that’s untied up in front of the net to just tip pucks and direct rebounds and cause havoc, then you’re then you’re in trouble. You’ve seen there has been a bit of an adjustment over the last couple games or at least in the St. Louis game. I the Utah game is such a wash. like there’s really nothing to like take out of it, good, bad, or otherwise. It just sort of That was the worst. That’s the worst I’ve seen them. Well, I mean, like you said, historically, it wasn’t even it wasn’t even that bad. Like, when you look at the analytics and the game flow and just like watching the game, nothing. They weren’t doing anything particularly terribly. the Utah was just scoring and then you’d be like, “Okay, well, but the the Ducks were playing like mid and Utah was playing not bad and and that they just were able to overrun the Ducks.” It it wasn’t it was just a weird bad game. Throw that away. But they had But to the net front, they had started to make some adjustments at the St. Louis game. Um, I do think that all these guys could just stand to be more engaged in front of the net, but it’s something that they’re clearly being told not to do. Um, and it is a little frustrating because they seemingly were improving numbers wise defensively for a minute. They they got themselves out of the cellar when it came to the expected goals, but it’s still not as good as you want it to be. But they’re also the defense still isn’t jumping up enough in the in the in the play as much as you want. So, I don’t know. It’s a weird weird balance they’re trying to strike. Yeah. Their expected goals numbers right now expected goals against per 60 is 3.15. That’s second worst in the league behind uh Taylor Ward’s uh Taylor Blake’s Vancouver Conucks. Yeah, they they slid back. I think they had moved up to 28th in the league at some point, but they they’ve slid back. So, it’s been a rough couple of weeks. You want to talk about them? You want to talk about crap about the Canucks? They’ve got the defenseman the Ducks need. Okay. And they’re probably willing to give him away. Um Quinn Hughes. Yeah. New Jersey. Quinn Hughes. Um Taylor, we had talked on the phone the other day. You were you going to bring up the the tweet you saw or do you want me to I saw a tweet. I saw a tweet. I saw I don’t know who it was. Yeah, it was for as much skill as this Ducks defense has, they can’t be this bad. Or how are they this bad when they have this much skill? Kind of. It was that was a way of and that’s the thing I point out because like I I did my my podcast the other day and I’ve gotten, you know, some some questions in the mailbag that I did of you, are the Ducks going to make a move to bolster the D? And I’m like, why would they do that? Like you look at the you you look up and down. They’ve gone through such pain to keep all these guys in the lineup, but then at the same time like I get it because they’re just strangely not as good defensively as they should be based on pedigree and talent, but they play okay, but think about just just think about the personnel they have on the roster. Owen Zelwagger, offensive defenseman. Paul Mchikov, offensive defenseman. Jackson Lome, offensive defenseman. And then, you know, on the right side, he’s not a young guy at all, but Jacob Trouba, when he’s at his peak, he’s more so an offensive defenseman that hits hard. He’s not really a stay-at-home defenseman. Brad Code Gudas is more of the stay-at-home type, although he’s really good at breaking out pucks when he’s on his game. Uh, Drew Ellison, he’s just kind of like a Swiss Army knife. He doesn’t do anything great, but he doesn’t do anything bad. Um, and then Ian Moore, don’t don’t tell that to Twitter, Jack. They hate Drew Ellison. I know. I know. He’s become a punching bag lately. I know. poor guy. I I don’t know. Helen, like I don’t think he does anything great. I don’t think he does anything bad. He’s just there, which is fine. You need that for depth defenseman. And then Ian Moore, I think he’s been pretty well this year. Uh it’s weird having him, you know, playing left wing for half or right wing for half a game and then switch back to defense. So, it’s kind of hard to judge how he’s been playing the last couple weeks, but when he’s on his game, he’s responsible defensively. But like the overriding or the the majority of the blue line is offensive, defenseman builds. So, like this is kind of what you get when you you have that, especially when those guys that are supposed to be your play drivers are really young. So, um yeah, you’re going to make fun of me, Zach, because we talked about this at the front is is like, hey, I’ve been to I’ve been talking to the other coaches because I’ve been to two freaking games. I’ve covered two games. So, this is just one of the notes I took away from the Vegas game. What did you What did your new best friend Bruce Cassidy say? Yeah. No, Cassidy was talking because I asked Cassidy. I said, “Did you expect the Ducks to be this far improved this early?” And he kind of gave a a multi-round answer the way Bruce kind of does, but he was talking about how he’s like number two, number 51 are involved in every offensive play. And basically what he the back end of his comment was basically you got to re those guys back in because they’re defenseman and you’re playing them as upfront, not upfront defenseman, you’re playing them as forwards. Um, and he said, you know, that’s what Joel does and that’s what Joel is known for offense and obviously the Ducks offense has taken so many strides forward. But basically, you know, your biggest rival in the Pacific at this point at this day and age is Vegas and Cassidy saying, “Hey, you got to bring those guys back. You got to re them in.” Um, I don’t think he was BSing any I don’t think he was trying to get in Joel’s head. I don’t think he was trying to BS anybody. I think he was legit. Is you’ve got to bring these guys back. The numbers I You guys are on top of the analytics. I should have just sent you my freaking notebook about all that. But something I noticed, uh, Jackson Lome right now ninth in defensive zone giveaways. Um, now obviously he’s way up on the leaderboard of takeaways. Uh, giveaways, he’s right around averageish on the league, but defensive zone giveaways, he is ninth. Uh, surprisingly tied with Zack Winsky, which a very good defenseman, but some of that is ice time, some of it’s not. But you you pay this guy top dollar, right? You pay him top dollar, you pay him for an extended period of time. Jackson Lome has been pretty I I want to say unnoticeable, but almost noticeably bad. Um and it’s eye test stuff, it’s eyewatch stuff, but yeah, you know, the number when you’re top 10 in defensive zone giveaways, it doesn’t matter what your ice time is. It’s you got to improve that and you got to be better defensively when you are paid as a a D1, you know, number one D. Yeah. Well, luckily for him, his extension doesn’t kick until next year. So, he that’s And luckily for him and luckily for him, that uh extension turns into more like a second pairing defenseman after three years and the cap goes all the way up. So, yeah. No, Jackson, his strength is his calm and his poise. But when that goes too far, it becomes laxidasical, right? Where it’s he’s he’s just chilling. He’s got the puck. He’s looking around and then he’ll just give it up. And you’re like, Jackson, you got to move the puck, dude. And he’s he’s very even keel like he I I tried to ask like, “How have you felt about your your your individual defensive play lately?” And he’s just like, “Yeah, you know, I think uh we’re we’re working well and we’re working hard.” It’s like, okay, okay, great. Um, the the giveaways and specifically these zone exits have just been way too casual and that leads to those turnovers on the wall. It leads to the puck not getting over the blue line. It leads to being hemmed in your zone for too long. And they were doing that last year, too. But last year, they would get hemmed into the zone for far far too long. And now they’re at least the defensive scheme allows them to eventually exit the zone um in a in a timely fashion. Uh they they usually get out on the second try rather than the fourth or fifth try like it like it was last year. Um yeah, I I there needs to be some sort of urgency installed in these defensive because we we mentioned that they’re all sort of offensively minded guys. The problem is when they’re not being aggressive and not just like going, then when they try to play it too slow, then they get caught. Uh like Jackson is at his best when he’s skating in transition, when he’s almost a fourth forward kind of cutting in. Uh Pavl Minsikov, same thing. Olen Zelwagger, Olen Zelwagger is practically a forward at this point. Uh yeah, but you know these these guys have to be able to jump up into the play and play aggressive. And I think that’s where Jax when Jackson falters, it’s when he’s trying to be a little too calm and run too much at his own pace rather than, you know, jump in with everybody else and and push. Also doesn’t help that again with the way that the scheme is, the forwards kind of jump the zone quickly a lot. And so if he’s not getting the puck up to them quickly and you’re kind of waiting, if you turn the puck over, then you’re stuck. And that and that’s another thing. But, you know, there’s there’s some fine margins with the way they play. It’s just you got to make sure you’re on the right side of those margins. And I I think a big difference on this is we’re treating the Ducks like Pacific Division favorites. Yeah, we’re not treating them the way that we’ve treated them the last half decade. We’re not saying, “Hey, gun ho, go get 500, boys.” It’s like, “No, no, no, no. You, you guys are at this stage. You have proven that you can go win the division, so go do it.” And this is what you need to do to Yeah. It’s not It’s not Hey, good good job out there. It’s okay. It’s dramatically important. We’re not not like not hoping that we make the playoffs, but expecting it. Yeah. And I don’t I’m going to go back to the Cassidy thing is and Zach, you can make fun of me all you want because like I said, I’ve covered two Ducks games. It’s just that Cassidy is a freaking man. I love that he was able to talk about what he talked about and he was just saying NHL insider Taylor Blake Ward. Yeah, that’s what uh PHWA baby. Um uh Cassie was just saying he’s like it’s still 82 games. That’s like you know like yeah it’s a copout. It’s a cliche. It’s all this but yeah you got to make it 82 on this. So maybe this is the dud period, right? Maybe this is where you dud, but you got to pick back up. You got to pick and we’re going to treat the Ducks from now on like Pacific Division favorites. Uh you know, obviously Vegas is still the favorite and they have their own goalie issues they got to worry about, but they’re sorting through it, right? Uh they’ve got their own defensive issues. So there’s no one in the Pacific that is going to be stringing away. I mean, even this morning, we we were talking about it before we jumped on. The Kings already have different coaching rumors and they’re strictly rumors but different coaching rumors, right? Edmonton’s awful. We already talked about that. San Jose is uh actually I I want to get you guys opinion on this. Actually, I was talking to a friend of mine. Um San Jose has nothing to lose, right? If if San Jose finished last in the NHL, you blink an eye at it? Not really. They are scary, man. I would not want to play San Jose for a team that has absolutely nothing. Yeah, they’re I mean they’re coming back down to earth a little bit in the last couple weeks as well. Uh because for you know for the volatility of the young players that the Ducks have, it’s even more so if you’re if you’re San Jose. Um so I they they have so many more structural issues too that just sort of Yeah. No, I just I I just they’re just a team I would not want to play. Yeah. But you have nothing to lose. Certainly offensively dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. Calgary’s got a lot to lose. Calgary’s Calgary is badgal. I picked Calgary to be my surprise team and they’ve been horrible. They’ve been horrible. Calgary is just bad. Yeah. Well, and I picked Vancouver to be a playoff team and that is stupid bias. I suppose I wasn’t trying to be by I wasn’t be I wasn’t biased at the time. I picked Vancouver, too. I looked very stupid. I looked very stupid. So, I picked Vancouver, too. I’ll live with that. No, the D the Ducks have the reason the Ducks are in first place like for all the good that they’ve done. The reason that nobody else has overtaken them is becausebody everybody else has way more problems to that they’re dealing with at this point. Like Vegas in on paper Vegas should be in first and Edmonton should be in that. They have more they have a higher points percentage than the Ducks now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s but no one looks good in the Pacific right now. It’s entertaining. The Ducks look good. That’s about I mean other than this last week and a half they look good. So, um, yeah, like like we said, it’s it’s it’s these these are the learning moments of the season. Like, you you prove that you’re like good enough to be considered for playoff contention and all that, and now you’re going to hit these bumps in the road. And it’s it’s as as I’ve said plenty of times elsewhere, and as the players and coaches have too, it is all about how you respond. Like, particularly this week, like you have Wednesday’s game, what do you do the next one? And these are the ups and downs of that a young team has to learn how to be a successful franchise, how to be a consistent winner. And that doesn’t come overnight. Despite all the early success, that is not going to happen immediately. There is a process to this. And this is part of that process still for as long as it’s been. I think Jack has used the the Rocky cliche, the it’s how many times can you get punched and get back up or whatever it was what’s the Rocky cliche that you use? It wasn’t just from Rocky. It’s just from something my coach has always talked about. It’s like you’re going to get punched in the face. What do you do about it? Yeah. And I’ve used the cliche, you got to win the games that you’re not going to win and you can’t lose the games that you’re there. You got to win some of the games you’re going to lose and you got to win the games that you’re got to win. And so we’ve gone through our cliches, our copouts. Ducks, this point you’re you’re out of copouts. You’re out of cliches. You got to play you got to playoff brand hockey. So, uh, anything else on the Ducks, guys? Um, you guys stole all my analytical notes, so I don’t know what to do. I’m I’m drawing a blank here. I could tell you all about Bruce Cassidy. Everything he’s got. I mean, like you said, my new best friend. Uh, Muel Granland back in the lineup tonight. That’ll be a huge thing for again from in terms of this team bouncing back and maybe getting more defensively responsible. Uh, him him coming back in the lineup will be huge. He’s missed 16 of the last 17 games. It almost it’s hard to know like how he fits back in. Uh but he was he was hitting a stride right when he got injured the first time. Well, so and another thing about that that that you and I talked about there, like yes, Russ Johnson has a place uh with this organization. I just don’t know if he has a place on the ice. Six is is so competitive right now. It is. It is tough. Like there’s nothing wrong with Ryan Paling. There’s nothing wrong with Ross Johnson. There’s nothing wrong but like you don’t want to give those guys the ice time you’re giving them. Right. Yeah. I Ros Ross has been surprisingly good. Like he’s been surprisingly effective at what he’s been asked to do. Well, so is Jansen and so is Ryan. Like but I mean Paling should be in the lineup for sure. Yes. I Nearto Reno is now being scratched for a third straight game tonight and I that’s one I don’t agree with at all. Makes no sense. Uh I don’t like that Sam Kangelo got sent down when he did. I he again should be playing on that fourth line. But, you know, I the fact that they had to like when you when when uh sorry when when Stro what got healthy scratched the last couple nights and then when Granlin was hovering around being coming back, I kept looking at the lineup and saying, I don’t know how they’re actually going to put this together in a compet way because for the fourth line tonight, Alex Kin is on the fourth line and like the forward depth is is a good thing to have, but it it pushes out like Korn should always be in the lineup. Just, you know, whatever people think of him, he should be in the lineup. And so when you get to start pushing around the edges, the fact that you’re still giving Ross Johnson ice time, as you said, is kind of a detriment. Even if he has been good, you should be playing Nikita Nestero over You should Well, and Kangelo is the one that I think is that that feels like a big mistake. And and maybe it’s just because he can go down there. I don’t know. But um yeah, I mean Granlin moves the needle one step you know down, right? Korn to the fourth line which I think Alex Korn is is a perfect third fourth you know third fourth guy. Um, Frank Vronado obviously has not had the year that he’s he should be putting up. Uh, Frank, you know, there there’s improvements on this roster that can be done. And Jack, you mentioned it. Trade deadline might be very fun when it comes to the Ducks. Um, but there’s some improvement with this roster to turn them into something. I think I’m I No, I just I I want to build on that. I like the the trade deadline will be interesting because there are there are extra pieces now like when the roster is full and complete the Ducks clearly have extras and what do you do with that to either bolster your lineup, open up a spot, do whatever because this is also for as much as we’re excited about, hey trying to make a playoff run this year, this is a still a long-term project too. So, what what spaces do you need to clear out or open up for the guys that are in San Diego that deserve to have their their spots here either this year or, you know, definitely next year, whether it’s Kangelo or Tristan Luno or whomever. Like, there’s there’s movement to be had when when this team gets uh gets looking into the long term. We keep talking about the early stages of the season, too. We’re getting into the past the third mark this season, right? We’re over a third of the way into the season at this point. Realistically, I mean, there’s only five teams under 500 on on the points percentage right now. I would say those are the only five teams that you could on, you know, pencil out of a playoff spot at this stage. And St. Louis, Nashville, Vancouver, Calgary, and then Buffalo in the East. And in all honesty, I don’t even know if I’d pencil out Buffalo. So, it’s like there’s a lot of teams that are still at least flirting with a playoff spot to a degree um that I would, you know, I like I’d buy now. I’d start pulling away from those. I’d start, you know, I’d start buying from the sellers real fast because the sellers are not going to come. Yeah. I I I don’t know if anybody’s gonna do anything until after the Olympics, honestly. Oh, come on, man. You don’t believe that Kefir Sherwood is going to bring back a Ducks firstrounder? I Come on, man. So, the reunion. Yeah, Michael Michael Bubé put that if you guys get a chance, go look up Michael Boué’s opinion on Kucks on on the Canucks on Frank Sarali on on a lot of things. Yes, on that. It’s beautiful. Uh Michael Bubé is a beautiful man. Good good good man. Good Canadian. Um Jack, anything left on the Ducks that you you got? I don’t think so. I think we’ve hit everything. Okay, let’s uh let’s carry on then. Um anime night tonight. Get excited, you know. Okay, so one last hockey thing here, right before we get to weekend plays. I’m going to go to the the Ontario Ring game tomorrow. I’ve always preached that minor league sports are like family affordable. They’re great. All these things 40 freaking dollars for Top Bowl a ticket. 40 a pop, dude. Ontario Rain used to be like 350 for a season season tickets and that was AHL included, not ECHL days. Like what the hell? Like what? Ontar Rain, what are you doing, man? But I got to go get my Taylor Ward fix either way. So, um let’s talk Los Angeles Angels. Uh they made a couple of signings. Uh one of some notoriety. Um we’ll just go through the ones that that don’t really make a whole lot of notoriety. Uh they did make some minor league deals. Uh brought back Sandy Gastone. Um hard throwing, right-handed reliever, hard throwing is the hard throwing with good stuff and that’s about it. He can’t throw strikes, but uh might see some depth chart stuff in the near future. Gustavo Campro, everyone’s pretty much familiar with Gustavo Campo at this point. They brought him back on a mighty league deal after non uh not tenering him. and uh you know um former Braves um he pitched in the playoffs for the Braves I guess is what I wouldn’t say playoff hero but pitched in the playoffs with the Braves uh gave the Braves a really good 2021 season 22 season I can’t remember which one but uh hasn’t really been much of anything other than that uh so those are the minor league signings um so those are the minor league signings uh that have occurred Uh the big one obviously Alec Manoa um Alec Manoa to a $15 million contract. Does that sound right Jack? 1.95. Yeah. 1.195 or 1.95 million contract. Uh two and a half times the league minimum. Um Alec Mano obviously a former all-star. Um saw his control just evaporate overnight. uh went from all-star to can’t throw strikes uh to lack of performance and some you know behind the scenes stuff that that went public that was not good. Um and then obviously kind of had short success uh in 2024 before going down with Tommy John surgery. Um we were not able to talk to Perry yet. That will happen at winter meetings. Um so we’ll find out a little bit about his health, a little bit of his contract. um talking to someone in the organization they said this is they said yes the money is 1.95 because we were talking about the uh the pitching market what we were talking about last episode where top of the market’s going to cost you 24 million which Dylan cease at 30 million is insane and Cody Pon at $10 million a year for three years is insane but uh he said basically equate the 1.95 million to what is essentially a minor league you could be contract um so that was kind of a an interesting note Um, Jack, your thoughts on Alec Manoa? If you care about the minor league signings, go ahead and throw it on in there. Yeah, I’m just going to talk about Alec Manoa just cuz it’s the headliner in quotation marks. Um, it just kind of feels like a very angel signing. Take a flyer on a guy who uh was once really good and then has kind of u taken steps back over the last few years. Um, obviously coming back from Tommy John surgery in 2024. He pitched uh was it nine uh starts this past year in the miners in rehab. Uh seven of them in uh AAA Buffalo where he had a 297 array but you know seven seven starts so it’s a small sample size. Um, and I couldn’t find any like pitch tracking data from those seven starts, which was interesting. But, um, you know, when you look at his Fang Grass page, every single year in the big leagues, his stuff plus went down with every single pitch. U, so that’s not a great sign. Hopefully that the Tommy John clears some of that stuff up and helps him regain some of his uh, pitchability. Uh, but, you know, I’m not expecting much from Alec Manoa. Uh I don’t think he’s going to, you know, all of a sudden regain his uh 2022 self where he was a Sai Young finalist. Um you like you said, it’s more or less a minor league deal just because of the money and the the the nature of the uh starting pitching market. So I’m not going into this with high expectations. you know, I’m not expecting a bounce back from from Alec Manoa. If he can, you know, I don’t know, chip in, you know, a few starts at the big league club and be serviceable. I guess that’s a win for the Angels. Uh, but I just for me, I I I think I would expect him to spend the majority of the season down in maybe AAA or or just down in the minor leagues in general. I don’t think he’s really going to contribute much. Um, so I don’t really have any uh, you know, flaming takes from this signing. Fair enough. What are you looking for on um on the data for uh, I just want to see the VO. The VO. VO VO VO. Here we go. Fastball. Uh, average fast ball velocity yearly average 933. So that’s even lower then. A little bit. little bit, but that’s uh yearly average at the well, this is the last start of the season. He was averaging 90.5 on the fast ball. 90 90.5 and sinker and sinker and four seam. Um yeah. Uh good amount of whiffs though. 60% whiff rate. That’s pretty solid on strikes. On strikes on strike on the sinker. Yeah. Um uh baseball savant. Take the minor league. Take the min box score the last six digits. put it in the h um yeah no I mean reclamation project is is a is probably the the term that everyone’s going to use um but realistically I think if Alec Manoa is starting a game for you this year I mean I’m probably going to go with the cliche is either Alec Manoa is has proven that he’s very good again or uh or you’re in trouble. Um, I mean, I I don’t think there’s a middle ground there is uh if Alec Mano is starting multiple games for the Angels, there’s an issue if or or you guys are hellbound going to the playoffs, man, because Alec Mano is the saving grace at under $2 million. Um, yeah, I I I think Alec is is an interesting, you know, it’s a good depth arm. I mean, it’s they brought in Dakota Hudson last year, right? And uh Carter Brogden was a depth move last year that that just got a big league deal. Um, I think this is the start of that. I don’t think it’s a a a notably significant move of the needle in any direction. I don’t think it it made the Angels worse. I think it improved a little bit of their depth. Like you said, I think Salt Lake maybe got a little bit better with this one. Uh, maybe. Um, uh, one thing I would I do want to note, uh, Eric Manoa, uh, Alex’s brother, Eric Monoa Jr. did pitch in the Angels organization. He was traded, he was involved in the Fernando Solace trade. Uh he was a one for one for Fernando Solless back in 2018 or 19 or something like that and he pitched an Angels or for a while. Uh his last pitch in the Angels or was actually a fast ball to someone’s face. He was suspended for pitch after that in professional baseball which is ironic because Alec Manella famously hit Taylor Ward in the face and ended his was it 23 season? Yeah. Yeah. It was the only one he was under 150 games or whatever it was. Um, no. I mean, um, good family. I mean, I got to know Eric over time. Um, I’ve met Alec once talking about Eric and good family. Um, obviously some off- field things that have like let’s just bring him to light is when Alec was uh optioned to TripleA, he he decided not to show up, right? He said, “No, I I don’t want to do that.” Uh, and there was some attitude stuff that was going on when it came to Alec at that time. Um, everything I’ve heard since then, uh, between what John Schneider has said, what teammates have said, seems like a good dude. Seems like it was just a weird time in his life where, uh, sometimes when when the professional athlete faces failure for the first time, uh, they don’t respond well. Um, that’s why you’d like to see guys kind of fail at points in their career before they get to the the pinnacles of their career. So, um, Zack, any thoughts on on the Alec Manoa signing? Um, anything that you can think of that I could pull up the whiteboard. We could pull up the whiteboard animation, start playing with it. I mean, like like Jack said, it’s kind of like a typical angel move of of recent of you take a flyer and low risk, potentially high reward if things work out. But like it’s it’s not a needle mover, you know? It’s I mean you can’t take a flyer when you’re looking for an answer, right? And that’s how this felt is like like failing the test is you took a flyer. That’s how you fail the test. And this feels so we we talked about, you know, how are they going to use the money that they’re getting from, you know, freeing up Renon and whatever or the Taylor Ward trade. It’s just like this isn’t this this isn’t the move like and I I you know I don’t I don’t want to like go off on it because it’s just it’s just sort of it’s a move. It is not a needle mover move. It’s it’s it’s a move to do something but it’s not like you said. What if the cost of a seventh or eighth starter in your rotation cost you $2 million? Like what what if we’re getting that? What if we’re not looking into the market enough? Right? We mentioned all in the last show, $24 million for for whatever, right? Dylan C’s got 30. Um, what if it cost you $2 million to bring in a guy to fill in a triple AAA? Because that’s the thing. The biggest thing with all this, and I think this is the point that we’re making. If Alec Manoa is part of the Angels rotation, if he is penciled in even as part of the Angels rotation, it’s a problem. It’s a substantial problem. and the winner has already gone haywire. I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think that’s the case. I think they’re still going to go look for pitching and we’ll touch on that in five minutes here because we’re gonna Yeah, we’re going to spread a fire. Like you said, if if he’s if he’s in camp and you know, maybe he lights it up and you’re like, “Oh, hey, surprising that he’s he’s here, but hey, he earned it.” Sure. But you if he’s one of the top five right now, then that’s then a problem. If he’s your sixth reliever, too, that’s not an issue. We don’t know. Maybe he brought maybe he was brought in for relief. Once we talk to Perry, there’s a little bit more that we can give on this, but yeah. So, um, anything more on that? Alec Manola or, uh, Gustavo Campo? You guys aren’t excited. Gustavo Camper is back. Come on. It’s good, dude. Team Colombia, WBC, baby. Sure. Good. Good people. Um, sure. Thanks, man. I mean, you know, again, any anything that’s been part of this last decade of Angels baseball, if any of that is bringing it back for the good feelings, like that’s just not does not appeal to me as a as a consumer. It should. Um, winter meetings coming up next week. Um, just quick hit this stuff. Um, obviously winter meetings is usually where things happen. Uh, you know, Jan Sodto signed last year during the winter meetings. show Otani signed her the winter meetings. You know, these things happen, right? Um I don’t know if I expect the Angels to be one of the things that happens. Um if you’re looking for rumors, we got one. We got one. So, I’ll just hit on it. Um you guys both got Did you Did I call you, Zach, asking for agency information? No. Okay. So, Jack, you’re aware of this. Um, I I called a few people looking for an agent because I got a rumor sitting in my lap, but I’m just going to spew it out there. Seems like the Angels have interest in Mike Sarroka. Uh, it would be another recommendation project. It would be a short-term deal. Um, still trying to confirm it through the club and an agency. Have not. So, take it for what it is. Um, I’m I’m spitting out rumors. That’s what the podcast is for, right? We’re rumor mill. But no, uh, Angel seemed to have interest in in Mike Srooka, which makes a lot of sense. Uh, Srooka was with the Braves, had a lot of success with the Braves when Barry was there. Um, so take that for what it’s worth. Um, you really sold me with short-term liquor reclamation project. That’s go look at his numbers, dude. Go look at his numbers. It’s it’s it’s purely reclamation. It’s strikingly similar to Alec Manoa. Well, and that’s what I mean. Let’s just go full transparency on this. Jack, I called you asking if you had if you had a connection with ISC because that’s who Mike Soka is with, etc., etc., right? Um, I got the information from a different agency. That’s why I did not confirm this this story. Uh, but that agency that called me had a player very similar to uh Mike Sroka, guy that probably needs some reclamation. He’s young. He’s one of the younger guys on the market. Um, etc., etc. he’s had past success, you know, high level success, etc. So, I don’t know if I’m getting crowdsourced. I don’t know what. And that’s, you know, full transparency, I don’t know if I’m getting crowdsourced, but, you know, it it was enough. It’s it’s a reliable enough agent to at least say, you know what, Angel seem to have interest in Mike Sroa. If either that or or we’re getting crowdsourced and BSE, which is fine, whatever. But I don’t think that’s the case. So, I don’t know if Mike Sro is going to sign with Angels, but it seems like there’s at least interest on a short-term deal. So fair to take you guys behind the curtain. How exciting was that? What a what a thrilling life. What a thrilling life we live here at the Sporting Tribune in Wigala. Um the other items, let’s see, MLB draft lottery is coming up. The Angels cannot pick any higher than 12th this year uh for multiple reasons on that front. Um so 12th is what it’s going to be. Um sorry thumbs up and yay. Uh, so we’ve got the MLB draft lottery. The highest the Angels can pick is 12th. Um, and they can fall to 15th at a maximum. I do not expect that by any means because that would mean someone from pick with the five lowest odds of the lottery would move into the top three, which has happened. Um, but I don’t think all three could happen. So, what uh what four-year college pitcher are they going to select at the 12 overall right now off the top of my head? Yeah. What what s going back going right back to the gauchos, baby. Go get Jackson Flora. I if Liam I think Liam Peterson’s a pretty special one, but I don’t think he’s going to be available. This is a really fun and and good draft class. Um but we can dive into that heavily. That’s another issue that we’re going to have to deal with in the future is that Zach, you’re aware of that. I will be probably covering the draft from 35,000 ft, which is going to be really fun. And we’ll talk about that when it gets there. But, um, Liam Peterson’s a fun arm down in Florida. Uh, Jackson Flora is a really, really fun arm if he can find a third pitch because he can throw strikes with two really good pitches. Um, if you’re unfamiliar with that, that’s the Sam Boxman. Sam Bachmann M, except Sam Bachmann is like six feet and Jack Floor is like 6’8. So, um, yeah, I I think Jackson Floor is fun. Liam Peterson’s a guy um I don’t know you want a quick moving bat too I can give you a quick moving bat position of need again is he is he going to play in the major leagues in the the next two years because that’s that’s what the Angels do right a AJ Gracia man Virginia Virginia left fielder he cannot play center before you ask no he cannot play center he can play left uh I don’t even think he can play right honestly might be a first baseman but AJ Gracia quick moving back so Um, MLB. Uh, speaking of drafts up, rule five. Uh, Jack, did you do any homework on it? I did. Nice. Way to go. All right, let’s go to our rule five draft preview appear at the sports room and Jack James. You want to just run through the names? I don’t get whatever you want. So, I I I did uh just do quick research. I didn’t do anything like super super in-depth, but I do have some notes on the uh guys that Taylor told me to look out for. one of them. Uh, I don’t know why we’re looking out for these players specifically. I’m assuming the ones that aren’t in the Angels system, look out for them because they might be targets for the Angels. Uh, Jose Rodriguez with your Los Angeles Dodgers for you Dodgers fans at home. Uh, he’s a right-handed reliever, 66, 200 lb. Big boy. Uh, got a fast ball slider and change up Arsenal. His slider and his change up are his best pitches. Fast ball doesn’t really grade out as well. Uh, it’s 96.4 mph. Um, so it it just based on guess it probably doesn’t move much or he doesn’t locate it well. Um, high strikeout guy, 34.1% strikeout rate this year in the miners, but a 14.2% walk rate. So, uh, a lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks. Um, he’s kind of I looks like he’s kind of all over the place. Uh, gives up a ton of fly balls. So, you know, I would assume his big three true outcomes pitcher. a lot of home runs, a lot of strikeouts, a lot of walks. Uh Blake Burke Halter uh with the Atlanta Braves, another right-handed arm. Um he split time in double A and AAA. He was a starter in double A and a reliever in AAA this year. Uh fast ball, cutter, change up, uh and curveball. Uh his best pitches are his fast ball and his cutter. Uh the not a lot of action. He gets a 20.1 uhk percentage. uh 10.3 walk rate, 93.9 VO, not a ton sticking out there. Um and then from the Angels side, I’m assuming you put down the Angels players because they’re targets from other teams that could be picked up. Yeah, I can I can talk about it if you want. Well, I have the same. Yeah, I’m on. No, rule five preview here brought to you by Jack James. Yeah. So, uh Joel Herado with the uh Angels right Oh, hell. Sorry. Helerado uh with the Angels. Yeah. Uh right-handed starting pitcher, mostly in double A this year. Uh fast ball slider change up. His fast ball and a slider. His two best pitches. Um this guy’s a contact guy. Ground ball. Gets a lot of ground balls. 15.5% K uh strikeout rate, 7.3 walk rate. Um 92.3% inzone contact rate. That’s a lot. Uh but he produces a ton of ground balls. um uh almost 97 on the gun. So, you know, he kind of looks like the Jack Ohanoitz type where he doesn’t really walk many guys, doesn’t really strike out many guys, gets a lot of ground balls. And then the other two guys, did you get that report from Baseball America? No, I literally just look I literally just looked at their fangrass page. Oh, man. I wrote the report. Oh, really? I can tell you exactly where he ranks in the Baseball America rankings. Well, no, I can’t. That’s you know. Yeah. Oh, okay. Uh, two more guys. Baseball American Top 30. I will tell you that. There you go. The other two guys are not. The other two guys, uh, Sammy Nutra Jr., did I say that right? Nera, uh, left-handed reliever, mostly in triple A or mostly in double A, excuse me, this year. Another big guy, 6’4, 230. Fast slider change up. His fast ball and a slider again are the best pitches that he’s got. Uh, grading wise. Um, three true outcomes type guy. 34.3 strikeout rate. Uh 16.9 walk rate. That’s a lot. Uh tons of fly balls given up. Um 95 uh on the gun. And then Jared, is it Souard? Southern Southern Southern Jared Southern right-handed reliever. Split time between AAA and Double A this year. Um 25.7 uh strikeout rate, 8.1 walk rate. Pretty average around the board there. Tons of ground balls as well. Uh 95 on VO again. uh fast ball cutter, sinker, slider. So, he probably uses the the cutter and the sinker to get a lot of ground balls. Um get some contact in there. And what did I miss, Taylor, from those? I don’t know. That was good, man. I’m I’m proud of you. That was good homework. I for those uh let’s go back behind the curtain here. Uh I texted Jack last night and during our group chat, he says, “I don’t know what to talk about during real.” So, here’s some names to do your homework. He did a really good job. So, at a point for for Jack, I applause. Um, uh, stick taps. Stick taps. Where’s the producer? We need him. Um, no, just I I that went longer than I thought it would. So, uh, yeah. I mean, the two names I think that are circled when it comes to rule five in general. I think the Angels are on this. I If you’re adding it the rule five, you’ve got a little bit of a 40man issue. I don’t think the rule five is a great place to to start storing away with your 40man. Um, the rule five has done better with production the last half decade. Like like think like think like think like think like think like think like think like think like think like think like every year about half of the players stick with the team. Um but that also means the other half doesn’t. Um it used to be a lot worse. Seems to have gotten better with the scouting and the data. Um but yeah, Jos Rodriguez hard throwing guy. You could start him but a good chance of ever leaving him with two swinging miss pitches. Got to find the zone a little bit more. Uh if the Dodgers can’t figure him out, someone else will. Um Blake Burke Halter, another guy that kind of, you know, just a poor man’s reliever, but fills the back of your bullpen. Um it’s going to cost you 100,000. It’s one of those things where it just kind of cost you $100,000 and if you return, it cost you $150,000 and then you know, whatever the big league status contract is. So whatever on that. Um and yeah, when it comes to Angels guys, it might get picked. I think Herado, I don’t think anyone’s going to pick him. Like you mentioned, this the strikeout rate is so significantly low. Um there was a rumor that he well there was a misstep in the synergy or Hawkeye whatever the the system is saying that he hit 104 this year. No he peaked at 99 so he never hit 104. Um, Simon Terra, lefty fastball specialist. You know, he he throws a fat he’s basically um uh was it that throw that threw 90? No, who’s the lefty that threw 90 or 80 90% fast balls for the last few years? Oh, Jose Can No, not Kana. Uh, Ki Jose Ki. He’s basically a 6’4 6 foot five athletic version of Kihada. Uh, it’s it’s a good fast ball, but it’s okay slider. doesn’t know where it’s going kind of thing. So, he can beat you with, you know, he can beat you, but you can beat him kind of thing, but he’s the prototypical rule five pick. A lot of teams have talked about him at least. Uh, and then Jared Southern, as you mentioned, sinker, slider, cutter guy. Um, pretty high-end slider to misper. Uh, good arm from Texas. Angels actually drafted him twice. Um, they drafted him out of high school and they drafted him in college, too. Uh so very interesting little thing on him. Um and yeah, I mean Southern and Ner are the guys that I think have a shot at getting picked in the rule five, but realistically they’re also both guys that could be back in the Angels organization come May. So kind of Garrick McDaniels type of item. Um Zach, rule five fever. You got it. Need more rule five cowbell. Oh, were you guys talking the last like 10 minutes? No, there is no rule five version of uh it’s called waiver. No, on the hockey market. Yeah, I I I don’t the rule five thing. I’ve just never understood what it is. Very simplistically, it’s so that player so that teams don’t hoard players. It’s if you signed if you signed out of uh what you were 19 or older, you’ve got four years in the minors starting from the time you start playing. You’ve got four years in the minors and then you’re rule five eligible unless you’re added to the 40 man roster. And then for guys that are 19 or younger or 18 or younger, it’s five years and it’s just a hoarding thing. That’s it. And is it just coincidence that I only ever see pitchers talked about for the rule five? No. I’m sure every mean like to give you an idea like the the best rule five picks Johan Santana, Josh Hamilton and um Roberto K which obviously those are very very good rule five but like I think the best one over the last 10 years was Brad Keller and then Ryan Nota was one of the better ones and what Ryan not spent half the year with Salt Lake this last year. Um, Jose, I’m not talking Angels. I’m talking What’s that? Jose’s rule five. Jose Soraniano was rule five, but he got returned because so he went through Tommy John. They threw him. He had an second Tommy John. He had he had three years of arm complications. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean like rule five doesn’t really prod in all honesty, rule five never really produces any value. Um, maybe once every 10 years you get a guy that’s actually like an impact rule five guy. Um, but that’s like not per team. That’s Yeah. And I feel like I always see pitchers getting selected in rule five just because it’s I feel like it’s it’s easy to fill a bullpen. Yeah. Well, that and it’s also easier to look at a guy and be like we can make this adjustment with this guy and see what we can do with him. Right. Well, and it’s also you’re paying him league minimum because he hasn’t been the big leagues for the most part. Well, that’s like the one thing that was weird was and I’ll bring it back to Gustavo Campo. Like there was a a guy that told me he’s like, “Hey, do you know if like Gustavo Cero is bringing back rule five interest?” Because it’s anyone that’s not on your 40man that has the eligibility. So like even though Gustavo Capro has been on the 40man, he’s not on the 40man now. So like technically any team could go pick Gustavo Capro uh next week in the rule five. That’s why a lot of minor league signings don’t happen until after the rule five draft. That’s a big So, but like no, I mean it’s it cost. So, instead of going and paying for a reliever that like a hard you get a veteran guy that throws hard but doesn’t throw strikes, you can get a a green arm that’s going to cost you league minimum and 150 or $100,000 to bring him in. So, that’s what that’s like $900,000 almost a million dollar just to go get a reliever and film in the back end, especially for a bad team. Um, you know, it’s Rule Five is fine. It’s it’s exciting. It’s exciting for the players, but it’s not like a substantial incredible time of year. So, some scouts take it, some pro scouts take it as like their priority job, which I think is awesome. I think it’s really cool. Like, there’s a a guy with the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s like he’s so dedicated to like this guy’s world five eligible. I have to like really key in on him. He might be a guy. I don’t think the Cardinals have made a rule five pick, but like I love it. It’s so cool. Um, last thing, Angel’s Front. Um, international stuff. I I I’ve got I’ll probably throw it. Um, but the world international preview. Uh, Jason Horton still the big name. Um, big name there. Uh, you had Kendrick Fauna. It’s the big pitcher for them. 2026 notebook. Uh, Carlos Castillo, Dominican outfielder, maybe the best pure hitter. the Angels have signed which includes overd and Guzman. So they they really view him highly. And then Anderson Rodriguez Jr. uh some power projection there. His dad played for the Cubs for a while. I think Henry Rodriguez his dad played he was a corner. So um all right guys, five baseball hockey. Anything else that we’re we’re over an hour. Damn it. Thought we’d get this done in an hour. Ah, you know, do you have thoughts on the USA’s World Cup draw from today? What happened? Who are they playing? They’re in the World Cup. Good for them. Well, they’re hosting it, so they they auto I guess that’s reason. Yeah, that’s right. I forgot. We’ll probably have to cover that. Uh yeah, the USA’s group drawn today. They’ll get Australia. Okay. Uh Parag Paraguay beatable. and then uh the winner of the one of the UEFA European playoff spots. So they’ll either be Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, or Kosovo. Likely Turkey. Not winnable. Yeah. Tur Turkey is favored to win that and they’ll probably be the favorite to win the group. Yeah. Who is it? Turkey, Kosovo, and who else? Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, Kosovo. I think Slovakia and Romania would also kick the crap out of the Americans at soccer. I don’t You’re not giving them enough credit. Uh, really not. The US recently beat Australia and Paraguay in the last Yeah, like I said, beatable. I said beatable. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they should they should get out of the group. Good. Good for us. Yeah. Yay. Um, yay. Men’s soccer. Yeah. US. Who’s your Who’s your soccer team? You You’re going You’re gonna go see them in like I’m going Yeah, I’m gonna go to England to see Manchester United. Uh, that’s that’s my club. Yeah, that’s in that’s in April. Luckily, just before the end of the regular season, so I don’t miss anything too big. I hope that the Ducks will clinch a playoff spot before I have to leave. So, that’ll be the only thing I’m worried about uh as we get, you know, later in the year. But yeah, um I have been to a PSG game in Paris and it’s not really like in the Paris that you think of. It’s actually on the west side of Paris in town. Uh, and Edinson Cavani scored a uh yeah, a penalty kick and this young well and this young teenage kid I don’t know he looked like Yazio Puit to me. Uh, he had two goals. His name was Killian Mbappe. So that was fun. Um, no one really knew who he was at the time. He he ended up being okay. Pretty decent. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, best player in the world. Best player in the world. Uh, probably right now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, respect to Ronaldo and Messi for what they were. Yeah. But at this very moment in time, probably Kevin, probably. Yeah. Are you a soccer guy, Jack? Nope. Do you like Do you like it? Like, do you enjoy it at all? Nope. Wow. Okay, fair enough. I I had a a yearly tradition of falling asleep in the gold medal game of whatever World Cup was on because like my my parents would watch it and I just watch it and then next thing I know, I wake up and it’s over. I was like, “Oh, I the only time I’ve I was I was dead dead tired. Like so beat up. Don’t even know why. I can’t remember the reason, but I was so beat up. And it was the goal horn and the broadcast that woke me up. And it was um Alex Martinez. It was a Stanley Cup game winning go.” Oh, Jesus. I crashed. I crashed. I was beat up. So um All right. We’ll talk soccer. We talked uh we got our drag racing fix out of the way last week. We already talked NASCAR before the show. NASCAR is going to split. While we’re on the while we’re on the subject of international play, I will say this is related to this podcast. Uh Eric Nilson and Lucas Peterson uh made team Sweden for World Juniors. Uh both both are Ducks prospects, so shout them out. Um I think they might they might be the only unless Roger McQueen gets pulled out of Providence. Yeah. When do they announce the rest of the rosters? do it in the next week or two. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz Junior starts in like two weeks. Yeah. The day after Christmas, right? Yeah. The the Americans put out their two weeks. The Americans put out their preliminary roster, I should say. One, two, three. Three week three weeks from today. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, always fun. I, uh, Becket Senica likely not going. No. No. I think he’s busy. Yeah, he’s he’s got some things to fill his So much for that, uh, little nineame stint. I the the thing that’s unfortunate is that he never got to go. Oh, that’s because he got That’s not unfortunate. That’s not unfortunate. Well, he got snubbed last year. He should have made the team and then he had an incredible finish and now he’s with the Ducks, which is great, but he’s never going to get to play World Juniors for Canada, which is that’s perfectly fine by me. Yeah. I mean, as as a perfectly fine by me as someone that covers and watches the Ducks. Yeah. It’s awesome, you No, as a as a Swedish American, Swedish Irish American, I’m very happy that Becca Zenica was not on team Canada. The less players on team Canada, the better. I think Derek Derrick Lee of the Hockey News asked Becket about it the other week and Beckett said sort of the same thing. Like I haven’t even thought about it. Like I’m focus on other things. It’s like okay. Obviously, on Jack’s note, well, I’ll just pull a bunch uh seven months from now. Um I will be going to Sweden. I’ll be going to Stockholm. Uh, problem is I will be flying back on the Saturday of the draft and the lovely people over at Major League Baseball decided to move the draft to Saturday instead of Sunday. Uh, so going to be figuring out some draft coverage on that stuff. Fun stuff. Oh, big last note that I forgot about uh during our winter meetings, angels, all that stuff. Um, something people have been asking about. There will be public pitch data. Let me get the words on this. Um, from spring training, TED Diablo will have um blah blah blah blah blah. Pitch tracking data should be publicly available during spring training. Um, at Tempe Diablo Stadium as part of the adjustment to ABS system. So, depending your opinions on ABS, whether you love it, hate it, whatever, uh, it will bring pitch tracking to finally ballparks near you. Um, anything else guys? Like I said, so much for our our hour episode. Hour words. Words are tough. I mean, I don’t think so. All right. I don’t have a dumb question of the week. Oh, how’d you guys do on your Spotify rap on your guesses? Oh, I was spot on. Oh, yeah. No way. Uh, one through five was Chris Stapleton, Jack Johnson, Foo Fighters, Allison Chains, Nirvana. Yo, Joe, dude, you, if I remember right, that’s five for five. I Well, I I said uh I might have had Metallica in there because uh I have a bunch of Metallica on my workout playlist and they’re always on my top five because my workout playlist, but I said I don’t know if Metallica will be in this, but these five I know will. So, you went five. Good on. Um, Zach, how’d you do? Uh, good. Uh, my Apple Music though is um flawed. Uh, for some reason it only has my data from July through the end of the year. Weird. Uh, and then again, like I told you guys, when I plug my phone in my car, it plays the first song alphabetically, right? And so that first song is Aaron Burr from Hamilton, which is fine. I can just, you know, manually most listened to song, right? I can manually like take that out of my brain. The problem is like that screws up my top artists. Yeah. Because what it does is it’s not it doesn’t just say Hamilton cast. It’s Lin Maniranda and Leslie ODM Jr. and this person and this person this person. So my top 10 artists is totally like it’s a mess. Uh like and even like I told you K-pop Demon Hunters was going to be in there and I was right. But the thing that they do is it does it’s not just the K-pop Demon Hunters soundtrack. It’s K-pop Demon Hunters plus the fake band name plus the real person who’s singing that’s in the band. And it’s like you’ve screwed up my music by doing my my list. So I haven’t like shared it publicly because it there’s no way to make it look like presentable. So anyway, but I w I was right that it was Taylor Swift, K-pop Demon Hunters, and um uh what was my other one? I don’t remember. Taylor Swift and K-pop Demon Hunters is like the only things I’ve listened to for months. Gotcha. Mine but like Oh, the other thing it does my Apple Music. So, because I have all these downloaded songs that you’ve just accumulated in your library over the years, it doesn’t count those. So, like all all the time that I listen to Blink182, which is a lot, doesn’t get charted by Apple Music because it’s using my the files that are on my phone and not the streaming service. H Yeah. which is you get Taylor. I went two for five. I I don’t think they I don’t think they tracked my like July after. I really don’t because I my number one was like blatantly obvious and he wasn’t even in my top five. So, uh Zack Bryan apparently was my most listened to, which I thought he’d sneak into the top five, but not my most listened to. And I’ve se I’ve seen people complain that they think that Spotify is like rigging the numbers of their I think. So, I mean, like I I don’t mind Zack Bryan, but like when you think like cuz that’s like Morgan Wallen was the most streamed artist this year. And it’s like I don’t hate Morgan Wallen, but like I I just like like it said that one of my favorite my most listened to songs was a Morgan Wall song. I’m like, no, it I promise you it was not I I would choose not to listen to that song. So, I screwed up my own top songs because uh I would like I have a habit in the gym of like, all right, I need to like really lock in on this set. So, I’ll like find a song to lock in on that set. So, like all my top like 10 songs are just songs I would play in the gym though to get me going. Yeah. So, it’s a lot of like Rage Against the Machine, uh Allison Chains, Nirvana, um Stone Temple Pilots. I did have um one of the baby songs that I play my nephew all the time. Yeah, it was one of my songs and then um I had a Bad Bunny song which I mean I like Bad Bunny but it was like it was just one of the Bad Bunn Bunny Malo Kohito. Um I don’t know. I mean I like Bad Bunny but I don’t think I listen to him that much. So it’s interesting to see that on Honestly I I listen to more podcasts than I do music like proportionally. You mean like Wings on Catella that you can find here on the Sport Network and anywhere you can find podcasts? Yeah, just like that. Yeah. Um All right, let’s wrap it up. We can Oh, uh Zach, how’d you like Zootopia 2? It was good. Yeah, I I think if you like the first movie, you’ll like the second one. It’s um I feel like it hits a lot of the same beats, which is, you know, it seemed a little more confident in this one. Yeah, I It was good. Yeah, it was good. I like like it was funny. It was heartwarming. It’s all It’s all the stuff that you want from it. It just I love the snake. Feels like replacement level Zootopia. I love the snake. I really do. And I don’t know the guy’s I don’t know the guy. What’s his name? Kiwi Quan. Love him. Love him. Yeah. Short short round. Short round. Short round. So dope. Jack, have you seen Zootopia? Have you seen Zootopia? The original? Uh yes, but uh that was how many years ago? And I don’t really remember much. Well, that’s they had the same issue with uh The Incredibles. Like The Incredibles took what 15 years to make a sequel and yeah, it kind of dudded because it wasn’t very good. It was okay. It was all right. But like that’s what they took their time as Zootopian. It’s like, “Oh boy, this is going to be rough.” Then it’s like, “No, it it was fine. It it hit.” So, uh James, what are you doing this weekend? It’s a great question. What am I doing this weekend? I’m I’m home, so no more uh no more Arizona outings for me. Uh so I think Saturday we’re helping my grandma get her Christmas tree and then decorating it that day. I think today I’m going over and putting helping my dad put up the lights and stuff. So just Christmas decorations. Uh Zach, what do you got? Uh our friend’s giving had to get postponed from November, so we’re doing that on Saturday. Uh I uh I’m uh in charge of our drink. We’re doing a different format this year. We normally do like pairs like do a bunch of dishes, but this year we split into two teams. So it’s more like uh like the girl is who who’s organizing it base it on a specific like Food Network type show. I don’t know what it is. Yeah. But uh I’m making a a caro if you know what that is. It’s like a I’d call it like a a Spanish espresso Spanish espresso martini sort of situation. Yeah. So, it’s um I hope it’s cold brew uh with uh liquor 43. Uh and then you can put tequila on top of it. Yeah. 43. Huh. Oh, by the way, 43. Shout out to Thomas Murray. Um the 67 nonsense. him and I both have a response to it now. So, we’re saving that for the next show. That sounds fun. Yeah. Can I come? Uh, yeah. If you want, you can be our one of the judges. Oh, yeah. We We have We have a a respplendant spread of uh of things. Our What is our app? Our appetizer. We’re doing like a cranberry honey glazed wings. Uh chicken wings and then uh we’re doing a panetta hash hand pie situation and then a uh flank steak pin wheelel rouad uh and uh and then a coffee cake sort of thing. Jack, you and I are not going to go help grandma. We’re going to eat, dude. we’re going to judge and that’s just that’s just our team. I don’t know what the other side’s doing. They we we don’t share that stuff ahead of time. They’re not listening. But So, you’re releasing confidential information? Yeah. I’ll tell Zas to hold off on on release for this one. I am. I mean, as long as it’s, you know, tomorrow. I mean, everybody’s already bought the stuff. If I wasn’t if I wasn’t covering the game tonight, I’d be at my friend’s house doing, you know, prep work where everyone’s like chopping all the vegetables the day beforehand. That’s boring. Um, yeah, it’s an all all day uh fest tomorrow. So, well, sadly, I will be going to a hockey game, getting my Taylor Ward fix on, going to go see the Ontario Rain play the Calgary Wranglers. Yeah. Um, doing it for fun, date night. So, that’d be fun. Then, we got a friend. So, I mean, where where you sit for fun is the same place that we sit for press. So, it’s not That’s fine. I’m okay with that. I like sit I enjoy sitting on top. Yeah. I like I like upper bowl. Actually, no, we are sitting lower bowl. We’re sitting lower bowl, but I like sitting upper. I’ve always like Ontario’s not a bad barn. It’s good. It’s a good spot. Yeah, gets loud on a weekend. It’s Star Wars night, so it’ll, you know, it’ll be loud. It’ll be So, uh, December the 5th be with you. Did Are you the one like Zack? I know you’re Star Wars like obsessive. You’re Star Wars obsessive, Jack. Star Wars. Do you like it? Uh, I’ve never really given it a shot. All right, fair enough. I’m middling with it. It’s enjoyable. So, check it. A League of Their Own is on Netflix, by the way. Go watch it. It’s the best sports movie. Um, might be the best movie ever. Uh, on that note, uh, sort out there. Uh, I’m Taylor Blake Ward for the Sports Tribune. Uh, you can find Jack and Zach the Sports as well. Ducks, Angels coverage. Uh, let’s get out of here. uh for for our producer uh Thomas Murray said that he’s sick. Hopefully we’ll have him back next episode. Get better, Thomas. And we love you. And uh that’s it. Let’s get out of here. Yeah. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye. Have a good day and weekend, etc., etc., etc. Where the hell is the stop recorder?

Wings on Katella, presented by The Sporting Tribune, had Taylor Blake Ward, Zach Cavanagh, and Jack Janes on this week’s episode. The guys discuss the woes that have been at the goalie position for the Anaheim Ducks, and discuss some other areas on defense that they could be better at. On the baseball side of things, the guys discuss Anthony Rendon’s potential buyout into retirement with the Angels and discuss the signing of pitcher Alek Manoah.

0:00 Introduction
3:14 Angels and Anthony Rendon trying to work a buyout
19:45 Ducks goalie situation
28:23 Ducks defensive woes
50:04 Angels sign Alek Manoah and make some minor league signings
1:16:43 Angels international Signings
1:17:34 USA World Cup draw