Los Angeles Angels SWEEP SEASON SERIES vs. Dodgers 6-0! Zach Neto ENDS Shohei Ohtani! TALKIN’ TRASH!

Los Angeles Angels SWEEP SEASON SERIES vs. Dodgers 6-0! Zach Neto ENDS Shohei Ohtani! TALKIN’ TRASH!

On this episode of Locked on Angels, I am I am speechless. I am without speech. The Angels 6 and0 against the Dodgers. The Angels 15 come from behind wins this season. And our buddy Logan Hoppy wins the game for the Halos last night. Man, we got a lot to talk about and we’re going to talk about it today. I’m Mike. That’s John. We’re the Super Halo Bros. And this is Locked on Angels. You are Locked On Angels, your daily Los Angeles Angels podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You’re in the right place. Thanks for making Locked On Angels your first listen of the day. You can find us anywhere you get your podcast, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, and SiriusXM by searching Locked On Angels. And if you’d like to give back to the Super Halo Bros. For all the Super Halo content, here’s some things that you can do. Leave us a rate and a review on Apple Podcast. Hit that thumbs up and subscribe button on YouTube. And while you’re here, leave a comment. One of the best ways to get in touch with us and be a part of the conversation. And this episode of Locked On Angels is brought to you by Monarch Money. You can take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use our promo code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. And because Logan walked it off last night, you should come to the second annual Logan Hoppy All-Star Bowl. You can join us Sunday night, September 7th. Help support the YMCA of Orange County. When you get your tickets, click that episode link the in the description. Click that link right now and put Halo Bros when you’re checking out so that you can get a discount. You’re welcome. Come bowling with Logan Oppoy, Mike, and John of Locked on Angels. Going to be a great time. We got to get this out of the way. What’s on your face right now? What are you, Nelly? I uh had some had some work done, John. Oh. Oh, little Botox. Is that got You got to take care of the money maker. No, I had a little, you know, you get older, you get a little little things on your face and you got to make sure it’s not cancerous, you know, something dangerous like that. Yeah. So, nobody make fun of him in the comments. It could have been cancer. It could have been cancer. It wasn’t. I’m all good. Everything’s good. And I guess uh I’m going to have this patch on my face for a little bit. There we go. That’s fine. That’s all right with me. Thanks for being here for this episode of Locked on Angels, where it’s your team every day. You’ve got the Fresh Brothers here. My name is John. That’s my brother Mike. The audio side’s going, “What’s on Mike’s face?” My name is Mike, and that’s my brother John. We are the Super Halo Bros and we are celebrating just a delicious nutritious so good for you if you’re an Angels fan sweep. In fact, Mike, uh, with this sweep that makes this just too sweet. So good. That’s what I’m talking about. Look, I know we always have our takeaways. We always have the things that we got to get to, but can we just can we just crap talk for the next 30 minutes? Absolutely. grief. The Angels win this one six to five. They come back down five to2. In fact, it was show Otani on the mound and oh my gosh, what can’t he do? Well, he can’t go five innings. And that’s what happened in this one. And so, he’s not he’s not on my favorite team anymore. So, I’m going to let the the insults fly. I don’t care. Get them in Scatton. Here we come. Get in the comments, nerds. You Dodger fan nerds. You you Otani obsessed nerds. I don’t care who you are. Bring it on. You’re just a bunch of trolls and I’m sick and tired of it. And we swept the Dodgers season series 6 nothing. Who cares if you’re a billion-dollar corporation. My team’s got fight. My team’s got heart. I’ll take Zach Neto. I’ll take Nolan Showell. And I’ll take freaking Logan O’Hning with a two out, two strike, two-run RBI with the bases loaded to get this one done. Mike, six to five. Oh, it tastes so good. It’s gonna be so sweet to talk about. John, here’s the first takeaway. Let’s take you back to the beginning of this game. Kyle Hendricks started this game. Didn’t last very long. He lived and died on the change up last night. So, he gave up six hits. Five came on the change up, but he also struck out four hitters. Three came on the change up. Here’s what I noticed. The Dodgers had a really good game plan, and it was obvious. Lay off the fast ball, attack the off speed stuff. And they did that, especially in the top of the first inning. three runs, four hits off of Kyle Hendrickx. Then uh after Kyle Hendris got out of that inning, luckily he allowed just one single and then he got the next six hitters out. But then top of the fourth, he lost it again. Gave up a single to the leadoff hitter, walked the next batter. After getting one out, he walks Otani to load the bases and then they take him out. He threw 86 pitches in three and one-thirds innings. His second shortest outing of the season. And remember his last really bad outing when he went just three innings was against the Twins back in April. Gave up seven runs. Last night he gave up six hits, five runs, three walks, four Ks, but I don’t even remember the start, John, because it felt like it was centuries ago and how this game was just back and forth and up and down. Yeah, it it was centuries ago ago, Mike, because it didn’t matter at the end of the day. And neither did Show Otani start because the Angels handed him just f handled him just fine. It was the second takeaway. They got to him in the second inning and the fifth inning. In the second, Taylor Ward took him deep with his 29th home run of the season. This was brought up to us by an everydayer on Instagram, and I’ll make sure that we bring this up for fan mail Friday tomorrow, but Taylor Ward, he’s going to get some MVP votes being the second most with RBI’s in the American League and going to have a 30 plus home run season. He’s not going to win it, but he’s going to get votes. Yeah. And now I feel like I need to take back everything I ever said about Taylor Ward. I know the defense is infuriating sometimes, but look on paper, you got this guy with some MVP votes. Uh, it was right center field, 97 mph, right down the middle, and then the Angels played situational baseball, which I love. Mata doubles after Ward’s home run. It moves Joe uh Joel moves him to third on a fly ball to center. Ranifo hits a sack fly to score Manata. More of that, please. Can we this kind of baseball? They’ve been playing a better brand of baseball. They’ve been doing that kind of stuff. They got two more against Otani in the bottom of the fifth with one out. Oh, and Tito Osio single. Zach Nell Zach Neto follows with an AR left field. I’m so excited. John, John, take a breath. Take a breath. Game. Um, and here’s the thing. With runners in scoring position, Zach Neto is slashing 313, a 410 on base, a 522 slugging percentage, and a 932 OPS. And Otani went just four and a third innings, five hits, four runs, his worst start ever at Angel Stadium. It’s funny, it never happened when he was on the Angels. And I don’t know, Mike. It seems like uh the blue is bringing you down. They ruined him. They ruined Otani. That’s great. Now, here’s the thing. That Netto double was huge because it knocked Otani out of the game. It was the longest he’s gone in a game this season. It was 80 pitches for Otani. It was a lot. So, it was another good performance against another really good pitcher by the Halos hitters. Otani allowed only five runs in his first eight starts, but he allowed four last night. What a shame. What a shame. Third takeaway, John. The Angels bullpen, they needed to rely on them to keep them in the game and they came through after Hendrickx went just three and a third. Zephr John comes in and and he goes an inning and one third. Uh Andrew Chaffen comes in another inning and one/3. Demmer’s pitched in the seventh, didn’t give up any runs because of Bryce Teodosio. We’ll talk about that in a minute. Uh he did walk uh a batter, he gave up a hit and uh struck or actually just walked a batter and then struck out a hitter. And then Brock Burke came in, had a clean inning with two KS and then Ken Jansen, three days in a row and a day off today. He’s like, “Hey, put me in there because I’m making sure that we shut this thing down.” So that was great to rely on the bullpen and then they have a day off today to reset everything. And speaking of Bryce Teodosio, John, our fourth takeaway, he made a brilliant catch on defense, but then a bad decision on the bases. Why don’t you talk about the catch first? Yeah, the brilliant catch was top of the six with runners on base. Demmer’s pitching. Andy Pahes hits a fly to right field. It was going to hit above that yellow line and be a home run. Teodosio jumps up, catches it, brings it back, saves the game with that catch because it would have been a two-run home run. And Adele celebrates with a fist bump uh because he saw him makes that catch and he saw that he kept it in the glove and he was just like, “Yeah, let’s go.” That was fantastic. Mike, you brought up the decision on the bases and that was that Teodosio was at second base. Uh and then he he was the first batter of the inning. He hits a liner to third and goes off the glove of Freeland. He gets a hustle double. Tried to steal third. Yeah. Uh it was one out and Shaunovell was up and he tried to steal third. He was thrown out, came off the bag. So I guess I shouldn’t say thrown out. He got there but then he came off the bag. Um the problem the question you had was why is he trying to steal third when a single knocks him in because he’s that fast? A lot of everydayers replied and said, “Well, you get the sack fly if he’s at third base.” Um that’s that’s a a situation that you know results in tying the game at that point because it was still five to four. So what do you think? Are you still standing by the fact he shouldn’t have stolen or do you agree with our everyayers who said no it was a good move he trying to get in position to where if there’s a sack fly he can tie up the game. What do you say? I say uh you stay at second base because you’re gonna you’re gonna score on a single. I know that it means you have to get a single instead of a sack fly, but any sort of contact on the ground, especially to the right side, moves him to third base anyway, and then you have Mike Trout coming up to be able to knock him in. Now, we’ll talk about him in just a moment, but I I I think because he’s so quick, it was it was a risky play. Now, if he made it, I probably would be celebrating and going, “Oh, brilliant. So good.” Right. But, um, there was also an every day that question like, “Why didn’t they talk about like an obstruction?” because yeah the third baseman Freeland like kind of blocked the bag and then fell on top of him and so uh there was a lot of conversation that should have happened there. It was interesting because Teodosio like he should have got one war and then it taken away, right? Because he grabbed a home run and then he didn’t allow the Angels to score in this inning. But because of Ohapy coming through in the eighth inning, then everything was everything was okay, right? And it didn’t stand out that big. Speaking of Mike Trout, John, our fifth takeaway, that dude cannot hit show Otani, can he? He he can’t hit at all, Mike. Especially when you’re not swinging the bat, he’s not going to hit anything. Yeah. Struck out looking twice and he struck out for a third time. First game that Otani and Trout have both struck out three times in the same game since 2020. But it’s just absolutely ridiculous. I tweeted, Mike, there’s a thing called the strike zone. And in baseball, if the pitcher puts the ball in the strike zone, that’s going to be a strike. And I know he’s walking a lot. I know he’s getting on base, but man, it wasn’t just us. It’s the sentiment among a lot of Angels fans of if this guy strikes out one more time. Yeah. I’m gonna lose my mind. Yeah. In fact, I had somebody bring up, man, I wonder how much better off we’d be if his salary wasn’t on the books and Renone’s salary wasn’t on the books. You think about the supplemental value they could get. But, you know, I’m starting to ask these questions because it’s frustrating to watch him up there. It’s just he’s not seeing anything. He’s striking out looking twice. I just I can’t understand it sometimes. Swing the bat, bro. That’s why you’re here. That’s what that’s what got you here in the first place. Mike, if he’s not gonna swing the bat, get him out of the three hole. I’m sick of watching it. I’m sick and tired of seeing it. They put him in the two-hole for like a week and it was working and then all of a sudden they forgot that they did that and put him back in the three hole. So, it’s just I don’t understand this anymore. What are we doing? Him and Taylor Ward have flip-flopped in roles. Taylor Ward is just a guy who is now becoming kind of the guy at least on this team along with like Zack Neto and the other guys. But Mike Trout, it doesn’t stand out. He’s not a threat. Now, they’re still kind of treating him as a threat because he’s been intentionally walked a couple of times, and I know they kind of pitched around him in that eighth inning, and and he drew another walk. I love that he’s getting on base, but he just is swinging at at stuff and can’t hit it. In fact, there was a stat where he’s missing the high fast ball. He’s striking out at like a 70 to 75% rate, somewhere in between there. And so, man, he is just not the same. He’s a shell of himself, right? He’s one of the guys, but not the guy anymore. But it’s frustrating when he comes up because there’s this like h he’s he’s just not going to come through. And the feeling is so different with Taylor Ward. The feeling is so different even with Joe Adell and the feeling is very different with a guy like Zack Neto, right? And Nolan Shottwell. But when Mike Trout comes up, it just feels like uh well, flip it over. The inning’s over because we’re gonna have to we’re not going to come through here. You know what the difference is? They’re putting the ball in play. Yeah. Joe Adell hits one that just kind of hit the lip of the grass and he was able to get on base there uh in that bases loaded situation. And yeah, those guys are putting the ball in play. Trout’s not. It’s either contact strike out or he’s taking a walk. Do something, man. So, you know, I’m going to sit here and talk my nonsense on on the Dodgers, but man, I am just so frustrated with Mike Trout right now. It’s just very um it just just been such an issue. Yeah. For so long this season. And you try to give him the benefit of the doubt early on where well, he hasn’t played in over a year. D we’re we’re in August, bro. Yeah. Like you just turned 34 the other day. Like let’s or 33 or something. Let’s let’s pick it up here and let’s actually put some uh baseballs in play. But Mike, how sweet it is for the Angels to take it in all six games against the Dodgers who all we’ve heard is, “Oh, Tonniey’s going to be a Dodger. He’s going to leave the Angels. Oh, Tungsten Armo Doyle.” In fact, the Angels actually tweeted something uh really hilarious uh just a minute ago, and it’s something something tungsten Doyle something something and the Angels win 65. So even they’re in on it on them. Good grief. And the fact that there were so many Dodger fans because tickets are too expensive to go to Dodger Stadium, so they come to Angel Stadium because it’s an affordable night out with the family. Uh because they’re still familyfriendly and they’re not spending a trillion dollars. Uh you know, they all went home very, very sad. Even though they were marching up to the stadium and saying, “We’re gonna take this one.” You didn’t do anything. You didn’t take it. You got embarrassed. You got embarrassed by the Angels. They came back and won this one. You got swept at home. You got swept on the road, quote unquote, even though the stadium was full of Dodger fans who have been fans since 2013 when the team finally got good again. And all of you in your Otani jerseys that you bought last year and your Betts jerseys that you bought last month because, you know, you were trying to help him out and your Freddy Freeman jerseys because he came over in 2022. I understand it’s fun. It’s a new fan base. It’s a new It’s It’s fun for you to cheer for a team that’s always going to be in it. They’re always going to win. But you know what? Loyalty means something in sports. I don’t care what you say about other areas of your life, but loyalty in sports is something that fans stick to through and through. And so, it’s just delicious when you’re loyal to your fa to your team. And we’re loyal to the guys on the field. I know this organization has treated its fan base like garbage at times. But here’s the thing. When you’re loyal to your team and you’ve been fans like Mike and myself and all of our everydayers who watch this team, loyalty means something. And loyalty means, hey, I’m going to stick around and try to help this team be something. Hey, you know what, Kenley Jansen, I want to help turn this franchise around. How poetic that it was Jansen to get the save in the ninth inning. How great is it that you say Kikuchi wanted to come here because he’s like, “Hey, I want to I want to see this franchise turn around. I want to do something.” That’s what we hoped for with Show Otani. And I know he went back to Arty and offered him the same deal and Arty turned it down. It’s because our ownership sucks. Okay, but here’s the thing. It would have been great to have this guy be a hero. But you know what? You chose the team up north. You got your World Series in the first year. So, congratulations. What are you going to do the rest of the time? What are you going to do 10 years from now when he can only DH? He’s not going to pitch. You’re still going to be paying him a trillion dollars after his contract’s over. So, you know, have have your fun now. Enjoy it. Enjoy all the winning. Enjoy the World Series. Enjoy all of that. But at the end of the day, there’s something about loyalty. And that’s what Angel fans have is undying loyalty to this franchise. That’s why this franchise needs to be better. That’s why this organization needs to be better because they still show up despite the losing seasons, despite all the garbage, despite all the crap that we’ve had to take as fans on social media and tungsten Armo Doyle and all this crap. We’re still here. We’re still loyal. And so 6 and0 feels great. Sweeping the Freeway Series feels great. Doing it twice feels great. And getting the win against Doani on the mound feels great. Rant over, my friend. and all the people said, “Amen.” Thanks for making Lockdown Angels your first listen of the day. Coming up, MLB Pipeline has the Angels new top 10 prospects. We’re going to share who they are, where the Angels rank based on their farm ranking systems. Talk about all of that coming right up. Hey to everybody that is lurking that are Dodger fans and to our everydayers. Ever wish that managing your money felt a little bit easier? Well, Monarch Money can help you with that. Whether you’re growing your savings or you’re planning a big purchase, Monarch Money puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your personal your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances, Monarch Money is there for you. It’s more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, your investments, and spending all in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building your wealth. So, take control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use our promo code lockdown at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Again, monarchmoney.com, promo code locked on MLB for half off your first year. They’ll help you save up for those Dodgers tickets that are, you know, $400,000 to go to a game on a Tuesday, Mike. And then Monarch Money, they’re going to be there for you. They’ll help you get there. This is the Lockdown Podcast Network where it’s your team every day. Our team is the Angels. Thanks for making it your first listen of the day. Mike, the Angels top 10 prospects have been rearranged, so to speak, now that MLB Pipeline has updated their rankings of the Angels top 10. They’ve included some of the new draft picks from this past draft that took place in July. Let’s talk about it. Yeah, Christian Moore is the number one prospect in the Angels organization. No surprise there, right from MLB pipeline. Number two, Tyler Brener. He was a number two pick just back in June. Ryan Johnson is number three. He’s been real good. Not unexpected, right? He’s been real good where he is learning. Wasn’t he the guy that we got as compensation for someone who left our team? And I’m trying to remember off the top of my Oh, it was Show. It was Moshe Oonni I believe was his name. Uh number number four is George Clawson who has been great. If you’re not following Jared Tims from Talking Halos on Twitter, you should because he’s been giving some updates about George Clawson and showing some of the specific details that Clawson is doing right now. So fantastic. Johnny Sloinsky number five. He was a draft pick this year. Kaden name. Yes. Kaden Dana number six. Uh Jose Lugo is number seven. Chase Shores another draft pick from this year is number eight. Nelson Rada, who is tearing it up at Triple A. I did see somebody tweeted and it was a baseball head, super smart baseball head, said if Nelson Rada was with the Dodgers or with the Yankees or maybe the Red Sox, he would be a top 10 prospect in all of MLB. But because he’s with the Angels, he’s not getting recognized. He’s that good. And then top 50, wasn’t it? I think it was top 50 or was it top 10? Well, since we’re exaggerating, let’s just say top 10. Top 10. Yeah. And then Denser Guzman is number 10 for the Angels. John, overall the uh the MLB pipeline is ranking Christian Moore as the 50th be 50th 50th best prospect in all of baseball. And then Tyler Brenner is 96 out of 100. That’s great. And they ranked the Angels farm system at 27. Now for comparison, tell us what Baseball America says about the Angels prospect system and minor league system. Yeah, they actually rank the Angels at 25. And the top prospects, they have uh two top 100. Um at number 73, it’s Christian Moore. And at number 76, it’s Tyler Brener. So Moore is not 50. He’s lower on the on the totem pole there. But then Tyler Brener is not so far down at 96. He’s actually up at 76 for for Baseball America as opposed to MLB Pipeline. Here’s what Baseball America had to say about the system. It’s better, but still a lot of work to do. Here’s their strength. Right-handed pitching. The addition of Brener and Trey Gregory Alford solen seasons in the Arizona Complex League help a lot. Ryan Johnson has been excellent in his return to the minors. Here is their weaknesses. Position players who project as regulars. Christian Moore counts as a prospect for now, but he is in the majors. after him. The best hope for long-term MLB regulars are Nelson Roda, who needs to get stronger, and Gabriel Davalo, who has yet to play a full season of ball. I agree with that. I agree with that assessment. The Angels have finally got some good arms in the system, but after their position players that they have in the majors and then, you know, obviously Denzer Guzman, Nelson Rada, not much to speak of position player-wise, Mike, in terms of guys who are close. Now, there are a lot of guys that are not close, but they are in the system. But the point of having good depth in your minor league system is to have guys that you can call up and help out a little bit. And that’s something the Angels have been lacking the last couple of years, isn’t it? Yeah. And when you talk about position players outside of the top 10 are names like Kairen Paris and Matthew Lugo, who we will probably see at least in spring training next year. And Matthew Lugo will probably be somebody that we’ll see regularly at the major league level. And he’s been tearing it up. In fact, he had a walk-off home run just last night for the Salt Lake Bees. So, Matthew Lugo has been great. Kron Paris still kind of struggling. And so, we’ll see what he can do over the over the offseason. Maybe he gets back to that Aaron Judge swing and then can do it consistently. When I look at this top 10 though, John, I I think that we’re gonna see Ryan Johnson sooner rather than later. going to be somebody that will be considered for the starting rotation in 2026. And here’s why. Because he is a gamer and he’s already been in this bullpin for the start of the season and in spring training was fantastic and then obviously struggled and needed to work on some things, but in the minor leagues, he’s been great. Now, he needs to probably be brought up. They’re resting him. They gave him kind of a a a fatigue rest, which they’ve done with a few of their pitchers. So, I would anticipate that maybe spring training they see what what he does and I could see him not necessarily starting in the rotation, but being somebody that they bring up maybe, maybe June to help facilitate a stronger rotation depending on where they’re at. But that’s a name that I look at and say I think we’ll see him sooner rather than later. What about you? Yeah, my concern with him was the repeatability of his delivery because we all know he’s got a very funky delivery, but he’s had success in college doing it. So far, he’s had success in the minor leagues doing that. Mike, I think it might take some time to see how he does in double A, triple A. Like, it might take the rest of the season to do that if he isn’t still on fatigue rest, right? Like that’s the key. But it is the Angels and they are very much like hey just uh you know hit skip like let’s let’s just see what they can do. Let’s let’s let’s let them fire away and depending on where they’re at right now I know that they think that they’re competitive and after the sweep of the Dodgers they’re really going to think that they’re competitive but I don’t know. So what I’m saying is I don’t think that they’re going to put in somebody like Orion Johnson to mess up the the swag that they have right now that they think that they have. I would love to see him in September. I would love to see him come up and and and maybe take over a starting spot, especially if Tyler Anderson’s back isn’t doing well. I know that Victor Maderos is gonna start again. He said that yesterday, which is good news, but I I would love to see Ryan Johnson come up. If there’s a slot for him, maybe a spot start just to see what he can do. I’d love to see him try to be a starter at the major league level. Yeah. And uh Mitch Ferrris, who pitched in DA, had a great outing and he’s been getting a lot of accolades lately. not on the 40man roster, but you could make some moves there to consider having him start. Um, so again, there’s there’s guys that you can turn to, but it again, it’s it’s letting them sizzle. It’s letting them cook in the minor leagues and letting them have the time that they need to improve on the things that they do well. And again, we’ve we’ve rushed up prospects. It’s worked out better for position players in terms of rushing those prospects up because that’s Neto and that’s Hoppy and not Oppo, I’m sorry, that’s Neto and Shaunell and Christian Moore. Um, but in terms of starting pitching, they need a little bit more time. They need a little bit more time to work on things and hone in on what they do well. And we’ve seen it. We’ve seen the difference between, you know, minor leagues and when they get to the majors, you give them a look and it’s like, well, they’re okay, but they need more time to develop a little bit more. So very uh very interesting to see that the Angels did get out of the uh the bottom feeding of the farm systems. But again, like you said, if Nelson Roto was on any other team that isn’t the Angels, he’d be lifting the Angels farm system out of 27 or 25. If if the Angels had a different brand name on on the stadium, it would be a very different story for the Halos and their farm system. Johnny Ryan follow of of Angels Win tweeted this after the uh Tuesday walk-off win. My favorite follow on Twitter. He’s good. He said the Angels are on the verge of sweeping the season series against the defending world champion Dodgers. Obviously they did. He said with a position group made almost entirely of homegrown Angels. I don’t want to hear anything about the Angels not being able to develop prospects ever again. Spicy Ryan, let’s go. Here’s here I’m gonna ask you a question, but I want to I want to share a stat with you. The Angels have nine walk-off wins this year. Six of them have come from players 28 and under. So, have come from their young guys. So, is Ryan Fala a righta? Like, is he is he is he right? Do the Halos get to brag a bit about their homegrown talent and really again take a step back. We’ve talked about this on this show. They are much better this year than they were last year. And at the end of the season, no matter what happens, this is going to be a season where you’re like, they really took a step forward. It is a narrative shifting season and we’re all going to say that at the end of the year, even though we get frustrated and even though they might not do well against the A’s, right? We’re it’s going to be a narrative shifting season when we get to the end of September. So, is he right? They do the Halos get to brag a bit. Do they get to, you know, walk around and say, “Look at us, right? Here’s what we’ve done.” What do you think? It’s two things. I know that we all have our thoughts and feelings on what Perry Manosian has done. It’s rushing guys to the majors, drafting college ready uh college players so that they’re close to being ready for Major League Baseball. And that’s been a big criticism of what Perry Manosian has done. However, people that are a whole lot smarter than you and me and even our everyday, Mike, like other GMs and other organizations around baseball have looked at the Angels and went, you know, they might be on to something there, right? And we’ve talked about that. We’ve discussed it in the sense that people are being more willing to bring up prospects that are position players and try them out in the majors. You got Roman Anthony with the Red Sox. You got um uh Chris, is it Christians? I forget who it is over over with the Astros. I don’t think he’s with them right now, but he came over uh in that trade with the Cubs last year. And and so there, if you look around the league, there’s a lot of people that in other teams that are doing the same thing. They’re giving guys a look and seeing if they sink or swim at the major league level. Now, it’s more nuanced than that. It’s not like Perry Manosian has been 100% correct or he’s had 100% uh A+ drafts, right? We look at the the all pitching draft and you know, two of the guys that we wanted to be starters are now going to be relievers and Sam Bachman and Chase Silth as we discussed yesterday. So, it’s not been a 100% success rate, but where I think it has been successful is trying out these position players in the major leagues. And look, it took Zach Neto 2023 and an injury and then the beginning of 2024 to kind of figure some things out at the plate. We all discussed the leg kick. We all discussed the toe tab. Should he do the leg kick? Should he not? Well, now here he’s on the verge of another 2020 2020 season after having one last season when he corrected all of that stuff. So really, what I think it speaks to is the Angels trust their major league coaches to help these guys along. And I think that speaks to, you know, the work that Ron Washington, Johnny Washington, Barry Enright, as much as we’ve piled on Johnny at the beginning of this season, um, he certainly helped a lot of these guys going into last year and even into this year, and and that’s what we wanted to see from him, right? Not not a one-sizefits-all approach, but a individual, hey, let’s help you figure some things out at the plate. So, it’s good that that’s still happening. So, going back to your question of is the idea that the Angels have grown homegrown talent and they get to brag about it. Yeah, cuz they were right about something. Barry Manosian was right about something. Again, he’s not a 100% great GM and didn’t, you know, hit home runs on all of his draft picks and yeah, maybe we would have picked somebody different at number one than Tyler Brener, yada yada yada. Hasn’t always worked out. But in this case, I think that the pro uh the position player side of things has worked out really well for them. And you see it on the field, you see the results. And even though it’s taken some time for guys like Joe Adele and even Taylor Ward, right? Maybe if Taylor Ward hadn’t gotten hurt in 2023 getting hit with that fast ball, he might have had a great season that year because he was on his way and he might be even further advanced than he is right now. But I say all that because yeah, it’s taken some time with some of these guys and then you get guys like Christian Moore and Zach Neto and Nolan Showell who took some time to figure it out and less time than a Joel or Taylor Ward. It took, you know, half a season, a full season to get things right, but they’ve done really well. What about you? Are you bragging about this team, especially after the series sweep and the season sweep of the Dodgers? I have never taken prospect rankings very seriously. Yeah. I think that they are a gimmick that helps good teams make trades for good players. I really believe that that’s what it’s about. And it’s on the payroll. Yes. I mean, it feels like that. Now, I could be completely off, but that’s what it feels like. And so, when the Angels get ranked at the bottom all the time, okay, that’s fine. But they still have Neto and Shaunell and some of their key players, Christian Moore, they’re at the major league level. And I think where we’ve discussed in and where the Angels have issues is not their number one tiered guys, but they’re number two tiered guys. They just don’t have like uh they don’t have in the cupboard. They’re not stocked, right? Like they they take out the the the best cereal, right? And then you open up the cupboard again and you’re like, “No man, all we’ve got is, you know, Tasty O’s, right?” And so that I think is why they get ranked so low. But when you’re what they’re pulling out of the cupboard though is, you know, Alphabets, Captain Crunch, Honeycomb, right? Those are all make alphabets. I don’t know, but they should cuz they’re delicious. The point is is that the Angels have really good players. Now, have they developed them or did they rush them? That’s really the debate. The Angels have just been smart, and this is where I high-five Perry Manosian of just going, “Yeah, he’s ready. Let’s just bring him up.” Right? And look at what has happened with Nolan Shaw. He is a great major league ball player. Zach Neto superstar. Logan Oppoy coming along. I mean, Christian Moore, he’s gonna be somebody. He’s already got that clutch gene in him and he’s smart, smart baseball IQ. John, I think that they can brag and they can celebrate because what we’ve seen them do with this strategy has worked and it’s helped them to be a bit competitive this season and fight for 500 where we thought they would be at the start of the year. Yeah. and they did this big accomplishment against the defending World Series champions. And look, it’s not like they were down a whole bunch of of good players, right? I know Muny sat out, but he was in the first two games. I know that it wasn’t uh uh Blake Snell and and those guys pitching in this one, but um look, those aren’t homegrown guys. Those are guys that you bought. And so just to see these guys do what they did against the World Series champs uh is is fantastic. So I hope that they consider it a big accomplishment and I hope it opens up some eyes to the national media of what the Angels have going on in Anaheim. Again, narrative shifting season. I think it’s already here. Mike, thanks for making Locked on Angels your first listen of the day. And make sure you’re subscribed to Locked on Angels on YouTube so you don’t miss all of this great Halo content and the trolling of the Dodgers and their fans. And we also include the best postcast in the business with Gavin Carlson. He was wild last night. I hope you check it out. If you don’t, click that live button because it was fantastic. He’s live after every game right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. We’re your team every day. Hey, be sure you give us a follow on Twitter, Lockedown Angels, and at Super Halo Bros on Twitter and Instagram. And whether you’re watching or listening or trolling or lurking, come on over to YouTube. Get in the comments section cuz we would love to hear from you. We know you’re here. Know you’re here. There’s a there’s a weirdo freak on social media who’s posted like pictures of me and my ex-girlfriend uh in the replies just because I said something about Otani. Like that’s right. If if anybody can defend me against this weirdo freak, I would I would absolutely love that. Well, I can’t wait to read the comments about the thing on my face. Well, there you go. No, like we said, we we covered that. Mike, what do we have on deck for tomorrow’s show? Hey, it’s fan mail Friday, so please get in the comments. Please DM us. We would love to hear from you. What are your questions? We would love to circle back on the questions that we had a ton from last week. We’re going to circle back on that, but we also would love to hear from you right now. Are you celebrating this victory? Should the Angels be able to brag about this victory? Give us your thoughts. We’ll talk about it tomorrow on Fan Mail Friday on Locked on Angels. All right, looking forward to that conversation. Until then, my name is John and that’s my brother Mike. And my name is Mike and that’s my brother John. Thanks for being here with us everybody and we’ll see you back here on Friday. Too sweet. That was an epic rant on my part. That was one of my better ones.

Do the Los Angeles Angels RUN the LA Market after their season SWEEP of the Dodgers?? On Today’s Locked On Angels, the Super Halo Bros. TALK THEIR TRASH and give you the takeaways from the season series finale that saw Shohei Ohtani return to the mound in Anaheim for the first time since 2023, as the young Halos RISE to the occasion and come back, 6-5! Plus, the new MLB Pipeline rankings were released for the Angels, so who’s in the top 10? And, can the Angels be proud of the young core of position players they’ve built? We’ll discuss all of it on today’s edition of Locked On Angels!

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