Brian Snitker steps down in ATL, Albert Pujols next Angels manager?

00:00:03
Speaker 1: My corner time.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: We were wondering if Brian Snicker was going to continue to manage the Atlanta Braves, and that will not be the case. This is it for him, So the twenty twenty five season is his last as a manager in baseball.

00:00:17
Speaker 1: He'll stay with the team in an advisory role. Thoughts on this and how this goes down behind the scenes.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: I think I think this was ultimately Smith's decision. I know I had talked to him about this when I saw him, and I was there when he managed his first game and won his first game. I was on the team at twenty sixteen. He's seventy ish years old and sort of this was his forty ninth year with the Braves organization. Next year would be the fiftieth. I know he didn't just want to completely get out of it, but he also said, I don't know that I want to go through one hundred and sixty two games as a manager. So I think that's what led to this decision from Snitt. Ultimately with Snit's but hey, you know what, God bless you, Snit. I hope you get you know, you get that fiftieth year with Atlanta. I know you're going to go into an advisory role, just you know, do what you do man at some point. Listen, here's the thing about Snith. He has brand kids he loves spending time with and he gets an opportunity now to go and spend time with him. So God bless you, Snith. Enjoy the rest of your life. Man. And you've had a great run. You won a world series. Something only two managers in the history of Atlanta in any sport can say. You and Bobby Cox are the only two guys to ever win a professional sports championship in Atlanta.

00:01:29
Speaker 4: And he's seen in this organization for forty nine years. That's such an impressive number. But let's say only for hypothetical that AA Alexanthopolis goes to him and says, hey, you want to manage again this year? And Snith says, do you want me to manage again this year? If I'm Alexanthopolis, I say, our our winning window is right now. If you're not full one hundred in cause I'm maybe, I'm thinking I might manage, I might not, Okay, I'm in Okay, then what are you going to change from this year? Would be the next question that alex Anthopolis, because something has to change. You can't just always say all right, you know the injuries, Yes, the injuries are a thing, but other teams have injuries, some not as big as the Braves. How are you going to make a change, Because to me, I think there does need to be some type of change because it's not gonna happen with personnel on the field. The team he has is the team that I think they're gonna give him adding a piece here or there.

00:02:39
Speaker 1: But what are you saying you wanted him to keep going or what?

00:02:46
Speaker 4: No, I'm saying that that's the conversation. I don't think alex Anthopolis was just saying, hey, do you want to manage next year? No, I'd rather not. Okay, we'll move on to me. If he says yes I want to manage next year, Alesanthopolis isn't firing him. But if you're a good GM, which I know Alex Anthopolis is. He's built this team, he's given these extensions good or bad, they've put a good product out there. You need to have an answer of what are you changing? How is it going to be different? Because you play the same eight guys every single day for the entire season, which I think is a bonus. You've played this whole time without a shortstop that's comparable to the other players around the field. But you have to have something that he's going to change. You can't just say we're just gonna go out there and see you'll throw the balls out there and see what the boys do. No, Like, I think he needs to have a plan, Like, how are we gonna do something different?

00:03:44
Speaker 1: Okay, I have a plan.

00:03:45
Speaker 2: I'm going to sign a shortstop and I'm going to cross my fingers that not all five starters are missing a good.

00:03:52
Speaker 1: Junk of the year. That's step one. Brave's finished strong.

00:03:58
Speaker 2: Does anybody think the Braves are in a bad spot for next year?

00:04:02
Speaker 3: No? Well, any Austin Riley back he missed a chunk of the year?

00:04:05
Speaker 1: Yep.

00:04:06
Speaker 3: And what do they do with all these They're gonna make that decision?

00:04:09
Speaker 1: Yep, He's gonna come back.

00:04:10
Speaker 3: I mean, just yes, is Baldwin or Murphy or Catcher both? Or do you trade all the answers? You try and trade Murphy?

00:04:19
Speaker 1: Maybe? But I think that that had a nice year.

00:04:21
Speaker 3: Michael Harris needs to be second half. Michael Harris right. Acunya needs to stay healthy because once he came back, he was pretty good, and then you got to figure out the bullpen. Iglesias is a free agent. You're gonna have to make some bullpens.

00:04:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's not on Snit. That's on Alex. I know.

00:04:36
Speaker 3: But Snitt maybe just didn't want to do it. Like I said, Sti's been doing this for a long time.

00:04:39
Speaker 1: No, I understand that. I'm just saying.

00:04:40
Speaker 3: He probably just didn't say, hey, you can manage again, or you can just you can work once a month and make a travel to the minor leagues and come around and this and that. It's just like that don't sound so bad.

00:04:50
Speaker 1: I think, you know.

00:04:52
Speaker 2: I'm I'm also pointing out probably some of the minority online, but some people were like, oh, Schnitt, he's got to be gone, like this is the problem, Like shut up, this has nothing to do with Snit this year. Yeah, and I think he should get the ultimate respect. They'll obviously honor him at the ballpark.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of.

00:05:10
Speaker 2: Cool if you would figure this out, like with a week or two to go, because the team wasn't in it, and then you get to get in uniform and get the thanks. I know, he didn't know, but like go to dinner with Alex and like sit down.

00:05:22
Speaker 3: And think about it.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: It's okay.

00:05:24
Speaker 2: I mean, he's gonna get honored. It's fine, right, I love snit. I thought he did a great job. He's super emotional. They all show up at the press conference today.

00:05:32
Speaker 1: Kratz.

00:05:33
Speaker 2: He says he feels like he left the team in a better spot than when he entered.

00:05:36
Speaker 1: I would agree with that.

00:05:38
Speaker 2: And you brought them a World Series title, and you brought them consistent winning.

00:05:41
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't ask for much more.

00:05:43
Speaker 2: Nobody wins back to back or even a bunch of titles together in a while now, right, So what he did is about as much as you can wish for if you're a baseball fan.

00:05:53
Speaker 4: If you look at if you look at their five starters that were supposed to start games for them this year, it's ridiculous the fact that Spencer Strider, I think had the most starts and he didn't come back from the injury very well, Like he just didn't. He didn't have a life on his fastball. Not everybody comes back from Tommy John the first year and is exactly who they were before. Not everybody, But it's crazy Schwellenbach was down. Did they get a single start out of Ronaldo Lopez who was an All Star last year like you are early. Yeah, I don't remember when he went down, but it's crazy, like you build a team and then you were trying to The Braves do better than I think any organization calling guys up that step in and are huge contributors to the starting rotation. Huge swelling Box just did it just the other year. Smith schalv just did it the other year. But when you have to do it for all five guys, that's almost impossible. Even even the Dodgers struggled with that and they had ten starters to the beginning of the season.

00:07:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hirst and Walson, you mentioned he had a really nice find himself moment and here another with the team.

00:07:08
Speaker 3: My X factor just drove into for Detroit by the way.

00:07:10
Speaker 1: Very nice.

00:07:13
Speaker 2: So anyway, congratulations to Snit. Let's move on because there are a number of other manager in front office changes going on. Let's hit one that won't take up too much time. But Bill Schmidt has been running point for the Rockies for a minute. He's the GM and he decided that he's going to step down. You never know how the conversations go behind the scenes, but he said he felt like the team needed to go in a different direction. I don't doubt that based on how the Rockies performed this year in the past few years.

00:07:40
Speaker 1: Been there for a long time.

00:07:42
Speaker 2: I mean he was in a secondary role, yeah, and now he's leading the pack. But they need something else. I mean, the Rockies are going to do an external search. And if there's one team that needs to think outside the box more than anyone.

00:07:55
Speaker 1: Else, it's Colorado. It's such a unique environment.

00:07:58
Speaker 2: It's so difficult, crazy, crazy, and nobody's gonna care. Rockies fans are all for whatever you want to do. First of all, they're going to show up second ball.

00:08:07
Speaker 3: You're good for anything.

00:08:08
Speaker 2: They're like, try it, try it out. I think we're in a place now where here I'm gonna mention this. I don't remember the exact details, but Dano Dowd I think later in his tenure was trying some piggybacking and some other things. And I think if you had done that now, people would be like, yep, let's try that kind of stuff. It was a little early because people were like a little more get off my lawn.

00:08:26
Speaker 3: Still, but I did talk to some people there in Colorado the organization a little bit. And the thing about Dano Dowd is like, you got to get syncer balls, You got to get syncer ballers, And these people are saying, actually, no, you need to get fly ball pitchers, and we contact guys that throw the four seamer up and get pop ups and get strikeouts, because that way it limits the balls and play. If sncer ballers can't make the ball sink, guess where sinks over the.

00:08:49
Speaker 1: Fence, right? And you need three center fielders, and you.

00:08:52
Speaker 3: Need three athletic as sell guys. You need dudes can mash when when have the Rocky's been good when the.

00:08:58
Speaker 1: I want infield mash outfield.

00:09:00
Speaker 3: Tracks, and I need guys that can get punch outs. So you need high v low high guys up in the zone.

00:09:07
Speaker 1: And all of what we're saying is not easy to assembly.

00:09:09
Speaker 3: No I know, but I'm just saying you got to try something different. They're trying these sinkerballers and as soon as they make one mistake they get whack. They don't have a lot of high V. Low guys.

00:09:18
Speaker 4: I think it's they do have a lot of high vie low guys, But I think the pitching only just hit on one specific thing. No, no, no, no. Out of the pen. They've they've thrown a bunch of guys. They don't throw strikes. They're not developing them in the minor leagues to be able to throw strikes. They're rushing them to the big leagues because they throw ninety seven to one hundred, and then the big leagues guys are just like no ball ball. My argument to that Aja would be no place in the big leagues has as poor of or has a larger variance of induced vertical break than in Colorado. So guys that have seventeen inches of induced vertical break, which is just medium across the board, it's like one and a half inches less in Colorado. So they're not getting that induced break. But guys have had great seasons there, Like it's not what do those guys do? And then mimic that. Jorge Dela Rosa had a great career there. Kyle Freeland. I think he was like almost an eight war player his second year. I think like seventeen or eighteen, what do they do? Mimic that.

00:10:26
Speaker 1: Obaldo.

00:10:28
Speaker 3: Also, if you was a high fastball split guy.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: If you get somebody sick, then but also somebody you're saying the induced vertical break goes down, Well, then get somebody who is like top ten percent, and then it's not going to be as much of a factor.

00:10:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you're still gonna you're not gonna get the like if you get if you get Josh Hayter, if you get Jonah Thong, two dudes. You know, I'm just thinking about like unique guys with like induced vertical break, it's gonna go down. So maybe there's something in that formula. If you're all about the analytics, that's going to give you those answers like or Hey, Dalil Rossa. The only reason I would keep bring him up is because he grew up in Mexico City. He pitched at higher elevation. There's something to do with that, and they need to just hammer that. They need to hammer it and say, now the rest of the league's doing this, We're gonna do this. If it doesn't work, where are they They're the same place they are now with forty four wins.

00:11:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Kyle Frieland did that for the record. He grew up in Denver.

00:11:35
Speaker 2: He's an average His numbers park factor in I've been an average starter, which is fine. He's a three four starter for them. In that scenario, his AAR looks bad, but his numbers look good. Hey, make sure you subscribe to foul Territory next goals. Three hundred one thousand subs were in the mid two hundred and seventies. Right now, it's baseball the way it should be covered. So if you're watching us wherever or listening to us later, and we'd love if you just hit a free button on YouTube for us or on whatever pot cast platform you're listening to.

00:12:01
Speaker 3: It helps.

00:12:02
Speaker 1: It's free. Oh baby.

00:12:10
Speaker 2: We said after we found out that Ron Washington was out as manager for the Angels that they need a big name voice who will tell ARTI Marino, No, you don't know ball.

00:12:21
Speaker 1: I know ball. Well. I think they might have found someone.

00:12:24
Speaker 2: His name's Albert Poohols, and according to Ken Rosenthal and some others with the Athletic, he seems to be.

00:12:29
Speaker 1: The front runner.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: In that article, they say one source told them it might even be up to Albert at this point. Also, it sounds like perimination. The GM has nothing to do with this. This is already saying I want Albert, and Albert has the call if he wants to do it. He's also the manager for Team Dominican Republican the WBC.

00:12:49
Speaker 1: You probably can't do that.

00:12:51
Speaker 2: You can't do that, So he has that decision because that is a big legacy thing to be able to do.

00:12:56
Speaker 1: If you're Albert, he might want.

00:12:57
Speaker 3: To do that after he gets after he's done with the Angels, he can always.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Go back to the Dominican exactly, and the Angel's job might not be available for you in a year. So what do we think about Albert Pooholts potentially managing the Angels.

00:13:10
Speaker 3: We'll see what happens. I don't know. Does he change that much? I don't know. I never played with Albert. I was around Albert a little bit. He's a Hall of Fame hitter, he's a player, and I don't know. I mean, Ron Washington had a lot of experience. Didn't help.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: They had a bad divorce.

00:13:27
Speaker 2: By the way that people are overlooking and now you know they're saying already loves Albert, so clearly they cleaned it.

00:13:32
Speaker 3: Have to pay him. Can they just say this is your clause, you're after career.

00:13:37
Speaker 1: They can just not pay him Albert like.

00:13:39
Speaker 3: You like Albert, you're the manager. Oh yeah, this is your million dollars you get here.

00:13:43
Speaker 2: He's gonna make them give him more Albert like yes, but he is already being paid a million bucks per year over a ten year span after he retires as part of his personal services agreement.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: But Kratz, remember.

00:13:54
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one, they cut him and I'm looking at this article from Ken back then, no pomping circumstance, and it was kind of ugly, and he didn't want to be on the bench and it was a painful thing. Ken said to even write about it because of the legacy of Albert Poohol's But he was not performing for them for a while and was able to have a nice finish to his career. But hey, they've clearly patched things up, and now they're trying to see if he can rescue the Angels.

00:14:24
Speaker 4: Good thing they patched it up. I love to hear that, because he signed a massive contract with them and he could have been part of their history. My thing is go back to history. How many superstars, superstars, Hall of famers become good managers. I don't know, But maybe he's going to be the one that will be one of the first.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: He was certainly optimistic as he was in spring training with the team, what six months ago, you know, they lost ninety nine games in twenty twenty four. And then digging up some quotes here, he said, the organization has done a great job to put a great product on the field, not just in the big leagues, but minor leagues, and hopefully they win. And then he was asked to exactly if he felt like the Angels were putting a winning product on the field. He said, they put out a winning product every year. The problem is injuries.

00:15:14
Speaker 3: The problem is the record doesn't state that. The problem is the record doesn't state that they put winning product out on the field every year.

00:15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, hey, that's it's because every team has injuries.

00:15:25
Speaker 3: Look at the Houston Astros and injuries they had this year, they still were a winning team.

00:15:29
Speaker 1: There's plenty of teams that all The Angels are not leading the.

00:15:32
Speaker 3: Pack and injuries exactly that point.

00:15:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're leading the pack in bad decisions or among the leaders in bad decisions. But to me that was like an overly drink the kool age kind of.

00:15:44
Speaker 3: I worked for the team and I like my million dollars a year. Quote.

00:15:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're going to have to be more real as a manager though.

00:15:51
Speaker 3: But he hasn't hidden the fact he wants to be a manager.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: He definitely wants to come out.

00:15:55
Speaker 3: And said I want to be a manager. We all thought it would be maybe the Cardinals. Yes, but the Cardinals are keeping so that closed this. So there, maybe he goes manages the Dominican for a year and then goes try and get the Cardinals. If all he's not there anymore?

00:16:07
Speaker 1: Is this a good fit for Albert?

00:16:09
Speaker 3: Dude, there's thirty of them. You want to be a manager, someone offers you, you take it right, Cratzy. There's thirty of them.

00:16:17
Speaker 4: If you want it bad enough, And there's other people who are pining for a managerial job. To me, I don't think that creates a situation to have success. If you're like, oh, I have to I want to be a manager so bad, I'm gonna go call this guy and make sure he puts my name out there. Oh man, tell everybody I want to be a manager. A manager is a selfless job. It is not a promote yourself type of thing. If you want to be a manager, sometimes you got to take some that may not be a great fit. You gotta do what you know. You gotta get in line. You gotta get in line. You can't get the first biggest job. He can't be like man Albert can't sit there and go man, I hope Aaron Boone gets fired so I can be the Yankees manager. No, he's got to take a job. I wouldn't think the Angels should be a job like this, but they really have become that in the last few years, where you go in you get your feet wet. They've tried managers who've had past success and that didn't go well. So now they're going for the big name guy who's trying to get his feet wet as a manager. I just I'm leery of it. But I'm definitely here to watch it, that's for sure.

00:17:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be entertaining.

00:17:29
Speaker 3: Boone didn't have experience. He went right from the TV booth right to manage the Yankees.

00:17:33
Speaker 1: Yea, you guys have done this.

00:17:34
Speaker 3: Alex Horror wasn't a manager, He's a manage in the Red Sox.

00:17:36
Speaker 1: Oh.

00:17:37
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it couldn't work. I'm just saying they're managing the Red Sox and the Yankees. This is the Angels. This is difficult. It is it's difficult.

00:17:44
Speaker 1: They've had a.

00:17:45
Speaker 3: Yourial job has its own difficulty, depending on where you are and what you're doing.

00:17:49
Speaker 2: This will be their sixth manager in the last nine seasons. It's become a graveyard. Nobody's gotten even to two and a half seasons of managing this team.

00:17:57
Speaker 3: That you need to give somebody five years. Maybe Albert Poohols is the guy they had. Arty Morino trusts enough and says, I'll give you the five years. Albert figured out.

00:18:07
Speaker 2: I would say five years, and you have to I don't. It's not even about the money and the job security. I get to manage this team for five years no matter what, or you give up the team. But there's no assurances. He could sign a five year deal and he can still chop him after two or three years. I mean he did it to Austmis Madden, Nevin wash Montgomery temporarily. It's a graveyard. I'm just saying it's a really challenging position. I mean, look at it right now. They have a lame duck general manager who's probably still going to GM the team for another year, who doesn't get to basically have a say in this, and then the owner's doing it. That alone should tell you how screwed.

00:18:45
Speaker 3: I also remember when they signed pool Holes that wasn't a general manager? Wasn't that wasn't that also already? And then when they went and got Rendon, wasn't that also already because they missed Garrett cole Yes, And he said, oh no, I'm going to get somebody, so I'm just gonna give him throw money at Rendome.

00:18:57
Speaker 1: He said, who else you got to?

00:19:00
Speaker 3: Yes?

00:19:01
Speaker 1: You know?

00:19:01
Speaker 3: So, I mean, as this isn't the first time that Already has done something like this, so I don't know why we're surprised Jerry Reinestorff did this. When he hired Tony LaRussa, the whole organization thought they had a j hinch and Jerry's like, not so fast, my friends, I've got my hire, my buddy.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: It's called my team, my money, my team.

00:19:20
Speaker 3: My team.

00:19:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, what I want.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: I just feel for Angels fans, that's all. I've had an up and down relationship with them, but I feel for them, and I hope that Albert's the guy.

00:19:27
Speaker 3: Angels used to be. I mean, I lost the Angels in two thousand and two in the playoffs. I used to be an unbelieva organization. Haven't been to the playoffs?

00:19:32
Speaker 1: How long since twelve? Trout's what first or second year?

00:19:36
Speaker 3: Twenty fourteen? They haven't won a playoff? Games is twenty twelve?

00:19:39
Speaker 2: What was the Royal Sweepcrats? You're the Royals xteen fourteen fourteen? Okay, yeah, now Trats passes prime.

00:19:46
Speaker 1: We know that.

00:19:47
Speaker 2: So this is the problem with baseball is you have a legendary player who doesn't get to shine in October. And that's how our sport stands out, and that's how any sports stands out. You would never have Lebron not playing in the playoffs for in his entire career.

00:20:00
Speaker 1: It would be really played in the playoffs. Yeah, for five minutes, that's all.

00:20:06
Speaker 2: So Anyway, in summary, it sounds like Pooholes is going to get the job. It's going to be really fun to follow.

00:20:11
Speaker 3: Oh, it's gonna be awesome.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: But if I had to make a decision right now, I think it's not going to work out. Well, sorry, that's what we that's our job on this show. Sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. I think it's this is it works out for him, Yeah, superstars.

00:20:30
Speaker 4: Superstars need to be able to connect with every single player. You need to connect with the Latin player, the American player, the pitcher, the relievers, the guys who you have to send down three times a year, and the superstars. And if Albert can do that, he becomes a good manager. If he has no idea what it's like to be sent down, because in his Hall of Fame career he never was sent down, he never went through the same struggles that majority of his team is going to str with, then it's gonna be hard for him to connect. So the guys he has around him are gonna be as far as other coaches are gonna be huge too. So his success will really dictate based on how he can connect with the players that he has.

00:21:16
Speaker 3: On his roster.

00:21:17
Speaker 2: I just think it's weird now to put Perry in this spot where he's a lame dup.

00:21:20
Speaker 1: It's it's it's messy.