Los Angeles Angels Prospect Frazier Hall interviews with AngelsWin.com

Interview Conducted by David Saltzer - AngelsWin.com Senior Writer

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a Minor League Baseball Player in the Angels organization during the offseason? How about trying to adjust from college baseball to pro-ball? Finally,

To answer some of these questions, AngelsWin.com caught up with Frazier Hall, an Angels prospect drafted in the June, 2011 draft. Frazier played under legendary coach Tom Kotchman and was part of a playoff bound team that featured a lot of the Angels developing talent. Frazier put up very lofty numbers while playing 1B, posting a .355/.391/.575 line.

With Pujols signed this offseason, Morales on the mend, Trumbo in the Majors, and C. J. Cron all playing the same position, Frazier recognized that he would have to do more to make it to the Majors. He went to Instructional League (“Instructs”) to work on expanding his defensive options. He worked on playing catcher and the outfield.

Click the play button below to listen to Frazier Hall as he talks about his life during the offseason as a Minor League player. He shares a passion and dedication that should help him continue to stand out. And, if he continues to perform like he did in Orem, he will shine. Listen to this very interesting interview to see what a quality prospect he is. More importantly, listen to this interview to get to know a bit about Frazier Hall before meeting him at the Spring Training Fanfest on March 10th. 

Stars “Strike Out” At Bowling Tournament Benefiting Children With Autism

Tustin, CA January 29, 2012 – ACT Today! (Autism Care and Treatment Today!) and The Eddie Guardado Foundation (EGF), two national non-profit organizations based in Southern California, held a STARS & STRIKES Celebrity Bowling Tournament on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at the Bowlmor Lanes located at 2405 Park Lane in Tustin, California. The event benefiting children with autism raised nearly $100-thousand dollars to provide resources, care, and treatment to children with autism whose families cannot access or afford the necessary tools their children need.

“Through fundraising events like STARS & STRIKES, we hope to help other less fortunate families so that they may achieve their goals and dreams for their children affected by autism.” says Lisa Guardado, wife of retired Major League Baseball (MLB) Pitcher Eddie Guardado and ACT Today! board member.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in every 110 children in America is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), making ASD more prevalent than juvenile diabetes, pediatric cancer, and childhood AIDS combined. These disorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors. They include autistic disorder, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), and Asperger Syndrome. ASD can be associated with intellectual disability, difficulties in motor coordination, and attention and physical health issues such as sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances.

“Autism is an epidemic,” says ACT Today! Executive Director Nancy Alspaugh-Jackson. “This event will help us strike out the disorder the best way we can – by helping the children with autism spectrum disorders gain much needed tools they need to reach their highest potential.”

Celebrities who walked the red carpet and participated in the tournament included: 2-Time All-Star Pitcher “Everyday Eddie” Guardado, Elliot James Weber (“Amazing Race 2012”), LA Angels of Anaheim 4-Time All-Star Torii Hunter, Texas Rangers 6-Time All-Star Michael Young, Texas Rangers 2-Time All-Star Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers Derek Holland, Hall of Famer Rod Carew, LA Angels of Anaheim 3-Time All-Star Garret Anderson, Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star Pitcher J. J. Putz, LA Angels of Anaheim Pitcher LaTroy Hawkins, Former MLB Player and Radio Personality Rex Hudler, All-Star Pitcher Jamie Moyer, Milwaukee Brewers Pitcher Brandon Kintzler, Cincinatti Reds Pitcher Carlos Fisher, Former MLB Player Brad Thompson, Former MLB Player Gary Pettis, LA Angels of Anaheim All-Star Howie Kendrick, model/actress Chanel Ryan (“Small Apartment”), Former MLB Player Chris Gomez, and actress Erin Murphy
(“Bewitched”).

Events such as the STARS & STRIKES Celebrity Bowling Tournament allow ACT Today! To raise essential funds to provide grants for families in desperate need of care and treatment.

About ACT Today!: ACT Today! (Autism Care and Treatment Today!) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources and funding to families of children with autism who cannot afford or access the necessary tools their children need to reach their full potential. For more information about ACT Today!, visit http://www.act-today.org/.

AngelsWin.com was there to cover the event. Below are some of the highlights from the red carpet.



AngelsWin.com was pleased to interview legendary Angels Pitcher Troy Percival.



We were also pleased to get our first look and conversation with the newest Angels arm in the bullpen LaTroy Hawkins.



As for the event itself, a great time was had by all. For a look at the bowling, AngelsWin.com will let you decide whom you would pick to round out your foursome the next time you hit Bowlmor Lanes: Howie Kendrick, Torii Hunter, Rex Hudler or Troy Percival.



AngelsWin.com would like to thank Daphne Plump from D. Plump Consulting for organizing and running this incredible event, Eddie Guardado and The Eddie Guardado Foundation for hosting this event, and Jim Streifel, without whom, AngelsWin.com would not have been able to cover this event.

Who's Your Bowling Partner?

By David Saltzer, AngelsWin.com Senior Writer

Baseball and Bowling are about as far apart in sports as trucks were from Trans Ams. Aside from both being enhanced by a good beer, neither sport has much overlap. In fact, in many ways, they are diametrically opposed. For one thing, getting a strike in baseball isn't a good thing, whereas in bowling, that's the best thing. For another thing, the highest scoring baseball games fail to come close to the lowest scoring baseball games.

Sunday night, AngelsWin.com caught up with several Angels current and former Angels greats to see how they performed off the diamond and on the bowling lanes. Taking part in the Eddie Guardado Stars & Strikes Celebrity Bowling Tournament to raise funds for families with children with autism, AngelsWin.com caught Howie Kendrick, Torii Hunter, Rex Hudler and Troy Percival doing their best to raise money for charity while having fun.

Watch the video below and fill out our poll as which of the four Angels greats you would want to round out your bowling team. Be sure to give your reasons why you made your choice.

The Machine Age: Adorn Yourself Today!

Not attending the Spring Training Fanfest? Here's a shirt for you! http://www.cafepress.com/angelswin/8477103 Order today and step into The Machine Age!

A Preview of the "Managers Roundtable" feature with Mike Scioscia, Joe Maddon, Bud Black and Ron Roenicke on the MLBN (Friday, 1/27 @ 6 PM PT)

MLB Network will feature an in depth interview with the four big league managers and former members of Scioscia’s staff…It airs this Friday (1/27) at 6 PM Pacific. Set your DVRs!

A representative from the MLB Network contacted me today and provided me with a teaser of what's to be aired Friday at 6 PM Pacific time on the MLB Network. Check it out!

On coaching together

Bud Black: The broad base of knowledge is so immense here that on the pitching side, here I am in charge of the pitchers, and these guys all had opinions about the pitchers. … I learned so much from these guys about pitching.

Mike Scioscia: We challenged each other. … There’s no doubt that these three guys challenged me and I would challenge them, just with a conversation to make sure we were moving in the right direction. That’s how a guy like David Eckstein ends up playing shortstop for us. Alfredo Griffin was in the room and we were all looking at each other like, “You are kidding me.” Alfredo’s saying, “This kid can play shortstop.” I said, “What are you smoking? There’s no chance, Alfredo.” And he stood up, he said, “I’ll tell you guys right now, this guy can play shortstop,” and he was so adamant about it that we said, “We have to give this a shot.”

Ron Roenicke: We butted heads at times but even when we got mad which happened once in a while, we were such good friends and had such respect for each other that when we left that room, honestly there was no bad feelings at all.

Joe Maddon: Organizations miss that when they don’t have the ability to have that discussion, sometimes heated, and then be able to walk away as friends. Too many times in today’s world, people take it way too personally. It’s not a personal attack, you’re just trying to get this right, and I think we did that really, really well.

Scioscia on the 2002 World Series team: We talked about it afterwards, is that the team that’s going to spoil us. It happened in our third year and it was the first championship for the Angels. That was such a team in every aspect of the word. I played on the ’88 Dodgers and this even went deeper. These guys were just talented, we had every component that you could want, and the team kind of evolved as the season went on. It changed, it morphed from the bullpen to some of the things that happened with the rotation, to the lineup. I just think, if you talk about Game 6, we were actually down to eight outs. The first guy makes an out in the seventh inning, so we’re down to eight outs now and we end up scoring six runs within five outs and get a lead. [It’s] probably the most exciting game I’ve ever been a part of, outside of Kirk Gibson’s home run in ’88, and it rivaled what happened this year in the World Series. … That was a special group of guys.

Maddon on his least favorite part of being a manager: I don’t know if there’s a difficult part, they’re just different. I enjoy all the different components of what we do. Obviously it starts off with the planning during the day on a daily basis, whomever we’re playing. The first game of a series is always a little bit more vital. I would say that the part that takes you away from what you’d like to do best is maybe the media kind of stuff. At the end of the day though, quite frankly, I do enjoy the exchange with a lot of our guys, media-wise. Actually a lot of times they may point something out in conversation that you haven’t even thought about yet that can kind of push you in the right direction, too. So I do enjoy that, but that’d probably be the part that you least like to do during the course of the day. You want to do the rest of the stuff.

On what they love most about managing

Scioscia: I think it’s an outlet to still compete. I love it. It’s fun, there’s a definite comfort level I have with going into a clubhouse and bringing guys together and hopefully working towards a goal. I just think it’s still baseball.

Maddon: Everybody benefits when this thing turns out well, so I think you have this responsibility to try to drive it in that direction.

On whether managing players now is different than what it was when he was playing

Scioscia: Baseball is baseball and this game will humble anyone making $30 million a year or anybody making $10 a year, it doesn’t matter. If you’re playing this game, this game will refocus you and humble you if you’re not applying yourself. Obviously there’s a lot more zeroes after some of the salaries now, but I think that grassroots game is the same in the way you go in there and you want to teach and you want to set that environment so guys feel they can achieve.

Maddon: The social perspective is different with the Twitter accounts and whether you’re Facebooking or you see your guys sitting at their chairs in the locker room all on their iPads maybe playing Words With Friends across the room. So all that stuff is a little bit different but at the end of the day, the way I want the Rays to play, the way [Scioscia] wants the Angels to play, etc., is pretty much the same as it was 50, 60, 70 years ago. I think that’s where it’s the same, but there are differences too.

On what’s ahead for each in their careers as a manager

Roenicke: I hope that I have the choice that I can retire when I want to. When you start off managing, you’re just looking forward to hopefully getting the chance to do it for a few years. Mike’s certainly getting close to that area where he’s got so many years in that he can make decisions on what he wants to do and when he wants to finish up managing. I’m just starting out so I’m looking forward to getting those years. You look at La Russa this year and what he did and certainly 5,000 games, during the season I looked at it and I think about 5,000 games managing, that’s incredible.

Black: It’s a great challenge and I think we all thoroughly enjoy it. I’d like to do it as long as possible. When I look at [Tony La Russa, Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, Lou Piniella], there wasn’t a better day for me to look over and see Bobby or Tony or Lou or Joe. You felt that you were in a special place in a ballgame with those guys. I think we’re all lucky to be where we are and I don’t think any of us want to shut it down anytime soon.

Maddon: I want to do it as long as they’ll let me. You work very hard to get to this particular point and for me the word “retirement” is not a very desirable word. So, for me, I’d like to be able to do this as long as somebody will have me.

Scioscia: This game never gets out of your blood. I think all of us in some capacity are going to stay in this game until we still have a breath left. I’m 53, we’re all about the same age, and if we have a crystal ball, and you look 25 years in the future and you say, “What did I manage? Was I 70 when I stopped managing?” I can’t imagine that. I’m just going day to day but I don’t know if I’m going to have the staying power that Bobby Cox or Tony or Joe Torre [did]. These guys are approaching 70 and these guys were strong all the way through. I don’t know. I love it now. All I can say is I love it now, I love the challenge now, I’m not looking that far ahead. This game’s in our blood though, that’s for sure.

The Arms Race

Henry Kissinger once said “The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.”

Over the past two years, a new cold war has developed in the A.L. West. The Angels and the Rangers have emerged as the superpowers of the division. With all due respect to Oakland and Seattle, they are secondary players, capable of inflicting damage on the superpowers, but not strong enough to contend on their own.

Like the Cold War superpowers, the Angels and Rangers spent the offseason in a major arms race. The Angels fired the opening shot by signing C. J. Wilson. Wounded, Texas responded by signing the Japanese star Yu Darvish. Like two heavily armed men feeling their way around a room, the Angels and Rangers both believed that the other had a clear vision on how to win the A. L. West, and acted accordingly.

Since last Wednesday, I’ve been asked many times what I think of the Rangers signing Darvish and how I see that affecting the race in the A. L. West. In short, as an Angels fan, I am happy that the Rangers signed Darvish because I believe that it will only make the Angels stronger as they go into the post season in 2012. And, it doesn’t make the Rangers as strong as if they signed Prince Fielder.

How can Darvish make the Angels stronger? Simple. As Andrew Carnegie once said “while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.”

First off, I believe that Darvish will become an above average pitcher for the Rangers—not elite—but above average. He won’t be as good as Wilson was for them, but will be an upgrade nonetheless. I would have wanted the Angels to have signed him had they not signed Wilson. However, I’m not certain he will perform at the elite level as he did in Japan because he will be pitching on shorter rest and in the Texas heat.

So, how does an above average pitcher for the Rangers make the Angels better? Simple. The Angels have been operating under a flawed analysis of how they won the World Series in 2002. The Angels assumed that the goal was to just make the team good enough to win the division and then hope for the best in the post season. They misunderstood the role of playing the season—which is to spend 162 games making the team stronger for the post season—and acted as if all that mattered was just making the team good enough to get there.

For most of the last decade, the A. L. West has not been a strong division. While there have been “competitive” seasons, up until 2009, the Angels could essentially count on winning the division fairly easily. Years that were “competitive” resulted from the weakness of the Angels rather than the strength of their opponents. As a result, they didn’t become hardened as a team like they were in 2002.

As we all recall, in 2002, the Angels fought all season long to keep pace with the Athletics. The Angels had to learn how to win close games and manufacture runs as a team. They had to gel. If you think the Angels have a good shot to win the World Series like they did in 2002, then Bet on the Angels to win it all.

Over the course of that season, many different heroes emerged on the team. Each night, a different player stepped up to make the key play. All those close games fought to keep pace with Oakland forged the 2002 team into hardened warriors capable of beating the best. As a result, the entire team was better prepared to explode in the post season. And, as fans we saw that with their “frenzied hitting” and outbursts from the likes of Adam Kennedy or dramatic homeruns from Spiezio, Glaus, Salmon, Erstad, etc.

However, in the absence of that fierce competition over the course of a season, the Angels teams that emerged over the remainder of the last decade did not have the same competitive spirit as the 2002 team. They looked overmatched in the post season, and often exited in the first round. They were cut down by teams such as the Red Sox, who had been bloodied all season long with their competition with the Yankees and Rays. The Angels were flaccid whereas their opponents were wily because they each faced differing levels of competition over the course of the season.


As a fan, I would rather see my team enter the post season fewer times, as long as they win it all more often. While it was fun seeing the team win the A. L. West for most of the last decade, it wasn’t fun watching them exit the post season early. I want to taste champagne, not settle for an after-taste.

All of this brings me back to Yu Darvish. By signing him, the Rangers improved as a team. However, they did not improve as much as what they lost in Wilson. What they did do, though, is they maintained the higher level of competition that the Angels will face over the course of the season. By winning the division twice in a row, the Angels are the underdogs and will have to go out and prove themselves as a team. This will make them better as a team, much like 2002 did to that team.

More importantly, by signing Darvish, the Rangers were unable to afford Prince Fielder. While Darvish makes the Rangers better, adding Fielder into their lineup would have had a greater impact on their team than Darvish. Fielder would have taken their lineup from being one of the most potent in the game to one of the most potent in history. With that lineup, a mediocre pitcher would have success in their rotation. There would be far less risk for their team because the offense would be less likely to vary and the pitcher that they signed would have been a more known commodity. With Darvish, a lot of their team’s success depends on how well he adjusts to pitching in the A. L. West.

Thanks to the developing Cold War and attendant arms race in the A. L. West, the Angels are going to be a better team long-term. No longer can they take winning the division for granted. For the foreseeable future the Angels will have to fight to win the division. But, in doing so, they will become better. The Angels teams that emerge won’t be one-and-done teams—They will be World Champions!