*Story updated for clarity on Vasgersian/Sutton handling duties*
Losing Victor Rojas after a decade of memorable calls for the Angels organization was an enormous blow. Replacing him was going to be even harder.
The Angels have managed to find a brilliant replacement(s), hiring the longtime veteran broadcaster Matt Vasgersian.
Vasgersian hardly needs an introduction. You’ve heard him on Sunday Night Baseball for the past few seasons. You’ve heard his work on MLB Network since its’ inception in 2009. He’s called several World Series games for MLB International. Heck, he’s the freaking voice of the ever-popular video game, MLB: The Show. Suffice to say, Vasgersian is one of the most prominent voices in the sport of baseball today. He’ll now be the most prominent voice for the Angels organization.
Vasgersian isn’t the only new member of the team. According to several of the Angels beat writers, the club has also brought Daron Sutton on board as one of their lead play-by-play announcers. Sutton, the son of Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, enters his second stint with the Angels after serving as a radio voice from 2000-2001. Some of the early reporting even say that Sutton could call “a lot of games”. Vasgersian will still contribute to both ESPN and MLB Network while also calling games for the Angels. In addition to these two hirings, Jose Mota will also take on an expanded role as an analyst.
This is a pretty monumental day for the Angels organization and the voice for the foreseeable future. Things will certainly sound different in 2021 and beyond but I’m sure Angels fans will get used to the calls of Matty V and Daron Sutton.
I hope that Sutton is better this time around and more prepared. Matt V. is just a seriously great addition but I do wish he could make more of an investment of his time with the Angels.
Even though I’ve followed the Halos since 1986, I don’t remember much about Daron Sutton. Probably cause 2000-2001 were personally busy years for me so I didn’t follow the team quite as closely as now, but glad to hear everyone is raving about his work and happy with his hire. Sounds like this year will be an audition year for him, and Vasgersian is kind of a solid temp fill-in for this year. I’d imagine Vasgersian is going to keep his focus/profile on the national level long-term, so I wouldn’t expect him to be a long-term replacement for Rojas. Sounds like that might be Sutton’s niche, and if he’s as good as the consensus seems, he could be around for a while. 🙂
If we could nail our pitching the way we nail our announcers, we’d be pretty awesome. Both great hires. Just saw Victor last week walking around the Frisco Classic. Talked to a few staff members about him and they love him.
Speaking of nailing our announcers, I like to have Alex Curry somehow part of the new team.
I’m planning on heading that way this Spring to catch a Rangers game and meet up with Vic.
I’ll try to remember to shoot you an email to let you know which games we attend.
Please do Jeff. Frisco is a great minor league park too. It’s so weird for me to pull for the Rough Riders and then root for their ex-players to fail miserably when they hit the show. (Not really – I pull for some of them when they aren’t playing us. Jose Trevino was so cool to my kid at a camp – I have to root for him. My son 9 at the time asked him what to do when he was pitching if there was a runner on third and the guy squares to bunt. Now, this was the first day Jose was giving lessons at a local baseball facility in the offseason. Jose smirks with a big smile and tells him “You just have to do your job.” My son replies back, “Okay, should I do the same thing if he is left-handed or do I throw it in the RH batters box?” He almost fell over trying desperately to keep a straight face. NOTE: I did not give my son those instructions.)
Make sure your fully vaccinated first before heading to the Lone Star State!
Theyre way too reckless and crazy over there for my liking.
Surprised no one else has, so I’ll say it: an expanded role for Marble Mouth Mota just about negates the good news of hiring Vasgersian/Sutton.
Amen Brother Manatee, I’ve been thinking the same thing. With a 3 person announcing team Mota needs to learn that less is more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsiAhizVOKs
You know, the old saying goes, “play good enough until last out until also something good happens for you.”
I’m psyched by this. These are solid hires. High quality, polished play by play announcers. I’m actually surprised the Org got it right.
Man this is awesome. This a sign that we’re coming back and going to win a Title. No way he doesn’t come unless they’re something brewing among the MLB – paid off umpires.
I remember Sutton. He’s going to fit in well.
pretty good but I still think Alex Curry would have been the better choice
Is Curry still part of the crew? Or is she going national?
I love me some Alex Curry, but i’m not sure she’d be the right fit in the booth. Though I wouldn’t mind giving her a game or two this year to see if she can do it.
I hadn’t considered Alex in the booth. She’s so great at what she does, and an incredibly nice person.
Love the idea of giving her a few games, though. Why not let it be Spring Training for her too? A week of games from Phoenix would be a perfect time.
I would absolutely be down for that.
She has wayyyyyy too many jobs under fox to exclusively do Angel games.
I can’t believe it! Vasgersian was the one I hoped they would get, but I didn’t think it was possible! And I did like Daron a lot back when he was doing it here.
The other half of the equation is pretty stoked:
https://twitter.com/lifeisgreatsut/status/1370159212383338497
I’m stoked too!
Sorry guys but for radio or tv I still miss Rory
Love the hires.
And will try to line up interviews.
This is awesome news!! I absolutely love the hires too especially Matty V. I don’t know much about Sutton since I was too young during his time here, but have heard nothing but good things in the comments which is really encouraging.
I hope you’re able to land interviews with them. I always look forward to your interviews Jeff they are top tier.
Thank you.
Could have been worse. I mean, Arte could have gone with Roger Lodge
Goooood Evening, Halo Honks, and a pleasant Tuesday evening to you wherever you may be.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Shhhhhhh………just might do it for $15 per hr and no benefits!
Quite a nice hire to bring in a big-time name like Vasgersian! Even if he is only week days I like it (I assume he’ll still be doing Sunday Night Baseball??).
In addition, Sutton is solid on the mic. Like Rev I remember him from days with Mario and like him. If memory serves I think Mario moved on to Detroit to do Tigers games. I think he is a Michigan guy. I don’t know what DS has been doing in the interim.
Not only is DS an old Angel radio guy but he also is an old Angel Farmhand with a cup of coffee in the minors in1992 . https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=sutton001dar
Apparently he was a two way player just like Shohei with 10.2 innings of 10.97 ERA and a 0 for 10 batting line at Boise. So it probably didn’t take long for Kotchman to have the talk with him.
Interesting. I didn’t know that about him.
He used to joke about it on the air. But all in all I thought he was pretty good. I think that was back where both the radio booth guys would switch off play by play duties every few innings.
Pretty comparable to Victor, if a bit better possibly. I liked Sutton when he was here before, hope he gets to call some radio. Good moves all around. Wish they would have dumped Gubi for a better analyst though.
I thought the same thing. Closest comp to Victor. Similar snark, style, even age.
Vasgersian will be remote for most games, first Angels one will be Opening Day. Said himself that Sutton may do majority of the games.
This seems kind of weird? I hope the chemistry isn’t awkward on the Vasgersian games where the other ones have all 3 guys somewhat together to play off each other.
Congrats to Mota!
For what it’s worth, Gubicza sounds ecstatic about the addition(s). I’m sure it’ll be an adjustment but I think Vasgersian/Sutton will work great in the booth with the surrounding cast.
So I remember Dick Enberg coming back part time for Radio during I think it was the 1985 season. While it was great to have him back in booth I thought the season was a little disjointed with no continuity from one game to the game. I think theres definitely an advantage having the same crew for pretty much every game. that way they can call each game through the lense of the impact of every games outcome on the totality of the full season. if the PBP person is a part time answer with a multitude of other commitments are you really getting his best?
This means that the only constant between each broadcast will be Gubi & Mota and that is worrisome.
Yeah I can agree here. Growing up I listened to any baseball game I could; Dodgers or Angels. What I liked about The Dodgers is that Scully and Dogget/Ross Porter, would trade off TV and radio w/o a second guy in the booth. Scully did innings 1-3, 7-9 on TV. It worked well. Being a constant voice made the fan experience more intimate, family like.
has there been an article or has Bally Sport West? been discussed here yet?
I believe the changeover is waiting until 2022
Bally Who?
sinclair-unveils-bally-sports-network-lineup-which-will-replace-and-reshuffle-the-fox-sports-rsns.html
I still see them listed as Fox Sports West everywhere, and the only streaming service still carrying them is AT&T TV. Had to dump Hulu, YouTube TV and Fubo within the past year since I don’t want to go with the old overprice cable companies… but assuming Sinclair is paying hardball w/ the regional sports networks fees thus leading to most streaming services dumping them or refusing to carry their channel. Any developments on that front before Opening Day? Otherwise I may have to suck it up and spend $85/mo for AT&T TV…
All great thoughts/questions. I remember there being something in the works in Sacramento (proposed bill) to have more options to pay per channel as opposed to a cable package. You can imagine what cable lobbyist did with that through the years.
Honestly the last few years have been pretty great if you “cut the cord”. I just download the channel apps I actually use and am able to log in one way or the other. Hulu, espn+, Disney+ are like $13 (you don’t get Hulu live).
Netflix, paramount+ (took over cbs all access) and now things like BSW will become more commonplace. These companies are figuring out how to stop people from sharing their info so they have to pay individually.
I do wonder how VPNs will factor into play as I know a lot of people who live in foreign countries that use a VPN just to have access to USA Netflix.
I think as things change an article or discussion should be posted here. Or you can go to Reddit.
This is such a good move that I am actually shocked they did it.
My assumption is D.Sutton for Saturday-Sunday-Monday games. I liked DS when he was paired with Mario Impemba pre-’02 Angels so am upbeat here.
Probably in fact an audition for DS/Gubi chemistry as note Vasgerian statement specifies that this is for the 2021 season. Hmmmmm…
So thankful they don’t have a Bozo like Steve Physioc in the booth. Ugh.
you said it Rev! great hire. I’m surprised but happy
I read Vasgersian’s 2021 call-out the same way. Sutton likely full-time in 2022 if I had to guess
Physioc…do you remember when he and Sparky Anderson shared the booth? The cutaways from the game to watching Steve listening to Sparky talk was amusing. Steve has this mad crush of respect with Sparky, came off as weird to me.
Physioc is a classic frontrunner type, always fake “awe” for the greats, sickening.
Vasgersian was really a pipedream for me. He was someone I absolutely wanted the Angels to hire but didn’t think it’d happen. The fact that they got both him and Sutton is such a huge W.
I was thinking Chris Rose before Jomboy snagged him. Vasgersian came outta left field in the best way.
My guess is that Matt V. liked the idea of getting to see Trout on a regular basis. I am sure that was a key sales point “You’ll get to call games of the GOAT.”
I like Matt, Dan Shulman and John “Boog” Sciambi of ESPN. We got one of them. Boog went to the Cubs, Shulman does some Blue Jays work.
Great piece. Always loved Vasgersian and am extremely happy to hear this (and future games). Victor will be difficult to replace but I’m excited for what the future has in store. Best Angels addition of the offseason, bar none!
I agree, best offseason move until someone proves otherwise
I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS HIRE.
Been a fan of his for years on MLB Network and the games he’s called for them and ESPN.
I love this hire, too, and I’ve also been a fan.
This is pretty cool, but I could do without his “Santa Maria” calls. He’s a great play by play guy though! I wonder if he’ll call out the team like Victor did, ie. “I don’t understand why they are making this move here”. We might miss that part of it…
if he misses anything I’m sure we’ll pick it up
Co-sign. He seems like a great guy and we’re certainly familiar with him…but I’ve never been a huge fan of his calls.
Could have been worse though.
I’m OK with Santa Maria calls as long as he includes Mongo at the beginning.
To me, calling out the team should be the analysts or the color guys job. Never been a fan of the PBP guy to do so. But I recognize Gubbie is too timid to do so.
I thought that role was the duty of the guy hosting Angel Talk. Considering the Angels have a rich tradition where the team owner also owns the home radio station I think this is a pipe dream though.