Angels signed LHP Manny Banuelos to a minor league contract

[Robrock30]

Angels signed LHP Manny Banuelos to a minor league contract. 

He was one of the Yankees killer B's 3 pitching  prospects which included current closer Betances.
 

[totdprods]

Man, this guy was shuttled around the minors like crazy. Seems like every year w pitched for 3-4 different minor league teams across all levels.

He's only 25 and left-handed. Some stability may help. Eppler has really dialed in finding guys age 25 and younger who used to be top prospects, or at least very productive minor leaguers who were overlooked. I think that's another sign he is looking at the long-term, and at the later Trout years, as the target.

We already have a lot of talent that's around 25 years old, and now several lottery-pick types in that same age range.

[arch stanton]

I like adding lefties to the organization but he's got to cut the walks at least in half to be at all useful. 

[totdprods]

If you had told us back in '12 that we would have Heaney, Skaggs, Meyer, Banuelos, and Oberholtzer in our future rotation discussion we would have been losing our minds with excitement.

Goes to show how volatile SP pitching prospects can be.

[Ohtaniland]

depth

[Docwaukee]

51 minutes ago, totdprods said:

If you had told us back in '12 that we would have Heaney, Skaggs, Meyer, Banuelos, and Oberholtzer in our future rotation discussion we would have been losing our minds with excitement.

Goes to show how volatile SP pitching prospects can be.

Don't forget that Richards was a top 100 guy as well.  

Of all those guys, we've only really seen Oberholtzer get enough time to show us what he really is.  A #5/swing type guy.  

The others have either been injured and/or have had trouble with free passes.  It would make sense that one of Skaggs, Meyer, or Banuelos will get the ship going in the right direction next year.  The problem is that we probably need all three of them to do that for us to have a chance.  

So right now our rotation for next year has options of Richards, Shoe, Nolasco, Skaggs, Meyer, Oberholtzer, Banuelos.  We know about Smith.  Other guys to look out for are Troy Scribner (113.2ip, 77h, 45bb, 101k between AA/AAA), Chris O'grady (converted back to a starter with decent results so far), Jordan Kipper (3.47 era in AA but doesn't miss too many bats.  sinker baller ), and Alex Blackford (3.32 era in AA after being converted to a starter just this year.  Also has 91k in 95ip with only 62h but 44bb.  In his last 6 starts he has a 2.91era with 42k and only 8bb.  He'll be 26 next year though so he's not really a prospect, but could be a late bloomer due to his recent conversion.) 

 

[fan_since79]

50 minutes ago, CALZONE said:

depth

"Next guy in line for TJ surgery, come on down."

 

 

[Glen]

I can totally see him being brought in to start the inning in a close game and getting two outs, followed by a walk and a double that puts runners on second and third. Then Morin's comes in, gives up a hit and both runners score, and then gets the final out. 

[fan_since79]

3 minutes ago, Glen said:

I can totally see him being brought in to start the inning in a close game and getting two outs, followed by a walk and a double that puts runners on second and third. Then Morin's comes in, gives up a hit and both runners score, and then gets the final out. 

You too?!

 

[totdprods]

23 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

Don't forget that Richards was a top 100 guy as well.  

Of all those guys, we've only really seen Oberholtzer get enough time to show us what he really is.  A #5/swing type guy.  

Dang, that's right. I thought Richards was a year before these guys, but all of them were up there in the rankings going into 2012. 
I don't think we've seen enough of Oberholtzer yet. He got slammed in his first outing - for all we know he got to the park late, had jitters, and was unfamiliar with his catcher and opponents. He hasn't been fantastic in his two outings since, but there definitely hasn't been enough time to tell. I could see him being very Santiago-esque. Prone to periods where he's awful and stretches where he rattles off five dominant starts. 

I think Scribner and O'Grady shouldn't be counted on much more than Rucinski was a couple years back. They should stay around #8-#10 on the SP depth chart, and we should fill in the gaps above them this offseason. I see Smith living in sort of the #6 spot that Tropeano occupied to start the year.

[totdprods]

The other plus to moves like this, we could have a huge surplus of starting pitching in '18. Obviously, some of these guys will deal with injuries, ineffectiveness, etc, but Richards, Shoemaker, Heaney, Skaggs, Tropeano, Meyer, Oberholtzer, Banuelos, Smith could provide 9 MLB-caliber starters in '18-'19.

Eppler is also checking off a lot of our offseason shopping list needs already. A couple weeks ago, it was Shoe, Skaggs, Santiago, and after Smith, literally nothing for '17 in terms of SP depth. He's added Banuelos, Oberholtzer, and Meyer already. 

[Docwaukee]

3 hours ago, totdprods said:

Dang, that's right. I thought Richards was a year before these guys, but all of them were up there in the rankings going into 2012. 
I don't think we've seen enough of Oberholtzer yet. He got slammed in his first outing - for all we know he got to the park late, had jitters, and was unfamiliar with his catcher and opponents. He hasn't been fantastic in his two outings since, but there definitely hasn't been enough time to tell. I could see him being very Santiago-esque. Prone to periods where he's awful and stretches where he rattles off five dominant starts. 

I think Scribner and O'Grady shouldn't be counted on much more than Rucinski was a couple years back. They should stay around #8-#10 on the SP depth chart, and we should fill in the gaps above them this offseason. I see Smith living in sort of the #6 spot that Tropeano occupied to start the year.

Agree on O'Grady.  I think Scribner is an under the radar guy who could surprise some people.  

Santiago has way better stuff than Oberholtzer.  Hector is just a little off in the head.  Apparently, Ober hasn't been a model team player.