Who is this Wade Wass character?

[Rico]

Legit prospect?

http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=621528#/career/R/hitting/2017/ALL

25 year old Catcher (sometimes DH) at AA Mobile.  

10 home runs in 39 games.  .258 / .368 / .563  (Dudes like the long ball)

 

And on the topic of catchers.  Carlos Perez should be up with the big club.

[totdprods]

He's definitely played himself into the catcher depth chart, I would imagine. 

Perez wouldn't be getting enough playing time in Anaheim, nor would it be worth docking any of Maldonado's time given how good he's been. I imagine Perez will come back up later in the summer to either give Maldonado more time off in the hot weather or keep him fresh for any potential stretch run. 

[totdprods]

Juan Graterol has been sneaky good as a back-up catcher too. Small sample size alert, his 53% CS% is highest in the league. Thrown out 8 runners with 7 successful. 

Hes not much with the bat in terms of power or patience but he puts the ball in play enough. Has accumulated 0.4 WAR in 15 games.

[Second Base]

Wade Wass was a legitimate prospect long before this season. The guy is just burly, and sneaky athletic. Some guys, their power never materializes, but for most, it usually comes around age 24 or 25. It is the last tool develop, if you need more evidence of this, see Trout as an 18 or 19 year old.

Defensively, Wass has always been "good enough", and like Maldonado and Perez, the pitchers and coaches seem to like him.

As for Perez, Scioscia said it himself, he doesn't intend to have Maldonado catch more than 120 games a year. They're getting Perez everyday playing time in AAA because after the all-star break, he'll be back up and covering a solid 50% of the starts,

[Make Angels Great Again]

Wade Wass reminds me of Napoli as far as minor league stats go.

[Dick B Back]

21 minutes ago, Make Angels Great Again said:

Wade Wass reminds me of Napoli as far as minor league stats go.

Didn't Mathis have good minor league stats?

[Make Angels Great Again]

4 minutes ago, Dick B Back said:

Didn't Mathis have good minor league stats?

Mathis had great minor league stats, mostly around a mid .800 OPS from 19-22 years old, topping out at 21 homers while hitting .278/.342/.502. He was definitely a big disappointment on the offensive side. He was ranked as high as a #22 prospect across baseball at one point.

[Angel Oracle]

Maldonado, Graterol, Perez, Wass, and Ward

Would they dare draft another catcher in the early rounds?

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

2 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

Maldonado, Graterol, Perez, Wass, and Ward

Would they dare draft another catcher in the early rounds?

Of course!

[Brent Maguire]

Very interesting development from Wass this year. For the first time in his career, he's not a full time catcher. He's appeared at 15 games at catcher, 15 games at first base and even has 2 games in right field this year. I'm sure having less pressure to play catcher full time helps but it's also not the first time he's hit. He hit 8 home runs and had a 123 wRC+ in High A last year and hit 11 home runs across 2 levels in 2015. The power is clearly there and his fly ball heavy ways along with some ability to walk is nice. The biggest issue is his 33% K rate at AA, which is only going to increase as he moves closer to the majors. At the very least, he's an interesting piece who can maybe be a backup catcher and 1B down the road. 

[Chuck]

Kind of reminds me of another 1B/C we had in Shawn Wooten. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

6 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Kind of reminds me of another 1B/C we had in Shawn Wooten. 

I think he kind of profiles as a Wooten type. Not sure if he has the bat to be Wooten though, but at his age we tend to see catchers start to put it together.

[Taylor]

4 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

Maldonado, Graterol, Perez, Wass, and Ward

Would they dare draft another catcher in the early rounds?

Yes.