MLB Pipeline Top 100 Prospects

[Ohtani&Trout]

http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018/

#1 Ohtani

#62 Adell

#87 Maitan

#93 Jones

Keith Law ranked 5 Angels in his top 100 (would've been 6 had he included Ohtani). 

[UndertheHalo]

I think if Marsh has more AB’s he’s on all these top 100 lists (I know he’s on Keith Laws).  Potentially ahead of Jones. Especially for the guys that favor ceiling players.  

Also, I think if Barria adds some velocity which is apparently possibly he’s easily gonna be on peoples radar as well. 

Edited January 28, 2018 by UndertheHalo

[krAbs]

Whoa, that ETA for Jones feels quick. I feel like I've been hearing 2020 for him.

[UndertheHalo]

Also does anyone happen to know what Law ranked the Angels for his organizational rankings ?

[Second Base]

You could legitimately justify the Angels having Ohtani, Adell, Jones, Maitan, Marsh, Barria, Rodriguez and Canning all in the top 100. 

For those keeping score, yes, we likely have one of the stronger farms in baseball.

[Docwaukee]

7 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

You could legitimately justify the Angels having Ohtani, Adell, Jones, Maitan, Marsh, Barria, Rodriguez and Canning all in the top 100. 

For those keeping score, yes, we likely have one of the stronger farms in baseball.

we certainly have 8 in the top 150 or so.  With an argument for Thaiss and maybe even Hermosillo in that 150 as well.  

Aside from the obvious 'one that got away' in Vlad jr, seeing Whitley do what he's doing as the pick immediately after Thaiss is a little painful considering that he was certainly one of those mentioned as a possibility on draft day.  Probably means we don't draft Marsh but maybe it means we don't draft Williams.  Oh well.  Very happy with where we are vs. where we were a short time ago.  

I think our system has improved considerably, but it's also very interesting.  Adell, Marsh and Maitan have superstar potential.  Rodriguez has top of the rotation potential.  And then there's a bunch of other real solid guys with some upside.  That also doesn't even include what Ohtani is going to be.  We could have a couple in the top 20 even after Ohtani moves up.  

My guess is we take a similar strategy in this years draft with a safe pick in the 1st and something a bit more risky in rounds 2 and 3.  

Loved our 1st two picks last year.  Then lost a little excitement till Rivera at 11.  

A little bit of the opposite for 2016.  Not super excited about #1, but really liked 2-8.  

At this point, I feel like we've got enough depth so I hope we go with a bunch of big upside.  

And we can't forget about the guys in the top 30-40 with big upside like TH jr., Deveaux, Duensing, etc.  

[Docwaukee]

BTW, my biggest 'we'll see' component of Eppler's approach was his ability to build a farm. Could it be that he's assembled a team who are very good at that?  There's still a fair ways to go, but so far so good.  

And I can't emphasize enough how important this is to the well being of this franchise.  The amount of value/currency that has been added in just two years is really impressive.

[totdprods]

And, while not quite the same, guys like Ramirez, and especially Meyer and Bridwell, came with years of control and were pretty much prospects still. 

[arch stanton]

I hope the new internationals pan out as well as the draftees. When you look at the top of the 100 you see where we missed out for so many years. The Cubs traded away the 4th and 5th players on the list, both international signees, in the last 2 seasons while trying to plug the holes in their pitching staff. The Red Sox used Moncada as the centerpiece to get Sale.

[bloodbrother]

9 hours ago, UndertheHalo said:

Also does anyone happen to know what Law ranked the Angels for his organizational rankings ?

19th....though that's without including Ohtani which would have certainly brought them up a handful of spots

[tdawg87]

12 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

19th....though that's without including Ohtani which would have certainly brought them up a handful of spots

Obviously I'm a homer but this doesn't really match his list. I mean, 6 Angels prospects made his top 100 and that didn't include Ohtani. Not that it matters but surely that deserves a higher ranking?

Whatever. We've all seen the improvement in our system and finally others are as well. 

[bloodbrother]

Only 5 Angels in his top 100 but agreed. There were only a handful of teams that had more in his top 100 so it doesn't really add up

 

[totdprods]

The farm improved quite a bit and we have a handful of the 'sexy' prospects- but overall there's still not a depth in the upper minors, almost zero infield prospect depth, not much top-end rotation depth, and our middle tiers of talent - the #10-20 guys - are pretty far removed from what other top farms have in that tier. Also, a lot of our talent is still in the lower minors.

We're definitely close though. I think #15-20 is fair to slot the Halos for now. 

[Second Base]

For a GM often times a farm system is one of those largely ignored components because so many of these kids won't be in the majors during their tenure, unless they're pretty good at their job and are happy doing it. But we simply don't know what the future holds.

Stoneman built a strong farm system because he believed it would make a good big league team. He was half right.

Reagins seemed like he built a farm with the premise that he would trade these kids for veterans when the time came.

Dipoto didn't care about the farm so much. He seemed to view it and treat it as future depth, but not future value. He'd draft low upside pitchers and trade anyone of value the first opportunity he had to make the major league team better. 

We know by now that Billy Eppler is good at building a farm. What's still to be seen is his purpose and motivation behind it. Is it so he can trade these guys? Is it because he thinks they'll make good major leaguers. Are they simply depth to him? 

My guess is that Eppler in this case is a hybrid, like he seems to be in many other cases. I think some of these upside guys fit his team building philosophy and will be valuable major leaguers. Some of them are going to be trade bait, and some of them he keeps just because he values depth.

It's an oversimplification of these GM's in general, but it is the general sense of who they are/were and how they operate.

[tdawg87]

13 minutes ago, totdprods said:

The farm improved quite a bit and we have a handful of the 'sexy' prospects- but overall there's still not a depth in the upper minors, almost zero infield prospect depth, not much top-end rotation depth, and our middle tiers of talent - the #10-20 guys - are pretty far removed from what other top farms have in that tier. Also, a lot of our talent is still in the lower minors.

We're definitely close though. I think #15-20 is fair to slot the Halos for now. 

Definitely fair, but I still think Law's ranking doesn't make sense. That's on the lower end of where they are really at and he had 5 prospects in his top 100. 

But again, these rankings mean nothing. 

[totdprods]

It'll be interesting to see what happens when Jones, Hermosillo, Ward, Thaiss, and Fletcher are truly ready for a shot at an everyday job. We haven't had a position player prospect capable of taking an everyday job during offseason plans or ST in years, and any one of those guys could be in that position next year. 

Eppler is so big on acquiring one-year stopgap vets it'll be interesting to see if he actually rolls into a season leaning on an untested rookie or if he views them more as a mid season replacement.

[AngelsLakersFan]

8 hours ago, Dochalo said:

BTW, my biggest 'we'll see' component of Eppler's approach was his ability to build a farm. Could it be that he's assembled a team who are very good at that?  There's still a fair ways to go, but so far so good.  

And I can't emphasize enough how important this is to the well being of this franchise.  The amount of value/currency that has been added in just two years is really impressive.

I guess now the question is, what impact are these guys going to have on the big club? Building a highly touted system is one thing, but converting that to wins on the field is another.

[Dugout]

8 hours ago, Dochalo said:

we certainly have 8 in the top 150 or so.  With an argument for Thaiss and maybe even Hermosillo in that 150 as well.  

Aside from the obvious 'one that got away' in Vlad jr, seeing Whitley do what he's doing as the pick immediately after Thaiss is a little painful considering that he was certainly one of those mentioned as a possibility on draft day.  Probably means we don't draft Marsh but maybe it means we don't draft Williams.  Oh well.  Very happy with where we are vs. where we were a short time ago.  

I think our system has improved considerably, but it's also very interesting.  Adell, Marsh and Maitan have superstar potential.  Rodriguez has top of the rotation potential.  And then there's a bunch of other real solid guys with some upside.  That also doesn't even include what Ohtani is going to be.  We could have a couple in the top 20 even after Ohtani moves up.  

My guess is we take a similar strategy in this years draft with a safe pick in the 1st and something a bit more risky in rounds 2 and 3.  

Loved our 1st two picks last year.  Then lost a little excitement till Rivera at 11.  

A little bit of the opposite for 2016.  Not super excited about #1, but really liked 2-8.  

At this point, I feel like we've got enough depth so I hope we go with a bunch of big upside.  

And we can't forget about the guys in the top 30-40 with big upside like TH jr., Deveaux, Duensing, etc.  

I agree with keeping the same strategy in this years draft. And if you want to dream a little bit I think we have a couple of sleeper's that will emerge this year or next, most farm's usually do. I personally like Soto a little more than Maitan, who some say he moves more like a first baseman. Strong up the middle athlete's are great trading pieces, let' get some more in June.

[KevinJ14]

2 hours ago, Scotty@AW said:

For a GM often times a farm system is one of those largely ignored components because so many of these kids won't be in the majors during their tenure, unless they're pretty good at their job and are happy doing it. But we simply don't know what the future holds.

Stoneman built a strong farm system because he believed it would make a good big league team. He was half right.

Reagins seemed like he built a farm with the premise that he would trade these kids for veterans when the time came.

Dipoto didn't care about the farm so much. He seemed to view it and treat it as future depth, but not future value. He'd draft low upside pitchers and trade anyone of value the first opportunity he had to make the major league team better. 

We know by now that Billy Eppler is good at building a farm. What's still to be seen is his purpose and motivation behind it. Is it so he can trade these guys? Is it because he thinks they'll make good major leaguers. Are they simply depth to him? 

My guess is that Eppler in this case is a hybrid, like he seems to be in many other cases. I think some of these upside guys fit his team building philosophy and will be valuable major leaguers. Some of them are going to be trade bait, and some of them he keeps just because he values depth.

It's an oversimplification of these GM's in general, but it is the general sense of who they are/were and how they operate.

Ok, that's fair. Do you see any current Angels prospects as "untouchable" though?

[greginpsca]

3 hours ago, totdprods said:

The farm improved quite a bit and we have a handful of the 'sexy' prospects- but overall there's still not a depth in the upper minors, almost zero infield prospect depth, not much top-end rotation depth, and our middle tiers of talent - the #10-20 guys - are pretty far removed from what other top farms have in that tier. Also, a lot of our talent is still in the lower minors.

We're definitely close though. I think #15-20 is fair to slot the Halos for now. 

Another strong draft this coming June will really help to build the upper levels of the farm. It could also soften the blow to the Org if Trout were to actually leave after 2020.

[Dugout]

55 minutes ago, KevinJ14 said:

Ok, that's fair. Do you see any current Angels prospects as "untouchable" though?

Great question....Do you think he might be a little attached to his very first draft? its always better to be part of the new regime than the old! Or does a good GM just just look at them all as expendable pawns?

[UndertheHalo]

42 minutes ago, greginpsca said:

Another strong draft this coming June will really help to build the upper levels of the farm. It could also soften the blow to the Org if Trout were to actually leave after 2020.

It’s going to be important for the Angels to figure out what’s going on with Trout once Harper and Machado get their deals.  The Angels simply can’t afford to lose the guy in free agency.  The 2018/19 offseason is going to be huge for the teams outlook over the next 8-10 years. 

I hope the Angels just pay him whatever and get it over with.  But if he won’t sign a deal then it really will be time to think about trading him in the next 24 months.  We can’t be in a position like the orioles.  What a disaster that is.

Edited January 28, 2018 by UndertheHalo

[Angelsjunky]

#15-20 now, #10-15 by year's end because of how the talent is pooled at lower levels. 

[Second Base]

1 hour ago, KevinJ14 said:

Ok, that's fair. Do you see any current Angels prospects as "untouchable" though?

It really depends on what Eppler wants and what the major league team needs. If we pretend for a moment that the major league team is a contender, and has all the pieces to remain so for the next three seasons, then every high end prospect is "untouchable."

The reason is, if the team is already a contender and good enough to reach the playoffs, then prospects ultimately won't change that. So hoard them until there's depth in AA/AAA as well as the Rookie Ball. Right now, with the exception of Hermosillo and Barria, most of our talent is just entering A Ball.

However, if the team is still in need of upgrades in order to emerge as that contender we desire, then the majority of our prospects are available.

My guess is the Angels made their major upgrades with Cozart, Kinsler, Upton and Ohtani. Now they'll just be looking to add low cost complementary pieces like Rene Rivera and thus, keep the majority of their prospects.

So because of the circumstance, my guess is Ohtani, Adell, Maitan, Barria, Thaiss, Jones, Herm, Rodriguez and Marsh aren't on the table.

But that can change quickly. As for my own list, Ohtani, Adell, Maitan and Marsh are untouchable.

[Second Base]

45 minutes ago, Dugout said:

Great question....Do you think he might be a little attached to his very first draft? its always better to be part of the new regime than the old! Or does a good GM just just look at them all as expendable pawns?

None of the above. Talent is talent is talent is talent. No matter who brought it here. Dipoto didn't trade Trout just because Reagins drafted him.

In a much lesser case, Eppler won't trade Jones and Barria simply because Dipoto drafted them.