The Official 2019 Minor League Statline and Prospect Discussion Thread

[halomatt]

I'm not sure when his list came out, but Keith Law ranked the Angels as number seven on his 2019 rankings of farm clubs.  This was up from number 19 in 2018. He cites better drafts and an increased focus on international signings providing the depth for the system. 

That's some jump.  Now discuss amongst yourselves. 

[Inside Pitch]

47 minutes ago, halomatt said:

I'm not sure when his list came out, but Keith Law ranked the Angels as number seven on his 2019 rankings of farm clubs.  This was up from number 19 in 2018. He cites better drafts and an increased focus on international signings providing the depth for the system. 

That's some jump.  Now discuss amongst yourselves. 

Angels at 7, Astros at 12, Rangers at 20, Mariners at 22, Athletics at 27.....   

Guess Keith Law missed the memo about the Angels needing a ton of breakout years from their minor leaguers in order to rise in the rankings...

He also listed Canning among his potential top 20 impact rookies.

[Vlad27Trout27]

1 hour ago, halomatt said:

I'm not sure when his list came out, but Keith Law ranked the Angels as number seven on his 2019 rankings of farm clubs.  This was up from number 19 in 2018. He cites better drafts and an increased focus on international signings providing the depth for the system. 

That's some jump.  Now discuss amongst yourselves. 

Do you have a link?

[Lou]

18 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Pujols is obviously Brando, except Brando in the 90s: used to be great, now fat and old.

You watch it, pal! The Freshman was a masterpiece. He carried Mathew Broderick.

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

You watch it, pal! The Freshman was a masterpiece. He carried Mathew Broderick.

And Albert occasionally has a good game or a clutch hit. But his overall oeuvre (yes, oeuvre) has radically declined.

[Chuck]

 

 

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

 

 

Hernandez

[Docwaukee]

10 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Angels at 7, Astros at 12, Rangers at 20, Mariners at 22, Athletics at 27.....   

Guess Keith Law missed the memo about the Angels needing a ton of breakout years from their minor leaguers in order to rise in the rankings...

He also listed Canning among his potential top 20 impact rookies.

A's at 27.  Luzardo, Puk and Sean Murphy near the top 50 and still that low.  super top heavy.  

Halos at 7 feels a little aggressive to be honest.  

 

[Second Base]

27 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

A's at 27.  Luzardo, Puk and Sean Murphy near the top 50 and still that low.  super top heavy.  

Halos at 7 feels a little aggressive to be honest.  

 

I don't know enough about other clubs to say exactly where the Angels belong, but most that I've talked to that do know a little more about other teams than I do, guys from minorleagueball and whatnot, all believe the Angels are top 10-ish. And the differences between #7 and #12 are pretty minimal. 

[Angelsjunky]

Maybe Law's over-compensating for his "worst ever" comment a couple years ago and/or trying to look smart by getting ahead of the game. 

[Stradling]

Has anyone told flop?  

[UndertheHalo]

I think it’s just about what these guys value.  There’s a pretty solid bit of variance as we’re seeing now.  Keith Law has always been a guy that puts a ton of weight into analytics and super athletic guys.  So it makes sense that he likes our farm.  He’s been pretty positive about it going back like 18 months.  

I mean he made the worst ever comment after we had spent years doing the high floor bullshit.   That was definitely the low point for the system as far as the industry was concerned. 

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Dochalo said:

A's at 27.  Luzardo, Puk and Sean Murphy near the top 50 and still that low.  super top heavy.  

Halos at 7 feels a little aggressive to be honest.  

He points out the injuries and how that has to temper some expectations for them.   Also, argues that all their best prospects and Latin players last year had off seasons.     I think a lot of the Halos' ranking is the usual hype over the players entering the system.

 

[Docwaukee]

18 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

I think it’s just about what these guys value.  There’s a pretty solid bit of variance as we’re seeing now.  Keith Law has always been a guy that puts a ton of weight into analytics and super athletic guys.  So it makes sense that he likes our farm.  He’s been pretty positive about it going back like 18 months.  

I mean he made the worst ever comment after we had spent years doing the high floor bullshit.   That was definitely the low point for the system as far as the industry was concerned. 

I am pretty sure he's also friendly with Eppler which adds bias.  

I kind of equate it to picking the NCAA tourney brackets.  Even the experts might not be much better than your average joe overall.  Most everyone can get 4 or 5 of the top 8 right.  They can also get 4 or 5 of the bottom 8 right.  

AJ is always pretty good about using a tiered approach which is a good way to think of these types of things.  

These so called 'experts' might nail down a couple prospects in each system better than someone who casually follows the systems but I would put the AW writers like Scotty, IP etc ahead of most of the national publications as far as the halos are concerned.  

As far as the overall rankings, most of it is boiler plate where the high draft and top intl signs automatically get higher rankings.  But overall, the success of two guys can mean the difference between a 15 rank and a 5.  

Another thing to consider.  Keith Law is now paying attention to our system because of his relationship with Billy.   Which means he's probably seen more and paid more attention.  And he clearly likes what he sees.  To me, that's a positive.  

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter what he pundits think.  The most important part of a farm system is how it contributes to the major league level.  

Eppler is going to miss on quite a few because he goes for high upside but I think the theory is that he'd rather get 3 or 4 above average everyday players than 6 or 7 or even 10 avg to below major leaguers.  

And to Blarg's point earlier in the thread, the guy behind the talent is super important.  A gym rat who work his tail off and eats, sleeps, breaths baseball is more likely to realize 80% of his talent and become that avg player or even a bench guy even if his skills don't completely translate.  The high upside guy who has the right stuff between the ears is far different than the super tools guy who got a couple marbles floating around.  

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Has anyone told flop?  

he's processing. 

[Lou]

8 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

And Albert occasionally has a good game or a clutch hit. But his overall oeuvre (yes, oeuvre) has radically declined.

screw you, Frenchie!

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Has anyone told flop?  

[Blarg]

I really hate being stuck between Strad and Flop on those long drives. 

[Docwaukee]

11 minutes ago, Blarg said:

I really hate being stuck between Strad and Flop on those long drives. 

GUYS! GUYS!

[Tank]

12 hours ago, Lou said:

You watch it, pal! The Freshman was a masterpiece. He carried Mathew Broderick.

good thing. if broderick had to carry brando, we'd be sending condolence flowers to sarah jessica parker.

[Docwaukee]

53 minutes ago, Tank said:

good thing. if broderick had to carry brando, we'd be sending condolence flowers to sarah jessica parker.

like these?

[Angelsjunky]

Alright, here's a random prospects topic. What's your 2019 draft strategy? Who do you target? Eppler seems to like to go for high ceiling, super athletes, but given the farm's wealth of such players, especially in the outfield, I wouldn't be surprised to see him target more select groups: namely, pick the best pitcher and/or best catcher, depending upon who is available. If no pitchers or catchers standout, he'll probably go best corner infield bat, and then finally best athlete (probably OF/middle infield). Just a hunch.

[arch stanton]

I don't think he'll alter his strategy. Let other teams pay 1st round prices for 1B and DH or develop the HS pitcher who ends up under the knife. We'll draft lottery ticket athletes and cash the ones we like and trade the others for pitchers and corner guys

[Inside Pitch]

4 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Alright, here's a random prospects topic. What's your 2019 draft strategy? Who do you target? Eppler seems to like to go for high ceiling, super athletes, but given the farm's wealth of such players, especially in the outfield, I wouldn't be surprised to see him target more select groups: namely, pick the best pitcher and/or best catcher, depending upon who is available. If no pitchers or catchers standout, he'll probably go best corner infield bat, and then finally best athlete (probably OF/middle infield). Just a hunch.

I doubt much changes.   

Like you, I think they may lean towards pitching early on (if it's there), but that may mean targeting a lower ceiling college arm and I don't know if they will have the discipline to pass on a high ceiling position player should one fall to them.   For me, the question is, will they make a play towards a top end HS arm if one is there -- we haven't seen they go after a name HS pitcher in the first round under Eppler -- maybe this is the year.   That being said....they have had a great deal of success doing it their way of late -- some of that may be pure luck but still -- success is success..  I think it's unlikely they shift away from what they have been doing unless it stops working.

Given all the recent hires with a deep focus on analytics and now bio-mechanics, I get the feeling the organization believes it has a clue how to "develop" players beyond just drafting well.  They are clearly attempting to create systems that will speed their growth and focus their abilities towards certain aspects of the game they view as being of greatest benefit/value to their ascension to MLB. 

IMO.... As those systems become more defined and they start seeing results we may see they end up targeting players they see as candidates for those systems and it's likely we as fans may not understand how they do things.  A lot of the traditional stuff and the patterns associated with them will be rendered obsolete or rather less obvious ..  The draft will become an even bigger crap shoot for us prospect junkies raised on tools and project8ability.

For me -- there is a lot of potential for fun moving forward and a great deal of hope that the Angels are on the cutting edge of things for a change.

[Tank]

10 hours ago, Dochalo said:

like these?

sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between her, sue bird, and john lackey, but i think you got it right.