Taylor Ward answer for RF 2021?

[AngelsLakersFan]

I think it's clear that writing off Ward after his previous struggles was a bit premature. He turned it around after moving off of catcher, then he struggled twice at the major league level while the team has been trying to find a position for him. He might be old for a prospect but his high minors / MLB experience is still limited.  

I think this was probably his last chance and, at least right now, he's making the most of it. He's not going to have enough AB's the rest of the way for us to figure out what type of player he's become but he's played himself onto the team next year I think.

[Angels 1961]

6 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

I think it's clear that writing off Ward after his previous struggles was a bit premature. He turned it around after moving off of catcher, then he struggled twice at the major league level while the team has been trying to find a position for him. He might be old for a prospect but his high minors / MLB experience is still limited.  

I think this was probably his last chance and, at least right now, he's making the most of it. He's not going to have enough AB's the rest of the way for us to figure out what type of player he's become but he's played himself onto the team next year I think.

I do not believe this was his last chance. Angels and Ward have added value to his game by positions he has played. Plus being a third string catcher or emergency catcher. Like Walsh, Ward has good numbers in minors. Hard to be productive first and even second time around. Players need to know they are going to be in lineup everyday. I feel same will happen to Adell next year or in 2022. 

[JustATroutFan]

Sure, lets judge Ward, a guy who has never hit much before this fake season, in a fake season.

[Warfarin]

15 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

Sure, lets judge Ward, a guy who has never hit much before this fake season, in a fake season.

Well, he had a really good minor league seasons in 2018 and 2019, showing strong plate discipline and emerging power, so it seemed there was always potential.  Maybe he is a late bloomer in the same way Walsh is starting to appear that way, too.

[Chuck]

5 hours ago, JustATroutFan said:

Sure, lets judge Ward, a guy who has never hit much before this fake season, in a fake season.

Let's also judge Yelich & Bellinger who have hit before and are shit, in this fake season. 

Your point?

[Stradling]

6 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Let's also judge Yelich & Bellinger who have hit before and are shit, in this fake season. 

Your point?

You must be new here.  

[DMVol]

6 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Let's also judge Yelich & Bellinger who have hit before and are shit, in this fake season. 

Your point?

 

[totdprods]

Who would’ve thought Taylor Ward would be hitting .300 and Jared Walsh slugging .700 going into the last week of September?

[Inside Pitch]

52 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Who would’ve thought Taylor Ward would be hitting .300 and Jared Walsh slugging .700 going into the last week of September?

Before he says it himself, @Loudid.

[Lou]

Just now, Inside Pitch said:

Before he says it himself, @Loudid.

I swear I was going to do it but I'm too into the Mumbai Indians v. Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of the IPL T20 (being played in Abu Dhabi) season right now. 

[T.G.]

@Lou is living large.

[Angel Oracle]

1 hour ago, Lou said:

I swear I was going to do it but I'm too into the Mumbai Indians v. Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of the IPL T20 (being played in Abu Dhabi) season right now. 

Mumbai or Chennai?

Asking for Pete Rose

Edited September 19, 2020 by Angel Oracle

[eligrba]

Maddon made a very interesting comment regarding a possible reason for Ward's struggles in the major leagues which was not helpful for Eppler's future.  I am getting the feeling that Arte decided Billy's fate after last year's season.  I am purely guessing his hiring of Ausmus and White sealed his fate.

[Inside Pitch]

1 minute ago, eligrba said:

Maddon made a very interesting comment regarding a possible reason for Ward's struggles in the major leagues which was not helpful for Eppler's future.  I am getting the feeling that Arte decided Billy's fate after last year's season.  I am purely guessing his hiring of Ausmus and White sealed his fate.

What did Maddon say?

[eligrba]

2 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

What did Maddon say?

This......

 

Maddon, however, suggested that Ward may have been one of many hitters who got misguided advice about “launch angle” that doesn’t play in the majors.

“I’ve been a fan since I met him in camp,” Maddon said. “The only thing that he had issues with is somebody wanted to teach him to lift the ball and he got this thing that’s all over the Internet that’s really horrible and it’s it’s impacting a lot of young hitters,” Maddon said.

“A lot of hitting coaches who I talked to say it’s kind of a bane. There’s a lot of people via the internet charging prices for kids to watch these videos. They are being taught these things that are not going to help them against Major Leaguers or just any kind of good pitching. So he had to get away from that. Some other guys have had to. He has and he’s making the adjustments.”

[Blarg]

Sounds like Ward was using advice from sources outside of the Angels, according to that quote.

[Inside Pitch]

1 minute ago, Blarg said:

Sounds like Ward was using advice from sources outside of the Angels, according to that quote.

That's what I thought when I read the quotes in the article the other day.   But who knows, all the same people who were in AAA are on the MLB team as hitting coaches now, and they have all been teaching the same stuff.

[Warfarin]

19 minutes ago, eligrba said:

Maddon made a very interesting comment regarding a possible reason for Ward's struggles in the major leagues which was not helpful for Eppler's future.  I am getting the feeling that Arte decided Billy's fate after last year's season.  I am purely guessing his hiring of Ausmus and White sealed his fate.

When Ausmus got fired after one season and was replaced by Maddon, I sorta figured that the writing was on the wall for Eppler.  Ausmus was his guy, and it took all of one season for him to be fired.  Likely it was not Eppler's call to fire him.

I just hope whoever we replace Eppler with is good at finding underrated, cheap talent.  We have a lot of high-priced players in place, so whoever it is will need to be robust at drafting, developing, and scouring the waiver wire for gems.

That said, if it is indeed Maddon and his team who have helped Walsh and Ward improve their results, then by all means, I support whatever it is their staff is doing.  

They said Thaiss looked great at LB, so we'll see - maybe this coaching staff will generate the results we have been looking for.

[eligrba]

1 hour ago, Inside Pitch said:

That's what I thought when I read the quotes in the article the other day.   But who knows, all the same people who were in AAA are on the MLB team as hitting coaches now, and they have all been teaching the same stuff.

Could be a different hitting philosophy by the same coaches?

[Vlad27Trout27]

Coming into todays start, Ward has cut his K rate down to 25% and his Bb rate is at 8%. he's always had a good eye, but the decrease in K are a big plus. He also has a Babip of 414

At the time that Turner made his adjustment with the dodgers, he also had an 8% BB rate and an 18% k rate, with a Babip of 404. The biggest difference between them is that Turner player 108 games compared to Ward's 20 sum games. But Tuner only had 7 hrs, and Ward still has the shown the power. Not saying that Ward will turn into Turner, but if he can be close to 70% of what Turner became, i would be happy!

[Warfarin]

4 minutes ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

Coming into todays start, Ward has cut his K rate down to 25% and his Bb rate is at 8%. he's always had a good eye, but the decrease in K are a big plus. He also has a Babip of 414

At the time that Turner made his adjustment with the dodgers, he also had an 8% BB rate and an 18% k rate, with a Babip of 404. The biggest difference between them is that Turner player 108 games compared to Ward's 20 sum games. But Tuner only had 7 hrs, and Ward still has the shown the power. Not saying that Ward will turn into Turner, but if he can be close to 70% of what Turner became, i would be happy!

Ward, like Walsh, has had some fantastic MILB numbers.  The leap to the MLB is the hardest one, and some never figure it out, while others do but take awhile.

Perhaps both Walsh and Ward required time to get there.  We'll see what happens next year, but for now, I'm pretty stoked to see how they're doing.

Of note, Walsh is starting in RF today and Ward in LF.  I suspect this is very temporary for Walsh, but that's certainly an interesting wrinkle if he can somewhat decently play RF.

[Inside Pitch]

41 minutes ago, eligrba said:

Could be a different hitting philosophy by the same coaches?

Could be, or they just tried  something different bc what they were doing wasn't working.  Whatever or whoever is behind it, its working!

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 9/17/2020 at 5:16 PM, Angelsjunky said:

C Stassi

1B Walsh

2B Rengifo

SS Fletcher

3B Rendon

LF Upton

CF Trout

RF Ward

DH Ohtani

Bench: Bemboom, Pujols, Barreto, Hermosillo (deserves another shot and potentially an ideal 4th outfielder), Thaiss.

Free agent money saved for pitching and maybe a few odds and ends (platoon catcher, maybe utility of/if)

l would rather extend Simmons and trade Rengifo. l have never been a Rengifo fan.

[Angelsjunky]

All Ward has to do to serve the team is play a decent RF and hit at a .700 OPS until Adell and/or Marsh are ready. That's is, and he's got a good shot of it.

[Warfarin]

11 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

All Ward has to do to serve the team is play a decent RF and hit at a .700 OPS until Adell and/or Marsh are ready. That's is, and he's got a good shot of it.

Yep.  And I've said this before, but we might see Ohtani in RF, too.  Maddon has indicated he's too athletic to be a DH, and Ohtani does have RF experience in Japan.

Between Ward and possibly Ohtani, I think we can reasonably have RF taken care of until one of Adell or Marsh is ready.