The Official 2022 Los Angeles Angels Minor League Stats, Reports & Scouting Thread

[stormngt]

1 minute ago, Second Base said:

Upton was limited to LF only and he was terrible out there. He also isn't exactly driving the ball either. 

I like Upton but I just fail to see how he could be a viable 4th outfielder on a good team. 

Marsh is capable of playing any outfield position.  Therefore Upton stuck in LF should not be an issue. Adell is not an issue because they decided to keep him in AAA.

Therefore we need to compare Upton with Monte Harris. Juan Legares, Jack Mayfield and Rojas.  43 games

 

[Revad]

15 hours ago, totdprods said:

Maybe they should have just hired him instead of Perry. Being a guy is different than being the guy. And still that’s only one part of what I listed. 

The glaring area to me is lack of interest in investing in the farm. This instant gratification free agency bit is dumb. The money spent on Syndergaard- hell Lorenzen even - should be going to make every stop on the farm the best in the big leagues. The constant avoidance in discussing what they’ve down to improve prospect conditions is damning. It’s such a relatively small investment to make too. Give them the best housing, food, coaches, and facilities in baseball and see what happens. It’s be far more impactful than spending on a RP in their 30’s. Might attract more talent on minor league deals and earn some negotiating leverage with draftees.

I agree, pretty much.  Wouldn’t you be doing everything to develop every player, much less the true projectable prospect (I know we have some, right?).  Especially once you’re called out on it, bad press.  Could have used that moment to upgrade and get a nice PR boost.  Improved that many lives.  Made a better organization.

Edited July 13, 2022 by Revad

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, stormngt said:

1.  Billy would have gotten right right once he was not going to have hands tied with Pujols and more money available. 

2.  You maybe right about Clubhouse attitude.   For the reasons you mentioned there can't be a strong bond of loyalty in there.

3.  If you are convinced Ohtani is long gone then you should be in favor of trading him in off season.

I am, if the right offer comes along, and there is no avenue to contention for the Angels in 2023. 

[Angelsjunky]

This is depressing:

https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2022-in-season-prospect-list/farm-ranking?sort=-1,1&type=100&filter=&pos=&team=

[rafibomb]

Quero was hitting .301 with a .918 OPS heading into today’s game.

[Docwaukee]

5 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

This is depressing:

https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2022-in-season-prospect-list/farm-ranking?sort=-1,1&type=100&filter=&pos=&team=

sure!  I'll go fanboy on this.  Thanks for asking.  

41 guys on the list this year.   Anyone on the list is probably worth ranking but do you really think they are very good at differentiating 35+, 40, 40+, 45, 45+ and even 50?  Once you get to 55/60, those guys seem to stand out quite a bit more.  In other words, the 'value' assignment for guys from 35+ to 50 is kinda crap.  

So here's the halos trend for number of guys ranked at 35+ or above

2017 - 14.  And that was probably a bit generous.  
2018 - 19.  With four guys in the top 100 based on recent drafts.  And one was Shohei.  The others were Marsh, Adell and Jones.  
2018 - updated.  26.  
2019 - 31.  5 guys in the top 100.  Added Canning and Suarez
2019 - updated.  38.  2 in the top 100.  Marsh and Adell with Canning, Suarez, and Ohtani graduating.  Rodriguez was a 40+.  Sandoval was a 40.  Walsh was 35+.  Traded Several guys from this one who are now either major leaguers or on the verge.  Not great but again, it's about org currency.  
2020 - 31.  Marsh, Adell and Adams in the top 100.  
2020 - updated.  35.  Again a bump post draft and international signings. 
2021 -  32.
2021 - updated.  41 post draft/int.  
2022 - 42.  Then updated shortly after with Detmers graduating.  

14 in 2017 guys and gals.  that's atrocious.  But... Marsh, Thaiss, Rodriguez, Barria, Fletcher and Ward were 5 of those 14.  

Actually I will say the numbers are a little skewed from early on as they didn't start including 35+ until 2018 from what I can tell.  

Ok, here my point which I know you've been anxiously awaiting.  I'd like to make a couple.  

First, 23 pitchers in the 35+ and 40 FV range.  More than any other team.  

We lack high future value prospects.  Not because they've all flamed out but because they've graduated to the major league club.  And they're either the teams better players or still have significant upside to be so.  And, to be honest, a lot of them have been on the fast track.  Probably in a way that was a bit aggressive.  Especially on the pitching side.  

3 players.  With the way these are calculated, that's all it would take is like 3 players to move this crew into the middle because of how they get graded.  

I'm not saying it's a great or even really good system.  There have definitely been a bunch of disappointments.   Some would probably argue 'but yeah', 'every system could argue the same stuff'.  

But it's a young system with depth for the first time in a long time and they have been very aggressive with promotions.  Are they going to be top 5 in a few years?  Hell no.  But the system is going to produce a lot of major league help.  
 

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, Docwaukee said:

sure!  I'll go fanboy on this.  Thanks for asking.  

41 guys on the list this year.   Anyone on the list is probably worth ranking but do you really think they are very good at differentiating 35+, 40, 40+, 45, 45+ and even 50?  Once you get to 55/60, those guys seem to stand out quite a bit more.  In other words, the 'value' assignment for guys from 35+ to 50 is kinda crap.  

So here's the halos trend for number of guys ranked at 35+ or above

2017 - 14.  And that was probably a bit generous.  
2018 - 19.  With four guys in the top 100 based on recent drafts.  And one was Shohei.  The others were Marsh, Adell and Jones.  
2018 - updated.  26.  
2019 - 31.  5 guys in the top 100.  Added Canning and Suarez
2019 - updated.  38.  2 in the top 100.  Marsh and Adell with Canning, Suarez, and Ohtani graduating.  Rodriguez was a 40+.  Sandoval was a 40.  Walsh was 35+.  Traded Several guys from this one who are now either major leaguers or on the verge.  Not great but again, it's about org currency.  
2020 - 31.  Marsh, Adell and Adams in the top 100.  
2020 - updated.  35.  Again a bump post draft and international signings. 
2021 -  32.
2021 - updated.  41 post draft/int.  
2022 - 42.  Then updated shortly after with Detmers graduating.  

14 in 2017 guys and gals.  that's atrocious.  But... Marsh, Thaiss, Rodriguez, Barria, Fletcher and Ward were 5 of those 14.  

Actually I will say the numbers are a little skewed from early on as they didn't start including 35+ until 2018 from what I can tell.  

Ok, here my point which I know you've been anxiously awaiting.  I'd like to make a couple.  

First, 23 pitchers in the 35+ and 40 FV range.  More than any other team.  

We lack high future value prospects.  Not because they've all flamed out but because they've graduated to the major league club.  And they're either the teams better players or still have significant upside to be so.  And, to be honest, a lot of them have been on the fast track.  Probably in a way that was a bit aggressive.  Especially on the pitching side.  

3 players.  With the way these are calculated, that's all it would take is like 3 players to move this crew into the middle because of how they get graded.  

I'm not saying it's a great or even really good system.  There have definitely been a bunch of disappointments.   Some would probably argue 'but yeah', 'every system could argue the same stuff'.  

But it's a young system with depth for the first time in a long time and they have been very aggressive with promotions.  Are they going to be top 5 in a few years?  Hell no.  But the system is going to produce a lot of major league help.  
 

I dunno, Doc, but I feel like we've been saying a variation on the following for a few years now: "The farm is underrated and has a lot of upside at the lower levels, and no one understands because East Coast Bias and/or statnerdery."

Now it is "The farm is underrated and has a lot of high floor pitching."

Maybe both are true, but it seems the first gave way to the second...so is the first no longer true? And if so, maybe the latter will be proven to be un-true?

I do think we have a better farm than a few years ago. But I think some of us, myself included, were overly optimistic on the young position players in the low minors. So far this year, only Blakely, Quero, and Placencia have really stood out. Paris, Vera, Ramirez, Calabrese, Bonilla, etc have been various shades of crap. Adams is getting closer to bust (although he's doing better in AA), Jackson has potential but looks like Adell Lite; Knowles might make it as a bench player but that's probably it, and Deveaux was kicked to the curb.

The point being, all that exciting upside isn't quite as up as we hoped. Now we have Rada, DeJesus, and Guzman to be overly optimistic about.

So who is to say the high floor pitching centered in AA isn't any different? Maybe the floor isn't so high?

 

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

I dunno, Doc, but I feel like we've been saying a variation on the following for a few years now: "The farm is underrated and has a lot of upside at the lower levels, and no one understands because East Coast Bias and/or statnerdery."

Now it is "The farm is underrated and has a lot of high floor pitching."

Maybe both are true, but it seems the first gave way to the second...so is the first no longer true? And if so, maybe the latter will be proven to be un-true?

I do think we have a better farm than a few years ago. But I think some of us, myself included, were overly optimistic on the young position players in the low minors. So far this year, only Blakely, Quero, and Placencia have really stood out. Paris, Vera, Ramirez, Calabrese, Bonilla, etc have been various shades of crap. Adams is getting closer to bust (although he's doing better in AA), Jackson has potential but looks like Adell Lite; Knowles might make it as a bench player but that's probably it, and Deveaux was kicked to the curb.

The point being, all that exciting upside isn't quite as up as we hoped. Now we have Rada, DeJesus, and Guzman to be overly optimistic about.

So who is to say the high floor pitching centered in AA isn't any different? Maybe the floor isn't so high?

 

the guys you've mention have had a year and a half of pro at bats outside of Adams and neither Deveaux or Knowles were worth getting excited over.  They've made tremendous strides as it relates to depth while graduating a bunch of guys.  And they're not underrated.  But based on sheer volume, expected progression and normal acquisitions, they'll improve again if they don't do things like trade 4 pitchers for someone like Bundy or move expiring major league assets for the like of guys like Nolaso/Meyer. 

So incremental improvements are all we can really hope for on top of the occasional high upside guy actually showing his upside.   

Here's an example from three years ago - Framber Valdez 40FV, Jeremy Pena 40 FV, Bryan Abreu 40 FV, Cristian Javier 40 FV, Luis Garcia 40 FV.  I'm not saying that the angles are anywhere near as savvy.  Just that depth is probably just as important if not more so than having those one or two guys at the top of your system.  

So for now, I'll take having a bunch of guys in that 35+ to 45 range than very little in that area than two guys in the 55-60 range even though the latter would indicate a stronger system by most rankings.  

 

[Angelsjunky]

8 hours ago, Docwaukee said:

the guys you've mention have had a year and a half of pro at bats outside of Adams and neither Deveaux or Knowles were worth getting excited over.  They've made tremendous strides as it relates to depth while graduating a bunch of guys.  And they're not underrated.  But based on sheer volume, expected progression and normal acquisitions, they'll improve again if they don't do things like trade 4 pitchers for someone like Bundy or move expiring major league assets for the like of guys like Nolaso/Meyer. 

So incremental improvements are all we can really hope for on top of the occasional high upside guy actually showing his upside.   

Here's an example from three years ago - Framber Valdez 40FV, Jeremy Pena 40 FV, Bryan Abreu 40 FV, Cristian Javier 40 FV, Luis Garcia 40 FV.  I'm not saying that the angles are anywhere near as savvy.  Just that depth is probably just as important if not more so than having those one or two guys at the top of your system.  

So for now, I'll take having a bunch of guys in that 35+ to 45 range than very little in that area than two guys in the 55-60 range even though the latter would indicate a stronger system by most rankings.  

 

Yeah, I hear what you are saying: If you have a bunch of 35-45 FV guys, you've got a better chance of players breaking out and becoming solid major leaguers, then if you just have a few 50+ FV guys. And of course, some of those 35-45 FV guys could become 50+ FV guys. I don't disagree with that.

I think I'm just getting tired of silver-lining anything Angels related, and that includes the farm, and even question the common view espoused in this thread that "there's more talent than the rankings say there is." I mean, maybe, but at some point the pudding has to emerge as proof.

On the bright side, though, I'm very encouraged by what I've seen from Quero, Blakely, and Placencia. And there does seem to be a bunch of pitchers centered around AA with legitimate major league potential.

[Inside Pitch]

Rankings schmankings...   

So, one of the forgotten prospects from years past is starting to live up to some of the hype..

Jack Kochanowics who FG gave base ratings of 45 FB, 45 SL, 55 CB, 45 CH, 30 Command, but an overall 35 grade has done this..

2021 -  6.91 ERA, 7.88 K/9, 3.78 BB/9, 1.30 HR/9, 48.9% GB%
2022 - 4.06 ERA, 8.71 K/9, 2.61 BB/9, 0.58 HR/9, 58.4% GB%

Thats improvement across the board, particularly in the predictive data.   This is a 6'6" cold weather kid who sat for two years because of Covid BS instead of pitching.  

Less neat but still worth mentioning.  Mason Erla has now pitched 34 AA innings with an extreme HR park and given up zero bombs.  The 1.59 BB/9 is also encouraging. This is a guy who sits 94/95 and tops out at 97/98 -- with three legit plus pitches but who wasn't known for his command.  It all comes down to health with Erla but, the dude is talented.

Also..  Watching Silseth pitch he reminds of of early Bartolo Colon/Cur Schiiling.  Not talking about talent level, just the same family of pitchers.  Plus FB that flattens out, guys who won't really succeed until they gain the command to place their FB where they want. -- namely, not dead red.  Again, not saying he projects to being Schilling or Colon, just that like them his FB command will be the key to his future success.  

[Second Base]

Again, I think you're asking the wrong question, and debating nuances based on shared assumptions that shouldn't necessarily have your confidence. 

Should we trust FanGraphs? Are they presenting information on our prospects that you aren't getting elsewhere? Do you suppose it's possible they haven't seen Angels prospects pretty much at all? Maybe they're working off the same incomplete information that MLB.com, BA and BP have. 

Maybe FG is right, maybe they're wrong. Personally, I don't think FG has ANY CLUE who Edgar Quero is, or Werner Blakely. 

[Inside Pitch]

Jordyn Adams now has 50 PA's in AA.  He's maintained his Walk rate, and dropped his K rate to 18.0% from the 21.7% he was putting up in High A this year but more importantly it'd down from the 37.8% it was last year in High A.  He's doubled his ISO but park stuff.. His prospect status will probably move towards the positive should he manage 200 ABs in AA and keep those rates.  The triple slash stuff isn't likely to stay where it is now but that predictive stuff is what to watch with him.

Jeremiah Jackson has also seen really positive improvement in his K rates down from 33.2 in High A to 23.2 in AA.  His ISO has stayed the same, so it's not like he's swinging any less violently, he's just made more contact.  Also, his BABIP is about 50 points below the league average thus far in AA, so he's been a tad unlucky it seems.

Quero's predictive stuff is gorgeous for a catcher.  Walk rate over 13%, K rate below 20% (18.5), and an ISO just under .200.  Probably the biggest positive in the system if for no other reason the utter lack of upside catching.

Landon Marceaux has turned his season around.  Dude' isn't walking anyone, is doing a nice job of keeping the ball in the yard, and inducing GBs at a 56.8% clip.  I don't see upside at all, classic pitchability type but he's honestly done better than I would have predicted.

Mason Albright looks like he's pitching scared -- he's had trouble keeping the ball in the park, but there is a pitcher in there.  Young guy, awful stats but interesting guy.  If the Angels can bring out the pitcher in him I'd consider it a sign they development staff has a clue.  He's not projectable physically -- curveball is very pretty.

[Inside Pitch]

Davis Daniel is still incredibly interesting for me.   He's got the weirdest splits I've seen in a long time.  He's pitched better in SLC than away, better in days games than night.  He's dominated in the first two innings but been hit hard by the bottom of the order.  His CB has really started to flash of late and honestly most of the bad came for him in June.  hasn't pitched in July, (last appearance was June 23rd), so wondering if he wasn't nursing some injury or something.  He's someone I hope gets a look, even out of the pen should a sell off come.

[ThisismineScios]

21 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Rankings schmankings...   

So, one of the forgotten prospects from years past is starting to live up to some of the hype..

Jack Kochanowics who FG gave base ratings of 45 FB, 45 SL, 55 CB, 45 CH, 30 Command, but an overall 35 grade has done this..

2021 -  6.91 ERA, 7.88 K/9, 3.78 BB/9, 1.30 HR/9, 48.9% GB%
2022 - 4.06 ERA, 8.71 K/9, 2.61 BB/9, 0.58 HR/9, 58.4% GB%

Thats improvement across the board, particularly in the predictive data.   This is a 6'6" cold weather kid who sat for two years because of Covid BS instead of pitching.  

Less neat but still worth mentioning.  Mason Erla has now pitched 34 AA innings with an extreme HR park and given up zero bombs.  The 1.59 BB/9 is also encouraging. This is a guy who sits 94/95 and tops out at 97/98 -- with three legit plus pitches but who wasn't known for his command.  It all comes down to health with Erla but, the dude is talented.

Also..  Watching Silseth pitch he reminds of of early Bartolo Colon/Cur Schiiling.  Not talking about talent level, just the same family of pitchers.  Plus FB that flattens out, guys who won't really succeed until they gain the command to place their FB where they want. -- namely, not dead red.  Again, not saying he projects to being Schilling or Colon, just that like them his FB command will be the key to his future success.  

And in Kochanowicz’s last two starts, he’s 13.1 IP, 8H, 2ER, 2BB, 17K. He was out for awhile and seems like he’s just getting his footing. He’s one of the bigger upside guys I feel that’s had bad luck with injuries and Covid. 

1 hour ago, Angelsjunky said:

I think I'm just getting tired of silver-lining anything Angels related, and that includes the farm, and even question the common view espoused in this thread that "there's more talent than the rankings say there is." I mean, maybe, but at some point the pudding has to emerge as proof.

One difference for me is the success of Rocket City. They’ve put essentially a lot of their advanced pitching talent in a hitters league on the same team. Silseth, Bush, Erla, Criswell, Crow, Seminaris, Olthoff, Murphy and Torres (Bachman too if we ever find out what’s going on with him). And they’re 16 games over .500 and in 1st. I like how they’ve put all of their quality arms that are getting close there, and it’s translated to team success. And remember we haven’t had an affiliate with a winning record in a long time. All of the affiliates that matter (AAA is whatever) are doing well, close to or respectably near .500. Now this doesn’t really matter but I think in a way for our system it does. These young guys need to learn how to win, even if it’s a Tuesday night in San Berdoo in front of 644 people. And we aren’t doing it with 27 year old former Lacrosse stars and 26 year old lifers.  IE is very, very young. RC has almost all of our top pitching prospects. This is a good thing and as we can see and the major league level, sometimes success (and failure) is contagious among guys. 

[Angelsjunky]

All of the above in the last few posts I would normally get on board with. And I'm not as much disagreeing as I'm just less optimistic (or hopeful) than I've been in the past.

I mean, in a way, we can be excited about prospects in a non-falsifiable way. We can say, "this guy has real potential" and if he doesn't pan out, he's just forgotten about, and we move on to others. And it goes on and on. We, as fans who follow the farm in a far more granular way than, say, Fangraphs does, can always find prospects that are "under the radar" or say, "this guy has sneaky potential."

I'm only saying that I find myself being more skeptical now than I previously was, until we actually see these guys perform at the major league level. This is probably largely due to the disappointing performances of Marsh and Adell, as well as overall disappointment in the organization as a whole. 

Again, this is not to say that I don't think that Marsh and Adell will eventually become good major leaguers, or that Jordyn Adams cannot at least become a dynamic 4th outfielder, or Mason Albright (who I also liked) won't develop into a major league starter, etc etc. But, well, it comes back to the pudding. The ingredients are there, and we've been talking about them for a few years going back to Eppler's alleged improvement of the farm. I'm just a bit more hesitant now to both ignore outside analyses and get excited about guys before they actually reach--and perform in--the majors.

And to emphasize what I mean by non-falsifiable. We can say, "there are some good ingredients for pudding," and then when those ingredients don't turn into pudding, we move onto different ingredients. Part of this is the nature of minor leaguers: only a small percentage amount to anything. On the other hand, I think I'm just re-calibrating and recognizing what a small percentage it is, and how we all have a tendency to think the percentage is larger while "in utero" than it actually ends up being upon "birth."

[Inside Pitch]

5 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Mason Albright (who I also liked) won't develop into a major league starter, etc etc. But, well, it comes back to the pudding. The ingredients are there, and we've been talking about them for a few years going back to Eppler's alleged improvement of the farm. I'm just a bit more hesitant now to both ignore outside analyses and get excited about guys before they actually reach--and perform in--the majors.

Yeah, I don't like Albright.  I don't like guys known for pitch-ability unless they have a legit out pitch, and while Albright's curve looks like it might be I have always viewed those pitch-ability types as being long shots.  Like I said, he looks like he's pitching scared, like he thinks he's going to get roasted but the curve really is pretty. 

Reason I bring him up is that he's the sort of low upside guy that if the Angels can somehow bring out the best in him I'd consider it improvement from the development department.

For years the lack of talent and upside in the system meant guys were getting rushed and pushed up the levels.  We saw this at every level including guys being pushed to MLB before they were ready. As that depth improves, we need to see gains when it comes to developing the talent they do have.  There isn't a pressing need to chase upside, at least not as much as was necessary in 2016.  

The next step for any organization with a guy like Tamin in the fold is oganization wide improvements in approach and development.  As these systems roll out, they need to be implemented at every level so players aren't changing their games as they move of the ladder..  Anyway, year one you have to throw away.  Year two you have to consider a learning curve, but you'd like to see any changes to approach start to take hold midway through this season and become fully evident by next year.

It's possible Rocket City is the primary testing ground, it's been the fulcrum of talent so far this year.  Time will tell.

[BTH]

2 hours ago, Second Base said:

Again, I think you're asking the wrong question, and debating nuances based on shared assumptions that shouldn't necessarily have your confidence. 

Should we trust FanGraphs? Are they presenting information on our prospects that you aren't getting elsewhere? Do you suppose it's possible they haven't seen Angels prospects pretty much at all? Maybe they're working off the same incomplete information that MLB.com, BA and BP have. 

Maybe FG is right, maybe they're wrong. Personally, I don't think FG has ANY CLUE who Edgar Quero is, or Werner Blakely. 

I think FanGraphs is trustworthy to some extent, for sure.

Eric Longenhagen, who does their prospect coverage, lives in Arizona and actually watches Angels prospects in the ACL, Instructs, Fall League, and Extended ST— whereas other outlets probably don’t. FanGraphs has actually been on guys like Quero and Blakely ahead of other outlets like MLB Pipeline and Baseball America.

BA is probably the worst for Angels coverage because the Angels list is done by Mike DiGiovanna, who isn’t really a prospects guy, talking to people within the Angels org (aka people who are biased).

[BTH]

1 hour ago, Inside Pitch said:

Davis Daniel is still incredibly interesting for me.   He's got the weirdest splits I've seen in a long time.  He's pitched better in SLC than away, better in days games than night.  He's dominated in the first two innings but been hit hard by the bottom of the order.  His CB has really started to flash of late and honestly most of the bad came for him in June.  hasn't pitched in July, (last appearance was June 23rd), so wondering if he wasn't nursing some injury or something.  He's someone I hope gets a look, even out of the pen should a sell off come.

I think Daniel was on the Angels taxi squad for part of that stretch, so maybe it messed up his pitching schedule.

[Angelsjunky]

7 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

For years the lack of talent and upside in the system meant guys were getting rushed and pushed up the levels.  We saw this at every level including guys being pushed to MLB before they were ready. As that depth improves, we need to see gains when it comes to developing the talent they do have.  There isn't a pressing need to chase upside, at least not as much as was necessary in 2016.  

This might be partially what happened with not only Adell, but also Marsh. I mean, with Adell it is obvious: His athleticism masked his weaknesses in the skill department, and then covid led to him being rushed, and his weaknesses were revealed.

With Marsh, he missed a fair amount of time as he moved up in the minors -- all of 2016, the year he was drafted -- then part of 2019, then 2020. He reached AAA in 2021 and looked good, but only played 28 games and was promoted, because the outfield was in shambles. But that 28 games is significant - that's not a lot of time in AAA.

I never got to see him in the minors, but he looks like a different player than I imagined, based upon his statistical record. The biggest difference is the walks: in the minors, he walked about once every two games, or an 80ish walk pace over a full season. Now he's walking about half that. Anyhow, the point being, he seems to have missed some development along the way, which was masked by his athleticism, but is now being exploited in a way--over the last two months--that is every bit as ugly as Adell in 2020.

So what to do with these two guys? I'm actually more optimistic about Adell in the near future, as I think his ups-and-downs over the last three seasons has made him more focused, and that he'll at least be good enough to hold a major league job and, more importantly, continue to work on his game. Marsh just seems lost, and I'm not sure if he needs to go back to AAA for more focused work, or just find his way through on the big league club, with less playing time because of Adell.

A bit of a detour, but just voicing thoughts about the problems with the Angels development program. Of course other teams go through this with equally highly regarded prospects - just ask Mariners fans about Kelenic.

[BTH]

19 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Yeah, I don't like Albright.  I don't like guys known for pitch-ability unless they have a legit out pitch, and while Albright's curve looks like it might be I have always viewed those pitch-ability types as being long shots.  Like I said, he looks like he's pitching scared, like he thinks he's going to get roasted but the curve really is pretty. 

Reason I bring him up is that he's the sort of low upside guy that if the Angels can somehow bring out the best in him I'd consider it improvement from the development department.

It’s odd how the Angels saved money to go way over slot on Albright, who doesn’t seem to have that much upside for a HS pitcher.

Add in the fact that he’s the only HS arm they selected and I just find that selection to be mystifying.

[Angel Oracle]

18 hours ago, rafibomb said:

Quero was hitting .301 with a .918 OPS heading into today’s game.

A 19 year-old in A ball, whose home games are in a pitching friendly stadium, with those stats 

Let that sink in.

[Stax]

Saw Calabrese at IE a few times. Very good defensively. with good range. Bat still lacking but makes hard contact.

[Inside Pitch]

51 minutes ago, Trendon said:

It’s odd how the Angels saved money to go way over slot on Albright, who doesn’t seem to have that much upside for a HS pitcher.

Add in the fact that he’s the only HS arm they selected and I just find that selection to be mystifying.

The curve REALLY is that good and they maybe think they can get him up to 93-94 from the left side.  They have a ton more info and likely had people see him that think there is more in there.  But he screams high floor HS pitcher which to me is a well, dumb.

edit:  He also pitched at IMG academy, a school that plays one of the more ruthless prep schedules in FL.  He put up really strong performance in HS .vs a lot of the best prep hitters.

So, while I don't like the guy, he is a bit of a unicorn among the high floor HS guys.

[Angelsjunky]

33 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

A 19 year-old in A ball, whose home games are in a pitching friendly stadium, with those stats 

Let that sink in.

It will be interesting to see how they handle him. On one hand, he looks like he's ready for A+ ball. On the other, he's 19 and a catcher. I'm guessing (hoping) that they don't rush things, and maybe give him a taste of A+ ball for the last month. Similarly with Blakely and Placencia. 

[Inside Pitch]

56 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

With Marsh, he missed a fair amount of time as he moved up in the minors -- all of 2016, the year he was drafted -- then part of 2019, then 2020. He reached AAA in 2021 and looked good, but only played 28 games and was promoted, because the outfield was in shambles. But that 28 games is significant - that's not a lot of time in AAA.

I never got to see him in the minors, but he looks like a different player than I imagined, based upon his statistical record. The biggest difference is the walks: in the minors, he walked about once every two games, or an 80ish walk pace over a full season.

Marsh right now looks like he's undergoing some sort of change.  I think they are trying to unlock something and it's hurt him more than helped him.  He's being far more tentative than in the minors -- he's taking way way way more pitches than he did in the minors and he seems to have more of an uppercut than he did.

One of the bigger knocks on the Angels that I 100% believe is legit is they have messed with guys swings far too often.  Me personally, I think the biggest issue with him is he's second guessing his swings and not being more aggressive.  

Had it been me I would have sent him down a while back to get whatever he's doing out of his system and brought up Adell.  If the choice is to platoon him and Adell or send Marsh down, I'd send Marsh down take the lumps defensively and get Marsh right in the minors.  Unlike Adell, Marsh can play any OF position well above average.