Angels prospects you were dead wrong about?

[Angelsjunky]

5 hours ago, Jason said:

He looks like someone stretched out Tom Brady.

[T.G.]

7 hours ago, failos said:

Loek van Mil (RIP)

I had no idea he passed away... wow.

[eligrba4ever]

Too many to count or remember by name. There WAS that Kurt Russell kid.

[failos]

24 minutes ago, True Grich said:

I had no idea he passed away... wow.

Yeah it was an unfortunate accident. I don’t remember all the details, but he hit his head and was fine for a bit, but apparently passed away from the injuries related to that accident.

[Jason]

Just now, failos said:

Yeah it was an unfortunate accident. I don’t remember all the details, but he hit his head and was fine for a bit, but apparently passed away from the injuries related to that accident.

It may sound lame but when you are 7 feet tall that makes a difference when you fall and hit your heard. 

[failos]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

It may sound lame but when you are 7 feet tall that makes a difference when you fall and hit your heard. 

Yep, absolutely. I’m not too upset about not being in the 6ft+ club after reading about his accident—the details are quite grisly.

[Tank]

14 hours ago, Lou said:

Sean Drinkwater

didn't we trade him to the tidewater mets?

[AngelStew43]

Definitely missed on KRod.  Saw him pitch a couple of times in A-Ball, and he couldn't throw strikes.  

Saw Trout at the same level, A ball.  The bat had a different sound when he made contact.  Didn't miss on him. 

[stormngt]

13 hours ago, Taylor said:

I think we can count on one hand the prospects who overperformed expectations in the last decade.

The underperforming prospects could fill out a 40-man roster.

Personally, I had high hopes for Taylor Ward. He has an excellent first name and had that emergence in AAA when he suddenly started hitting the ball.

Not sure what you fully expect out of Ward, but he appears to be able to have a decent career. His OPS+ has improved every season and last year was above average 

[Hubs]

Wood for sure. Then Kotchman.

 

[Dtwncbad]

Somebody else mentioned it already but McPherson not panning out was purely due to injury.  He was legit skills wise.  If the back doesn’t disintegrate, he probably has a Ryan Howard-like offensive career.

I just don’t view that the same as players not panning out because they didn’t develop (skills wise) that last step to be functional in the majors.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Dtwncbad

[Dtwncbad]

I will admit I thought Daryl Sconiers was going to be a mainstay at 1B for the Angels for 15 years.

His numbers in AA and AAA had me convinced he would just rake.  He had it all. Average. On base. Slugging.

I was so let down.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Dtwncbad

[Angelsjunky]

My top two:

1. Probably Mike Colangelo. I thought he'd be a batting champion.

2. Casey Kotchman might be the biggest, in terms of my initial hopes and what he actually became. I remember gradually downgrading my expectations from Todd Helton (outside of Coors) to Mark Grace to what he became, Robb Quinlan with more playing time.

Honorable mention: Sean Rodriguez. I thought he'd sneak through and be the best of that middle infield bunch and he was probably the worst (Wood, Aybar, Kendrick, Callaspo).

But other disappointments, to various degrees: Wood, Specht, Pettit, Abruzzo, Wise. Others, I'm sure.

I never thought all that highly of Trevor Reckling, whom a lot of folks have mentioned.

 

[DCAngelsFan]

Had high hopes for Kotchman , Wood, Skaggs, Dmac, Newcomb, Adenhart, and Trout

I think his illness took a lot out of Kotchman - whatever it was, I thought he was gonna be a really good hitter, a "doubles-machine" I think I called him.  Yeah, not exactly

Wood, well, the less said, the better - I saw that swing in AAA and thought whoa!  Too bad it never connected with major league pitching 

DMac - I mean, his back - but don't think he was ever really going to do what we hoped.

Skaggs took a long time to get there, it felt like.  

Newcomb - missed badly - I thought TOR potential - uh, nope 

Don't want to talk about Adenhart.

Trout, I think I was right - but time will tell

On the guys I under-estimated?   Trumbo, probably - I thought he'd never be more than a Spring training curiosity, launching balls against bad pitchers, but would never get out of AA.  But man, he was frustrating - when he was hot, he was great - but he couldn't sustain - seemed like he was *that* close to becoming great.  A guy I'd always stop what I was doing to watch him hit.  

Richards - I never thought he'd reach the major leagues based on his college stats - if not for that horrible injury, he was contending for the Cy Young that year (god just thinking about that hurts me - hearing him scream, seeing the agony on his face - that was really, really bad - might've been the worst thing I've seen on a baseball diamond) 

I'm sure there are others - but mostly, our drafting/development has been pretty mediocre in the Arte era.

 

[Angelsjunky]

Mike Trout. I thought he'd be Shane Victorino or Lenny Dykstra. He's Mickey Mantle.

[tdawg87]

5 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

He looks like someone stretched out Tom Brady.

You know the line.

[HeavenlyHalos]

Dallas McPherson and Walsh.

[Chuck]

2 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Mike Trout. I thought he'd be Shane Victorino or Lenny Dykstra. He's Mickey Mantle.

Baseball America said he looked a lot like a Aaron Rowand type in their pre-draft scouting report. 

[m0nkey]

A lot of the names mentioned, hank conger 

[jsnpritchett]

7 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Baseball America said he looked a lot like a Aaron Rowand type in their pre-draft scouting report. 

I know a lot of people make fun of that comp, but it's not like Rowand was terrible.  He was also a first-round pick and put up more than 20 bWAR/fWAR over his career.  Going into 2009, he had an above-average career OPS+ (which included 2 very good years), had been an All-Star, and won a Gold Glove (he was pretty solid defensively over the course of his career).  I think he got hurt midway through 2009 and he was out of MLB within a couple years--but my guess is that if Trout had a Rowand-type of career, the Angels still would have been pretty pleased with the pick.  It's not like they comped Trout to Jeff DaVanon or something.

[eligrba]

8 hours ago, eligrba4ever said:

Too many to count or remember by name. There WAS that Kurt Russell kid.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball. 

[OhtaniSan]

I thought Kaleb Cowart was going to be a gold glove all star-caliber 3rd baseman. Still bummed he never panned out. 

[Chuck]

1 hour ago, m0nkey said:

A lot of the names mentioned, hank conger 

Conger had what I thought was going to be some major pop in the big leagues. He's another guy I was high on. 

I remember video recording at home his 3-RUN HR in the Futures Game. Watch when he touches home plate who he high fives. 

 

[tdawg87]

1 hour ago, jsnpritchett said:

I know a lot of people make fun of that comp, but it's not like Rowand was terrible.  He was also a first-round pick and put up more than 20 bWAR/fWAR over his career.  Going into 2009, he had an above-average career OPS+ (which included 2 very good years), had been an All-Star, and won a Gold Glove (he was pretty solid defensively over the course of his career).  I think he got hurt midway through 2009 and he was out of MLB within a couple years--but my guess is that if Trout had a Rowand-type of career, the Angels still would have been pretty pleased with the pick.  It's not like they comped Trout to Jeff DaVanon or something.

I mean considering how Trout turned out, they may as well have compared him to DaVanon.

Rowand was a guy. Trout is one of the greatest to ever do it. It's like comping Ohtani to Lorenzen.

[jsnpritchett]

1 hour ago, tdawg87 said:

I mean considering how Trout turned out, they may as well have compared him to DaVanon.

Rowand was a guy. Trout is one of the greatest to ever do it. It's like comping Ohtani to Lorenzen.

Rowand was more than just a guy. If that's now the standard for how that term is used, the bar is now set too high. In a typical year, maybe 2 or 3 first round picks will end up with more career WAR than Rowand. Did scouts and other teams underestimate Trout's potential? Yep.  But comping him to a player who still had a successful career doesn't seem like something to mock.

You can't really reasonably expect any scout to accurately project someone to be an all-time great. 

(And the Ohtani/Lorenzen comp is a bad analogy.)