Irony: Dipoto was right about Taylor Ward

[Barf]

I will be the first to raise my hand and say so far he has exceeded my expectations for him. Tremendous leadoff guy and needs to to stay in that role for the foreseeable future. Will his numbers tail off a bit? Perhaps. But right now he is hot and we are doing quite well with him in that role, so needs to stay that way.

[Inside Pitch]

Oh boy, the revisionist history is getting good in here.  

[Inside Pitch]

8 hours ago, ettin said:

So I, above most here, am extremely happy to see Ward's bat and defense making a difference, we need guys like him stepping up and helping to carry the team throughout the year.

However, we do need to temper our expectations a bit, the guy is running a red-hot .409 BABIP and has the highest walk rate of his career, so something has to give, probably (hope not, but let's be a little realistic). To be fair Ward has run high BABIP's throughout his Minor League career so how far he eventually regresses may not be too much, but it seems inevitable that it will happen, no one runs a .409 BABIP for the season.

All that being said I love his approach at the plate, the guy looks just as relaxed and nonchalant as Rendon does and he seems well prepared every time he steps to the plate. On top of that his defense has been above average too, to date.

If he can continue down this path, he will give the team great depth, which it badly needs.

If he settles in as a .280/.375/.425-450 hitter then you call that a huge win and you celebrate your good fortune of turning a busted catcher into a viable starting OFer.

[Taylor]

23 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Did they both catch the drizzling ’s going around?

[DCAngelsFan]

9 hours ago, arch stanton said:

If I remember this right the criticism of Dipoto was that everyone believed that Ward would be available in round 2 or even 3 in which case we're pretty happy with a guy who breaks out at age 28

BA had him rated the 70th best prospect and we coincidentally had the 70th pick (Jam Jones)  so the whole party breaking out 'cause we got our guy was kinda juvenile and weird and embarrassing.

There were a couple of guys drafted later that would've been nice to get - but honestly, it's not like we missed on someone huge - it was just the overreaction that had a huge cringe factor

If they just said (cool), and moved on, we'd never even remember that draft or that pick.  

 

 

[Taylor]

Maybe the Angels can sell high on Ward and trade him to the Mariners for a big haul.

 

[Chuck]

Interesting facts that you may or may not have known about Taylor Ward in both of these interviews we did with him. 

 

[Chuck]

On 4/23/2022 at 12:35 PM, Taylor said:

Career negative 0.3 bWAR in 502 ABs isn't much to celebrate. Perhaps he'll take off and start hitting closer to his numbers when he blew up in the minors, but for now he's average at best. I'd rather have Adell and Marsh starting every day with Ward as a utility guy.

[Mark PT]

On 4/23/2022 at 10:38 AM, AngelsLakersFan said:

Ward is off to a nice start and looking to establish himself as a legitimate major league player, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here, he has a career 0.6fWar compiled almost entirely in his first 6 games of this season. 

At 28 he may be establishing a new level of performance, but it's far more likely that he will continue to be a marginal major league player. It's certainly far too early to see him as much more than that. But hopefully you're right, and so far this season he's looked great.

He also has the benefit of having alot behind him in the lineup. Lets hop it stays that way.

[Blarg]

.395/.531/.816/1.346 OPS+ 296

No, that's not Trout. 

 

 

[tdawg87]

4 minutes ago, Blarg said:

.395/.531/.816/1.346 OPS+ 296

No, that's not Trout. 

 

 

Blarg, do you have a mancrush?

[Lou]

Just now, cals said:

Imagine Ward going a little hard on the Bleager.

[tdawg87]

4 minutes ago, cals said:

Imagine Ward going a little hard on the Bleager.

Lime party.

[Blarg]

17 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Blarg, do you have a mancrush?

Nope. Ward is going to settle in at his water level, Trout at his own. There will be a gap between the two by years end.

For now it is fun watching a guy succeed that was having struggles way back in High A with his offense because they were drilling him on his catching.

He came out of A ball hitting the cover off the ball but at San Berdo they got in his head and all he could think about was defense. I got a chance to talk to him for a while after a game he went 0-fer and it was weighing on him pretty hard.

His hitting started to come back in AA but by then the org had decided he wasn't a catcher. It probably saved his career moving him rather than grinding behind the dish in the minors but I feel like High-A his career path as a catcher was ruined. 

[Taylor]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

He's only played in five games since I posted that. I'm thrilled with how he's been tearing the cover off the ball. Let's see how things balance out in a month or so.

[Inside Pitch]

3 minutes ago, Blarg said:

His hitting started to come back in AA but by then the org had decided he wasn't a catcher. It probably saved his career moving him rather than grinding behind the dish in the minors but I feel like High-A his career path as a catcher was ruined. 

Ward's own father was quoted as saying he was thankful Eppler proposed a position change because it saved his career.  

[HanfordGuy]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

Interesting facts that you may or may not have known about Taylor Ward in both of these interviews we did with him. 

 

Fresno State…

 

Home of the battling “Bulldogs”…

 

Pride of the Valley!!!

[HanfordGuy]

On 4/23/2022 at 11:06 AM, Second Base said:

The scout in me…

 

On 4/23/2022 at 3:17 PM, eligrba said:

This also works for being a scout.

[DMVol]

3 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

If he settles in as a .280/.375/.425-450 hitter then you call that a huge win and you celebrate your good fortune of turning a busted catcher into a viable starting OFer.

Actually, I was hoping for more along the lines of another busted catcher:  https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/biggicr01.shtml

[HanfordGuy]

On 4/24/2022 at 9:04 PM, notherhalo said:

[Lou]

Cesspool

[Don]

These numbers tell a pretty interesting story. In some orgs, Ward might've been at a point after the end of last year where he stopped getting chances. And 2022 is definitely the year that he turns into a legit major leaguer or becomes AAA depth somewhere for a couple of years before he starts selling cars or something. BUT.... there's a lot of circumstance in those numbers up there. Obviously he became a different hitter in the minors once he stopped being a catcher. Ever since then, he's torched the high minors whenever he's graced them with his presence. 2018 and 2019 in the big leagues were basically cups of coffee where getting your ass handed to you is fairly common, even for players that turn out totally fine. And then 2020... I just kinda consider that a lost year for most guys from a statistical evaluation standpoint. Shit was weird for everyone, players included. So I'd really consider 2021 Ward's first "real" major league season. And while not great, it wasn't exactly terrible either. Add in the way things are trending so far this year, and I'd say he still has a real shot of being a solid major leaguer. Obviously the 1300+ OPS isn't really sustainable; but a dude that can (let's say) put up a 800 OPS, play all three outfield spots, fill in at the corners, and also function as a competent emergency third catcher will keep working at the big league level. And I think that's a reasonable projection for him over the next few years.

Honestly the Ward narrative/statistical background kinda feels like those dudes the A's or the Dodgers always seem to find out of nowhere that are suddenly All Star level players. Ward came this close to slipping through the cracks, but I still think there's pretty solid potential there.  

[ten ocho recon scout]

4 hours ago, Lou said:

Cesspool

Thats like the generic version of the Deadpool movies.

Like when I was a kid, and my parents never rented The Terminator, but my cool uncle who always grabbed cheesy 80s B movies from one of those movie places that had a curtain with porn behind it brought home the movie The Exterminator, and I lied to my friends saying Id seen The Terminator.

 

[ten ocho recon scout]

On 4/28/2022 at 3:54 PM, cals said:

I bet you had gobots, too.

Funny enough, gobots vs transformers was going to be the first comparison I made, dead serious. Didnt think anyone would get it.

[Second Base]

On 4/28/2022 at 10:39 AM, Blarg said:

Nope. Ward is going to settle in at his water level, Trout at his own. There will be a gap between the two by years end.

For now it is fun watching a guy succeed that was having struggles way back in High A with his offense because they were drilling him on his catching.

He came out of A ball hitting the cover off the ball but at San Berdo they got in his head and all he could think about was defense. I got a chance to talk to him for a while after a game he went 0-fer and it was weighing on him pretty hard.

His hitting started to come back in AA but by then the org had decided he wasn't a catcher. It probably saved his career moving him rather than grinding behind the dish in the minors but I feel like High-A his career path as a catcher was ruined. 

I think you're at least partially correct there. Other organizations don't make their catchers run through the same stuff that Scioscia did. He was very particular about his catchers, and it mattered less if a catcher was subjectively good or not as much as if he did it Scioscia's way. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing because Scioscia was a great catcher and he tutored great catchers, but it's not the same universally. Nowadays, with less SB, more station to station ball, catchers don't need to do it Scioscia's way. Matt Thaiss never would've been a catcher in his system. 

I think it Ward were drafted by another team, he may still be a catcher, and he may still be hitting the cover off the ball.