Jo Adell: Has he been given enough time to prove himself?

[Warfarin]

5 hours ago, Torridd said:

I see a lot of AAA responses. Do you think he has much to learn there? I think it may be best if he became the fourth outfielder, maybe start twice a week. 

Somewhat related, but Soto had a huge leap this last year in terms of his plate discipline - he was around 7-9% BB and 25% K rates in 2021 across two levels, then was at 13.1% and 18.8%, respectively, in 2022 prior to his promotion.  From what I've seen, when a minor leaguer makes a significant leap in plate discipline, it signifies that they can probably do a better job of handling MLB pitching, as they can identify pitches better and "wait for their pitch," so to speak.  So Soto probably demonstrated to the FO that he was having a much improved approach to his at-bats in the 2022 minor league season, which probably led directly to his promotion.

Adell has not really shown that leap yet.  We all know he can crush mistakes.  What we need to know is he can wait for his pitch and be selective.  That is something he has yet to demonstrate, and it will likely be the #1 factor that determines whether or not he will ever be able to transition successfully to the MLB.

 

[Stradling]

Angels are wasting Jo’s career. 

[Stradling]

Did I do that right?

[Angel Oracle]

4 hours ago, Taylor said:

The Angels are historically infamous for keeping guys on the major league roster where they play a few times a week, rather than being allowed to develop in the minors.

It's like once they're called up, they have a year to perform or they're relegated to a platoon role.

And it has to stop, time for real development and not trial by error.

Keep him in AAA until September.

I don’t want to see him up here at all until then.    It’s time to finally see if he can develop!

He’s got this season to a) become a more polished hitter, b) keep improving the defense, and c) stop with the feats of athleticism and focus on baseball skills.

I hope he is doing all 3 of those in AZ, and continues to do so in AAA in 2023.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Angel Oracle

[Angel Oracle]

5 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

The only way I see Adell on the Angels next year is if someone gets injured and Moniak sucks as a replacement. So it is possible, and we'll probably see him at some point, but he's almost certainly starting the year in AAA.

I have my doubts about Moniak as 4th OF.   Didn’t show much at the plate, and always got hurt.

May need to acquire a REAL 4th OF, no more Sierras, Lagares’, etc.)

[Warfarin]

4 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

And it has to stop, time for real development and not trial by error.

Keep him in AAA until September.

I don’t want to see him up here at all until then.    It’s time to finally see if he can develop!

He’s got this season to a) become a more polished hitter, b) keep improving the defense, and c) stop with the feats of athleticism and focus on baseball skills.

I hope he is doing all 3 of those in AZ, and continues to do so in AAA in 2023.

I'd like to see Adell approach a 1:2 ratio, at least, in terms of BB:K in AAA.  Once he does, I will have more optimism that he can be selective enough to produce offensively at the MLB level.  

[Angelsjunky]

16 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

I have my doubts about Moniak as 4th OF.   Didn’t show much at the plate, and always got hurt.

May need to acquire a REAL 4th OF, no more Sierras, Lagares’, etc.)

I hear you, though I'd prefer Moniak to guys like Sierra and Lagares - who are really AAA depth players (aka, 5th outfielders) - whereas with Moniak (and Adell) there's some upside. And when you get into "good 4th outfielders," you're talking about fringe regulars...and the price goes quickly up, and availability down. Meaning, it seems harder than it should be to find a good 4th outfielder...makes you kind of miss Orlando Palmeiro.

[Tank]

I’m with the majority on this: send Adell to AAA and plan to leave him there for pretty much the whole season. 
 

I feel more comfortable with Moniak in the outfield, even though his numbers weren’t terribly good. I liked the way he approached each at bat. He looked more confident as a hitter, certainly moreso than Adell looked. 
 

I don’t think at this moment that either Adell or Moniak is a long term solution, but I’m ever hopeful of being pleasantly surprised if at least one of them can figure things out sometime in the very near future.

[Swordsman78]

6 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Absolutely. Consider....

AAA numbers (2022): .239/.333/.587, 20 walks and 56 Ks in 40 games. 

It is weird to note that his BB% in AA was 11.1% and 3.9% in the majors. I'm guessing some of that is due to pitchers trying to avoid the long-ball (he had a .348 ISO, which is Troutian). 

So right there is a huge area of possible improvement.

The 31.1 vs. 37.5 K% is more typical, in terms of translation. But that also could be improved.

Oh, and that .239 BA. That is unacceptable for a (former) top prospect in Salt Lake. 

 

That's nice and all, but he's heading to AAA. There's no way he starts the year as the Angels 4th outfielder. They want him to play regularly, and he clearly has stuff to work on.

The only way I see Adell on the Angels next year is if someone gets injured and Moniak sucks as a replacement. So it is possible, and we'll probably see him at some point, but he's almost certainly starting the year in AAA.

Nevin has constantly supported Jo, and knows that this is a critical year for Joe.   Imo, Nevin is hoping that Jo has a great spring and makes the club, however Nevin also knows that it will be important for Jo to keep a good attitude and "not mentally implode" in the scenario that he starts the year in AAA.   Jo is like a cake that is not completely baked yet, but with TLC could be amazing.

[T.G.]

Joe?

[Taylor]

3 minutes ago, T.G. said:

Joe?

Joe Adll

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, Swordsman78 said:

Nevin has constantly supported Jo, and knows that this is a critical year for Joe.   Imo, Nevin is hoping that Jo has a great spring and makes the club, however Nevin also knows that it will be important for Jo to keep a good attitude and "not mentally implode" in the scenario that he starts the year in AAA.   Jo is like a cake that is not completely baked yet, but with TLC could be amazing.

7% of the words in this paragraph are Jo (or Joe).

But, sure. Nevin can hope. But...

[Angels Never Die]

I believe in late bloomers, it happens, but I think he's had enough time to just be given playing time, he's gotta earn it with production imo. I hope he shows more next year.

[BTH]

8 hours ago, Torridd said:

I see a lot of AAA responses. Do you think he has much to learn there? I think it may be best if he became the fourth outfielder, maybe start twice a week. 

At the very least, I want a 4th OF who I can trust defensively.

I can’t say that with Adell.

[ThisismineScios]

My main hope for Jo was that he finally go all out to fix the major flaws in his game in the offseason. His last 3 offseasons were filled with videos of the same stuff: BP in the cage (where he is obviously crushing the ball) and workout heroics—box jumps, standing leaps, etc. I was really hoping he would finally move beyond that. 

Alas, today we got a vertical leap video. Don’t tell me he’s 100% committed when clearly he still wants to impress everyone with physical gifts. The less I hear about Adell until February the better. Don’t understand all the attention seeking 

 

[Stradling]

5 hours ago, ThisismineScios said:

My main hope for Jo was that he finally go all out to fix the major flaws in his game in the offseason. His last 3 offseasons were filled with videos of the same stuff: BP in the cage (where he is obviously crushing the ball) and workout heroics—box jumps, standing leaps, etc. I was really hoping he would finally move beyond that. 

Alas, today we got a vertical leap video. Don’t tell me he’s 100% committed when clearly he still wants to impress everyone with physical gifts. The less I hear about Adell until February the better. Don’t understand all the attention seeking 

 

That’s silly. 

[Angel Oracle]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

That’s silly. 

Is it though?     Shouldn’t there be more video of his work on the field and less of the feats of athleticism?

There on the field, showing the athleticism with increased baseball sense is what he needs to focus on.

[T.G.]

The overreaction meter is at full tilt 

[Stradling]

25 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Is it though?     Shouldn’t there be more video of his work on the field and less of the feats of athleticism?

There on the field, showing the athleticism with increased baseball sense is what he needs to focus on.

Should there be more video?  Part of his issue is that Adell is “attention seeking”. I’m guessing it’s much easier to set up a cellphone to capture training videos in the gym in a set area or in a batting cage than it is to set up a cellphone to capture all the running around you’d do fielding left field.  If not it would be a very boring video of him catching fly balls while standing in place. Nevin said himself he’s at the facility 3 times a week.  If there was zero video of him doing anything would you assume the best or the worst?  

[T.G.]

Some people have made up their minds about Adell’s future and will find any little thing to justify their dislike of the guy.

 

[Stradling]

17 minutes ago, T.G. said:

Some people have made up their minds about Adell’s future and will find any little thing to justify their dislike of the guy.

 

Yep. 

[Dtwncbad]

Opinions about Adell’s progress based on what kinds of videos we see.  Wow.  That’s just crazy.

Everyone knows it’s the audio tapes that tell the real story.

[Blarg]

If the front office hadn't fucked up left field year after year after year, Adell would be making his rookie debut this season instead of taking a guy with very little double A experience and throwing him to the wolves.

Between missing time between injury and Covid, Adell was mishandled and put in a position where he couldn't build on success, instead he had his minor league work exposed on the MLB stage for every fan to critique. Had he been left in the minors to complete his AA and triple A work none of the Adell is a bust narratives would emerge. 

Minasian and Eppler fucked up pushing the kid forward instead of filling that outfield void. 

[Angels 1961]

How many times was Rengifo up and down Jo AAAdell is only 23. 

[BTH]

Eppler was the one who rushed Adell in an effort to spark the team in 2020 and save his own job.