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

[Stradling]

5 minutes ago, Second Base said:

There's no team I'd want to emulate more than the Orioles right now. First place in the toughest division in baseball, easily manageable payroll and an absolutely stacked minor league system. 

This is what happens when a rebuild is done right, and this is what the Angels need to begin. 

I don’t think I could ever look at a tank job and come away with the opinion that “it was done right”. 

[BTH]

4 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

thing is, how much better has Minasian been with FAs?

Way better. It’s not even close.
 

Eppler:

Meh: Bailey, Castro

Bleh: Pennington, Soto, Nava, Alburquerque, Gentry, Ortega, Revere, Rivera, Chavez, Young, Lucroy, Bour

Bad: Valbuena, Cozart, Harvey, Cahill, Allen, Teheran

Albatross: Rendon (Arte’s fault though)
 

Minasian:

Good: Lorenzen, Drury, Estévez, Moore

Good?: Syndergaard turned into Moniak

Meh: Suzuki x2, Claudio, Duffy, Iglesias Bradley, Phillips

Bad: Quintana, Loup, Tepera

[Inside Pitch]

43 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

All true. I think people would view Eppler more kindly if at least some of his high-risk, high-reward guys actually presented rewards. But they've all pretty much flopped, at least so far. I mean, think of all those international prospects we were excited about. Deveaux is gone, Knowles hasn't developed; Vera, Placencia, A-Ram, Reyes, Santana don't really seem to be developing. Bonilla and other guys I forget are gone. Guzman looks more like a future utility player.

I'm okay with Latin American players flopping just because they are cheap and chances are you hit on someone that nobody saw coming -- Jose Soriano may fall into that category as unranked 70K signing in 2016.  They have also used a bunch of those guys in trades.  

I'd argue Brandon Marsh is a high risk guy that has arrived, but man do they need Jo Adell to come close to what Marsh has been doing.  Detmers and Canning look to be solid rotation pieces and trading Jett for Maldonado and turning him into Sandoval was another solid move.

 

[totdprods]

Also worth (re?)mentioning that Minasian also has seemingly had the most autonomy of these three recent GMs, and the highest budget this year. 

[Inside Pitch]

29 minutes ago, Trendon said:

Quero and Rada are from the Minasian regime, so I wouldn’t group them with the rest.

The early returns on Minasian’s international group looks way better than Eppler’s.

It's not close to be honest.  Kinda nice to actually have an international scouting department in place, isn't it.  The Angels prior to Eppler had been out of the game and had been trading away international money.   

The failure to get back into Latin America after the noise died down (Clay Daniel), was the biggest mistake the Angels made IMO...

[Angel Oracle]

3 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

I'm okay with Latin American players flopping just because they are cheap and chances are you hit on someone that nobody saw coming -- Jose Soriano may fall into that category as unranked 70K signing in 2016.  They have also used a bunch of those guys in trades.  

I'd argue Brandon Marsh is a high risk guy that has arrived, but man do they need Jo Adell to come close to what Marsh has been doing.  Detmers and Canning look to be solid rotation pieces and trading Jett for Maldonado and turning him into Sandoval was another solid move.

 

Using Jett Bandy to ultimately get Sandoval is like in 2001 using Kimera Bartee to acquire Figgins.

[Inside Pitch]

14 minutes ago, mmc said:

How many 1B total are in there?

Yeah, there's a bias there (1b).  It makes sense, but it's there.   You have two guys who grade out the exact same with the same possible upside, one of them can play 3B and he will rank significantly better.  Again, it makes all the sense in the world but it's also why it's easy to not let the rankings get to us.

[Inside Pitch]

This is, has been, and always will be the best thread at AW.com.   The years always change but the discussion is always the same. 

Good job fellows.

[Inside Pitch]

13 minutes ago, Trendon said:

Way better. It’s not even close.
 

Eppler:

Meh: Bailey, Castro

Bleh: Pennington, Soto, Nava, Alburquerque, Gentry, Ortega, Revere, Rivera, Chavez, Young, Lucroy, Bour

Bad: Valbuena, Cozart, Harvey, Cahill, Allen, Teheran

Albatross: Rendon (Arte’s fault though)
 

Minasian:

Good: Lorenzen, Drury, Estévez, Moore

Good?: Syndergaard turned into Moniak

Meh: Suzuki x2, Claudio, Duffy, Iglesias Bradley, Phillips

Bad: Quintana, Loup, Tepera

Look at the signings the first two seasons compared to what Minasian was able to spend his first two seasons. The Arte factor plays up big.  Also Bud Norris and Petit were both very good signs.

Allen and Harvey STILL piss me off because I was so very actively against BOTH guys.

[totdprods]

If anyone needs a refresher as to how much better Eppler was at rebuilding the farm, even if it didn’t “pan out” with Adell or others as stars, I’d go look at Top 10 prospect lists those years.

Drawn randomly, from John Sickels:

Dipoto, 2014:

1. Taylor Lindsey
2. Hunter Green
3. CJ Cron
4. Kaleb Cowart
5. Nick Maronde
6. Mark Sappington
7. RJ Alvarez
8. Jose Rondon
9. Alex Yarbrough
10. Zach Borenstein

Clevinger, Shoemaker, Morin and Bedrosian are notable names further on.

Eppler, 2018:

1. Shohei Ohtani (I swear I didn’t cherry pick that)
2. Jo Adell
3. Jahmai Jones
4. Brandon Marsh
5. Kevin Maitan
6. Jaime Barria
7. Griffin Canning
8. Leonardo Rivas
9. Jose Soriano
10. Jesus Castillo 
11. Jose Suarez

And the rest of the list is dotted with C-Rod, Ward, Thaiss, Fletcher.

I drew ‘14 and ‘18 in my mind before I googled simply because I felt it reflected a couple years time into in each’s tenure.

The difference is massive.

Edited July 20, 2023 by totdprods

[totdprods]

Billy Eppler didn’t inherit a sinking ship. He inherited a ship at the bottom of the ocean, and had to deal with tow cables snapping every few hours during salvage. He did a heck of a job IMO, but was done in by poor, cheap FA patchwork jobs that didn’t hold. 

[Second Base]

17 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I don’t think I could ever look at a tank job and come away with the opinion that “it was done right”. 

Comparing Baltimore versus the Angels.... The Orioles began their rebuild in 2017, and concluded it in 2022. Five year period. In those five years, zero playoff appearances, low payroll, saving money, and building a farm that has produced Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Grayson Rodriguez, Jorge Mateo, Mullins, Mountcastle, Hays, Santander, Bradish... And now has Westburg and Cowser getting their feet wet, with Holliday and Kjerstad on their way. 

The Angels in that time, ever rising payroll, zero playoff appearances and a farm system that has produced... O'Hoppe, Neto, Thaiss, Fletcher, Rengifo and Ward, with not a whole lot else on the way, comparatively. 

If I had to choose between the two, I'd take the Orioles path. But hindsight is 20/20 and we've learned some things across the last five seasons, and one of the things we've learned is that you cannot build a strong farm system without rebuilding.... Or if you can, it can't be done without allocating large numbers of resources, which Arte has been unwilling to do. 

The Angels need a philosophical shift in the way they do things. They're only 4 games or so out of a wild card slot and I still say they need to sell off Ohtani, Renfroe, Moustakas, Escobar, Moore, Estevez etc.. they need to start a rebuild and selling those guys off and getting good prospects can fast forward the process from a five year period to more like a three year period, a benefit Baltimore and Cincinnati didn't have, but the Angels do. It's a golden opportunity.

[totdprods]

Arte’s insistence that the Angels be competitive year-in, year-out, damn the cost (so long as it fit budget) is perhaps his biggest strategical misstep, but I have to say I appreciate it. Bottom line is he wants the fans to have a fun, good team to watch, and that was perhaps more important to him than profit, or else he would’ve allowed a tank for a couple years. He just didn’t see the forest through the trees and realize that the org would’ve been better off had they permitted a true rebuild/reset for a 2-year period somewhere in there. 

Personally, I think that holds more weight from an operational failure more than any of his FA meddling or farm-system scrimping. Those absolutely played a part, but didn’t totally doom the org. They could have rebooted many times the last decade but Arte didn’t because he wanted a winner, even when it seemed far-flung. For a die-hard fan, that’s irritating as hell. We’re in it for the long-haul, we can stomach a rebuild because we understand why an org needs to do it. For the casual fan, it’s boring and being cheap and a turn-off. They don’t see the value in it. In a competitive market with the Dodgers, and from a pure fan value POV, I understand Arte’s approach.

[Angelsjunky]

1 hour ago, Second Base said:

The Angels need a philosophical shift in the way they do things. They're only 4 games or so out of a wild card slot and I still say they need to sell off Ohtani, Renfroe, Moustakas, Escobar, Moore, Estevez etc.. they need to start a rebuild and selling those guys off and getting good prospects can fast forward the process from a five year period to more like a three year period, a benefit Baltimore and Cincinnati didn't have, but the Angels do. It's a golden opportunity.

You realize that isn't going to happen, right? Especially after sweeping the Yankees.

The fact is, there's not a single GM in baseball that would sell now, being 49-48 and within 5 games of a playoff berth and 65 games left o play. You may be technically correct - that it would serve the organization better long-term to sell - but really, as a sports team you have to give the guys a chance. If they lose the next 5 games, that might change. But right now, in this moment, they're higher than they've been in a month.

[Angelsjunky]

I forgot about Leo Rivas. He was a guy that I thought could eventually be a handy bench players, especially with those walks.

Looks like he's on the Seattle AA team. Still taking walks (49 in 57 games) but not much else.

[Second Base]

4 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

You realize that isn't going to happen, right? Especially after sweeping the Yankees.

The fact is, there's not a single GM in baseball that would sell now, being 49-48 and within 5 games of a playoff berth and 65 games left o play. You may be technically correct - that it would serve the organization better long-term to sell - but really, as a sports team you have to give the guys a chance. If they lose the next 5 games, that might change. But right now, in this moment, they're higher than they've been in a month.

Of course it won't happen. You know what I predicted before the season started? That the Angels would neither be good enough to buy or bad enough to sell and that they'd narrowly miss the playoffs, lose Ohtani and get nothing. That's still the likeliest path. 

There's a fine line between what needs to be done and what should be done, but there's a giant chasm between what needs to be done and what will actually be done. 

[mmc]

[Docwaukee]

 It's fun to take that trip down memory lane and look at what Eppler inherited.  

Man.  What an absolute mess.    

[mmc]

[TroutField]

Kyren Paris 2-3 3BB, 2 SB, 2 doubles, 2 R have a game….(OPS up to .776) 

Quero 1-3 3BB, rbi (hopefully he develops some power, the plate discipline is very good) 

 

Tucker Flint 4-6 2 doubles, and a triple (OPS is up to .751, after OPSing .898 in 30 games last year in inland empire.) 

 

Jeremiah Jackson 0-5 with NINE!! left on base 

[TroutField]

Jeez… the tri city dust devils roster is pretty bad. Not a whole lot of talent on that team, I had forgotten about D’shawn Knowles. Bat never developed, aside from a decent stretch in inland empire a few years back.

[rafibomb]

The Moniak and Syndergaard trade was already a huge win but the fact that Jadiel Sanchez is looking like a potential future  4th outfielder this season already adds to that.

[Warfarin]

7 hours ago, TroutField said:

Kyren Paris 2-3 3BB, 2 SB, 2 doubles, 2 R have a game….(OPS up to .776) 

Quero 1-3 3BB, rbi (hopefully he develops some power, the plate discipline is very good) 

 

Tucker Flint 4-6 2 doubles, and a triple (OPS is up to .751, after OPSing .898 in 30 games last year in inland empire.) 

 

Jeremiah Jackson 0-5 with NINE!! left on base 

Both Quero and Flint were challenged significantly by the FO with their aggressive promotions.  Quero started off well, then struggled for awhile, but is improving of late.  Flint had a really rough start, but his July has been rather good.

Numbers aside, though, I think how the FO handles certain players in terms of promotions says more than their numbers do.  Flint isn't really on the radar, but just seeing him get fast-tracked suggests the FO thinks highly of his future.  Same with Mederos too, despite the rough start he had.

[Warfarin]

5 hours ago, rafibomb said:

The Moniak and Syndergaard trade was already a huge win but the fact that Jadiel Sanchez is looking like a potential future  4th outfielder this season already adds to that.

Moniak can't really keep up this level of production, as teams will adjust and so on, but he's even getting some hits off LHP now, which is a promising sign.

If the FO / player devo department actually "fixed" Moniak and is helping him reach his #1 overall draft pick status, then we absolutely have a good future with the group in charge.  

Agreed with Sanchez.  After a very slow April, he has been crushing it ever since.  I would assume he will get promoted soon, maybe even to AA, given it seems a lot of the higher promise picks bypass hi-A and are sent directly to AA (perhaps due to the disparity in hitting environments?).

[Warfarin]

On 7/20/2023 at 11:26 AM, Trendon said:

Way better. It’s not even close.
 

Eppler:

Meh: Bailey, Castro

Bleh: Pennington, Soto, Nava, Alburquerque, Gentry, Ortega, Revere, Rivera, Chavez, Young, Lucroy, Bour

Bad: Valbuena, Cozart, Harvey, Cahill, Allen, Teheran

Albatross: Rendon (Arte’s fault though)
 

Minasian:

Good: Lorenzen, Drury, Estévez, Moore

Good?: Syndergaard turned into Moniak

Meh: Suzuki x2, Claudio, Duffy, Iglesias Bradley, Phillips

Bad: Quintana, Loup, Tepera

Can we entirely blame Arte, though?  Minasian alluded to a similar scenario this most recent offseason, where Arte wanted to go sign Trea Turner, feeling he was the "missing piece."  Perry knew better and told Arte (allegedly) that the team needed a lot more than just Turner, and it was best to spread it around instead of consolidating it into one overpriced player.

Maybe Eppler had the same scenario, and he just didn't have enough sense (or courage?) to tell Arte the team needed more than just one star player.  What is more telling, though, is to see what has happened with the Mets, how Eppler has approached their finances, and the resulting team record they have now.  Again, I just don't think Eppler is very good at his job, and I think Perry is significantly better.  Perry's pedigree is from really strong draft-and-develop organizations, as well as organizations who used free agency to largely find value (as opposed to signing the biggest star possible).  I think he is way better than Eppler.