Dave Saltzer

12 minutes ago, Dick B Back said:

Sure is nice to see a post of any kind that lists pitchers who could go more than 5 innings.

Starters going 5+ innings, and heck, going for whole games . . . stuff of legends!

7 minutes ago, Lou said:

Shouldn't entries have a cut-off date ?

@Chuckster70

Cut off date is game time for that game. You can change your vote game by game. If you don't, your previous vote remains in effect. 

I've also seen some people linking us to a couple of RHPs. One is a local HS pitcher out of Orange Lutheran, Cole Winn.

Cole Winn | Rank: 42

Watch

I know we all want the BPA (Best Player Available), but what I would like to see us do is go after a lefty starter. With Griffin, Barria, and others developing, we have a real shortage of lefties in the system. There is Suarez and then not much (especially for starters) until we get down to Jerryell Rivera. Ideally, a lefty from college would work best, so he could catch up with the rest of our developing talent. 

Here's an article listing the top 7 college lefties: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/top-7-college-lefthanders/

I saw on one site linking us to Pilkington. Here's the discussion https://247sports.com/mlb/scouting/Article/Way-Too-Early-2018-MLB-Mock-Draft--108332780

17 Los Angeles Angels - Konnor Pilkington, LHP, Mississippi State
The Angels bucked the trend of taking the safe route last year with Jo Adell. The feeling is that, as an organization, they have been looking for an arm, for the last two years, who has consistently performed, which would be Pilkington at Mississippi State. The lefty does not get the talk of the players ahead of him in this mock, but has been a top pitcher in the top conference the last two years. He had limited experience as a freshman, but the numbers were strong even then. He is a safe arm, more of what we have seen the Angels do traditionally. This is a spot that seems likely to have more college depth than high ceiling talent like the Angels took last year.

Here's more on Pilkington from: http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018/?list=draft

Scouting grades: Fastball: 55 | Slider: 50 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 50 | Overall: 50

In the 2018 Draft, few college players can match Pilkington's youth (he won't turn 21 until September) and track record. He cracked Mississippi State's Southeastern Conference rotation as a freshman, became its No. 1 starter as a sophomore and performed well in the Cape Cod League and with Team USA during his two summers. He could become the third Bulldogs pitcher to go in the first round in the last seven Drafts, following Chris Stratton (2012) and Dakota Hudson (2016).

Pilkington could have three solid or better pitches when all is said and done. He works with an 88-93 mph fastball that tops out at 96, using his 6-foot-3 frame and a high three-quarters arm slot to deliver it on a steep downhill plane. He trusts his advanced changeup more than his slider, which can get slurvy at times.

Pilkington's stuff, strong frame and competitiveness could make him an innings-eating No. 3 starter. He generally throws strikes but has occasional lapses of control. He'll need to watch his conditioning to reach his potential.

With all the talk about our Major League doing well, and our Minor League prospects developing nicely, let's start talking about this draft. Supposedly it is deeper in HS talent, and in pitching talent. So, with that, let's start posting mock drafts and thoughts in here.

I'm not going to participate because I helped to put this together. But, I told my sons about it, so they all want in on a chance to win some In 'N Out.

Mikey's prediction is a double in the 1st inning off the starter.

Joshua's prediction is a single in the 6th inning off of the starter.

Nathan's prediction is a single in the 8th inning off of a reliever.

You all can vote daily. You can change your vote daily. You should put in something like Double, 5th inning, off of XXX pitcher. The next day, you could post a new thread and say HR, 3rd inning off of that day's starter. It'll keep you guessing!

In & Out. Yum!

3 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

Luis Rengifo leads the minors in SB's and Suarez leads the minors in strikeouts. 

I think Moyer's 6 HR is tied with a handful of ML's for the most in that category as well. 

More importantly, Regnifo is 2nd in the Cal League in walks with 12 so far, which has him as 12th overall in OB%, even though he only has a .255 BA.

3 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

@totdprods apologies dude for the lost prospect reports as of last Wednesday through last night. We really do enjoy those. 

This was the thread in which I miss the lost posts the most.

Congrats Griffin!

Did any of you catch the interview with Ward yesterday by the AA announcer? If any of you did, could you post it in here please?

@Jeff Fletcher is indeed fantastic and a great resource for fans on here. We definitely should all click on the links in the articles to help support his work. He is about as honest as he can be with us, as candid as he can be with us, and does a great job covering the team. 

With 2 more hits tonight so far, does anyone want to change their predictions? 

2 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Maybe, but more like Pujols is tired.

Oh well, looks like we'll just see Ohtani in the lineup tomorrow through Friday, assuming he starts on the mound this Sunday.

Don't get me wrong, I WANTED to see Ohtani in tonight's game. While the whole team is doing so much to make this season fun so far, he's electrifying. One of my boys has already declared that he will switch to #17 next year. So, I get it. But, there are times when I see people going off on Scioscia when it isn't always the wrong decision by Scioscia, but he can't or won't say all the factors that led to the decision.

Question here for everyone: What if Mike Trout said that he really wants to play for Scioscia for his career and wants to be an Angel for life? Would you be willing to keep Scioscia as the manager for that scenario?

1 minute ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

This is the crap i'm talking about with Scioscia. He overthinks the game when he's supposed to be the "old school" guy. The entire damn world sees that Ohtani is on fire and only meatball would put him on the bench.

Not to be an ass, and not to purely pick a fight, but Scioscia has said all along that they will work in conjunction with Ohtani to develop how to use him. So, let's say that Scioscia or a coach asked Ohtani how his arm is feeling today, and Ohtani said "a bit sore". Or what if Ohtani woke up with a bit of the flu? Scioscia then takes Ohtani out of the lineup, and he would never reveal that potential soreness or illness to anyone.

I'm clearly NOT in Texas and have no way of knowing if this is or is not true, but it is possible. I don't want anyone claiming that I've said that Ohtani is sore or injured or anything. I'm just pointing out as fans, we are only able to see such a tiny amount of the information that goes into a manager's decisions. Things like this do happen (I've been aware of reasons why a player wasn't in the lineup that I couldn't reveal), and fans were going nuts about the decision. I'm just pointing out before the board flips out and goes crazy over this decision that it is possible that other factors could have weighed in on the decision.

14 minutes ago, jordan said:

May 2nd against Baltimore, Home Run to Left Center Field off the rocks, with Darren O'Day pitching.

When we get a bit closer to 3,000, maybe say at 1995, I'll do a predict the pitcher thread to see who will give up the milestone hit!

For the record, only 4 players hit HRs as their 3,000th hit. I don't know how many got triples, but I would love to see what the odds would be for Pujols to do it!

You need to click on the view the full article to vote in the polls. Please do so!

Again, lost. In yesterday's win was Pujols passing Jimmie Foxx to take sole possession of 9thbplace all time for RBI. Pretty classy that it's about the team and the wins, not about him. 

8 hours ago, Warfarin said:

I'd say AAA has good depth pieces for us to help support our major league team, which is refreshing as compared to years past.  Outside of Barria, I don't see any significant prospects there, but again, it's important to have guys in AAA who we can call upon as needed due to injury/poor performance, and we certainly do have that.

That's what AAA is for--guys who can immediately come up and support the parent club. The top prospects tend to stay longer in AA and then get a little refining in AAA before coming up to the Majors. But long term, the guys in AAA should be role players for the Majors and just keeping their skills fresh playing everyday. It's good that we actually have guys with experience and are quality who can come fill in as needed, especially with the pitchers. We will need the depth. 

There's a lot of good reasons to head out to see the IE66ers this year, especially when the Angels aren't in town. 

What an incredibly cool story and love of baseball. Just like when a pro knows when he is done, and needs to walk away from the game, Phil did the same thing. I hope I can make it that long and can still go to games. 

37 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Jones third plate appearance.

 

VID_20180405_210523.mp4

Thanks Blarg!