NrM

I want my toast with paragraph breaks.

Like the only angels prospect that is actually doing anything impressive right now is Zach Borenstein. A left handed hitting jewish dude that was on no ones radar. He's crushing the ball in the CAL league.
 
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=605148

I play Xbox with the Sports TV bubble.

Not to sound too old school Poozy, but there's quite a bit more to this game than stats.  And even if numbers are all you care about, look at Yarbrough's overall production, Lindsey's power and discipline development, Grichuk's power in probably the hardest place to hit for power in Minor League Baseball, Rondon just killing everything in Orem, Nat Delgado and Ismael Dionicio's numbers down in Rookie Ball.  - There really are a lot of stats that'll jump off the page for Angels prospects. 
 
From a non-statistical standpoint there are some story lines that make the Angels minor leaguers worth following. 
 
1. This team really needs help in the SP department, and Mark Sappington's doing quite well in his first taste of pro ball.  Skipped over A Ball and went straight to the Cal League, notoriously tough on pitchers.  3.42 RA, lots of innings and lots of strikeouts in your first year is nothing to sneeze at.  Not to mention his profiue as a power pitcher.  He could be a decent #3-4-5 SP and could be ready to take on that role with the Angels in a year or two. 
 
2. This team is going to have a good, inexpensive bullpen rather soon.  Long term, Frieri, Jepsen, Kohn and De La Rosa are pretty solid.  Add in Mike Morin, Nick Maronde, R.J. Alvarez and suddenly the Angels will be lethal.
 
3. The offense has had its brigt spots, but take a look at all the bats coming up.  Even if they're currently blocked, these players will be valuable trade candidates.  Calhoun, Grichuk, Lindsey, Cron, Witherspoon, Yarbrough, Stamets, Borenstein and Rondon all look like they'll fill roles at the major league level, several of which would be starters.
 
4. The wave of high risk, high reward pitchers that have been infused into the system since Dipoto's arrival.  Arjenis Fernandez, Key Middleton, Yency Almonte, Victor Alcantara, Daniel Hurtado, Austin Wood, Reid Scoggins, Hunter Green, Kyle McGowin and Jonah Wesely.  I'm not saying many of those guys are going to be big league starters.  But of those 10 pitchers, you gotta figure that at least one or two (probably more) make it into a big league rotation and with their arsenal, they could be impressive. 

In all honesty, the answer is probably as simple as this.  The organization wants Calhoun to grow, either in value or as a player for the future.  Shuck is what he is.  And right now, what Shuck is bringing to the table is adequate for the Angels needs.  There'd be no reason to promote Calhoun so that he can fill Brad Hawpe's role and play once a week.  They'd rather keep him hot in AAA, where his value blossoms along with his confidence and he keeps his timing.
 
That way, the Angels can either feature him a in a more prominent role next season without having him waste a full year in a partial bench role, or they can trade him, in which case the idea that he's 25, climbed the ladders quickly, has no weaknesses and hit over .350 in AAA will undoubtedly inflate his value in any potential deal. 
 
Keep in mind, this is not my personal opinion.  I believe Calhoun should've been on the field for the Angels the very second Peter Bourjos stepped off the field.  But I believe there is some tact to what the Angels are doing.  I don't think it's particularly intelligent, but it also isn't the dumbest possible option either.  The dumbest thing the Angels could do is promote Calhoun and have him sit the bench. 

Like the only angels prospect that is actually doing anything impressive right now is Zach Borenstein. A left handed hitting jewish dude that was on no ones radar. He's crushing the ball in the CAL league.
 
http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=605148

I forgot, aright? It happens. I admitted I was wrong, which is something you are incapable of doing. No need to keep throwing my name out there..

I couldn't care less what his final numbers for the season turn out to be.
His total failure is the main reason the Angels missed the playoffs last year, and he has contributed nothing this year either.
He was brought in to lead, and even for stretches to carry, this team.
He has done nothing for this team so far, and I see no reason to coddle him with excuses such as "He is pretty good for being hurt"
 
That's BS.

respond to me, but not the guy who thinks minor league team records have correlation with how strong or weak prospects are. Way to go bro.BTW it is just my ****ing opinion so why act like lifetime with your reply?

It shouldn't need further support, but I'll say it again: There is no correlation between minor league records and the depth or quality of prospects. Let me put it this way. Each major league team has 7-9 minor league farm teams. Each of those teams has approximately a 25-man active roster, which means that for every 25 major leaguers (add a few for the DL) there are at least 175 minor leaguers or as many as 225. How many of those ~200 players do you think will have significant major league careers? Not many. Many of them move slowly through the system and either wash-out and try their hand at another career or become the dreaded "career minor leaguer," which I would define as a player that might be called up on a pinch but spends far more of their career in the minors than majors (e.g. Paul McAnulty). Actually, the majority of players in AAA are these types of guys, and if you want to look at the real talent in a system generally A, A+ and AA have the higher end prospects, because better prospects tend to move through AAA relatively quickly.
 
Now let's look at the Salt Lake Bees. According to Baseball Reference, 25 hitters and 28 pitchers have played there this year. He average age of the hitters is 28.4 years, the pitchers 27.8 years. The only hitter younger than 25 is Ryan Dalton (21) who played only one game and was, I believe, just a fill-in from Orem. Every other hitter is between 25 and 34. As for the pitchers, the range has been 24 to 36.
 
Looking down the roster, he only position players that have a decent chance at being major league regulars are Kole Calhoun and Luis Jimenez. A few players - Andrew Romine, Matt Long, Drew Heid, Thomas Field - could have decent careers are bench/platoon players. Among the pitchers, none look like #1-3 pitchers. AJ Schugel and Matt Shoemaker will probably start some games in the majors, and Schugel has a decent chance at being a back-end starter for some time (although he's pitched terribly this year). Most of the pitchers have logged some innings in the majors, but very few if any look like they'll have ongoing gigs (maybe Berg, Carpenter, one or two others).
 
So that's a 59-46 team. To recap, the best prospect is Kole Calhoun who I'd say is a solid grade B prospect, but on the older side (he's 25). Only a few others have a chance at being a major league regular. The team is largely comprised of career minor leaguers, guys that ride the AAA buses, switching from team to team, enjoying the game, but hoping to get a major major league contract (remember that the MLB minimum of ~$500,000 looks pretty great to a player that might be making less than $20K a year playing baseball).
 
The averages ages at AA Arkansas drop significantly - 23.6 for hitters and 25.2 for pitchers. Here you'll find more prospects with decent chances of major league careers - Cowart, Cron, Lindsey, Grichuk, Maronde, possibly Witherspoon, Bandy, Correa, Piazza, and one or two others. Arkansas has a much higher concentration of talent than Salt Lake, but they're 51-51.
 
Anyhow, hopefully the point is clear. A minor league team's record has nothing to do with future talent, but only ability at the level they're currently playing at. Salt Lake is a good AAA team - but against other AAA players, and most players on the roster won't get any better because they're already in their prime. Remember that most players have a wide peak of around 25-32, and a narrower peak of 27-30. This means that very few players will get batter after age 27. Some do, but not so much better than they were at 27.

minor league records have zero correlation with how strong the prospects in a system are.

minor league records have zero correlation with how strong the prospects in a system are.

so there's been zero under-performance the past few years? it's just bad luck that the team has come out of the gate each of the past two seasons unprepared and looking like zombies?  bad luck that they have a team full of good defenders and are one of the worst defensive teams in baseball?  
 
Give me a break, Bruce.  How much failure do you need to see before you think it's good idea to change direction in managers?

Agreed. Torii Hunter didn't bring the Angels much success. This lost leadership line from angelswin is nothing more than "hyperbole"

Assuming how is it good news:
 
Because it means in hindsight we "won" the trade.
 
Kinda like how everyone is groaning now every time Jean Segura or Patrick Corbin has a good game.

then put Trout back in leadoff and Iannetta in the 2-hole

Offense - 3.71 runs a game 4th worst in the AL
Pitching - 5.43 team ERA last in MLB
Defense - 12 errors 28th in MLB
Base running blunders - still a problem
 
Any way you want to slice it this team has underperformed in pretty much every aspect.  I expect the offense to come around and agree the pitching had major question marks but no one thought both would be doing this poorly at this point.  Even if you take that away this team still makes dumb mistakes which has been a recurring theme for a few years now.  Some of what they do on the bases is beyond laughable.

James' offensive stats are seemingly always optimistic. I don't see Trout improving on last season. Think he'll take a small step back. He'll still be one of the best players in baseball