TroutAdell

All seven Minor League teams are playing very poorly. I know the philosophy is emphasize player development, but in my opinion players need to be exposed to a winning environment. If you have some solid prospects you won’t be way under .500 like six of the seven teams. Swanson and his scouting staff don’t seem to be able to scout, project and sign decent pitching talent. Poor to mediocre pitching talent results in a losing system. I am all for a change in the scouting system and a new farm director.

Ausmus will be the manager as long as Eppler is the GM! I think the Angels will have to compete in 2020 for Eppler to keep his job unless for some reason he gets an extension after this season.

Great analysis Nate! It sounds just like we talked about yesterday.

I don’t think that the Angels will deliberately tank but running out the pitchers that they do will probably lead to the look of tanking. The bullpen will probably start falling apart from extreme overwork and the offense will continue to suffer under the weight of big early deficits. There is cause for optimism in 2020 but it will rely on Eppler and the Scouting Department to uncover some clean, young peanuts.

Bridwell has been a “ pitching piñata” in SLC. He could make Cahill look like an ace. There are no more starters left in SLC. Tropeano makes Bridwell look like an ace. The next starter has to come from AA.

Now that Ohtani will miss a season and a half from the mound I hope that the Angels don’t go with the six man rotation and restrict Ohtani from DHing the game before he pitches. If they go with the six man rotation they will be limiting the innings that a Gerrit Cole would pitch. Ohtani will probably be on a pitch count anyway. The Angels don’t have enough depth to go to a six man. Also, this leaves a huge hole in the lineup. Maybe Jeff Fletcher can answer these questions.

Relative to other thirty-something OF signed in the offseason. Hopefully Upton can return to his norm next season.

Three of the four have already been DFA’d! No other teams were going to give Harvey, Allen or Cahill the amount of money that the Angels gave them. Upton received 5/125 when most other thirty something OF settled for one year contracts. The three pitchers were an over reach. This doesn’t count Justin Bour another bust. My point is that Eppler had a really poor offseason which the Angels can’t afford to repeat.

There comes a time when being mediocre is a huge negative. It is hard to draft quality when you pick in the middle of the draft year after year. Signing Wilson, Pujols and especially Hamilton cost numerous high draft. The Wells trade was horrendous. Eppler way overpaying for Harvey, Cahill and Upton has set back the organization even more. Of the four free agents signed last fall/winter only Cahill remains because he can pitch multiple innings out of the pen. The Angels are always near the top of the AL in homers allowed playing in a ballpark that is home run neutral. All this points to poor management.

I think that the scouting and development of players has been subpar. The biggest negative is the lack of guys drafted three through ten on the 40 man roster.. Even the First Round hasn’t produced since Trout, save for Adell. Mostly, is the lack of quality pitching prospects in the upper levels of the system. MLB has the system ranked at #22. Reading the bios of the Top 30 most of the pitchers on the list project to be bullpen pieces. The Angels haven’t drafted a too of the rotation pitcher since Jared Weaver in 2006. Garrett Richards was drafted in the second round and showed glimpses of TOR talent but injuries derailed his ascent. Fourteen drafts is a long time to go without promoting any top of the rotation pitchers.

It was really bad timing for his injury. Teams weren’t going to take a chance without seeing play post surgery. That said, he really didn’t show any value before the injury. No loss here.

I would like to see Walsh get an extended look at 1B. He at least has some decent power and can always be used to mop up on the mound. He also can be used in the outfield on occasion. I think Thaiss will be a better trade chip going forward. Ward may hit some but his defense is atrocious. Hermosillo is a generic outfielder who is not as good as Goodwin as a fourth outfielder. All four of these prospects or former prospects are available in trades.

What have you seen from Thaiss that doesn’t make him expendable? Pretty easy to replace his production. I would rather see Walsh get an extended look at 1B and see if his power numbers relate to Anaheim. Unless you are getting a piece for 3+ years I would keep Marsh. Simba’s defense is still top notch but he can be expendable with the plethora of middle infielders in the system. Jackson looks like a future power bat. Ward, Thaiss are expendable along with any other AAA players. Also, the PCL is so skewed toward the offense that it is hard to tell who is a prospect and who is not.

Actually, the Orioles gave been swinging hot bats since the break. When you trot out Tropeano and Peters you can’t expect to win. There is no starting pitching at AAA and nothing remotely ready at AA. Time to hit up the Indy leagues.

This shuttle between SLC and Anaheim has been grossly mismanaged. Peters throws 5 shutout innings and gets sent down. The same thing has happened to Barria and Suarez. How can you build a rotation when you never have five starters on the staff at any one time. Now they are stuck with Tropeano to start a game against a hot offensive team. He will most likely get shelled then get sent down to get shelled in SLC. Losing Skaggs was a huge a huge loss, Heaney being injured is not a surprise! Removing starters after five innings even if they are throwing well puts the strain on the pen. This is on Eppler and Ausmus for not having pitching depth and for the shuttle back and forth to SLC.

I see at least two DFA candidates if the Angels need to add players to the 40 man, Bour and McCreery. Tropeano has pitched extremely poorly at SLC. There are more, this is just a few.

It is doubtful that the Angels will pick up Calhoun’s option, therefore if the are offered a legit prospect pitcher you have to move him. Most buyers are looking for pitching at the deadline which will actually make it hard to move Calhoun. Eppler will have to go dumpster diving to improve the starters.

With only three starters right now, none of whom have shown any consistency, it will be difficult to put together a steak that can last 20-30 games. The bullpen has been very good but with only 5 innings from starters they may get burned out by September. They have to hope that Heaney can come back healthy (a tall order) and pitch better than he has this season. If they are to make a run Eppler will need to strike gold in the trade market. After signing Harvey, Cahill and Allen in the offseasonI am not overly optimistic. I will say that I have enjoyed watching this team since the break. I sincerely hope that this run can continue.

The problem is the lack of development of players that you can build around. I am a big fan of Fletcher but there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the system to play third. Jackson started out at SS but has now been moved to 2B, he is also at least 3 years away. The system has real good depth in the outfield but not on the mound. Again, where will the catching come from? How many early round picks, not counting the first round, are considered top prospects. These are the results of poor scouting and drafting. Swanson has to be held responsible.

No to trading Fletcher. He is way too valuable hitting in front of Trout. You have to develop most of your players not count on FA and trades. They are only valuable if you are one or two players away from competing.

The problem is that the Angels are just good enough to be mediocre, always drafting in the middle of each round. To become a perennial contender it will take some superior development of the young players coming through the minors. There has not been evidence that the current instructors are good at their jobs. I know that Minor League team records are secondary to the development of the players but the Angels have to have the worst organizational winning percentage in baseball. If the organization was developing pitchers Eppler wouldn’t have to acquire so many DFAs. There is a serious lack of catching in the organization and Third Base is still a black hole. Personally, I think that Swanson should be replaced. There have been no All Stars produced in several years. It is hard to see the Angels consistently contending without producing its own pitching.

From what I saw of Mejia he has a decent fastball, a average at best breaking ball and poor command of both. At least he is a lefty.

Each AL club can add a 26th man to its roster when playing in an NL park. That is how Ward was called up.

Unfortunately, Upton won’t be traded unless the Angels eat a massive amount of money. Also, he is over 30, that is another strike against him.

When will the Angels ever get a break? At least we got to say adios to Harvey.