Second Base

Not really enough info for a primer, but here's the basic gist.
Jose Reyes - 6'2" 180 lbs. Very smooth lefty swing and can hit to all fields. Corner outfielder, very smart, intuitive player. Does not project to have much power.
Rainier Rivas - 6'3" 215 lbs. Just a beast at age 16/17. Plus power to all fields and a plus arm. Very raw hitter. Puts on a show during BP which is ultimately what led to the Angels signing him, though for less money than they'd hoped.
Raider Uceta - 6'0" 220 lbs. Also a beastly teenager. Plus power, natural lift, but will sell out his power for base hits a la CJ Cron at times. Does not need to swing hard to deposit balls over the wall. Slow footed, average arm at best. Future 1B.
As far as the stateside guys go....
Trent Deveaux - You guys know as much as I do probably. 70-80 grade speed. Loose swing, good bat speed, exceptional athlete. Definitely a CF thoughhis routes and first step could use some work. Projects to have some power down the road. Highly intelligent young man that speaks several languages a la Andrelton Simmons. Natural leader with high expectations.
D'Shawn Knowles - Very good defensive CF with excellent contact and plate discipline. Luis Valbuena type of clubhouse character that everyone likes. Flashy personality but humble and selfless.
Orlando Martinez- 20 years old from Cuba. In one scout's opinion, the best teenage hitter to come out of Cuba in years, and that includes Luis Robert. Short, small in stature and not projectable, but great contact, great plate discipline, decent speed. A comp would actually be like a young JMF but not as much pop.

Don't know much about him. I'll ask though.

Eppler's to do list when he took over.....
- Make nice with Scioscia and Arte 
- Build a contender
- Restore payroll flexibility
- Rebuild farm system
- Reestablish international presence.
If you asked me three years ago how long it would take to accomplish all five of these, I'd have said five years minimum. More like six-to-eight.
Billy Eppler has done it in three, and he's met every challenge with creativity.
- Starting pitchers all injured and ineffective? Sign relievers having a hard time that pitched in the rotation in the minor leagues and turn them into successful pitchers.
- Need a return on a non-valuable entity like Hector Santiago? Fine, take on a bad contract in Nolasco and an injured former top prospect that you can turn into a front of the rotation starter in Alex Meyer (before injury).
- No presence in the Dominican Republic? No problem, dominate the Bahamas and Panama, and draft heavily straight from Puerto Rico.
- Use the most unique offseason circumstance EVER to come away with Kevin Maitan AND Shohei Ohtani on a limited budget.
- Improve the pitching staff? Build an elite defensive unit.
- Need middle of the order bat? Trade for one post trade deadline for high floor prospects to a rebuilding team, then sign him to an extension while selling the idea of playing alongside Trout for years.
- Need to infuse elite prospects into broken system while not drafting at the top of the draft? Pick prep players with a shorter track record but upside to go 1-1 (Adell and Adams) then use the second round to pick players with first round upside but were overlooked (Marsh, Canning and Jackson).
Billy Eppler is the best GM I've ever seen.

Raider Uceta went 4-5 with 3 doubles.  Huge power, and he signed for as much as D'Shawn Knowles and Livan Soto did.  Ironic that they're included int he top 30 but he isn't.  Still HUGE frame and HUGE power for a 16 year old.  No way he remains in the OF but if he hits as much as I think he will, that may not matter so much. 
Prediction: Raider Uceta is a Top 30 AW Prospect this winter. 

No clue, but his swing is absolutely beautiful this year. I think he's silenced a lot of doubters. 
Eppler knew what he was doing. Draft a 1st rounder to an underslot bonus and draft a first rounder in the second round to an overslot bonus.

I wonder if Ward would've made such a giant leap forward in the batter's box had it not been for him moving out from behind it.
It can't be coincidence that as soon as Ward is moved to third base, he begins to hit the ball like never before.
When I first heard that he had been moved to third base, I immediately thought the organization was done with him. His bat barely played as a catching prospect, he wouldn't hit like a 3B. In fact I even thought it was punishment, like he was so bad at handling pitchers that the Angels just wanted to get him out of that situation.
But I think Taylor must've seen it for the blessing it was. Third base wasn't spoken for as catcher was with Maldonado, and all he had to do to claim it was was cleanly field a ground ball, throw the ball to 1B with some velocity and hit the ball.
He's done all that and he's now closer to the major leagues than he ever was as a catcher.
And it makes sense in my mind. Look back to rookie ball, before he worried about implementing all that catchers in a Scioscia-ran system had to do. Ward hit the crap out of the ball.
Take catching out of the equation and he hits.

Yes, he should be, regrettably.  I mean it's clear he's a clubhouse favorite, and he can still hit, it just isn't consistent enough.  But if we'r going to DFA Valbuena, we can't stop there. 
DFA Valbuena, call up Thaiss.
DFA Marte, Fletcher is already up.
DFA Fontana, call up Ward. 
DFA Drake, bring up Jewell. 
DFA Bedrosian, bring up Rhoades. 
Basically, our lineup should be: 2B Kinsler, CF Trout, LF Upton, DH Fernandez, 1B Thaiss, 3B Ward, RF Blash, C Maldonado, SS Fletcher.  5/9 of those players started this year in AAA, but that just shows how bad Valbuena, Marte, Pujols, Cozart, Young and Calhoun have been and just how good our prospects have performed. 

Yes, he should be, regrettably.  I mean it's clear he's a clubhouse favorite, and he can still hit, it just isn't consistent enough.  But if we'r going to DFA Valbuena, we can't stop there. 
DFA Valbuena, call up Thaiss.
DFA Marte, Fletcher is already up.
DFA Fontana, call up Ward. 
DFA Drake, bring up Jewell. 
DFA Bedrosian, bring up Rhoades. 
Basically, our lineup should be: 2B Kinsler, CF Trout, LF Upton, DH Fernandez, 1B Thaiss, 3B Ward, RF Blash, C Maldonado, SS Fletcher.  5/9 of those players started this year in AAA, but that just shows how bad Valbuena, Marte, Pujols, Cozart, Young and Calhoun have been and just how good our prospects have performed. 

Eppler's to do list when he took over.....
- Make nice with Scioscia and Arte 
- Build a contender
- Restore payroll flexibility
- Rebuild farm system
- Reestablish international presence.
If you asked me three years ago how long it would take to accomplish all five of these, I'd have said five years minimum. More like six-to-eight.
Billy Eppler has done it in three, and he's met every challenge with creativity.
- Starting pitchers all injured and ineffective? Sign relievers having a hard time that pitched in the rotation in the minor leagues and turn them into successful pitchers.
- Need a return on a non-valuable entity like Hector Santiago? Fine, take on a bad contract in Nolasco and an injured former top prospect that you can turn into a front of the rotation starter in Alex Meyer (before injury).
- No presence in the Dominican Republic? No problem, dominate the Bahamas and Panama, and draft heavily straight from Puerto Rico.
- Use the most unique offseason circumstance EVER to come away with Kevin Maitan AND Shohei Ohtani on a limited budget.
- Improve the pitching staff? Build an elite defensive unit.
- Need middle of the order bat? Trade for one post trade deadline for high floor prospects to a rebuilding team, then sign him to an extension while selling the idea of playing alongside Trout for years.
- Need to infuse elite prospects into broken system while not drafting at the top of the draft? Pick prep players with a shorter track record but upside to go 1-1 (Adell and Adams) then use the second round to pick players with first round upside but were overlooked (Marsh, Canning and Jackson).
Billy Eppler is the best GM I've ever seen.

Eppler's to do list when he took over.....
- Make nice with Scioscia and Arte 
- Build a contender
- Restore payroll flexibility
- Rebuild farm system
- Reestablish international presence.
If you asked me three years ago how long it would take to accomplish all five of these, I'd have said five years minimum. More like six-to-eight.
Billy Eppler has done it in three, and he's met every challenge with creativity.
- Starting pitchers all injured and ineffective? Sign relievers having a hard time that pitched in the rotation in the minor leagues and turn them into successful pitchers.
- Need a return on a non-valuable entity like Hector Santiago? Fine, take on a bad contract in Nolasco and an injured former top prospect that you can turn into a front of the rotation starter in Alex Meyer (before injury).
- No presence in the Dominican Republic? No problem, dominate the Bahamas and Panama, and draft heavily straight from Puerto Rico.
- Use the most unique offseason circumstance EVER to come away with Kevin Maitan AND Shohei Ohtani on a limited budget.
- Improve the pitching staff? Build an elite defensive unit.
- Need middle of the order bat? Trade for one post trade deadline for high floor prospects to a rebuilding team, then sign him to an extension while selling the idea of playing alongside Trout for years.
- Need to infuse elite prospects into broken system while not drafting at the top of the draft? Pick prep players with a shorter track record but upside to go 1-1 (Adell and Adams) then use the second round to pick players with first round upside but were overlooked (Marsh, Canning and Jackson).
Billy Eppler is the best GM I've ever seen.

Eppler's to do list when he took over.....
- Make nice with Scioscia and Arte 
- Build a contender
- Restore payroll flexibility
- Rebuild farm system
- Reestablish international presence.
If you asked me three years ago how long it would take to accomplish all five of these, I'd have said five years minimum. More like six-to-eight.
Billy Eppler has done it in three, and he's met every challenge with creativity.
- Starting pitchers all injured and ineffective? Sign relievers having a hard time that pitched in the rotation in the minor leagues and turn them into successful pitchers.
- Need a return on a non-valuable entity like Hector Santiago? Fine, take on a bad contract in Nolasco and an injured former top prospect that you can turn into a front of the rotation starter in Alex Meyer (before injury).
- No presence in the Dominican Republic? No problem, dominate the Bahamas and Panama, and draft heavily straight from Puerto Rico.
- Use the most unique offseason circumstance EVER to come away with Kevin Maitan AND Shohei Ohtani on a limited budget.
- Improve the pitching staff? Build an elite defensive unit.
- Need middle of the order bat? Trade for one post trade deadline for high floor prospects to a rebuilding team, then sign him to an extension while selling the idea of playing alongside Trout for years.
- Need to infuse elite prospects into broken system while not drafting at the top of the draft? Pick prep players with a shorter track record but upside to go 1-1 (Adell and Adams) then use the second round to pick players with first round upside but were overlooked (Marsh, Canning and Jackson).
Billy Eppler is the best GM I've ever seen.

Eppler's to do list when he took over.....
- Make nice with Scioscia and Arte 
- Build a contender
- Restore payroll flexibility
- Rebuild farm system
- Reestablish international presence.
If you asked me three years ago how long it would take to accomplish all five of these, I'd have said five years minimum. More like six-to-eight.
Billy Eppler has done it in three, and he's met every challenge with creativity.
- Starting pitchers all injured and ineffective? Sign relievers having a hard time that pitched in the rotation in the minor leagues and turn them into successful pitchers.
- Need a return on a non-valuable entity like Hector Santiago? Fine, take on a bad contract in Nolasco and an injured former top prospect that you can turn into a front of the rotation starter in Alex Meyer (before injury).
- No presence in the Dominican Republic? No problem, dominate the Bahamas and Panama, and draft heavily straight from Puerto Rico.
- Use the most unique offseason circumstance EVER to come away with Kevin Maitan AND Shohei Ohtani on a limited budget.
- Improve the pitching staff? Build an elite defensive unit.
- Need middle of the order bat? Trade for one post trade deadline for high floor prospects to a rebuilding team, then sign him to an extension while selling the idea of playing alongside Trout for years.
- Need to infuse elite prospects into broken system while not drafting at the top of the draft? Pick prep players with a shorter track record but upside to go 1-1 (Adell and Adams) then use the second round to pick players with first round upside but were overlooked (Marsh, Canning and Jackson).
Billy Eppler is the best GM I've ever seen.

Matt Thaiss is headed to Baltimore.  
Jon Schoop is a late scratch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Made you look. 

David Fletcher promotion. 

It makes sense.  Fletcher has spent a lot of time in AAA.  To have Thaiss and Ward promoted to AAA and then promoted to the majors would be pretty bad. 

Sorry gents, couldn't resist.  I've also put a line out, but my source(s) are via email and typically don't respond very quickly.  Lots of time on the road. 

Matt Thaiss is headed to Baltimore.  
Jon Schoop is a late scratch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Made you look. 

Thaiss hitting at Angel Stadium with that short wall in RF would be fun!

Matt Thaiss is headed to Baltimore.  
Jon Schoop is a late scratch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Made you look. 

Sorry gents, couldn't resist.  I've also put a line out, but my source(s) are via email and typically don't respond very quickly.  Lots of time on the road. 

Matt Thaiss is headed to Baltimore.  
Jon Schoop is a late scratch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Made you look. 

I didn't because I stopped reading at Jon Schoop.  

Matt Thaiss is headed to Baltimore.  
Jon Schoop is a late scratch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Made you look. 

Thaiss hitting at Angel Stadium with that short wall in RF would be fun!

I love the Angels 1st and 2nd round draft picks the last few years:
2018: Jordyn Adams, Jeremiah Jackson
2017: Jo Adell, Griffin Canning
2016: Matt Thaiss, Brandon Marsh
2015: Taylor Ward, Jahmai Jones
So much upside there.