totdprods

We draft them all the time. They just immediately get changed to other positions! In all seriousness, catcher is the biggest gamble in the draft, and we haven’t been in a place to gamble like that. There’s really only a handful of great catchers in the bigs the last decade if not longer...plenty of next tier guys available each year.

That’s kinda my point. When your offensive profile is almost entirely consisting of hitting singles, you are only going to go as far as BAbip allows, more or less. You’ll be tied to how good you are at “hitting it where they ain’t” and if you can’t walk at a 9-10% clip or better or pop a dozen home runs, your line is gonna look real ugly real fast if you’re not getting singles. Fletcher doesn’t have elite speed to help him out either. That’s not a knock on him...basically we’re seeing minor league/MLB debut Fletcher right now, but he showed us the last two years there’s potential f

Brown Mathis?

Mayfield was already traveling with the team in the taxi squad. They'll probably do some shuffling when they get back to Anaheim and re-assess where Ohtani, Rendon, Lagares, and Stassi are at.

yup, he's reverted to the Fletcher that will sink or swim based on his BAbip. His offense will hinge on that far more than other players until he walks more consistently or discovers some power, which he did last year. Can he keep that up year in year out though?

Behind pitching, catcher will likely be our clearest position to upgrade come deadline time, especially if Stassi winds up having a hard time staying healthy, and I can't imagine Arte or Perry will want to sit by idly if the team is going into the stretch run in a good position. I could absolutely see the team swinging a deal for Contreras and Hendrick or Davies or Kimbrel to upgrade catcher and the staff for the playoffs.

I think that's a little up for debate still, if you took a deeper look at the numbers. His performance this season has been very encouraging because he's been fairly consistent, but if you look closer at 2020, there's a a lot of reason to be skeptical. Stassi crushed a pretty awful Mariners team last year. He went 4 for 15 - all four hits were home runs - all of which happened in the span of a week, and then he had a 2 HR game against the Padres near the end of the year. He did almost all of his damage in 19 plate appearances. Against everyone else? He slashed .227/.302/.293/.595 in

Standing by my prediction the Angels trade for an impact catcher before the year is out...

It’ll be kind of telling if Walsh starts getting a lot of playing time in RF. While it means we probably see more Pujols now, if Walsh somehow starts proving solid in RF, could lead to some theories that the Angels pursue someone like Freeman or Rizzo in FA.

Ward makes all the sense in the world given that the Angels are already running with a short bench and that Ohtani will likely hit when he pitches, meaning a lot of pinch-hitting, defensive changes, and double switches. He also hit well last year and this spring. Rengifo would likely be the next option, also because of his versatility, followed by guys like Gosselin or Wong being added. Then I think they start getting into the guys like Schebler, Jay, Adell, and Marsh. Thaiss might even make sense before them.

I’m sure some of this might be a result of him getting back up to a full season grind. No pitching and little baseball the last couple seasons let some of that callous get soft. Might be recurring for this year but hopefully builds up as it goes on.

They also seem to be playing offense in a very balanced way. Getting on base, forcing defense to make good plays by being aggressive, making a lot of contact, good situational hitting, not relying on (but still getting) the long ball. It’s very encouraging. I was also extremely skeptical of Max Stassi’s breakout last year...digging deeper, he only really killed the Mariners in one series and then had only a couple good games, otherwise he was Max Stassi the rest of the year, but he’s looking solid at the plate this year.

Yeah I have no idea what to expect with him. I believed he had a real shot at being a legitimate MLB hitter, maybe a .260/.330/.450 type guy, but September raised expectations. Through one week he’s picked up right where he left off. I imagine a big part of this is still due to opposing teams not really having the data or scouting or advance prep put into him, and that will start changing quickly with the way he’s hitting. Will they find a way to neutralize him and bring him back to earth a bit, or will he keep adapting? Could be the difference in a solid bat like mentioned above or

Stats I like so far that I don’t think anyone’s talking about: The Angels pitching staff has a strikeout rate of 11.3 per 9 innings. Every starter is in double digits and only four of the fourteen pitchers are not. Jared Walsh is not striking out. Combining last year and this year, he’s on pace for more extra base hits (80) than strikeouts (75); 50 HR, 17 doubles, 13 triples, and 75 strikeouts.

Prince Philip, DMX, and Phil Coyne.