Two exciting events today that may tease a little something about the next horizon for this Angels ball club. Sunday is funday for Halos farm watchers and futurists, as we have both the Futures Game and Day One of the 2021 MLB Draft to look forward to.
The Futures Games starts at 12pm Pacific time and will feature both the Angels #1 draft pick from 2020, Reid Detmers, and wildman reliever Hector Yan, currently with the High A West Dust Devils. Detmers will pitch the third inning for the American League, and Yan will pitch the eighth.
The inclusion of Yan is a bit of a headscratcher. While MLB Pipeline considers him the #9 prospect in the Angels’ system, their system is not among the elite ones in baseball, and Yan has really been struggling this year, especially with control (BB/9 of 7 at the moment) – which might make for an incendiary and decisive moment when he comes on in late innings in the context of a big media showcase. (Good luck, Hector.) A more logical choice for a second Angels selection would have been Chris Rodriguez or Brandon Marsh, but it may be that their health statuses when the rosters were determined were uncertain.
You can watch the Futures Game on the MLB Network or live streaming at MLB.com.
After the Futures Game, 2021 MLB Draft coverage begins! Tonight’s coverage begins at 4pm Pacific, broadcasting out of Coors Field in Denver. It will be featured on both the MLB Network and ESPN, and will cover the first 36 selections of the draft. That means all of Round One plus seven picks in the compensation rounds before Round Two. Rounds two through ten will be covered on Day Two on Monday.
That means the Angels have exactly one selection tonight, at #9, which will probably be announced somewhere between 5 and 6pm Pacific.
Recent gossip and last minute mock draft updates from Baseball America and the MLB draft analyst team of Mayo and Callis confirm what I had suspected – the virtual consensus that the Angels were reaching for a prep bat like Will Taylor (or Bubba Chandler) in round one is likely a lot of “smoke” (to use Callis’ term). Now the emerging consensus is that the Angels will likely catch a falling star, grabbing one of the Top Eight should they fall – meaning, specifically, Jackson Jobe, Kumar Rocker or Brady House. If one of those three are not available, they will look at college pitchers like Ty Madden or Sam Bachman, or perhaps Will Bednar or Gunnar Hoglund.
This is all good news, should it be so, but the inclusion of House in that mix, and the always-looming specter of a weird underslot selection from among the hordes of raw youth the Angels covet certainly adds more intrigue than usual this year. It will be interesting to see if the Angels resist the tooled-up power profile of Brady House should he be among the Eight that fall to the nine slot. He’s likely a long-term third-baseman, and he gets Gallo comps, but is more physical and athletic. He’d add another boom-or-bust prospect to they system in the mold of Jeremiah Jackson, but with a more well-rounded toolset and a higher floor.
Whatever the Angels end up doing, it will be highly conditioned by what the eight teams preceding them announce at the podium. It should be a pulse-quickening event.
Let’s use the comment sections here as an Open Thread to cover all the Sunday action. We’ll post an article on the lucky winner once he’s selected this evening.
That seems to be it for the evening – Day Two starts tomorrow at 10AM believe it or not.
Ten first-round ranked talents (per MLB) are still on the boards.
Six of my preferred second-round choices are still on the boards.
Angels faves Will Taylor and Bubba Chandler are still on the boards.
The Angels have the ninth pick tomorrow (#45) – who will they choose?
Do you think they will take a HS player with pick 45? If so I would probably pick Bubba over Will.
Tigers get Jobe AND Madden.
Ver and Max all over
They have a pretty deep pitching class now, to be sure. They can afford a few blowouts.
Really nice for them.
Woah!
That worked out pretty well. I’m not even sure Angels would have taken Jobe had he fell. Perry seems to be smitten with Bachman.
Kind of surprised we’ve gotten this far without a Bachman Turner Overdrive reference.
If Sam survives a year or two without an IL visit, I predict “Overdrive” will be firmly in use.
Been going on all evening, you are just so tied up running this awesome board and being the perfect host. Time to sit down and have a glass of Chardonnay
Thank you – I would expect nothing less from you greybeards and rowdies.
Cheers
GOOOOLLLLLDDD! Gold upon Gold!
Lipstick Monster – “Joe Mack, you’re a New York kid. How excited are you to go to Derek Jeter’s team!”
Joe Mack – “Um. Yeah. I’m from like eight hours from New York so, I’m happy to be drafted by a team. Yeah.”
The best part of this draft is the Asstros get Dick in the first round.
Jay Allen is actually kind of Mike Trouty
Maddox Bruns….. this pick is brilliant because the Dodgers picked him.
Lol. Hate them.
When I was doing my consensus draft rankings, I had to consistently override spellcheck, because it was sure this guy was Maddux bURns.
I wonder If we would’ve taken Bachman ahead of Leiter? 😡 💩
Who did Ty Madden piss off?
Fell completely out of the first round.
Very interesting. Wonder how much $ he’d ask for as a second round draftee.
He’s a junior right? Can he go back to Texas? If not, he will take what he can get.
Feels like Canning in 2017. Did he cut an overslot deal with someone?
Honestly I get him falling. I saw a lot of chatter on the tube webs that he’s just not that impressive. Throws hittable velo and a slider…. and not much else.
I mean, other than name recognition he pretty much sounds like a 2nd rounder to me. Hell, there are other pitchers on the board still that I want more than him.
What miracle are the Dodgers about to pull off, I wonder.
Convince their pick to skip college
Yeah…. some kids may actually want to go to Miss State at this point.
I can understand two Will Smith’s in MLB but two Max Muncy’s? The odds.
It’s coming up a lot tonight. How do you measure swag?
With a Swag-O-Meter? Had to say it, something that you or Cowboy might have said.
You were sitting on that, shame
Well, first be on a TV network. Then spend about 10 minutes looking into the player you are talking about. Then look at that player’s clothing. Determine a swag level. Talk about it.
Petty’s gonna make it because he has swag. I have a shit ton of swag. You will all be invited to my MLB Hall of Fame induction.
Chases dad is Thanos, and he knows it
Our pick would have been cool if the Dodgers made it at their point in the draft. Except they would pick someone better, even there.
Pretty far out that there are only three picks left in the first, and Ty Madden is still on the board.
Only 18 more picks and he’s ours!
Around the corner
What would you account that to? His lack of ball movement on his fastball and secondary pitches?
Lol they are booing the Commish every time he comes out to announce a pick. I bet that doesn’t happen in the NFL
Oakland A’s get Max Muncy again……LOL!!!!
unbelievable……are you guys sure Eppler’s gone? Maybe he can block a NFL edge rusher like Khalil Mack ( 6ft 1in 235 lbs ) but who knows if he can pitch.
Oakland gets a redemption chance with a different Max Muncy lol
Very true. One of Billy Beans rare mistake.
Actually, you know what’s funny, a bunch of the A’s fans I know are pretty down on A’s drafting the last 10 years. Picking Kyler Murray really broke the camel’s back for them, but I looked and it’s true, they have had pretty meh drafts.
They’ve never been great drafters. They tend to trade into a decent system, and really clean up in free agency.
Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy?
Then I guess its time to trade the 2 Matts for a boatload of prospects
I had not followed their drafts too close but his manipulation of the major league roster and moving players for prospects has been pretty effective. Yeah, Kyler Murray was a huge misread.
Starting in Center Field for your LA Dodgers, Max Muncy, the other Max Muncy
By Cusick…..
Really liked this kid since Turk’s piece last week. Cleveland likely continues their pitching pipeline.
Yeah, Cleveland know pitching, like STL. STL, CLE and SFG often steal my draft picks. 🙂
They read your write-ups. You should change a subscription
Ryan Cusick goes to Perry’s former employer…….Someone let me know when ESPN talks to Sam Bachman ( absurd!!! a reliever first? ) 😠 😣
Well poop. My dreams are dead.
Damn Cleveland team.
Steaming mad at them
Andrew Abbott might make it through until tomorrow being about a 50 ranking.
Eh. I’m just being envious. There are plenty of guys who may be around at pick 45. Guys like Tommy Mace…. that kid from Miss State that wasn’t Bednar…. Joe Rock…. there are plenty
I saw you had listed him yesterday, just an arm I feel would be worth taking next round. Watched ACC baseball this year. Williams would have been better.
I drop several nice 2nd rounders in my Dream Draft piece:
https://crashingthepearlygates.com/2021/07/11/mlb-draft-2021-seven-drafts-to-dream-on/
Only one has come off the boards thus far.