With a laser-like focus on the Angels’ most chronic and frustrating weakness, the Perry Minasian draft room has gone all in on reconstructing the Angels’ MLB bullpen from within. I’ve never seen the Angels do anything like it in this century.
The first ten selections of this unique Angels draft are all college pitchers. No exceptions, no guff.
Seven juniors in a row, then two redshirts, then another junior; eight righties, two lefties.
Five of them are definitely relievers (though some potential conversion candidates), and eight of them might be. This is 100% my #5 Dream Draft strategy (“We’ll always have the ‘pen…what a relief!”) in action – the names may be different, but the song is the same. In fact it starts with Bachman (Turner Overdrive).
If you take an optimistic outlook, this crew could be evenly split among starters and late relievers.
You know they are going to give Bachman and Bush every chance to start. Marceaux and Olthoff are backend starter candidates, and innings-eaters types, not bullpen profiles at all. Smith may have a credible mid-rotation ceiling, though has a big bullpen role as a fallback.
Everyone else is pretty much straight-up a bullpen guy, with some potential closers in the ranks.
Day Two results:
| Round | Name | Position | School |
| 2 | Ky Bush | LHSP | St Mary’s |
| 3 | Landon Marceaux | RHSP | LSU |
| 4 | Luke Murphy | RHRP | Vanderbilt |
| 5 | Brett Kerry | RHRP | South Carolina |
| 6 | Jake Smith | RHSP / RHRP | Miami |
| 7 | Ryan Costeiu | RHRP | Arkansas |
| 8 | Nick Jones | LHRP | Georgia Southern |
| 9 | Braden Olthoff | RHSP | Tulane |
| 10 | Andrew Peters | RHRP | South Carolina |
Where the early picks have a clear relief profile, they come from reputable, competitive programs – Vandy, South Carolina, Miami, Arkansas. Through the sixth round, they’re college performers, with some shutdown games and high K-rates under the belt. Then you get some fliers – Costeiu with big strikeout numbers, but also homer-prone, Jones from a smaller program, but killer numbers this season.
I’m a big fan of the Braden Olthoff pick, who was featured in my #1 dream draft strategy (“KC (2018) and the Sunshine Band”), and was tagged as having potentially the second-best command in the draft class by MLB Pipeline. He diversifies this mix, and dig the last sentence from this MLB Pipeline gloss on him:
Olthoff has tremendous feel for pitching, and his ability to tunnel and mix his pitches gives him a high floor as a back-of-the-rotation starter. He has an effortless, upright delivery with a short stride that adds deception, and he can both pound the strike zone or get hitters to chase his secondary pitches off the plate. He doesn’t have much margin for error but rarely makes mistakes, and he was 180 innings and three-plus seasons into his college career before he surrendered his first homer in late April.
This video (and commentary) that Rahul dug up is a blast:
This is definitely a win-now strategy, with a mind to injecting the MLB bullpen with grit and gas on a two-year timeframe. It’s definitely a surprise, but as a strategy, it’s not hard to follow.
Round 11, a pitcher. Holy Roman Empire, Batman. 11 straight pitchers
This is most impressive! At least some of the arms should be available next year or two. We’ll actually have a bullpen with real cost- and roster-flexibility and depth. If Canning, Sandoval, and Suarez can fill out the middle to back end of the rotation, the only thing we’ll be missing is a pitching-only ace in the #1 spot, but that’s a luxury that I wonder may not be available (or, perhaps, really necessary) in today’s environment. (well, and a few more depth pieces, but that’s manageable, hopefully through better dumpster diving). All in all, pretty exciting development!!!!
Man, I watched the Olthoff when it first came out and I loved the guy. Had no idea it was the same dude we drafted later on in the day. Absolutely stoked.
Video*
Yeah. I could give a shit about his “swag” or “Weaverness” or what ever. What has me stoked was watching his pitches. He may not throw hard, but does he have too? Holy crap does he dice up the strike zone and his pitches move a ton…. and that was Miss State he was pitching to, not Cal State East Bay. I like that guy a lot.
I love everything about this guy. Can’t wait to have him on the big club.
It’s like he’s throwing a whiffle ball. I got a migraine just trying to track the curves.
Love jomboy, yet I havent seen that video, I too am stoked about him. I do wish the umps did a thorough glove check though, would of loved to find out he really was just doing the glove touches as a gag
There’s a video on YouTube of Marceaux facing Aaron Zavala (drafted by the Rangers). Kind of neat to see a potential future divisional match up
Also in this video I’m referencing, the camera pans to a fan wearing an Angels camouflage cap. Scout, I wonder?
(He’s also wearing Oregon gear so maybe just a Angel fan as well). Fun to imagine he’s a scout, though. Scouts probably don’t wear their team’s gear to games, do they?
Big Zavala fan here – had him as an early third round target in my “just do it” draft, led by Madden-Abbott-Zavala.
Those first two were on the boards, but Texas grabbed Zavala in round two, capping the Leiter selection with one of the best college bats available. Very good, diverse draft for them – Zavala and Leiter should move fast.
Reading through the links of these guys makes me like them more.
We snagged the best two closers in the best conference in the country.
Yeah. Now you’re seeing the zazz. Between Canning/Sandoval/Suarez/CRod/Yan then Detmers/Tyler/Criswell and the pen arms on the Pandas and then Kochanaviktvtzich/Bachman/Bush/Marceaux/Olthoff plus a couple of the dedicated pen arms we drafted ….. oh my gah…. it’s almost like…. could it almost be? A pitching pipeline?
This is an exciting thing even if it needs at least one more good draft next year.
It would appear that Braden’s got a little Jered Weaver in him,. Which, for Angel’s fans, is encouraging.
I’ll be rooting for this guy for sure.
I’m excited after watching some videos of the guy. I hope he sticks as a starter, of course, I hope he signs first haha
Nice, need attitude. Local kid down here in. North County. Has the surfer hair to match. Gonna kick some tail up the chain.
After watching the Jomboy video and some others, I agree with you on Braden, excited to see what he can do. All of these guys seem to be pretty good, if not exactly what we need, and I hope they pan out for us!
Edit. Wrong thread.
The “Guys…Mike Trout won’t be young forever” draft strategy.
I’m up for something new. Quality relievers are tradeable and if we were to develop some in-house that would be some real cost savings every year that you could divert to the rotation.
The Royals had a small, dominant stretch propped up by a killer bullpen. While I’d like to see more balanced drafts in the years ahead I don’t hate this one given the makeup of the roster.
Yeah this is a special draft for a specific time.
The MLB position player roster is pretty set. We could extend Jose Iglesias and only need a corner outfielder and backup catcher. With any health from Marsh outfield is filled.
I mean…Matt Thaiss could be that backup catcher? Maybe?
He’s been competent at Salt Lake, playing catcher almost exclusively. Offensive lefty complement to Stassi’s primary receiver profile.
I would like to see the Angels try Thaiss. Suzuki has been a disappointment but he’ll be gone next year.
Don’t forget our ‘02 bullpen. The game was over if we had the lead after the 5th.
I still don’t understand passing on Kumar but the rest of the draft looks solid.
They would have had to pay 1M+ overslot (as the Mets did) and deal with Boras – I’m sure Moreno said no thanks.
Always out $ for Moreno. Instead we got a relief pitcher.
I’m not convinced he’s a relief pitcher. He wouldn’t have been rated between #9 and #18 by virtually all the analysts if he were just a relief pitcher. Several rated him well ahead of Ty Madden. He has the best FB in the draft and one of the 3-4 best sliders. He’s recently throwing his changeup up to 10% of the time. He only gave up one HR in 12 starts this year. That seems like a very solid foundation for a starter if he can stay healthy.
And because each team has a fixed pool of dollars, that million-plus would have to come out of other player bonuses, which means lowering the caliber of other selections.
Moreover, Kumar had his doubters – including the Fangraphs guys who think his metrics regressed this year and he could be a #4 pitcher in the final estimate – there’s a reason he fell to #10. He remained at the top of my boards, but that doesn’t mean I’m fully certain he’s going to thrive.
I hope you’re right. There is something that seems off here.
Perry and crew have to think he’s a starter. They also have to be OK with the backup plan of him being a plus bullpen arm.
That’s all I got. They know Bachman will be damned good at something and proffered that to a guy who will probably be pretty good at starting.
Understand it’s honeymoon time but I’m thinking Bachman is gonna be filthy. Kind of reminds me of a Dustin May, just a bad ass hard thrower. Angels need these types. Read he is pretty disciplined, good work ethic. Sam and CRod. In another year or two, bring it on.
He can help the pen this season if needed, and can stretch out for one of the starting spots next or when ready.
Still waiting to hear from Detmers who was said to have a low ceiling but be close to major league ready, but he doesn’t seem to be very close to the major leagues.
Detmers development actually seems to be going great. He has a 3.xx era in AA in his first professional year and his 91 k’s across 50 IP is pretty exciting. Apparently pitched well in the futures game as well as he struck out two of three batters he faced. I don’t think there is urgency to rush him to ML this year though. But next year might be exciting to see both him and Chris Rod in the rotation at some point.
I don’t understand how people can think newly drafted prospects could be ready without at least a year in the minors, especially given the strange circumstances of last year (and this year). If Detmers is ready to join MLB roster some time next year, I’ll be happy. I had always figured that he’d be a serious possibility no earlier than 2023 opener.
The average (successful) college prospect takes 2-3 years to graduate, and the average prep prospect 4-5 years to graduate.
It’s a very rare player that jets through a system in 1+ years like, say, Canning did. And there’s typically some MLB regression when that happens (as we’re experiencing now).
Jim Abbott says hi
I can’t tell if you’re just looking for something to be bitter about, don’t know how to Google an MiLB player’s stats, or don’t understand how long even a “close” prospect takes to reach the MLB, but Detmers is developing about as hoped.
I’m not bitter, I just want our front office to start making good draft decisions. They pitched him as the prospect closest to MLB ready in last years draft. I don’t know how long that’s supposed to be, but we really could use another starter NOW.
They simply couldn’t have made a better draft decision than Reid Detmers at #10 in 2020. I had Detmers, Cavalli and Crochet as my SP targets, and all are doing well.
Cavalli’s a beast, but he’s performing at High-A, not AA, right now, which shows you how far along Detmers is.
Crochet was the Sam Bachman of 2020, and he’s in the White Sox’s MLB bullpen right now, showing you one potential way forward for Bachman, who like C-Rod, could find him in the Angels bullpen as early as late fall or next spring, to be developed as a starter later.
But I have no regrets on Detmers – and I don’t think there’s a prospect analyst out there who would not say that the guy is currently exceeding expectations. He’s getting a vintage Jon Lester comp from some quarters right now.
I have to echo others here – you haven’t been reading my weekly farm reports. 🙂
Detmers was drafted last year. He was placed at a higher level than any other draftee from the 2020 draft class, where he leads the league in strikeouts at an age three years younger than the average AA South guy.
He’s gained 3mph on his fastball, developed a wicked changeup that was not in evidence in his college career, and was recently tagged with Shane Baz as one of the two most impressive pitchers in the Futures Game this week, where he struck out both batters he faced.
Detmers’ development really couldn’t be going much better, and he’s on pace to debut in the Angels rotation beginning of 2022, after literally one year of pro ball. If you’re going complain, at least have some basis for it. 😉
Wow pitching. Maybe finally this team is starting to get it that pitching wins games.
Hey Turks, any idea why this Angels draft class skewed so heavily toward college pitchers from the South?
Folks around here have been joking about cheap Arte and our lack of area scouts, but the more i think about it, the more i’m like “…maybe?” 😱 😂
Next year we mine the Pacific Northwest!
Thar’s gold in them there hills Jerry, gold
I wonder if they played more games in he South sans Covid restrictions, so what few Angels scouts left got to see more games/performances.
With fewer Covid restrictions down south, they definitely got a jump in their development and with more games, there’s more film. Plus the SEC is good at baseball. I imagine since we don’t have a ton of scouts, they went to the place where there’s a hotbed of talent and chose from there. I’m sure there are good players all over (like Trout) but can’t get to them. I’m sure Tampa, Oakland and the Dodgers found them.
The SEC is the best baseball conference in the country and I don’t think it’s particularly close.
Minor League for the minor leagues
Dude, it’s insane how many people go to Aunurn, Miss State and LSU games etc. I mean, there are way more people doing even Youtube coverage of those teams than I can find making Angels content. SEC/ACC baseball is hardcore.
You see the same thing in the AA South. From week one this season, the Rocket City stands have been packed. They fill the house most home games, and it’s a rowdy crowd. I don’t think it’s just the Trash Pandas merch.
I think there’s something to the idea that the loss of area scouts diminished their geographic diversity. They went north a lot in previous drafts – they pulled Blakely out of Michigan and Calabrese out of Canada. They pulled on Cali pitchers a lot more.
I think they have not reconstituted their scouting crew – still 15-20 down from 2019 – and may have leaned more on Minasian’s network from the southeast. But this is all guessing to an extent. The geographic bias was certainly marked.
That actually makes a lot of sense. It also shows that I should be directing my frustration toward Arte the tightwad, not necessarily Minisian.
Gotta say, i’m excited to see if this pays off. I’m all for new ideas at this point.
Guys that will contribute before the “window closes”
👍🏼
On the ball hotel staff and police potentially avert a murderous disaster at the ASG.
https://policetribune.com/denver-avoids-las-vegas-style-massacre-after-maid-reports-weapons-in-hotel-room/
Nope. It was meth dealers. No terror unless you are teeth or nostrils.
Total speculation here, but is there any chance PTP and Maddon have plans to go the Tampa staff rout and just have a whole bunch of guys who mostly throw 2-3 innings with all kinds of varied looks? That’s what this pile of guys plus the guys we have with the Pandas look like to me.
I think this would be a fantastic idea. Number one, it minimizes the importance of having a crew of stud starters (which we obviously do not have). Second, Maddon’s legacy is very likely going to be that he revolutionized the Major League bullpen by being the first manager to use the “Closer by Committee” approach, and by extension creating and using a bullpen that relied on role variability/flexibility.
We had already seen this in the playoffs for many years when starters in the regular season moved to the bullpen and began pitching the 5th, 6th and 7th, etc… There is no reason this cannot be a regular occurence. I think the onset of the “Opener” is another way in which this kind of thinking manifests itself. In short, preventing a run in the 1st is just as important as preventing one in the 8th (often it is MORE important). In fact, having simply a “pitching staff” and eliminating the artificial duality of “starters” and “relievers’ may be the next step.
So, in answer to your question, yes, I think there is a very good chance that Joe and Perry have had a conversation or conversations along these lines. Today’s draft results for the Angels hint at such an occurence.
Oh great We’ll need name tags in the bullpen again
I would be okay with this. What we are doing now clearly doesn’t work. Maddon’s got nothing to work with, and it sure worked well when we had those crappy starters but awesome bullpen in ‘02. This could be an interesting variation on that theme.
We are doing this now, right? We give the opposition all kinds of cooky looks and the ball flies far. It also seems like I am looking at Cishek, Mayers, Claudio, Watson, Slegers, Guerra are in every game. This is just Maddoning to purposely overwork your staff in this fashion. Come game 162, lost zip off of the lower grade fastball. Sigh.
Well, you need depth and talent… more than we have now. It works for the Rays because they have several guys who are good one or two times through an order but just can’t go 5-6 innings and not get beat up at the end. When an arm gets tired, you replace it with a fresh one off the farm who is also good for 9 outs.
We can’t do that right now. We should try something like…. I dont know, drafting ten college pitchers…..
If that’s what they intend to do. The Rays, Dodgers and a couple other teams do it pretty regularly now.
I’m all for it. Real top of the rotation starters are a rare breed–and possibly, not worth the money it’ll take to sign them. But having a good depth of better than average pitchers is certainly more manageable with a thoughtful medium to long term planning and using them in a bullpen relay seems like a far more cost effective strategy.
A few of the guys here have underwhelming velo, but it seems like the new strategy for many clubs is to use advances in technology and strength and conditioning to add a few ticks to their FB. Reid Detmers being the most recent and obvious example. It’s a very interesting and exciting development.
I’m very happy with the 1st two days and now look forward to some lottery tickets tomorrow.
Exactly. The Cleveland model.
Fun times in Cleveland TODAY!
Turk’s Teeth thanks again!
assuming these 8 sign relatively quickly, which MILB posts do you speculate them being assigned to?
Who is coming to the ACL do you guess? Or will these college arms be assigned to a higher level, even the Trash Pandas.
I think if you are an Angels pitching prospect at any level AA or lower who has been taking a couple years to figure it out then you should probably be nervous about your roster spot.
they can always try to become a right fielder
I bet at least half of them get shut down for the duration of the year. Clubs are doing that more frequently, the Angels among them.
You might see a few of the reliever types get some look at Tri-City or Inland Empire. I doubt they advance any of these guys straight to AA – they only did that with Detmers since, without an MiLB season last year, he got considerable work in at the alternative site.
Saw that Jomboy piece. That’s awesome we drafted that guy. Nice movement on his pitches.
Look at the first dream draft scenario in this piece: Braden Olthoff!
another pitcher!
Perry is pitching the farm with reinforcements