My favorite Angels prospect guru Taylor Blake Ward took some time to look at the current Angels farm, who might be able to help next year, and who the Angels are likely targeting in next week’s draft.
As always, it was fun and casual and he dropped some names that we don’t see discussed here often. I hope you enjoy it.
And if you haven’t picked up a copy of his book In Search of Millionaires with legendary scout Bob Fontaine, I’d encourage you to do so. I wrapped it up a few months ago and really enjoyed.
The Halos have so many needs starting with SS and ending in pitching. The first round is about plucking a SS out of the mix. Good Luck with this endeavor.
Draft related article:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34232865/watching-scouts-watch-kumar-rocker-2022-mlb-draft-man-mystery
Kinda sad that posts dedicated entirely to baseball, Angels specifically, get 4 members to comment. Posted before a weekend too.
We’ll done…I vote for more of these organization updates.
Thanks Jeff. I was looking forward to this interview. But No Mason Erla & Eric Torres Love? Both those guys have dominated this year at Double A.
Also considering the Angels don’t have a second round pick for the Thor signing, I was hoping that TBW would have discussed How much signability will play into their first round pick? Last year the Angels had a first round slot value of $4,949,100 while Sam Bachman agreed to a signing bonuses of $3,850.000. The Angels astutely used that savings to chose some talented arms in later rounds. Kumar Rocker, for example, had agreed to a $6,000,000 signing bonus with the Mets despite a slot value of $4,730,000. With Scott Boras and his antics I just don’t see the Angels getting a large enough discount with that selection to help them with the later rounds especially without that second round pick amount
Fantastic comment to compliment one of the most looked forward to (for me) parts of the year… JJ, TBW, draft time discussions!! I think we’ve taken ‘there’s always next year’ mantra from the cubs once they broke their curse. We just have to break the Arte curse
Well Thank You.
That’s on me. It never occurred to me to ask him. And, quite honestly, by the time we were talking draft we both needed to go.
Thanks Jeff – I enjoyed the interview
Great stuff, Jeff. I did not detect too much optimism regarding the prospects, unfortunately. Jeremiah Jackson might be the outlier. TBW is confident the Angels will draft an arm over a position player. I would like to see the BPO approach. Position wise, we are thin. I like your trade ideas.
He named off quite a few arms that are likely to help in the next year or so, but yes our position group is quite thin.