This article is about how aggressive the Angels have been about promoting recent draftees. Maybe it’s confidence in the player development system. Maybe they just really need those guys. Here is a short clip of Shohei Ohtani getting rained on in Boston. Zach Neto got his first big league hit yesterday. Now that’s out of the way. Ryan Tepera is officially on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. The Angels outrighted David Fletcher. He is no longer on the 40 man roster.
You can submit your questions for Wednesday’s MLBTR Podcast here. Zach Neto is one of their five “Big Hype Prospects” this week. Oakland has an opossum infesting its visiting television broadcast booth. It’s been in there since opening day and they haven’t been able to catch it.
Injured List
Giancarlo Stanton will miss four to six weeks due to his hamstring injury. Max Fried is back from the injured list but the Braves just placed Lucas Luetje on the IL in his place. Gus Varland of the Brewers took a 105 mph Manny Machado liner off his hand and jaw but will apparently avoid the injured list.
Transactions
Pablo Lopez and the Twins agreed to an extension pending a physical. Cooper “The Amazing” Criswell just got selected by the Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox made a whole bunch of roster moves ahead of Monday’s game.
Photo Credit: Rex Fregosi
Making a prediction for tonight
Angels will be carried to victory on the backs of Neto and O’Hoppe.
Neto 2-4 with 3 RBI
O’Hoppe 1-4 with HR and 2 RBI
Angels win 6-4
It’ll be a high scoring game given who’s pitching. I’ll go 12-10 Skanks
I Love your Neto O’Hoppium
not only a 2:1 MVP battle Trout/Ohtani:::Judge, we have 2:1 ROY battle O’Hoppe/Neto:::Volpe
new rules a-comin’ (at least being tried out in the Atlantic League this year)
designated pinch-runner. Herb Washington goes to 1b after Bengie Molina walks. Afterwards Washington goes to the bench and Molina stays in the game. ?? what if Washington is forced at second? Can he then pinch run for whoever is now on first?
one “disengagement” per batter. Pick-off attempts or stepping off rubber. A second is considered a balk.
if the starting pitcher is removed before going 5 innings the team also loses it’s DH and succeeding pitchers must bat or be pinch-hit for.
I can’t tell if this is serious or not, hopefully you are joking about this
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-atlantic-league-announce-rule-experiments-for-2023
The Atlantic League is the testing ground. Lots of what is tested there doesn’t make it to MLB.
I’d oppose all of these. I think the last makes for a really interesting strategy decision, though.
Yep, that last rule I was like NO! Wellll maybe?
Sometime in the early afternoon gitcho walks around the office, and you never know who he’s going to zero in on for these really intense comments. You just hope it’s not you. And yet, you hope it is you too. It’s strange.
I never have that concern. Do You?
He’s just worried because 2002 never has his TPS Reports ready.
I’m like one of those really really hot Japanese baths where you’re like “Oh no!” but it also feels good.
Can I use these?
I don’t know what those are…. so yes please.
Tokens for the bathhouse in Spirited Away.
I borrowed them from John Henry.
Ahhhhh….. ohhhhh…. owwwww….
I’m way too wuss for those hat AF baths.
Jeffrey Damher eventually was kicked out his bathhouse.
Man, the Brewers got the injury bug this year. Luis Urias out a couple months at least. Brandon Woodruf out, Ashby is also out of their rotation. Now Corbin Burnes isn’t just suffering from butthurt but he’s got a peck injury. Says he’ll miss one start… we’ll see. Adrian Houser also started the year hurt. Now they’re dumpster diving and looking at Zach Britton, etc. Other than one young super prospect their farm’s meh. They got off to a strong start but it may be derailed.
How could this happen? They have a POBO. So much different and betterz than a mere General Manager. Matt Arnold is obviously stupid. Why didn’t he get depth enough to cover all these injuries? Will he morf into being just a GM now? And most important, how did Arte manage to ruin the Brewers?
Well We’ll be in Old Milwaukee right after this next homestand so maybe their luck will still be down. But right now they’re still off to a 12-5 start. Lets hope they take it to Meremen these next few days.
That’s what I was thinking. Let’s catch them in the throws of sadness.
That MLBTR assessment of Neto wasn’t exactly glowing.
We’ve been so hyped about him around here, and they basically said meh, he might be league average if things go well.
Way to kick the fans while they are down!
I’ve watched about half a dozen prospect guys talk about Neto. They all seem pretty positive. He’s young, he’s gonna make some “level errors” where faster base runners screw him up and he does things like rush a bad throw, or get gunned down by a really strong OF arm, and he’ll struggle once there’s tape on him for the pitchers (as will O’Hoppe) but this is to be expected and all in all they say he’ll be solid, if not a big home run guy.
He’ just turned 22 yrs and is starting at SS in MLB.
MLBTR ‘assessments hahaha
The lure of the hyped prospect. Prospects are the Sirens song to those fans who need to believe that performance in MiLB will translate to MLB. They rise with the false promise of glory to come, and fail to see the weaknesses and limitations the player really has. The appeal of the prospect leads fans to disappointment, and GMs to their demise.
But the game cant go on without them.
It’s like some ETFs. What you really want is a pile of six fairly good prospects so you can be fairly sure one of them will turn out to be a solid guy for your team.
Lamb for dinner again
1 Ward LF .238
2 Ohtani DH .298
3 Trout CF .278
4 Rendon 3B .286
5 Renfroe RF .267
6 Lamb 1B .242
7 Urshela 2B .327
8 Neto SS .077
9 O’Hoppe C
It’s time for some cabbage.
Bring us the Cabbage. I’m also gonna get a little excited if Silseth has a couple starts where his splitter is dialed in.
And Rendon still 4th
How long can the Angels keep letting Rendon hit 4th with a .289 ave and .783 OPS?
I think we’d both swap him for Renfroe in that order.
Until the end of the 2026 season
A strong lineup today, let’s get Figgy with it
It might be a complete lack in faith in the development system.
Remember, Thaiss was drafted as an advanced bat. About 18 swing changes later he sucks. We probably would have been better off having him avoid all the coaches in the minors at that time.
Marsh is now doing great in Philly. O’Hoppe was spared from too much minor league time and avoided any change swings in our system.
Things look to be better now on the farm, but there’s no way Perry has revamped every “expert” down on the farm.
But Neto looks pretty Neato.
Not at the MLB level quite yet but I have some hopium for him.
He’s 22…. with 40+ MiLB games… so I’m fine with him if he is defensively solid but sometimes takes a beating at the plate this year.
But but but … he’s on pace to obliterate Pujols’ career GIDP lead
But so far I know he has only one hit in 13 at bats (although he got jobbed by the Chowd scorekeeper on the ROE yesterday) but he has not looked overmatched. He’s been a little pull happy and has swung through a couple of pitches that broke inside out of the zone but I guess that was to be expected. overall at the plate he seems to show good pitch recognition and some of his excellent velocities have been fine. I’m sure he’ll figure it out as long as he does press as he gets frustrated ( all the rookies do)
His glove and throwing are look outstanding and he should provide us with a new dimension of speed on the base paths that we have been sorely lacking.
I just think it’s interesting how in the old days when the Nu meat would come up to the show he would get a steady diet of fast balls for the first month. Many of the young rookies would look like the next Babe Ruth only to fall back to earth when the initiation was over and the heavy diet of breaking balls would start.
With the data and scouting that all teams have on the young players now, that era is dead. I’d rather Zach go through this adjustment period than the old school one. In the long run this will help him out the best.
He got screwed multiple times by the ump on Saturday.
I agree he doesn’t look over matched. Perhaps a bit jacked trying to pull the ball, but that could even out once he can take a breath at the plate.
I know Anaheim isn’t home to him yet, but the Royals/A’s series coming up at the Big A might be just what he needs to settle in a bit, get a few hits, and relax.
I brought up Drury for strikeouts on Saturday but didn’t gripe about Neto. It looked like that home plate ump was giving Neto the special rookie treatment.
I keep checking the news to see if there is word about Loup being DFAed but nothing yet. I have a feeling that yesterday’s shit show may have finally put him in danger of being released.
The Fletch move was done days ago so the corresponding move would be unrelated. This is the only thing I’ve seen to date that might be related: https://twitter.com/Jared_Tims/status/1648355818243514375
I think a Loup DFA would be an entirely separate transaction. Ingram or Torres could fill that void
Yeah, I didn’t mean in relation to Fletcher necessarily. Just in relation to him no longer being an MLB caliber pitcher.
They’ve given him plenty of looks and he’s not really getting it together. Clocks got to be ticking now…. still less than 5 IP, they may give him a little more rope.
Yeah that is what I am thinking. I didn’t think that one or two bad outings to start the year put him on the chopping block. But now is where its starting to look habitual and like it won’t get better. There was nothing valuable to take away from yesterday’s outing.
I think that what coaches say, what he’s doing in bullpens, etc may be a factor too. If he’s just lost then he’s in trouble. If he’s focused and working stuff out he may get a little extra leeway.
https://twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/1648074257933426692?s=20
Go Angels!
It’s part of an organizational plan spearheaded by general manager Perry Minasian, who is looking to build the best roster he can and isn’t leaning on things like experience or contract status.
Borrowing this quote from smithy, I would like to continue with the another problem that needs to be addressed. I take a lot of incoming for this, but it truly is an elephant in the room.
So now underperforming Fletcher and Tepera have been removed from the roster through different means, when is something going to be done about Rendon. A tenth of the way into the season, for the third season in a row, our nominal clean up hitter has no power at all and also has continuing throwing issues, probably caused by injuries both past and present, or simply age- related decline. And that incident with the idiot in Oakland can’t be ignored. It tells me he is dealing with psychological issues, and I actually feel sorry for him. Players like Daniel Bard or our own Jared Walsh are given time away from the game to deal with such issues. It must be a drag to suck at baseball the way he does, after being quite a good player as recently as 2019. Or perhaps there is something deeper we just don’t know about. All this speculation aside, he is still being treated like Pujols was due to his massive contract, where the underperformance is being either excused or ignored by the club.
I would prefer Urshela to be getting the every day reps at 3rd.
Minasian claimed this was the year playing time would be given based on performance. It’s time for that rubber to meet the road. Let’s take off our rose-colored glasses and face the reality of one of the worst contracts in major league history. At the very least, he should be dropped into the Brett Phillips area of the lineup to see if he can straighten himself out, although I’m on the record that he is done. He could be stuck at lead off where his singles and walks would be more useful as a table setter for Trout and Ohtani, rather than protection for them
it appears that Minasian’s pickups of Gio and Drury anticipated the removal of Fletcher, but did not account for Rendon’s decline. So it looks like the best lineup for now is wait for Walsh to return at first, Drury at 2B, Neto at SS, and Gio at 3B, with Rengifo as the backup everywhere. Maybe they can park Rendon at first or let him DH on Ohtani’s off days so he won’t hurt himself playing a position he can no longer handle. He also really needs to be coached out of trying to hit homers with his warning track power.
None of this is perfect, but if we want to save the season, we must address this, as well as the bullpen. I’m sick of him killing rallies and not supporting our pitchers with his fielding.
So, unsurprisingly, you think Rendon should also be DFA’d ?
Got it.
What will you do when Ursula starts to suck?
Call in Ariel, obviously.
😂
or like, keep the .400 on base guy in the lineup.
He’s got a .421 OBP. Sure, the power hasn’t been there yet, but it’s only 29 AB. Rendon is not really the problem right now. Urshela at 1B is an Ok solution.
I agree, Rendon is not the problem right now. I think his defense will be fine this year. This dude has missed a lot of time so I can be patient with a little rust.
I have a suspicion that because of the missed time, Rendon is just focusing on contact hitting right now to get into a rhythm. As he settles in and becomes more comfortable, I think we will see his power start to come through as well.
It’s Marine Layer who has a problem, not the Angels. For some reason he sees injuries as a personal failing when it comes to this one guy. Rendon could finish with an .800 OPS and 25 HR and ML is gonna have an issue because we need at least 30HR from the #4 spot.
If Rendon does break we have guys to play 3B…. or bat clean up.
Plus Rendon, even during his best years, was never known for his power. He’s always the guy hitting consistently and getting on base. He’s doing that now. He’s not the typical cleanup hitter, so I’m not expecting 40 HRs from him. As long as he’s not an out, he should be fine. It’s up to Nevin to slot him somewhere else.
The bad defense was one game. It was frustrating, but it’s not like he’s been sailing throws each game.
And yes, I do expect Perry to do something about him if he craters badly from this point to June, just like he did when he jettisoned Pujols and Upton.
With Ward, Trout, and Ohtani ahead of him I’m fine with a contact, doubles oriented approach from Rendon. Any of those guys can score from any base on a double.
This will inevitably lead to some GIDPs but a low K rate also means fewer ABs where the runners don’t advance.
I think Rendon is fine. He will come along. It’s better than Josh Donaldson and what the Yankees are stuck with paying him 26 mil for nothing.
Show us on the bear where he touched you….
Your obsession is getting weirder and weirder.
If you can’t log in without bringing it up is it really an “elephant in the room”? I’m not sure that means what you think it means….
In other news:
DeGrom is out with an injury-Who would expect that?
Stupid Perry.
Fletch completely changed his hitting approach after he was successful. No idea why he started to try and pull everything.
I wonder if it has to do with his hip/core injury. He just looks like hes straining whenever he runs now.
I love Fletcher, not just because he’s Paisan, but he appeared to be a cornerstone player, now it appears he may just be a hanging out on the corner player now.
I hope he can turn it around, or maybe he can get hot @ AAA and we can make a trade for a reliever. Offense isn’t really our problem at this point in the season.
He’s been like this for a few years now though.
Yeah. He just looks bad. He may bounce back though, they can focus on all his wonkiness from injury/rust in SLC. He has skills/brains, just need to get his hopefully uninjured body working right again and he’ll have value.
I really like Fletch and as much as I wish he wasn’t struggling it always comes down to production. Hopefully he can figure it out in Salt Lake. Smart move by the Angels to waiver him as the 40 man roster limitations have been an issue.
Agreed, I loved him. but I loved him because of what he did a few years ago.
The reality is that Fletch was never given a real opportunity after returning from injury. Look at Spring Training and regular season at-bats. It was clear from the outset that the decision to move on from Fletch had already been made. Yet they are still trying to force-fit Rengifo somewhere along with Perry’s new toys! You deserved much better, Fletch.
Fletch’s decision to play for team Italy for the WBC didnt help his cause either.
But Poor Poor Fletch. He’s hit like shit over his last 900 ML Plate Appearances so now hes forced to play at the Great Salt Lake while he’s getting Paid $21.5 million over the next 3 years. Oh the Horror.
I’m sorry, but whether Fletch iss willing to admit it or not, the dude is not 100% healthy right now.
Even healthy/good Fletch does have a very very real issue and that ZERO power. He was always gonna be in danger of being replaced by a guy with even average power because it’s actually an important factor. If it weren’t you’d see all kind of guys who can just stick the bat out and contact the pitch regularly making it to the bigs….. Pepper All Stars.
Fletch was over-valued by fans and front office. He’s a nice defense-first utility player. He makes contact but does not the power to drive the ball. He’s a dime-a dozen player
From that MLB article about aggressively promoting draftees
I really like this approach. Reward the players who play well. Has it been successful yet? Maybe, maybe not, maybe soon. But I like that for what seems the first time in awhile, there’s a plan in player development and advancement. Not just throwing darts and seeing what sticks.
I would say so far that it has definitely been successful.
Example: Cutting Pujols so Walsh could play every day. We ended up with an All Star first baseman the next year.
You also have to wonder if cutting Upton was one of the main reasons Ward got a full time starting job in the outfield. With Upton manning left, you may have seen a Marsh-Adell-Ward platoon in right.
But how does he explain Loupera?
Let’s see what happens. I think Loup is close to being shown the door.
The Angels scored 16 runs in their four games against the Red Sox. What share of those 16 runs were our individual Angels responsible for?
Remember, players get credit for what part of the run they helped create. So if Ward walks, Urshela hits a single that advances Ward to third base, and then Renfroe hits a sacrifice fly, that means that Ward created 0.25 runs, Urshela created 0.50 runs, and Renfroe created 0.25 runs.
4.75 Renfroe
3.00 Urshela
2.25 Rendon
2.00 Ohtani
1.50 Trout
0.75 Ward
0.50 Thaiss
0.50 Drury
0.50 Lamb
0.25 Neto
This is the second series in a row that the top run producer for the Angels has been Renfroe.
Now let’s use the same system for ranking the Angel pitchers, except I will divide the runs allowed by batters faced. And as always, these rankings are year-to-date, and the number of batters faced is in parenthesis.
0.00 Quijada (21)
0.02 Ohtani (82)
0.03 Wantz (22)
0.05 Sandoval (63)
0.08 Estevez (33)
0.08 Moore (29)
0.10 Canning (20)
0.12 Davidson (36)
0.13 Detmers (70)
0.15 Barria (32)
0.16 Anderson (68)
0.16 Herget (22)
0.19 Suarez (44)
0.24 Loup (26)
0.25 Tepera (20)
Davidson and Moore had a great series against the Red Sox and significantly lowered their Actual Runs Allowed/Batters Faced.
I’m surprised that Herget has done as poorly as he has so far this year. Quijada should be getting a lot more love from Angel fans than he is getting.
Weird… Loup and Tepera have the highest runs allowed weight? I don’t think your rating system must be very accurate then.
Which Angel pitchers have allowed more runs per batters faced this year than Loup and Tepera?
Heavy sarcasm.
Obviously its Loup and Tepera
All I can see is Rendon’s name…. so he must be the problem.
The main stream media is obsessed with Ohtani vs Judge.
Time for Trout to show them who the best player in MLB is.
Yeah, making stories where they aren’t any. That’s what passes for journalism today.
I laughed because Ohtani isn’t pitching so how can he really be going up against Judge?
OHHHHH….. I’d LOVE IT if Ohtani/Judge are pedestrian but Trout just destroys this series. Oh….. I’m getting fantasies…. ARE YOU NOT TROUTENTAINED!
I am really looking forward to seeing Mike Trout hit HR’s in this hitter’s ballpark here in New York. To see Mike look like the player he used to be would be exciting to see here so these people can see a HOF’er play Baseball.
I hope that our manager, “Mr. Personality” himself, Phil Nevin moves Neto back down the line up and move Renfroe up to fourth and Urshela into the fifth spot and Rendone at slot #6. Ward is not the answer to leadoff really so try Trouty there. Mix t up and see what happens.
How about this, Trout, Urshela, Ohtani, Renfroe, Ward, Rendone, O’Hoppe, Drury, Neto.
Neto is fine hitting 1st – just keep him there
Not unless he starts walking more. He has the speed but unless hes not getting on base as much as Ward why bat him first?
Am I crazy to be hoping and dreaming that Neto becomes such a good hitter that he starts stealing bases and is moved to the leadoff spot? I always loved the classic, draw walks, get on base and steal bases leadoff guy.
He’s never been much of a base stealing guy….
I would put Urshela first and Trout second, just due to Urshela’s high BA and Trout’s power. But overall I like this.
The Hyundai key to the game against the Yanks today is “Ain’t Love a Kick in the Head” by Dean Martin.
The Angels won yesterday, so now we’re back in love with the team. We’ve got sunshine enough to spread and our dream girl is picking out a king sized bed, but beware. This feeling can disappear as suddenly as it appeared. Watch out for holes in the boat and mule leg kicks to the head.
https://youtu.be/KvYfsbtExoU
Oceans Eleven…great flick!!
What a blockbuster cast list.
Snooze fest of a movie though. Id rather watch Robin and the 7 hoods.
Opinions are like noses!!
Yours is always negative.
We have another “48 Hours” in that rat infested city to hopefully get a few wins. And the “The hateful eight” sucked.
Hmmm. My nose is been called alot of things but never negative.
And by the way, just cuz I thought the movie sucked compared to the remake doesn’t mean I didn’t love the rat pack. Watching Sammy Davis Jr. sing the national anthem before Game 3 of the 1986 ALCS is still one of the highlights of my fandom.
Yeah. I watched the original Oceans 11 and was like “This is… crap?”
The proverbial elephant in the room for me is how the team is dealing with David Fletcher. The best way to describe it all is it is a business decision and a good deal for Fletch to find himself again playing regularly in SLC.
In defense of the team I have to say this was a smart move in putting him on waivers as no one is going to pick up his contract on a player who is fading. There has been more than one player who has lost their ability to hit at age 27. Why? Who knows. Why do players forget how to throw? Why do players who lead the league in stealing lose confidence in trying to steal bases?
On David Fletchers side, it can not be said that he was given a fair shake this season at all. No regular playing time, brought in as a defensive replacement and asked to play two positions. ( His replacement Drury is not a gifted fielder and Rengifo was brought in yesterday as a defensive replacement ). Something tells me that the Angels know something that we don’t know about Fletcher’s problems.
But as he was a favorite of mine along with some of you, I sincerely hope that Fletcher can fix whatever is the issue and either comeback and take over second base or go on as a starter with another team.
In Fletcher’s best years (20-21) he was swinging at less than 50% of strikes and less than 40% of pitches. Since signing his extension he’s been swinging at more than 60% of strikes and just under 50% of pitches. The other difference is that opposing pitchers throw him fewer change ups and more sliders.
Combined, that’s resulted in a substantial drop in his BABIP. In sum, Fletcher is swinging at too many pitches, resulting in weaker, easily-fielded contact. He needs to lay off the sliders and be more selective at the plate. Just because you can make contact with almost any pitch doesn’t mean you should.
He doesn’t seem to be able to hit the high fastball much any more. He used to feast on those.
We are all human. Things happen and players drop off. At least Fletch can retire early and be set for life from a financials perspective.
“…but he was so hard to strike out.” I was getting tired of hearing that only to watch him pop up a lazy fly ball to left.
However, I noticed something else different. In two instances this year he wasn’t quick enough to turn the double play. He seemed to be a bit slow getting the ball out of his glove quickly. The extra outs were crucial, losing those games. It wasn’t an error – but if he isn’t hitting, then you’d hope the defense is great to make up for it. It wasn’t.