The big news out of Angelsville is the multi year extension for general manager Perry Minasian.
It isn’t often the GM of a last place team receives a multi year extension. The Angels are at the beginning of a rebuild, so perhaps ownership is looking at the young core and giving Perry leeway to see the rebuild through.
How is the organizational talent? I spoke with farm guru Taylor Blake Ward about that this week.
Between the trade deadline and draft, Perry pretty much remade the top 5-10 names on the prospect lists. Plus he’s created the young MLB level core that is showing growth and promise. Now we see if he can finish the job and build a full roster.
Speaking of the core showing development, many of the kids are doing just that.
Nolan Schanuel got off to a really tough start to the season. On June 11th he had a miserable slash line of .207/.275/.327. In the two plus months since then he’s producing at a .294/.414/.422 clip. The walks are way up, the contact his harder, and he’s striking out at a very manageable 16% clip.
Jo Adell also got off to a bad start. We’ve seen him limit his leg kick and take off quite a bit. Jo bottomed out on June 29th with a .180/.245/.383 line. In the nearly two months since then, he’s posted a respectable .250/.331/.421 line.
And then there’s Zach Neto catching absolute fire and chasing team records.
Logan O’Hoppe is another Perry addition and is an obvious building block. Jose Soriano has proven he can be an effective piece of the rotation, and Ben Joyce did this the other night:
In short, I like Perry as a trade seller and his early draft picks are showing promise. Given the restraints of the job (cough, Arte, cough) I’m fine with letting Perry acquire more talent over the next couple of years. But at some point his strategy of drafting a bullpen is going to need to pan out.
I could use the highlight of Joyce above as the Highlight of the Week, but I love a web gem almost as much as I love a suicide squeeze. On Tuesday, Jack Lopez was in the midst of both. Which highlight do you prefer?
Or flashing the leather?
So now we watch the kids grow, look for some value plays, possibly make some trades this off season, and build for a brighter future. We hope.
From around baseball:
Joey Votto cracked the code of hitting. The future Hall of Famer retired this week after failing to make the roster of his hometown Blue Jays.
Am I allowed to post that Ohtani is closing in on a 40/40 season and has enough time to possibly get to 50/50? Here’s a piece on the 5 players who have previously hit the 40/40 mark.
White Sox fans have a legitimate gripe about their owner. Jerry Reinsdorf is clearly failing the White Sox. That’s a better read than my buildup might indicate and is your long form reading for the weekend.
Happy trails Mariners manager Scott Servais, who got canned by Jerry Dipoto. Enter Mariners legend Edgar Martinez to turn the offense around.
The Little League World Series is always fun and magical. Team Mexico was down by 3 and down to their last out when this happened:
Enjoy this last summer weekend with perfect weather and link what I missed. We have no plans this weekend and it feels great. Sometimes down time is the best time.
Remember when CtPG Guy, in a fit to sign at least one of the “BIG SHORTSTOPS” three years ago, was demanding Arte show his comitmonk to champihamsandwich by at least signing Javier Baez?
I do.
Man, imagine that left side of the IF with Rendon and Baez, plus Trout, and the UNICORM! So many trophies!
The hyphenator | The big ———————
Tune in to the Pre-Game Chat with Bees Pitcher Michael Darrell-Hicks ahead of game three against the Round Rock Express.
https://x.com/SaltLakeBees/status/1826764609904410728
I missed this if it’s already been posted
https://x.com/Jared_Tims/status/1826781128579318130
That sucks.
Quick no gives a F*** story:
Yesterday I tuned into the game on the way home, it’s already 5-0 and Canning is pitching (That’s all I know at that point). He seems to be mowing through the Jays and the broadcasters are lauding him. I’m thinking to myself, “WTH is wrong with you two ultra-homers? He gave up five runs!” Only after the game, when I get home and online, I see that B & B where who gave up those runs.
Captain Clueless strikes again.☺
Well, at least we won’t need to watch Baumann display his craft anymore…
zeferjahn the jayhawk appears
Actually, you were not entirely wrong. Shutting down a team who is already up 5-0 is much easier than pitching 6 shutout innings as the starting pitcher. The broadcasters were indeed being homers.
I’m less enamored of Perry’s drafting than Jeff seems to be. Much can be ascribed to simply having high draft position due to perennially not performing at the MLB level.
His 2021 all-pitcher draft looks like a real bust, and 2023 doesn’t look much better. His reputation largely hinges on three picks (Neto, Joyce, Dana) in 2022, which was one of the strongest MiLB draft classes in recent memory, and one where he threw away a second rounder for 80 innings from Noah Syndergaard.
This year, he mismanaged his bonus pool so badly he lost the ace of Texas A&M, when he ultimately offered more money to a late reliever on the same team, and a sketchy prep prospect that was rated a 6th-8th round talent.
The two prospects he traded in last year’s fire sale are now top 100 talents – Ky Bush has a mid-3s ERA in his first taste of the MLB, and Edgar Quero would be the Angels #2 prospect currently.
I think Minasian’s track record is decidedly mixed, with some real stupidity along the way. I give him credit for Neto and for some decent Latin drafting in the past 2-3 years (though that’s as much the maturation of the Halos Latin program, that has been paying dividends across 3+ GMs) – and we got pretty lucky with Joyce and Dana panning out. But on balance, given the Angels’ excellent draft position four years running, the team should have gotten more, and he’s subtracted *a lot* in ill-fated win-now moves, when the MLB club’s ability to succeed was marginal at best.
It is just hard to pin the “get Ohtani to the playoffs” moves on Perry. I think a GM given autonomy would have sold last year or even the year prior.
Given that he’s brought in good talent in most of his trades, despite no ability to eat salary and enhance the trade asset, I wonder what the farm would like like had he traded Ohtani. Bush and Quero are obviously still here on top of the Ohtani haul.
As always I defer to you on draft picks. But I’m just giving my take on why Arte likely extended Perry.
We traded away more than just Bush and Quero in our desperate attempts to pleasure the Unicorn and his mom. PLUS we skipped out on getting several 50+ grade prospects for Unicorm. It would be a very different farm. What’s worse, the Angels record in 2022/2023 probably would have been about the same too.
If we can’t even trust the GM to protect his top farm assets, how can we credit him with sensible acquisitions? We’re embracing this ridiculous fan narrative that every mistake Minasian makes is due to the fact that Arte’s hand is up Perry’s puppet hole, but every successful transaction is a result of Perry’s genius, autonomy and agency. That’s rather selective petting, no?
If Minasian can’t explain to Moreno that losing six years of control of two MLB assets very near the show for two months of Giolito is bad in both the short term and the long term, then he. isn’t. worth. shit. Seriously – it just shows that the mix of the two is net-net not productive for the franchise. I believe Arte extended Minasian mostly because he keeps his mouth shut in public (except to mutter non-stick generalities that outdated versions of Chat GPT could produce).
But.
Given how truly terrible ownership is, and how mercurial Moreno’s judgment is in front office hires, consistency at this point is probably better than whatever might come next. Because Moreno also tends to follow up perceived failures with a tightening of purse strings. So little good would come from firing Minasian in the short term, even if I’m not a fan of the guy.
I can’t believe Arte actually stuck with the PTP/Washington co-lab long enough to see if something can come of it rather than letting PTP go, hiring Dave Dombrowski’s message boy, who fires Wash cause “stamp” and hires Jim Leyland cause Arte.
I think, in a lot of cases, if you get an OK GM and an OK manager in at the same time and let them work for a while they can paste together a fairly good org. Now we may get to see it.
This is not the Arte way at all. Where is the splash? And what craziness is next? Trout AND Rendon with 140 game seasons next year?
This is the first time I’ve felt like the Angels have an actual plan in a long time.
I’m not sure if the plan will work or not, but there seems to actually be one. And, as you stated, a major key to making plans work is giving them time to do so.
Yes, Plans. I have them. I love them. Let’s do them.
Today’s Lineups
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/angels-vs-blue-jays/2024/08/23/744889/preview
battle of the .443 OPSs! Kavadas “hitting” 7th, Dreary 8th
Dreary still on the team?
We aren’t going to get the top pick next year without him.
Ding Dong one of the witches is dead.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/08/angels-designate-mike-baumann-for-assignment.html
Long Live the Zeferjahn
I’m interested to see Zeferjahn. Kid apparently throws gas but lacks control. Maybe whoever helped Joyce can help him.
Damn. I was hoping they would call up Toki Wartooth
I hope Baumann gets picked up by his 5th team of 2024
So does Baumann
Ζέφυρος Zeferjohn, is the Greek god of the west wind. The gentlest of the winds, the messenger of spring. It was thought that he lived in a cave in Thrace.
Free the Zefer
When was the last time the Angels had a solid core of players come up at the same time? I’m thinking it might be 2006 when Napoli, Morales, Kendrick, Aybar, Santana and Weaver were all under 25 years old. In any case, it’s been a long time.
Good call. And the most recent I can remember.
I’ll throw out an early Halos 2024 season award nominee.
I nominate Jack Lopez for best Halo player contrasting hairstyle of 2024.
that is very true, but the best halo hairstyle ever still is Soggy Joe’s Mohawk that never was.
It’s funny, Maddon was such a fart on a windy day when he managed us I actually keep forgetting we actually HAD the manager that Haloes Heaven Guy was SURE would stand up to Arte and provide ultra-legit in game management and single handedly develop all our players while providing a zany clubhouse atmosphere full of transparencies.
Maddon’s biggest failure came from having the alpha manager manliness of Nevin in his proximity. We all knew seeing him there, he was the answer.
Follow up to yesterday’s note…
I still have two seats in 113 available for 9/1 vs the M’s (the people I was going to go with had an unexpected change of plans)
That’s nice Red, I wish I could take you up on the offer.
Next time. Family obligations that day.
Joyce
Oh man we got something there!
Yes, it was probably his control that dropped him down in the draft.
Injury history and risk didn’t help either.
Is this where I just post a headshot of Josh Hader and Hoyt Wilhelm?
Jo Adell in August (no leg kick)
74 PA
.304 / .343 / .464
23.3% K rate
5.5% BB rate
Jo Adell in the 2nd half
116 PA
.272 / .353 / .418
24.1% K rate
8.6% BB rate
Has Jo solidified himself as a full-time starter within our young developing core? I say, yes.
Adell Era begins in 2025 –
Finally!
IF he doesn’t catch the non-cowbell HR fever.
Yes, the sample size is getting large enough now.
Apparently the best way to develop prospects it to promote them to MLB and let Wash work his magic.
The downside to that is service time starts and these guys will be arb eligible and/or free agents by the time the next wave gets here.
If you truly think Wash is responsible for player development, then he should be demoted to AA or AAA to work with and develop the young players. I’m partially kidding but if that is really his forte then why not bring those talents to where they are most efficient and needed in the Org?
Whoa there young fella…..give him some time. He just got here.
Hopefully it is his influence! I’m thinking he is a big part of it.
Give them some time to get the game plan in place top the bottom in the organization. It’s not gonna happen overnight. Maybe Perry is finding some better talent to work with? Maybe we are due to have some good luck? Maybe the evil baseball Gods hate us less?Maybe we are in the early stages of stealing and implementing the cheating ways from the Doyers up north?
Maybe we still suck ass with no hope at all….and are being teased with a little taste of the appearance of hope.
trAditions are hard to break.
Sorry ’71 but it’s 2024 . The Crash Davises of the world no longer exist. The Angels like many other teams are doing the lion share of their Training at the major league level especially when players like Jo Adell or Mickey Moniak burn all their minor league options and still take another 1,000 MLB PA’s to start developing in into something more than replacement value.
MLB’s FA system is extremely archaic and unfriendly to the players imo.
Promoting these kids so early hurts from a team control perspective but I like it. Whether it’s out of necessity or not, less manipulation of team control is a good thing.
Regarding Wash, man I hope we give him more talent next season. He ain’t sticking around baseball forever and we need him much more than he needs us
Sharks. Sharks are also very unfriendly in general. I hate those bastards, their teeth and presidential glare…. yuck
“Year of the Shortstop” Guess who is missing? Classic east coast 4-Letter bias.
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-shortstops-are-better-than-ever-in-2024
Zach is mentioned only in passing in paragraph 19.
….so you’re sayin’ he got mentioned….?
he did get mentioned.
“also includes a number of other up-and-coming players posting above-average offensive seasons, such as Zach Neto of the Angels”
Extending Minasian = extending the mediocrity.
That a generous use of the word “mediocrity.” I would tend to use a word that more accurately uses a term that reflects just how awful this team currently is.
I’m tentatively OK with him at the moment. I like the kids in an organization that up until O left appears to have had no direction.
Cool, man. Thanks for the input.
YARRR! AH HAY DUMB! I WAN SUM UDER GAH!
Missed that bunt – thanks for highlighting that amazing play.
You’re welcome
The Joyce whiff of Witt Jr was awesome, but that suicide squeeze bunt was sick. I don’t know how he managed to square up that ball and put it in play. Definitely one of the top plays of the year.
Ku-Ku-Kachoo on the mound tonight.
We signed John Lannon?
No, Paul McCortney.
I thought we signed Mrs. Robinson.
I didnt know she could pitch
A very good piece at MLB about this year’s MLB SS’s. While maybe not a Witt or Henderson this season I like our guy to improve in coming seasons by a lot. Go Zack!
Yep, Neto has all the “D” and his “O” is improving. He will be an oft mentioned SS in the coming years.
Reid Detmers was on fire last night;
https://x.com/angelsmilb/status/1826804892255568204?s=46&t=e2madw4iRuMhY-mGsL6oCA
Good news, we’ll need him next season.
Sorry I published this piece late. Was crazy busy yesterday and accidentally scheduled it for 4 pm.
No worries Jeff, you do a great job for us.
Thanks. I need to figure out how to get the schedule click on military time. I screw up a handful of game threads each year too.
De nada jefe!