This was really nice week for the Angels, going 5-1 against AL West foes and climbing into a tie for second place with the Seattle Mariners.
The team was led by the pitching this week. Yusei Kikuchi was nails on Monday, going 7 and a third innings of one hit, one walk baseball. The following night, Jose Soriano struck out 12 Athletics while going 7 innings.
Angels hitters were kept in check most of Tuesday night and the game went into extra innings. Our Highlight of the Week is Nolan Schanuel’s game winner in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Check out those numbers up above. A wRC+ of 120 means Nolan is 20% better offensively than the average MLB hitter. That’s a nice piece for a future core. That places him right between Zach Neto’s wRC+ of 126 and Logan O’Hoppe’s 98.
Nolan deserves some serious love from the Angels faithful. And while he picked up our Highlight of the Week, he was on the other end of the likely Highlight of the Year.
I’ve watched that time and time again and am still amazed. We’ve likely never seen a better catch at the Big A and I’d be shocked if we see a better play in MLB this season or a few more. That is an all time great catch.
Not to be outdone, Jo Adell is showing the promise that once made him one of the top prospects in all of the game. Adell has been on a tear since the calendar hit June.
The four kids above will now be joined by another. In continuing with recent history of quick MLB promotions, last year’s first round pick Christian Moore is joining the big league club.
Moore got off to a slow start in AA this season but has heated up in the thin air of the PCL. He’s slashing .350/.424/.575 in 20 AAA games.
I’ve long stated my dislike of having our AAA team play 5000 feet above the big league ballpark. Color me skeptical of this call up but hoping I’m wrong. Moore looked to have issues with breaking balls in AA. Once the balls stopped breaking, he started mashing.
The kid definitely has talent, as evidenced by his college highlight reel.
And that segues perfectly to the College World Series. The NCAA baseball world has returned to its summer home in Omaha with games kicking off today. Check out the bracket and schedule here.
Just jumping in to the college season? Here are 7 storylines to help you enjoy the Series.
The draft is always a huge storyline as the best college teams in the nation face off. None so more than this year for us Angels fans as the team holds the 2nd and 47th overall picks in the draft.
Here’s an updated mock draft from MLB. I’d be perfectly happy with that pick. Note that Washington is still looking at as many as 8 players with the top overall pick. That speaks to the combination of depth and lack of true standout player(s) in this draft.
If you haven’t yet read Turk’s Teeth’s great piece on the Angels likely selections in the first round, do so. In his relative absence the last couple of years I’ve been reading up more on prospects and I have to say Turk’s is great at his analysis and real credit to our site. He should be charging for what he puts up here.
Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there and please link what I missed. Also, please be careful out there. Stay safe, keep your ID on you at all times, and know that your life is full of people who care about you.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do. What I’m not going to do is work. I’ve been doing an insane amount of that lately and a game of catch with my son sounds like the greatest thing in the world right now.
