LA Angels Monday News Crash: Solers Back

The last two sentences in your comment are, to me, merely strawman trolling.

No one has said that no talent has ever emerged or will ever emerge from the Angels system (cf Trout). Just that relative to every other system, it has produced less value in the past fifteen years, whether the measure is aggregate WAR or other holistic measures of excess value.

Adell was drafted eight years ago, is in his sixth MLB season, and has just finally produced above-replacement value (since early May). He still has negative defensive value, an OBP south of .300 and a K% north of 25%.

O’Hoppe, drafted and developed by the Phillies, and promoted months after acquired, was not an Angels farm product, and is himself streaky, defense-challenged, with a 33.5% K rate and a .268 OBP and 0.2 fWAR. He’d be unplayable on many first division teams.

So basically, the taunt here against all those naysayers (articulated in a rather dishonest way) is based on two first round draft picks who’ve produced solid but unexceptional results in the past year or two, both of whom spent a few months total in the Angels’ “farm system”. They were developed in college programs and graduated almost immediately after drafting.

I think the critics are still correct, and as a fan who cares about achieving sustainable success, it makes sense (to me) to highlight chronic but addressable deficits in the Angels’ system, when the MLB team is in Year 11 of sub-.500 play.