We already got another High Schooler signed. This one Luke laCourse (The 3000 rpm mega spinner) for only about $120K over slot.
badda-bing
Just reading the tea leaves – either #12 Haley and #13 Mitchell had injury concerns, or they were some of the benefactors of some slot savings. I’m guessing they were both pre-negotiated well ahead of time. Love the gamesmanship in the MLB draft. It’s the best.
Definitely savings shenanigans but one kid has injury problems too.
I think they both have had injury problems. Mitchell did not pitch much in the Spring – I believe it was shoulder soreness. Very skinny – but has big ceiling and room for more. Has big upside. He’s a project and will not be a fast tracked kid. Haley already has two elbow surgeries (including a TJ) and fought cancer. But he was moving up. I definitely think him getting picked up where we got him was pre-arranged. I would not be surprised for both of them to betting nice 6 figure paydays with Haley getting a high six figure approaching 7.
First UDFA signee, from good ‘ole 🇨🇦:
Jonny McGill – OF
I see the Yanks grabbed Logan Maxwell from Arkansas, one of my OF deep cuts who I thought would make for a good senior sign.
As a UDFA, that is.
Oh man, now he’ll cost an extra 30%.
I’m not bitter about a lot. But I am bitter that the M’s are already really good and just got a lot better. Jedi is winning and that sucks given he walked out on this Org.
yet still has never been to a World Series. In fact Dipoto’s teams have never been to an ALCS
Yes. That’s the counter argument. But they are well run. I would take their direction over the Halos’.
Don’t let 2002 here you say that
That was almost 1/4 century ago. I’m talking their direction now.
I think hes talking about 2002 heaven and not the team ’71
2002 loves him some Dipoto
Ok, it’s over, time for me to stop whining and get back to watching baseball (not the AS crap).
As we were feeling much better about the big club and the grit of the young players, was hoping the draft would spring board us even further. Would have been great to have a Holiday in the pipeline and a couple of OFs along with HS arms. No such luck.
One thing I can handle, not drafting a college arms in later rounds. Happy to see some high school prospects infused into the system with room to grow. Just not sure they are the right arms.
Nobody knows. We will see in 3-5 years. Factors including health, luck, ability to adapt, coaching, personality, and other details will make the difference. See what happens and hope for the best.
100% correct.
A million things can & will occur with these draftees over the next few years.
The mother of all crap shoots.
I covet Cal Raleigh
90th pick in 2018, Florida State. Signed that extension just a wee bit early.
Does anyone want to ponder how a 90th pick years ago somehow is on pace to challenge Barry Bonds’ single season HR record set when he knowingly decided it was unfair other guys with on PEDs and the league was doing nothing so he joined the club? Bonds was one of the all-time talents and was infused with PEDs to get where he went. But Raleigh just comes out of nowhere? I mean no one is asking themselves about this?
Its those torpedo bats man.
Take a look at Brady Anderson, Orioles.
In his contract year, he hit 50+ homers.
Check out his homer total in all the other years.
Brady Anderson was a PED guy. Luis Gonzalez too.
Meanwhile these announcers at the home run derby are embarrassing. Arrgh ! We’re meaner than mean!
It sounds like Idiocracy’s Rehabilitation Night or some stupid wrestling match
Well, between this year, last year, and some of our IFA signings we are certainly not short on young pitching gambles. !990s Braves of the 2030s. 95% certain.
Someone wondered earlier if we got some Braves scouts on staff since we took a lot of Georgia kids. Maybe. the Braves draft is pretty cookoo crap too.
That was me.
The Braves’ farm has been going south for a few years. Bottom 3 in the game according to the latest BA rankings.
It’s a really poor system to be cribbing off of, but it seems like it’s the one Perry knows and keeps homework-snooping on the past few years.
Agree that their 2025 draft was underwhelming.
In the AL West, I’m not feeling Houston’s or Texas’s drafts. I do like the M’s and A’s draft classes a lot.
The A’s got several of my guys – Arnold, Turley, Dutton, Boser – and caught a faller in Devin Taylor that was a real steal at #48. I also followed Zane Taylor all sesaon as a potential torso pick, but didn’t write about him in the pitching article.
The Mariners got Kade of course – my top guy – along with Dickerson and Jay. And three guys I thought were excellent value where they drafted them – Stevenson, Becker and Hugus. Theirs was a pitcher-heavy draft as well, but much more workable college pitching, and it was BPA all the way with their first six selections.
I heard Turley fell to where he is because there are questions about his love of baseball. Does not have a good reputation as a hard worker.
I have no idea about the validity of that rumor, but he was grinder in the MCWS.
He also didn’t fall that far. He was ranked largely as a third rounder, and got selected early in the 4th.
The dude can play. What I was told is his numbers could have had him in the second – but he was definitely crossed off by some teams. When they are spending that kind of money – they dig in deep. For a team like us who has wasted some big money on one particular guy – hopefully we were on that.My input was he’d struggle with the MLB grind. I hope my info was wrong, he was fun to watch.
Rut roh.
Second coming of Rendon
Gage Harrison was a guy I asked Turk’s about in a previous thread and is further proof of why I’m not a scout. Kid looked good when I watched him. I didn’t expect him to last until 15.
One down seven to go….
Tempe bound. To the lab.
Sweet! I hope they squeeze every dollar of savings out of the Bremner pick because it’s going to be an overslot disco in ’25.
Suffice to say, Perry’s Pitching Lab better get to work.
Weirdest, riskiest Angels draft class I can recall since 2010. Though that class had a lot of high upside prep bats, and more diversity than this one.
Seven prep arms and six college relievers. Only one near-term SP draftee.
Hard to believe it.
But at least we can’t burn through 5 1st round draft picks this time.
I mean, I fully understand Bane’s logic. He pulled off the best draft in a quarter century in 2009, and had his best results with prep kids.
Meanwhile, Moreno had shied away from signing Matt Harvey only a couple years earlier due to bonus demands, so he had to be budget conscious with his picks.
So, with extra picks, he wanted to go for upside and youth, but he had to do it in a way that wouldn’t break the bank. So he sought out athletes, but the system didn’t successfully develop then. It also coincided with the era when Moreno was tearing down the Latin program and beginning to seek efficiencies (maybe we should say austerity) on the farm.
But after 2009, I think you give Bane a gimme, and see what he does with his next 2-3 drafts.
Fully agree. 💯
Bane’s termination was the beginning of the end of days. Winter is coming.
Actually it was Stoneman’s retirement . Arte wouldn’t dare mess with the GM position until Stoneman stepped down.
We may need 2 OFs and a 3B after next year, and we’ll have to buy them all.
There were a lot on the table when/where the Angels drafted.
Even if it wasn’t full of my “guys”, Miami probably had the draft closest to what the Angels needed – their first six selections were position players, starting with a 3B in Arquette, and moving on to three straight college OFs – a full outfield, with two power-oriented corner guys and contact-oriented CF with plus defense.
I’d have settled for the Twins or Rays draft
Yeah – not saying the Miami draft was my favorite, but it would have made me say “oh, that’s another way to do it” and I would have been excited to watch those guys perform.
The Rays draft is a different version of the prep bat draft I was contemplating with the Parker Brothers. Lot of risk there, but the Rays usually know how to develop younger players, or trade them at the height of value.
Draft classes I admire: Twins, Red Sox, Pirates, Marlins, Rockies. As I mention above A’s and Mariners did well, and Baltimore completely slayed.
Not getting the draft classes for the Angels, Texas or Houston. Detroit’s class seem weak, given the overall strength of their farm. The Giants and Padres groups also seem light, even if the Pads pulled in Thibodeaux and Kerrington Cross in later rounds. Braves had a perplexing draft.
The Pads also took some big risk/reward picks
Turk’s, I enjoy all of your commentary. I presume your views are based on more traditional outlooks and less on raw behind the scene analytic numbers and projections. True? Because I think the difference in many drafts by teams is how they rate these factors. Fans tend to understand traditional drafts based on the eye-test and usual production. They tend not to undertake the behind the scenes analytic based stuff, until three years later when they work out.
Honestly, kind of the opposite – I’m much more analytics driven (former data guy in engineering at Google for a couple decades). But I seek out video and scouting evaluations for swing analysis, pitch shapes, prep assessment, etc. A lot of my hitter evaluations lean pretty heavily on batted ball data.
I understand that teams have different models to evaluate players – have a number of friends who have worked in front offices – but I’ve been a sabermetrics nerd for probably 30 years.
Good for you. Sadly, I have to hope the Halos didn’t completely blow the draft even though it sounds like you really know what you are talking about. We will see. Keep up the good work though.
That’s basically two years from now. One can imagine they draft an OF or 3B in round one next year. That potentially fills one hole. Decent OFs that can play and it hurt the team aren’t that hard to find. Soler is making $13 million and Rendon’s money will be over by then. Plenty of cash to fill the needs.
Ladies and gentleman, for your last pick, drum roll please…..
#589 – Sam Tookoian – P
Unranked
And there you have it!!! the 2025 Angels MLB Draft!!!
Has looked good, I read, in summer league ball but not so hot in the SEC. That’s probably why he wasn’t selected until the last round
Big relief pitcher. Full name Sarkis Edward Tookoian
Another Tookie Tookie?
Perry to re-sign Touki Toussaint to make it so.
hes already in Salt Lake
JoJo’s brother goes in round 19
Seems like he’s set on school. Probably had his eye on $1.5-2M, maybe a package deal with his brother, and it didn’t materialize.
20 rounds but we might miss out on some of the prep kids. There will also be unstaffed signings although the Angels haven’t done as much there as I’d like
Actually, the Angels have been one of the heaviest on UDFAs under Perry of MLB teams – at least in quantity. Top five in undrafted signs over the last few seasons.
Good to know, glad to be informed
As a drafting strategy, I like those late-round HS fliers. $150K might be enough to sign them… like it was for Manny’s kid last year, who by the way is having a pretty solid year in the ACL.
Seattle takes a huge gamble on Cameron Appenzeller, ranked #58, but a HS Sr.
They can use that Kade Anderson below slot money
FYI people should read CBS Sports. They are rating Shores as the Halos best pick after round one. And touting him as a potential all-star. FWIW.
I mean, I don’t think we should just cherry pick the media source that best spins our picks. 🙂
I’ve read 10+ evaluators on Shores, watched him in action many times, looked at plenty of video.
Shores has a handful of advocates because he throws 102. He’s Ben Joyce with less control, and a more recent injury history at draft time. He’s wild thing.
15% chance he becomes a durable MLB closer or set-up man. 40% chance he gets injured and never sees more than a handful of innings. 45% chance he takes the Ben Joyce and Bachman routes – looking good for a couple months in the Majors, then succumbing to injuries and volatility, with an up and down future.
You’re basically betting on a FB, and hope the slider ticks up to make him a late inning weapon. The Angels might trot him out as a starter a la Cortez, but he has little command, below-average control, and his changeup isn’t there yet to start.
The way Perry seems to be going, three out of five games we will just use four relievers and won’t need starters at all. CHAOS!
What do you mean we can’t cherry-pick? Of course we can. You make it sound like most scouts/pundits thought he was undraftable. In fact, he was a consensus Top 100 prospect, no? Per MLB he was a “midweek starter” before blowing out his elbow in 2023… so you know, let the kid have 1% or something if you can manage it.
You’re fully welcome to cherrypick, grich. I would just look at the whole picture – the totality of evaluators – rather than trying to find the most positive spin on any given prospect. “Midweek starters” are where you place your most volatile or developmental arms, btw, and his tenure lasted all of four starts (18 IP total in ’23).
Just don’t call me a cuck again when we disagree. 🙂
(And btw, that was utterly uncalled for, and I remember it more than any other personally abusive comment in the past six months.)
I’m not stating anything about him. I’ve read two things. CBS Sports thinks it was a good pick. And Turk’s Teeth said in his analysis a few days ago it would be predictable for the Halos to take him and Snead in rounds 2-6, which they did. I know you liked others better, but teams tend to have ways to look at things that don’t change until the management changes.
The Angels love fastball velocity. They are willing to use early draft picks on relief prospects with big FBs. Most teams don’t do that, because it’s not economically efficient. Bullpens are volatile and BP guys with big fastballs can be picked up as minor league free agents, non-roster invites, deadline trades…
Most teams would rather draft starting pitching with scarce early round picks and let them fail down the line, becoming relievers as a fallback, because good starting pitchers are rare, valuable, costly, and the draft is the cheapest place to acquire them.
Excellent analysis — but it sounds like the Halos are going to keep doing it. I think Soriano is part of their model. No idea if any of it will work longterm.
Angels 2025 Draft Picks Rounds 11-20
Team bonus pools are allocated to the picks in rounds 1 through 10. If a team fails to sign a draft pick, they forfeit the slot value of that pick from their draft pool.
For the remainder of the draft, teams can sign players for up to $150,000 with no penalty. Any payment above $150,000 is counted against the team’s bonus pool. This creates a dynamic in which high school players with college commitments are drafted after the 10th round. Teams will try to sign early picks for less than slot value and allocate the savings towards a prepster drafted later.
Perry Minasian has been a follower of this strategy for years and with Tyler Bremner a surprise pick at #2, could have funds available to try to buy some late round talent. Follow along here.